Rick Greenspan probably brought this all on himself — when you hire a coach who’s been busted for recruiting violations before like Kelvin Sampson, you’re going to take the fall if and when he’s accused of violations again.

So now with the NCAA’s recent revealing of a charge against Indiana University for “failing to monitor” the activities of both Sampson and assistant Rob Senderoff regarding phone calls to recruits, Greenspan decided to get out, his resignation effective at the end of the calendar year.

(He’ll be riding out of Bloomington with the wind in his hair.)

The INDIANAPOLIS STAR reports that the NCAA infractions committee handed down the charge because:

…IU failed “to provide the extra close oversight and scrutiny of all aspects of the men’s basketball program that was required by the prior infractions record of the former coach.” That refers to Sampson breaking recruiting rules while in his previous job at Oklahoma. Penalties from those violations followed Sampson to IU.

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• Arizona State is bedeviled by some snapshots of their cheerleaders showing off in their skivvies.

(Photo back by popular demand)

• Apparently, Marvin Harrison is not the calm, cool customer we thought he was.

• Jim Rice boils at Torii Hunter’s claims that Red Sox fans are racist.

• Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie likes ‘em young.

• Joe Buck & Tim McCarver are taken for a ride by the Feds. Unfortunately, they brought McCarver back.

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Tom Crean, fresh from a decade’s run at Marquette, took the Indiana job recently knowing full well that life would be tough for awhile. He could lose up to three scholarships and all of last year’s starters before he coaches his first game wearing blood red. In that game, he may only have six players return from last season’s Sampson-spoiled squad.

(Bloomington. I can’t believe I’m still in Bloomington.)

Make that five. Little-used freshman center Eli Holman came to Crean’s office for the individual meet’n'greet common to all new jobs and left after threatening a transfer, raising his voice, knocking over a plant, and requiring campus police to make sure he left the building in an orderly fashion. Frankly, one of the former occupants of that office would call that “Tuesday”.

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The BLOOMINGTON HERALD-TIMES reports that Indiana is set to name Tom Crean as their new basketball coach.

Crean has spent the last eight seasons at Marquette, where he lead the Warriors Golden Eagles to the 2003 Final Four. He’ll be taking over from Dan Dakich, who’s been leading the Hoosiers on an interim basis since Kelvin Sampson resigned in February.

Or course, there might not be much of a team left for Crean when he arrives in Bloomington. Read more…