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 Bruce Paine, pictured up top but now without that goofy 'stache, is at Assembly Hall. Stay with us as he's going to be sending pictures from the scene and.....at the press conference, one way or another. I'm at Cobra Brigade Headquarters and I'll be updating all afternoon. Keep reading to catch the first picture from Assembly Hall
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 Here is the first picture from outside of Assembly Hall from Paine. Tons of TV trucks and people there. He passes along the thought, "There are a lot of people with dirty looks on their faces as they walk around this place. Except the news people, they seem elated." More to come...
Obviously this is a huge deal and something that doesn't happen very often at IU. We are trying to get a press pass into the press conference, so we'll see what happens. I wouldn't put it past Paine to sneak in and actually, I'm kind of counting on him doing so.
Here is a picture of inside the confines of Assembly Hall as people are milling around waiting for something to happen.  I know McBias is loving all of this stuff. Paine is also scheduled to do a podcast later with Thermoscaster, so as soon as we get a link for that, or figure out how to swipe it onto our site, we'll let you know.
For those of you sneaking over here from Deadspin (thanks!) and need a quick update. Indiana University has scheduled a 2pm press conference for the Kelvin Sampson situation. We are on-site and ready to go with updates, pictures, etc.
As we talked about before, IU really can't just 'fire' Kelvin Sampson today so they are left with two options. One, they can try to buy-out his contract, which he's going to be steadfastly against, or they can suspend him pending termination, which is the most likely scenario. If that happen, Sampson will be barred from coaching the team and will have ten days to appeal the decision. Thus, March 3rd would be the first day that Sampson could legally be 'fired'.
1:15 pm : Paine from outside the Men's Basketball Office: "Woman behind the door looks like she has a shotgun hidden under her desk pointing at the door. So, after thinking about sneaking into the Men's Basketball Office itself, it looks like not doing it was my best decision of the day. I'm here with people from ESPN, and Indy news stations, so I'm going to follow the herd and go where they go. Very tense situation."
 1:20 pm : As you guys know by now, we've been trying to get a press pass for almost 24 hours on this thing.....not going to happen. To paraphrase what they've been telling our helpful folks....they are not giving out credentials, not saying where it's going to take place and not even saying there is a press conference.... Kind of a contradiction saying they won't say where it will take place and then saying, "well, maybe there isn't one." Rest assured, Paine is on the job and will be there. He's standing next to the ESPN guy right now, trying to get pics of it.
1:35 pm: Paine was offended by the initial picture so above is one from this afternoon, next to Isiah Thomas. Apparently the PC will be delayed a little bit as President McRobbie is/was up in Indianapolis. We had a pretty bad ice storm last night and the roads are pretty nasty, so it's taking some time. The IU media people were not very.....helpful, yeah I'll use that word, in our efforts to get a press pass. Historically, they are this way, but we had hopes that they might help us out a bit. We'll get in the room though and we'll have pics/audio/etc. Working on getting pics of the media also on site.
 1:45 pm: Report from Paine is that it sounds like all the 'key figures' are at the football offices right now and there are just a lot of media people standing around talking to each other trying to figure out what's going on. It's a good thing I'm still hearing stuff from my people and passing along the info to him, which he's passing along to the media. We'll see what happens. Paine is about to conduct a podcast with Thermocaster, so we'll try to get that to you as soon as possible.
1:55 pm: As Paine takes a moment or two to do a podcast let's take a step back and remind everyone that this IU team is headed to Northwestern tomorrow to play. While Northwestern isn't an elite Big Ten team, it's still not a team that IU can take lightly, or forget about, and beat. With all the hoopla surrounding the Sampson Situation IU fans have to keep in mind that kids are playing these college basketball games and they have nothing to do with Sampson or anything that is going on with him. It's my hope that the team is able to put this stressful situation in the rear view mirror for a couple of hours tomorrow and come away with a victory. It's going to be up to the IU fans to support these players like never before. This is a very difficult situation for a group of players to lose a person who spent a lot of time recruiting, coaching and mentoring them. If IU has the fan base that they think they do, then it's time for the fans to step up and applaud these young men unconditionally. Above is a photo from the Indy Star of Sampson and his wife leaving Assembly Hall this morning.
 2:15 pm: Ok, the Paine podcast with Thermocaster is up so make sure you check it out. Seriously, there is a lot of good stuff on there. Bruce also, as he tends to do so eloquently, compares the entire situation to fishing. It sounds like it's just mass confusion at this point. Now we hear the press conference might not happen until after practice today.
2:30 pm: Paine got a picture of D.J.White sidekick, Kyle Taber Lance Stemler coming into Assembly Hall and he gave the old 'no comment'. WTHR supposedly has/is going to have a live feed of the presser. (Hat Tip to ISTH)
2:40 pm: Thanks to all the commenters so far, we are trying to bring the info to you and not 'become the info'. Paine is a graduate of IU and this news/press conference means as much to him as any IU fan. Anyone who has sat through Paine rambling on and on about IU playing a zone or the reasons why Mike Davis should have been gone earlier knows that, even though Paine cheers for Purdue from time to time, he loves IU Basketball and that is why he is on location and not any of the other Brigade members. He is the best man for the job because his heart is in it 100% and I'm sure some day he'll tell his kids how he was at Assembly Hall for the Kelvin Sampson Press Conference.
Also, just got an email that the press conference is at 4pm now. I hope Paine took a sack lunch.
2:43 pm: Emails are flying in now...just had a link sent to me for a post by The Hoosier Scoop, which has been covering this amazingly, stating pretty much what we've been telling you guys the entire time (thanks Mack)
Athletic director Rick Greenspan told the Indiana team today that
Kelvin Sampson will be suspended and Dan Dakich will serve as interim
coach, according to a family member of an IU player and a source who
spoke with an IU player. H-T reporter Chris Korman spoke with both of these sources. He does not have further details about the suspension. Sampson’s contract specifies that he would be suspended without pay
- pending an appeal process - if Greenspan makes a recommendation to
fire him for cause, but we do not know if that has happened.
 This is really the only legal option for IU right now since Sampson won't take the buy-out, and since he says he didn't lie....that's his only option. For all the rumors and speculation surrounding all of this, there is some factual legal standards that have to be followed. IU can't just 'fire' Sampson, they have no means to do so. If they were going to 'fire' him now, Sampson would walk into court and say....if you are firing me now, why didn't you just do it in the Fall when the same findings were made during the internal investigation.....as long as he continues to say he didn't lie, that's what would happen and IU would be forced to pay him a large sum of money.
3 pm - First pictures of Eric Gordon in Assembly Hall above in the white hood.
3:25 pm: Just talked to Paine and he said that the media folk are starting to clear out of Assembly Hall so he's going to head over to Memorial Stadium. Saw this on Hoosier Scoop:
We still don’t have a time for a press conference - the latest rumor is
4 p.m. - but that hasn’t stopped close to a dozen TV cameras from
setting up in the Hoosier Room at Memorial Stadium where they are
expecting a presser to be held.
 So, Paine is on the move. He's hungry and he hasn't had any alcohol in at least six hours. This could get ugly.
3:30 pm: I just talked to Paine as he trudged through the parking lot at Memorial Stadium....he doesn't sound happy. For some reason, I think this was the plan for the IU Media Relations Department the entire time. They could have made this very easy on everyone from the beginning if they would have given out any information at all....at any time. They have really screwed this one up, but for some reason, I don't think it was an accident.
 3:37 pm: To prove you can't keep a good man down....Paine is in the room for the press conference. Pictures are going up. You might be able to catch a glimpse of him on the WTHR Video Player. Kind of like your own game of "Where's Paine?"
3:50 pm: Ok, I'm guessing we are about ten minutes from start time. There have been rumors that McCallum's family is in the building but I did not get confirmation from Paine on that one. I know Paine is there with a digital recorder and, obviously, a camera so we'll try to get you guys as much info as possible. Thanks for sticking with us.
4 pm: Paine, like most of you, is hearing they may move it to 6 pm to 'avoid competing with Oprah'. It's nice that he's able to keep his sense of humor at a time like this. Again, the weather is pretty nasty outside, so that may have to do something with it.....or they may want to let the players attend after practice....or they may still be bickering with Sampson. We'll keep you updated.
4:25 pm: For those of you wondering, the IU basketball team is practicing right now with Dan Dakich running the practice. Whether that is because McCallum is preparing for a press conference or because Dakich is the head man, we can't be certain. Kelvin Sampson is not at practice for those of you holding out hope. What we do know is that it seemed that the players were wanting McCallum to take over since he was closer to the players through recruiting. Dakich, who we covered yesterday, slid down to the IU bench after Rob Senderoff was let go.
4:35 pm: I just rec'd this text from Paine after reading the comment by Chris: "TV people threatened to leave and they brought out cookies and milk. Hello!"
I think Chris makes a good point in that IU is really screwing this up. Everyone knew there would be a press conference today because of the deadline they set. Their only saving grace could be if they bust out the weather excuse, because it is horrid, but I'd imagine McRobbie could have made it back from Indy by now.
4:45 pm: Ok, we are in full out 'wait' mode. To recap a little bit, Paine is at the press conference ready to pounce. Check out his podcast with Thermocaster from earlier today and the live feed of the press conference.
The Indy Star is reporting that five players (D.J., Crawford, Thomas, McGee, Ellis and Bassett) skipped practice today. They are also reporting that, led by D.J. White, the players are serious about not playing tomorrow. Again, I think when it comes down to it, Sampson will/should step in and tell the players to play. It's nice that the players are supporting their former coach, but I'm thinking the university is not going to be pushed around by them. Someone needs to remind D.J. that his draft stock is at its highest point right now and sitting out games is not going to help him. The rest of them need to realize that they are all on one year, renewable scholarships that can be taken away, if needed. (Making the Dance has been covering this today angle today)
5 pm: I just talked to Paine about this and he said that he's hearing that the 'big wigs' are negotiating a compromise with the players to have McCallum coach the team so that they play....Also, the state police just showed up. Paine likes guns.
5:15 pm: Two things really quick. One, looks like Sampson is doing what he should do:
Kelvin Sampson will meet with his team tonight and encourage them to
play in Saturday's game at Northwestern regardless of his situation, a
person close to the team said today.
Two, Paine is trying to get Anthony Calhoun of WISHTV 8 to do 'The Shooter'. I'm unsure as to which I'm more excited about.
5:30 pm: Ok, Paine sent along a photo (above) of the press all working away at the press conference. I'm hoping that he sends some pics from when all the big guys sit down at the table at front. Thermocaster is saying that McCallum and his wife just left a meeting with Greenspan so.....
5:53 pm: About five minutes away from the start of the press conference.
6:53 pm: Thanks for the hour break....whoever attacked our site. Great job. Thankfully, we are back and just in time as Andy Katz has reported on ESPN that Indiana and Sampson has agreed to a buyout for 750K. I'm not going to believe that just yet, so stay tuned. We apologize for the past hour, out of our control.
7 pm: If any of you are watching the feed from the Herald Times, you can see Paine. He's sitting there to the right of the camera at the end of the row with a brownish jacket on.
ESPN is going to stick with the Katz report:
Indiana and Kelvin Sampson reached a $750,000 settlement Friday,
enabling the coach and the school to part ways immediately, a
university official told ESPN.com's Andy Katz.Under the agreement, Sampson could not sue the university.
An announcement was expected later Friday night.
To me that seems like such a small amount of money for Sampson to agree to. Especially when accepting the buyout pretty much admits guilt to lying. He would have been better off taking the suspension pending termination and then appealing. At least then he would have been giving the same, "I'm not lying" message throughout which would help in a later lawsuit. This deal with him not being able to sue later is good for IU, bad for Sampson. Apparently he knows he did something wrong and is willing to take the career hit for it. Very odd situation for Sampson. The guys running the HT feed are saying the IU Administration has confirmed the buyout. It doesn't surprise me that Katz got the jump on all of this since ESPN just spent like a week and a half at IU.
715 pm: If you are watching the HT feed you can see Paine right in the middle of your screen. I just rec'd a call from Rampage and he was concerned for Paine's health because he hasn't moved in three hours....maybe he'll do an Irish jig soon.
7:20 pm: There is an anonymous donor providing 550k of Sampson's buyout:
The deal calls for Sampson to be paid $750,000, $550,000 of which is
being provided by an anonymous donor, the relase said. The remainder
will come from athletic department funds. Sampson has agreed he will
not file a wrongful termination lawsuit against Indiana.
Seriously, this thing is getting weirder by the minute.
7:45 pm: It sounds like the press conference will be at 8pm and I can't believe Paine is still in the house. He's been there for eight hours now and all he's had to eat is cookies and milk, seriously. I mean, I've been sitting here for eight hours, but I'm at my house. I can get up and go to the bathroom. Also, is this the longest live blog ever? Can someone look that up? We've gone through location changes, podcasts and an attack on our site....what else could happen?
To IU news....ESPN.com already has a list of possible replacements up, do with that what you will. I'm not going to deal with that stuff until after the season and I encourage you to do the same. Dakich will finish out this season and we'll go from there. I'm going to guess that the players will be playing tomorrow and if they aren't then....things are going to get even more weird. Sampson has to finish out this job tonight and get the players to play tomorrow. It's in their best interests. Next, I have to guess that the recruits that were coming in next season will either be gone or asking to be let out of their letters of intent, so it will be interesting to see who IU puts on the floor next season.
To Sampson stuff....It's going to be a really long time until he's the head coach of a major Division I university again. I'm not sure what he was thinking through all of it this but it didn't turn out well for him. He lost his job, money and any credibility he had left. It's not like he's going to be able to live off of $750k the rest of his life.....even though some of you would take that. We'll stick with you for as long as Paine is sitting there...
8:30 pm: Paine just said that they are looking at a 9pm press conference....only seven hours late, so that's not bad.
8:36 pm: Paine is back at it and he said IU officials kicked some students out of the room. They told us that credentials weren't needed and if you are watching the live feed....you can see Paine is still there, right in the middle of things, literally.
8:40 pm: As he's bound to do from time to time, Paine has been talking to people and this time the people were TV media members. His exact quote, "TV media finds blog media laughable." I think SML and McBias might have something to say about that?
9 pm: You can hear Paine say, "Anyone want to go to Nick's to play Sink the Biz?" He gets very little response.
9:10 pm: Kelvin Sampson had the following to say:
I have made the very difficult decision to leave my position as
head coach of the men’s basketball team at Indiana University. While I’
m saddened that I will not have the opportunity to continue to coach
these student athletes, I feel that it is in the best interest of the
program for me to step aside at this time.
I wish my players and staff nothing but the best for the remainder
of the season. They are all truly incredible people. As I have
previously stated, I welcome the opportunity to go before the Committee
on Infractions in June. I look forward to getting back on the
basketball court in the very near future.
The press conference is still going on with Greenspan dancing around answering too many questions. We don't know if the players will show up tomorrow and we don't know just how much time Greenspan spent on this investigation over the past week. We do know that McCallum and Dakich will coach the team the rest of the season with Dakich being the head coach and McCallum being the asst. head coach. Greenspan took responsibility for hiring Sampson, so it will be interesting to see if he loses his job as well. He kind of gave an answer on releasing the incoming players from their letters of intent saying they could be released if their is a tournament ban and because of the coaching change.
9:25 pm: The press conference is over and after 9 hours, an attack on our website, a podcast and no food....Bruce Paine is heading home. Kudos to that guy. Sampson is out, Dakich is in and who knows if the players will show up tomorrow against Northwestern. A very, very odd day in Bloomington finally comes to an end. Thanks for hanging around with us.
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Sweet! Now I have to run to the restroom before I pee my pants from excitement, ha. You know I love actual sports blog reporting.
Awesome, what else you got?
Corbra Brigade has it covered! Not trying to be the story, just telling the story.
The suspense is killing me! Thankfully I've been busy buying up Cubs tickets this afternoon to pass the time between updates!
I sure hope all this does not interfere with those student-athletes' schoolwork.
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAAAaaaaaHAHAHAHAhahahahahHAHAHAaaaaa!
Aw, sh*t.
I kill myself sometimes.
A sack Lunch? Screw that...go to Nick's for a liquid lunch.
yeah, we've told him that we're buying AMF's tonight for his troubles
I'm sure if he had a sack lunch, Ken Bikoff would have already ate it.
if you are buying AMF's let me know the plans....I will be out tonight
I generally think that bloggers posting pictures of themselves is an awful idea, but that mustache makes this an exception.
So says the man who has 'hot or not' for all his bloggers on the weekend, ha!
I agree, the pic had to go up with the 'stache.....
Press conference now scheduled for 6 PM? Hope Paine brought a sack dinner too.
I heard on Mike and Mike this morning that last year there were 116 separate cases of violations (I think they said these were all phone call violations) similar to what Sampson is in trouble for.
I heard that report from Bilas, too (though I'm loathe to admit that I turn on Mike & Mike in the morning). Was that 116 separate cases for just tourney teams? Or when he said "the tourney field" does that mean all 384 or whatever it is D1 schools?
you mean by other coaches?
Yes.
Yeah it was by other coaches Jack. I'm not sure what he meant by "the tourney field". And Mike and Mike were at the Bassmaster Classic is S.C. I had to tune in for their fine coverage!
Interesting. I think the coaches could get away with it a couple of times but the fact that Sampson was a second time offender caught their attention. I know there are a lot of rules infractions made without the public knowing about them
Bilas' point was that the term "major" for these infractions was ridiculous.
I think we're continuing to see the bounceback from the Vitale vitriol that came out during the Michigan State game.
At what point do we say that they couldn't have handled this any worse?
To me it almost seems like they are trying to put this thing off until the moment they think the least amount of people will be paying attention. Only works when you don't announce a deadline a week in advance
How many people are camped out in front of the TV at 6PM on a friday? Watch the late news on Friday? Shit....watch more than 5 minutes of news all weekend?
It isnt IU screwing up...there is no urgency to have a press conference if the players, etc. know what the deal is.
Will people like us have their minds changed because a press conference is later than they expected?
It is common practice to make announcements of bad or unfavorable news late on Friday.
The real screwup is keeping Greenspn, the jerk that hired Sampson. I would keep Sampson, but if he goes, Greenspan must go too.
The 'major' came from when they interviewed the recruits and they said Sampson was on the phone but Sampson denied doing so. Bilas makes good points, one of the guys I talk to seems to think that the NCAA was after Sampson this entire time. Still, Sampson should have known this and not done it.
If those guys stage a one game sit down or whatever the hell they are foolishly thinking about I think they can still beat Northwestern.
I agree that Sampson needs to make one more coaching move while at IU and get these players to play in the game tomorrow.
After todays shenanigans, can IU let them play tomorrow? It seems like a 1 game suspension would be in order for the walkout on practice. As long as Gordon doesn't foul out early, they can probably still win at NW.
Whoa Paine. Nice makeover. Haven't see you in awhile, didn't recognize you without the chops. You kind of got the Bullet Tooth Tony look going for you there.
You be the judge.
Geez, if they keep this up people are going to think IU is clueless when it comes to making decisions regarding head coaching positions.
*cricket*
*cricket*
...ooh. Tough crowd.
Great job waiting out the news Paine. I think you should definitely invest in a few AMFs tonight as a reward for your hard work.
Move PAINE!!!!! Move Damnit!
you do realize that I'm the one writing all this up? He cant hear you
Yes I know this.
This has a silent silent partner feel to it. It's confusing me kind of like the movie Syriana did.
Well it's finally done. Too bad Indiana didn't have their stuff together. Thanks anyways for trying to give us a live report, BP.
There was some positive response to my comment. All the locals laughed but the out of towners looked confused and uncomfortable except for Dave Calabro (http://www.wthr.com/global/Story.asp?s=825427), who thought it was funny. He is a runt, too, I never noticed that on TV,
Bruce Paine is my personal hero.
Yes, Calabro is short. I could've warned you about that. But he's a great guy.
You guys had the best coverage of anyone today...congrats. I'll be in B-town in two weeks...AMF's are on me.
By the way...
Our podcast with Bruce Paine today was the most listened-to podcast in TMC history. I think he's got a future in radio.
Thanks again, guys.
No i don't. I can't stand the sound of my own voice and I say "uh" too much. I know nothing about IU basketball. Like I told everybody all day, "I just watch football."
I do, however, appreciate the support and coverage. I think we should forgo AMFs and just play Sink the Biz. AMFs make your poo turn funny colors.
I sense this growing cult hero status for Paine. Before long, he'll be taking calls from A.J. "The Balls" Daulerio, snorting coke off of a trailer hitch, and we won't even know him any more.
The next time we'll see Sampson he will be coaching the Chicago Bulls.
Well, he certainly has the face for radio. Kudos Paine, kudos.