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SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame basketball players ignored their video games before practice Friday, as the team monitored the situation in Bloomington.
“When it comes on, we talk about how crazy it must be down there with the media and it’s swarming all the time,” Notre Dame sophomore forward Luke Harangody said. “To have that insecurity with your coach and you don’t know if he is going to be back, it is a scary thing.”
Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson accepted a buyout and was replaced on an interim basis by assistant Dan Dakich.
Harangody and former Indiana Mr. Basketball Luke Zeller were recruited by Indiana and could have been in the middle of Friday’s circus.
Harangody, a candidate for Big East Player of the Year, is from Schererville, and his brother Ty and father, Dave, played football at Indiana. Zeller, from Washington, had been recruited by former Hoosiers coach Mike Davis, and Zeller’s younger brother, Tyler, chose North Carolina over IU and Notre Dame last fall.
“It’s one of those unspoken things that you don’t really talk about, but everybody is kind of like, ‘Dang, glad I’m not there,’ ” Zeller said. “It’s a mess right now. It’s one of those things that you don’t ever want to see it for basketball’s sake and even Indiana University’s sake.
“You don’t want to ever wish it on anybody and see anything like that happen.”
Most of the concern from both players and coaches was for IU’s players.
Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said IU’s team appears to have the makeup to not let the situation derail its season. The Hoosiers, who play at Northwestern today, are 22-4 overall and 11-2 Big Ten.
“There’s no question,” said Brey, who declined to comment specifically on Sampson or the allegations. “But I think that group would play with a chip on their shoulder if they have to play without the current head coach.
“After they take a deep breath, to do it for themselves. They have a nice nucleus and to not let a year end, you know, broken apart. They’ve been pretty together thus far.”
mrothstein@jg.net
