NCAA places Indiana on three years' probation over Sampson calls

Sampson, now an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks, issued a statement Tuesday saying he was "deeply disappointed" by the NCAA findings.

"The accusations at hand are things that happened on my watch and therefore I will take responsibility. I am truly sorry that there were so many people who were hurt in this situation. For the sake of everyone involved, including my family, it is time to move on," he said.

The NCAA imposed recruiting restrictions on Sampson through November 2013 and a recruiting ban for the first three years. His allowable phone calls would then be reduced to half of the NCAA limit for the remaining two years.

Former assistant Rob Senderoff, now an assistant at Kent State, also faces three years of NCAA sanctions. Senderoff was not available for comment, but athletic director Laing Kennedy said Kent State would abide by the restrictions on Senderoff regarding recruiting calls.

"We are committed to keeping Rob as an integral part of our staff. His impact and long-term value to our program -- both on the court and heading up our academic efforts -- both far outweigh these penalties," Kennedy said.

The NCAA acknowledged Indiana intended to closely monitor Sampson and his assistants but said the university fell short, largely because it did not have a good system in place when Sampson was hired and had to develop one "on the fly." Compliance officials did not follow up on phone record requests in a timely manner and focused too much on collaborating with the men's basketball program and not enough on adhering to requirements, it said.

"I was gratified they accepted the penalties and added nothing new to it, and that's good," said Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, who's in Hawaii for the EA Sports Maui Invitational. "They recognized that the program had been devastated by the penalties and the departure of virtually of the whole team. While it's the end of a dark chapter, hopefully it is the beginning of a new chapter."

Under terms of its probation, IU will be required to implement a comprehensive educational program on NCAA recruiting and eligibility rules for all coaches and their staffs and report annually to the NCAA on progress and participation.

IU President Michael McRobbie said the athletics department already has begun that work.

"This was a one-time deviation from a half-century record of having no major NCAA infractions," McRobbie said in a statement. "The coaches who were directly involved in this are no longer employed by Indiana University. And, we are very determined never to allow anything like this to happen again."

McRobbie and Crean said the focus now is on restoring a program that has undergone a complete overhaul.

The university bought out Sampson's contract for $750,000 in February. None of Sampson's assistants was retained, and athletic director Rick Greenspan announced his resignation the same day the failure to monitor charge was filed. He will leave at the end of December.

"This is what gutting a program looks like, and you have to keep moving forward," said Crean, who left Marquette to take over the program in April. "That's what we'll do, and we get to do it in the long term."