Dakich’s dream becomes reality after years as IU player, assistant coach

EVANSTON, Ill. – Tom Dakich quickly corrected himself as he talked about his son, IU interim men’s basketball coach Dan Dakich.\n“I know what his dream is,” he paused, “was.” \nNo need for present tense. Dan Dakich’s dream has always been to coach basketball at IU.\nWhen Kelvin Sampson resigned as IU coach Friday following a week-long investigation into recruiting violations, Dan Dakich, 45, was named interim head coach.\nMission accomplished ... kind of. It’s not the way Tom Dakich imagined his son would get the job of his dreams.\n“Don’t like the way it’s going in – there are a lot of better ways,” he said. “But that’s his dream.”\nAfter IU escaped Northwestern with an 85-82 win, Thomas P. Dakich, Dan Dakich’s older brother, gave the new coach a hug after his first win at the Hoosier helm. \n“His entire life has been around basketball and Indiana basketball,” Thomas P. Dakich said. “This is his day. He was bred for this.” \nShortly after IU Director of Athletics Rick Greenspan decided Sampson’s fate, he called Dan Dakich into his office.\n“I went up there and I truly did not know what I was being called up there for,” Dan Dakich said. “I was walking across the court and stopped at half court, looked around and thought ‘maybe my last time here.’ I don’t know.”\nAt about 10:40 a.m. Friday, Greenspan offered him the interim coaching gig. Nobody was happier than Dan Dakich’s dad. \n“It brought a tear to my eye,” Tom Dakich said. “I mean, that’s my child.”\nGreenspan said he didn’t believe Dan Dakich was “auditioning” for the permanent job. \n“I don’t think he’s auditioning or lobbying or petitioning,” Greenspan said. “He didn’t do that before the season began and hasn’t done it during the season.” \nBut the father of the interim coach believes this is, in fact, an audition for his son. \n“It has to be,” Tom Dakich said. “What do you have to do? You have to win all the games? So that’s what I told him. ‘Now, Dan, you’ve got an easy job. All you’ve got to do is win every game and they might make you permanent coach.’”\nIf there is any pressure, the new coach’s brother, Thomas P. Dakich, said IU has the right man for the job. \n“If Dan’s standing over an eight-foot putt to win a golf tournament or if he’s got to position people with four-and-a-half seconds to go, he’s going to compete,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what anybody else says. He’s going to compete every day to bust his ass to get it as right as he possibly can.”\nGreenspan and others in the athletics department will begin their search for Sampson’s replacement in the upcoming months. \nAsk the Dakich family, and they will tell you the right man is already on the bench. \n“I think the state of Indiana would be proud of him,” Thomas P. Dakich said. \nHis father agreed.\n“I know he wants it,” Tom Dakich said. “That’s for darn sure.”