Kelvin Sampson’s seat on the team bus has already been filled.\nNot by IU interim coach Dan Dakich, who took over the team after Sampson resigned, but by the 2002 Big Ten Championship trophy.\nDakich won a Big Ten title as a player in the 1982-83 season and helped guide the Hoosiers to four more titles and a national championship in his 12 years as an assistant under former head coach Bobby Knight. The interim coach had the trophy taken out of Assembly Hall for the trip to Northwestern and will continue to do so for the remaining two road contests this season.\nDakich said the message he delivered to the team is staying in the locker room.\n“I really don’t want to talk about that,” Dakich said. “It was something we talked about with the players in the locker room. I don’t want to be rude, but that’s something we are doing as a team.”\nNo. 12 IU (23-4, 12-2) is tied for second place in the Big Ten with rival Purdue, just a half-game behind conference leader Wisconsin. The Hoosiers host Ohio State and Minnesota and travel to No. 19 Michigan State and Penn State in the final four games of conference play. If IU were to win all four of the games, it would clinch at least a share of a championship – \nan opportunity that senior forward D.J. White is looking forward to.\n“It feels good, especially being a senior, this is a new position for me,” White said in a statement.
White, Gordon continue to shine for the Hoosiers\nTeams are finding it difficult to defend the dynamic duo of White and freshman guard Eric Gordon.\nThe teammates are the top two scorers in the conference, with Gordon averaging 21.5 and White averaging 17.1 points per game, and are on pace to be the first set of teammates since the 1987-88 season to finish as the top two scorers in Big Ten. Michigan’s Glen Rice and Gary Grant were the last two players to do so.\nWhite, a front-runner for Big Ten Player of the Year, also leads the conference in rebounding at 10.4 rebounds per contest. He has been named Big Ten Player of the Week four times, the second most in the conference’s history.\n“He’s been there all year,” Dakich said after the Northwestern victory. “He has been the best player that I have seen all year. He and Eric both, truly. D.J. is the guy that I have as much respect for as any kid I have ever coached.”\nGordon has set the all-time IU freshman scoring record this season and has shown the effects his taped wrist are starting to disappear as he has averaged 22.8 points in his last four games.
WSU’s Bennett not focusing on vacant IU job\nWashington State coach Tony Bennett is one of the hottest young coaching prospects in the country, but don’t ask him about the open IU job.\n“I’m not going to comment on anything that doesn’t pertain to our season,” Bennett told The Seattle Times when asked if he would consider leaving Washington State. “That’s all you’re going to get out of me.”\nIn just his second season as a head coach, Bennett has posted a 47-14 record for the Cougars. In his rookie campaign, Bennett led Washington State to a 26-8 mark and a second-round appearance in the NCAA tournament, the program’s first trip to the Big Dance since 1994. For his work, Bennett was named the Associated Press Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year and the Naismith College Coach of the Year.\nBennett might face a difficult decision if he is offered the head coaching job at IU, but for now, he is content with is $800,000 salary and contract extension through 2014, which he signed at the end of last season, he said.
