Update 11:52 CDT:
Kelvin Sampson would not talk about the violations or the punishments. Here is the transcript from a brief exchange with reporters:
Q: Coach Senderoff was not at the public scrimmage on Friday, is there anything to that?
A: "No, I'm not answering none of those questions. I am not even getting into any of that stuff. We're dealing with stuff and I'm going to coach my team."
Another reporter asked about Senderoff's role in practice:
A: "I'm not getting into that."
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, a good friend of Sampson, had this to say about the violations:"Not to make fun of anything, but to follow all the rules right now you almost need a personal secretary riding around with you. I am good friends with Kelvin. I don't know all of the situation so I'm not going to be judge and jury. But from what I've heard, from what I've read, it seems like pretty tough punishments when I've seen other schools maybe not punished as strongly for things I think are a lot worse. It's hard. He'll survive it. I feel bad for him, I feel bad for our league a little bit because you don't want those kinds of negative things. But I don't judge people on some of those NCAA rules that are difficult to follow, to interpret and to deal with in this never-ending struggle to recruit."
Izzo said he talked to Sampson two days after the violations were disclosed.
"I just told him to hang in there and if he was wrong on something, deal with it and move on. I mean, nobody died. I don't think there's a big advantage in anything. If it happened, it was a mistake that shouldn't have been made, but I'm not sure the benefits of the mistake were anything that would bother me."
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Update 11:38 a.m., CDT:
Purdue coach Matt Painter didn't want to pass judgment on Sampson's violations, but had this to say:
"I think you can make honest mistakes. There can be an exception here and there where you can make an honest mistake. I think you have to have some wiggle room in our business to make an honest mistake because that's what everybody does, as long as the intent is to go by the rule and not circumvent the rule. There are some guys who make honest mistakes and we can't sit there and crucify them for trying to do what's right and slipping up a little bit."
Painter said he has not talked to Sampson since the self-reported violations, not that it was expected.
Illinois coach Bruce Weber on Sampson's violations:
"We hope that anybody in our business would try to adhere to the rules. I know I'm not perfect, our staff isn't perfect. You're going to make mistakes, but you hope guys make a conscious effort to stay within the limitations that are put on you because that's why they're there, to help us. It's why you have stoplights, it's why you have speed limits - for the betterment of everybody. I hope for everybody's sake everybody tries to do the right thing."
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First thing of note, the media selected Michigan State as the No. 1 team in the Big Ten. IU is predicted to finish 2nd and two-time defending conference champion Ohio State was picked to finish third. It seems like, no matter the poll, IU and MSU are side-by-side. But, who do you think is the stronger team?
Other items of note, when we registered for the day I peeked in on the coaches breakfast to see what was going on. Kelvin Sampson was seated inbetween Tubby Smith and Tom Izzo, who sat next to Matt Painter and Bruce Weber.
D.J. White and Lance Stemler just walked past the media workroom -- the two senior captains will represent the team for the day. Any questions you want us to ask the coaches or selected players? We'll be posting updates from time to time, so keep updating the site throughout the day.
