Hoosiers assistant in improper calls case resigns

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana assistant Rob Senderoff, still the focus of an investigation into improper telephone calls to recruits, resigned Tuesday.

So far, the investigation has cost the Hoosiers one basketball scholarship and coach Kelvin Sampson a $500,000 pay raise. The NCAA is still conducting its own investigation, which could lead to further sanctions.

"Rob Senderoff has decided it is in his and Indiana University's best interests that he voluntarily resign," the school said in a statement.

Senderoff, a former assistant at Kent State, was hired by Sampson in May 2006, the same month the NCAA sanctioned Sampson for making 577 impermissible phone calls between 2000-2004 while he was the coach at Oklahoma.

Sampson was barred from calling recruits or making off-campus recruiting trips for one year, but on Oct. 14, less than five months after those sanctions expired, Indiana announced its compliance office had discovered new violations that occurred while the original sanctions were still in effect.

The university investigation found that Senderoff connected Sampson to 10 three-way calls involving recruits, which normally are permitted under NCAA rules but were banned as part of the previous sanctions. It also found that Senderoff made the majority of 35 undocumented calls from his home.

As a result of the internal investigation, Indiana gave up one basketball scholarship in 2008-09 and Sampson forfeited his pay raise. Also, Senderoff gave up a scheduled pay raise and was banned from calling recruits and making off-campus recruiting visits for one year.

After the findings of the Indiana investigation were disclosed, Sampson said Senderoff initiated calls with recruits in part because of a weak signal on Sampson's cell phone.

But Sampson said he wasn't aware that nine of the 10 calls were three-way connections. The one he knew was a three-way call was to clear up questions from a recruit who had already committed to making an on-campus visit, he said.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

Source: ESPN.com