Once the Baltimore Orioles got two runs in the ninth inning off Bobby Jenks to force extra innings, they figured might as well take their improbable comeback to the next level.

“Once we got into extra innings, we said, ‘Why not just win this thing?”’ said Adam Jones, who helped them do just that.

Jones singled in the game-winning run in the 10th inning, giving the Orioles a 6-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night.

Baltimore trailed 5-2 in the eighth before rallying to split the two-game series.

After scoring their third unearned run to close to 5-3, the Orioles had to go up against Jenks, who entered in the ninth looking to go 7-for-7 in save situations. Brian Roberts got Baltimore within a run with a two-out RBI double, and Melvin Mora grounded a 3-2 pitch up the middle to tie it.

Of Jenks’ 13 career blown saves, three have come at Camden Yards.

“When we tied the game, we knew we were going to win,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “That’s just the feeling that was in that dugout.”

Kevin Millar led off the 10th with a walk from Boone Logan (1-1) and advanced on a walk to Luke Scott. After Aubrey Huff hit a fly to left, Jones hit a liner inside the left-field line that scored Millar without a throw.

“The best thing we have had so far is our bullpen, and they didn’t get it done tonight,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.

Jenks wouldn’t talk after the game, but Logan said, “We’re not perfect. Bobby, no matter how good he is, isn’t going to have 100 percent every night. What happened, happened. Then I came in and they kept hitting, but the walks didn’t help.”

Nick Markakis homered for the Orioles, whose only lead in the series came when Millar crossed the plate. George Sherrill (1-0) pitched the 10th to earn the win.

Carlos Quentin hit two homers and Joe Crede also connected for Chicago, now 9-1 when leading after eight innings.

After the Orioles drew even with two unearned runs in the sixth, Quentin and Crede connected on successive pitches from Jeremy Guthrie to put Chicago up 4-2. Quentin’s homer ended a 3-for-25 skid, and Crede’s drive upped his RBI total to 18.

Quentin added a solo shot off Dennis Sarfate in the eighth. It was the second two-homer game of his career; the other came last May for Arizona against Colorado.

Chicago starter Gavin Floyd, who went to high school in Baltimore, pitched six innings of two-hit ball in a memorable homecoming. He struck out four, walked two and lowered his ERA to 1.40.

“It was fun pitching here. I grew up watching the Orioles, so to pitch here was special,” Floyd said.

In his last start, the right-hander held Detroit hitless through 7 1-3 innings. In this one, Floyd retired the first 12 batters before Millar bounced a single off the glove of Crede at third base.

That was Baltimore’s lone hit until Markakis homered with a man on in the sixth. Both runs were unearned, because the inning began with Luis Hernandez reaching on an error by first baseman Paul Konerko.

The Orioles’ third run was also tainted. After the 100-game errorless streak of White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski ended with an errant throw in the eighth, Scott hit an RBI double.

Pierzynski also went 0-for-5, snapping his bat over his knee after a foul out in the 10th.

Derrek Lee already has as many homers in the first month of this season as he did in the entire first half a year ago.

Lee’s early surge continued Wednesday night as he and Carlos Zambrano carried the Cubs to a 12-3 victory over slumping Cincinnati—the Reds’ fifth straight loss under former Chicago manager Dusty Baker.

Lee homered among his three hits and Zambrano also went 3-for-4 while pitching seven strong innings. The Cubs jumped out early with 10 runs by the third inning and made it easy for their ace.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella knows how much Zambrano enjoys hitting—he’s been used as a pinch-hitter occasionally—and had teased the big right-hander about his slow start, telling him he was a batting practice hitter.

“Lou was telling me, `When are you going to get a hit this year?”’ said Zambrano, who was 0-for-8 entering Wednesday’s game after batting .247 last season.

“I said, `I don’t know.’ I was hitting .000 before the game and now I’m hitting .250.”

Lee raised his average to .393 and after hitting only 22 homers last season, he’s already connected for six—the same number he had before the All-Star break a year ago.

“We got contributions throughout the lineup, especially our third hitter. He’s really in a nice groove,” Piniella said. “He’s zoned in. The ball just jumps off his bat.”

The Cubs scored four runs in the first and six in the third to give Zambrano an early cushion on another blustery night at Wrigley Field with the wind gusting out at 20 mph.

Zambrano (2-1) allowed eight hits and two runs. Chicago, meanwhile, hit Josh Fogg (1-2) hard. He gave up seven hits and was charged with nine runs in two-plus innings.

“When you give Big Z a 10-run lead by the third, you might catch up but your odds aren’t real good,” Baker said. “We didn’t get to use that wind out there. They hit us around the ballpark pretty good.”

Fogg said the wind was difficult but that’s not necessarily why he pitched so poorly.

“It’s a factor. For me today it wasn’t a very big factor because I didn’t pitch very well, so it didn’t matter,” he said. “Zambrano did a pretty good job pitching in it, so it’s not like it was impossible. You just have to make quality pitches and I wasn’t able to do that.”

Adam Dunn did homer for the Reds, off reliever Kevin Hart in the eighth. That’s when fans at Wrigley Field not only threw one ball back—as is a tradition after an opponent’s homer—they littered the field with 15 baseballs, momentarily halting play.

“I was surprised. I didn’t know that many people hit a home run today,” Cubs right fielder Kosuke Fukudome said through a translator.

Chicago didn’t miss leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano, who went on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday with a strained right calf, an injury he sustained in the first inning of Tuesday night’s 9-5 win when he caught a fly ball.

Bases-loaded doubles by Fukudome in the first and Geovany Soto in the third were key hits Wednesday night. Zambrano had the third three-hit game of his career—two singles and a double—and an RBI.

Lee’s solo shot started the six-run third.

Fogg then loaded the bases for the second time in three innings as the Cubs had two walks and a single before Soto delivered a two-run double for a 7-1 lead. Reed Johnson greeted reliever Mike Lincoln with a sacrifice fly, Zambrano had an RBI single and a sixth run scored on a wild pitch.

In the first, Fogg gave up a double to Ryan Theriot and a single to Lee before hitting Aramis Ramirez with a pitch to load the bases. Fukudome doubled past first for a 2-0 lead and Mark DeRosa followed with another two-run double.

The Reds had a big inning working in the top of the second when Dunn walked with one out and Edwin Encarnacion blooped a single to left. Joey Votto then hit a high, wind-blown fly to left that DeRosa—playing in place of Soriano— misjudged. The ball hit the warning track and went for a ground-rule RBI double.

But with runners at second and third, Zambrano grabbed Javier Valentin’s hard comebacker and was able to catch Encarnacion off third. He was tagged out in a rundown. Cubs shortstop Theriot then saved another run by going behind second on a high bouncer by Fogg to throw him out and end the inning.

Jeff Keppinger doubled in a run in the seventh for the Reds.

The Tigers have the worst record in the major leagues, and Detroit manager Jim Leyland couldn’t contain himself anymore.

Following Sunday’s 11-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox, Leyland was heard screaming in the clubhouse before reporters were allowed inside. He wouldn’t comment on the rant, but the manager said it wasn’t just about the loss.

“There was one thing that sticks out to me right now that’s going on, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Leyland said, without revealing the issue.

Joe Crede and Paul Konerko hit grand slams to back Javier Vazquez’s strong start. Konerko’s homer came in the third off Kenny Rogers and Crede’s grand slam, his second this season, came in the fifth against Zach Miner as the White Sox won for the fifth time in six games over Detroit, the preseason favorite to win the AL Central.

“We got Detroit at the right time,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “Those guys are going to wake up sooner or later. They have unbelievable talent.”

Chicago has a 5 1/2 -game lead in the division over the Tigers. The White Sox have outscored Detroit 46-12 this season, despite the Tigers adding slugging third baseman Miguel Cabrera to an already powerful lineup.

“Where we’re at makes sense because that’s the way we’ve played,” Leyland said. “It’s not surprising that we’re 2-10. We’ve been shut out four times. … I didn’t think we’d get shut out four times all year, to be honest with you.”

Detroit has been shutout out twice as many time as any other major league team—one more time than they were blanked all of last year.

“We’re just in a funk,” Leyland said. “Can I get them out of the funk? No, I don’t think so. They have to get themselves out of it.”

It was the third time the White Sox have hit two grand slams in one game. The previous time Chicago did it was May 19, 1996, when Darren Lewis and Robin Ventura homered at Detroit. The first time was Sept. 4, 1995, when Ventura hit two grand slams in a game at Texas.

“It was kind of wild,” Konerko said. “You don’t see many grand slams, and especially with the weather. The weather was kind of brutal out there.”

On a cold and windy day, Rogers (0-3) gave up seven runs, seven hits and four walks in four-plus innings. He once again pitched with no run support; the Tigers haven’t scored a run in his three starts this season. Not that he helped much.

“We’re not a very good team right now,” Rogers said. “We’re as bad a team as there is right now in every facet, myself as much as anyone. I’m supposed to be consistent and I was very uncomfortable out there and inconsistent.”

Chicago has started to erase the bad taste from last season with its strong start, and Crede is part of the reason why. The third baseman is hitting .341 with four homers and 15 RBIs, with most of his production coming in the last week. He had to work himself into shape in spring training after missing much of last season with back surgery.

“He’s Joe,” Guillen said. “We’re lucky enough to have Joe back. Last year we missed him a lot. We missed his bat and his glove. You see his RBIs, but he also had RBIs in the field, saving runs with his defense.”

Vazquez (2-1) won his second straight start, scattering five hits in seven innings while striking out nine without a walk.

Trailing 1-0 in the third, Rogers walked Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera reached on an infield single. Jim Thome walked and Konerko took an 0-1 fastball to center for a 405-foot homer, his first grand slam since Aug. 3, 2004, and the seventh of his career.

“It’s a credit to the guys in front of us that were getting on base,” Konerko said. “In my case, Orlando hustled down the line, drawing a bad throw to get on base and then Jimmy has a heck of an at-bat and draws a walk. It’s all those little things where it didn’t look like it was going anywhere and then, bang, grand slam.”

Rogers didn’t make it out of the fifth, getting pulled for Miner after Cabrera’s double and Thome’s bloop single. Konerko struck out, Jermaine Dye hit an RBI double and A.J. Pierzynski was intentionally walked. Thome scored on a wild pitch and Miner walked Carlos Quentin to set up Crede’s sixth grand slam, a 393-foot shot to left.

Crede had hit two grand slams in a season once before.

“High school, senior year,” he said of his days at Fatima High School in Westphalia, Mo. “I can’t recall a time since A-ball that I’ve started out feeling this good, this early.”

Not so for the Tigers. On Thome’s single in the fifth, Cabrera tripped on the third base umpire’s foot and missed a chance for an easy catch.

“That tells you how bad it’s been going for us,” Leyland said. “He stepped on the umpire’s foot and slipped.”

After needing the equivalent of three games merely to win twice in Pittsburgh, what a relief this regulation game was to the Chicago Cubs. Almost as big as the relief Jon Lieber gave them.

Geovany Soto and Mike Fontenot hit two-run homers in Chicago’s five-run sixth inning and the Cubs finished off a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh, winning 7-3 Thursday night to run their winning streak to five games.

Soto had three extra-base hits, including two doubles, among his second career four-hit game, and Derrek Lee also drove in two runs despite not getting a hit as the Cubs won their sixth in a row over the Pirates dating to last season.

Lieber (2-1) got the decision by pitching 4 1-3 scoreless relief innings after starter Rich Hill needed 72 pitches to get through three innings, allowing three runs and three hits and walking four. Lieber pitched 7 1-3 scoreless relief innings in the series, three of them during a 10-8, 12-inning win Monday in the Pirates’ home opener.

“Without Lieber, we really would have had problems,” manager Lou Piniella said. “We were looking for innings. … (Hill) was all over the place. There was no use keeping him in there. It wasn’t going to get any better.”

The Cubs certainly didn’t need to look for innings earlier in the series.

After going 12 and 15 innings to win the first two games—the first time in 81 years they’ve needed that many innings to win consecutive road games—the Cubs won this with one big inning against the pitching-thin Pirates, who dropped their fifth in six games.

“I’m glad it didn’t go (extra innings),” said Soto, who went 8-of-17 while catching all 36 innings in the series—apparently with no effect on his offense.

The Cubs withstood two Pirates homer-driven comebacks to win 6-4 in 15 innings on Wednesday night.

“I think any situation like that, if anybody can go in there and do that, it’s definitely huge,” Lieber, a converted starter, said of propping up the bullpen. “You want to give those guys a break down there, especially after last night’s ballgame.”

Soto had a chance to hit for the cycle, but he didn’t think of trying to stretch a double into a triple in the seventh. He grounded out in the ninth.

“I already hit my one (triple) for the year. I’ll take them if they come, but I don’t want to get greedy,” Soto said. “I’m not a triple-type guy.”

After emptying their bullpen in consecutive games, the Pirates needed a lot of innings from starter Matt Morris (0-1), who lasted seven but gave up 11 hits and seven runs, four earned.

“I tried to avoid thinking about that all day—the obvious thing is (to think), ‘I’ve got to go 8, I’ve got to go 9, I’ve got to go 7, whatever it is,’ and as soon as you start thinking like that, you can barely get out of the first,” Morris said.

Morris led 3-2 going into the sixth, but quickly fell behind when Kosuke Fukudome walked and Soto followed with a drive into the center field shrubbery for his second homer.

“I had the game in front of me but, all of a sudden, the home run just changed everything and it snowballed,” Morris said.

Morris might have gotten out of the inning with only two runs scoring, but Ryan Theriot, who had singled, was safe at third on a steal attempt when third baseman Jose Bautista dropped Ronny Paulino’s throw that arrived well ahead of the runner.

Theriot scored on Reed Johnson’s single, and Fontenot made it 7-3 with a two-run, two-out drive into the right field seats, the third homer off Morris in two starts.

Prior to Wednesday’s game with the Twins, Ozzie Guillen was asked about umpire Phil Cuzzi and the fact that he’s been responsible for Guillen’s last two ejections. As usual, the White Sox manager pulled no punches.

“I don’t like that guy behind the plate,” Guillen said. “And I’m going to let him know. I don’t like him. He don’t like me, I don’t like him. It’s one reason is, if you don’t like me as a man and what I do, I respect that. But if you don’t like me, and all of a sudden you’re going to take it out on my players, you’re wrong. That’s unprofessional.

“And I just let him know I don’t like him the first day I see him, and I think he feels the same way about me. And we have to move on. Every time he’s behind the plate, we might have a problem. We might. We have. I think the last couple times behind the plate, we have a problem. And he tried to be smart with me, and I do what I have to do, and he does what he has to do. But I don’t like him, and he don’t like me. And I got a good sleep last night. I will spend all my money for him. I don’t care. But obviously, we don’t like each other.”

Back in the NBA, Kasib Powell gave the Miami Heat the type of effort they’ve lacked most of the season.

Powell scored a career-high 18 points, leading the Heat to a 95-88 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night that snapped a seven-game losing streak.

Ricky Davis and Chris Quinn each added 16 points as five players scored in double figures for the Heat, the day after coach Pat Riley was elected to the Hall of Fame.

“We got in such a habit of playing with talent only and thinking that talent was going to take care of the lack of effort,” Riley said. “These guys are just unadulterated. Effort is a big part of what our culture is.”

It was Powell’s first game back with the Heat after getting recalled from the NBA Development League and signing a contract for the remainder of the season. Powell was the MVP of the D-League.

“I didn’t know how much I was going to play today,” Powell said. “Any time I go out there, I want to be full of energy and bring a boost up.”

Powell also grabbed six rebounds and had three assists in 37 minutes as he returned to the Heat for the first time since scoring 15 points on March 31.

The Bulls fell to 30-47 and were officially eliminated from the Eastern Conference playoffs after making three consecutive appearances.

“We need to become a better defensive team,” Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich said. “The teams who usually compete for the NBA championship are almost always one of the best defensive teams in the league.”

There were high hopes for the Bulls this season after winning 49 games last season before falling to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“We’ve kind of lost our identity to what got us here,” Hinrich said. “We kind of lost our edge.”

Luol Deng led the Bulls with 25 points, 19 of which came in the first half. Ben Gordon and Joakim Noah each added 16 points.

Chicago was up by 11, its largest lead of the game, in the third quarter. But the Heat fought back to take a 60-59 lead, with back-to-back 3-pointers by Powell and Davis sparking a 12-0 run.

“We started the third quarter like we typically do, we weren’t ready,” Riley said. “We take a timeout and we just kept playing. We played extremely well.”

Miami took a 69-67 lead into the fourth quarter when Joel Anthony tipped in a miss by Quinn at the buzzer to end the third, drawing a smile from Quinn.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Quinn, who has scored in double figures six straight games. “Obviously, we haven’t had as many wins this year as we’d like, so any time you get out there and have success and winning, it’s a lot of fun.”

After Chris Duhon knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the Heat lead to 76-73, the Heat went on an 8-0 to put the game out of reach. The Bulls were just 6-of-20 in the fourth quarter.

“They wanted it more and played a lot harder as a team,” Gordon said. “A lot of their guys are playing just to stay in the NBA, so they definitely had a higher level of intensity than we showed.”

A jumper by Davis cut the Bulls’ lead to 36-35 late in the first half, but the Bulls responded with a 9-2 run led by Deng, who scored seven points, including a three-point play.

For long stretches Thursday night, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was sure his Spartans were dogging it.

Looking flat and struggling to find a rhythm, No. 17 Michigan State trailed Illinois by as many as 10 points in the first half and had no answer for center Shaun Pruitt’s 6-foot-10 frame in the lane.

Turns out the Spartans weren’t flat, but ill. But they found a way to overcome Illinois and illness to get a road win, 59-51.

“We had some guys getting sick there during the game,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said, saying he only found out about problems with forward Raymar Morgan—the team’s top scorer this season—and guards Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers. He wasn’t sure just what was wrong.

“I don’t know,” Izzo said. “They’re all throwing up.”

What the ailing Morgan couldn’t provide, senior guard Drew Neitzel did. He overcame a slow start to score 17 points and lead the Spartans.

Illinois led most of the first half. But Michigan State (24-7, 12-5 Big Ten) took its first lead with 2:29 left in the first half on a layup by Neitzel, 31-29, and never trailed again.

“I thought we had a pretty good game out of Neitzel considering he was guarded by one of the best defensive players,” Izzo said, referring to Illinois guard Chester Frazier.

Spartans center Drew Naymick added 12 points, including a pair of key second-half jump shots that helped bury Illinois.

The Illini (12-18, 4-13) were led by Pruitt’s 13 points and six rebounds.

The teams were tied 31-31 at the half, but the Spartans pulled away early in the second half. The 6-foot-10 Naymick hit back-to-back jump shots to open the half and build a 35-31 lead.

“That first five minutes of the second half was just a killer for us,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. “(Naymick) hits two in a row there, Neitzel gets a 3.

“Now it’s a seven-point run,” the exasperated Weber said, “and we’re chasing them.”

After trailing 23-13 with 9:25 left in the first half, the Spartans outscored the Illini 29-13 over the next 17:42.

Neitzel, who didn’t score for the first 6 1/2 minutes, found just enough scoring touch to drive Michigan State. He was a cool 5-of-13 from the field, but three of his field goals were from 3-point range.

Illinois closed within three points with just over seven minutes left in the game. But Neitzel drained a 3 less than 20 seconds later to open the Spartans’ lead back to six points.

The loss had a familiar refrain for Illinois.

The Illini have been a first-half team all season, and they’ve struggled to score in the second half of games.

On Thursday, Illinois was just 6-of-19 from the floor in the final 20 minutes.

“Like most of the season,” Weber said, “when you don’t shoot the ball well and don’t make free throws it hurts you.”

Neitzel had a hand in shutting down Illinois’ outside shooting, too. Illini point guard Demetri McCamey had just three points.

“They hit a couple tough shots in the first half but we did a pretty good job on them, especially in the second half,” Neitzel said.

Illinois forward Brian Randle, who Weber last week said he expected would miss the rest of the season with a shoulder injury, entered the game in the second half. The oft-injured senior finished with seven points in 10 minutes.

Michigan State will end the regular season Sunday at Ohio State before the Big Ten tournament starts next week.

The Illini close the regular season at home Saturday against Minnesota.

He stood beaming on a crowded court, celebrating as students chanted his nickname.

“Po-lar bear! Po-lar bear!”

Brian Butch hasn’t always had it this good in his time at Wisconsin.

The up-and-down details of Butch’s collegiate career didn’t matter much Wednesday night when he helped the 10th-ranked Badgers trounce Penn State 77-41 to claim at least a share of the Big Ten title.

Playing in his final home game, the senior had 12 points and five rebounds— a typical rock-solid night for a team that lacks stars but somehow manages to keep winning.

“It’s absolutely awesome, point-blank,” Butch said. “It’s all you can say.”

It is the third time in seven seasons the Badgers (25-4, 15-2) have claimed at least a share of the conference title under coach Bo Ryan—and this one was perhaps the least likely of them.

The Badgers finish the regular season at Northwestern on Saturday and a victory would give them the outright championship.

“You know, it’s a great feeling to see this group come together the way they did,” Ryan said. “Everybody probably thinks it’s easy when you look from the outside.”

Not much was expected of Wisconsin coming into the season. The Badgers had lost stars Alando Tucker and Kammron Taylor, and it was unclear just where the missing points would come from.

But sophomore guard Trevon Hughes proved he could be counted on to score, Butch had a solid season and the Badgers used their size advantage and discipline to play stifling defense.

“I think it still kind of seems surreal,” said Greg Stiemsma, who scored 10 points. “To go out like we did, to achieve what we did tonight, I think it’s really special. It’s one of those things where it doesn’t seem like it should happen. I don’t know if it’s fate or whatever it is, but things fell into place for us.”

Butch has struggled at times to live up to the promise of his status as a prized recruit, and never became a star in the traditional sense. But the Badgers realized his value when he was injured at the end of last season, severely disrupting that highly ranked team’s chemistry.

Butch’s steady presence was an even bigger deal this season, as he played a more prominent role without Tucker and Taylor.

“You know, we had a great year last year, but we didn’t have anything to show for it,” Butch said. “I’ve been saying that the last couple weeks—this year, at least we have something to show for it so far. And we’ve got a lot of basketball ahead of us, too.”

Marcus Landry scored 15 points for Wisconsin, which entered Wednesday leading the nation in scoring defense, giving up an average of 54.9 points per game. The Badgers held Penn State (14-15, 6-11) to 7-for-27 shooting in the first half and 29.6 percent for the game.

“We just couldn’t make a shot, and we couldn’t guard them in the second half,” Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. “They just went inside and our young kids, we couldn’t match up inside. We’re just not big enough, we’re not strong enough. They went in and took it right at us.”

Wisconsin held Penn State scoreless for a 5:21 stretch late in the first half, going on an 8-0 run to take a 27-12 lead on a 3-pointer by Michael Flowers.

Wisconsin led 34-17 at halftime, then opened the second half with an 8-1 run, taking a 42-18 lead on a driving layup by Hughes.

Talor Battle scored 10 points to lead the Nittany Lions, who were playing without leading scorer Jamelle Cornley. His replacement, Jeff Brooks, picked up three fouls in the first half.

“We just aren’t very good in there right now,” DeChellis said of his team’s post play. “We left our best post player home.”

Tanner Bronson, a 5-foot-11 senior walk-on who has become a fan favorite, got into the game with 4:51 remaining and the Badgers leading by 40 points. He hit a 3-pointer with 2:29 left, eliciting a standing ovation.

“I just do what I can, I guess,” Bronson said, in a short postgame speech to the crowd.

Dan Dakich received what likely is his dream job Friday, but under nightmarish circumstances.

The former Indiana player and assistant coach was named the interim head coach to replace Kelvin Sampson, but faces immediate controversy in the form of boycotting players and a snubbed assistant coach.

Only seven players showed up for Dakich’s first practice at Assembly Hall on Friday afternoon. Among the six missing players were starters D.J. White, Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis. Every player attended a walkthrough Friday night, however.

Sampson’s lead assistant, Ray McCallum, will remain on the staff as the assistant head coach.

McCallum, a native of Muncie and a former head coach at Ball State and Houston, was joined by his wife in a two-hour meeting in athletic director Rick Greenspan’s office while the team was practicing.

McCallum declined to comment to reporters as he left Assembly Hall.

Greenspan would not say whether the players who skipped practice were angry over Sampson’s dismissal or Dakich’s promotion.

“You’d be better served to ask them,” Greenspan said. “I’m not going to speak for the players.”

The players refused comment as they entered and left practice Friday and weren’t available during the news conference later that night.

McCallum’s ties to Sampson were thought to be an issue in Dakich’s promotion. However, a university news release issued shortly before Friday’s 9 p.m. news conference praised McCallum’s “integrity and exceptional dedication to the game,” and Greenspan echoed those sentiments.

“It was very important for both Ray and Dan to point out that we have not had any concerns expressed to us in any way about any allegations about any NCAA issues,” Greenspan said. “I know for both of them that’s important for the public to understand.”

Why Dakich, then?

“I felt it was the right choice,” Greenspan said.

Dakich was not available for comment Friday but issued a statement through the university.

“Indiana University and the basketball program have played an important role in my life,” he said. “I want nothing but the best for these players and the institution. The challenge ahead is to maintain the positive momentum that has been built within the team and to keep everyone as focused as possible during this difficult time.”

Dakich will not be available to the media until after tonight’s game at Northwestern.

Greenspan said no decision has been made whether to add an assistant coach. Former Indiana star Damon Bailey aroused speculation when he showed up at Assembly Hall on Friday afternoon, but Greenspan said he was not aware of that.

Dakich, 45, becomes IU’s second interim coach in a turbulent decade for the program.

Mike Davis worked on an interim basis in the 2000-01 season after Bob Knight was fired, and then was hired full time. IU finished 21-13 overall and 10-6 in the Big Ten that season.

Dakich compiled a 156-140 record at Bowling Green (1997-2007). His contract was not renewed after last season. His teams won one Mid-American Conference title but were a combined 22-39 in his final two injury-plagued seasons.

Dakich, who averaged 3.6 points during his playing career with Knight, bears several similarities to his mentor. He was a slow-footed player who had a mediocre college career, and went on to become a hard-driving coach who sometimes alienated players with his intensity but also developed strong bonds with many of them.

Dakich also appeared to earn the respect of IU’s players during his 12 seasons as an assistant coach.

“Danny was a competitor,” 1989 graduate Joe Hillman said. “He competed and scrapped, and he got everything out of what he had. He was just a great competitive guy. He was very, very knowledgeable about the game.”

Indiana has received a list of alleged violations from the NCAA and is expected to make it public Wednesday.

University trustees president Stephen Ferguson told The Associated Press on Tuesday night that school officials this week reviewed a report, which stems from impermissible phone calls made by basketball coach Kelvin Sampson and his staff during 2006 and 2007.

The NCAA is not expected to make its ruling until this summer

There won’t be a hearing till this June,” Ferguson said. “It’s just been reviewed, and I think everyone is analyzing it now.”

Ferguson would not detail what is contained in the report.

It comes in response to October’s announcement that a university investigation found Sampson made more than 100 impermissible phone calls while still on NCAA probation for infractions he committed during his tenure at Oklahoma.

Sampson was found to have made 577 impermissible calls from 2000 to 2004 and was punished by the NCAA in May 2006, less than two months after taking the Indiana job. Sampson was banned from calling recruits and making off-campus visits for one year.

Among the restrictions imposed on Sampson was a provision that did not allow him to participate in three-way calls. But the university found Sampson was involved in at least 10 three-way calls, most patched through by then assistant coach Rob Senderoff.

Sampson said in October he was unaware he was participating in a three-way conversation on nine occasions. He also explained Senderoff was helping recruits reach Sampson, in part because Sampson’s cell phone signal often dropped. Recruits then, Sampson said, would call back Senderoff seeking assistance.

NCAA rules do not prohibit three-way calls, although Sampson’s sanctions did.

The university then imposed its own sanctions on Sampson — forfeiting a $500,000 pay raise and one scholarship next season. Senderoff also was punished by forfeiting any bonuses or salary increases for one year and later resigned.

The university now has until May to respond to the report, before going before the NCAA in June.

“The report came out in October, the university filed its response and there’s really not been anything happening (on the board) in the last five months,” Ferguson said. “There have not been any discussions.”

Sampson’s Hoosiers have ignored the potential distractions from the investigation, posting a 20-3 mark and earning the No. 13 ranking in the latest AP poll. Indiana, at 9-1 in the Big Ten currently trails only No. 19 Purdue in the conference title chase.