The soap opera known as How the World of Kelvin Sampson turned is finally over. There was so much speculation in the last week, and it ended with a buyout that ended Sampson's tenure as Hoosiers coach.

It is time for Indiana to move forward and try to find the right guy to lead the program in the future. For now, former Hoosier guard Dan Dakich, who played under the General, Robert Montgomery Knight, will serve as interim coach.

This is so sad in a way. Those who know Sampson know he is a passionate lover of the game. He knows how to win (as his record clearly shows, just short of 500 career Ws) and he communicates well with the modern-day athlete.

As I said during the Michigan State-Indiana broadcast, the big question to me is still WHY? He had a second opportunity after the problems down at Oklahoma. He had a chance at a great state university, a school which was going to successfully recruit great players. Instead, it is jeopardized by being involved in this phone gate scandal. It was totally unnecessarily in my view.

Indiana gets players of stature without going beyond that limit.

Now the Hoosiers have a challenge. At 22-4, this team has the potential to make serious noise come tournament time. Look at the four losses -- they came against teams that are all ranked (Xavier, Connecticut and Wisconsin twice). The quick resolution of this situation takes away the distractions that were evident. Players asked over and over about the problem.

Any talk of a player boycott, which surfaced when several players missed practice on Friday, is an absolute no-no. Don't blame the university for this; the school provides these athletes the opportunity to wear a uniform at a school with a great sense of pride. I truly believe Sampson would tell his kids that they should keep the momentum built with the wins over Michigan State and Purdue.

It will be interesting to see how Indiana fares down the stretch. The schedule is relatively favorable with Northwestern, Ohio State, Michigan State, Minnesota and Penn State rounding out the regular season. DJ White, Eric Gordon and company have the talent to move on in the big dance.

Hoosier fans and players will be able to move on from a very difficult situation.

Dick Vitale coached the Pistons and the University of Detroit before broadcasting ESPN's first college basketball game in December 1979. Send him a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.