Senderoff undergoes NCAA hearings on alleged infractions

Doug Gulasy

Men’s basketball assistant Rob Senderoff underwent hearings in Seattle over the weekend about alleged NCAA rules infractions he committed while he was an assistant at Indiana.

Senderoff resigned from Indiana in October as part of a telephone recruiting scandal that later cost Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson his job.

The NCAA Committee of Infractions conducted this weekend’s hearings, which were held to determine whether Senderoff will be penalized for the infractions.

In the scandal, the Indiana men’s basketball staff allegedly made more than 100 phone calls impermissible under NCAA rules.

Senderoff was accused of making most of those calls, including several where he patched Sampson into conversations with recruits. This was impermissible because of previous sanctions the NCAA had imposed on Sampson.

New Kent State coach Geno Ford hired Senderoff, who had previously coached at Kent State from 2002 to 2006, as his No. 1 assistant on April 15.

Kent State Director of Athletics Laing Kennedy said that the athletic department did its homework before hiring Senderoff.

Among the research the athletic department did was having faculty athletic representative Kathy Wilson contact her counterpart at Indiana about what had happened there and making sure there were no sanctions against Senderoff at the time of his hiring.

“We also put in place some self-imposed sanctions that would limit coach Senderoff’s activity as related to his recruiting activity for one year,” Kennedy said.

The results from the hearings won’t be known for another six to eight weeks, Kennedy said, and until then, things will be “business as usual.”

“Coach Senderoff is back hard at work, and we are monitoring (him), as we do our entire staff,” Kennedy said. “We monitor our entire coaching staff on their activities and conduct good compliance, and coach Senderoff is part of that. It’s back to work and back to business in moving our program ahead.”

Contact managing editor Doug Gulasy at [email protected].