Apr 14, 2002 3 min read

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (AP) – It didn’t take long for Dan Dakich to start smiling and joking again. A week after leaving Bowling Green, Dakich said Friday he was coming back to Ohio and walking away from the coaching job at West Virginia that would have paid him $2.5 million over five years.

Instead, he’ll sign a less lucrative five-year contract with the Falcons.

“It’ll be similar to my old contract – is that the West Virginia contract or the Bowling Green contract?” he said, drawing a laugh from Bowling Green athletic director Paul Krebs.

Dakich wouldn’t say why he changed his mind, and refused to directly answer any questions about the decision.

“I am not going to get into all the things that went on,” he said during a news conference at Bowling Green.

The decision to leave the Mountaineers almost came even sooner, said Dakich, who held a two-hour meeting with the Bowling Green team upon his return.

A possible NCAA rules violation that Dakich uncovered during a chat with West Virginia players wasn’t the main factor for his change of heart.

“You just don’t make a decision that affects you and your family off of one thing,” he said.

His reversal has turned the West Virginia program upside down, and revives what already was an extended coaching search.

Before hiring Dakich, West Virginia failed to land Cincinnati’s Bob Huggins, an alumnus. Stan Heath, Jeff Lebo and Bruce Weber also withdrew from consideration.

Huggins’ name is already being mentioned again.

“That name will resurface,” West Virginia president David Hardesty said.

West Virginia said it was looking into the amateur status of a player on last year’s team and had notified the NCAA and the Big East Conference.

“One player made a comment that gave him some concern,” Hardesty said.

Athletic director Ed Pastilong would only say it involved “an athlete and a person or group of persons not associated with WVU.” He would not identify the player.

Dakich will be offered a contract at Bowling Green with his original base salary of $125,000 plus incentives. He said his biggest challenge will be rebuilding his relationship with the players.

“I told these players I made a mistake,” he said. “I think the basketball team here is hurt that I left.”

Dakich was 89-57 in five years at Bowling Green, but failed to make the NCAA tournament.

Dakich, a player and coach under Bob Knight at Indiana for 16 seasons, informed Hardesty of his decision Thursday night, then told the West Virginia players at a workout Friday morning.

Some players were unhappy with Dakich’s orders to cut their hair, stop wearing earrings, shave facial hair and eliminate braids, senior center John Oliver said.

When Gale Catlett announced his retirement from West Virginia on Feb. 14 after 24 seasons, he ripped the team for poor play and lack of pride. Some acted selfishly on the court and others were suspended for off-the-court violations of team rules.

Things didn’t improve right away. Dakich met with West Virginia players for the first time last Friday – and kicked five of them out of the meeting when they arrived late.

Dakich never signed a contract at West Virginia and sought to restructure the terms after evaluating the team, Pastilong said.

“We were not willing to restructure the economic terms of his contract as aggressively as he wanted,” Hardesty said.

Dakich denied that there was a dispute over his contract, and said he only had one workout with the team. He added that he had no problems with the players after that first meeting.