Like a president doling out his last minute pardons, or a deposed dictator making one last shameful cash grab, the lame-duckiness of Dan Dakich's situation apparently does not affect him. Dakich, in last night's surprising addition to the hilarious saga that is IU basketball this season, kicked guard Armon Bassett and forward Jamarcus Ellis off Indiana's team.

The entire situation is incredibly weird: according to this report in the Indianapolis Star, the two players missed a meeting that they weren't allowed to miss, which is not something one should be doing but which is not at all grounds for dismissal. According to the Bloomington Herald-Times, Dakich wanted the players to run sprints, and they told him they wouldn't, another act of insubordination that's not exactly polite but which isn't grounds for getting the long boot goodbye, either.

Of course there's more. Both players had disciplinary issues under former coach Kelvin Sampson that caused them to miss games, and those issues were never revealed. So Dakich's sudden curb-kicking was seen by some last night as an administration cleaning house by using a surrogate lame-duck coach to do so; all the while Dakich gets coaching cred among Indiana's conservative faithful for clearing the team of troublemakers. It would have fulfilled all that nonsense that IU people -- and North Carolina people, and others -- believe about  their unique basketball "culture" and "doing things the right way." (Gag.) That would probably have made the most sense. But then there's this report, which claims both players are trying to maintain their eligibility and come back with a new coach. Maybe they're just engaging in a little wishful thinking. Or maybe they were told by the administration they'd have a second chance once IU completes its (equally embarrassing) coaching search.

If that's the case, it means at least one thing about Dan Dakich: the man has Sam Cassell-esque huevos. Onions, as Bill Raftery might say. To know, within a matter of weeks, that you will no longer be the coach at IU and to still kick IU's two most valuable players off the team, leaving the cupboard literally bare for whoever eventually decides they want to coach in this circus, well, those are balls that John Wayne could envy. Either Dakich is working on behalf of his administration in cleaning house, or he just don't give a motherflip. Either way, IU looks pretty stupid.

Related: Big Ten Basketball, Peculiarity