"Bill, you've been on hold for an hour and 45 minutes and I'm telling you I'm not talking about Bud Adams today," Dakich said on the air one day last week. "I don't think he gets it. This is my show and we're going to talk about what I want to talk about."

A few minutes later, Bill finally hangs up.

It's a typical day, a typical Dakich exchange, and one of the reasons so many people tune in daily from noon to 3 p.m. to the "Dan Dakich Show" on WFNI-1070 AM.

That, and the fact you're never completely certain what you're going to hear.

"All of a sudden as we're coming back from a break, he'll launch into singing his version of 'Trashy Women' by the Confederate Railroad," said Kyle Knezevich, the shows producer. "He doesn't know much about country music, but he's always quick to break into song. Sometimes I think he believes it's a sports/music show."

It's his candor that has made the former Indiana University basketball player, assistant coach and interim head coach popular on local radio, and more recently, as a television analyst for ESPN and the Big Ten Network.

"I think the reason ESPN was so attracted to Dan is that he's the guy right next to you in the arena or on the bar stool," said Dave O'Brien, Dakich's play-by-play partner on ESPN Super Tuesday broadcasts. "He just sounds like Big Ten basketball and that's hard to get in our business. When you turn on a game and you have an analyst whose voice and presence and honesty and integrity really connect you to a conference, that's really lightning in a bottle. And that's what we've got with Dan.

"He's the guy next door, but he just happens to know a lot more basketball."

There was a time the only thing Dakich saw himself doing in life was coaching basketball. He was an assistant under Bob Knight for 12 seasons after playing four years for the legendary coach. Dakich then spent 10 seasons as the head coach at Bowling Green, and was the interim IU coach when Kelvin Sampson was fired late in the 2007-08 season.