INDIANAPOLIS -- NCAA president Myles Brand and California coach Ben Braun were walking the streets of downtown Indianapolis on Monday night when the subject of missing Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy came up.

While not a member of the Baylor family of coaches, players and friends, Braun has a personal attachment to Dennehy. He watched the missing center play at a Bay Area high school, as well as on a local summer league team. He's not alone when it comes to being touched from afar by the potentially tragic situation.

	“	This could have happened anywhere, rural or in the cities. I don't know what the answer is. ... Things happen and it's unfortunate, but we can't control everything. ”
		— Kelvin Sampson, Oklahoma head coach

As coaches filed out of the National Association of Basketball Coaches meeting earlier Monday in Indianapolis, talk of Dennehy's disappearance crept into nearly every conversation. Each had heard the rumors about why Dennehy is missing, who might be involved and the theories that there is much more to the story.

Some knew Dennehy, others saw Carlton Dotson play in junior college, even more knew of incoming recruit Harvey Thomas and other Baylor players. Dotson, Thomas and the Baylor players were thrown around initially by the Waco police department as potential suspects before they rescinded those words and left only Dotson as a "person of interest," so far.

Most wouldn't speak on record about the ongoing investigation, but the majority of coaches said no matter how the saga ends, it has nothing to do with who a coach recruits, or from where, and it's unfair to throw blanket statements over junior college or four-year transfers. High school seniors could just as easily get into similar trouble.

"This could have happened anywhere, rural or in the cities," Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said. "I don't know what the answer is. We're such a reactive society. After the Oklahoma State plane crash, we had new rules (for charter flights). Things happen, and it's unfortunate, but we can't control everything."

Brand said this hard news story that has crept into the sports world shouldn't be categorized as a college basketball problem.

A number of the coaches are friends of the Baylor coaching staff and are concerned not only for head coach Dave Bliss' mental makeup, but for everyone involved on the Baylor campus. How the Bears recover in a basketball sense has taken a back seat during this unsettling time.

With the open recruiting period starting Tuesday, the majority of coaches in Indianapolis for the Nike camp believed the Baylor staff shouldn't be out on the road recruiting this week, and perhaps not even during the whole month of July while this story unfolds and Dennehy remains missing. As of Monday, there were no plans for the Baylor staff to leave Waco.

The Dennehy story resonates with every person involved in college basketball, if not simply for the sensational aspect of a missing person and the innuendo that follows a disappearance. Talk of guns, threats, possible teammate involvement and the overall lack of knowledge that something this serious could be going on inside a team hit home with every coach.

A player potentially involved in a homicide against another player, as stated by an informant in an affidavit related to the case, is the most shocking possible outcome. Players have been tragically killed, or shot, in off-campus incidents, but that aspect of the Dennehy case is as unique as it is unbelievable.

And it's the facts -- at least those known three weeks after Dennehy's disappearance -- that make this story even scarier for the populous in this sport.

New Kansas coach Bill Self said he doesn't see his team meetings ever being the same. If there are problems, coaches will look even closer at issues that concern players or staff members. Trust among teammates? It could be shattered. One coach, who didn't want to go on the record, said he got a call from a player saying he wondered if he really knew his teammates and that he better get to know them, their habits and essentially what they do in their free time.

Gun policies? A number of schools don't have any, simply because they never figured players would feel the need to own a firearm. Yes, Baylor has one and the school's players signed a code of conduct saying they wouldn't possess firearms. But, reportedly, it didn't stop Dennehy and Dotson from purchasing guns.

"Who should have a gun?" Memphis coach John Calipari said. "There shouldn't be guns on your team, even if you hunt or something like that."

Being in control, and now feeling so out of control, remains the hardest part of the Dennehy case to fathom for the Baylor staff. The Baylor coaches say Dennehy never indicated to them that he felt threatened. Dennehy's parents and friends say the opposite. None of their coaching colleagues, however, will criticize the Baylor staff's actions.

When asked what would they do if a player came into their office and said a teammate or someone else was threatening him, the dozen coaches ESPN.com talked to Monday in Indianapolis essentially said the same thing.

Each said he would investigate the matter by talking to the other teammate and asking around if anyone knew anything else. No coach said he would go to the police or call the player's parents based solely on a conversation about a threat.

Even if a player said the teammate had a gun, the coach would still go to the teammate and try to remove the gun from the situation. Again, none said they would call the police. The reason? Coaches are adamant that they can handle the situation on their own and don't want to run the risk of involving the authorities, which could lead to an embarrassing situation on campus and beyond.

But, again, this isn't a trend. At least that's the feeling coaches and players alike want to stress. They don't anticipate such a scenario happening again in the near future, but it has shaken the sport.

Coaches can't comprehend how Baylor will go through next season if Dennehy's disappearance remains unsolved. The comparisons to the Oklahoma State crash don't wash, since that tragedy was an accident. The Cowboys were able to go through the season by bonding together after the loss of 10 lives associated with the program.

"It's not anything based on college athletics as much as it is a young man," Calipari said. "I'm hoping the kid is missing and whacked-out and just not thinking right."

Hope is all Baylor and the sport can hang onto at this time. This story's ending, however, has the appearance of a crime and at least one coach said that if criminal actions do become known, Baylor's recovery will be worse than a program trying to recover from NCAA academic violations, like those at Minnesota, Fresno State and Georgia.

Academic fraud can scar a program, but a saga involving a missing person, the police, and, in the worst-case scenario, a homicide, may never fully heal.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.