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Leach may return Jan. 3

Indiana University basketball coach Mike Davis has targeted the Hoosiers' Jan.3 game against Temple for the return of injured center George Leach.

Leach, a 6-foot-11 senior, hasn't played since injuring the patella tendon in his left knee in Indiana's Nov.29 overtime win against Xavier.

He no longer needs crutches, and he said he feels better, although he has not yet been cleared to practice.

"It's just normal soreness right now," Leach said. "It's coming along pretty good."

Davis said that if Leach is unable to return, IU may look into obtaining Leach a medical redshirt. Leach sat out the 1999-2000 season as a redshirt, but Davis cited other examples of sixth-year seniors, like Northwestern's Evan Eschmeyer.

"If George is unable to play for us early in conference play, there's no need to try and play him," Davis said.

Hardy update

James Hardy, a 6-foot-6 swingman from Fort Wayne, Ind., was the only one of the Hoosiers' five verbal commitments not to sign a letter of intent in the early signing period. Hardy, who is also one of the state's best wide receivers, wanted to see whether he could also play football for the Hoosiers.

Apparently, he can. IU football coach Gerry DiNardo personally met with Hardy to offer a football scholarship. Football's signing period doesn't begin until Feb.4. Had Hardy signed with basketball first and still wanted to play football, NCAA regulations stipulate that he sit out football his first two years at IU.

"He's looking forward to playing both," said Roosevelt Norfleet, Hardy's guardian and Elmhurst High football coach.

Internet strikes again

A Purdue signing story posted on a satirical Web site unfortunately made its way into the mainstream press. The fake story told of a guidance counselor who mistakenly had a 5-foot-6 honors student named Jason Smith sign a letter of intent to Purdue. It went on to say the Boilermakers had intended for a 6-foot-6 basketball player, also named Jason Smith, at the same school.

The San Diego Union-Tribune posted the fake story on its Web site. The story originally was posted on http://www.hoosiergazette.com,/ which adds the tag line "Indiana's source for inaccurate news and commentary since 2003."

Josh Whicker, 29, wrote the story under a pen name in November. It didn't garner major attention until Fark.com, a Web site known for quirky news stories, posted the story on Tuesday.

Whicker, a social studies teacher at Floyd Central High School, said he received an e-mail message from ESPN to verify the story and a call from the Jimmy Kimmel show on ABC and other national media.

"The only reason I picked Purdue was because we already had an IU story," he said. "I've got nothing against Purdue."

Purdue assistant athletics director Jay Cooperider said that he was a fan of National Lampoon-type satire, but he added Whicker should have added more disclaimers throughout his story so that it would not be misinterpreted.

Cooperider added that he received inquiries about the story, but Purdue "didn't want to dignify it" by issuing a news brief.

Following Knight's commands

Iowa coach Steve Alford is 0-2 against his former coach and mentor Bobby Knight. The two will square off again on Monday when the Hawkeyes play Texas Tech at American Arena in Dallas.

Instead of playing on the respective campuses, Iowa and Tech signed up to play a home-and-home at neutral sites. The Red Raiders will play Iowa in Chicago's United Center next season.

As for continuing the series?

"Like I've always done, I'll just do what coach Knight says," Alford said. "We'll see where it goes from there."

Amaker sends message

Michigan sophomores Daniel Horton and Lester Abram were surprisingly benched before the Wolverines played Bowling Green on Saturday. Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said the move was purely motivational.

"Sometimes it's important to take a little different approach," he said. "They weren't doing what we needed to get done."

Horton, a point guard, has struggled through the first six games. He has shot just 34percent from the field and has 22 turnovers to just 16 assists.

"He'd be the first to tell you that he hadn't been playing well this year," Amaker said. "We need him to be our leader and quarterback and take care of the basketball."

Amaker said he expected both players to work their way back into the starting lineup. An additional change to the starting lineup came Wednesday when Chris Hunter underwent arthroscopic knee surgery. Hunter, who has started the first five games, will be out indefinitely.

Indiana (4-3)
		Avg												Avg
	G-GS	Min	FG-A	Pct.	3FG-A	Pct.	FT-A	Pct.	Reb	Ast.	TO	Blk	Stl	Pts
Bracey Wright	7-7	37.7	45-102	.441	18-47	.383	40-49	.816	45	16	24	5	6	21.1
M. Strickland	7-7	35.0	21-61	.344	8-29	.276	14-17	.824	25	22	17	1	8	9.1
A.J. Moye	7-2	29.6	18-42	.429	0-6	.000	24-32	.750	36	8	14	1	0	8.6
Sean Kline	7-7	26.0	20-39	.513	0-2	.000	15-21	.714	41	4	14	4	0	7.9
Donald Perry	7-3	24.6	13-28	.464	7-16	.438	13-17	.765	9	16	8	0	4	6.6
Rod Wilmont	7-2	12.3	10-37	.270	3-17	.176	2-4	.500	26	2	6	1	3	3.6
George Leach	3-3	24.3	9-21	.429	0-0	.000	6-10	.600	8	2	3	6	1	8.0
Pat Ewing Jr.	7-2	10.9	7-16	.438	1-1	1.000	6-9	.667	20	2	9	5	4	3.0
Mike Roberts	7-2	8.0	3-6	.500	0-2	.000	3-4	.750	9	1	3	1	0	1.3
Ryan Tapak	3-0	13.7	3-6	.500	2-4	.500	0-1	.000	3	4	2	1	1	2.7
J. Gray-Ashley	4-0	5.0	2-3	.667	0-1	.000	0-0	.000	1	0	3	0	0	1.0
Mark Johnson	2-0	1.5	0-1	.000	0-1	.000	0-0	.000	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
Total	7	1425	151-362	.417	39-126	.310	123-164	.750	254	77	103	25	31	66.3
Opponents	7	1425	174-421	.413	41-114	.360	101-135	.748	247	92	80	27	49	70.0

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