Around The Game

Basketball announces non-conference schedule\nThe men's basketball non-conference schedule was announced this week with games at the Great Alaska Shootout, the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and the Orange Bowl Classic in Miami, Florida. \nThe Hoosiers will open the season at UNC-Charlotte, November 18 and three days later will join Alaska-Anchorage, Gonzaga, Marquette, Oregon State, St. John's, Tennessee and Texas in the Alaska Shootout November 21-24. \nIU will also participate in the Big Ten/ ACC Challenge for the first time in the school's history. The date, opponent and location is expected to be announced by the Big Ten office in late May.\nThe Hoosiers will also compete in six games in the state of Indiana, facing Ball State, Notre Dame and Louisville at Assembly Hall, Kentucky at the Hoosier Dome and the Hoosier Classic at Conseco Fieldhouse with Butler, East Washington and Samford.\nIU will play a pair of exhibition games at Assembly Hall in early November against Athletes in Action and Marathon Oil. The Indiana Classic was dropped from the schedule.\nThe Big Ten schedule is expected to be released by the conference in late July. Game times and television scheduling for all games will be released in conjunction with the Big Ten schedule in late July.\nCoaches to speak at Big Ten\nCredit Union Conference\nWomen's basketball coach Kathy Bennett, men's soccer coach Jerry Yeagley and volleyball coach Katie Weismiller are scheduled to speak at the Big Ten Credit Union Conference in the Memorial Union. \nThe three coaches will participate in a panel presentation at the opening session Saturday. Representatives from all Big Ten Schools are scheduled to attend. \nOther featured speakers scheduled to attend the conference is Morton Marcus, professor of economics for the Kelley School of Business and director of the Indiana Business Research Center, and IU alumni, writer and producer, Angelo Pizzo.\nGrand Rapids won't pursue basketball tournament\nGrand Rapids came within about 750 tickets this year of setting the attendance record for the Big Ten women's basketball tournament, but organizers apparently won't pursue the event for 2003, the next year that it's available.\nThe tournament was held in Indianapolis from 1995 through 2000. Scheduling conflicts prevented this year's event from being held there, so it was moved to Grand Rapids. Local organizers received only a one-year commitment from the Big Ten, however, because the event will return to Indianapolis in 2002.\nBig Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said the local committee promised sellout crowds at the Grand Rapids event but didn't get them.\n"The final attendance figures were good, but they were a far cry from the 40,000 that had been predicted," Delany told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Wednesday.