Indiana Univ. officials yesterday said that they "expect to play the rest of the school's home basketball games at Assembly Hall after an eight-foot piece of metal fell from the ceiling a day earlier, forcing postponement of that night's men's game against Iowa," according to Zach Osterman of the INDIANAPOLIS STAR. IU AD Fred Glass said that engineers "confirmed the preliminary assessment that a buildup of snow, ice and water caused a metal plate to fall." Glass said that engineers "found 'two or three' other plates that were loose but not close to falling." He added engineers "are confident that they will be able to completely assess and ... fix the plating and give us a 100 percent all clear. They're confident in the integrity of the structure of the roof itself." The IU men's team has home games remaining against Iowa, Ohio State (March 2) and Nebraska (March 5). The women's game against Michigan last night "went on as scheduled at Assembly Hall with the unsafe corners of the building cordoned off to fans" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 2/20). The DETROIT NEWS notes IU last month announced Cindy Simon Skjodt was donating $40M "to help renovate the facility, which will be renamed" the Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Among the planned changes "are a new entryway, remodeled bathrooms and concession stands, and a big, new video scoreboard along with box seats above the south baseline bleachers." But "none of the proposed renovations involved the metal plates" (DETROIT NEWS, 2/20).
