Around the Game

Panaggio heads to Portland Trailblazers\nIU men's basketball assistant coach Dan Panaggio is leaving Bloomington to join the Portland Trailblazers as a member of new head coach Maurice Cheeks' staff. Panaggio spent one year in Bloomington on Mike Davis' staff after Davis picked Panaggio when he assumed the head coaching duties last September.\nPanaggio spent nine seasons as the head coach of the Quad City Thunder in the CBA. He owned a career record of 313-191 with the Thunder and won a CBA championship in both 1994 and 1998 and is just one of five CBA coaches with more than one title. All nine of his teams advanced to the CBA playoffs.\nCheeks was Panaggio's aide with Quad City during the 1993-94 season.\n"It's a great opportunity and it's a great opportunity to work with somebody that I consider such a good friend. That's meaningful to me," Panaggio said in a press release.\nDavis plans on looking for a new assistant after the recruiting period of July 8-14.\n"Right now I am spending all of my time on the road recruiting, trying to put together an exceptional class for next season," Davis said.\nStar guard coming to IU in fall 2002\nReports are saying that South Carroll High School in Maryland senior Marshall Strickland has given Indina basketball coach Mike Davis a verbal commitment to enroll at Indiana in fall 2002 and join the Hoosiers. \nThe 6'1" guard averaged over 30 points and four assists during his junior year at South Carroll. Strickland was in Indiana last weekend playing at the Nike camp in Indianapolis. \nStrickland is one of four prep stars that IU is targeting in recruitment. The other three are Sean May -- son of former IU star Scott May -- of Bloomington, Bracey Wright of Carrollton, Texas and John Gilchrist, of Virginia Beach, VA.\nHaston signs with Charlotte Hornets\nThe Charlotte Hornets signed first-round draft pick Kirk Haston Tuesday.\nHaston, selected 16th overall in last month's draft out of Indiana, signed a $3.2 million, three-year contract in line with the NBA's rookie scale agreement.\n"Everything we've seen thus far about Kirk Haston has been impressive, on and off the court," Hornets vice president Bob Bass said. "We look forward to seeing him at training camp in October."\nHaston, who left IU after his junior season, was Charlotte's only pick in this year's draft. The 6-foot-10, 240-pound forward averaged 19 points and 8.7 rebounds last season. He shot 38 percent from 3-point range.