The Cubs agreed to terms with four more First-Year Player Draft picks by Monday's 11 p.m. CT deadline, including seventh-round pick Benjamin Wells and ninth-round selection Kevin Rhoderick.

Carlos Silva threw 25 pitches in the bullpen on Monday, the first time he's thrown off a mound since undergoing a cardiac ablation one week ago to correct an abnormal heart rate, and was close to making a Minor League rehab start.

Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee had an injection in the epidural of his lower back to ease discomfort from a bulging disk and was expected to be sidelined two to three days.

Today's press conference at Conseco Fieldhouse introduced next year's inaugural matchups in the Crossroads Classic. Indiana will face Notre Dame in the first game of the Dec. 17 doubleheader, followed by Purdue against Butler. In 2012, IU will play Butler and Purdue will face Notre Dame in games on Dec. 15.

But after the press conference, I asked Fred Glass about something I had heard regarding why IU was playing Notre Dame in 2011. Glass then confirmed that the reason IU will face the Irish is that the Hoosiers are in negotiations with Butler already to play the Bulldogs in a 2011 non-conference game. Glass said he wasn't sure what the format would be but that he was hopeful that IU and Butler would play next season. I've heard they may be part of a exempt event that would include two games on campus and then a game or two some place else, much like the arrangement IU has with the Las Vegas Tournament this December. The only catch there for Butler is that the Bulldogs are already slated to play an exempt event in 2011 at the Chicago Invitational.

So what that means is that IU could be playing pretty much a tour of state schools in 2011. The Hoosiers already have dates scheduled with Notre Dame, Purdue and Evansville, and Butler may also join the list. That would be the most state schools IU has faced since Kelvin Sampson's first year in 2006-07 when the Hoosiers played Butler, Indiana State, IUPUI, Ball State and Purdue.

Follow Terry Hutchens at twitter.com/indystar_hutch

Candidates for the job of managing the Chicago Cubs in 2011 can be conveniently divided into two groups: Ryne Sandberg and everyone else. And what Sandberg lacks in managerial experience, he certainly makes up for.

Purdue athletic director Morgan Burke fondly remembers his childhood days, when he looked forward to Indiana's basketball powers coming together during the holiday season. Thanks in part to his persuasive skills, Burke will no longer have to rely on his memory. Indiana's four top college basketball programs will come together for the new Crossroads Classic in 2011 and 2012 at Conseco...

Ever since news of Broad Ripple standout Ron Patterson's decision earlier today to commit to IU in the class of 2012, with Star recruiting guru Kyle Neddenriep out in front with the story , IU basketball fans have wondered what exactly does this commit mean for IU basketball moving forward?

In a word, it's huge. Patterson was a four-star recruit, ranked No. 65 overall by rivals.com in the class of 2012 and the No. 10 ranked shooting guard in the country. He said he chose IU over offers from Tennessee, Cincinnati, Xavier, Miami (Fla.) and Virginia Tech. He also was reported to have offers from Purdue, Illinois and Iowa, and had been getting interest this summer from other Big Ten programs such as Michigan and Minnesota.

And he's the highest ranked kid from the state of Indiana to opt to attend IU in the Tom Crean era of the program.

But the commitment is huge because Crean has his foot in the door with a very talented Indiana high school class of 2012, one that is loaded and one where IU has several other targets. The Hoosiers still have three scholarships to give in the class if you include their ability to oversign by one.

There are four other Indianapolis-area kids ranked in the top 35 in the class of 2012 that are all considering IU. Gary Harris, from Hamilton Southeastern, is ranked No. 16. D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, from North Central, is ranked No. 21, Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell, from Park Tudor, is ranked No. 22 and Jeremy Hollowell, from Lawrence Central, is ranked No. 35. And that's not counting 6-8 power forward Hanner Perea, the No. 13 ranked player in the class, who has narrowed his choices to Indiana and Baylor.

Patterson and Hollowell are good friends, and Patterson vowed Sunday to continue to recruit his buddy. Hollowell is believed to have Ohio State and IU as his favorites and Patterson's commitment certainly can't hurt the Hoosiers.

But here's where I think Patterson's commitment is particularly big. With three slots left, and two having been filled in the last six days, there's no question that the ball is now rolling for Crean in this class. The next commitment is the biggest one. And it's not so much who that player is but more what the domino effect will be when the next guy commits. All of sudden with just two spots left, and several players interested in being a part of a high-ranked class I would think you could see a couple of other players commit pretty quickly. We just saw that with the Michigan State class, and Indiana could easily follow in suit.

While there's no question that IU's pursuit of Cody Zeller in the class of 2011 is still Job No. 1, a couple of more big time commitments in the class of 2012 could certainly paint a brighter future for IU basketball.

Follow Terry Hutchens at twitter.com/indystar_hutch

Looking for their first series win in six tries, the Cubs exploded for six runs in the fourth inning Sunday and held on late for a 9-7 victory over the Cardinals.

After blasting solo home runs in his first two at-bats Sunday, Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee was removed from the game with lower back stiffness.

Alfonso Soriano's name was absent from the lineup card for the second day in a row Sunday, but both Cubs manager Lou Piniella and Soriano said it was for normal rest and had nothing to do with injury.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella announced Sunday that Thomas Diamond's turn in the rotation Wednesday was being handed off to Casey Coleman.

After struggling all season in one-run games, the Cubs came through with the clutch plays that they needed to upend the Cardinals, 3-2, on Saturday afternoon at Busch Stadium.

Third baseman Aramis Ramirez, who sat out the previous three games with a left oblique strain, returned to the lineup Saturday and homered in his first at-bat.

Carlos Silva, who underwent a procedure to regulate his heartbeat earlier this week, is recovering well but will need at least one Minor League rehab start before returning to the Cubs.

I continue to hear interesting tidbits about what the schedule is going to look like. I reported in this space earlier in the week that Florida Gulf Coast will be IU's home opener but we don't know the date as of yet. Per the Wright State website, it is one of IU's non-conference November opponents so there's another school. And Evansville, where IU will open the Purple Aces' new downtown arena next season, is also a team IU will play in the non-conference schedule this year.

Beyond that, we know about road games at Kentucky and Boston College in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, and we know about a tournament in Las Vegas that will have home games at Assembly Hall on Dec. 17 and Dec. 19, and then two games in Vegas at the Orleans on Dec. 22 and 23.

Here's the next interesting tidbit I have come across in speaking with people with knowledge of what the schedule will look like. In the past, there have been years where the Big Ten has had a game before the New Year. Generally the games have been on New Year's Eve. IU play at Iowa on New Year's Eve several years ago, and last year played on New Year's Eve as well. This year's schedule will feature two Big Ten games before the New Year. One, I have heard will be on Dec. 27 and another on Dec. 31.

This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it. If they're home games, and I think for IU that may be the case, that would mean two more games played when the students are not on campus. When you have 7,000 seats committed to students that can mean a lot of empty seats but it can also mean an opportunity for more people over the holidays to be able to attend games they normally wouldn't be able to attend. My guess is that in either case, IU will get a good crowd there but it might not be the 17,000 plus you would get once the students are back on campus.

Hopefully, the entire schedule will be out early this week and we won't have to speculate on opponents and dates any longer.

Follow Terry Hutchens at twitter.com/indystar_hutch

Today was the first day of two-a-days and the morning practice was open to the media. The afternoon practice was supposed to be a scrimmage but that is closed. So here's what we found out in the morning practice that was held under some welcome cloudy skies and much cooler temperatures.

Two players have now suffered torn ligaments in their thumbs in the first week of camp and both will require surgery. The latest was tight end Charles Love III, a redshirt sophomore from Memphis, Tenn. The other, which happened early in the week, was true freshman wide receiver Kofi Hughes from Cathedral. In both cases, the injury isn't expected to keep the player out long term.

Tandon Doss saw limited work Saturday as he continues to nurse a pulled groin injury. He said he suffered the injury when he opened up to the ball awkwardly on a corner route. Darius Willis and Antonio Banks, both running backs with hamstring injuries, also did not participate Saturday morning.

In another note, Andrew Pimentel, a former quarterback from Cathedral who had been moved to safety in the spring, has decided not to play football. He was a redshirt sophomore who sat out the 2008 season, and didn't see any action as a freshman last year. He was the Scout team player of the week following the Michigan game.

The players were in shoulder pads and shorts on Saturday morning but would be in full pads for the scrimmage.

Here's a couple of excerpts from the post practice interview session with IU head coach Bill Lynch.

(Talk about what you hope to get out of today's scrimmage?)
"I think the importance of today's scrimmage is to start clarifying the depth chart. And we've really made a commitment to playing our 3's the same amount as our 1's over the first week. I think it builds depth and it saves the legs a little bit of the 1's. It's a long camp and we want it to be productive from start to finish. And I think we've found some young guys as a result. Whether they can play or not, I don't know, but at least they can compete in the scrimmages so we'll see. For the most part everybody should get a good number of reps.''

(What positions right now are you seeing the most competition for starting spots?)
"O-Line and the secondary, no question. And it's good competition. Inside on the offensive line we've got some guards and centers that are really competing. At the left tackle spot it's very competitive. James Brewer, I have to admit, has the right tackle spot locked down. I think we have good competition at tight end and we're starting to see good competition at running back. On defense, with the secondary, we've really improved ourselves there. We have more guys that can play in more spots. So the scrimmages will be very important for those guys.''

(Talk about which of the true freshmen have really stepped up?)
"Good question. Some guys have had more opportunities than others. I'll tell you, Kofi Hughes was pretty impressive until he hurt his thumb. But he'll be back out there before long. But he's been pretty impressive. Matt Perez has been impressive. I think both wideouts, Logan Young and Tim O'Conner have had a lot of reps and they're good football players. On the defensive side, Harrison Scott. We brought him in thinking he would be a defensive end but we've moved him inside. He's a pretty active guy. Same with all the linebackers. It's just they haven't had as many reps because of the numbers. But Ishmael Thomas and Chase Hoobler and Matt Zakrzewski, that group has some talent. And then in the secondary, the young guys again, we've had so much competition. Because of that Drew Hardin and Brian Williams haven't had quite as many reps as the older guys. But I think it's a really good group of freshmen. There is a one that we're really sitting here wondering about. It's just some have had more of a chance than others because of the depth chart.''

(Can you talk about the kicking game and how that is playing out?)
"Hagerup is the punter and he's worked hard over the summer. He has punted very well. You can tell he has put his work in. The placekicking is competitive. We're charting every kick of Mitch Ewald and Nick Freeland, and they've been very, very similar. Obviously Nick has the year of experience under his belt but they're really competing.''

Follow Terry Hutchens at twitter.com/indystar_hutch

Very little has been heard regarding Ron Felling since the former IU basketball assistant was fired by Bob Knight in 1999 after Knight overheard Felling being critical of the coach and his behavior in a phone conversation with Dan Dakich that Knight happened to pick up on another extension. Later, Felling sued Knight for a physical confrontation after the firing where Felling said Knight pushed him into a television set in the coach's offices at Assembly Hall. Knight settled the case in 2002 by paying Felling $25,000 and admitting he shoved the former assistant in anger after hearing Felling's critical words.

Beyond that, I haven't seen or heard much about coach Felling, who had always been a good quote in the days covering IU when Knight didn't have much to say to the media.

So imagine my surprise Saturday morning at the IU football practice fields when I looked up to see Ron Felling standing with a few friends on the sidelines and observing IU football practice. On Thursday, he had stopped by and received a tour of the new Cook Hall basketball development facility. I caught up with Felling at the end of practice and here's a few excerpts from that interview. Some of what he said I may be saving for a later story.

Felling said he now lives in Hot Springs, Ark. on Lake Hamilton. He said he was in Bloomington for a few days as his wife lives here, and he still has a house in Bloomington that he's trying to sell.

(I understand you visited the new Cook Hall this week. What were your impressions?)
"It's a fantastic place. I can't believe they would build something that good. And I really liked the fact that the men's and women's facilities were separate and yet they still have the same equipment and everything else the same.''

He also couldn't resist a little dig.
"I probably shouldn't say this but I can't believe they built a place that nice next to a place they should tear down.''

(Have you followed IU basketball over the years?)
"I've followed it some. I still have an interest in it, it's just that we don't get all of the games in Hot Springs. And usually in the winter time I'm in Florida so I don't see a lot of it. What I have seen I think we have a good chance of obviously improving and maybe making a dent in the Big Ten. I know coach Crean is very optimistic but now it's going to have to be played out on the floor. I know we need some more of an inside presence. We seem to have a lot of 3-point shooters with Hulls and Maurice Creek and Roth. I really like Verdell Jones III and what he has turned into as a point guard. I commented when I first saw him as a freshman and he was playing point guard and didn't have the experience but I said it was going to be hard to beat him out because he's so long. He has gotten very adept at penetrating and now that he has that turn around jump shot from medium range he has become very good. I think they have a good perimeter team, now we just have to see how we stack up against some of the bigger kids from the other schools.''

(Do you miss coaching?)
"I do but I've lost pretty much all the vision in my left eye. I have three aneurysms or bleeds on my left retina. I used to have about 12 camps a summer and teach shooting but now it's so embarrassing because my depth perception is all messed up. So, I just had to hang it up.''

(What was it like driving through Indianapolis this week and hearing Dakich on the radio?)
"It was different. I heard Danny's show for the first time (Friday) and I thought he did a great job. He's very enthusiastic and very knowledgeable and I thought he did a terrific job. But that was the first time I had heard him because I just haven't been back in this area.''

(Is it hard to believe that it has been over 10 years since you were coaching at IU?)
"That's very hard to believe. I have some great memories of this place and the people. Just being here today there were several people that I haven't seen in a long time and it was good to see them again.''

Follow Terry Hutchens at www.twitter.com/indystar_hutch

A lack of offense and another rough start for Thomas Diamond put the Cubs in an early hole they couldn't climb out of Friday night, and the North Siders fell, 6-3, to the the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.