Looking to add some size as March Madness approaches, the Indiana men’s basketball team has turned to school’s football roster for help.
In a press release Wednesday, IU hoops coach Tom Crean announced that Jordan Fuchs has been added to his Hoosier team. Fuchs’ “other job” is as a tight end for the football Hoosiers.
Fuchs suffered an injury in the season finale this past November, which, along with the rehab, prevented him from joining Crean’s squad sooner.
“Jordan is someone we’ve been aware of for some time now and had he not gotten injured in the Purdue game and had to recover from that we would have brought over to evaluate earlier,” Crean said in a statement. “We worked with him since last week and with Coach Wilson’s blessing we are adding Jordan at this time. He has considerable basketball experience and brings size, athleticism, toughness and a tremendous competitive attitude.”
The 6-6, 230-pound Fuchs was a standout basketball player at Chris the King High School in New York, and held basketball scholarship offers from, among others, Dayton, Fordham, Iowa State, Columbia and Rutgers. The Indianapolis Star wrote that “Fuchs took up football as a way to toughen up and increase his athleticism, but took to the sport,” adding “he wound up choosing football over basketball and spent a season at Milford Academy in New England to gain more experience at his position.”
As a freshman last season, Fuchs caught three passes for 31 yards and a touchdown. He played in all 12 of IU’s games.
(Photo credit: Indiana athletics)