STARLIGHT, Ind. — Offseason practice rules prevent Tom Crean from seeing his players work out, but he’s heard good things about Derek Elston’s recovery from abdominal surgery.

Elston, who averaged 4.9 points and 3.7 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per game last season, is still rehabbing from the procedure, according to his coach. Crean said Elston was focused on returning to health and “trying to get his weight back up” once he did.

One of the Hoosiers’ most experienced low-post players following the transfer of Bobby Capobianco this spring, Elston clocks in at 6-foot-9, 235 pounds, and will likely be needed in concert with senior Tom Pritchard and incoming freshman Cody Zeller this season.

“He’s around, he’s definitely there,” Crean said. “I know he’s rehabbing and trying to get himself healthy, but I don’t think he’s been cleared to get back on the court and do a normal workout.”

Takeaways from Big Ten meetings

The Big Ten’s spring meetings made big news last week with the announcement that the conference was considering adding extra money to full athletic scholarships, to offset various incidental costs.

Crean said he hadn’t done enough research on the idea to form a hard opinion, but said he was “for anything that supports student-athletes.”

The issue perhaps at the forefront of Crean’s thinking from the Big Ten meetings was that of the future of the Big Ten basketball tournaments.

The Big Ten’s contract with the city of Indianapolis runs out after 2012, and speculation has suggested the event could move to Chicago in the future, at least intermittently.

“I absolutely see no reason, not only as the coach at Indiana, but from anything I’ve seen as a coach walking into that environment, that it shouldn’t stay there,” Crean said. “I’m hopeful that it does. I think any support that can be shown that is really good.”

Getting April back?

Crean also floated the idea of reopening the recently banished April recruiting period.

“In a perfect world, we get April back to recruit the tournaments,” he said. “We still have some time in July, but most importantly, we get to work with our players in the summer time.”

It is not an idea without merit, considering the number of AAU games played in the spring that now no longer seem as useful as they once did.