Staff and Associated Press reports

Marquette's Tom Crean is the focus of the Buckeyes' hunt for a new coach, according to Andy Katz of ESPN.com.

A source told the Web site that athletic director Andy Geiger told Texas Tech coach Bob Knight, an Ohio State alum and a fan favorite for the job, on Thursday that the program had decided to take another direction with its coaching search. The source also said Knight would have accepted the job had it been offered.

• The woman whose lawsuit led to the firing of Jim O'Brien as coach said assistant Paul Biancardi told her to ask professors to change a former player's grades.

Kathleen Salyers is suing Dan and Kim Roslovic for more than $600,000, charging that they promised to pay her to let Buckeyes player Boban Savovic live in her home.

Biancardi told Salyers that Savovic would go to prison and he would be beaten if he were sent home to Yugoslavia, she said.

An attorney for O'Brien and Biancardi disputed the allegations.

LA SALLE: Police were investigating a rape accusation against two members of the basketball team and also were investigating an allegation of an attack by another player more than a year ago. No charges were filed in either case.

ARKANSAS: Moe Hargrow, who transferred from Minnesota during the 2002-03 season, has been released from his scholarship by the Razorbacks. Arkansas coach Stan Heath said Hargrow "is facing several challenges in his life that are non-basketball-related."