As students return to campus with weight gained from the holidays, the University Student Recreation Complex will likely be full of activity. But a popular exercise option remains unavailable this semester — basketball.Nearly five months after UREC basketball courts were closed because of damages from Hurricane Gustav, they have yet to be repaired and are looking at completion in the fall.The buckled gym floors expose the bare concrete below, and, although the progress is visible, questions have still risen about exactly when development will take place. “That process is in progress right now,” said Tricia Milford-Hoyt, University Recreation assistant director of marketing and  membership. “We expect [the courts] to be reopened sometime in the fall of 2009.”The process Milford-Hoyt referred to is controlled by the state of Louisiana. Because the damage to the courts is an insurance claim, repairs lie in the state’s hands, which means it must go through an intricate and lengthy process, Milford-Hoyt said.UREC’s architect, who was assigned in November, has been working to prepare a list of what needs repairing to bring to the state. Once the list is complete, there will be a review process, then a bid process, then a contract process. At this point, construction will begin. “It’s going to take some time,” said Michael Giles, Jr., University Recreation associate director of operations and project management. “Unfortunately, right now we’re still just in the architectural phase of the design of what needs to take place. We’re looking at mid-June before construction actually even begins.”The state-appointed architectural firm provided a general timeline, indicating that court construction should be completed by Oct. 12, 2009. But Giles said University Recreation cannot promise anything more specific than “fall 2009.”In the meantime, outdoor “basketball courts” have been set up to accommodate displaced indoor basketball users. The temporary courts are relined tennis courts with basketball hoops.Although some University students don’t mind the outdoor accommodations, others, like John Borner, business management junior, have stopped playing basketball altogether.”I don’t like the outdoor courts,” Borner said. “It doesn’t feel like I’m playing real basketball like in the gym.”Administrators said they want the courts to be up just as badly as UREC members do.”We would have friends of students that would drive in and pay the $10 guest fee just to play [indoor] basketball at LSU … right now we don’t have that,” Milford-Hoyt said.  But administrators remain optimistic about the construction’s completion.”Our goal is to, obviously, push this project as early into fall as possible,” Giles said. “We want it as close to school starting … as we can get.”—-Contact Natalie Roy at [email protected]