There is some irony surrounding Iowa’s success.
Hawkeyes coach Steve Alford admits he didn’t earn All-America honors as an Indiana guard for the way he played defense. Yet his poor-shooting team has fought its way to the top of the Big Ten on defense. And Alford isn’t taking credit for the way No. 18 Iowa (18-5, 7-2) plays it.
“I played for my father (Sam) and coach [Bob] Knight and these are guys who stressed defense,” said Alford, whose Hawkeyes play Wednesday night at Northwestern. “They would be the first to tell you I didn’t listen near as much to them at that end as I did at the other end. When you end up getting into the profession, then you learn how important that end is.
“Nothing that we’re doing this year, in my mind, is anything that I’m doing. This is a group of guys that has gotten older, matured in the Big Ten Conference. They’re stronger and they understand the benefits that go into defending. It’s really a credit to what our players are doing.”
Alford’s team, which starts native Iowans Greg Brunner (Charles City), Adam Haluska (Carroll), Mike Henderson (Waterloo) and Jeff Horner (Mason City), is first in the Big Ten in field-goal percentage defense (.380) and third in scoring defense (59.8). Iowa senior center Erek Hansen of Bedford, Texas, leads the conference in blocked shots with almost three per game.
The Big Ten season, though, is far from over and Iowa will have to play well down the stretch to stay in contention.
Northwestern has not been a pleasant destination for the Hawkeyes, who have lost four of their last five games in Evanston, the last two in the final second. Iowa plays four of its next five games on the road and knows the importance of winning at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
“For whatever reason, those types of things happen,” Alford said. “We have a veteran group. We have to go up there and change that. That’s the focus right now, to go up and make something different happen.”
Alford, who received a long-term contract to replace Tom Davis, had hopes of taking Iowa basketball to another level.
Some would say the Hawkeyes have fallen a level under Alford, whose teams had a 41-55 conference record going into this season.
Interest in Iowa basketball also had dropped in his first six years. Average attendance at Carver-Hawkeye Arena fell to 11,901 last season, the lowest since the facility opened in 1983. High student ticket prices, injuries, player suspensions (two involving Westmont’s Pierre Pierce) and defections and an almost annual January meltdown drove interest down.
This season has been different.
There have been no apparent problems and the team has been winning. Alford has matured as a coach and fans and students are starting to come back. Iowa has won a school-record 15 straight home games and Carver-Hawkeye Arena once again is a tough place for visiting teams to play. There was a sellout of 15,500 for Saturday’s big victory over Michigan.
“The past three years have been tough,” Brunner said. “I think that it has picked up 10 levels. Our students are amazing, they’re having fun with us. I’m happy it happened my senior year because I get to go out with a bang.”
The Hawkeyes, despite shooting 65 percent in their 94-66 rout of Michigan, are last in the Big Ten in field-goal percentage at .425. But they’re now running their offense well. They had 27 assists and 32 baskets against the Wolverines.
“At the beginning of the year, it was like there was a lid on the basket,” said Brunner, the Big Ten’s leading rebounder at 10.1 per game. “I think we’re more comfortable and more confident. We’re starting to have that cohesiveness. Look at our passing [Saturday], the way we moved the ball. We threw it around like it was on a string and that creates open shots.”
One of the reasons for Iowa’s improved offense has been the return of Horner, a four-year starter. The Big Ten assists leader, with 6.32 per game, missed four games early in the season with a knee injury. The 6-foot-3-inch guard also is the school’s career three-point leader and is on pace to finish his career with 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists.
When Horner returned, he had a large brace on his left leg and struggled with his shot. But against Purdue he dumped the brace and had a career-high 32 points. Horner is 15 of 25 from the field in the last two games and shared Big Ten player-of-the-week honors with Ohio State’s Je’Kel Foster.
“It feels great,” Horner said of his team’s shooting in the Michigan game. “I knew it would come around sooner or later with the kind of shooters and players we have. We did a good job [Saturday] and need to do the same thing Wednesday. We need to pick up our defense. It was lacking the last couple of games.”
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rhanley@tribune.com
