Steve Alford never made excuses as an All-American guard at Indiana. And he’s not about to start now that his Iowa Hawkeyes have lost star guard Luke Recker to a broken kneecap.
Faced with the loss of his top scorer, Alford looked to his bench for help, and the bench has responded. In its first game without Recker, Iowa got 12 points from Ryan Hogan in a 64-55 win over Minnesota at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. And point guard Brody Boyd scored six points and dished out three assists in 25 turnover-free minutes.
“Now they’re going to be asked to step up their roles,” Alford said. “I think they’re ready. We’ll see. We’re 3-0 without Luke.”
Recker leads the team with 18.1 points per game. “He’s our second-leading rebounder as well,” Alford said. “Most people don’t realize. Obviously, those are big numbers that you lose. He’s a guy that, late in the game, you know you can go to take a big shot. He’s pulled us out of a lot of games already this year. You lose that Big Ten leadership that he gives you on the floor.”
The scoring load may fall to power forward Reggie Evans, a junior transfer from Coffeyville Community College in Kansas. Evans’ nickname is “Joker,” but he’s all business on the floor.
“With Recker out now, Reggie Evans is going to have to carry them,” Minnesota coach Dan Monson said.
Boiling mad: Purdue coach Gene Keady was ready to conduct open tryouts in Mackey Arena after a 72-55 whipping at Michigan State on Sunday. “After our game yesterday, all starting positions are open,” Keady told reporters Monday. “You want to try? We’re starting over, except for Willie Dean. He might start. We have no clue.”
If Keady sounds desperate, it’s only because the Boilermakers (13-7, 5-4), who came within a game of the Final Four last spring, aren’t a lock for the NCAA tournament. A .500 conference finish generally guarantees an NCAA berth for Big Ten teams, but if the Boilermakers go 8-8 they still might need a win in the Big Ten tournament.
“We’ve never gone 0-8 on the back eight” of the Big Ten regular-season schedule, Keady said. “It’s very much in the back of the coaches’ minds. [To be in the NCAA] we’ve got to get one this week.”
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Free throws: Speaking on the Big Ten coaches teleconference this week, Monson summed up the Golden Gophers’ week: “We had tough losses against Iowa and … shoot, I can’t remember who we played. Ohio State. You try to get them out of your mind.”… Michigan State coach Tom Izzo on the Big Ten MVP race: “I think it’s the strangest race that we’ve had in the last couple years. I’m not sure anybody’s really just stepped up to secure and take over that spot.” Speaking before MSU played at Illinois on Tuesday night, Izzo said he liked Fighting Illini star Frank Williams. Other coaches said the race might depend on which team wins the league, with Michigan State guard Charlie Bell and swingman Jason Richardson earning mentions along with Iowa’s Dean Oliver Northwestern went into Tuesday night’s game against Minnesota trying to remove itself from a select group. The Wildcats are among only seven Division I schools that have yet to win a conference game. The others are Chicago State of the Mid-Continent Conference; St. Mary’s (Calif.) of the West Coast; Sacramento State of the Big Sky; Texas A&M of the Big 12; Buffalo and Eastern Michigan of the Mid-American. Northwestern has defeated Buffalo, which should count for something.