Feb. 26, 2004
Iowa Basketball Summer Sports Camps
Listen to today’s edition of Inside Iowa
Iowa (14-10, 7-6) hosts Minnesota (10-16, 2-12) Saturday, Feb. 28 in its final home game of the season. Game time is 3:37 p.m. in Carver-Hawkeye Arena (15,500). Iowa lost to Illinois 78-59 in Iowa City Wednesday, while Minnesota lost to Ohio State 70-59 Wednesday in Minneapolis. Iowa defeated Minnesota 83-68 when the teams met Jan. 13 in Minneapolis.
ON THE AIR
Radio: Iowa games are broadcast on the Hawkeye Radio Network. Gary Dolphin handles the play-by-play with color commentator Bob Hansen. Television: ESPN Regional will carry the game to a network of stations throughout the Big Ten Conference viewing area, including KGAN in Cedar Rapids. Larry Morgan and Bob Ford will call the action.
IOWA HISTORY
Iowa has played 2,305 games since beginning basketball in 1902. Overall Iowa’s record is 1,373-932 (.596). That includes an 857-303 (.739) record in home games, a 516-629 (.451) record in games away from Iowa City, a 655-643 (.505) mark in Big Ten games and a 263-77 (.774) record in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
IOWA IN CARVER-HAWKEYE ARENA
Iowa has compiled a 263-77 (.774) record in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa is 126-64 (.663) in Big Ten games and 137-13 (.913) in non-Big Ten games. Iowa has drawn over five million fans for men’s basketball games since the arena opened in 1983, surpassing the five million mark when 14,268 fans saw Iowa defeat Ohio State Jan. 24, 2004. Iowa has posted a 55-22 (.714) home record under Coach Steve Alford, including a 33-4 (.892) mark in non-conference home games.
IOWA SENIORS IN HOME FINALE
The senior members of the Iowa basketball program will be honored following Saturday’s game. Following the game, Coach Steve Alford with introduce the seniors, who will then have the opportunity to speak to the crowd. The Iowa seniors include players Brody Boyd from Dugger, IN, Jared Reiner from Tripp, SD, Kurt Spurgeon from DeWitt and Glen Worley from Coralville, and manager Todd Bruns from Cedar Rapids.
IOWA VS. RANKED FOES
Having played six games against ranked opponents this season, Steve Alford has posted a 15-23 record against ranked opponents as Iowa’s head coach, including a 2-4 mark in 2003-04. Iowa, this season, defeated 16th-ranked Louisville 70-69 in overtime and 24th-ranked Purdue 71-61 in Iowa City. Iowa lost at 22nd-ranked Missouri, 76-56, at 25th-ranked Illinois, 88-82, lost 54-52 to 14th-ranked Wisconsin in Iowa City and lost 78-59 to 23rd-ranked Illinois in Iowa City.
Alford’s Hawkeye teams are 5-8 when playing teams ranked in the top 10, including wins over top-ranked Connecticut (70-68 in 1999-00), 2nd-ranked Missouri (83-65 in 2001-02), 5th-ranked Ohio State (67-64 in 1999-00), 7th-ranked Illinois (78-62 in 2000-01) and 8th-ranked Illinois (68-61 in 2002-03). The eight losses to top 10 teams have been once to top-ranked (Duke, 2001-02), once to 3rd-ranked (Illinois, 2000-01), twice to 4th-ranked (Michigan State, 1999-00 and 2000-01), twice to 5th-ranked (Tennessee, 2000-01 and Missouri, 2001-02), once to 9th-ranked (Kentucky, 2000-01) and once to 10th-ranked (Illinois, 2002).
In the 38 games against ranked teams, Alford and his Iowa team are 6-7 in home games, 6-7 at neutral sites and 3-9 when playing ranked teams in their home arena.
IOWA COACH Steve Alford
Steve Alford (pronounced ALL-ford) is in his fifth season as the head coach at the University of Iowa and his 13th season as a college head coach. Alford holds a career record of 243-145 (.628), including an 87-68 (.561) record at Iowa, a 78-29 (.729) record in four seasons (1992-95) at Div. III Manchester College and a four-year record (1996-99) of 78-48 (.619) at Southwest Missouri State. He is 32-45 (.416) in Big Ten games at Iowa. Career win No. 200 for Alford came in 2002 in a 78-53 win at Iowa State. Alford is 8-5 in the NCAA Tournament (3-2 in Div. I and 5-3 in Div. III) and 2-3 in the NIT.
Alford led Iowa to the 2001 Big Ten Conference Tournament title and into the second round of the NCAA Tournament in his second season with the Hawkeyes. Iowa earned a return trip to the title game of the Big Ten Conference Tournament in 2002 and advanced to the NIT in post-season play in both 2002 and 2003. The Hawkeyes set a Big Ten Conference Tournament record with seven straight wins over two seasons (2001-2002) before a last-second loss in the first round of the 2003 tournament. Alford’s record in the event is 8-3 in his four seasons. Alford led Southwest Missouri State to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1999 and in 1995 Manchester advanced to the NCAA championship game before suffering its first defeat of the season.
Alford is a 1987 graduate of Indiana, where he led the Hoosiers to the 1987 NCAA title. Alford was a member of the 1984 U. S. Olympic team that earned the Gold Medal and he was the 26th player selected in the NBA Draft following his senior season. Alford played four seasons in the NBA before beginning his coaching career.
At Indiana, Alford started 120 of 125 games in four seasons. He served as team captain in 1987 when the Hoosiers were 30-4. Steve concluded his college career as Indiana’s all-time scoring leader with 2,438 points and he holds the Indiana record for career steals with 178. He was a consensus first team All-American and the Big Ten MVP as a senior.
Alford is a member of the Manchester College M Association Hall of Fame and the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame. In 2001 he was named one of the “Top 50 Athletes” in the history of the state of Indiana and was selected as a member of the 15-man Indiana University all-Century team.
Alford is 5-3 vs. Minnesota and Gopher Coach Dan Monson.
ALFORD NAMED TO ESPN TEAM
Iowa Coach Steve Alford was named to ESPN’s Big Ten Conference Silver Anniversary team, honoring Big Ten players from the past 25 years. Alford led Indiana to the 1987 NCAA championship and was a member of the 1984 USA Olympic team that won the gold medal.
Other members of ESPN’s team are Kevin McHale, Minnesota, Glenn Robinson, Purdue, Mateen Cleaves, Michigan State and Jim Jackson, Ohio State.
MINNESOTA COACH DAN MONSON
Dan Monson is in his fifth season at Minnesota and his seventh season as a college head coach. Monson holds a career mark of 129-90 and a record of 77-73 at Minnesota. Monson posted a 52-17 record in two seasons at Gonzaga, taking his team to the Elite Eight in 1999 before losing to eventual national champion Connecticut. Monson was an assistant coach at Alabama-Birmingham and Gonzaga before becoming a college head coach. Monson, a 1985 graduate of the University of Idaho, is 3-5 vs. Iowa and Hawkeye Coach Steve Alford.
THE SERIES
Minnesota holds a 92-82 advantage over Iowa in the series that began with a 47-10 Gopher win in 1902. Iowa scored an 83-68 victory when the teams met Jan. 13 in Minneapolis, stopping a two-game losing streak to the Golden Gophers. Minnesota won 77-64 in Minneapolis in 2003 and 86-78 in Iowa City in 2002 as the teams met just once in each of those seasons. Iowa won both meetings during the 2001 season and two of three games in 2000.
Iowa holds a 48-37 advantage in games played in Iowa City and a 13-7 advantage in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Minnesota scored an 86-78 win in 2002 in its last visit to Iowa City, stopping a three-game losing streak in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
IOWA WON AT MINNESOTA
Iowa played well in nearly all phases of the game in taking an 83-68 win at Minnesota on Jan. 13. The Hawkeyes shot 59.1% from the field in building a 34-28 halftime advantage, that after trailing 15-11 in the first five minutes of the game. Iowa used a 10- scoring run early in the second half to maintain control. The Hawkeyes led by as many as 20 in the second half and Minnesota was never closer than nine points in the final minutes. Iowa connected on 27-33 free throws in the second half and scored 20 straight points from the charity line at one point late in the game.
Iowa shot 53.5% from the field for the game, including 45.5% from three-point range, and converted 32-41 (78%) free throws, many of those coming in the late stages as Minnesota was forced to foul. Iowa held Minnesota to 41.3% shooting from the field and won the rebounding battle by a 38-26 margin.
Sophomore guard Jeff Horner, who began the game with a pair of three-pointers, led Iowa’s scoring with 23 points, a career-high at the time. Brody Boyd added 15 points and Glen Worley and Jared Reiner each added 11. Reiner led Iowa with eight rebounds, Boyd added a career-high six rebounds and Greg Brunner added six rebounds. Kris Humphries led Minnesota with 17 points and eight rebounds, Adam Boone added 13 points and five assists.
IOWA, GOPHER NOTES
Iowa Coach Steve Alford and Minnesota Coach Dan Monson, who are close friends, are both in their fifth year in the Big Ten Conference.
Prior to the 2001-02 season, Iowa and Minnesota had played two basketball games each season since 1971. The teams met only in Iowa City in 2002 and only in Minneapolis last season. The 2001 season marked the first time the teams met three times in one season, with the third meeting taking place in the Big Ten Conference Tournament. Iowa’s roster includes seven players from the state of Iowa and the Golden Gopher roster includes 11 players from the state of Minnesota.
The two teams played just one common opponent in non-conference action. Iowa lost to Texas Tech 65-59 in a game played in Dallas, TX, while Texas Tech defeated Minnesota 90-73 in Lubbock, TX.
HORNER HITS TRIPLE FIGURES, AGAIN
As a freshman a year ago, Jeff Horner became just the eighth player in Iowa history to record over 200 points, 100 rebounds and 100 assists, and he was just the second freshman to accomplish the feat (Pierre Pierce in 2002 was the first freshman to do so).
This season, Horner has become the first Iowa player to reach those totals for a second time, as he has totaled 307 points, 128 rebounds and 105 assists through 24 games. Pierce could join Horner, as he has 396 points, 133 rebounds and 85 assists with three games remaining in the regular season.
AFTER THIS
Iowa closes the regular season at Northwestern Wednesday, March 3 and at Purdue Saturday, March 6. The Big Ten Conference Tournament is March 18-21 in Indianapolis.