Oct. 13, 2008
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by Brad Rudner
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Growing up in suburban Minneapolis, freshman Anthony Tucker always knew he wanted to play Big Ten basketball. But as he got older, the question turned from if to where.
“I’ve always been an avid college basketball fan, so I always wanted to play college ball somewhere,” said Tucker, who was named Metro Player of the Year by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “As I grew older, I saw that the Big Ten fit my style of play a little bit more and the conference appealed to me.”
In finalizing his college choice, Tucker noted that the University of Iowa campus played a huge factor in his decision.
“It’s a great campus and I loved it,” Tucker said. “It’s relatively close to home and playing in the Big Ten Conference and playing for Coach (Todd) Lickliter was a big attraction.”
The 6-foot-4, 200-pound sharpshooting guard ended up leaving his home state of Minnesota and heading south to become a member of the Hawkeyes. As a senior at Minnetonka High School, Tucker led his team to a 28-3 overall record, including a state championship. Tucker is the school’s career scoring leader (1,908 points) and averaged 21.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game as a senior, while shooting 44 percent from beyond the three-point arc and 80 percent from the free throw line.
Tucker isn’t the only player from Minnesota that appears on this year’s roster. He joins junior college transfer Jermain Davis (Plymouth, Minn.) and fellow freshman Andrew Brommer (Rosemount, Minn.) as native Minnesotans who are now Iowa Hawkeyes.
Tucker played AAU basketball with Brommer as a member of the 43-Hoops team for two seasons and had nothing but high praise for his teammate.
“We have really good chemistry together,” Tucker said. “We know each other real well and know our styles of play. It should give us an advantage because we’re familiar with each other.”
Like the rest of the Hawkeyes, Tucker worked hard on his game this summer, including lifting weights and preparing for his role on this year’s Iowa team. He also confessed to having a somewhat unique hobby for a basketball player.
“It’s kind of weird, but I really like bowling,” Tucker said. “There were a few summers where I would go every day, but I haven’t played in a long time.”
As for his role on this year’s team, Tucker has experience playing point guard or shooting guard, but he is more focused on improving.
“As a team, we want to improve from last year and win a lot of games,” Tucker said. “We all want to win a team championship at some point. I just want to win as many games as possible and have fun doing it.”