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| Saturday, November 13 | |||||||||
ESPN.com | ||||||||||
NEW YORK -- The posse picked up Steve Alford the moment he stepped down from the postgame podium.
"How's that for a start, boss!" Alford said as he breezed past Iowa athletics director Bob Bowlsby. Bowlsby didn't say a word. He knew what the rest of the nation recognized in Iowa's stunning 70-68 victory over defending national champion and No. 1 Connecticut: Alford can coach. Despite saying that the Hawkeyes were ill-prepared for this game, this early in the season, Iowa looked like it was in February form in Coaches vs. Cancer Classic on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. Connecticut looked like it was, well, not even ready for an intrasquad scrimmage. But, even with their lackluster effort, the Huskies drew No. 10 Duke in a consolation game rematch of the '99 NCAA championship game after the Blue Devils lost to No. 13 Stanford 80-79 in overtime. "This was great for our confidence," Alford said. "And now I think they'll see that we can be a pretty good team in the Big Ten." Huskies' coach Jim Calhoun gave the obligatory credit to Iowa and Alford, but he harped on the Huskies' selfish play (four assists in the first half and 10 overall) and 18 turnovers (14 in the first half). But Alford had a hand in Connecticut's rare erratic play. Alford had his team play aggressive, instead of playing passive halfcourt man-to-man like he did at Southwest Missouri State a year ago. The Hawkeyes trapped the Huskies in the halfcourt and mixed up some 1-2-2 zone to force them into poor decisions with the ball (12 steals), quick shots and a propensity to give up the easy basket at the other end. But this wasn't Tom Davis' Iowa team. Dean Oliver, the Hawkeyes' best talent, quickest player and only true playmaker, sat for 12 minutes with foul trouble. Without him, no-names like Kyle Galloway (a hunched over redhead who sports muttonchops), beefy Jacob Jaacks and slight Ryan Luehrsmann had no problems frustrating the Huskies.
Yet Alford didn't hesitate to test Khalid El-Amin's penetration to his left or challenge freshmen Marcus Cox or Tony Robertson when they handled the ball. Alford wanted the Huskies' big men to put the ball on the floor. He gambled and won what could become one of the most important games of his burgeoning career. The idea was to cut off the Huskies' transition, keep them from taking second shots, limit the 3-pointer and keep being aggressive. The approach worked. El-Amin, who played despite a published report earlier in the day that linked him to using a booster's car in exchange for tickets, avoided turnovers. But Kevin Freeman, playing the wing instead of freshman Doug Wrenn (who had one turnover in his only minute), had four and guards Tony Robertson, Albert Mouring and Marcus Cox had a combined six turnovers. "Steve lied when he said he was putting in the man-to-man system at Iowa," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. "I'll never forgive him! They outplayed us offensively and defensively." | ALSO SEE Opening-night shocker: No. 1 Huskies fall
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The Weekly Word on college basketball
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