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 Tuesday, January 25
Alford falls short in return to Indiana
 
Associated Press

 BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Steve Alford, an Indiana schoolboy sensation who led the Hoosiers to the 1987 NCAA championship, returned to Assembly Hall on Tuesday night for the first time as Iowa coach.

Bobby Knight, Steve Alford
Shaky relationship: Iowa coach Steve Alford congratulates Indiana coach Bobby Knight, right, after their game.

Alford's Hawkeyes fell short, losing 74-71 to the Hoosiers when a last-second 3-pointer bounced off the rim.

Alford was greeted by huge cheers from a standing crowd of more than 17,000 and already was on the court when his former coach, Bob Knight, came out before the tipoff. Knight walked over to the Iowa bench and the two shook hands.

Until a brief, private conversation in Knight's office about 45 minutes before the game, they had not spoken since Alford was hired at Iowa last March.

The 1983 Indiana high school Mr. Basketball from New Castle played four years for Knight and left as the Big Ten's most valuable player, a two-time All-American and the Hoosiers' career scoring leader. His points record was broken six years later by Calbert Cheaney.

Tues., Jan. 18
The number one issue is loyalty. Bob Knight teaches it and expects it. Luke Recker ending up at Iowa has added fuel to the fire in Knight's relationship with Steve Alford.

Once Alford got the Iowa job, and Recker decided to leave Indiana, the loyalty factor became a negative in the relationship. Word was that after Recker's freshman year, he worked at Alford's camp at Manchester College during the summer with Knight's permission.

At that camp, Alford told me that Recker was unhappy and that he wanted to transfer then to another school. I asked Alford if he asked Recker to wait for him to get a big-time job and go with him to that school. Alford denied that ever happened and specifically spent three hours on a golf course, with two other Indiana people in the foursome, trying to convince Recker to go back to Indiana for his sophomore season.

I did ask Alford if there is an escape clause in his contract at Iowa, so that if Bob Knight leaves at any time, he would have permission to look into that situation, much like Lou Holtz had an escape clause to go to Notre Dame from Minnesota if that job became available. Alford told me he doesn't have anything like that in his contract when I spoke with him last night.

Alford played four years in the NBA, then returned to his home state and compiled a 78-29 record in four years as coach at Manchester College, including 31-1 as NCAA Division III runnerup in 1995. He was 78-48 over the next four years at Southwest Missouri State, including a loss to Indiana two years ago in Indianapolis.

One of Alford's assistants is his father, Sam Alford, who was his high school coach.

Another former Indiana Mr. Basketball, Luke Recker, left the Hoosiers at the end of last season and transferred to Arizona, saying he was not happy with his progress as a player under Knight. But last summer, after an automobile accident in which his girlfriend was seriously injured, he transferred to Iowa in order to be closer to home.

Recker, who is not eligible to play for the Hawkeyes until January 2001, did not accompany the Hawkeyes to Bloomington for Tuesday night's game.

Knight said earlier there was no special significance coaching against one of his former players.

"Do you realize how many guys I've coached against who either played for me or coached for me?" Knight said. "I'd be an emotional wreck if I had emotions for every guy who I coached against who played or coached for me."

On Monday, Alford said he didn't know how to describe their relationship.

"I mean, he's the head coach at Indiana. I'm the head coach at Iowa. I'm not on the phone with a lot of the coaches," he said. "It's just a situation where I think he's really into his team right now and I'm really into my team."

 



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AUDIO/VIDEO
video
 Bobby Knight won't get emotional.
RealVideo: 56.6

 Bobby Knight is willing to sit down with Steve Alford.
avi: 1251 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1

audio
 Steve Alford says that there has been a lot of miscommunication.
wav: 124 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6