Indiana Cheers Alford Return

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.

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.

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 meanhe'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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