The Iowa basketball team will take to the court this Thursday night for its first exhibition game. Iowa coach Steve Alford realizes that lofty pre-season rankings bring lofty expectations. The chore now is to live up to them. He says they’ve wanted the expectations, and now he says it is difficult to grasp the expectations and do what people want.Alford says after watching tape of their Black and Gold Scrimmage last weekend they are far from being a top ten team nationally. He says everyone is saying how good they are, but he says the tape shows they’re “brutal” defensively.Alford says while Dean Oliver’s leadership as the point guard is something they will need to replace, the five seniors on the squad have accepted the role.