Iowa players have confidence with good start

Iowa basketball coach Steve Alford says despite what most everybody thought about the Hawkeyes chances heading into the season, the players were confident in their abilities. Iowa is 10-3 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten heading into Wednesday night’s game at home against Illinois. He says the team is very grounded and know there are bigger and better things ahead if they work to improve. Alford says the Hawkeyes came back from Saturday’s victory over Michigan State with the right attitude. He says they had a tremendous win and the team came back with a lot of fire in their belly, knowing they have to compete and don’t have a big margin for error.Alford says the Hawks are doing the little things it takes to be successful and freshmen Greg Brunner and Jeff Horner are leading the way. He says the way they’re rebounding and passing and diving after balls becomes contagious for the whole team. And Alford says those types of things need to continue. He says they’re not big, deep or athletic, so they have to do the little things and compete at a high level for 40 minutes.