Alford won’t change lineup to try and turn around losing skid

Iowa coach Steve Alford says line-up changes should not be needed for the Hawkeyes to turn things around. Iowa is coming off its second-straight loss, a 77-66 defeat at tenth ranked Illinois. Now, the Hawkeyes are a disappointing 2-3 in Big Ten play. He says if his players need any more motivation after being “out toughed” and having opponents talking about their toughness, then he says they may be in the wrong sport.Alford says there’s plenty of time to get things turned around. He says they haven’t played well against good opponents and they have to take the next 11 conference games one at a time and try to get out of the funk.Alford says it’s too soon to say the pre-season expectations were too high for this team. He says they’re not as good as they can be yet, and he says that’s encouraging. Alford says the challenge is to meet their ceiling.