Iowa basketball coach Steve Alford returns to Iowa City tonight after attending the funeral of his grandmother in Indiana, today. Assistant coach Greg Lansing filled in for Alford on the Big Ten teleconference and said the head coach has stayed positive despite a number of disappointments, including the departure of center Sean Sonderlieter from the squad last week. He says there’s nobody more competitive than his boss and he says there’s nothing more important to Alford, other than his own family, than his basketball family. Lansing says Alford is resilient like the team is resilient. He says the loss of Sonderlieter “crushed” the coach and the team, but he says they can’t do anything about it and have to move on. Iowa returns to action Wednesday night at Michigan State.