Steve Alford knows he is considered one of college basketball’s coaches on the “hot seat”, but as he enters his sixth season at Iowa, Alford says he doesn’t mind as long as he ends up on the bench in the N-C-A-A Tournament. He says the pressure isn’t from magazines or what people say, it’s to get into the tournament. The Hawkeyes have their top two scorers back from last years team that finished 16-13 overall and 9-7 in the Big Ten. Mixed in with some talented newcomers, including Iowa State transfer Adam Haluska, Alford feels are the pieces are in place for the Hawks to return to the N-C-A-A Tournament for the first time since 2001. He says they’re going to be aggressive offensively and defensively and he says if they can stay healthy, they have enough talent to be very special.Last year the Hawkeyes battled to overcome a short bench but this team will have a lot more depth. He says it affected them more defensively than offensively, and to build toward a championship they have to buy in to how hard it is to play man-to-man defense. Attendance in Carver-Hawkeye Arena dropped to an all-time low last season and Alford says the only thing that will change that is winning. He says they’ve been through a lot and that affects attendance, and not winning also doesn’t help.The Hawkeyes open the regular season at home November 19th against Western Illinois.