While I Was Away
Welcome back - hope you had a great holiday weekend. I certainly enjoyed spending some time back at home. I took an extra day off from blogging yesterday, but I'm back and getting excited for a big Top 25 showdown tomorrow night.

There was a game in town while I was out, though. Iowa put a pounding on Texas - San Antonio with another impressive defensive effort, 79-46. They're a little past due, but here are a few notes anyway -

• Iowa's frigid three-point shooting continued. They made 3 of 13 Saturday and are shooting just 28% from behind the arc this year.
• The Hawks did most of their damage inside - the team shot 31 free throws and grabbed 46% of its offensive rebound opportunities.
• Alford was frustrated with his starters for not coming out strong in the second half, so he sent five subs to the scorers table just a few minutes into the half.
• Alex Thompson had something of a breakout game, with 11 points (including a three) and 8 rebounds in 18 minutes of play.
• The Hawks are a little dinged from the game - Jeff Horner has a thigh bruise, Greg Brunner has a bruised knee (from the Texas game), and Erek Hansen has a minor ankle injury. They'll all be ready to go tomorrow.

In Today's News
- Steve Batterson reports on Jeff Horner's injury status. He's been icing his thigh after playing most of the T-SA game with the injury, but he'll be back in the starting lineup Wednesday night.

- Susan Harman talks about Horner's struggles from behind the three point line this season. Iowa's primary deep threat has made only 8 of his 29 (28%) threes this season, after shooting over 40% for each of the previous two years. As many fans would tell you, Horner shooting has been much poorer when he's off-balance, and Alford agrees.

- Nick Richards of the Daily Iowan highlights Iowa's busy upcoming schedule, which has the team playing five games in ten days, including three games against 2005 NCAA tournament teams in North Carolina State, Northern Iowa, and Iowa State.

- Matt Coss previews what should be a great year for Iowa's intrastate rivalry games between the Hawkeyes, UNI, Drake, and Iowa State. The three big schools return most of their starters from tournament teams, while Tom Davis's Drake squad figures to be much improved, and is coming off a three point loss to Boston College.

More to come later today. . . . . . .
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