Walk-Ons Help Iowa Get to Top

About the only recognition the seven members of Iowa’s basketball “gray team” ever get is a bunch of zeros beside their name at the bottom of a box score.

But the walk-ons who go up against Roy Marble, Brad Lohaus and Ed Horton every day in practice know they are making a contribution to a team which won 18 straight games and climbed to No. 1 in the country before falling, 80-76, to Ohio State on Saturday.

“We don’t get that much credit for it. But the coaches say we’re doing a great job. And that’s all we need,” said Mark Dyer of Dubuque.

Iowa assistant coach Gary Close held tryouts among University of Iowa students Oct. 15 and 17 to select a non-scholarship squad to practice every day against Iowa’s scholarship players.

After 6 a.m. tryouts Oct. 15, Pat Springer of Des Moines and Michael Jones of Evanston, Ill. were chosen. Nighttime tryouts two days later added Dyer, Steve Lusso of Davenport, Pat Roache of Crystal Lake, Ill., Sam Schweiger of Bloomfield and Kelly Westen of Antigo, Wis.

“I think it has worked out sort of better than we anticipated,” Close said.

Many of the players were chosen for their defensive quickness because they would spend a lot of time imitating the defenses of Iowa opponents, Close said.

“Their job is to replicate the teams we’re playing,” Close said. “I think a good example was against Indiana. We walked through their out-of-bounds play a number of times with the gray team. And we proceeded to get four steals and a couple of five-second calls on their out-of-bounds play.”

Gray team members are called on in practice to try to make B. J. Armstong, Kevin Gamble and the other Hawkeyes think they’re going up against Illinois’ Ken Norman, Indiana’s Steve Alford or Ohio State’s Dennis Hopson.

Team members played high school basketball but most were not recruited by colleges.

Springer said he transferred from Nebraska-Omaha last spring with the intention of giving up basketball. Westen said he probably was a better football player than basketball player and wasn’t recruited out of high school. Jones enrolled with the idea of joining the Hawkeyes as a walk-on while Schweiger is a transfer student from Iowa State.

The players get no financial assistance from being on the team and few rewards for practicing daily from 1 to about 3:30 p.m.

“It’s really a very good group,” Close said. “They work extremely hard.

“They’re here just about every day. Very few have missed any practices. They come out and give a real solid effort. They’ve done a good job for us.”

“It takes at least four hours out of the day,” Westen said. “You come over here before practice and you get taped. Afterwards you lift weights. It takes a lot of time.

“But I think it’s helped me in a way, because if I wasn’t doing this, I would have had a tendency to put everything off. Now, I’m in this routine. I know I’ve got practice. I know I’ve got to study after practice.”

Westen was in uniform Saturday night as Iowa lost to Ohio State, a loss which dropped the Hawkeyes to No. 2 in the rankings.

“We had Michael Jones dressed for the Indiana game and we are going to keep rotating that,” Close said.

Westen was credited with one minute of play against Wisconsin. His name, followed by all zeros, was squeezed in below “Team Rebounds” on the official box score distributed after the game.

“I think we’ve got three or four in (a game) and a couple have taken a few shots,” Close said. “I think it’s something they’ll remember for a long time.”

Springer said gray team members get a lot of self-satisfaction when they see how well the scholarship players are doing.

“You play like you practice and we’re such a big part of practice, I really feel like I’m contributing a lot,” Westen added.

“We just get the satisfaction of knowing that we play for a great team,” Dyer said. “We know that we contribute a lot because we act like we’re other teams. And Iowa is very prepared when they get into the games, because we do that for them.”