Pierre Pierce understands why people were concerned, he completely understands.

Pierce knows he's simply a true freshman at Iowa. He knows he's trying to replace Dean Oliver, a four-year starter at point guard. He knows Hawkeyes coach Steve Alford also brought in a junior-college transfer to play at the point.

He knows that point guard was the biggest question mark for an Iowa team that returned wing Luke Recker and center Reggie Evans. And he knows there are people who didn't think his high school competition at a small school in suburban Chicago really prepared him for the Big Ten.

	Pierre Pierce realizes how important his role in Iowa's success this season will be as the starting point guard.

"That was everyone's concern," Pierce said. "When you lose a four-year starter like Dean Oliver, that's a lot. He left some big shoes."

Shoes that Pierce is starting to fill quite nicely.

Pierce, a native of Westmont, Ill., might not have been as heralded of a recruit as some Big Ten freshmen, but he's broken out in the non-conference season more than any player in the conference.

Because while everybody knew about the talent of Recker and Evans, the performance of Pierce -- especially in recent victories over Iowa State, Drake and Missouri -- is the reason why Iowa's play has been as good or better than any team in the Big Ten.

"He's a fierce competitor, that's a trait I like," Alford said. "He doesn't like to lose in anything, whether its something in practice or, obviously, games.

"He's a very athletic guard. He has good size and weight for a freshman and he's long and athletic."

While Pierce has started every game at point guard for Iowa, beating out juco transfer Chauncey Leslie in the process, it took him the games in November and early December to really figure out what he was supposed to do.

In Iowa's first six games of the season, Pierce averaged 6.3 points and three turnovers per game. In the last six, he's averaged 10.3 points and 1.3 turnovers per game, improvement that's impressed Alford.

"He's really worked hard on things he needs to do to improve," Alford said. "In the first five games, he shot 27 percent from the floor. Now, after 12 games, he's shooting 43 percent.

"His whole game has improved."

And in Iowa's biggest game this season -- last Saturday's drubbing of Missouri -- Pierce came up very large. He went 6 for 8 from the floor, grabbed five rebounds and scored 17 points in the 83-65 victory. He did it at Mizzou's Hearns Center in an atmosphere similar to what he'll face when Big Ten play starts in two weeks.

"Saturday night was the most fun I've had all year," Pierce said. "To go into an opposing gym where everybody's against you and lay the smack down, that's one of the greatest feelings I've had."

Pierce, however, isn't the only Big Ten freshman who's been a surprise.

At Michigan State, Spartans coach Tom Izzo knew he'd have to play his three freshmen a lot of minutes and they'd all get chances. The surprise might be in which of those freshmen has been the most productive.

While Kelvin Torbert was the most heralded of the Spartans newcomers, Chris Hill has had the greatest impact. Hill is currently second in scoring (11.2) for Michigan State and leads the team in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.9/1).

"I'm not going to lie," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "He wasn't at the top of our list either.

"But he has all the intangibles. He works on his game, he's a very intelligent player and now he's taken off. He's done a good job in a tough situation, playing both the one and the two. He's one of the surprise freshmen in the country."

Izzo had a pretty good idea last spring that Hill wasn't going to be just an average freshman. That's when Izzo found out that Hill was at Lawrence North High School outside of Indianapolis each day between 6:00 and 6:30 each morning working on his game.

"He's getting what he deserves to be honest," Izzo said.

Hill's reached double figures in nine of 11 games so far this season and he's shooting 41.8 percent on 3-pointers.

"He's what you want," Izzo said. "He's a good kid, a good student and he can shoot the ball and he's willing to work on his deficiencies."

Game of the Week

Illinois vs. Missouri at St. Louis Saturday This is another one of those rivalry games where the fans from the two schools don't like each other too much. The Dome at America's Center will be split pretty evenly between blue and orange and black and gold. The 40,000-plus should see an interesting game. For an Illinois that hasn't looked as dominant as expected, the game is an opportunity to get some momentum heading into the Big Ten. Maryland at Oklahoma Friday Big 12 fans should have a pretty good idea of how good these Sooners are after this one. While Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma State are living in the nation's top 10, Oklahoma has almost quietly started the season 8-1 and the loss -- at Michigan State -- looks better all the time. This will also be the first real road game for the Terrapins. Xavier at Creighton Saturday This is about as close as there is to a December must-win for the Bluejays in their quest to put themselves in position to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. After being blown out at Western Kentucky, Creighton has to prove it can play without all-everything forward Kyle Korver and a victory over the Musketeers would be a good start. Indiana vs. Kentucky at Indianapolis Saturday We'll see if Tubby's Wildcats still have a little bit of a Duke hangover. If Kentucky's still thinking about what might have been, the Hoosiers are certainly good enough to win this one.

Big 12: Tech's player development
Call Andy Ellis the first beneficiary of Bob Knight's return to coaching.

When Knight and his staff arrived at Texas Tech and saw Ellis, they worked to revamp almost everything in the senior's game. They worked on his shooting, his ball fakes, his perimeter game. They got him on a weight/nutrition program that put 20 pounds on Ellis' 6-11 frame.

"When we played against them when we were at Indiana, he scored something like 30 points against us," Texas Tech assistant coach Pat Knight said. "Coach (Bob Knight) thought he could play in the NBA."

With the non-conference season almost over, Ellis is much closer to the NBA than he was. After averaging 14.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game as a junior, Ellis his emerged as one of the top scorers in the Big 12 and is a lot of the reason why the Red Raiders have been one of the biggest surprises in college basketball.

Ellis is averaging 20 points and 8.1 rebounds per game while shooing 49.6 percent from the floor. He's also been extremely consistent as he's scored fewer than 17 points just once this season while putting up 28 against New Mexico State and 22 against TCU in back-to-back games.

"I think things are going pretty good," Ellis said. "I feel like I'm making improvements."

The biggest improvement for Ellis can be seen when he's facing the basket and shooting the mid-range jumper.

"I'm real comfortable with it," said Ellis, who is finally 100 percent after missing half of his sophomore year with shoulder problems. "With the jump shot, if it starts going early in a game, I get a lot more comfortable."

While Ellis hasn't turned into a shooting guard, his range is better and has become an occasional 3-point threat.

Like Ellis, Tech wing Kasib Powell has been a bit of a surrpise this season. A junior college transfer, Powell is second in scoring (17.2 ppg) for the Red Raiders.

At 6-7, Powell has spent most of his college career playing forward, but is now playing mainly shooting guard for Texas Tech.

"When you get a 6-7 kid who can play inside and out, with the motion offense he's perfect for us," Pat Knight said.

Powell said he's worked hard on his ball-handling and jump shot since arriving in Lubbock.

"The offense, moving around, screening and cutting, does fit me well," Powell said. "It doesn't matter if they put a little guy or a big guy on me."

Powell has been a bit of a mismatch this season. He's been able to take smaller players inside and post them up while he's taken bigger defenders to the perimeter.

Another Big 12 player who has made great improvement so far this season is Texas guard Royal Ivey. A year ago, Ivey averaged just 2.8 points per game while playing point guard, but is averaging 13.4 points per game this season since moving to shooting guard.

"I think last year, having played point, helped him," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "He saw the game from a different perspective.

"His scoring is a plus for us. We need him to play great defense, be the glue of this team and do the dirty stuff."

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