LUKE RECKER
Luke Recker with Michael Lewis back when he went to I.U.
Luke attended high school at Dekalb High School in Waterloo, Indiana. Where he was named Indiana's Mr. Basketball in '97. In his final year of high school ball Luke scored an average of 26.8 points per game while pulling down 6.8 boards and dishing out 5 assists. Luke broke Dekalb's records in career scoring and assists. He was a McDonald's ALL-AMERICAN and was on the 2nd team Parade All-American.
This is how I will always think of when I think about Luke Recker #4 IU.
Recker then went on to play for Bobby Knight and the Hoosiers at Indiana University. He committed to IU after just his Sophomore year of high school. He started at Small Forward in most games. He shot 79% from the foul line as a freshman. Also in his freshman season he averaged 12.8 points, 4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, stole the ball 42 times and blocked 13 shots. "Obviously Indiana high school basketball is known as something special. There is tradition," said Luke Recker said during his sophomore year at Indiana. "A Hoosier is pretty much described as growing up with a basketball in his hand and shooting at the basket outside by the cornfield. Everybody has that picture in their mind. And with basketball so big, then you've got a great coach like Coach Knight ... everybody naturally is going to follow that team. That's what really got me!" "It's kind of one of those childhood dreams to play at Indiana and wear the Hoosier uniform," Recker said. "Especially growing up in Indiana. It was always a goal of mine to play big-time college basketball. There can't be a better place than Indiana. National exposure, national TV. Great coach, an icon. Great competition in the Big Ten. I can't imagine playing anywhere else." After his sophomore season, he left IU.
Luke in 1997 with his IU teammates.
He then enrolled at Arizona Unieristy. In July of '99 he was in a serious car accident. It wasn't a personal situation with Knight or the Indiana team or anything like that," Claire Recker, Luke's father, said. "In fact, he was very much thinking about leaving Indiana after his freshman year. But through discussions with Coach Knight, he determined that maybe things would change for the better and he decided to give it one more season." "After that second season, I think he realized that it would probably serve him better to be at another program to develop skills at an off-guard position, which wasn't really developing at Indiana."
After the first semester he decided he wanted to go to Iowa. He went to Iowa and sat out second semester and then played as a red shirt junior. Recker was the leading scorer and playing well until he fractured his knee cap against Indiana University. Luke was a starter and he played the 2guard. We wish him the best of luck, but he will always be a HOOSIER.Luke Recker as a Hawkeye.
It's just not the same anymore! He's still awesome, but it's different!
He looks the same, he plays the same, but its different. I still like watching him play, but its not the same. I guess I just miss the red and white number 4.
He won. Indiana loss. 2001.
That game was great. I don't think it could have ended better. I.U. fans are all upset about him leaving us, but he did what was best for him. We all have been in situations that weren't helping us to better and most of us would do the same thing. He is still the same player he was at Indiana, the same player who played at Dekalb, the same person he always has been. It is just the jersey that has changed. After the game he hugged Jarrad Odle and Dane Fife.
During Recker's senior year at Iowa, I was ashamed to call myself a Hoosier, or a fan of Indiana University basketball. The way Recker was "welcomed back" to Assembly Hall was out and out ridiculous. He was just a boy when he committed to IU, he left the school because he thought it was what was best for him, that is no reason for the fans to act the way they did. That was rude and inconsiderate, he deserves our respect. He is still and always will be a HOOSIER. I was glad that Iowa beat Indiana in the Big Ten tournament, and that game couldn't have ended better. Recker hitting the final shot to win the game. After the game Luke Recker said this "The people of Indiana have been great to me," Recker said. "I love this state, my family still lives here. I'm very fond of Indianapolis." I don't know many people who could come out and say that after how he was treated.
Recker went undrafted in 2002, but is involved in some teams summer rosters and camps. Good Luck.
