Outside East Lansing, Glen Worley is just another college basketball player.
Iowa's 6-foot-7 senior forward isn't recognized as a star or a prime-time player, and his numbers aren't gaudy. He's not in the nation's elite class with Connecticut's Emeka Okafor and Saint Joseph's Jameer Nelson, who are competing for the National Player of the Year award. In the Big Ten, he's not mentioned with Indiana's Bracey Wright, MSU's Paul Davis and Minnesota's Kris Humphries as the conference's best players.
Heck, Worley isn't even the best player on his team. His 8.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game are both sixth on the Hawkeyes' roster. So, why should he have a billboard up in East Lansing?
No matter how his season is going, when the opposing team is wearing jerseys with the "State" script across the chest, Worley brings out his best game.
"Everybody knows he's the guy that has killed us the last couple of years - he's definitely a tough matchup for a big guy," junior guard Kelvin Torbert said. "He's 6-7, with long size. Hopefully, we can contain him and try to stop him from doing the things he did to us in the past."
The biggest of those "things" is lighting up the scoreboard. In MSU's first conference loss last season, a 68-64 setback to the Hawkeyes, Worley dropped in 29 points on 10-for-16 shooting. He was held to 11 points in MSU's romp around Iowa late in the season, but Worley still finished with more than 20 percent of his team's points in the 82-54 loss.
The Coralville, Iowa, native is coming off a 14-point performance against Penn State, and in the previous game against Michigan, he dropped in a season-high 18 points - just the kind of games that could be leading up to a climax against MSU.
"Defensively, we just have to try and contain him," Torbert said.
Once the Spartans get past Worley, things get easy.
Iowa's interior once was lined with 6-foot-11 center Jared Reiner and 6-foot-9 center Sean Sonderleiter, but Reiner has been hampered by injuries and hasn't played since Iowa's second Big Ten game against Northwestern on Jan. 10, and Sonderleiter quit after Iowa's loss to Michigan last week.
The news couldn't be better for MSU sophomore center Paul Davis, who is coming off his second Big Ten Player of the Week award after scoring a career-high 32 points against Indiana on Saturday.
Iowa assistant coach Greg Lansing said his Hawkeyes have a bull's-eye on Davis.
"My theory is he's really good - he's the focus of their offense, no question about it," Lansing said. "He's a difficult matchup. He can shoot the perimeter shot, he's made plays off the dribble and with his back to the basket, he's improving all the time.
"He's playing very well at a good time for them right now."
And for the Spartans, it makes the approaching halfway point of the Big Ten season one filled with much anticipation.
"I don't think there is any question we're in the thick of the race," said MSU head coach Tom Izzo, whose Spartans are a half game out of first place. "A win Wednesday would definitely give us a respectable midway record.
"God, it'd be great to get another win and be 6-2 in the conference," Izzo added with a smirk after his team's Monday practice.
Lansing said Izzo has reason to be smiling, especially after turning his team around after the brutal nonconference schedule.
"Coach Izzo might as well have had the Timberwolves, the Pistons and the Bulls on there," he said.
"If anybody thought they weren't going to be right in the hunt, they were making a big mistake. One thing you can always count on with a Michigan State team is they're going to fight you."
