The town of Albion, Michigan has been pretty good to the Iowa basketball program once sending guard Mon'ter Glasper to Iowa City. Now the Hawkeyes hope that lucky streak continues with one of their new assistant coaches, LaVall Jordan. In our final look at the new basketball staff, we get to know the Michigan native as he settles into his new home as a Hawkeye.

Q: Talk about growing up in Albion, Michigan and your upbring?

JORDAN: Albion is kind of a small town near Battle Creek. It was a very good experience. I lived with my great aunt and uncle. I didn't grow up with my mom and dad, but they were both around. They were my legal guardians. It was an old school upbringing. They were both in their 60's and raising a young guy. My aunt was from Mississippi and my uncle was from Georgia, so I had an old country upbringing. (laugh)

Now as I look back, people say that I am older than my years because of growing up with them. They gave me the old school teachings and the down south way. It wasn't flashy or modern at all. I didn't have cable growing up. It was The Cosby Show on basic TV with ABC, NBC, and CBS. That was the way it was until about 10th grade when I moved in with my grandmother. Growing up I had to work too. My aunt owned a bunch of properties so I would mow lawns or do things around those houses to earn some spending money.

Q: Do you have brothers or sisters?

JORDAN: I do. I have a younger brother who is 24 and will be at Michigan dental school in the fall. If he would have known I was coming to Iowa, he might have tried to come here. (laugh) I also have a little sister who is 17 in January.

My brother is on his own now, but they live with my dad and step-mom. They aren't together now, but they were when I was growing up and my dad was going to school in Kalamazoo at Western Michigan. We didn't grow up in the same household, but we did a lot of things together. My brother and I are very close and look out for our little sister.

Q: Obviously it turned out well for you, but was it tough growing up not living with both your parents?

JORDAN: It was different because I would hang out with guys who had both of their parents. I kind of wondered why when I was young, but as I got older it was explained to me. They had me when they were both very young, in high school. My mom was 16 and my dad was 17, so it was probably better for me to stay with my aunt and uncle, who were older and had raised other kids. My mom was probably a little young to be taking care of a kid at that time in her life.

Q: In high school did you play other sports besides basketball?

JORDAN: I did. I tried baseball, but I wasn't very good. (laugh) Once they took it off the tee, I couldn't hit it anymore. (laugh) With basketball, I had a hoop in the backyard playing on a dirt court, so I would come in dirty everyday. We could not afford to put down pavement, so my buddies and I would play on the dirt. I played football until my junior year in high school and I was ok at it. I got a couple of letters from schools like Wisconsin and Michigan and I think that scared me away from football because I thought about getting hit coming across the middle in the Big Ten. (laugh) So, I gave up football and stuck to hoops.

Q: You were a pretty good player in high school and scored quite a bit.

JORDAN: I was decent. We had a very talented team. My freshman year, we went undefeated. My sophomore year, I played varsity and started a couple of games. We had a decent year. Then in my junior and senior years we went to the state final four both years. We lost in the state finals my senior year to Detroit Country Day, who had Shane Battier and Chris Webber's younger brother, David. They were a good team and won it three straight years. They actually played Duez Henderson's team in the final eight. We had a kid named Jason Morehead who was our leading scorer. I was kind of our glue guy and a shooter. All I did in high school was shoot it, which was perfect for the system once I got to college. (laugh)

The funny thing is that once I got to Butler in my freshman year, I wasn't allowed to shoot three's. They had five seniors, one of whom was Matt Graves, who coaches there now, and he could shoot it. My job as a freshman was backup point guard and Coach Collier told me to not turn it over, get us past half court, and defend. I said, but coach, I can shoot it and he said, no we have people who can do that. (laugh) I was just used to a different role and it took me a while to buy into it.

Q: You were probably a recognizable name for some former Iowa players as they look at this new staff. You probably knew Kenyon Murray since he was from Battle Creek.

JORDAN: Yeah, I knew Kenyon and Mon'ter Glasper is from Albion. I watched those guys play when I was in middle school, they were in high school. I watched those guys play against each other playing in the park in the summer. Battle Creek would come over for a summer league in Albion. They were pretty good and then I would watch them in high school games at Kellogg Arena.

Q: Have any of those guys reached out to you since you have arrived?

JORDAN: I have met Kenyon and talked to him. I haven't talked to Mon'ter in a while. I think he was back in Albion for a while, but we haven't been in touch. Duez has come by and we kind of remember each other. He knows that we could have met in the state championship.

Q: What schools recruited you out of high school?

JORDAN: My final two were Xavier or Butler, ironically. Most of the in-state mid-major schools like Eastern, Western, and Central Michigan were involved and Marquette recruited me. But, it came down to Butler and Xavier. I took a visit to Butler and met everyone and I liked Indianapolis, the style of play, and I thought that I would fit there. It ended up being ok for me.

Q: Then you get to Butler and you guy start on a very impressive string of success.

JORDAN: It was a great experience. We had gone to the tournament the year before I got there, so our goal was to get to the tournament and win. It was cool to get invited, but we wanted to win in the tournament because we felt we could play with anyone. I got there and we had five seniors who were experienced and then I came in and I was a pretty confident guy. I thought we had a bit of a swagger and by the time I got to be a junior and senior, we had Joel Cornette and Thomas Jackson in there and we felt we could beat anyone.

We fell a little short in my junior year losing to Florida. Then in my senior year, we won our first game against Wake Forest. Probably the coolest thing was to watch the sweet 16 team in 2003 because those were guys that I played with and we always felt it was up to the next group to do even more. The group before I got there had the goal to get there. We had the goal to get there and win. We ended up doing that my senior year. After that it was the sweet 16 and try to win the whole thing. I was like a proud dad watching because I felt like we had a lot to do with it and we took pride in being part of the program and building it. I have some great memories as a player, but watching those guys knock off some bigger named teams in the tournament was really enjoyable to watch.

Q: Do you sit back and look at the coaches you had at Butler from beginning to end and think, wow?

JORDAN: They were pretty good. (laugh)

Q: You had Coach Collier, then Coach Matta, and finally Coach Lickliter.

JORDAN: They were pretty good, but all different. They had the same foundation and principles of hard work and playing together as a team. That stayed the same. They had different ways of motivating us and leading, but the principles and foundation was the same as far as playing as a team and out working our opponents. We knew we had to be a good team to beat other people because we weren't getting McDonald's All American's to Butler. But, we had good enough players with a good enough skill set that if everyone played together to their strengths, we could beat a lot of people regardless of who was on their team.

Q: How would you compare Coach Matta and Coach Lickliter? Different personalities, but the results are the same.

JORDAN: When you talk about both of them, they are ultra competitive guys. They can't stand to lose. That showed up on all their teams. The one season that Coach Matta was our coach, it was the best season, at that time, that Butler had ever had. That is the one thing they have in common and they know the game. Thad is a little more intense and I think that is because he is a little bit younger. Coach Lickliter is a little more laid back and thought out before he does anything. You can't really tell if it affects him one way or another. He doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve, so they are different in that regard. Both are great coaches, great recruiters, and great leaders.

Q: How much have you learned about the word patience from Coach Lickliter?

JORDAN: Plenty. (laugh) When I first got on staff there I was young and ready to take on the world. He is very deliberate in what he wants to do and the way he wants to do it. A young guy like me comes in with a thousand ideas and you don't know if he likes them or not, but a day or two later he will come back and ask you about doing it this way or that way and why you said that. It is well thought out. He knows we have some energy and want to get things done and will take it all in and let us do some of those things on our own.

He is a pretty patient guy. He has that part down. We are ready to get some work done and he is too, but he likes to analyze more.