Luka Garza gets his delayed in-person lovefest from Hawkeye fans

IOWA CITY — Luka Garza and Iowa men’s basketball fans interacted for the first time in two years, and they loved him up enough Tuesday night to make up for their for their forced absence last season.

At halftime of Tuesday’s Michigan State-Iowa game, 2021 National Player of the Year Garza had his Hawkeye uniform No. 55 officially retired and hung in the Carver-Hawkeye Arena rafters. That was done to the strong approval of the crowd that was here for the Michigan State-Iowa game.

“I can’t tell you how great it is to see you guys in Carver again,” Garza told the crowd moments after the jersey was unfurled high above the court. “This is awesome.”

Garza went to a place no Hawkeye men’s player had gone before in becoming the Player of the Year last season after averaging 24.1 points for his 22-9 Iowa team. He was a two-time consensus first-team All-American.

He said he wants to be remembered for something other than his program-record 2,306 career points.

“I want to be known as the guy who worked harder than anybody else,” said Garza, now a rookie with the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.

He said he was “someone that took the opportunity given him, worked as hard as they could to maximize it.

“I’m not the most-athletic guy. I wasn’t very highly recruited. I was the No. 100 player in my class. And when they ranked me, they spelled my name wrong.

“I was able to turn that into the best player in the country, helping my team win at a very high level.”

“Such an amazing feeling when you play in front of those fans,” Garza said. “To not have that for a year is something that’s going to sting for a while. But for me to see that tonight is going to mean the world.

“I put everything I had in that jersey for four years. To see that go up in the rafters is something I’ll never forget.”

Also honored Tuesday were former Hawkeyes Chuck Darling, Murray Wier, and Roy Marble, who had their jerseys retired before the game. Roy Marble was Iowa’s all-time leading men’s career scorer for 31 years with 2,116 points before Garza broke that record.

Devyn Marble, Roy’s son, had a pretty terrific Iowa career himself for Fran McCaffery, scoring 1,694 points from 2010-14. He was here with his three siblings to see his father honored posthumously.

“It’s something we all wanted to see happen,” said Marble, on a brief hiatus from his pro team in Poland. “Of course, we would have wished he was still here to be able to enjoy it himself. But everything happens in time. We’re just thankful and appreciative of the honor.”

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