Cedar Rapids walk-on provides practice lift for Iowa Hawkeyes

IOWA CITY - T.J. Sayre used to slap hands with Iowa players as they walked off the court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Sayre grew up an Iowa fan in Cedar Rapids dreaming of playing basketball for his favorite school. He was a solid player at Cedar Rapids Xavier and averaged nearly 12 points a game in 2006.

For three years he attend college - first at Creighton, then at Iowa - and played pickup basketball in both Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. Then last summer, the 6-foot-6 senior decided to ask about walking on at Iowa.

“I just went into the administration and asked them about (walking on),” Sayre said. “They weren't necessarily going to have (walk-ons) at first, but they kind of said that Jarryd (Cole) was hurt. They needed a little extra size just in case for practice purposes in case injuries happen. They invited me to come in and see if I could fit in with the team, and I was lucky enough for them to keep me.”

Sayre has played in just two games this year and totaled eight minutes. He scored two points, dished two assists andtwo steals against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Nov. 26. He hasn't played since, but he travels with the team.

Sayre makes more contributions during practice, Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. As a member of Iowa's “Gold” team, Sayre is required to know other teams' offenses. The better Sayre plays in practice, the more it helps Iowa's key players.

“With that last walk-on position, we wanted to get a bigger guy, a guy who adds some size who can come in and in practice make a difference and be good enough to make a difference,” McCaffery said. “He's been everything that we could have hoped for there. He's got great basketball IQ. He's a good athlete for his size. He was able to compete with Melsahn (Basabe) and Jarryd and (Andrew) Brommer in practice. Remembers everything we've asked him to do. He does it a very quiet, competitive way. I really, really enjoyed having him around.”

Sayre graduates in May with a degree in health studies. He said he's enjoyed the experience and the challenge of practicing against Iowa's starters.

“The main reason I wanted to do it was the competition,” Sayre said. “I knew if I made the team I didn't expect to play necessarily, but I wanted to come out here every day and compete with great athletes and great basketball players. I thought I could help benefit the team just by energy and working hard in practice and just help the team in any way I could. That's kind of my main motivation.”