Luke Recker

Lucas Andrew Recker (born June 17, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. A swingman who primarily played the shooting guard position but could also play small forward, he was one of the top high school prospects of the class of 1997. He played his first two years of college basketball at Indiana before deciding to transfer. After missing one year due to a car accident, he went on to play two more years for Iowa. He went undrafted in the 2002 NBA draft and after a season in the NBA Development League he played professional basketball in Italy and Spain. Luke has two children named Avery (June 20, 2007) and Bennett (December 26th, 2010) Luke is married to Megan Recker.

High school career Recker was born in Lima, Ohio to father Clair Recker and mother Marti Pepple; he then moved to Indiana in his mother's hometown of Auburn, Indiana and attended DeKalb High School in Waterloo, Indiana. He was already recruited by colleges in his early high school career, and at age 15, in his sophomore year in high school, he committed to play for Indiana, citing his desire to play for coach Bob Knight.

During his junior year of high school he averaged 21 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists with a field goal percentage of 59%. He was one of the top ranked guards in the nation by his senior year, during which he averaged 26.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5 assists, and for his career he recorded totals of 2,008 points and 477 assists, both school records at DeKalb.

Recker's remarkable performance in his senior year earned him the Indiana Mr. Basketball award as the best high school basketball player in the state of Indiana in the year 1997; He was selected as a Second Team Parade All-American and as a McDonald's All-American. In the 1997 McDonald's All-American Boys Game he scored 10 points, going 3/12 from the field and 3/4 from the free throw line.

College career

Indiana Recker officially signed to play for Indiana in May 1997 after having verbally committed in his sophomore year of high school. He chose to wear jersey number 4. Despite being only a freshman, Recker was given a starting role from Knight, and in his first year he led the team in steals with an average of 1.5 per game and was the second player for minutes played (939) and points per game.

As a sophomore he was already considered one of the top perimeter players of Indiana's roster, He started 33 of his 34 games, and played a total of 1,080 minutes (31.8 per game). His successful sophomore season earned him a place in the All-Big Ten Third Team, and he was also an Academic All-American. He restricted his choices to Arizona, North Carolina, Florida, Iowa and Notre Dame, and finally decided to transfer to Arizona. and attended the University of Arizona for the Fall semester. While they were on County Road 240 heading to Durango for a carnival, a truck driven by Bob Hardwick invaded the central lane and collided with two other vehicles at 70 mph. In January 2000 he came back to training in Iowa City, Iowa under coach Steve Alford. he sat out only his first semester at Iowa

At Iowa he chose to wear number 24, which was also his high school jersey number. He was immediately given a prominent role within the program, and he became a starter: after starting the first 18 games of the season, he fractured his kneecap and had to miss the remaining 15 games. averaging 18.1 points (a career high), 3.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals, while shooting 43% from three-point range (another career high). Iowa ultimately lost in the title game against Ohio State. At the end of the season, Recker was named Iowa's team MVP along with Reggie Evans, and also set a new record for free throw percentage in a season with 88.5%. Despite being projected as a second-round pick, or even a late first-rounder, but was waived on October 28, 2002.

After being cut from the Heat roster, in December 2002 Recker joined the Asheville Altitude, a team that played in the NBA Development League. In 34 games Recker averaged 8.9 points, 1.7 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 0.5 steals in 18.7 minutes per game: he was mainly used as a reserve, and started only 4 games.

In 2003 he participated to the Reebok Pro Summer League, playing for the Boston Celtics. He did not make the Celtics roster for the NBA season and signed for Euro Roseto, an Italian team based in Roseto which played in the Lega Basket Serie A, the Italian top level. He played 33 games, starting 32, and averaged 17.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 2.1 steals in 31.5 minutes per game. He was very efficient, shooting 60.3% from the field (40.9% from 3 averaging 7.7 shots a game) and 84.8% from the free throw line. He had a career-high 35 points against Skipper Bologna: he shot 11 from 20 from 3-point range,

After leaving Roseto at the end of the season, Recker joined the Indiana Pacers in the 2004 Salt Lake City NBA Summer League, playing 5 games (3 starts) and averaging 9.6 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 0.8 steals in 19.8 minutes per game. Again he did not make the final roster, and signed for Spanish club CB Girona. In the Liga ACB he played 19 games, starting 15, and scored 15.2 points per game, 2.8 rebounds and 0.7 assists.

In 2005 he returned to Italy, this time signing for Basket Livorno. He started all of the 34 games he played in the 2005–06 Serie A season, averaging 14.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 2.0 steals in 29.8 minutes per game, with a season high of 20 points. In 2006 he joined Bilbao Berri, where in his first year he started all 33 games he averaged 14.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 0.5 assists in 28.1 minutes per game. He played two more seasons in Bilbao: in 2007–08, as a starter he averaged 11.2 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game, while in 2008–09 he became one of the first options off the bench (9 starts in 32 games played), and his averages were 7.8 points, 1.9 rebounds and 0.8 assists. After the end of the season, Recker retired from professional basketball.