Iowa's Caleb Recker wins the 2-ball title ... with one hand

By Nicki Jhabvala

Caleb Recker wanted to be crowned the 2007 ACIS Basketball National Champion so bad that he was willing to do almost anything for it.

Iowa's Caleb Recker had only one good hand -- and that was enough to win the ACIS 2-ball championship. Bryan Rinnert/ 3Sight.com

The senior from the University of Iowa picked up an all-expense-paid trip to the UNC-Chapel Hill campus with his intramural basketball team, UISSC, to vie for the national title after the team won the Nebraska ACIS Basketball Regionals on March 4.

Along with the regional title, Recker was named MVP in Nebraska and was hoping to score a repeat at "The Thrill on the Hill" ? even if it meant not using his right hand.

And no, he's not a lefty.

A hard fall from being undercut in an IM game earlier in the season left Recker with two torn ligaments and a crushed bone in his wrist. But he wasn't going to get let a boo-boo get in the way of his team's shot at the national title.

"I can do some stuff," he said. "The doctor said it would hurt more if I tried to play on it, but he also said I couldn't do anymore damage."

Yep, the injury was bad enough that it couldn't get any worse. And apparently, that was music to Recker's ears.

While his left-handed jumper may not be the prettiest thing, it goes in. Quite often, actually.

"It definitely hurts the team with him not being able to use his right," Recker's UISSC teammate Rob Stork said. "But he can still shoot, and with a pretty good percentage."

When UISSC arrived in Chapel Hill, the team struck gold ? for the first two days, anyway. The Iowans downed four teams en route to a semifinal appearance against Morehouse College's "We Are Here" on April 29.

That's when the UISSC magic ran out. But Recker had one last chance to bring home a trophy from the tournament.

With teammate Clark Anderson, the due outshined their competitors in the Pontiac 2-ball Championship ? an event where the shooters had drain as many buckets as they could in a minute's span from 10 spots on the court that were each worth a certain number of points.

A 53-point tally was enough to win it, and Anderson and Recker brought Iowa a golden 2-ball trophy ? bum wrist and all.

For Recker, the victory capped his stellar IM career.

He now has a packed trophy case with his team's ACIS Regional title, his regional MVP, his flag football team's 2006 ACIS National title, AND, his MVP award from the flag football championship game.

So how does he celebrate his athletic achievements?

Surgery.