All-Time Starting 5 of Native Iowans

Did everyone forget Bill Logan, Keokuk, Iowa. A member of the Fabulous Five, two Final Fours for the Hawks, a national championship game. Drafted by the Celtics, but chose to go into business. The only native Iowan, other than Chris Street to have his number retired.

It was Bill Russell's San Fran team that beat Iowa in the NC game. Russell goes to the Celtics and it could be argued that he and a few others made the NBA. Logan could have been there, but the NBA was not that big of a deal before Russell and Wilt.
 
Anyone remember Chris Gaines from the mid 1980's Waterloo West teams?

Andre Banks/Michael Morgan type build. Athletic slasher, great finisher, thrived in uptempo system, treated defense like a disease.

His high school teammate Terry Woods played for Johnny Orr at Iowa State after Jeff Hornicek and before Fred Hoiberg. Chris himself was lightly recruited if I recall correctly and ended up playing for Hawaii.
 
Anyone remember Chris Gaines from the mid 1980's Waterloo West teams?

Andre Banks/Michael Morgan type build. Athletic slasher, great finisher, thrived in uptempo system, treated defense like a disease.

His high school teammate Terry Woods played for Johnny Orr at Iowa State after Jeff Hornicek and before Fred Hoiberg. Chris himself was lightly recruited if I recall correctly and ended up playing for Hawaii.


Oh yea, I do.
 
I believe the McCafferys were born out-of-state. What's the framework for this? Native Iowans or just guys who played their high school ball in Iowa?

No more rules. I'd rather people just discuss and have fun with it. Heck, you guys can add guys that have traveled through Iowa. ;)
 
Are you saying he posterized you?

Don't worry, you weren't alone!

No, I never had the opportunity to play against him but I grew up in a town north of Waterloo so knew of him. I was in high school. Sounds like you played against him.

Didn't he go to Hawaii and play or something?
 
No, I never had the opportunity to play against him but I grew up in a town north of Waterloo so knew of him. I was in high school. Sounds like you played against him.

Didn't he go to Hawaii and play or something?
He was three years behind me and the only sports I played during high school were baseball and cross country while growing up in Dubuque.

I'm pretty sure he went to Hawaii.

Those West teams were the Phi Slama Jamas of their era. They called their fast break "the fire brigade". In addition to Gaines and Woods they had Juan and Anthony Thomas, who I believe were no relation, and some post player named Fluhr if I recall.

They loved to get out and run and dunk, especially against lesser competition, but, like Phi Slama Jama, always found a way to lose once they got to state. Blew a big lead to Burlington at state one year and Burlington ended up winning the championship the next day.
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Jason Reese, the Panthers' all-time leading scorer. That guy was playing at a really high level at the end of his career and almost got UNI to the Sweet Sixteen if it weren't for Willie Burton's heroics for the Goofs.
 
Al Eberhard from Springville, IA should be on the list. He scored 1,347 career points and grabbed 806 career rebounds in his time at Missouri. He was recruited by Norm Stewart when Norm was at UNI; when Norm went to Missouri so did Al. He even spent 4 years in the NBA. He is also the uncle of Luke, Tyler and Cody Zeller.
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Jason Reese, the Panthers' all-time leading scorer. That guy was playing at a really high level at the end of his career and almost got UNI to the Sweet Sixteen if it weren't for Willie Burton's heroics for the Goofs.
Shon Morris from Altoona hasn't meen mentioned either. 1407 points and 712 rebounds for Northwestern in his career.
 
Man, this is a tough task. Lots of talent. But I would take this lineup against anyone's. :cool:

Pretty depressing that only one of them was a Hawk, who had his career cut short. :(

G: Kirk Hinrich
G: Fred Hoiberg
F: Doug McDermott
F: Chris Street
F: Nick Collison

To be fair McDermott was considered more of a mid major level player until after his 1st year or two at Creighton. His dad didn't even recruit him to ISU. Was committed to UNI until his dad got the job at Creighton (still in the MVC at the time). Granted he was a little overlooked playing on the same team as Barnes. Kinda crazy to think that Ames had 2 of the top players all time in the state on the same team and both same age.

Based on NBA career

Hinrich
Barnes
Korver
Collision
Lafrentz

Davis is my 6th man

Hawkeyes only

Oliver
Gatens
Jok
Brunner
Street

Haluska is my 6th man
 
Did everyone forget Bill Logan, Keokuk, Iowa. A member of the Fabulous Five, two Final Fours for the Hawks, a national championship game. Drafted by the Celtics, but chose to go into business. The only native Iowan, other than Chris Street to have his number retired.
Favorite story of college player going into business instead of pros.

Red Auerbach, the coach of the Boston Celtics, spotted the talented teenager at Kutscher's and had him play 1-on-1 against University of Kansas standout and national champion, B. H. Born, elected the Most Valuable Player of the 1953 NCAA Finals. Chamberlain won 25–10; Born was so dejected that he gave up a promising NBA career and became a tractor engineer ("If there were high school kids that good, I figured I wasn't going to make it to the pros")
 
Don't recall him being mentioned, but Matt Bullard wasn't too shabby. Unfortunately the knee injury limited his success.
 
Jordan Egleseder probably deserves to be on this list.

Russ Millard as well.

Kevin Kunnert, interestingly, played very little in high school. He hit his growth spurt between junior and senior year, miss time due to mono, and had other nagging ailments.

Dubuque Wahlert also had some powerhouse teams in those days, many of their players coming in from Dickeyville and Hazel Green Wisconsin or from East Dubuque.

Cuba City's Jerry Petitgoue, still going strong after fifty years on the Cuba bench, had to compete against the Wahlert pipeline for players from his own territory for the first two decades of his career. The players that Petitgoue lost to Wahlert probably cost him at least two state championships.
A little off topic...Not sure of your age Northside, I had a cousin from Hazel Green that went on to play at University of Dubuque. Dan Donavan. He was killed in a car crash in probably 72? maybe 73? They had an annual bb tourney in his name for a while.
 
A little off topic...Not sure of your age Northside, I had a cousin from Hazel Green that went on to play at University of Dubuque. Dan Donavan. He was killed in a car crash in probably 72? maybe 73? They had an annual bb tourney in his name for a while.
I would have been eight in 1973.

If Donavan played at Wahlert, like some Hazel Green kids did back then, he probably would have played with Kunnert.

Steve Kaiser, a Wisconsin native who played on Wahlert's 1973 and 74 state runner up teams, has coached baseball and softball at Cuba City over the years while also serving as a varsity basketball assistant and an official at various times. Now in his mid sixties, he coached my ninth grader's freshman and JV teams this year.
 
For anyone considering Ricky Davis ... this play takes him out of contention for me. Jerry Sloan's reaction was priceless.

 

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