Ames Basketball Team

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Not4cy

Well-Known Member
One word. WOW!!! That team is absolutely amazing. I watched them last night vs the #3 ranked team in the state, Southeast Polk and they absolutely blew them away. Ames was up 15-1 to start the game and Barnes didn't score a single point. Ames was up by 30 at the half. Southeast Polk made 4 baskets the entire 1st half. I honestly believe Ames would win the state championship without Harrison Barnes. They are simply, SICK GOOD! I doubt we will ever see another basketball team in this state as good as they are. They are currently ranked #4 in the nation. (I am not sure how you could rank all teams in the nation in High School). If you are a fan of basketball, I would advise going to watch Ames play. This was the first time that I watched them play and they are Amazing.

By the way, Harrison Barnes has a fall away jump shot that looks like Kobe or Jordan.
 
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Not4cy said:
One word. WOW!!! That team is absolutely amazing. I watched them last night vs the #3 ranked team in the nation, Southeast Polk and they absolutely blew them away. Ames was up 15-1 to start the game and Barnes didn't score a single point. Ames was up by 30 at the half. Southeast Polk made 4 baskets the entire 1st half. I honestly believe Ames would win the state championship without Harrison Barnes. They are simply, SICK GOOD! I doubt we will ever see another basketball team in this state as good as they are. They are currently ranked #4 in the nation. (I am not sure how you could rank all teams in the nation in High School). If you are a fan of basketball, I would advise going to watch Ames play. This was the first time that I watched them play and they are Amazing.

By the way, Harrison Barnes has a fall away jump shot that looks like Kobe or Jordan.
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I'm thinking you mean "in the state" here
 
How would they stack up against the Mason City teams of 96 and 97 that Oliver was on?


This is an honest question- I don't follow high school basketball closely but saw those teams play and never saw a better high school team than that.


They had a 7 footer... or 6'11 that also played D1. A couple others on that team played in college as well I believe.
 
MC would win hands down!!! Just kidding

I was on that team. We were ranked as high as 16th in the Country that year. To be honest I think Ames would probably beat us. Although we blew teams out that year by and average of 29 pts a game and at that time there were a lot more Division 1 players in the CIML then there are now.

Our Center in 97 was 6'11. in 96 we had a guy that was 6'10 also so that year we had two starters that were over 6'10".
Our other guard played at Truman ST and they went to the Div II Final Four so he was a solid player.
 
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I remember the Waterloo West teams from mid 80s (1986?). Terry Woods (ISU), Mr Basketball Chris Gaines (U Hawaii), Anthony Thomas (U of San Diego) and I believe his brother maybe Dion. Seems like they had 4 guys play D1 basketball and 1 or 2 play D1 football? They were VERY athletic.
 
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masoncityhawkeye said:
MC would win hands down!!! Just kidding

I was on that team. We were ranked as high as 16th in the Country that year. To be honest I think Ames would probably beat us. Although we blew teams out that year by and average of 29 pts a game and at that time there were a lot more Division 1 players in the CIML then there are now.

Our Center in 97 was 6'11. in 96 we had a guy that was 6'10 also so that year we had two starters that were over 6'10".
Our other guard played at Truman ST and they went to the Div II Final Four so he was a solid player.
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That was Harriman back in 96, right? I really liked his game back then.
 
Agreed on all accounts. Saw the game as well. Our team (SEP) aren't slouches by any means. We beat #2 and #4 in the state last week, but Ames is in a league of their own. It's a concerted team effort not The Barnes Show by any means. Ames could take on any college team in Iowa and have a completely legitimate chance at beating them. No question.
 
Class of 96 was Heston, not that good but tall and physical
Class of 97 was Harriman, he started at Nebraska and ended up at Jacksonville St.
 
This one year, I would love to see an Illinois vs Iowa state champ game,just to see if Ames could follow up that drumming of Waukegan by beating Whitney Young or whoever wins state here in Illinois. Whitney Young has upwards of a 9-10 Div 1 players on their roster again,altho some are young. PG Starks is going to Oregon St.,shooting guard Anthony Johnson to Purdue,Sam Thompson is top 25 nationwide in his junior class, Tommy Hamilton jr. is top 10 in his frosh class nationwide, just for starters.
It would be a fun game this year, but most years Iowa would probably get hammered.
 
Not4cy said:
One word. WOW!!! That team is absolutely amazing. I watched them last night vs the #3 ranked team in the state, Southeast Polk and they absolutely blew them away. Ames was up 15-1 to start the game and Barnes didn't score a single point. Ames was up by 30 at the half. Southeast Polk made 4 baskets the entire 1st half. I honestly believe Ames would win the state championship without Harrison Barnes. They are simply, SICK GOOD! I doubt we will ever see another basketball team in this state as good as they are. They are currently ranked #4 in the nation. (I am not sure how you could rank all teams in the nation in High School). If you are a fan of basketball, I would advise going to watch Ames play. This was the first time that I watched them play and they are Amazing.

By the way, Harrison Barnes has a fall away jump shot that looks like Kobe or Jordan.
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completely agree. i watched barnes go dunk happy in the 4th quarter versus waukee a few weeks ago. Had a string of 3 straight breakaway dunks, one was over a kid, the other was a reverse 360. i think he finished with 32, only saw him miss maybe one shot.

team is sick good.
 
I've seen the Ames team play 5 times including state last year and twice this year. They are a very good team; no doubt about it. In talking with some coaches who are familiar with Ames, they said the way to beat them is to have very strong guard play along with someone physical inside to really hit the boards.

Ames likes to run the 2-2-1 trapping press and then they drop back into kind of a matchup zone. The 2-2-1 is very difficult just because of the length they have; very difficult to pass over.

I saw that Mason City team play several times as well and I will tell you right now that the 2-2-1 zone would not work against that team. Oliver was pretty much unpressable (even in college) and the two and three guards for Mason City were good ball handlers as well. I don't think there is a guard in the CIML right now that is as good as Oliver and Peterson were on that team from Mason City.

What I have seen from Ames is that they do miss baskets but they always get the offensive rebound. Kohler and McDermott, expecially, they cleanup a lot of misses down low. I don't think those two could handle Harriman from that Mason City team. I'm guessing he was 6'11" about 270lbs and he was really skilled for a guy that size.

I think it would be a great game. Mason City wouldn't be able to guard Barnes but they also didn't run a lot of man to man; played a similar matchup zone to what Ames runs. Mason City went through a very good conference those years, with Ryan Sears and company, Andy Woodley and that Hartwig kid that played football at KSU, and then Urbandale with McKinney and a couple of other good players.

It would be a interesting game.
 
Cyclones17 said:
They were actually 3A and beat the 4A title winners by 15 points (wasn't even that close)

My vote for best team goes to Iowa Falls with Collison or this Ames team
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I was just going to say that!!! Collison inside and Ludemen ( not spelled right) were sick together. I dont think ames is tough enough inside to stop them.
 
Cyclones17 said:
They were actually 3A and beat the 4A title winners by 15 points (wasn't even that close)

My vote for best team goes to Iowa Falls with Collison or this Ames team
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Right. Johnston was class 3A, but moved to 4A in 96. Played all the metro schools and beat them all including the 4A champ. Won 2 state titles and 50 games in a row. I'm a little biased, because I was on the team. ;)
 
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I just think high school basketball in Iowa and the CIML is very poor this year. Ames may be the best of all time but they sure don't play the same quality as some of the other teams did.
 
imported_Oleo31 said:
I remember the Waterloo West teams from mid 80s (1986?). Terry Woods (ISU), Mr Basketball Chris Gaines (U Hawaii), Anthony Thomas (U of San Diego) and I believe his brother maybe Dion. Seems like they had 4 guys play D1 basketball and 1 or 2 play D1 football? They were VERY athletic.
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I remember that team well and I think it was '86. I think they got beat by Cedar Rapids Kennedy in the finals(Al Lorenzen). The East Waterloo team of 1990 that won it all was an outstanding team and very deep. Not many big names except for Mike Davis. I think both of those teams beat this Ames team. Barnes is very good but the team is average if you take him out, I've seen them play a couple times. Hoiberg's '91 team probably beats them also. It's a good team but let's not get crazy.
 
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