"Best in the Nest" Finals -- VOTE NOW!

HNMitchSmith

HNMitchSmith

Active Member
The "Best in the Nest" bracket started with 64 of the best Hawkeye basketball players of all-time. After more than 205,000 votes, the field has been whittled down to the final two: Ronnie Lester and Andre Woolridge.

Statistically, they are very similar players. It's up to you to cast the final vote and determine who is "Best in the Nest."


RONNIE LESTERCAREER STATSANDRE WOOLRIDGE
1,675Points1,561
226Rebounds272
480Assists575
99Games Played97
16.9PPG15.7
2NCAA Tourney Appearances2

RONNIE LESTER CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

  • 7th on Iowa’s all-time scoring list
  • 9th-best points per game average in school history
  • One of eight Hawkeyes to have their number retired
  • Member of Iowa’s 1979-80 Final Four team
  • One of five Hawkeyes to earn All-America honors in back-to-back seasons
  • One of six Hawkeyes to earn First Team All-Big Ten honors in back-to-back seasons.
  • Named Iowa team MVP three times

ANDRE WOOLRIDGE CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

  • 12th on Iowa’s all-time scoring list
  • One of two players to lead Big Ten in scoring and assists in the same season.
  • Led Big Ten in scoring in 1997 (one of only two Hawkeyes to lead conference in scoring in the last 60 years)
  • One of six Hawkeyes to earn First Team All-Big Ten honors in back-to-back seasons
  • 575 career assists ranks 2nd in school history and tied for 14th-best in Big Ten history
  • AP All-American (3rd Team), 1997
  • Named Iowa team MVP three times

Voting ends at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 4. You can vote once per day.



 
Wow, they are VERY similar. I hope Iowa can land a PG of their caliber someday again. Someone like that just raises the level of play for the entire team.
 
Always thought Woolridge was one of the most underrated Hawks. Don't think he's #2, but he was good. Lester w/o a doubt is the signature Hawkeye with his performance and how he represented Iowa. Lester had some very gritty over achieving players around him.
 
Mitch, once again quit saying that these are the two best to ever wear the uniform. That is complete BS, it is how you erroneously set up the brackets!
 
Hawk90 said:
Mitch, once again quit saying that these are the two best to ever wear the uniform. That is complete BS, it is how you erroneously set up the brackets!
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Sam Williams, John Johnson & Freddie Brown are Iowa's three highest points per game scorers, respectively. Calabria, Kunnert & Vidnovic scored more points per game than Woolridge. Kunnert has the Iowa record for double-doubles. Plus, Kunnert's career 12.7 rebounds per game is an Iowa record. Johnson & Williams also averaged in double figures in rebounds per game.

Brown, Calabria, Johnson, Vidnovic & Williams have championship rings. Calabria & Vidnovic have multiple rings. Williams won the Silver Basketball.

Your tournament is a joke.
 
I wouldn't blame Mitch, I'd blame the voters. If the voters thought that anyone else was better, they'd have voted that way. If people thought that Kurt Looby, for example, was the best player in Iowa history, it wouldn't matter if he was in the most stacked bracket, or if the brackets were totally screwed up (whatever that means), he'd win.
 
99topdawg said:
I wouldn't blame Mitch, I'd blame the voters. If the voters thought that anyone else was better, they'd have voted that way. If people thought that Kurt Looby, for example, was the best player in Iowa history, it wouldn't matter if he was in the most stacked bracket, or if the brackets were totally screwed up (whatever that means), he'd win.
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Really?? Look at the method of which this was done. Bracketing the best by decade and one using Modern Era. Let's get real **** was flawed from the start...


If you wanted a true who is the best to wear a Hawk uniform ranked the top 64 do it right. Look at some of the 64 players Jim Bartles, Kent MaCausland and there were many more.. lol.. It's all in good fun but the format was stupid..
 
ClintonIAfan said:
How about Murray Wier the rampaging redhead? He was not in the tournament at all. How was that?
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Anyone before the 50's were excluded. Like Herb Wilkinson who played at Utah and won the 1944 NCAA Championship and transferred to Iowa 1945 for his last 3 seasons. Wilkinson was a 3x 2nd Team All-American and 3x 1st Team All Big Ten :).. He wasn't worthy. lol I mean how many 3x 1st Team All-Big Ten we have in our history!?
 
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ColumbusHawk said:
Sam Williams, John Johnson & Freddie Brown are Iowa's three highest points per game scorers, respectively. Calabria, Kunnert & Vidnovic scored more points per game than Woolridge. Kunnert has the Iowa record for double-doubles. Plus, Kunnert's career 12.7 rebounds per game is an Iowa record. Johnson & Williams also averaged in double figures in rebounds per game.

Brown, Calabria, Johnson, Vidnovic & Williams have championship rings. Calabria & Vidnovic have multiple rings. Williams won the Silver Basketball.

Your tournament is a joke.
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And they all played before the 3 pt line!!! Can you imagine how many points Freddie Brown would have today? Frankly, as much as I liked watching Woolridge, he couldn't hold the aforementioned players' jockstraps. And I doubt very much if he is in the top 10 all-time Hawkeye players.
 
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I imagine selection is based on results and personality in combination with how long ago. I think post Iowa could also be considered.

That said a great final 4 would be:

Johnson
Brown
Armstrong
Lester

Special Mention: Bob Hanson

Asterisk based on pure talent, but lacking in other attributes:
Evans
Davis
 
Hawk90 said:
And they all played before the 3 pt line!!! Can you imagine how many points Freddie Brown would have today? Frankly, as much as I liked watching Woolridge, he couldn't hold the aforementioned players' jockstraps. And I doubt very much if he is in the top 10 all-time Hawkeye players.
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Plus, no shot clock!
 
PCHawk said:
I want to best the **** out of Mitch.
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More like "Best Hawk in their Era" It's all in fun but if done properly you have the Top 64 players of All Time and seed them and with the amount of work put into this not sure why that couldn't of been done..
 
HawkPrdatr40 said:
More like "Best Hawk in their Era" It's all in fun but if done properly you have the Top 64 players of All Time and seed them and with the amount of work put into this not sure why that couldn't of been done..
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Turns out I can't type while drinking.
 
Mitch put in lots of work and it's all good and was fun. He just missed the mark on it IMO, it would have been pretty cool honestly to see how this would of shaken out had we just stuck to the Top 64 players of All-Time.. Something to think about for next year..
 
Hawk90 said:
Mitch, once again quit saying that these are the two best to ever wear the uniform. That is complete BS, it is how you erroneously set up the brackets!
Click to expand...

If there is some way to set up the brackets that doesn't **** someone off, please enlighten us.

I think he did a pretty damned good job. Besides, it's just for fun. There are no cash prizes.
 
Maybe you seed them based on the number of times they were all-Americans, All-Big 10, League MVP/Silver basketball gets a higher seed, a two time All-American gets a higher seed. All public information. The way Mitch did it, (and I have no problem with it other than calling them the two best to ever wear the uniform) was that he did the equivalent of putting all of the #1 seeds in the same bracket.
 
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