Best Starts in Iowa Hoops History

JonDMiller

JonDMiller

Publisher/Founder
Iowa improved to 16-4 after 20 games yesterday. That’s a rare feat for the Iowa basketball program. How rare? Here are the times that it’s happened in the last 35 years:

2000-2001: Iowa started 17-4, the 17th win being Iowa’s first game without an injured Luke Recker. The Hawkeyes were ranked 14th in the nation at that time then lost four-straight and seven of their next eight games. Recker would not return that season and Iowa found a way to win four in four days in the Big Ten tournament.

1988-1989: That Iowa team was a preseason #1 by Sport magazine and 7th in the AP. The rose as high as 5th after a 13-0 start an a win at North Carolina. That team got to 17-3 at the 20 game mark before losing their next two games.

1986-1987: When you start 18-0, you do good things through 20 games

1981-1982: That team started 17-2 and then lost two in a row, so they were 17-3 through 20 games. They also lost their last three regular season games and were stunned by Idaho in the second round of the NCAA tournament, another painful loss I recall from my youth. I remember something about Jerry Dennard from that game…but mostly just the pain of disappointment….because that loss happened on my 11th birthday; March 14th, 1982. That team began the season in the Top 10 and never got lower than 11th until the final poll of the year, which saw Iowa fall to 16th.

1980-1981: That team lost its 16th game to get to 12-4…then it won its next eight games, which meant it was also a 16-4 team after 20 games. That club flamed out in the first round of the NCAA tournament, losing to Wichita State 60-54

I don’t believe it happened between 1971 through the 1979-1980 season. The 1969-1970 team went 14-0 in the Big Ten and 20-5 overall and lost in the NCAA second round, so without even seeing the game by game slate we know that team had at least 16 wins through 20 games. None of Ralph Miller’s other teams did it dating back to the 1964-1965 season…
 
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Lute lost to Wichitall State? Dude is lucky there weren't message boards back then. Although my guess is the troglodytes in the fan base voiced their displeasure in person, which prolly made Lute really happy.
 
okeefe4prez said:
Lute lost to Wichitall State? Dude is lucky there weren't message boards back then. Although my guess is the troglodytes in the fan base voiced their displeasure in person, which prolly made Lute really happy.
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IIRC, that game had a weird ending and Wichita St. got a bunch of technical FTs to shoot. I might be thinking of another game though.
 
I love reading this, every time I see stuff like this I reflect on how far this program has come along. Hopefully in 2 weeks we can revisit this and talk about how this is one of the best starts through 24 games. Three of the next 4 games are at home but I would argue this is one of the toughest stretch of games on the schedule with MSU, @ Ill, OSU, and Michigan coming up.
 
glidinghawk said:
IIRC, that game had a weird ending and Wichita St. got a bunch of technical FTs to shoot. I might be thinking of another game though.
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Yes, game was tied 56-all, we had the ball, missed a shot, then fouled in mad scramble. We then called a time-out we didn't have. Coach Gene Smithson's kid then hit four FTs with all but no time left to seal the deal. It was a Sunday game.

And that was actually a weird weekend all around. Number one DePaul went down to St. Joe's after Skip Dillard--a 90% FT shooter--missed front end of a one-and-one while up 48-47. St Joe's took ball down, got remarkably easy layup to win, 49-48, in what turned out to be Mark Aguirre's last college game. The same day, Arkansas took out defending champ Louisville on a behind-the-halfcourt-line buzzer beater. A couple of other high seeds also went down.
 
The staff put together a great team this year.I love to keep them around for 5 years or more. Let's go Hawks! and Same goes for another sports. Go Lady Hawks!:D
 
I believe that Wichita St. loss was actually played on their home court, something the NCAA has done away with since then. I can still see Bobby Hansen calling that TO even though everyone on the team except Lute seemed to realize that we had none left.
 
glidinghawk said:
IIRC, that game had a weird ending and Wichita St. got a bunch of technical FTs to shoot. I might be thinking of another game though.
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That's how I remember it. I think Lute called a timeout when there were none left. Bobby Hansen was trying to warn him to no avail, if I rememeber correctly. It was shocking and a bitter disappointment......

:rolleyes:
 
MisterLucky said:
I believe that Wichita St. loss was actually played on their home court, something the NCAA has done away with since then. I can still see Bobby Hansen calling that TO even though everyone on the team except Lute seemed to realize that we had none left.
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That is probably how it was. There was mass confusion at the time but we received a technical for it and lost the game....

Another stinger....

:rolleyes:
 
Well, either way if something like that happened today Miller would need to turn the board off for about a week because it would be ugly in nyah.
 
hawkeyebob62 said:
Yes, game was tied 56-all, we had the ball, missed a shot, then fouled in mad scramble. We then called a time-out we didn't have. Coach Gene Smithson's kid then hit four FTs with all but no time left to seal the deal. It was a Sunday game.

And that was actually a weird weekend all around. Number one DePaul went down to St. Joe's after Skip Dillard--a 90% FT shooter--missed front end of a one-and-one while up 48-47. St Joe's took ball down, got remarkably easy layup to win, 49-48, in what turned out to be Mark Aguirre's last college game. The same day, Arkansas took out defending champ Louisville on a behind-the-halfcourt-line buzzer beater. A couple of other high seeds also went down.
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[video]http://thegazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/4339999-LCL-Iowa-Hawkeyes-Basketball-History-01_09_2009-09.17.46-300x279.jpg[/video]
 
Seth53 said:
[video]http://thegazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/4339999-LCL-Iowa-Hawkeyes-Basketball-History-01_09_2009-09.17.46-300x279.jpg[/video]
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Although WSU was a good team that year, we were better. It sucked playing on their home court in front of a raucous crowd. That team did have two future NBAers in Antoine Carr and Cliff Levingston. I also remember they had MTXE on the sides of their jerseys..."mental toughness, extra effort.
 
glidinghawk said:
IIRC, that game had a weird ending and Wichita St. got a bunch of technical FTs to shoot. I might be thinking of another game though.
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I was there. It was also a perfect example of why teams should never have a home court advantage in the NCAA tourney.
 
BlazinHawk said:
Although WSU was a good team that year, we were better. It sucked playing on their home court in front of a raucous crowd. That team did have two future NBAers in Antoine Carr and Cliff Levingston. I also remember they had MTXE on the sides of their jerseys..."mental toughness, extra effort.
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MTXE - On the uni and the shorts.

12vBjp.SlMa.80.jpg
 
IIRC, those three straight losses that Jon mentioned to close out the '81-'82 season were pretty memorable and included a controversial 3OT loss to Minnesota at the Fieldhouse (phantom foul), an OT loss at Illinois and the infamous "Jim Bain" game at Purdue. Losing the second round game to Idaho in yet another OT game was just the frosting on a very distasteful end to that season.
 
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okeefe4prez said:
Lute lost to Wichitall State? Dude is lucky there weren't message boards back then. Although my guess is the troglodytes in the fan base voiced their displeasure in person, which prolly made Lute really happy.
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Yeah, he lost that game. Can't be put on the players. In the first half, we ran our offense. Brookins was shooting well. We were up at half time (had to look it up, we were up 11 at half). There was no shot clock then and Lute figured that since Wichita State had some good players (future NBA stars Cliff Levingston and Antoine Carr) that we should try to ice the game. We came out in the second half in the 4-corner offense trying to stall the entire second half away. Bad decision. We were playing "not to lose" instead of playing to win... and we ended up losing.
 
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