Elite Eight Memories

MelroseHawkins said:
I remember watching it with my friends in one of my friends basement. I think I was a sophmore in HS.

Damn right, That was the one time in my life (that I remember) that Iowa was viewed as a legit National Champion contender. Nobody was interested in playing Iowa and that full court press. I think they were a 2 seed, correct? Iowa was one of the studs of that year. My brother-in-law and I still talk about how disheartening that game was. B-in-law states that was the game that broke him as a fan, or at least ALL IN Iowa. Crushing to say the least.

Man, what could have been. I think UNLV was the one hurdle in the way that year.
Click to expand...
Weird, but so was that second half. And surreal. I've never felt more helpless, and frustrated watching a sporting event in my life. That was our equivalent of the Bucky Dent game for Red Sox fans. You just mentioned that you and your brother in law still talk about how disheartening that game was.

Another poster said he has had a 31 year hangover from that game. (Not literally, you know what I mean).

I could see some people sitting on their couches staring into space for two or three hours after that game, totally unable to digest what happened.

Throwing things at a TV when your team drowns is hardly uncommon. But that game was. It sure put me over the edge.

You're right about UNLV being our worst possible matchup. The only thing our team lacked that year was a true interior defensive stopper. Gilliam killed us. I mentioned in another thread how incredibly tough our whole region was that year.

If we had Acie Earl on that team, some games may of had to have been stopped via technical knockout. When he lleft he was 7th all time in career blocked shots. In the entire NCAA.
 
Last edited:
Northside Hawk said:
Weird, but so was that second half. And surreal. I've never felt more helpless, and frustrated watching a sporting event in my life. That was our equivalent of the Bucky Dent game for Red Sox fans. You just mentioned that you and your brother in law still talk about how disheartening that game was.

Another poster said he has had a 31 year hangover from that game. (Not literally, you know what I mean).

I could see some people sitting on their couches staring into space for two or three hours after that game, totally unable to digest what happened.

Throwing things at a TV when your team drowns is hardly uncommon. But that game was. It sure put me over the edge.

You're right about UNLV being our worst possible matchup. The only thing our team lacked that year was a true interior defensive stopper. Gilliam killed us. I mentioned in another thread how incredibly tough our whole region was that year.

If we had Acie Earl on that team, some games may of had to have been stopped via technical knockout. When he lleft he was 7th all time in career blocked shots. In the entire NCAA.
Click to expand...


Experiencing this was a gift and a curse at the same time. This run happened during the most cool part of my life that it could have happened. A sophmore in HS just starting on my HS basketball career. Iowa with a terrific team making runs and a deep run that year. It was all good back then. It was a gift that it happened during that pivotal time in my life when I could really enjoy it with my friends. It was a curse the way it went down and the memories that can come back. I think of the younger individuals who have not yet experienced anything like that, then I view it as a gift.

Some teams make that run every year.
 
Breakdown and bracket of the 1987 NCAA tourney. Indiana took the championship on Keith Smart's last second baseline shot. Iowa got screwed and was put in the west. Of course, Steve Alford was one of the most important players for Indiana and had an outstanding tournament. May have been MVP. Not sure though.

It was the first NCAA tournament to use the 3 pt shot. Rick Pitino took his first team Providence to the Final Four and Providence was viewed as a "Cinderella" team.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_NCAA_Division_I_Men's_Basketball_Tournament

Line Score

Scoring
1 2 T
Nevada-Las Vegas 42 42 84
Iowa 58 23 81


Roy Marble was held to just 9 pt's.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Breakdown and bracket of the 1987 NCAA tourney. Indiana took the championship on Keith Smart's last second baseline shot. Iowa got screwed and was put in the west. Of course, Steve Alford was one of the most important players for Indiana and had an outstanding tournament. May have been MVP. Not sure though.

It was the first NCAA tournament to use the 3 pt shot. Rick Pitino took his first team Providence to the Final Four and Providence was viewed as a "Cinderella" team.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_NCAA_Division_I_Men's_Basketball_Tournament

Line Score

Scoring
1 2 T
Nevada-Las Vegas 42 42 84
Iowa 58 23 81


Roy Marble was held to just 9 pt's.
Click to expand...
didn't Iowa sweep IU that year? I was at the game at Carver and I recall we kicked their asses very easily.
 
EstronHawkKing said:
I was a friends house with some other buddies as well. Amazing how our moods changed from the first half to the second half.
Click to expand...

Damn right they changed. Iowa could do NO wrong in the first half and put of a gawdy 58 pts and had a 16 point lead. It all looked secure. Then in 2nd half could do a thing and stop their two players. At end, all just sick to our stomachs and quiet. I can still pull that feeling back now when think about it. Remember just staring at the TV sick to my stomach.
 
I was pretty young at the time but I do remember Iowa holding on to their halftime lead for about 5 minutes or so in the 2nd half and then it falling apart fast. I believe they went from up 15 with 15:00 left to down 8 with 6 minutes left and they ended up having to comeback themselves.

One thing I will never, ever forget is Iowa down 82-81 with about 20ish seconds left and they forced a 10 second violation and got the ball back. Gamble had the ball at the top of the key and completely and I mean completely, bricked a wide open lob pass to Lohaus (sp?). Beautiful play design out of a timeout and Lohaus was uncovered.

To this day my father hasn't forgiven Tom Davis for that season.
 
Xerxes said:
I was pretty young at the time but I do remember Iowa holding on to their halftime lead for about 5 minutes or so in the 2nd half and then it falling apart fast. I believe they went from up 15 with 15:00 left to down 8 with 6 minutes left and they ended up having to comeback themselves.

One thing I will never, ever forget is Iowa down 82-81 with about 20ish seconds left and they forced a 10 second violation and got the ball back. Gamble had the ball at the top of the key and completely and I mean completely, bricked a wide open lob pass to Lohaus (sp?). Beautiful play design out of a timeout and Lohaus was uncovered.

To this day my father hasn't forgiven Tom Davis for that season.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I believe he might have thrown the alley-oop off the top of the backboard or something.
 
EstronHawkKing said:
didn't Iowa sweep IU that year? I was at the game at Carver and I recall we kicked their asses very easily.
Click to expand...
Split in 1987. I was at the Carver game too. In eight days they played three top ten teams (Illinois, Purdue, Indiana) and beat them all.

Bobby Knight has stated on multiple occasions that he didn't think Iowa would lose a game after his loss in Carver.

Iowa did sweep Indiana in 1981 when they were also National Champions. Tony Freeman's dad was on the 1987 Indiana team.
 
I find the anti-Mr. Davis rhetoric interesting, Perhaps he wasn't a high level coach, but compared to what we have had at Iowa since, I would rather go through the heartbreak of a elite 8 loss. Given the Lute-Mr. Davis years, way more often than not, it was fun to fill the brackets and watch the selection show. Been kind of a mess ever since.
 
WindsorHawk said:
When did Gamble pick up his 3rd (or was it 4th) foul? Because that was a major factor in this game as I recall.
Click to expand...


Early in the second half. It was an invisible foul. One of the main reasons we lost the game. Gamble sat while UNLV made their comeback. Had a chance at the end o win it though. Lobbed a pass to Brad Lohaus underneath the basket, but the pass was off, as Billy Cunningham mentioned.....
 
People forget how good the B1G was from the late 80’s until the end of the Fab Five run. That 6 or 7 year stretch the league was deep and full of pros.

This isn’t really relevant to this thread I am just reminiscing.:)
 
Northside Hawk said:
Split in 1987. I was at the Carver game too. In eight days they played three top ten teams (Illinois, Purdue, Indiana) and beat them all.

Bobby Knight has stated on multiple occasions that he didn't think Iowa would lose a game after his loss in Carver.

Iowa did sweep Indiana in 1981 when they were also National Champions. Tony Freeman's dad was on the 1987 Indiana team.
Click to expand...

Iowa was better than that Indiana team. On a neutral court Iowa beats them, that press was a nightmare to Indiana. It was a favorable matchup against Syracuse. Iowa simply wet the bed against UNLV. That 86-87 Iowa team, that 86-87 season will probably never happen again in my lifetime.
 
trj said:
Iowa was better than that Indiana team. On a neutral court Iowa beats them, that press was a nightmare to Indiana. It was a favorable matchup against Syracuse. Iowa simply wet the bed against UNLV. That 86-87 Iowa team, that 86-87 season will probably never happen again in my lifetime.
Click to expand...
The key paragraph in my post is the second one. I'll take Knight's word for it. He's won a few more games than I have.
 
Seeing a common thread with many of these posts, including my own OP. It was a watershed afternoon. One of those events where you always remember where you were and what you were doing. From a Sports standpoint for an Iowa fan it was right up there with fans who lost because of the immaculate reception, Bucky Dent, Steve Bartman, Christian Laettner's shot. Rationality went out the window that day. Some posters say they've never recovered. From a pure sports psyche standpoint, that's not out of question. They live their normal lives and go about their normal business but that 1987 UNLV left a mark like few other games have. I personally feel like Indiana, then Syracuse would have been matchups slightly in our favor. We'll never know.

BTW, I'm not one of those Bartman blamers, (national perception not mine) nor do I want this to devolve into a baseball debate. The real goat of that inning was Aramis Rameriez who one, wasn't guarding the line when Juan Pierre's double whistled by him and two, didn't make much of an effort to go for it. Some of that was also on Dusty Baker for not having his late inning defense in position. Pierre's double should have been the second out of the inning.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top