In my 56 years of watching Iowa BB..

[SCHawkeye2]

re: Connie Hawkins

“He was Julius before Julius, he was Elgin before Elgin, he was Michael before Michael,” the longtime college and pro coach Larry Brown once said in an ESPN documentary on Hawkins. “He was simply the greatest individual player I have ever seen.”

 

[thedukeofearl]

Ray Thompson would have gone down as one of Iowa's all time greats if he had only made a token effort to go to class. He made the game look so easy. In one of his last acts as a Hawkeye he made Hilton Magic go poof to the tune of something like 33 points in a close win. He was also a victim, if not martyr, in the Spring of 1989 Hunter Rawlings fiasco. On the eve of the NCAA's he was declared ineligible for reasons never clearly explained. The Hawks soon drew Valvano and NCState. I'll subtly try to get this off my chest. NO WAY ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH (or any other planet in this universe) DOES RODNEY FREAKING MONROE GO OFF FOR 40 POINTS IF THOMPSON IS CHECKING HIM ON THE PERIMETER.

There. 29 year's later, that finally feels better.

Hunter Rawlins.....

The ass who declared Ray Thompson ineligible. Ray was eligible by NCAA Standards, and BigTen Standards. However, Hunter wanted to show the World that the Hawkeyes were squeaky clean because of the Sports Agent misdeeds, Ronnie Harmon and all that......

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...ion-sports-agents-norby-walters-ronnie-harmon

Mr. Davis wasn't informed until the day before traveling to the game site. He was royally pissed, along with Northside, Myself and every Hawkeye fan on Earth.....

Ray would have stopped Rodney Monroe for certain. Ray was expert playing defense. He had very long arms, hanging almost to his knees.....

Hunter soon left for Dartmouth. Probably wanted to get out of town quickly.....

That was Roy Marble, BJ Armstrong, and Eddie Hortons last season. I always thought that we should have won the National Championship Mr. Davis's first year, and have gone deep when Roy, BJ, and Eddie were seniors.....

Ths Hawkeyes have a curse on them concerning the Final Four and National Championship game.

We played in the title game in1956 against The San Francisco Dons with Bill Russel playing center.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955–56_Iowa_Hawkeyes_men's_basketball_team

We dropped the ball on Connie Hawkins because a gangster type said hello to him at Madison Square Garden during Christmas break. He was a freshman. He was the best college basketball player in America. Had we represented him in court, we would have been Final Four-bound at least 2 years.....

1980, in the Final Four against Louisville Roger Burkman slammed Ronnie Lester to the floor reinjuring his knee. The injury he suffered late in a game against Dayton when we were 20 points ahead.....

http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sp...jon-darsee-ronnie-lester-lute-olson/25249399/

I still have the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, when we beat Georgetown to make the Final Four, with the headline:

Best Team in the East: Iowa

Alas

 

[thedukeofearl]

re: Connie Hawkins

“He was Julius before Julius, he was Elgin before Elgin, he was Michael before Michael,” the longtime college and pro coach Larry Brown once said in an ESPN documentary on Hawkins. “He was simply the greatest individual player I have ever seen.”

Friend of mine was on the Iowa Freshman Team with Connie. Mentioned that Connie would dribble two balls downcourt at full speed and dunk them one after another.....

We literally dropped the ball on that one.....

 

[homes]

Friend of mine was on the Iowa Freshman Team with Connie. Mentioned that Connie would dribble two balls downcourt at full speed and dunk them one after another.....

We literally dropped the ball on that one.....

I would love to know how they got the Hawk out of Brooklyn. It makes no sense. I doubt we'll ever know the whole story.

 

[Motigerhawk]

Hearing rumors in St Louis area he is looking at Mizzou. Hope he stays.

 

[SteveGarvey1]

But who at Iowa is going to teach him these things, particularly the boxing out part? It's old school, but from the best rebounder of all time, maybe Cook could learn something -

Could Fran use part of his salary or potential buyout to bring in Bill for a session or two with Tyler?

 

[hawkeye23]

There is definitely a distinction between best player and most talented. Many NBA players said that Tracy McGrady was the most talented and he was a really, really good player but there were several players during that era that were better players. You could find this at any level of any sport.

TC is certainly talented and glad he's a part of the program but not sure I'd agree with the most talented in Iowa history and as has been stated "by far." Yes, he is flashy with all the dunks. Those are fun to watch but he can't shoot and rarely plays very inspired defense. He does get some nice blocks once in a while when he feels like playing that end. I think he will continue to develop and hopefully he stays then at that point maybe he is talked about as a top 5-10 player in Iowa history. Time will tell. He needs to learn: Hustle beats talent when talent doesn't hustle.

 

[BigD]

I saw Don Nelson and the Hawks beat MN at their place many years ago. Don, Jerry Lucas, and Terry Dischinger from Purdue were all BT first team that year, and all three played center. Nelson was very good on O, but defensively he was other worldly. Followed up with an incredible NBA career.

Sam Williams was incredible. I don't think he was over 6'3" (if you know better, let me know). He could rebound with the best of them and played some really great basketball.

Ronnie Lester was probably the single best player I watched.

Basketball is certainly a team game. The best Iowa team I have ever seen was Ralph Miller's Six Pack. The thing I remember most was their ability to pass the ball. Was a thing of beauty. The other memory is that Benny Mc Gilmer (sp?) would come off the bench, make a great defensive play, get excited, steal the ball and then sprint down the court and launch an off balance shot from about 25 feet and miss the entire basket, at which point Ralph would go crazy and pull him out of the game and yell at him for about 5 solid minutes.

I agree with your Ronnie Lester comment. With Ronnie playing on this team we would have been a top four conference team. Ronnie was extremely quick and could shoot from any where on the floor. He broke team’s defenses down giving the two special k’s easy buckets from close range.

 

[uihawk82]

Do you really need to teach someone how to box out? Or by teach, do you just mean get on him over and over until it sinks in? In my opinion, with defense and rebounding, it's not that Fran can't teach it. It's that he doesn't stress it enough.

a head coach can stress it very easily by calling a timeout and sitting a player's ass on the bench in front of 14,000 people when they don't block out, don't switch, don't go after rebounds.

say what you want but if you didn't play really good and hard on defense for Knight, Izzo, Wooden, and Coach K then you sit a lot, I remember Knight pulling all his starters late in the first half at Illinois and sitting them the rest of the game as they lost big. he made his point

 

[uihawk82]

Could Fran use part of his salary or potential buyout to bring in Bill for a session or two with Tyler?

These big guys need to go to a two week big man's camp on their own dime. That is what they do and that is what young Qbs do by going to a QB development camp and young baseball players do.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Hunter Rawlins.....

The ass who declared Ray Thompson ineligible. Ray was eligible by NCAA Standards, and BigTen Standards. However, Hunter wanted to show the World that the Hawkeyes were squeaky clean because of the Sports Agent misdeeds, Ronnie Harmon and all that......

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...ion-sports-agents-norby-walters-ronnie-harmon

Mr. Davis wasn't informed until the day before traveling to the game site. He was royally pissed, along with Northside, Myself and every Hawkeye fan on Earth.....

Ray would have stopped Rodney Monroe for certain. Ray was expert playing defense. He had very long arms, hanging almost to his knees.....

Hunter soon left for Dartmouth. Probably wanted to get out of town quickly.....

That was Roy Marble, BJ Armstrong, and Eddie Hortons last season. I always thought that we should have won the National Championship Mr. Davis's first year, and have gone deep when Roy, BJ, and Eddie were seniors.....

Ths Hawkeyes have a curse on them concerning the Final Four and National Championship game.

We played in the title game in1956 against The San Francisco Dons with Bill Russel playing center.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955–56_Iowa_Hawkeyes_men's_basketball_team

We dropped the ball on Connie Hawkins because a gangster type said hello to him at Madison Square Garden during Christmas break. He was a freshman. He was the best college basketball player in America. Had we represented him in court, we would have been Final Four-bound at least 2 years.....

1980, in the Final Four against Louisville Roger Burkman slammed Ronnie Lester to the floor reinjuring his knee. The injury he suffered late in a game against Dayton when we were 20 points ahead.....

http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sp...jon-darsee-ronnie-lester-lute-olson/25249399/

I still have the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, when we beat Georgetown to make the Final Four, with the headline:

Best Team in the East: Iowa

Alas

Great job as always Duke. More on 1989 and Hunter Rawlings in a minute.

I need help from a Ralph Miller era fan. Is it true in 1970 against Jacksonville that one of Artis Gilmore's first half fouls was inadvertently charged to Pembroke Burrows, allowing Gilmore to play with five most of second half?

Duke, don't forget 1993. We were a veteran team and one of the best defensive teams in the country with Kenyon Murray's athleticism complementing Earl and Street up front. We were Elite Eight minimum. We all know what happened.

Ahh..1989. May have had more talent than 1987, especially up front. A young freshman by the name of Earl was able to redshirt.

Then Rodell Davis, whose athleticism rivaled Marbles, destroyed his knee for the second preseason in a row. He wouldn't be heard from again until Midway through the 1990 season.

Michael Ingram, an athletic rim protector (and great guy, first hand knowledge) ruptured his patellar tendon with seconds to go in a game Iowa was winning by nearly 50. Done for the year, had pedestrian senior year.

Matt Bullard missed six Big Ten games with a sprained knee.

And Thompson, which leads to Rawlings.

Good call on the Walters/Bloom story and the stench it left. Prop 48 was also the rage at the time. Rawlings then came in on his high horse with his threat to unilaterally make Iowa freshman ineligible.

Hayden Fry hinted in his book that Rawlings was a publicity seeker and was known to interrupt coaches press conferences. Hayden, as only he could, turned the tables on Rawlings in a big way. With Rawlings in attendance, a reporter asked Fry what he thought of Rawlin'g's plan. In front of a large crowd of reporters, Fry's famous quote was "I'd like to redshirt my president."

Every person who ever wanted to tell a boss or supervisor to shove it felt instant cartharsis.

 

[thedukeofearl]

Great job as always Duke. More on 1989 and Hunter Rawlings in a minute.

I need help from a Ralph Miller era fan. Is it true in 1970 against Jacksonville that one of Artis Gilmore's first half fouls was inadvertently charged to Pembroke Burrows, allowing Gilmore to play with five most of second half?

Duke, don't forget 1993. We were a veteran team and one of the best defensive teams in the country with Kenyon Murray's athleticism complementing Earl and Street up front. We were Elite Eight minimum. We all know what happened.

Ahh..1989. May have had more talent than 1987, especially up front. A young freshman by the name of Earl was able to redshirt.

Then Rodell Davis, whose athleticism rivaled Marbles, destroyed his knee for the second preseason in a row. He wouldn't be heard from again until Midway through the 1990 season.

Michael Ingram, an athletic rim protector (and great guy) ruptured his patellar tendon with seconds to go in a game Iowa was winning by nearly 50. Done for the year, had pedestrian senior year.

Matt Bullard missed six Big Ten games with a sprained knee.

And Thompson, which leads to Rawlings.

Good call on the Walters/Bloom story and the stench it left. Prop 48 was also the rage at the time. Rawlings then came in on his high horse with his threat to unilaterally make Iowa freshman ineligible.

Hayden Fry hinted in his book that Rawlings was a publicity seeker and was known to interrupt coaches press conferences. Hayden, as only he could, turned the tables on Rawlings in a big way. With Rawlings in attendance, a reporter asked Fry what he thought of Rawlin'g's plan. In front of a large crowd of reporters, Fry's famous quote was "I'd like to redshirt my president."

Every person who ever wanted to tell a boss or supervisor to shove it felt instant cartharsis.

Short reply. Michigan game and all.....

Artis received his fifth foul late in the second half. We were counting the fouls and wondering why Ralph Miller wasn't screaming like Fran at the referees.....

Pembrook Burrows made the winning basket.....



The A Train.....

 

[Northside Hawk]

Most of us can't comment on anything before 1980 and even then it's hard with the differences in eras. For me this guy is Roy Marble. Fastest guy in the gym at 6'6" with hops and handles. He only ever started practicing his jumper in earnest the summer before his senior year- his admission. And he could play defense when he wanted to.

Legend has it that Marble didn't take to kindly to not being invited to the 1988 Olympic trials by John Thompson. That partially explained his zeal to improve his shooting. Best part of the story? He did a good part of his shooting practice at the old outdoor couuts adjacent to Daum Residence Hall, where many east side students played back in the day.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Short reply. Michigan game and all.....

Artis received his fifth foul late in the second half. We were counting the fouls and wondering why Ralph Miller wasn't screaming like Fran at the referees.....

Pembrook Burrows made the winning basket.....



The A Train.....

Halftime over. Back to business

 

[Northside Hawk]

I agree with your Ronnie Lester comment. With Ronnie playing on this team we would have been a top four conference team. Ronnie was extremely quick and could shoot from any where on the floor. He broke team’s defenses down giving the two special k’s easy buckets from close range.

Ronnie Lester, when healthy, was as good as Isiah Thomas. The original one. And Lute nearly had them both. In 1978 Bobby Knight has to dismiss three players, including his starting and back up point guards, because of and alleged substance incident. Bobby needed a point guard so....

 

[Northside Hawk]

Just thought I'd throw Joey Range's name out there. Too short a career.

Short and sad career, got of on the wrong foot with Alford very quickly, gone well before the season started. I'd take his dad Perry, who teamed with Craig Tucker and Derek Harper to form one of the best defensive backcourts I've ever seen (Illinois, early 80's). Quick and physical, almost like Eddie Sutton's Arkansas backcourts from the same era. Kevin Boyle probably still has nightmares of Harper picking his pocket.

 

[lightning1]

You guys are making me jealous, talking about pre-80s Iowa hoops. I wasn't old enough to watch it. I started in 79'.

 

[brozley]

I can't imagine what cook will do for Iowa if he stays for his senior year.

Cook as a senior 19 PPG 9 RBG Iowa 16-14 record NIT bubble

 

[Northside Hawk]

You guys are making me jealous, talking about pre-80s Iowa hoops. I wasn't old enough to watch it. I started in 79'.

That was a good year to start. Lute's team was finding it's groove, it was a brutally cold winter, and, most importantly, the Iowa Television Network was born. By early 1980 Most Iowa games were on TV. That was a good year to be a Hawkeye fan too.

 

[dahlhawk]

Hunter Rawlins.....

The ass who declared Ray Thompson ineligible. Ray was eligible by NCAA Standards, and BigTen Standards. However, Hunter wanted to show the World that the Hawkeyes were squeaky clean because of the Sports Agent misdeeds, Ronnie Harmon and all that......

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...ion-sports-agents-norby-walters-ronnie-harmon

Mr. Davis wasn't informed until the day before traveling to the game site. He was royally pissed, along with Northside, Myself and every Hawkeye fan on Earth.....

Ray would have stopped Rodney Monroe for certain. Ray was expert playing defense. He had very long arms, hanging almost to his knees.....

Hunter soon left for Dartmouth. Probably wanted to get out of town quickly.....

That was Roy Marble, BJ Armstrong, and Eddie Hortons last season. I always thought that we should have won the National Championship Mr. Davis's first year, and have gone deep when Roy, BJ, and Eddie were seniors.....

Ths Hawkeyes have a curse on them concerning the Final Four and National Championship game.

We played in the title game in1956 against The San Francisco Dons with Bill Russel playing center.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955–56_Iowa_Hawkeyes_men's_basketball_team

We dropped the ball on Connie Hawkins because a gangster type said hello to him at Madison Square Garden during Christmas break. He was a freshman. He was the best college basketball player in America. Had we represented him in court, we would have been Final Four-bound at least 2 years.....

1980, in the Final Four against Louisville Roger Burkman slammed Ronnie Lester to the floor reinjuring his knee. The injury he suffered late in a game against Dayton when we were 20 points ahead.....

http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sp...jon-darsee-ronnie-lester-lute-olson/25249399/

I still have the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, when we beat Georgetown to make the Final Four, with the headline:

Best Team in the East: Iowa

Alas

My favorite part of that win was listening to Al McGuire talk about Georgetown's next opponent, then stop in midsentence in disbelief as Waite sunk the layup and got fouled, then say 'Iowa might just win this.........."