In my 56 years of watching Iowa BB..

[dahlhawk]

Posters are confusing best athlete with the best player. Best athlete Hawkins (who tech. never played), Davis, Cook. Best player Lester, Lester, Lester.

 

[Northside Hawk]

The whole 1987 team could be a candidate for best athlete. Can you imagine what those practices were like, with those guys fighting for playing time?

 

[DDThompson]

Posters are confusing best athlete with the best player. Best athlete Hawkins (who tech. never played), Davis, Cook. Best player Lester, Lester, Lester.

OP said “biggest talent” I read Talent is basketball ability not athletic ability.

Biggest talent that I’ve seen is Lester. With a good knee, Iowa has a NC.

 

[dahlhawk]

OP said “biggest talent” I read Talent is basketball ability not athletic ability.

Biggest talent that I’ve seen is Lester. With a good knee, Iowa has a NC.

Well, we certainly agree on Lester. LOL

 

[BigD]

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

I believe Cook is gone one way or the other. NBA or playing closer to home. Those poor parents driving all the way over to watch this disgraceful example of basketball and coaching. Although the last two games they showed a lot of fight and moxie. This team without Cook next year looks extremely bleak. I said the Joc loss would be a major significance last season. I think this would be even worse. Fingers crossed that he stays but could not blame him if he left.

 

[tksirius]

I believe Cook is gone one way or the other. NBA or playing closer to home. Those poor parents driving all the way over to watch this disgraceful example of basketball and coaching. Although the last two games they showed a lot of fight and moxie. This team without Cook next year looks extremely bleak. I said the Joc loss would be a major significance last season. I think this would be even worse. Fingers crossed that he stays but could not blame him if he left.

Well, at least folks like @InGoodCo would have an excuse to give Fran another year. snicker snicker ha ha

 

[EstronHawkKing]

Cook is the biggest talent I have seen play for the Hawks.

 

[Knight78]

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.

OH, MYY!!!!!!!!!

 

[cohawkeye]

Sam Williams Big Ten MVP, name another Hawkeye that acheived this?

 

[lightning1]

No Freddie Brown love?

 

[thedukeofearl]

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.........."

Loved Al McGuire. He was the goods. The afternoon of the Championship game against North Carolina he rented a motorcycle and drove around stopping at antique shops. Then came back and coached the Warriors to victory.....

 

[StatelineHawk]

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

Still pissed about that. I could not believe it.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Loved Al McGuire. He was the goods. The afternoon of the Championship game against North Carolina he rented a motorcycle and drove around stopping at antique shops. Then came back and coached the Warriors to victory.....

Unusual coach, unusual announcer. It would take Billy Packer 45 seconds to explain the X's and O's of what just happened. Al would make an eight word comment that usually mentioned bartending or cab driving and sum it up better than Billy. It was like watching Jerry Lewis prepare like no tomorrow for his bit, then having Dean Martin stumble in like he'd been in a bar all day and take over the room simply with his charm.

 

[HuckFinn]

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 can confirm. I saw him do just that, in person.

 

[seepig]

Anyone recall that beast Joey Range!? From Galesburg IL