Adam
Well-Known Member
If selection Sunday was the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
New AP poll: Iowa ranked 20th
- Thread starter 99topdawg
- Start date
If selection Sunday was the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
Best stretch I ever saw Iowa play was the 1987 Maui classic. In the semifinal we beat eventual national champion Kansas 100-81. In the final we beat eventual elite eight participant Villanova 97-74.
Paraiphrases from Bill Raftery (my memory isn't that good)
"I've never seen defensive pressure like this. Villanova can't even get the ball inbounds."
"I believe Iowa is the best team in the country. They've taken their full court pressure principles from a year ago, and turned them up a notch."
In eight days in January 1987 we played Illinois, Purdue, and Indiana, all ranked in the top ten, and beat them all.
trj
Well-Known Member
That's mine too.
BigD
Well-Known Member
If they can continue to improve on defense then this team could be the surprise team of all of college basketball. When your defense is really good there will be very few games that you are not going to be in at the end of the game.
Wisconsin figured this out a long time ago and it has sustained them for many seasons. With the overall height we have on this team it will make it very hard to penetrate our defense now that Fran is sticking more with a zone defense. I can’t even count all the times I screamed at the TV for him to stay in a zone defense. I also mentioned it here on the forum several times. I hope we continue to get better and better on defense because if we do the sky is the limit.
BigD
Well-Known Member
I agree and that is a perfect example of why defense is sooooooooo important. A great defensive team with just average players will go a long ways. We have an excellent group of players with above average shooting skills away from the basket. Couple that with the strength that has developed In the post positions along with Cook’s explosiveness and opponents are not going to be over looking Iowa anymore.
It’s amazing how good defense can effect all aspects of the game.
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
lol...yep that team peaked really well. But the season left me feeling disappointed losing 5 of the last 7 games, being 1 and done in the BTT losing to Illinois who they dominated on the road, and then getting smoked by Villanova in the NCAA.
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
That team the year before should have won the National Championship. Seven NBA players on that team and Iowa had a 20 point lead against St Johns to win the region and play in the Final Four. It was devastating to lose that game.
It was UNLV
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
We didn't have a post player that was combimation big enough, quick enough, and physical enough to stop Armen Gilliam inside. The only Big Ten player who resembled him was Illinois Ken Norman. Gilliam singlehandedly kept that halftime deficit from being worse.
We know what happened in the second half. Gamble picks up fourth foul early and sits. Team stagnates in half court. Freddie Banks and Greald Paddio get hot from outside.
We would have drawn Indiana in the national semifinal. It would have been a dead even matchup, anybody's game. The game that was played, Indiana vs UNLV, was one of the best college games I've ever seen.
Bobby Knight, who saw a lot of big ten basketball, called our 1987 team the most talented team, one through twelve, he had ever seen among conference teams.
We know what happened in the second half. Gamble picks up fourth foul early and sits. Team stagnates in half court. Freddie Banks and Greald Paddio get hot from outside.
We would have drawn Indiana in the national semifinal. It would have been a dead even matchup, anybody's game. The game that was played, Indiana vs UNLV, was one of the best college games I've ever seen.
Bobby Knight, who saw a lot of big ten basketball, called our 1987 team the most talented team, one through twelve, he had ever seen among conference teams.
Last edited:
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
Continuing the Armen Gilliam theme. He played the four at 6'9". Many players back then will similiar skill sets did the same. Today, Gilliam and most of the rest would be fives. Kevin Durant types who play inside and out. But the eighties were different times. The baby boom generation bequeathed many 7 footers who could play the college game, from Lew Alcindor to Patrick Ewing. By the second half of the eighties that pipeline started to dry up a bit, but that didn't stop college coaches from recruiting them and continuing to try and build teams aroind them. Coaches like Tom Davis were ahead of the curve, building smaller, quicker more athletic teams. It gave us a huge advantage for a couple years there. Meanwhile, the shortage of seven footers who can play has declined even more, and many of them are coming from Europe. Shaq type players are becoming more and more of a rare commodity.
WindsorHawk
Well-Known Member
It's just 4 games but we won them. I thought we would. But many...dare I say most...thought we would be 2-2 or at best 3-1.
Side Note - I think those of us that thought we were fine at PG with Connor had/have higher expectations than those that thought we had no one behind Jordan. Connor is a gamer.
Side Note - I think those of us that thought we were fine at PG with Connor had/have higher expectations than those that thought we had no one behind Jordan. Connor is a gamer.
