Players that broke your heart

H

hawkeyesgonewild

Well-Known Member
Player that you thought was going yo be hawkeyes but last minute chose another team.mine
Marcus Paige
Nick Collison
Nick was a hawkeye but tom Davis was run out of town.
 
hawkeyesgonewild said:
Player that you thought was going yo be hawkeyes but last minute chose another team.mine
Marcus Paige
Nick Collison
Nick was a hawkeye but tom Davis was run out of town.
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Good choices. I would add Raef Lafrentz, McDonald's All-American who went to Kansas and played in the NBA for 11 years. It may not have been a last minute change but definitely a heart breaker. I guess he is an assistant coach now at Decorah High.
 
I try not to get too wrapped up in where kids choose to play basketball. When one door closes, another one opens.
Sometimes difficult to remember that, but for my own peace of mind, I gotta.
 
Raef Lafrentz is mine by a long shot. He was such a popular recruit that gyms were standing room only every where he played. Our local high school played them in Monona, my wife and I went to the game and it was nuts. Our team fell way behind but almost came back in the 4th quarter but we had no one that could guard Raef.
 
1hawkeye1 said:
I try not to get too wrapped up in where kids choose to play basketball. When one door closes, another one opens.
Sometimes difficult to remember that, but for my own peace of mind, I gotta.
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Right example being if Paige would have came to Iowa would MG have still came? Or Clemmons. It's all a matter of timing of when they decided too I suppose but a backcourt of MG and Paige would have been pretty fun with Woodbury and then a younger Jok and Uthoff

To me it goes back to LaFrentz. He would have been just program changing. He dominated at Kansas just dominated. The what ifs with him coming to Iowa instead are huge. What other players would have then came to Iowa and how's that shape Dr Toms tenure? It's not saying too much to say that Iowa could have a banner hanging in the rafters if Lafrentz would have came. It's just not. No other player on our past radar would have that what if attached to them realistically. An argument could be made for Hinrich and Collison as a duo as well. But individually to me it's still Lafrentz
 
ssckelley said:
Raef Lafrentz is mine by a long shot. He was such a popular recruit that gyms were standing room only every where he played. Our local high school played them in Monona, my wife and I went to the game and it was nuts. Our team fell way behind but almost came back in the 4th quarter but we had no one that could guard Raef.
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Our high school team (Rockwell City-Lytton) made it to the barn (Vets) LaFrentz's senior year. We played them in the very first round. It had to have been early 90's? I was maybe 6 or 7.

We had a pretty good team that year and we had the Wade brothers who were both like six foot six at least. I had no idea who Raef LaFrentz was, just wasn't paying much attention to sports yet. I'm thinking we're good, we've got the Wade brothers and Jason Ranthum! He was my idol (high school QB, guard on the bball team).

Monona went on to smoke us. LaFrentz did whatever he wanted to. At one point, he dunked it so hard that he twisted the hoop/backboard. They had to delay the game for probably 15-20 minutes while they fixed it. That was my introduction to LaFrentz. :eek:
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Right example being if Paige would have came to Iowa would MG have still came? Or Clemmons. It's all a matter of timing of when they decided too I suppose but a backcourt of MG and Paige would have been pretty fun with Woodbury and then a younger Jok and Uthoff

To me it goes back to LaFrentz. He would have been just program changing. He dominated at Kansas just dominated. The what ifs with him coming to Iowa instead are huge. What other players would have then came to Iowa and how's that shape Dr Toms tenure? It's not saying too much to say that Iowa could have a banner hanging in the rafters if Lafrentz would have came. It's just not. No other player on our past radar would have that what if attached to them realistically. An argument could be made for Hinrich and Collison as a duo as well. But individually to me it's still Lafrentz
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Iowa may not have gotten a banner to hang but the odds would have been good to have gotten at least an elite 8 banner. It sure would have been fun to watch anyway.

Pretty sure losing Raef wound up costing Tom Davis his job, which was unfortunate since that sent the basketball program into a tailspin.
 
ssckelley said:
Iowa may not have gotten a banner to hang but the odds would have been good to have gotten at least an elite 8 banner. It sure would have been fun to watch anyway.

Pretty sure losing Raef wound up costing Tom Davis his job, which was unfortunate since that sent the basketball program into a tailspin.
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Sure it's all conjecture on my part. I wouldn't put the farm on it that Iowa wins one with Raef. But it wouldn't have been impossible.

Yeah that's exactly where I was going with it affecting Davis. I mean how things ended sure wouldn't have happened. He wouldn't have been so unceremoniously hung out to dry like that. To me LaFrentz was the ultimate domino starter. He comes to Iowa and among other things Collison and Heinrich probably become Hawks later on. Obviously that affects the Kansas program and Roy Williams a ton too. Just those 3 guys would have had a huge affect on history.
 
For me as a kid growing up in the early 80's and seeing some of those teams progress and then reach success in the late 80's my heart break came when I heard Roy Marble had been suspended for drugs his rookie year. It was hard on me when one of the guys you idolize has issues like that.
 
SteveGarvey1 said:
Ricky Davis for leaving after one year. Most talented player of Mr. Davis era.
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He and Dean Oliver could have made a hell of a backcourt if they put 2,3,4 yrs together. But yeah I think he was quoted as saying he'd rather be a bench warmer in the NBA then a starter at Iowa.. or Something to that effect. So that tells ya where his head was. Dude could jump out of the gym and had a heck of a midrange jumper that he got better at going outside on the older he got. But he was not the best team player at any stop he was at unfortunately...
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Raef Lafrentz came to mind first. It was a double hit because that same year class had Kirk Hinrich who also spurred Iowa and went Kansas. Double whammy that year.
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You may have Lafrentz and Collison mixed up. Hinrich and Collison were tied at the hip with their time at Kansas. Lafrentz was years earlier. He was the domino starter though. If he'd have came to Iowa so may have those other two...
 
Hawkfnntn said:
He and Dean Oliver could have made a hell of a backcourt if they put 2,3,4 yrs together. But yeah I think he was quoted as saying he'd rather be a bench warmer in the NBA then a starter at Iowa.. or Something to that effect. So that tells ya where his head was. Dude could jump out of the gym and had a heck of a midrange jumper that he got better at going outside on the older he got. But he was not the best team player at any stop he was at unfortunately...
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He also was not a fan of TD's substitution patterns. He mentioned its hard to get in a rhythm of a game when you're always going in and out.

But it was pretty clear he was a "me" guy throughout his college and NBA career. Although its interesting that he continued playing after his NBA career was over just trying to get back for one more shot. Going overseas and then a few seasons in the G League (then D League) in which he took the league minimum, even though he was one of the accomplished players, so his team could sign other players.

I read an article a few years ago in which he sounded like a lot of regular guys in their mid 30s. He realized the mistakes he made in his 20s. He admitted he was a selfish player who mainly looked to score (he even viewed Lebron as a supporting player when Cleveland drafted him).

All in all, just too bad. He could have been such a great player particularly on defense because he was a great athlete even by NBA standards for a backcourt player. I still remember Garnett desperately wanting him on the Wolves back in the the early 2000s. They even signed him to a huge contract but Cleveland had his restricted rights and matched the offer so he had to stay. A decision in which Cleveland ultimately regretted. When he did finally get to the Wolves in 2006 they quickly realized they didn't want him and traded him away after a year.
 
GoHawks24 said:
Our high school team (Rockwell City-Lytton) made it to the barn (Vets) LaFrentz's senior year. We played them in the very first round. It had to have been early 90's? I was maybe 6 or 7.

We had a pretty good team that year and we had the Wade brothers who were both like six foot six at least. I had no idea who Raef LaFrentz was, just wasn't paying much attention to sports yet. I'm thinking we're good, we've got the Wade brothers and Jason Ranthum! He was my idol (high school QB, guard on the bball team).

Monona went on to smoke us. LaFrentz did whatever he wanted to. At one point, he dunked it so hard that he twisted the hoop/backboard. They had to delay the game for probably 15-20 minutes while they fixed it. That was my introduction to LaFrentz. :eek:
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Pretty cool how Jason Ramthum broke his dad's (Larry) all time scoring record at RC-L. Awesome athlete and great kid.

LaFrentz is by far at the top of my list. I recall the recruiting of him being weird as in he wanted Iowa to not be on him heavily and preferred Mr. Davis take a hands off approach. Not sure Iowa ever was on his radar, since that's where everyone WANTED him to go, he wanted to almost not go there for that reason. I recall a quote from him when he was playing for Denver and the Hawks had just gotten knocked out of the NCAA Tourny. He commented that during the game he was screaming at the TV against the Hawks. Kind of a bitter thing to say about a team he had no rivalry with at KS. Guessing a lot of spurned home town Hawk fans must have let him know their disappointment??
 
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