Jeff Horner
Look Back at Iowa Basketball Wins Against AP No. 7
When the calendar flipped to February in 2006, Iowa’s basketball team found themselves in an unusual place in the Big Ten basketball race. First place.
The Hawkeyes were 7-2, and a game ahead of Illinois and Michigan, heading into a game at Northwestern. It was the first time an Iowa team reached February in first place since 1982.
“I’ll be anxious to see how this team responds,” said Coach Steve Alford, whose team was embarking on a stretch of four road games in a five-game stretch.
Northwestern would tie for eighth in the league, but it beat the Hawkeyes in Evanston, 51-48. Iowa squandered a nine-point lead down the stretch and didn’t have a field goal the last 7:26.
After winning on the road at Indiana and taking care of Michigan State at home, Iowa lost back-to-back games at 10th place Minnesota and at Illinois. The Hawkeyes would go on to finish 11-5, a game behind regular-season champion Ohio State.
“What stunk is that we only played Ohio State once that year in the regular season,” recalled Jeff Horner, the senior point guard on that team. “When we got to play them in the Big Ten Tournament Championship game, that’s who we wanted to play. We wanted to show people we were the better team.”
Forward Greg Brunner was also looking forward to another meeting with the seventh-ranked Buckeyes in Indianapolis, Ind.
“We beat them in the regular season (67-62 at home), but I wanted an opportunity to play them again,” Brunner said. “Not playing them twice hurt us, because we matched up really well with them. Ohio State had a great team. I’m not discrediting them at all. But I think we’d win seven of 10 games with them. I loved that team we had. We couldn’t throw it in the ocean, but we were really good defensively.”
Horner and Brunner got their wish after Iowa took care of Minnesota in the first round at Conseco Fieldhouse, 67-57, then reached the tournament final by edging Michigan State, 53-48. The Buckeyes were waiting for them on the other side of the bracket.
The Hawkeyes had limped into Indianapolis. Brunner suffered a high ankle sprain in the second half of the final regular-season game against Wisconsin. Horner was playing with a broken rib, and wore padding to protect in.
In the locker room before the title game, Horner was stretching and heard something pop. He was in severe discomfort and had trouble breathing. He was given a painkiller before the game. Horner then missed his first five shot attempts, but later found his rhythm. In addition to his painful ankle, Brunner got in foul trouble.
Iowa had just tied the game, 57-57, when Brunner was whistled for his fourth foul with 4:44 remaining. Alford took him out. Brunner didn’t go quietly.
“He and I got into a big argument on the bench,” Brunner remembered. “I said, “I want in, I want in. We built this. I’ll be smart.’ He said, “No, you've got to sit for 2 minutes.’ I was so upset. We’d blown the Big Ten in the regular season. I’m thinking, “This is not happening again.’ I looked at Alex Thompson and told him, “You’ve got me. You have me, right?’ He had a big smile on his face.”
Thompson, a 6-9 sophomore from Ames who would later transfer to Iowa State, hadn’t played a lot of minutes that season. He was averaging 2.2 points. He had 28 field goals and 24 turnovers over the first 32 games, and hadn’t scored a point in the Big Ten Tournament.
“He busted my butt in practice a lot,” Brunner said. “It was hard for him. He got stuck behind a senior.”
Shortly after checking in, Thompson fired a pass to Horner for a layup and a 59-57 Iowa lead. Thompson rebounded a missed 3-pointer by the Buckeyes’ J.J. Sullinger. And then he made the biggest basket of the game.
Horner passed to Thompson on the right wing, in front of the Iowa bench. He caught it and shot from behind the 3-point line without hesitation.
“As soon as I caught it, I put it up,” Thompson said.
It splashed through the net for a 62-57 Iowa lead with 2:58 to play.
“When that shot left his hand I was like, “No, no, no…and then I just grabbed everybody and about took out the entire line on the bench,” Brunner said.
It was Thompson’s first 3-pointer in 12 games, going back to the previous meeting with the Buckeyes on Jan. 28 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That one had also come from the right wing.
“Alex did what he needed to do,” said Brunner, who checked back in at the 2:11 mark. “He made a big shot. Coach made a great substitution.”
Adam Haluska made three free throws in the final :36, Iowa closed the game on a 10-3 run and celebrated a 67-60 victory and the Big Ten postseason title.
Horner finished with 16 points and 10 assists, which tied the tournament’s single-game record at the time. Haluska added 15 points and eight rebounds, and Brunner had 10 points and eight rebounds. Horner was named the most outstanding player of the tournament. Brunner was named to the all-tournament team.
“It would have been nice to have two rings, or gone deep in the NCAA Tournament,” Brunner said.
The Hawkeyes were awarded a No. 3 seed, but got upset by Northwestern State on a last-second 3-pointer by Jermaine Wallace, 64-63.
“If I had one day in my life to go back, it would be that day,” Brunner said. “I would love to have that opportunity again. We matched up really well with the other teams. It would have been interesting to see how we would have done.”
Instead of getting ready for a second-round matchup with West Virginia, Iowa headed home with a 25-9 record.
“It sucks because in all reality, when they talk about historic teams, we had the talent to be one of those teams,” Brunner said. “As a player, that’s what you dream of. I wanted to get to that spot. We had a team to make that run.”
All-time record vs. No. 7 12-12
Other victories vs. No. 7
Iowa 92, Illinois 80 (Jan. 17, 1955, Iowa City) - Iowa Coach Bucky O’Connor called it the craziest game he’d ever seen. This after watching his 17th-ranked team, down by a 61-45 score with 15:50 to play, respond with a momentum-changing 33-8 run to beat the Illini for the 11th time in 13 years in Iowa City.
Center Bill Logan spearheaded the comeback, and finished with 19 points and 21 rebounds. Carl Cain scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half.
“When they get that far behind against a team they want to beat and then win, you just can’t give them too much credit,” O’Connor said.
Iowa 88, Ohio State 73 (Jan. 9, 1956, Columbus, Ohio) - A visit to Columbus kick-started Iowa’s Big Ten title run for a second straight season.
The Hawkeyes had come to Ohio State the year before with a 3-2 league record, but a 79-66 victory was the first of eight straight and Coach Bucky O’Connor’s team won the Big Ten title. A year later, Iowa limped into Columbus on a four-game losing streak and a 0-1 Big Ten mark But this 15-point victory was the first of 17 straight.
The run, which included a second straight conference crown, didn’t end until an 83-71 loss to Bill Russell and San Francisco in the NCAA Championship game. Iowa used great balance to beat the Buckeyes, with Carl Cain and Bill Seaberg leading the way with 19 points each and Bill Logan adding 18. Sharm Scheuerman made 10 straight free throws in the second half.
“This was by far our best game of the season,” O’Connor said. “This was a big one for us.”
Iowa 78, Cincinnati 69 (Dec. 30, 1966, Chicago, Ill.) - Trailing by a 32-24 margin late in the half, Iowa used a 23-3 run to take a 47-35 lead and won at Chicago Stadium. Tom Chapman, Jr., led the Hawkeyes with 23 points. He made nine of 14 field-goal attempts and was perfect in five free-throw tries.
As a team, Iowa was 20 of 22 from the line. The Hawkeyes won their sixth straight game and handed the defending Missouri Valley Conference champs their first loss in nine starts. Sam Williams added 19 points and Gerry Jones 17 for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa 98, Duquesne 87 (Dec. 11, 1969, Iowa City) - Trailing at halftime, 41-37, the Hawkeyes exploded for 61 second-half points to win.
Balanced scoring, a trademark of the 1969-70 team, was on display this night. Glenn Vidnovic scored 23 points, Ben McGilmer added 21, Fred Brown and John Johnson 18 apiece and Chad Calabria 16.
Iowa got to 98 points with 1:37 to play, but didn’t reach the century mark despite boisterous encouragement from the crowd. They made up for it by breaking the 100-point mark nine times while winning the Big Ten at 14-0.
Iowa 80, Ohio State 67 (Feb. 8, 1972, Iowa City) - Rick Williams scored 23 points and Gary Lusk added 22 off the bench as the Hawkeyes snapped a four-game losing streak. Lusk didn’t enter the game until 8:46 remained in the first half.
Ohio State took a 44-42 lead into halftime, but shot just 25.7 percent from the field (nine for 35) in the second half.
“The second half was the finest defensive half I’ve ever seen an Iowa team play,” Coach Dick Schultz said.
Iowa center Kevin Kunnert had a dominating performance, scoring 16 points and grabbing 18 rebounds. Forward Neil Fegebank also had a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Iowa 100, Kansas 81 (Nov. 28, 1987, Maui) - The 11th-ranked Hawkeyes took control of the game with a 14-1 first-half run and breezed to victory in the semifinals of the Maui Invitational.
Iowa used a 19-3 advantage at the free-throw line to take a 54-39 halftime lead and never looked back.
“To play that well this early in the season was amazing,” Iowa Coach Tom Davis said.
Jeff Moe and Roy Marble scored 22 points apiece in the victory. Moe, mired in a shooting slump, made five of seven 3-pointers and seven of 11 shots overall. Kansas star Danny Manning finished with 23 points, but had just two field goals after halftime.
Iowa 95, Michigan 87 (Feb. 27, 1988, Iowa City) - Iowa reached the 20-win mark for the 10th time in 12 seasons before a sellout crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and got revenge for a 120-103 loss at Michigan the month before.
“My pride was hurting in that one, it was crushed,” said former Flint, Mich., prep star Roy Marble, who led the 13th-ranked Hawkeyes with 19 points. “It felt good to even the score.”
Iowa had leads as large as 14 points in the first half and 11 at halftime. But Michigan made 13 of its first 16 field-goal attempts the second half and took a 71-63 lead with 11:23 remaining. Iowa Coach Tom Davis called two timeouts to try and slow the Wolverine charge, and was uncharacteristically fiery with his team in the huddle.
“Just friendly persuasion,” he said.
Iowa caught its second wind and took the lead for good, 85-84, on Ed Horton’s bank shot with 2:40 remaining. Glen Rice, another former Flint star, finished with 20 points but didn’t score in the last 14:21.
Iowa 104, Nevada-Las Vegas 86, March 20, 1988, Los Angeles, Calif.) - The 17th-ranked Hawkeyes got some NCAA revenge for a crushing 84-81 loss to the Running’ Rebels in an Elite Eight game the year before.
“I was shocked this week at the depth of emotion my players had about that game,” Iowa Coach Tom Davis said after his team moved on to the Sweet 16.
Ed Horton led Iowa with a career-high 24 points and Roy Marble added 22 as Iowa won for the 24th time.
“Horton had the best game of his career,” Davis said.
Iowa’s full-court press forced 15 turnovers and Davis improved to 8-0 as a coach in first- and second-round NCAA games.
Iowa 81, Duke 71 (Dec. 27, 1994, Honolulu, Hawaii) - Jess Settles returned to the lineup after missing the previous three games with a back injury, and made up for lost time. The sophomore forward, playing with a cumbersome back brace, scored 28 points in 23 minutes as the Hawkeyes ended Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 14-game winning streak over Big Ten teams.
“Settles was incredible,” Krzyzewski said. “Competitively, he plays at the highest degree. Skill wise, he understands what he can do.”
Andre Woolridge and Chris Kingsbury added 14 points apiece in the first-round game of the Rainbow Classic. The Blue Devils led by as many 11 points in the first half as Iowa missed nine of its first 10 shot attempts. The Hawkeyes closed to within 43-41 at halftime.
“Iowa clearly outplayed us the second half,” Krzyzewski said.
The Duke coach said he didn’t want to single out an Iowa player, but he couldn’t say enough good things about Settles.
“He would have scored 44 if he was healthy,” Krzyzewski said. “I admire a kid who plays that way. It felt very good to shake his hand after the game. They deserved to win.”
Iowa 78, Illinois 62 (Jan. 11, 2001, Iowa City) - Trailing, 46-44, with 12 minutes to play, the Hawkeyes went on a decisive 18-5 run to improve to 13-2.
“We went south, and Iowa turned it up a notch,” Illinois Coach Bill Self said.
Luke Recker scored 20 of his 27 points in the second half. Dean Oliver added 16 points, including a 30-foot 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to give Iowa a 31-25 advantage.
The Hawkeyes’ starting guards combined to make 16 of 17 free throws. And Iowa got 25 bench points, to just seven for the Illini.
Iowa 67, Kentucky 63, Nov. 21, 2005, Kansas City, Mo. - The Hawkeyes posted the upset in a tightly contested game that saw 15 lead changes and 13 ties until Adam Haluska’s free throw with 40.7 seconds to play gave his team the lead for good.
Forward Greg Brunner led No. 18 Iowa with 17 points and 12 rebounds. But Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith thought Mike Henderson was the difference in the game. The Hawkeyes’ junior point guard had 15 points and seven rebounds.
