I would take a national championship run and adequate showing in the Big Ten tournament. I don't find the BTT all that meaningful aside from teams that won't otherwise make the NCAA tournament have a chance to make a run and get in. I have never liked it but like the conference championship in football it provides another way to bring in $$$. The comparison still doesn't make sense any way you slice it.
Agree. The BTT is just an extension of the regular season games.
You were too young to appreciate how good Fred was.
In all honesty, in 1980, Ronnie was injured and and missed a good part of tge season and the first 3-4 games of the Tourney. He did not play in the NCAAs until the semi-finals vs. Louisville when reinjured his knee..In his defense, I think Iowa might have beaten Louisville if he had been able to play the whole game but we will never know.
Yep, no doubt Guy had some skills. They just did not get used much his last years under Tom. Always liked Guy a lot.
You were too young to appreciate how good Fred was.
In all honesty, in 1980, Ronnie was injured and and missed a good part of tge season and the first 3-4 games of the Tourney. He did not play in the NCAAs until the semi-finals vs. Louisville when reinjured his knee..In his defense, I think Iowa might have beaten Louisville if he had been able to play the whole game but we will never know.
Fred was the only addition to a team that was like 5-9 the year before going 14-0. Freddy was the straw that stirred that drink in 1969-70 with all due respect. He made Calabria, Vidnovik, Jensen, JJ and McGilmre all better players.
I doubt many here saw Wier play. That was 70-80 years ago in the late 40's. And for the record Wier was from Grandview, Iowa. As I mentioned before My late father in law played with Wier at Muscatine high school in the 40's.
Back in the day there was a lot of discussion comparing Isiah Thomas and Ronnie Lester. Since Magic would have close insight on the two, I will take his word a healthy Ronnie was the best.
Magic lied to his wife with a straight face as well...
He missed several games during that season though… my mistake on the NCAA. Tourney…He injured himself vs. Dayton (8 game of the season) and missed the next 16 games).Lester played in all of the NCAA games in 1980 up to including Louisville - when he got hurt.
---------------------------------- MP Pts Ast
3-6-1980 vs Va Commonweath ....32 17 8
3-8-1980 vs NC State ...................... 28 17 4
3-14-1980 vs Syracuse .................... 35 9 7
3-16-1980 vs Georgetown .............39 8 9
This is incorrect. He played the last several regular season games and every tournament game until getting injured vs Louisville.You were too young to appreciate how good Fred was.
In all honesty, in 1980, Ronnie was injured and and missed a good part of tge season and the first 3-4 games of the Tourney. He did not play in the NCAAs until the semi-finals vs. Louisville when reinjured his knee..In his defense.
Again, he missed 16 game after being injured in the 8th game…according to the University. He must have made it back just in time for the Tourney…I admitted that gaff…
Starts to get silly? Nope. If you watched Ronnie Harmon play, and watched Bennet Stirtz now, there is no comparison. (both fine players, but please.....)
Ronnie played the last 3 regular season games (Iowa finished in about 4th place at 10-8( and then played the four NCAA games before re-injuring himself in the semis).
So did Ronnie. As I said he's a legend because of the FF, but Stirtz is being defended in ways Ronnie never saw. ( refs called a much, much tighter game back the, watch any you tube. Touch fouls by today's standards. ) They're picking him up 40 feet from the basket and he still dominates.
Was Eli Manning a better QB than Dan Marino because he has 2 rings?
Interesting response. We obviously come from the same generation and I pretty much agree with you. I have never watched a better basketball player in my lifetime than Ronnie Lester.
Here's to hoping we find more Ronnie Lester's and Bennett Stirtz's moving forward.
(and some bigs would be great too!)Andre could only go one direction. He was a tank. Lester could breakdown great Ds before the 3 pt shot.
You were too young to appreciate how good Fred was.
In all honesty, in 1980, Ronnie was injured and and missed a good part of tge season and the first 3-4 games of the Tourney. He did not play in the NCAAs until the semi-finals vs. Louisville when reinjured his knee..In his defense, I think Iowa might have beaten Louisville if he had been able to play the whole game but we will never know.
Fred was the only addition to a team that was like 5-9 the year before going 14-0. Freddy was the straw that stirred that drink in 1969-70 with all due respect. He made Calabria, Vidnovik, Jensen, JJ and McGilmre all better players.
Lester had Arnold. Beyond that they were average but over achievers. Bobby H was good
I corrected myself… read thru the thread, please.
Oh, I think kevin boyle, Krafcisin, Waite and Brookins were above average. K and Waite were pretty good size and between the two, they averaged almost 14 pts and 11 rebounds. We currently don't have anything like that.
That requires memory
The Big was loaded Even Wisconsin with Wesley Mathews was a tough out as Magic found out. Brookins should have been better and showed what he could do in the tourney.
I really liked the duo of K and Waite up front and Lute could really coach and got the most out of them. I didn't consider either of those two as above average bigs. I still remember Boyle saying one time that with Ronnie Lester playing seemed like riding a wave
His dad said he "gave his team the best chance to win" so I agree.
??? "between the two they averaged 14 and 11? I would think were getting that and more most games "combined " between Folgeras and Cam. Special K was a pretty good player, (started his career at UNC), but had knee issues. Waite was a pretty average player, (although had the huge follow up and one in the tourney, against Gtown?).
Good post. It gets to why comparisons between players or teams from different eras get shaky pretty quickly. In Lute Olson and now Ben McCollum we have had the two best Iowa basketball coaches in my lifetime. Lute coached when we didn't have the three point line. Ben coaches a great deal of cutting to the basket to open the three point line and he wants bigs who can shoot as opposed to Lute's bigs who mostly stayed inside.
They did some but I don't recall if they played together all the time or not. Probably not with fouls.
Usually both of them were in the starting lineup, probably because many teams had big front lines. Twin Towers. In the 1980 tourney, though, Lute started Brookins instead of Waite. That moved the 6’6” Boyle to PF. Vince was 6’5” and definitely a wing.
