IOWA CITY, Iowa — Second-seeded Iowa State leads top-seeded UNLV by 20 points in the 1987 men’s basketball Elite Eight.
The 1970 Iowa men’s basketball team still holds the Big Ten record for points per game (102.3) and led Jacksonville by one point with seconds left in the Sweet 16 matchup. Ronnie Lester was the best player in the 1980 Final Four, and the Hawkeyes point guard proved it in the first 10 minutes of the game against Louisville.
Ronnie Harmon was an All-American running back who played in the 1986 Rose Bowl against UCLA, where No. 3 Iowa still had a chance at the national championship. In the 2015 Big Ten Football Championship Game, the undefeated Hawkeyes led MSU by four points after a punt with less than 10 minutes remaining.
With 11 seconds left in the 1993 Final Four, the Iowa women’s basketball team trailed Ohio State by one point in overtime. Megan Gustafson, the consensus top player in the nation in 2019, is heading into an Elite Eight matchup with Baylor.
Among the three most watched sports in college athletics, Iowa’s high-level history is one of heartbreak.
UNLV rallied and won by three points. Pembrook Burrows III’s tip-in led to a 104-103 loss. Leicester was hurt after every shot attempt. Harmon turned the ball over four times and threw an easy touchdown pass. MSU scored a touchdown at its 22 with 27 seconds left. Laurie Aaron doomed the 1993 women’s game when she slipped in the end zone with 3 seconds left. Baylor blowout.
Those who remember those moments raise their brows every time Iowa is mentioned. To this day, these games are still discussed through the “what if” component. What if Lester is healthy? What if Spartans running back L.J. Scott didn’t have that extra stretch at the goal line? What if Harmon doesn’t do this…this goes on and on.
This kind of history can weigh heavily on fans and could topple a team that’s near the top of the mountain. This even applies to Iowa’s current women’s basketball team. The Hawkeyes reached the 2023 NCAA Championship Game but lost to LSU 102-85. Controversial officiating decisions and postgame taunts, combined with season-long hype, put enough pressure on the Hawkeyes that they could collapse at any point this season, especially in the NCAA Tournament. Instead, they turned pressure into production and beat LSU 94-87 on Monday to advance to the Final Four.
𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗙𝗢𝗨𝗥.#eagleeye pic.twitter.com/jBLB0JKHm9
— Iowa Women’s Basketball (@IowaWBB) April 2, 2024
“Honestly, people thought we had a lot of pressure,” Iowa State coach Lisa Bruder said. “People keep telling me, ‘This is so hard, you’re going to have a hard season.'” I keep saying, ‘Why do we focus on difficulty? Why do we do this?
“Billie Jean King is one of my idols. She has a book, Pressure is a Privilege. I used that book this year. She wrote this quote on a piece of paper; it’s framed Show it to me in my dressing room. We believe pressure is really a good thing because it means you’ve done something really special to put the pressure on you.”
But not every team responds to the situation the same way. Expect to exert pressure and any cracks could lead to flooding. That’s what happened to Iowa’s football program in 2010. A year after an 11-2 record (the only two losses that came after an injury to the starting quarterback), an Orange Bowl victory and an eventual seventh-place finish, the Hawkeyes have nearly every key position player back and are starting to Finished the season ranked seventh. 8. Injuries sapped Iowa’s depth by season’s end, and Iowa lost five games it had a lead in or tied in the final five minutes.
The women’s basketball team faced a similar path this year, only it overcame the spotlight, departures and injuries. Iowa loses perennial starters Monica Czinano and McKenna Warnock but returns the core of a national runner-up squad. Caitlin Clark, the Player of the Year, enters the season as a true superstar. Starting guards Gabby Marshall and Kate Martin return for an extra year due to the coronavirus pandemic, while key backups Hannah Sturker, Molly Davis and Sidney Affolt were pushed take on a more important role. But replacing Czinano – who scored 2,413 points and is lethal in the paint – is a big problem.
Sturke is a power forward, but not the same as the four position played by Warnock or the true center position occupied by Czinano. Iowa State had a scholarship available and looked for a position on the transfer portal but couldn’t find a good fit. Rather than betting on the unknown, Bruder has steadfastly stuck to his roster amid criticism.
“We were looking for specific things in the transfer portal. We didn’t find what we were looking for,” Bruder said. “You have to be special to play at the University of Iowa. This is not just a basketball factory. We don’t just recruit the best basketball players. We pick the basketball players who are the best fit for our culture. We don’t want to bring in people who don’t fit our culture.
“We want to make sure that if we bring someone in, it’s going to be an impact player, not just a role player, but a player that makes an immediate impact. Those numbers are a little bit limited. It does give us a little bit of perspective. Contentment that, yes, we are enough.”
Bluder tweaked her lineup to run a four-guard offense instead of a traditional center. The fast-paced Hawkeyes lead the nation in scoring average and still rank 25th in rebounding percentage. Then in the final game of the regular season, Davis left the game with a serious knee injury. Affolt was the team’s top backup as a combo guard/forward and broke into the starting lineup. The injury leaves Iowa without its true center and the back four that led the Hawkeyes to a No. 1 seed.
However, injuries crippled the 2010 football program and took their toll late in games as the women’s team has won 10 straight games, including eight since Davis’ injury. They stick together and their chemistry carries them through adversity. That’s still true when they take on West Virginia in the second round and then face last year’s tormentors in the Elite Eight on Monday.
“Honestly, it’s maturity,” Bruder said. “They’ve been there before, they know what it’s like. Once you know what it’s like and what it takes, it’s easier to follow the same recipe again.
“We’ve been in some difficult situations. Kate Martin, Caitlin and Gabby’s leadership has been outstanding. So I’m really grateful to those guys. But honestly, I think if we hadn’t been in situations where the atmosphere was crazy , that would be unusual. I mean, that’s the way we’re used to playing. So I think it would be unusual for us to have one of our games without that kind of craziness.”
Iowa State may end up in “what if” territory like its predecessor. But the Hawkeyes shook off a heavy blow from the past by beating LSU in front of the nation’s attention. They may be the only Iowa team in previous basketball and football tournaments to live up to extremely high expectations. If they win two more games, these Hawkeyes will be flying higher than they are.
(Photo: Greg Fiume/NCAA via Getty Images)
