Thinking back to that season with Oliver as a senior, I remember thinking it would be the best Iowa season since the late 80s. Then the ESPN magazine college basketball preview came out and had Iowa like 28th.
They got beat pretty bad by Tennessee in the Diamondhead Classic in Hawaii. Also lost a road game at Kansas State. The Mizzou game that year was the best college game I’ve ever attended. Kareem Rush, Clarence Gilbert, that Soyoye guy and Justin Gage. Double OT, I remember Gilbert and Rush being on a 2 on 0 fast break and Gilbert pulling up for 3. The Detroit Mercy game was also probably the best Hawkeye Challenge game ever played.
Started conference season 6-2 with a shitty home loss to a not great Michigan team so tied for 1st half way through after the Recker 3 point barrage in the comeback against Indiana. He gets injured, they handle Minnesota and then finish 1-7 before winning the conference tournament.
Alford was a piece of shit, I still wonder what his trajectory would have been had Recker not gotten injured that year.