The Hawkeyes could end a 46-year Final Four drought if they beat Big Ten rival Illinois in the Elite Eight on Saturday. Here's a look back at the memorable 1980 run.
After a shocking first round loss to No. 14 seed Toledo in the 1979 NCAA tournament, Iowa basketball fans were frustrated.
1979 marked the Hawkeyes’ first trip to the NCAA tournament in nine years, but it was also supposed to be Iowa’s breakthrough season under fifth-year head coach Lute Olson. The Hawkeyes did win a share of the Big Ten regular season crown — no Iowa basketball team has done it since – but the swift postseason exit has ranked the season as a disappointing one.
Early NCAA tournament exits were a white elephant for the Iowa program until 2026, where Ben McCollum's ninth-seeded Hawkeyes have embarked on a remarkable run to the Elite Eight, where they'll play longtime Big Ten rival Illinois in Houston, Texas on Saturday (5:09 p.m., TBS).
A win would mark Iowa's first trip to the Final Four since 1980, so while you anxiously wait for tip off, take a look back at the memorable story of the 1979-80 squad's run to Indianapolis.
The rundown
Iowa entered the season just outside the AP Top-20 (AP poll didn’t expand to 25 teams until 1989-90), but Ohio State, Purdue, and Indiana were considered the favorites to compete for the Big Ten championship.
The Hawkeyes had only two seniors on their roster – Ronnie Lester and Mike Arens – but quickly established themselves as one of the Big Ten’s best teams early on. Iowa raced to a perfect 10-0 start by the turn of the new year, rising to No. 10 in the polls.
Lester, Iowa’s leading scorer, suffered a knee injury in a 61-54 win over Dayton on Dec. 22. The injury wasn’t season-ending, but it would cost Lester 16 games. The Hawkeyes managed to open Big Ten play with a gutsy one-point win at Illinois without their All-American guard, but the wheels would quickly come off.
Iowa would lose four of its next five games after the Illinois win, with the only triumph in that stretch coming against a mediocre Wisconsin team. Lester wouldn’t return until late February, but his teammates didn’t quit.
Steve Krafcisin, Vince Brookins, Kenny Arnold (who was playing with a broken thumb), and Kevin Boyle all averaged over 11 points per game, while true freshmen guard and Bob Hansen chipped in 5.6 points per contest.
Iowa fell by just one point in Lester’s return against Ohio State on Feb. 23, but the Hawkeyes rallied to win their final two home games in front of raucous Iowa Field House crowds to finish the regular season 19-8 and 10-8 in conference play.
There was no Big Ten tournament back then, so Iowa had to wait until the NCAA tournament to play again, where they were awarded a No. 5 seed. Aided by Lester’s scoring prowess, the Hawkeyes breezed through the first three rounds, including a convincing win over No. 1 Syracuse in the Sweet 16, to advance to the Elite Eight.
Standing in Iowa’s way was coach John Thompson and his mighty Georgetown Hoyas. Led by future NBA All-Star Sleepy Floyd (he finished with 31 points) the Hoyas jumped out to a 14-point lead early in the first half and led by 10 at the break.
The three-point shot was still seven years away from being inserted into the NCAA tournament, so such a deficit would’ve been nearly impossible to overcome.
But the resilient Hawkeyes continued to fight.
Lester was held to just eight points, but it was a 22-point outing from Brookins that allowed Iowa to stay close. Steve Waite and Hansen also posted crucial numbers off the bench, and Waite’s 15 points were the second-best on the team behind Brookins.
The Hawkeyes somehow found a way to tie the game late, 78-78, and had the ball with a chance to pull off the unthinkable. Waite’s strong showing resulted in Olson leaving him on the floor, and he responded by making one of the most legendary plays in Iowa basketball history.
With nine seconds remaining, Waite received the ball just inside the arc and drove in for the go-ahead layup as he was fouled. Though he was just a 64 percent foul shooter, Waite swished his attempt to send Iowa to its third Final Four in program history.
Aftermath
Iowa would be matched up against Louisville in the national semifinal. Lester scored 10 of the Hawkeyes’ first 12 points, but he re-injured his knee midway through the first half and wouldn’t return. Iowa fought valiantly without its star player, but couldn’t overcome Derrell Griffith’s 34 points and lost, 80-72.
“I would have liked to have played my senior year without a knee injury, as anybody would,” Lester told HawkFanatic in 2020. “And I think we would have been one of the better teams in the country that year and not lost many games to be honest with you.”
Lester was drafted with the No. 10 overall pick in the 1980 NBA Draft, but injuries sidelined him to just six seasons of play. The other player from this squad that played in the NBA was Hansen, who began his career as a key member of the late 1980s Utah Jazz teams before winning a championship with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in his final campaign of 1991-92.
Hansen now serves as the radio color analyst for Iowa men’s basketball games with Gary Dolphin, a post he has held for over 30 seasons.