All-Time Top 10 Matchups in Carver-Hawkeye Arena

Reliving History as Iowa Basketball's Home Venue Celebrates 40th Anniversary

Iowa mascot, Herky, fires up the crowd during pregame introductions before playing Indiana on Jan. 13, 2022 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Carver-Hawkeye Arena’s 40-year history includes eight men’s basketball games where both teams were ranked in the Top 10. Three of those eight involved a former or future Iowa basketball coach on the opposing bench.

The first Top 10 matchup came on Dec. 3, 1983, in the championship game of the Amana-Hawkeye Classic. Coach George Raveling’s fifth-ranked Hawkeyes beat No. 10 Oregon State, 56-45. The Beavers were coached by Ralph Miller, who spent six seasons at Iowa.

Miller left Iowa after one of the greatest seasons in program history. His 1969-70 team went 14-0 in Big Ten play while averaging a still-record 102.9 points a game. The Hawkeyes were 20-5 overall, the first 20-win season in program history.

Nicknamed Ralph’s Six-Pack, that team featured John Johnson, Fred Brown, Glenn Vidnovic, Chad Calabria, Dick Jensen and Ben McGilmer. Four of those players averaged double figures in that record-breaking season, led by Johnson’s 27.9 mark. Calabria averaged 19.1 points, Vidnovic 17.3, Brown 17.9 and McGilmer 10.3 off the bench.

When he returned to Iowa City in September of 1990 to take part in a farm scholarship game, Miller was asked how many points that team would have averaged if the 3-point basketball was around then.

“I have no idea, but it would have been a lot more,” Miller said. “We had Downtown Freddie, and John could shoot it, too. So could Calabria and Vidnovic and McGilmer. In those days, we worked to get the wide-open shot from 18 feet. But it they had given another point for moving back two feet, we would have been able to hit that, too.”

That Iowa team reached the century mark 12 times that season. The last two came in the 16-team NCAA Tournament, a crushing 104-103 loss to Jacksonville and a 121-106 consolation victory against Notre Dame. Miller then left for Oregon State, where he retired after the 1988-89 season. He passed away in 2001.

Asked if that 1969-70 team was the best of his 38-year career, which started at Wichita State, Miller said, “Oh, yea.”

He returned in December of 1983 with a high-powered but shorthanded Oregon State team that sat two starters, including A.C. Green, for disciplinary reasons.

“We knew that without some of our players, Iowa would have it all over us personnel wise and depth wise,” Miller said. “Physically, we just weren’t able to stay with them.”

The teams played a week later in Corvallis, Ore., and Oregon State got a measure of revenge with a 53-48 victory. The Beavers’ 98 points in those two games didn’t match the output of one Iowa game in 1969-70.

Raveling was in his first season at Iowa. He replaced Lute Olson, who left to build a powerhouse at Arizona. That rebuilding was still getting off the ground in 1986-87, when first-year Coach Tom Davis took his fourth-ranked team to Arizona. The Hawkeyes beat Olson and the Wildcats, 89-80.

The rematch came a season later at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Dec. 12, 1987 game saw No. 4 Arizona defeat No. 3 Iowa, 66-59. Olson was greeted with a warm reception and chants of “Lute, Lute, Lute” when he took the floor before tipoff.

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciated the initial reaction of the fans,” said Olson, who was at Iowa nine seasons and coached the 1979-80 team to the Final Four. “That was kinder than it needed to be, or should be.”

Olson’s return was a much-hyped storyline, and Iowa came out tight. It took nearly six minutes for the Hawkeyes, averaging a Big Ten-best 93 points a game, to score their first point. Iowa had just three points halfway through the first half and missed 14 of its first 16 shots from the floor.

Steve Kerr’s 3-pointer right before the halftime buzzer gave the Wildcats a 26-25 halftime lead. Iowa never got its fast-break attack in gear and lost for the first time after a 6-0 start.

“The old coach wanted this more than some others,” Olson said. “You don’t coach somewhere for nine years, know all the people and have all the great memories without coming back and feeling a very special feeling.”

The teams would meet again that season, in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Arizona prevailed, 99-79.

Iowa moved up a spot to No. 1 in the nation after road victories at No. 8 Illinois and No. 6 Purdue in January of 1987. The Hawkeyes’ first game as the nation’s top-ranked team was at home against No. 3 Indiana on Jan. 22.

The Hoosiers were led by all-America guard and Olympian Steve Alford, who would replace Davis as Iowa’s basketball coach 13 seasons later. Alford, Iowa’s coach for eight seasons, made five of eight 3-pointers and scored 21 points. But the Hawkeyes won, 101-88, becoming the first team to reach the century mark against a Bob Knight-coached team.

That was one of two Top 10 matchups with teams from Indiana that season. No. 7 Purdue knocked off No. 4 Iowa, 80-73, on Feb. 12, 1987.

Iowa is 3-5 in Top 10 duels at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The other victory came on Feb. 5, 1989, when the ninth-ranked Hawkeyes beat No. 2 Illinois, 86-82.

The senior threesome of Roy Marble, Ed Horton and B.J. Armstrong combined to score Iowa’s last 23 points of the game, 38 of 42 in the second half and 68 of 86 overall. Horton finished with 26 points and 17 rebounds. Armstrong added 24 points, five assists and just one turnover. Marble had 18 points.

“This is a terrific threesome,” Davis said.

Four days after that Illinois game, Iowa found itself in another Top 10 contest. It was a two-overtime classic, with No. 10 Michigan beating the eight-ranked Hawkeyes, 108-107. It remains the most points an opponent has ever scored in the building.

Iowa trailed by 20 points on three occasions in the first half and by a 45-27 margin at halftime. The Hawkeyes were on the brink of victory numerous times after that, but couldn’t get it done.

“When you have a great comeback and fall short, it’s especially difficult,” said Davis, whose team scored 56 points in the second half of regulation.

Michigan’s Terry Mills forced overtime when he scored after an offensive rebound with :02 remaining. Iowa let a 91-85 lead in the second overtime get away, missing several chances to put the game away at the free-throw line. Marble scored 30 of his 32 points after halftime, but Iowa had its 13-game Carver-Hawkeye Arena winning streak snapped when Loy Vaught scored on a short-range bank shot with :03 on the clock.

Calbert Cheaney’s 27 points led No. 1 Indiana to a 73-66 victory over No. 9 Iowa on Feb. 6, 1993. Chris Street’s No. 40 jersey was retired in a ceremony before the game. Street passed away the previous month in an automobile accident. The Street family had requested the ceremony be held before the Indiana game because of their respect for the way Indiana played.

“It pleased me tremendously that the Street family requested that his jersey be retired at the Indiana game,” Hoosiers Coach Bob Knight said.

Twenty-eight seasons would pass before the arena hosted another Top 10 matchup. No. 9 Ohio State edged No. 8 Iowa, 89-85, on Feb. 4, 2021.