Look Back at Iowa Basketball Wins Against AP No. 9

Andre Woolridge Heroics Lead Hawkeye Upset of Michigan State

Andre Woolridge

Tom Davis had three outstanding point guards during his 13 seasons as Iowa’s head basketball coach. He inherited B.J. Armstrong, and coached him for three seasons. Davis left after Dean Oliver’s sophomore season. In between, Andre Woolridge transferred in from Nebraska and had three top-flight seasons guiding the Hawkeyes.

“You look at Andre, he carried the team a lot more than B.J. had to, or Dean had to,” Davis reflected almost three decades later. “He loved the moment. He was very, very good.” 

Jess Settles, one of Woolridge’s Hawkeye teammates, said that Andre always seemed to play his best down the stretch.

“He was never afraid of that big moment,” Settles said. “There were a couple of years in there that he just carried us a lot of nights.”

Michigan State brought out the best and worst in Woolridge during the 1994-95 season. That was a season that saw the Hawkeyes lose four Big Ten games by a single point. Three of them came in a row - at Michigan State, at Michigan in double overtime and to Purdue at home. The game in East Lansing was especially crushing.The Spartans won on Eric Snow’s 15-footer in the final seconds, 69-68.

“I thought it was long, but I’m sure happy it went in,” Snow said.

Iowa didn’t score in the final 3:19 of the game, and missed its last five free-throw attempts. Jim Bartels and Kenyon Murray missed the front end of one-and-ones in the final minute and a half. Woolridge went to the line for two free throws with :16 to play and his team clinging to a 68-67 lead. He missed them both.

“I think that was the worst loss of my career,” Settles recalled. “That loss put us in a tailspin. Three losses in a row by one point. That had never happened before, or since, in Big Ten history.”

The rematch with Michigan State came on March 8 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Spartans, 21-4 overall and 13-3 in Big Ten play, were tied with Purdue for the Big Ten lead with two games to play. Iowa was 18-10 and 8-8, and looking for a win to improve its NCAA Tournament resume. 

The last 62 seconds produced some of the most clutch shooting the arena has ever seen. Shawn Respert’s 3-pointer with 1:02 remaining gave the Spartans a 74-71 lead. Iowa’s Chris Kingsbury countered with a 3 to tie it with :42 left. 

Respert made two free throws at :24. Then came three lead changes in the closing 16 seconds. Woolridge buried a triple for a 77-76 Iowa lead. The Spartans’ Jamie Feick scored on a dunk with :09 to go.

Davis called timeout to set up a last play. Settles remember someone other than Woolridge - not him - being the first option. And that player had a different opinion.

“I’m not (100 percent) sure who it was, so I’ll keep his name out of it, but it did happen,” Settles said. “And in the huddle, that player said, “Why don’t you let Andre take it?’ Because everybody knew that was our best chance of winning.”

With the game on the line, Woolridge was money. His 15-foot running jumper from the right side, over Snow, with :02.3 to play gave Iowa the 79-78 upset.

“Murray and Kingsbury set picks, and I drove as far as I could,” Woolridge said. “In earlier games I drove down the left side in situations like that. This time I went down the right side. The court was wide open and I got a good look at the basket.”

Settles led the Hawkeyes with 22 points, and Kingsbury added 20. Murray and Bartels had 12 points apiece. And Woolridge had 10 points to go with a lifetime of redemption. “We wanted to see if we had some heart,” Woolridge said. “We did.”

Respert scored 39 points in a losing cause for the Spartans, including seven 3-pointers in 15 attempts.

“He’s the best player in the country, by far,” Kingsbury said. “He’s unstoppable.” It was the final game Michigan State’s Jud Heathcote coached in Iowa City. He had already announced it would be his final season.

“We had destiny in our hands, and we let it slip away,” Heathcote said. “That was a great college basketball game. It’s a shame someone had to lose. It’s a double shame we had to lose.” Woolridge’s last-chance basket cost Michigan State a share of the Big Ten crown. Indiana won at 15-3, one game better than the Spartans.

“Iowa will have a tough game Sunday (at Indiana),” Heathcote said. “If they lose, they’ll be 9-9 in the Big Ten and on the NCAA bubble.”

That bubble burst. The Hawkeyes got crushed at Assembly Hall, 110-79, and settled for an NIT appearance.

The 6-foot-1 Woolridge scored 1,525 points and had 575 assists in his Hawkeye career. He pulled off a rare double when he led the Big Ten in scoring (20.9 points) assists (6.0) as a senior in 1996-97.

“He was so good with the ball,” Davis said. “I always ran the pick-and-roll play, especially with the point guard. And he was just so good at it. He could go in both directions. He could come down and switch to the left hand and take it to that side of the screener, or he could go to the

right side and stutter step. He had those moves down. He was pretty hard to stop as you look at point guards, even today. That’s kind of what you were looking for. That kind of body, and that kind of game.”

The Big Ten started recognizing assists in 1975. Woolridge is just one of four players to lead the conference in assists and scoring in the same season. Marcus Taylor of Michigan State did it in 1975, Trey Burke of Michigan in 2013 and Denzel Valentine of Michigan State in 2016. “That unselfishness, it can’t be taught,” Davis said. “The coach can do some things to help bring it out, but you either have that gift or you don’t.”

All-time record vs. No. 9: 5-7

Other victories vs. No. 9

Iowa 80, UCLA 63 (Dec. 23, 1950, Iowa City) - Iowa won its 49th consecutive non-conference game behind the one-two punch of post players Frank Calsbeek (24 points) and Chuck Darling (19). UCLA lost its third game in five days.

Iowa 89, Kentucky 77 (March 17, 1956, Iowa City/NCAA) - Iowa’s five senior starters - Carl Cain, Bill Schoof, Bill Logan, Bill Seaberg and Sharm Scheuerman - said goodbye to Iowa Fieldhouse with a rousing win over Coach Adolph Rupp’s Kentucky team to make it to the Final Four for a second straight season. Cain, playing what Coach Bucky O’Connor called “one of his greatest games,” scored 34 points on 12 of 21 shooting and added nine rebounds. Scheuerman had 22 points before an announced crowd of 15,325.

Iowa 73, Michigan 58 (Jan. 17, 1981, Ann Arbor) - The 14th-ranked Hawkeyes took a 20-point halftime lead and held off a Wolverines rally that cut the deficit to six with 9 minutes to play. “Iowa outhustled us the full 20 minutes in the first half,” Michigan Coach Bill Frieder said. “And that was the story of the game.”

Balanced scoring was an Iowa strength. Kenny Arnold finished wirth 14 points, Vince Brookins and Steve Krafcisin added 13 each, Mark Gannon chipped in with 12 and Bobby Hansen 11.

Iowa 64, Purdue 63 (Feb. 28, 1990, Iowa City) - Iowa entered the game with a six-game losing streak and was in eighth place in the BigTen standings. Purdue was dueling Michigan State for the Big Ten title.

But Matt Bullard’s turnaround jumper from the left baseline with 9 seconds remaining gave the Hawkeyes a stunning upset. The Boilermakers still had a shot at victory, but Jimmy Oliver’s rebound basketball was waved off. Purdue Coach Gene Keady stormed the court in protest. Asked afterwards if he was going to protest the game, Keady said, “Protest what? I’m going to protest our bad play. The referee said it wasn’t good and I’ve got to believe him. We didn’t deserve to win, so it doesn’t matter.”

Bullard and James Moses scored 15 each for Iowa. Purdue would finish second in the Big Ten race, two games behind the Spartans.