A look back at the 1986-87 Iowa team with notes, quotes, photo slideshow and a rap video

More than 13,000 people bought tickets for Saturday's basketball game against Penn State, with many fans showing up just to see members of the 1986-87 team.

As most have chronicled over the last week or so, that Iowa squad started the season 18-0, finished 30-5, was ranked No. 1 for the only time in school history and beat three top-10 teams consecutively. The squad also popped eventual national champion Indiana 101-88, the first time a Bob Knight team gave up more than 100 in a Big Ten game.

Through the cheers and tears last weekend, there were several quotes and anecdotes that failed to make the newspaper. Here's what the current and former players and coaches had to say about that team:

Gerry Wright was a senior on that squad and hailed from San Bernadino, Calif. He transferred to Iowa from USC and was known as Sir Jam-A-Lot for his dunking ability.

Wright later was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the fifth round. He now teaches advanced placement U.S. History at Arroyo Valley High School in San Bernadino.

"I can still do the cartwheel dunk," Wright said. "If they give me a uniform, 'Hey, I'm playing.'"

On Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery:

"I like the new coach, absolutely. I like the talent he's putting together with the 7-footer coming in next year."

On Tom Davis replacing George Raveling, who, ironically for Wright, took the USC job:

"I was excited. I played in the Pac-10 my freshman year against Tom Davis. So they spanked us really, really good, Stanford did. That was the worst loss SC ever had in the Pac-10 up to that point, and he did it with a group of guys that no one had ever heard of. So I was familiar with his style of play so it was made to order for the rap for me.

"He's a run-and-gun coach, and I'm a run-and-gun type of player. So that worked out well for me."

READ ABOUT THE 1986-87 SEASON HERE

--

Kevin Gamble was a senior guard on the team and hit a game-winning 3-pointer in overtime to lift Iowa past Oklahoma in the NCAA Sweet 16. Gamble later played 10 years in the NBA and joined former Drake Coach Keno Davis at Providence before Davis was fired after last season. Gamble now works as an administrator with the Boston public schools.

"(Friday) night we came in and seen most of the guys," Gamble said. "It's fun to reminisce and talk about old times. The stories get bigger, just to see Gerry Wright and guys we hadn't seen for quite a while. ... I usually come for the Chris Street Golf Outing and see (Brad) Lohaus and Les (Jepsen) but to see Gerry and a few of the other guys is special. The managers, they did a lot for us behind the scenes (that) was also nice."

On seeing replays of his shot against Oklahoma:

"You still get goosebumps from it. It's a special time in my life and to be able to share it with your teammates when you come back and reminisce is a lot of fun."

--

Brad Lohaus was a little-used center before the 1986-87 season, his senior campaign. But Tom Davis switched him to forward, which not only rejuvenated Lohaus' career, it gave him one. Lohaus, a 7-footer, was drafted in the second round by Boston and played 10 years in the NBA.

"I walked in there, I was playing center," he said. "I weighed about 200 pounds. It just wasn't working. Coach Davis came in and gave me all the confidence in the world. That was the biggest thing. Then to play the point on the press, top of the key on the trail, it made my career for me, without a doubt.

"To me (Davis) brought in here a winning attitude, integrity. He's just one of those guys, it's hard to describe because over the years I thought about ... you think Dr. Tom Davis, he's a winner everywhere that he goes. I didn't know the guy at the time. When he came here we thought we'd give him a chance (laughing).

"I just thought I'm going to get an opportunity to play. He was sincere, legitimate and I took it for that. I wasn't going to look back."

READ MIKE HLAS' RETROSPECTIVE PIECE ON THE 1986-87 TEAM HERE

Several of the ex-players went to Friday night's Iowa City West game, which featured Lohaus' son, Wyatt, as well as Michael Morgan's son, Jeremy. Lohaus said he was worried the guys could pressure the Iowa City West team.

"They walked in there in the fourth quarter," Lohaus said. "When (Wyatt Lohaus) looked over during a timeout and saw those guys walking in I was like 'Oh, man.' I didn't want that to happen to distract him. It turned out in the end to be pretty good."

--

Cedar Rapids native Al Lorenzen was a junior on that squad and averaged 4 points a game. He later played professionally in the CBA and now lives in Des Moines

Lorenzen didn't meet with the players on Friday, but arrived in Iowa City on Saturday. He had a good reason for missing out.

"My wife gave birth to our second son (Friday) in Des Moines. I had to be there. I didn't do anything, but I had to be there. Then I came over this morning. So I got a hall pass for the day."

Lorenzen appreciated the closeness of that team, both during their duration on the court and through the years.

"This group, everybody focuses on the talent of that team, but it also was very much a team," he said. "There also was absolutely a bond that allows you, even though you may have a decade elapse between the time you see each other. But when you see each other, you pick right up. That's unique to the kind of environment that I think we had with that team."

He also gave credit for former assistant Bruce Pearl, who went on to lead Tennessee to the national spotlight before he was fired last spring for lying to NCAA investigators. Pearl was in charge of rebounding and defense during practice.

"He's a guy that flapped his wings without stopping as the Eagle at Boston College," Lorenzen said of Pearl's days as a mascot. "He can bring it from an intensity standpoint. He was the energy guy."

--

Roy Marble remains the school's all-time leading scorer, and he likely won't give up that honor for a while. Marble notched 2,116 points in his career, 337 more than No. 2 Acie Earl. Marble later became a No. 1 draft pick of Atlanta and is the father of current Iowa starting guard Devyn Marble.

As a sophomore, Marble led the Hawkeyes in scoring that there at 14.9 points a game. He moved from off-guard to small forward. He said before the season George Raveling asked him if he would follow him to USC.

"I was the best freshman in the country, why would I go to another conference?" Marble said, recalling his thoughts at the time.

Marble raved about the squad's togetherness on and off the court. He described Davis' style as "subtle" but he also ran a "boot camp" in the preseason. Marble especially raved about Davis' ability to let the players be themselves.

"He's the only coach to come in and say, 'Design your own uniforms," Marble said. "All I need is 40 minutes. He took a long time figuring out a starting lineup because he was like, how do I maximize all this talent?"

Marble said the starters and role players backed up one another at different spots. He said the team purposely got Jeff Moe involved in games against Purdue and Indiana because they wanted the Indianapolis native to score his points.

READ ABOUT ROY MARBLE'S NEW BOOK ON THAT TEAM HERE

"Jeff Moe, he couldn't go to Purdue or Bloomington without having protection," Marble said. "We knew whatever we rehearsed, it was about getting Jeff off in his hometown. When you go to a city and the coach coordinates an attack you're featured in, how can you do that for a doggone role player that comes off the bench?

"Hey man, we're the starters. Why are we doing this for Jeff Moe? Because he's a freaking gunslinger and when you put his blood in his home he's going to show up. Any coach knows that. We were happy to do that and it worked every time, almost. Except when Jeff passed me the ball and knocked my eye out of socket. I'm like, when did you ever pass the ball?"

HERE'S THE RAP VIDEO 'SHIRTS AND SKINS'

--

Dr. Tom Davis remains Iowa's winningest coach. Over his 13-year career he won 269 games and led the Hawkeyes to nine NCAA Tournaments. He also took Iowa to the Sweet Sixteen three times and led the team to the Elite Eight in 1986-87, his first season.

Iowa lost 84-81 to UNLV (36-1 at the time) in the regional finals, a game that Iowa led 58-42 at halftime. In the first half Iowa shot 72.4 percent and posted a 20-2 run to lead by 19 points. In the second half, the Hawkeyes stumbled to 36 percent from the field. UNLV went on a 34-10 run to start the second half and led by eight points with 6:24 left in the game.

"As I look back on it, Vegas was really good," Davis said. "There's no question, they were a real good ball club. As well as we played in first half, they played in the second half. They came out and really shut us down. We got into a little bit of foul trouble in guard position. We couldn't get offense run. They were just quicker than we were in the second half. They knocked down shots the way we had in the first half. It was an excellent UNLV team.

"When it's the last game of the year, it's always the toughest one to lose. When you've got other games facing you, you can kind of bounce back. But when you're not going to play again for several months it's kind of hard."

Davis left Stanford to coach at Iowa, and the Hawkeyes faced Santa Clara in the first round.

"I remember looking at our pairings, and I didn't like them very much," Davis said. "Santa Clara, they were just down the road from me when I was at Stanford. He was one of the best coaches in the country, Carroll Williams was. He was a terrific basketball mind. So I knew we had be ready for that.

"Then we had to face Don Haskins and Texas-El Paso all the tradition and history there. They were lucky to beat Arizona; they beat Arizona on the Arizona court. Then we had Billy Tubbs and Oklahoma and the Tark (Jerry Tarkanian) at Vegas. We had a tough pretty series."

Davis took the team unblemished through one of the most daunting stretches in school history, beating top-10 teams Illinois, Purdue and Indiana en route to an 18-0 start. Iowa was ranked No. 1 nationally at that point.

"Just as I think back on it, and I look at Iowa this year, and I look at the Big Ten this year versus that year, that was a good year in the Big Ten that year," Davis said. "This year is a pretty good doggone year of good basketball in the Big Ten.

"I think that particular year starting off the Big Ten season, there was one tough game after another. Not only great coaches, not only Gene Keady or Lou Henson or Bob Knight or Jud Heathcote or Bill Frieder. Frieder was heck of a coach. Gary Williams was at Ohio State. Gary and I had been, we were together for eight years.

"I think what happened was you knew you were facing a heck of a season in the Big Ten. We had a good ballclub but nothing was going to be easy that particular year. If you look at Big Ten today, that's kind of what I see today."

Davis inherited a team rich with talent after George Raveling left Iowa for USC. The Hawkeyes had 10 players compete professionally from that team, including eight eventual draft picks. Davis said he wasn't intimidated by the talent, nor was he thinking about winning the national title.

"As a typical coach, you always look for the worst possible thing that could happen," Davis said. "Then you try to avoid it, thinking what's the worst thing that could possibly happen and then you work like crazy to prevent that from happening. There's a lot of that in coaching. You see what possibly could go wrong."

The team went to China in the offseason, a trip Davis said helped mold the team into a solid unit.

"That was invaluable," he said, "because you had a chance to experiment with not just a style of play but positioning. Positioning is important when you inherit players. Where you see them playing on the court might be different from what the previous staff thought they could do."

Bruce Pearl, an assistant on Davis' staff and later coached Tennessee to the No. 1 ranking, also touted that trip.

"What an amazing opportunity," Pearl said. "You want to try to predict when a team is going to have a breakout year, see if they went overseas to some of the foreign tours. It's amazing how often times that experience of coming together. That was back in the day of if you played the Chinese national team, you really did play the national team. They had great players.

"It was a tremendous investment by the University of Iowa to send us really behind the Iron Curtain before it came down. China and Tiananmen Square; there hadn't been a revolution (yet). That had a lot to do with putting the pieces together in a hurry."

Bruce Pearl now works as vice president of marketing for H.T. Hackney in Knoxville, Tenn.

Pearl was fired last spring from Tennessee after admitting he lied to NCAA officials during an investigation into recruiting violations. He received a three-year show cause from the NCAA, meaning his penalties travel with him if another school hires him during that show cause. He now has an interest in working as a basketball game analyst on television.

"I'm down in Knoxville still and so I think the word I got was because of how I fell from grace with the NCAA that it was important that I not put myself in that sort of position for a while and let me be the former basketball coach at the University of Tennessee," Pearl said. "In a while time will judge a little bit more, and put in perspective a little bit more on some of the positive things that we did there and maybe next year Ill take a run at that."

"I hope I get a chance to do television next year and see if I'm any good at it. If I am and if I like it, it might be something I'll stay with. We'll see."

WOULD PEARL BE COMFORTABLE CALLING A GAME IN CHAMPAIGN? READ HERE

Pearl was 26 years old and full of energy that year. He initially helped Gerry Wright work out while his hand was broken.

"I was able to bond with him in particular because he was responsible for my conditioning during the time when I broke my hand," Wright said. "He picked me up from the dorms to drive me over so I could I run and work out one-on-one."

Pearl originally performed as an Eagle mascot at Boston College when Davis was the coach. Pearl later became a graduate assistant with Davis at Stanford and was a full-fledged assistant Iowa.

"Tom Davis has a system in basketball. What you see is what you're going to get. He's a believer in the pressure and he's a believer in the zone and mixing it. Unbelievable freedom in the fast break with patience.

"I couldn't add much to Tom Davis' basketball knowledge. He'd forgotten more than I'd knew and probably forgotten more than I know. So I had to find a way to make a difference to contribute. So mine was to try to provide some intensity and some passion."

--

Tom Davis, 73, still lives in Iowa City alongside of Finkbine Golf Course. He stayed away from the program after his contract was not renewed after the 1998-99 season, when he took the Hawkeyes to the Sweet Sixteen. He later accepted the Drake coaching job in 2003 and coached for four seasons. He played Iowa four times and won the final time, beating Iowa 75-59. That ended the Bulldogs' 27-game losing streak to the Hawkeyes.

As Drake's coach, Davis twice led teams on the court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. He had not returned to a game at Carver as a spectator until Saturday.

He often met with former Iowa Coach Todd Lickliter and has had conversations with current Coach Fran McCaffery.

"I got closer to Coach Lickliter," Davis ssaid. "He would call me and say, 'Let's go to lunch,' or, 'Let's talk.' The two of us connected as individuals. We talked about our sons and what they were doing. He had a son that was considering coaching and how should he handle it and stuff like that. I think the same thing, too, with McCaffery.

"I think the longer that he's here, I think he's somebody, we've gotten together and we've had lunch a couple of times and visited with the staff. Having Ryan Bowen on the staff, Kirk Speraw's in-laws are my neighbors and family and stuff like that. It's been good, and I've been supportive. Mr. (Gary) Barta knows that. I'm here to help in any way I can. That's why I think this event is a really good event. I think it connects some of the players from our eras, the 13 years that I was at Iowa, but also Coach (Steve) Alford's guys and Coach Lickliter's guys and try to get some of these guys closer to Iowa because Iowa needs that."

McCaffery said he's developed a bond with Davis.

"It's easy to do because of the kind of person he is," McCaffery said. "(The introductory) press conference couldn't have been over five minutes, and I had a message and we talked for a long time. We got together for lunch. We have subsequently gotten together a couple times."

Davis also has gotten to know the Gatens family over the years. Mike Gatens was a former player under Lute Olson and a longtime booster. Matt Gatens is a senior on the basketball team.

"We'd call Mike in to rough up Les Jepsen," Davis said, laughing. "Mike has always been interested in Iowa and what he could do. Matt, I can remember going over to the golf driving range and Matt's practicing, and Matt's a terrific golfer. Matt was practicing and Mike was sitting in a lawn chair with a big umbrella over his head; it was a hot July day. He's sitting under the umbrella giving tips to Matt as he practiced golf. I've known him for years, and I'm sure Matt remembers some of those early days."

--

No player on the current team has a tighter bond with players from that team than Roy Devyn Marble. As a legacy, Devyn often is compared to his father. He's also heard stories throughout the years about his father's time at Iowa.

Before Saturday's event, Devyn Marble talked about what the celebration meant for his father and the 1986-87 team.

"I'm just excited and proud for him," Devyn Marble said. "It's a great accomplishment and I'm just happy they're being honored and I get to meet some of the guys.

"I've talked to most of them. I just haven't seen them in person."

Devyn Marble said from watching highlights he's learned about that team's style of play.

"Their toughness," Devyn Marble said. "That was a really physical group, mentally and physically tough, especially guys like Ed (Horton). That's my guy. Guys like him, that physical toughness and just approaching the game like that. That's probably one of the biggest things I got from watching that team on tape and stuff like that."

Devyn Marble was asked if he thought the 1986-87 season was the highlight for his father's career.

"I don't think it was a highlight; I think it was a step," he said. "Of course, I wouldn't consider it a highlight, and I don't think they would either because I'm sure they all had intentions of at least making the Final Four and possibly winning a national championship. They came up short, so I would say for all of them that it was just another step in life and they all learned and progressed from it."