Iowa's previous NIT quarterfinal: Palookaville

I barely remember this stuff, but I have archives at my fingertips.

What I do recall is I thought it would be a hoot to go to New York to cover the NIT's Final Four. And it must have meant something to Iowa fans, because they had a sellout of 15,500 for this NIT quarterfinal at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in 1995 against Penn State.

I usually wince when I look back at things I've written (including things an hour ago). But I do like the use of the word "Palookaville" in my opening paragraph.

IOWA CITY - The Iowa men's basketball team was on to the road to fighting in Madison Square Garden, but strayed from its style and ended up in Palookaville.

The Hawkeyes ran, pressed and drove Penn State nuts in the first six minutes of their NIT quarterfinal Thursday night in Carver-Hawkeye Arena in building an 18-5 lead. But the Nittany Lions ripped off seven straight points before Iowa's Chris Kingsbury got called for an intentional foul with 10:59 left in the first half.

The infraction didn't immediately hurt the Hawks on the scoreboard because Phil Williams missed both free throws. However, the game continued its descent into an ugly, plodding affair that favored the larger Lions.

The night grew progressively darker for the Hawks, and they fell behind 61-47 with five minutes left. Then came a rally that would have been one for the annals had it not been for a PennState freshman reserve named Pete Lisicky.

Thanks mostly to the indomitable willpower of Andre Woolridge and Jess Settles, Iowa dug in, clawed, and somehow got the game tied at 64 with 10.6 seconds left. The Lions looked in trouble after in-bounding the ball, but Dan Earl finally got it across the time line and into the hands of the open guard, Lisicky. He launched a picture-perfect arching 3-pointer.

Swish, with 2.1 seconds remaining. This isn't the big tournament, but Penn State was awfully happy to earn a trip to the Big Apple. And earn it, they did.

Kingsbury could only sit and watch the Hawks mount their late rally, for he picked up his fifth foul with three minutes to go. It was a rough ending and a rough game for the team's outside go-to guy. He was 1-of-10 from 3-point range, scored only four points, and played the game with upper-back spasms that started plaguing him Thursday afternoon.

"Basically, the team played 40 minutes without me," Kingsbury said, "because I didn't do anything. I let the seniors down, and the team let the seniors down."

Kingsbury said Penn State 's players got away with some sneaky stuff before he was whistled for bumping into Williams with his chest. But he shouldn't have been too surprised the Big Ten officiating crew was watching him closely. The word is out on Kingsbury around the league. It was no accident that Iowa's leading scorer didn't receive a single all-conference vote by the conference's coaches when he was a second-team pick by a media panel.

"The refs told me if I fell down again I'd get a technical foul," Kingsbury said. His acting jobs on other non- Penn State charges didn't please the officials a bit.

Kingsbury wasn't solely to blame for this loss, though. Iowa was an icy 5-of- 25 from 3-point land, got slaughtered on the boards, and didn't have Lisicky covered in the final seconds.

The closing rally was superb, but it goes in the book as another close Hawk loss. Be it injuries, relative inexperience, or ill fortune, this year's Iowa team was on the cusp of being a big winner but in reality was an NIT quarterfinalist.

Yet, none of that deterred Woolridge, the point guard who had a very strong first year as the Hawks' point guard. He seemed incapable of accepting defeat, driving time after time to try to pull his team back in the game.

"I wanted to go out fighting," Woolridge said. "I just didn't want to lose."

So, now it's Canisius, Marquette, Penn State and Virginia Tech in the NIT next Monday and Wednesday. Sandwiched in between the sessions at the Garden is an NBA game between the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks.

No one's going to notice Canisius in Manhattan next week. But it's an anonymity the Hawks would gladly have accepted.