By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – LeBron James still was more than five years from being born the last time the Iowa men’s basketball team won at least a share of the Big Ten regular-season title.

The NBA superstar turned 33 in December.

The Rockford Files still was airing on prime time television, Ronald Reagan still hadn’t served a day as President and disco still was thriving the last time Iowa shared a piece of the Big Ten regular-season title with Michigan State and Purdue in 1979.

That was Ronnie Lester’s junior year at Iowa and the season in which Magic Johnson led Michigan State to the national title over Larry Bird and the Indiana Sycamores.

Sadly, for Iowa fans, it also was nearly 40 years ago, and it was just a piece of the conference title.

Nearly a half century has passed since Iowa last won the Big Ten regular-season title outright in the 1969-70 season. That was the season in which Ralph Miller’s famed Six Pack finished 14-0 in conference play.

The current Iowa team is just 2-7 in conference play and 11-11 overall heading into Saturday’s game at Nebraska, which means the streak almost certainly will live on.

It has been so long since Iowa even won a share of the Big Ten regular-season title in men's basketball that it rarely gets talked about anymore.  

Unless you’re Mike Gatens.

“I think about it a lot,” said Gatens, who grew up in Iowa City and played basketball for Iowa from 1972-76. “I think; we’ve got a third of a title since seventy-nine.”

Gatens then adds it up in his head, 21 years plus 10 years plus eight years, and is reminded that Iowa has gone almost four decades without winning at least a share of the Big Ten regular-season title.

Kansas, on the other hand, has won 13 consecutive Big 12 regular-season titles.

“I just think Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State are such year-in, year-out powers that they are maybe able to reload their team as opposed to rebuilding as we do and other teams do, and Kirk Ferentz does,” Gatens said “But that being said, why aren’t we Kansas? If Kansas can do it, why can’t Iowa?

The streak, or the drought, or whatever you want to call it, really cuts deep for Gatens because his son, Matt Gatens, was a star guard for the Hawkeyes from 2008-12. But Matt Gatens never played on a team that finished above seventh in the conference race.

“That’s eight of the nearly forty years,” Mike Gatens said of the time that he and Matt spent as Iowa basketball players. “So yeah, I think about it a lot. It’s hard to explain.”

A disappointing streak 

Mike Gatens wouldn’t go as far as to say the streak bothers him, but it clearly does.

“I don’t know if bother would be (the word), it’s maybe disappointing,” Mike Gatens said.

It’s disappointing and shocking when you really think about it.

The fact that Iowa has gone nearly four decades without winning a Big Ten regular-season title in men’s basketball almost defies explanation.

Lute Olson was the head coach when Iowa won its last Big Ten regular-season title in 1979. He led Iowa to the NCAA Final Four in 1980, but that team struggled without injured point guard Ronnie Lester and only finished fourth in the Big Ten.

Lester missed most of the 1979-80 conference schedule due to a knee injury that never fully healed that season.

Iowa finished second in the Big Ten in each of Olson’s final three seasons as head coach in 1981, 1982 and 1983.

The 1980-81 squad lost its final two conference games on the road at Michigan State and at Ohio State by one and eight points, respectively.

The 1981-82 team lost its final three conference games, including a controversial 57-55 triple-overtime loss to Minnesota in the old UI Fieldhouse.

Iowa forward Mark Gannon was called for a foul on a desperation shot by Minnesota guard Darryl Mitchell in the waning seconds of the third overtime. The Gophers escaped with a two-point victory in a game in which they trailed by four points late in regulation.

“Coach Olson had a couple things that happened in two or three years he really should have had a couple titles,” Mike Gatens said “But it takes luck, it takes breaks, it takes Mark Gannon not being called for a phantom foul against Minnesota on a shot that if not called we probably win the title.”

The 1982-83 squad lost three of its final six conference games and finished tied for second with a 10-8 record.

Olson resigned shortly after the 1983 season to become the head coach for Arizona where he would go on to build a national power.

George Raveling replaced Olson, but Raveling only coached for three seasons at Iowa from 1983-86 and his teams finished seventh, fifth and sixth in the Big Ten standings.

Tom Davis was close to taking the Houston job in 1986 when Iowa came calling. He ultimately picked Iowa and then spent 13 seasons as head coach and is the school’s all-time winningest men’s basketball coach with 269 victories.

The closest Iowa came to winning a Big Ten regular-season title under Davis was second place in the 1996-97 season. Iowa finished third four times under Davis, including his final season in 1999.

Davis’ final team at Iowa also advanced to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in 1999. But Iowa hasn’t been back since.

Steve Alford won two Big Ten Tournament titles in eight seasons at Iowa from 1999 to 2007, but the closest he came to winning a regular-season title was second place in the 2005-06 campaign.

Iowa finished eight, 10^th and ninth during three disastrous seasons under Todd Lickliter from 2007 to 2010.

Fran McCaffery is currently in his eighth season as the Iowa head coach and his best finish was third-place in back-to-back seasons in 2015 and 2016.

Potential road blocks

Injuries, circumstances and luck, both good and bad, are all huge factors in determining a regular-season champion.

What if Lester had remained healthy during the 1979-80 season?

What if Minnesota hadn’t committed multiple rules violations during the 1996-97 season that were serious enough to where the Big Ten later stripped the Gophers of the title?

And what if Jess Settles had stayed healthy during his six seasons in the program?

The tragic death of Chris Street in an automobile accident midway through the 1992-93 season not only shocked and saddened the nation, but had a devastating effect on the court.

Just think how successful the 1992-93 squad, which finished 23-9 overall, could’ve been with Street and All-Big Ten senior center Acie Earl both leading the way.

Street’s death turned a potentially great team into a good team.

The competition also deserves credit for Iowa’s dubious streak.

Davis coached some of Iowa’s most talented teams in the mid-to-late 1980s, but those teams never finished above third in the conference race.

The 1986-87 squad was filled with future NBA players, won a school-record 30 games and advanced to the Elite Eight. But it only finished third in the conference despite a 14-4 record.

Indiana won the national title in 1987 and then Michigan won it two years later in 1989.

Guard B.J. Armstrong and forwards Roy Marble and Ed Horton are arguably the most celebrated triumvirate in the history of the Iowa program based on everything they accomplished from 1985-89.

But in their four years, Iowa finished sixth, third, third and fourth in the Big Ten, respectively.

Recruiting also has played a key role in Iowa’s inability to win a conference title.

Olson came close to landing several heralded recruits that could’ve made a difference after he had rebuilt the program in the late 1970s..

Davis and Alford also had some costly near-gets in recruiting, as has McCaffery.

But still, you’d think just once in the past 39 years that Iowa would’ve been in the right place at the right time to win a conference title.

Ohio State was picked to struggle this season under first-year coach Chris Holtmann, but is now a serious contender for the title with a 9-0 conference record.

Men's basketball not alone

The Iowa football team hasn’t won a Big Ten title since 2004, which is a while ago, but nothing compared to men’s basketball.

The Iowa women’s basketball team has won nine Big Ten regular-season titles, but just one since 1999, that being a tie for first place in the 2007-08 season under current head coach Lisa Bluder.

Former coach C. Vivian Stringer led the Iowa women’s team to six conference titles, all of which came during a seven-year stretch from 1986 to 1993.

Former Stringer assistant Angie Lee led the Iowa women to Big Ten regular-season titles in 1996 and 1998, but then finished in eighth and seventh place in the next two seasons before being fired.

The storied Iowa wrestling program won 25 Big Ten championships in a row from 1974 to 1998, but only six since then, including a tie for first place in 2015.

The Iowa men’s track team won the Big Ten outdoor title in 2011, which was its first since 1969, while the Iowa baseball team won the Big Ten Tournament last season for the first time ever.

So it’s not as if the Iowa men’s basketball team is the only Hawkeye program that has struggled to win Big Ten regular-season titles.

But to go nearly 40 years without crowning a single champion is incredible, but for all the wrong reasons, and a head scratcher.