University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Heels, Hawkeyes Have History
December 3, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
Finally, the truth comes out.
Of course, those of us who were in the Smith Center—or anyone who saw it on the national TV broadcast, including analyst Billy Packer—already knew something fishy had happened during Iowa's 98-97 win over Carolina on Jan. 7, 1989.
The No. 9 Hawkeyes and No. 6 Tar Heels were tied at 97 with 11 seconds left when the Big Ten officiating crew whistled Carolina for a foul. Steve Bucknall committed the infraction, fouling Ed Horton, who had missed the front end of a one-and-one just four seconds earlier and was 1-for-4 from the line in the game. For the season, he would shoot just 56.9 percent from the stripe, the worst percentage of any Iowa regular.
In other words, although he was putting together a great performance on the way to a 21-point, 19-rebound game, he was the last player the Hawkeyes wanted at the line. So teammate Roy Marble decided to do something about it.
Marble, who just so happened to be a 76.1 percent shooter and 8-for-8 in the game, quickly stepped to the free throw line while Horton backed away. The Smith Center crowd of 21,175 recognized what was happening immediately, even throwing out a few rare boos—Dean Smith usually discouraged booing from the home crowd. They were joined in their confusion by Smith himself, and by Kevin Madden and Jeff Lebo (the current ECU coach, who will be at the Smith Center on Sunday when the Pirates visit at 3 p.m.), who were on the floor at the time of the foul and tried to direct the officials toward Horton.
But Ed Hightower and his officiating crew appeared to be confused by the situation. Marble didn't just slide to the line, as you sometimes see a savvy player to do in these situations. He vigorously argued that he was the player who should be shooting. In 2014, the play probably would have resulted in the officials going to the replay monitor. In 1989, however, that wasn't a possibility.
This link has a video of Iowa TV highlights from the game, with the play in question beginning around the 26-second mark. It also features Madden and Lebo trying to point out Horton, who was desperately trying to disappear in clear view of 22,000 people.
Marble missed the first shot, which probably prompted a young Rasheed Wallace to proclaim, “Ball don't lie!” somewhere in Philadelphia, but made the second to give Iowa a one-point lead. King Rice's last-second three-pointer was partially blocked, and the Hawkeyes took the victory.
As Smith noted immediately after the game, “I'm not so sure Marble is the one who should have gone to the line.” But Marble proclaimed for years that it had all been an innocent mistake. That changed this summer, when he told an Iowa newspaper what everyone already knew: “It was deliberate.”
There are more highlights from the game in this YouTube video, although for some reason you'll have to deal with “Werewolves of London” as the background music:
The end-game controversy overshadowed what had been a terrific game that featured 14 second-half lead changes. In addition to Horton, Iowa had future Chicago Bull B.J. Armstrong in the backcourt. Carolina countered with 20 points from Rick Fox and five other players in double figures. Lebo suffered through an uncharacteristic 4-for-19 shooting performance, as the Tar Heels were coming off a brutal schedule in the previous seven days that included games at San Diego State and Pepperdine, plus a date in Chicago two days earlier against DePaul. The loss was one of only two nonconference defeats Dean Smith ever suffered at the Smith Center (top-ranked Temple and Mark Macon dealt the Tar Heels the other one in 1988).
Carolina also lost the return game in Iowa City in December of 1989, and didn't beat the Hawkeyes until the 2004 Maui Invitational. In fact, Iowa's 2-1 record against the Tar Heels makes them one of just 12 active Division I programs that have a winning all-time record against Carolina (Army, Belmont, Dayton, Drake, Georgetown, George Washington, Indiana, Navy, Oklahoma State, Texas, and West Virginia are the others).
Roy Williams' team will get a chance to even that all-time mark tonight. They'll be keeping a close eye on the free throw shooters.
