1978–79 Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team

1978–79 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
	Rankings from AP Poll)

Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball
1978–79 Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball
Big Ten Regular Season Champions
NCAA Tournament Mideast Region 4 Seed
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
AP	#20
1978–79 record	20–8 (13–5 Big Ten)
Head coach	Lute Olson (5th year)
MVP	Ronnie Lester
Home arena	Iowa Field House; (Capacity: 13,365)
« 1977–78	1979–80 »

The 1978–79 Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team represented the University of Iowa in the 1978–79 college basketball season. The team was led by head coach Lute Olson and played their home games at the Iowa Field House. They finished the season with a 20–8 record and, with a 13-5 conference record, earned a Big Ten Championship (three-way tie with Michigan State and Purdue). To date, this is the last regular season conference title for the Hawkeyes men's basketball team.

Roster

No.	Name	Position	Ht.	Year	Hometown
12	Ronnie Lester	G	6–2	Jr.	Chicago, Illinois
20	Dick Peth	G		Sr.	Tomah, Wisconsin
23	Kirk Speraw	G		Sr.	Sioux City, Iowa
24	William Mayfield	F	6–7	Sr.	Detroit, Michigan
30	Kenny Arnold	G	6–2	So.
32	Vince Brookins	F	6–5	So.	Cleveland, Ohio
40	Kevin Boyle	F	6–7	Fr.	Chicago, Illinois
42	Mike Henry	F	6–9	So.
52	Steve Waite	C	6–10	So.
54	Steve Krafcisin	C	6–9	So.	Chicago, Illinois

Schedule

Date	Opponent*	Rank*	Location	Result	Overall	Conference
Big Ten Conference Standing: 1st
Regular Season Games
November 25, 1978	Kent State		Iowa City, IA	W 111–76^[1]	1–0
November 28, 1978	Wichita State		Iowa City, IA	W 91–67^[2]	2–0
December 2, 1978	Colorado State		Fort Collins, CO	L 69–72	2–1
December 9, 1978	Drake		Des Moines, IA	L 69–72^[3]	2–2
December 11, 1978	Iowa State		Iowa City, IA	W 67–66^[4]	3–2
December 16, 1978	Illinois Wesleyan		Bloomington, IL	W 99–55	4–2
December 23, 1978	Drake		Iowa City, IA	W 112–73	5–2
December 29, 1978	Penn		San Diego, CA	W 87–84 2OT	6–2
December 30, 1978	Stanford		San Diego, CA	W 83–68	7–2
January 4, 1979	Northwestern		Evanston, IL	W 65–57	8–2	1–0
January 6, 1979	#13 Michigan		Ann Arbor, MI	W 85–79	9–2	2–0
February 24, 1979	#14 Ohio State	#12	Columbus, OH	W 83–68^[5]	19–6	12–4
March 1, 1979	Michigan	#11	Iowa City, IA	L 53–61^[6]	19–7	12–5
March 3, 1979	Northwestern	#11	Iowa City, IA	W 95–64^[7]	20–7	13–5
NCAA Tournament
March 11, 1979	Toledo	#14	Bloomington, IN	L 72–74^[8]	20–8	13–5
Rank according to AP Top 20 Poll. ^#All times are in CST. Conference games in BOLD*.

Awards and honors

Ronnie Lester – Second-Team AP All-American, Third-Team UPI and NABC All-American
Kevin Boyle – Big Ten Freshman of the Year

References

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v t e Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball
Venues	Close Hall (1901–1904) First Iowa Armory (1905–1922) Second Iowa Armory (1922–1926) Iowa Field House (1927–1983) Carver–Hawkeye Arena (1983–present)
Rivalries	Iowa "Big Four" Iowa State (Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series) Illinois
Culture & lore	History Herky the Hawk "Iowa Fight Song" First 5-on-5 college basketball game
People	Head coaches Statistical leaders
Seasons	1892–93 1893–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–1901 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

1978–79 Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team

Contents

Roster

Schedule

Awards and honors

References

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1978–79 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
#3 Michigan State	13	–	5	.722	26	–	6	.813
#15 Purdue	13	–	5	.722	27	–	8	.771
#20 Iowa	13	–	5	.722	20	–	8	.714
Ohio State	12	–	6	.667	19	–	12	.613
Indiana	10	–	8	.556	22	–	12	.647
Michigan	8	–	10	.444	15	–	12	.556
Illinois	7	–	11	.389	19	–	11	.633
Wisconsin	6	–	12	.333	12	–	15	.444
Minnesota	6	–	12	.333	11	–	16	.407
Northwestern	2	–	16	.111	6	–	21	.222

Rankings from AP Poll)