Following the sport can become a generational pursuit, having been around for nearly seven decades.
I thought about the time University of Iowa basketball players Caitlin Clark and Keegan Murray spent time together in California last weekend as Wooden Award finalists. Two finalists from the same university are rare, but there they were. The consensus on all sophomore Americans are the final chapters of a historic four-year national interest for the two Hawkeye hoop programs.
Clark and Murray took the Big Ten and the country by storm in 2021-22. Watching them play games at such a high level was a must-see basketball. And the fact that they’re both Iowa natives made it even more fun.
Thanks to my sportswriting career at the Des Moines Register, I crossed paths with family trees long before Caitlin or Keegan was born.
My connection with Caitlin Clark dates back to the early 1980s. His grandfather, Bob Nizzi, was a football coach at Dowling Catholic. I first interviewed Coach Nizzi in the early 1980s and covered some of his games as well. I have always admired Coach Nizzi’s passion and intensity for the game and its players.
I experienced this passion and intensity in a unique way after the Maroons beat West Des Moines arch-rival Valley 13-9 in the first round of the 1983 state high school playoffs. The Tigers had beaten Nizzi’s team 21-0 less than two weeks ago. After that game, there were some things in the newspaper that Coach Nizzi didn’t care about.
After her playoff victory, Nizzi stopped in the middle of the field as her players circled her. Then he took out a few Register articles and set them on fire.
The next morning, I got a call from Coach Nizzi, who apologized for what had happened the night before. I respected him before he called. I respected him even more after that.
Nine years later, I came looking for Keegan Murray’s family tree. His father, Kenyon, signed a letter of intent to play basketball in Iowa in November 1991. After a brilliant season at Battle Creek Central with Kenyon averaging 26 points, 10 rebounds and 2.9 steals, Michigan’s Mr. Basketball.
I first interviewed Kenyon in April 1992, days before he played at the McDonald’s all-America game in Atlanta, Ga. Considered the most high-profile member of the Hawkeyes since Roy Marble, Murray knew what awaited him. So does her future coach, Tom Davis.
“I think it’s important for me to keep reining in the excitement,” Davis said. “People bless their hearts, they really want to jump on it and say how great it will be. He’s a great high school player, but college is different. Let him show first, then let’s talk about how good he really is.”
Kenyon chose Iowa over Michigan, saying the Hawkeye program was “more suitable for me.” I think Iowa could use me more than Michigan.”
Swipe to continue
This college selection is the second time Iowa’s basketball program has benefited from veterans and twins Keegan and Kris Murray signed with the Hawkeyes in November 2019.
I first saw the twins when they were in elementary school playing at the Chris Street Memorial basketball tournament in Indianola. Kenyon, a freshman in Iowa when Chris died and a close friend of his, was coaching his children.
Something struck me that day in Indianola. While Kenyon spoke to his team at the meeting, both Keegan and Kris made eye contact with their father and absorbed every word he said.
Caitlin was small at Dowling when I first saw her play in the semifinals of the 2019 Girls’ State Tournament. She was clearly a blue-chip quarterback, she. Of all the victories Coach Lisa Bluder has had during her time in Iowa, the signing of a national letter of intent is one of Clark’s most impressive achievements.
And the national praise for Clark and Murray in 2021-22 comes in a four-season period unprecedented in Hawkeye history.
In this window, the women’s program Megan Gustafson became the national player of the year. Gustafson, Kathleen Doyle, and Clark all agree on Americans. Gustafson (twice), Doyle and Clark were named Top Ten Players of the Year. Monica Czinano was also an all-Big Ten first-team pick. Bluder was named Naismith Coach of the Year in 2019. Gustafson won the Lisa Leslie Award, the Naismith Award, and the Honda Sports Award and was named the Top Ten Athletes of the Year.
Clark has won the Dawn Staley Guard of the Year Award twice, and also won the Nancy Lieberman Spot Guard of the Year Award in 2022.
In 2021, Garza became the first consensus National Player of the Year in men’s program history. Twice the Top Ten Players of the Year and twice the consensus of all of America she is. Murray becomes the fourth player in the program to be named the all-American consensus in 2022. Murray was also a part of the all-Big Ten first team in 2022 and won the Karl Malone Award for the country’s best forward. Garza has also won the Naismith Award, Wood Award, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, and Pete Newell Award. He was named the Big Ten Athletes of the Year in 2021.
The women’s show has been the Big Ten’s scoring leader in four of the last five seasons – Gustafson in 2017-18 and 2018-19, and Clark in the last two seasons.
The Iowa men have had the final three Big Ten scoring leaders in 2019-20 and 2020-21 with Garza and Murray last season. No Big Ten men’s team has had three consecutive scoring leaders since Purdue’s Rick Mount in 1968-70.
Their numbers are retired after Gustafson (2,804) and Garza (2,306) became career-record leaders in men’s and women’s history.
And these are just the highlights.
While Murray has a good chance of becoming the most drafted NBA player in men’s program history in June—Fred Brown went to Seattle with the sixth pick in 1971—Clark has two more seasons to spin a little more magic and create stories to tell. future generations.
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