It’s been a while since Colorado men’s basketball coach Jeff Bzdelik and Iowa State’s Greg McDermott crossed paths in a game.
McDermott was at Northern Iowa — as a player.
It was the fall of 1986, early during the first of two seasons that Bzdelik served as head coach at Maryland-Baltimore County before heading to the NBA for a 17-year stay. McDermott was a 6-foot-8 junior center for the Panthers, a program he would later direct for five seasons before becoming Iowa State’s coach in 2006.
In that 1986 nonconference game at Cedar Falls, McDermott scored 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds before fouling out. Northern Iowa defeated visiting UMBC by a 72-54 margin.
Colorado (9-10, 1-4 Big 12) plays at Iowa State (12-8, 2-3) on Tuesday night.
“I remember Greg as a big guy that we had a lot of problems with,” Bzdelik said, recalling the 1986 meeting during Monday’s Big 12 teleconference. “Of course, we had a lot of problems with everyone on their team.”
McDermott said he remembers winning the game most of all.
“I’m not sure we won a lot of games that year, but that was one of the ones we won,” he said. “That’s probably the highlight.”
Bzdelik said he has always been impressed by the way McDermott coaches.
“He does an awesome job,” Bzdelik said. “His teams play as a team. They play hard. They cut hard. They play with great energy. They share the basketball. They don’t beat themselves. They’re very fundamentally sound.
“They’re a basketball team that has a great upside.”
McDermott called Colorado a “very dangerous” opponent.
“I’ve been impressed with the way Colorado has shot the basketball,” McDermott said. “This is a team that’s not far from having a couple more Big 12 wins. They’ve put themselves in position.”
Footnotes
The Big 12 has five teams in the latest Associated Press Top 25 — more than any conference in the nation. It marks the first time since Feb. 8, 2005 (KU, OSU, OU, UT, TTU) that the Big 12 has had five squads in the top 25. … In a Wednesday night battle of the only teams still unbeaten in conference play, Kansas State will try to beat visiting Kansas in Manhattan for the first time since 1983. The only victories by the Wildcats in the series since then were at Lawrence (five times) or in the conference tournament. “It’s not like we’re playing Winston-Salem State; the streak is like that because they’re that good,” Kansas State’s Martin said of the second-ranked Jayhawks. … Colorado senior guard Richard Roby is averaging 18.9 points and 7.8 rebounds for his past 11 games. … In the recently released “mid-season trends” report by the NCAA, the Big 12 led all conferences in shooting (.472) and field-goal percentage defense (.402). … Iowa State 6-10 freshman forward Craig Brackins is averaging 17 points and 5.4 rebounds in conference play.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
