Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On March 28, 1985, Brian David of Carroll Kuemper Catholic captured Iowa’s Mr. Basketball Award. As part of a Knights team that featured future UNI Panther player and NBA championship coach Nick Nurse, Kuemper claimed the school’s first state title that same season.
A traditional powerhouse program in Iowa high school hoops, hard times hit the school in the early 1980s, following five state tournament appearances in the 1960s and 1970s. However, in 1985, the 6’9” Brian David made the Knights a Goliath. David averaged 23 points per game while helping the team to their first state tournament appearance since 1979.
Rounded out by Nurse and Roger Gehling, Kuemper captured a 77-54 first-round win over Cedar Rapids Washington. A 71-59 win over Forth Dodge carried the Knights to the state championship game, where Waterloo West waited. Another lopsided victory, 77-58, allowed the school to claim its first state title.
After collecting Mr. Basketball honors, David headed west to play at Arizona for recently departed Iowa head coach Lute Olson. Nurse went on to prove a solid contributor for Northern Iowa, where he played alongside Greg McDermott before serving as a student assistant during his final season with the Panthers. The switch to coaching proved fortuitous, as Nurse’s coaching career path eventually wound its way to a win in the 2019 NBA Finals with the Toronto Raptors. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar
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