Centennial Moments: Eric Heft's 16 Assists

In honor of 100 years of Iowa State men's basketball during the 2007-08 season, cyclones.com will publish weekly "Centennial Moments," featuring brief stories on former Cyclone players, coaches and teams. Check back at cyclones.com for more "Centennial Moments." Be sure to click here to see this week's video vignettes.

Eric Heft's 16 Assists

Records are made to be broken. We've heard the saying by athletes and sportswriters for the past century. Sometimes, however, a record stands the test of time and the argument arises if it will ever be matched.

Take for example Iowa State's single-game assist mark. During the 1973-74 season, the NCAA finally recognized and started calculating assists into an official box score. It was in that inaugural season of assist documentation that an ISU senior guard named Eric Heft handed out 16 dimes in a triple overtime game at Nebraska on Feb. 5, 1974. To this day, even with incredible playmakers like Jeff Hornacek, Jamaal Tinsley, Jacy Holloway, Gary Thompkins and Will Blalock following Heft, the record stands as an almost unbreakable mark.

“I remember Nebraska hit close to a 30-footer to force a second overtime,” Heft recollected about the historic game. “I remember that, but I really don't remember much about the assists because it was the first year they started keeping track of them. It was a couple of weeks later that Harry Burrell (ISU's longtime sports information director) made the comment on one of our road trips about getting 16 assists, and I said, ?which game was that?' I had no idea that I even did it.”

Heft, who lettered three years for the Cyclones during the Maury John era (1971-74), is now in his 29th season as the color analyst for the Cyclone Radio Network. He has been courtside at almost every attempt for a Cyclone player to break his record number of 16.

“Assists numbers were foreign and you had no idea if it would be something that would last a long time,” Heft added. “I know Robert Wilson had a good game for us, but I really don't remember much about the game itself. I just remember we lost 91-88 and that is the part that bothers me.”

There have been some close calls in the record-breaking pursuit. Hornacek tallied 15 assists in the memorable double overtime win over Iowa on Jan. 14, 1984. Tinsley recorded 14 dimes against Western Carolina (Dec. 30, 2000) and Thompkins handed out 14 assists on two occasions: Dec. 12, 1987 vs. Creighton; Feb. 24, 1987 vs. Oklahoma. The latter three were 40-minute regulation games.

“Of course it is an honor to be at the top of anything,” Heft said. “But I view it as more of an anomaly. I look at the players that played after me at that position. First of all, I thought Jeff Hornacek would get it. And then Jeff and I both thought that Gary Thompkins would get it after he left. Neither of those things happened. They both were close. And of course Jamaal Tinsley, one of the greatest ballhandlers I have ever seen at any level, didn't beat it. I think if the time had been right for all three of those guys they could have broken it, and I would have been perfectly happy if they had.”

Iowa State University Athletics

Related Videos

Sponsors