Nurse Reflects On The Magical 1999-2000 Cyclone Season

AMES, Iowa- There is no argument that the 1999-2000 Iowa State basketball team is one of the greatest hoop squads in Cyclone history. Led by All-Americans Marcus Fizer and Jamaal Tinsley, the Cyclones won a school-record 32 games and captured the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles. Iowa State advanced all the way to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Championship before a heartbreaking loss to eventual national champion Michigan State in Auburn Hills, Mich.

As everyone is well aware of, basketball is a team game. Virtually all successful teams require all five players on the court in synch and familiar with their roles. The 1999-2000 team was more than Fizer and Tinsley, however. It possessed a slew of players who made significant contributions to the overall success of the team.

One of the many stars on the team was Michael Nurse, a sharp-shooting guard who had the knack of burying a big bucket at crunch time. A little undersized at shooting guard - - he was generously listed at 6-1- -Nurse was the perfect complement to Tinsley's dazzling ballhandling and passing ability at the two-spot.

The 1999-2000 squad had it all, and Nurse was a key cog in its unprecedented accomplishments. However, when Nurse was asked what made the team so good, he boiled it down to the simplest terms.

"We were a tough team because we were so unselfish and excellent at moving the ball around," Nurse said. "It is contagious when you get all five guys moving the ball like we did. Everybody was looking for everybody else and I think that is what made us so tough because all five guys in the lineup could handle the ball, beat their opponent off the dribble and find the open man. That was definitely what made us very tough."

"We really didn't run too many plays," Nurse added. "It was basically high-low and once in a while we drew up a play to get Marcus a good look down low in good position. All five of us could break down their men, especially myself, Kantrail (Horton), Jamaal and Brandon Hawkins off the bench. We didn't run a structured offense because we were going to get some wide open shots with people having to help and recover. It was pick your poison."

Nurse, a native of Teaneck, N.J., arrived at Iowa State for the 1998-99 season after a stellar junior college stint at Monroe College in New York. He averaged 10.3 points and earned Big 12 Conference All-Newcomer team kudos after his first season as a Cyclone.

Nurse, Fizer, Paul Shirley, Stevie Johnson and Martin Rancik were returning for the following season, but little was expected out of the Cyclones. Not much was known about newcomers Tinsley and Horton, a pair of junior college transfers who literally were about to burst onto the college basketball scene.

Tinsley left Iowa State after the 2000-01 season as one of Iowa State's greatest players in school history. No. 53 felt lucky to be able to play with such an extraordinary talent.

"The great thing about playing with Jamaal was that no one could stay in front of him or guard him," Nurse said. "No matter how far back they dropped, he could make up the space. He wasn't a selfish player either. He could have averaged about 20 points per game, but he deferred to Marcus and kicked the ball out on the wings where we were usually open and could knock down shots. Stevie Johnson really benefitted from Jamaal's unselfishness on the court with his ball movement."

Iowa State appeared to playing the part of league cellar-dweller after a disappointing early-season loss to Drake in Des Moines.

"We thought we had a very good team going into that year," Nurse said. "We picked up a couple of very good guards (Tinsley and Horton) and Marcus had another year under his belt as far as getting ready to be the dominant player that he was. We had Stevie (Johnson), Martin (Rancik), and (Paul) Shirley coming off of his redshirt, so we really felt we were going to have a good team. Then we came out and lost to Drake, one of the first games we played, and that set us back a bit. That loss right there made us look at ourselves in the mirror and we had to figure out where our place was going to be in the Big 12 if we could not go on the road and beat a Drake team that we were vastly superior to. We lost that game just on the fact that they willed their way to a win. We definitely had some work to do."

The Cyclones had to regroup in a big way. It was in their next few games where a great team was starting to build confidence. Iowa State headed to Hilo, Hawaii to play in the Big Island Invitational in a pivotal three-game tournament. Iowa State dispatched Hawaii-Hilo (108-72) in the first round and then knocked off a solid Arkansas team, 77-71 in the second round.

It set up a matchup vs. No. 1-ranked Cincinnati, a team led by consensus All-American and future NBA No. 1-draft pick Kenyon Martin, in the championship game. The Cyclones played the Bearcats tough. After the game Nurse and the Cyclones started to believe they were a team to be reckoned with.

"Around the Thanksgiving tournament, we found out just how good we could be," Nurse said. "We beat our first round opponent and then we beat Arkansas, which tried to pressure us the whole game. It was to no avail, as we were too good with the ball and we really had our way with them. We really battled with Cincinnati, which was the top-ranked team in the nation at the time with Kenyon Martin and DerMarr Johnson. They (Cincinnati) were No. 1 for a good reason. They were the most talented team in the nation. We played them real tough and it showed us what we could do."

Iowa State started racking up victories, going on a 13-game winning streak, which included wins over Iowa and a 4-0 start to the Big 12 season.

The Cyclones had their winning streak snapped at Oklahoma in a double-overtime loss (80-75), but again Nurse noted a loss as an important lesson in the season.

"The real turning point of our season was when we had to go down to Oklahoma," Nurse said. "Oklahoma really beat us up bad in the first half. They hit a lot of threes and it made everybody looking at the score around the Big 12 think we were not for real. In the second half, we came out and showed the Big 12 and the nation that we were going to be something to be reckoned with because we dominated the whole second half. I believed I missed a free throw to win the game that day and we really showed that we were the better team the way we dominated the action. That really got us going, showing us how good we could be."

After the setback at OU, the Cyclones played like one of the best teams in the nation. Except for another road overtime loss (Colorado, 102-90), the Cyclones won 16 of their next 17 games.

Cyclone-mania was starting to gain steam around Iowa and the nation. Word was spreading that this Cyclone unit could contend for a national title. Along way, the Cyclones exorcised several demons and kept winning big game after big game.
One of the most important victories was on Feb. 16 at No. 24 Kansas. Iowa State was mired in a 17-game losing streak to the Jayhawks in Allen Fieldhouse and No. 18 was looking like a reality.

The Cyclones were down by six points with just over three minutes to play until Nurse and company turned it on. Tinsley recorded back-to-back steals and lay-ins to tie the score at 59-59 with 1:43 remaining in the game. Nurse rebounded a Jayhawk miss on KU's next possession and was fouled. The senior calmly sank two free-throws to give ISU its first lead (61-59) since the early part of the second half.

Moments later Fizer silenced the sold-out crowd with a dagger fadeaway baseline shot with 10 seconds left. Nurse, who had 12 points in the win, noted the victory as one of the greatest memories of his career.

"It was a great feeling to go into Kansas and win a game that no one thought we were going to win," Nurse recollected. "We were down the whole game and we came back to win at the end. The last five minutes of the game was around the time we started owning games. That was just another game where it happened. It was a wonderful feeling."

Iowa State was securely in position for a Big 12 title with its final two home games coming up against the two of the best teams in the league (Texas and Oklahoma State). Excitement was at a fever pitch in Ames and Nurse will never forget the intensity leading up to the games.

"It was great and our fans were outstanding," Nurse said. "Once they wanted us to get it going and we got it going, they didn't sit down. There was no quiet time, they were yelling and screaming on offense, they were yelling and screaming on defense. It was a great atmosphere."

"Senior night was the Oklahoma State game and it was the last home game for Marcus, because we figured he was on his way to the NBA," Nurse recalled. "For Marcus, Stevie and I, it was big time emotion. We wanted to win the game for Mike Nurse and Stevie Johnson and Marcus Fizer, because we believed Marcus was not going to come back."

After huge wins over UT and OSU, the Cyclones took care of business by winning their final two games on the road at Texas Tech and Baylor. The impossible had happened. The team that everybody counted out at the beginning of the season had climbed to the mountain top. The Cyclones were Big 12 champions (14-2) and Nurse couldn't have been prouder.

"Outstanding emotions after the Baylor win. One of the best feelings in the world," Nurse said after clinching the title. "What made it even better was that we clinched it on their court and they would not let us cut the nets down. It was us against the Big 12. No one thought we would beat Texas, and we beat them. No one thought we could beat Oklahoma State, and we routed them. The next game was against Texas Tech and they thought they would be able to stop us. It felt like it was us against the Big 12 South. It was great to clinch it on the road because we struggled so mightily on the road the year before."

Iowa State was in uncharted territory heading into NCAA Selection Sunday. The Cyclones had just captured their first Big 12 postseason tournament title and moved all the way up to No. 6 in the Associated Press poll.

Iowa State received a No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region, playing the first and second round games in the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn. Iowa State defeated Central Connecticut State and Auburn to earn a spot in the Midwest Regional at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich.

UCLA was Iowa State's next opponent, and the national media were lauding the Bruins as the hottest team in the tournament after a 105-70 shellacking of Maryland in the second round.
Iowa State, yet again, was not given much of a chance.

"Playing against UCLA, they had all the McDonald's All-Americans and pretty boys from California," Nurse said. "In the week leading up to the game, they had just hammered Maryland the game before where they threw lob after lob. One of the reporters was talking to me before the game and asked me, 'what can you do to stop this onslaught from happening?' I said, plain and simple, 'play defense. You stop them from throwing the lob at you.' We weren't the favorites in that game and many people felt UCLA was the hottest team in the nation. We had just won the Big 12 outright and the tournament and we were rolling. Most people thought there was no way we could handle their size."

Iowa State definitely proved it belonged, thrashing the Bruins, 80-56, the largest winning margin by a Cyclone team in a NCAA game. Nurse was 6-of-9 from the field and 4-of-5 from 3-point range en route to a team-high 16 points.

"Before the game started, before we were going to warm up, they were yelling 'tradition is what we are made for,' and that really revved us up," Nurse said. "Then we went out and gave them a nice whipping to boot. I think the guys were not happy with how we were being treated as the secondary team in that matchup when we were the two seed. It was amazing."

Iowa State's miracle season ended in the next game in a controversial loss to Michigan State (75-64). Iowa State held a seven-point lead with just under six minutes remaining until everything started to unravel on the Cyclones.

"I believe it was unfortunate and I am not going to say that anybody took anything away from us," Nurse said. "We were really in control of that game. I believe they got 14 of the last 17 whistles and the double-foul that took Paul Shirley out of the game was a huge factor. We had our chances and we should have been up more. It hurts because I am almost positive that we would have won the national championship. To me, that game was the national championship game."

The bitter ending to the season should never overshadow the accomplishments of the 1999-2000 team.

Nurse did his part, earning All-Big 12 third-team honors, averaging 12.5 points and 2.1 assists. Nurse made 42.3 percent of his 3-pointers while connecting on 99 treys, still the second-best single-season total in school history.

When his Iowa State career ended, he went onto playing professionally. He played one season for the Des Moines Dragons followed by a fruitful career in Europe, competing in England, Portugal, Germany, Finland, Holland and Spain. He officially hung up the sneakers for good in 2008.

Nurse has since relocated to his hometown of Teaneck with his wife, Kelly, and his son, Michael Jr., where he is still active in basketball. He conducts individual workouts with local prospects and works for the YMCA as one of its basketball skill development instructors.

It's been over 10 years since Nurse left Iowa State, but he still keeps in touch with his former teammates and on what's happening in Ames.

"I have fond memories because of what we did our senior year," Nurse said. "I am still real close with Stevie Johnson. He is my son's godfather, and we were both in Spain my last year. We always talk about the great times we had at Iowa State."

Iowa State University Athletics

Nurse Reflects On The Magical 1999-2000 Cyclone Season

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