100 Things Cyclone Fans Need to Forget Before They Die: LaRon Dendy’s Air Ball vs UNI

Just call him His Airness.

Sadly, we’re not talking about MJ.

Things were supposed to start turning around in the 2009-10 Men’s Basketball campaign. Greg McDermott was in his fourth season at the helm, and after a subpar showing in the first three, Iowa State had rolled off six straight wins before dropping a two-point decision to Northwestern.

The Cyclones had plenty to play for when hosting Northern Iowa on December 2. A win would propel them to a 7-1 record, with hopes of finishing over .500 for the first time in McDermott’s tenure as head coach. The game was close throughout - no team held a lead larger than nine. With 43 seconds left and the Cyclones clinging to a one-point lead, Diante Garrett dished to LaRon Dendy, and the 6-foot-9-inch, 230 pound power forward decided it was an appropriate time to pull up from the perimeter.

Nothing but .... well ... nothing.

Air. Ball.

UNI’s Ali Farokhmanesh rebounded the most atrocious shot taken in 2009, and promptly buried a three-pointer for the Panthers. That gave them a 61-59 lead in the game, which ultimately won 63-60.

It was another loss in another sub-.500 season, Dendy’s only one at Iowa State. Perhaps if he had stuck it out for another year he would have benefited from Hoiball, and a coach that actually called timeouts in the appropriate late-game situations.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any video of the shot, so we’ll just have to let this one play out in our collective memories.