ColumbusHawk
Well-Known Member
Do you realize that if the Hawks go two & sixteen next year, Fran will have the same conference record in years four through six as the great Tom Davis.
2-16
- Thread starter ColumbusHawk
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ChosenChildren
Well-Known Member
In my humble opinion, Fran is the best Iowa coach since Lute Olson. Hopefully next year will continue the trend.
Tom Davis was a great coach. Fran is a great coach. To have a great team you need a great coach and great recruiting. It will be interesting to see how the newcomers develop under the coaching staff. It seems pretty good to me. Fran has taken the team quite a ways since he got here. To have a first team all conference player in the last two years is an accomplishment for the coaching staff and the players work ethics.
What are the records for each coach in each of those years. I think Mr. Davis is seen as having generally above avg teams with some bad luck and some of his own non-recruiting issues.
Mr. Davis had the freshman of the year around 1989 in the Thompson kid who was made ineligible by Iowa's higher than NCAA and B1g 10 academic standards. The Chris Street death was a real blow to the program as he was 1st - 3rd team all-american material and Mr. Davis only had Ricky Davis for a year.
The Iowa program under Davis would have been much better from whenever Thompson was declared ineligible through the years Ricky Davis would have been a Jr or Sr.
Mr. Davis also got heat because he was seen as not recruiting very hard for the awesome in-state kids who went to mainly make Kansas even stronger, Raef Lafrents and two or 3 other guys.
Mr. Davis had the freshman of the year around 1989 in the Thompson kid who was made ineligible by Iowa's higher than NCAA and B1g 10 academic standards. The Chris Street death was a real blow to the program as he was 1st - 3rd team all-american material and Mr. Davis only had Ricky Davis for a year.
The Iowa program under Davis would have been much better from whenever Thompson was declared ineligible through the years Ricky Davis would have been a Jr or Sr.
Mr. Davis also got heat because he was seen as not recruiting very hard for the awesome in-state kids who went to mainly make Kansas even stronger, Raef Lafrents and two or 3 other guys.
ColumbusHawk
Well-Known Member
YES!
imported_ankle23
Well-Known Member
so you are saying we need a coach that can 'take us to the next level'?
HawkeyeMike23
Banned
Can you imagine the message board outrage if Davis had coached now a days and he went from 30-5 his first year with Raveling's guys to 12-16 his fourth year with his own guys? Does he even get a fifth year?
ColumbusHawk
Well-Known Member
We need a Ralph or a Lute. It was obvious that Davis couldn't even come close to maintaining Lute's level of success after about two seasons. It was obvious by then that Davis had ruined the program. Do you realize that in Davis' last eleven seasons he had only one season as good as Fran had this year. Further, in his last twelve season Davis won fewer games after the first round than Lute did in '80.
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ColumbusHawk
Well-Known Member
But the message boards love Davis & hate Alford. At least Alford won something!
I guess you havent heard about the difference between the two men. I lived in and around Iowa City from 1973 to 1985. I had a ton of friends who were big hawk fans, big donors, who worked at the U and I heard them talk about both men. The comparison isnt even close.
Alford was known around Iowa City as someone who wanted everything free and comped from haircuts to clothes to whatever and he was probably one of the top paid people in Johnson County let alone the state. We all know how Alford threw his players under the bus and never took any blame. he also chased away some really good players. Sommerville was a senior at Bradley when Alfords team was the 3 seed and lost to NW Lousiana. Sommerville on that team and they might have been a 1 seed because he was better than Bruner.
I heard from people that Tom Davis was just a very nice man, period. I barely met Tom Davis playing at Finkbine in that there were a lot of people around. I was playing in a tournament and Mr. Davis was trying to qualify for some amateur tourney. Just listening to him talk a little that day to others I came away thinking he was as genuinely nice as he seemed doing interviews, etc.
I am not trying to shill for Mr. Davis but he had 5 finishes in the top 3 in the B1G in his 13 years which isnt bad. And remember while this was going on he was beating the fab five a couple times IIRC even though they were pretty much a bought and paid for team. One might say that except for Izzo Mr. Davis went up against much tougher coaches in Knight, Keady, heathcote and then Izzo, and our favorite comb-over from Illinois.
Yes the only thing Davis missed was a championship.
Yes the only thing Davis missed was a championship.
Knight78
Well-Known Member
Yeah, Alford won something: the jerk of the year award. It's a package deal when you defend a rapist.
I agree also. If Fran can get a top flight pt guard and has his normal level or better at the other positions as he has recruited so far he could have an outstanding few years. Fran's half court offense mixes in a lot of good motion and screening. He doesnt use the weave that much but he could with the right set of guards.
I like that Gesell is now at least trying to finish at the rim and he is making more of those driving shots.
But as good as Mike can pass most times he still is not feeding the post that well and I havent seen him drive and dish as well as the 5* point guards.
ColumbusHawk
Well-Known Member
I've heard the same stories & much worse from my friends. Alford was an a$$ & a complete jerk. Alford not showing up at a charity golf event sponsored by the car dealership that provided his family free cars, expecting free snow blowers, etc. But as Leo said "nice guys finish last."
It's about results. Heck, I'd take Himmler as Iowa's coach if he could do what Wooden did. At least Alford won something!
blubberhawk
Well-Known Member
That's alright. Mr. Davis went down there & kicked Roy's *** in Lawrence, breaking their 62 game home winning streak. He followed that up by kicking Roy's *** again at Carver the next year.
eveningnewsteam
Well-Known Member
Iowa was a Final Four team the year Street was killed, they had everything. Big blow.
blubberhawk
Well-Known Member
Why knock Mr. Davis?
13 years at Iowa.
9 NCAA Tournaments
6 round of 32 finishes
2 sweet 16 finishes
1 Elite 8 finish
McCaffery has been at Iowa 5 years. He took over a program in the tank. He has done a good job, but the reality is he has an NCAA tournament win over Davidson to show for his 5 years. NIT was nice but who the hell cares about the NIT?
Excuse time is over after 5 years. He has had plenty of time to build a successful program so in the next 8 seasons, he will have to get to the sweet 16 twice, the elite 8 once and get to the round of 32, 5 more times to equal what Mr. Davis did. I hope it happens but I would bet a lot of money it will not.
Mr. Davis was a good man and does not deserve any sarcasm regarding his coaching record.
ColumbusHawk
Well-Known Member
That is a joke. The Chris Street incident is a very tragic. But to think that Iowa was a "great team" with Street is delusional. It is a very tragic event, I feel sorry for his parents. Not to dismiss the incident, but Lester's knee injury was far more significant in terms of basketball.
SpiderRico
Well-Known Member
You're a real piece of work. You've done nothing with your 1,500+ posts but bag on Mr. Davis. I never understand people that feel the need to denigrate one person in order to lift someone else up.
Ruined the program? That's hilarious. He brought us 13 NCAA tourney wins, 3 Sweet 16's and an Elite 8. He finished in the Top half of the conference 10 out of his 13 years during a time that saw the Big 10 at the toughest its been in the history of the conference. And frankly, none of that holds a candle to how he brought the program forward thru it's darkest time when Chris Street died.
Did he have flaws? Absolutely. But you're a flat out loser to come onto a message board and besmirch a class guy and an excellent representative of the university just to make someone else look better.
Do us all a favor and go crawl back into whatever hole you crawled out from.
SpiderRico
Well-Known Member
You know that old saying....."It's better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"? Yeah, that pretty much applies to you.
