Fran's survival on the line in Tournament

ColumbusHawk said:
Revisionist history is great. So many posters think Davis did at Iowa what Bobby Knight did at Indiana & Keady did at Purdue. Without Raveling recruits Davis was a five-hundred coach. How he did not get fired after his fourth season still amazes me. No coach would survive today going 14-4, 12-6, 10-8 & 4-14 in consecutive seasons.
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Is this even a serious thought? A coach has a winning conference record and takes his team to the dance three years in a row, then has a bad season and would be canned in today's game? It took Barta 3 years to fire Lick after pathetic seasons each year. No way Fran gets fired even if we go 0-18 in the B1G next year, after three consecutive Big Dance appearances..
 
imported_ankle23 said:
you are basically right, if i recall. his contract was up at the end of the '99 season and Bowlsby, instead of out and out firing davis, just let his contract go 'unrenewed'.

to the person who said he coached to the sweet 16 and then got fired is incorrect - he new well in advance of the season or who knows how long prior, that his contract was set to expire and that he wasn't going to get a new one - coaches don't like to have less than 4 years for recruiting purposes let alone one or two. to me, it was a dick move by bowlsby - almost cowardice - he spun it that TD was 'retiring' and tried to put himself in a good light - TD was all - I'm not retiring.......

as far as standards - getting to a sweet 16 and showing that that wasn't good enough so they fired the coach. that was big time egg in the face to bowlsby - and still is today given where the program is/has been, since that move. karma. in this case, i may believe in it.
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Yep, I think that's correct. I thought after the 1997-98 season (first round NIT loss) it was announced that Davis's contract was not being renewed, and that 1998-99 was going to be his last.

Seemed like I heard something that Bowlsby told Davis NOT to recruit Joey Range... But he did, and boom, Davis was gone shortly thereafter. I don't know how much truth there was to that rumor, or if that was a rift between Davis/Bowlsby that led to that decision not to renew, but makes me wonder. Davis may not have been Lute or Ralph Miller, and surely didn't recruit like Raveling, but he was a good coach and it was a dumb move to let him go the way he was. Sounds like that cost us Nick Collison as well.

As for Fran, there is no chance he gets fired after this year IMO, no matter how things end. None.
 
ColumbusHawk said:
Tom Davis went 14-4, 12-6, 10-8 & 4-14 in the conference his first four seasons. Yet Mr. Davis stayed around for another nine years. I still can't figure out why he wasn't fired after season four. Heck, in season four, a Raveling recruit was the best player on the team. When Armstrong, Horton & Marble left after Davis' third season, the great Mr. Davis was two games over five-hundred in conference play. Throw in the two BTT blow out losses & Davis was an even five-hundred against conference opponents in his ten seasons. That is the definition of average.

I don't care what all the Wile E. Coyote geniuses say: Fran is the best thing that has happened to Iowa basketball since Lute. That is very sad.
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No he is NOT
 
jjh4hawks01 said:
lol, Fran has a lifetime contract pretty much.

I would just like to see a Fran who learns from his coaching mistakes.

I thought we have the Fran this year.

Apparently, I was wrong.

Improve your timeout crap. Improve how you coach your team THROUGH OUT the season. Things like that he needs to figure out and improve on.
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LoL not even close, talk about a dumb statement.
 
sioux34 said:
Serious question, what is the best thing to happen to iowa basketball since Lute left?
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That's what I want to know. Raveling for bringing in all those stud recruits? Davis for doing good things with someone else's recruits? Lick? A player? There aren't a lot of options. If your answer has to be a coach, it pretty much has to be Fran. Davis was extremely average with his own recruits. Fran has been above average.
 
Hawk4Fan said:
LoL not even close, talk about a dumb statement.
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While Fran certainly doesn't have a lifetime contract, he will be here for a long time, and he deserves to be. I know this season has started to spiral downward in a hurry, but look at the facts:

4 straight NCAA tournament appearances.
Every season since Fran has gotten here his teams have improved.
In 5 years Iowa has gone from B1G bottom feeder to contender
Ranked as high as 10th last year and 3rd this year
Consistently signing the top Basketball players in the state of Iowa
4-star recruit and Fran's son Connor expected to sign LOI this fall

People love to overreact and say the sky is falling because the Hawkeyes have been disappointing over the last couple weeks, but guess what...the fact that any of us even CARE about Iowa basketball in the months of February and March is all thanks to Fran. Don't forget where Iowa basketball was when Fran got here. Never forget that.
 
Oldfan said:
Mr. Davis got to Sweet 16 and lost to eventual champion by 10 points, and then got fired. Have our expectations been lowered since then? I don't see anything in future above .500 record. This was great example of coaching on his part. Playing not lose in last 3 minutes.
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Hopefully, we've gotten smarter since then.
 
First off, we are not going to lose every game for the rest of the season and are favored to beat IU tonight, on senior night. After we beat the Hoosiers we will all be able to come on this board tomorrow to view the natural bi-polar nature of this board:p
 
1977Hawkeye said:
Yep, I think that's correct. I thought after the 1997-98 season (first round NIT loss) it was announced that Davis's contract was not being renewed, and that 1998-99 was going to be his last.

Seemed like I heard something that Bowlsby told Davis NOT to recruit Joey Range... But he did, and boom, Davis was gone shortly thereafter. I don't know how much truth there was to that rumor, or if that was a rift between Davis/Bowlsby that led to that decision not to renew, but makes me wonder. Davis may not have been Lute or Ralph Miller, and surely didn't recruit like Raveling, but he was a good coach and it was a dumb move to let him go the way he was. Sounds like that cost us Nick Collison as well.

As for Fran, there is no chance he gets fired after this year IMO, no matter how things end. None.
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Not correct. After the '98 season, Bowlsby & Davis had their end of year meeting. Davis was told he had to upgrade the non-conference schedule. Davis told Bowlsby he wouldn't, it was in his contract & walked out of the meeting. Davis sealed his own fate with that move. Remember in '98 the Hawks were nine & seven in the conference. Because of the very weak non-conference schedule, the Hawks became one of the few teams not to make the NCAA with a winning B1G record.
 
Hillcrest1981 said:
First off, we are not going to lose every game for the rest of the season and are favored to beat IU tonight, on senior night. After we beat the Hoosiers we will all be able to come on this board tomorrow to view the natural bi-polar nature of this board:p
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No we won't! I mean, yes we will...I mean, no we won't...errr, yes we will! ;)
 
I still this ridiculous thread and any post trying to discredit Tom Davis I also think is wrong. Tom Davis coached in a different era and he came to Iowa with a solid pedigree.
 
I cant imagine Hawks winning one much less making a run now. You have to believe next year is not a tournament team. I realize Iowa is not Michigan State but I still think one and done in tournaments and empty seats at Carver will be the end after 7 seasons
 
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