Thank you. SA brought in 11 top 100 players in his stint at Iowa.
[...]
I can only hope that Iowa can get talent like either of these teams on their roster soon...right now,we are still suffering from the lick hangover.
This is my all-time gold standard favorite defense of Steve Alford. Do you honestly think you're putting him in a positive light here? Shall we review who exactly those 11 top-100 recruits were?
Glen Worley: averaged 8/4 for his career, 1x All-Big Ten HM
Jared Reiner: career averaged 6/5, topping out at 10/7 as a senior, 1x All-Big Ten HM
Pierre Pierce: averaging 18/5/4 with 3 steals as a junior, and then... 1x 3rd team All-Big Ten
Marcellus Sommerville: career average 16/7... at Bradley. Never played for Iowa.
Greg Brunner: Career average 12/8, 1x 1st team all-Big Ten, 1x 2nd team
Jeff Horner (committed during Davis era): 12/4/5 for career, 2x 3rd team all-Big Ten
Adam Haluska (transfer): 16/4/2 in 3 seasons at Iowa, 1x 1st team All-Big Ten, 1x 2nd team
Alex Thompson: averaged 2/2 in two seasons at Iowa before transferring
Tyler Smith: 15/5/3 in one season before transferring, 1x 3rd team all-Big Ten
Matt Gatens (legacy): 12/3/3, 1x all-Big Ten HM
So out of 10 top-100 recruits (not sure who your #11 is), we get 6 guys who actually complete their eligibility at Iowa, three of whom were not really recruited in the traditional sense (Horner, Haluska, Gatens). Of those 6, three are successes (Horner, Haluska, Brunner), one is average (Gatens), and two are flops (Reiner and Worley). There's a grand total of two first-team all-Big Ten selections in that group (Tom Davis had four first-teamers in his last four years alone).
The other four... one never plays at Iowa (Sommerville), one might as well not have (Thompson), one plays there for a year (Smith), and one cripples the entire program (Pierce).
So if your definition of being a great recruiter is bringing in guys who are ranked high on a fairly arbitrary list and having two-thirds of them flop or transfer while "landing" two guys who wanted to play for the Hawks since they were 10, then yes, Alford was a great recruiter.