JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
Hawks Score 111; Blitz SIU-E | Hawkeye Nation
I have to share this crazy dream I just woke up from.
In the dream, Tom Davis resigned or was forced out of Iowa City. Iowa hired that Indiana player Steve Alford, and after three or four years, people stopped coming to Carver Hawkeye Arena. There was one year towards the end of the Alford era where the team was real good, but that was the exception rather than the norm.
Then they hired a fellow by the name of Todd Lickliter and didn’t have to replace a bulb on the scoreboard for three years.
Thankfully I woke up from that dream on Friday night, just in time to see Iowa beat a nobody team 111-50, just like they always have in my life as an Iowa basketball fan. Good old Tom Davi…..wait. That wasn’t Davis on the bench, it’s some guy named Fran McCaffery. It wasn’t a dream?
NOOOOOOOO!!!!
Sorry, it just popped into my head as I was watching Iowa destroy Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. And no, I am not protesting the hiring of Fran McCaffery. Not in the least bit.
I realize that was one of the worst teams ever to play in Carver Hawkeye Arena, a team that is making the transition to Division I, a team that came into the game ranked 335th out of 345 in Ken Pomeroy’s team ranking index.
Still, Iowa has played a few bad teams in recent years and never scored more than 50 points in each half. Heck there have been more than a few times where Iowa failed to score 51 or more points in a game under Lickliter; 22 to be exact, and there were just as many games where Iowa scored between 51-60.
Those days are gone.
I am not going to tell you that happy days are here again just yet, but after Iowa turns a few more corners they might be able to see some light at the end of the tunnel; that’s how far things had fallen under Lickliter.
Iowa did to a bad team what it used to do to bad teams; beat the heck out of them. It was Iowa’s first game over 100 points since December of 2006.
This team is still going to lose more games than it wins this year, but they will provide more hope for Iowa basketball fans than we have seen since Iowa’s Big Ten runner up finish late in the Alford era.
Four of Iowa’s starters scored in double figures, as did two players off the bench. Iowa pulled its starters with more than six minutes remaining in the game and the reserves, including four walk ons, kept hitting open jumpers and scoring points; Branden Stubbs scored 12 points in nine minutes while Jordan Stoermer had eight.
Iowa forced 29 turnovers and committed just 13 of their own. They made 59% of their 63 shot attempts and scored 27 points from the free throw line. They were 10-18 from beyond the arc and were +18 on the glass. They handed out 24 assists on their 37 field goals, too.
Defensively, they held SIU-E to just 34% shooting from the floor and just two free throw attempts.
The bad news on this night came before tipoff when it was announced that point guard Cully Payne would be out at least eight weeks with an injury. Bryce Cartwright continued his improved play, scoring 11 points in 24 minutes but his night ended early after a vicious foul by SIU-E’s Corey Wickware that brought Fran McCaffery off the bench and he even had some words with the Cougar player.
Cartwright seemed OK and Iowa will need him more than they thought when they recruited him in Payne’s absense. Stubbs may get some point guard minutes during this stretch, as might Matt Gatens, Devyn Marble or even Zach McCabe.
McCabe was Iowa’s leading scorer with 16 points, including four trey’s. He did that in 16 minutes. No Iowa player was on the court for more than 24 minutes.
Enjoy this one, Iowa fans. It was a sign of life and the up tempo style we have all been craving since Tom Davis left returned to Carver for at least one night. More ‘learning experiences’ will be ahead, but I’ll not dwell on those tonight. I felt like I was 27 years old again, newly married, when up tempo Iowa basketball was something you could set your watch by.
Here’s to more nights like this one.
I have to share this crazy dream I just woke up from.
In the dream, Tom Davis resigned or was forced out of Iowa City. Iowa hired that Indiana player Steve Alford, and after three or four years, people stopped coming to Carver Hawkeye Arena. There was one year towards the end of the Alford era where the team was real good, but that was the exception rather than the norm.
Then they hired a fellow by the name of Todd Lickliter and didn’t have to replace a bulb on the scoreboard for three years.
Thankfully I woke up from that dream on Friday night, just in time to see Iowa beat a nobody team 111-50, just like they always have in my life as an Iowa basketball fan. Good old Tom Davi…..wait. That wasn’t Davis on the bench, it’s some guy named Fran McCaffery. It wasn’t a dream?
NOOOOOOOO!!!!
Sorry, it just popped into my head as I was watching Iowa destroy Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. And no, I am not protesting the hiring of Fran McCaffery. Not in the least bit.
I realize that was one of the worst teams ever to play in Carver Hawkeye Arena, a team that is making the transition to Division I, a team that came into the game ranked 335th out of 345 in Ken Pomeroy’s team ranking index.
Still, Iowa has played a few bad teams in recent years and never scored more than 50 points in each half. Heck there have been more than a few times where Iowa failed to score 51 or more points in a game under Lickliter; 22 to be exact, and there were just as many games where Iowa scored between 51-60.
Those days are gone.
I am not going to tell you that happy days are here again just yet, but after Iowa turns a few more corners they might be able to see some light at the end of the tunnel; that’s how far things had fallen under Lickliter.
Iowa did to a bad team what it used to do to bad teams; beat the heck out of them. It was Iowa’s first game over 100 points since December of 2006.
This team is still going to lose more games than it wins this year, but they will provide more hope for Iowa basketball fans than we have seen since Iowa’s Big Ten runner up finish late in the Alford era.
Four of Iowa’s starters scored in double figures, as did two players off the bench. Iowa pulled its starters with more than six minutes remaining in the game and the reserves, including four walk ons, kept hitting open jumpers and scoring points; Branden Stubbs scored 12 points in nine minutes while Jordan Stoermer had eight.
Iowa forced 29 turnovers and committed just 13 of their own. They made 59% of their 63 shot attempts and scored 27 points from the free throw line. They were 10-18 from beyond the arc and were +18 on the glass. They handed out 24 assists on their 37 field goals, too.
Defensively, they held SIU-E to just 34% shooting from the floor and just two free throw attempts.
The bad news on this night came before tipoff when it was announced that point guard Cully Payne would be out at least eight weeks with an injury. Bryce Cartwright continued his improved play, scoring 11 points in 24 minutes but his night ended early after a vicious foul by SIU-E’s Corey Wickware that brought Fran McCaffery off the bench and he even had some words with the Cougar player.
Cartwright seemed OK and Iowa will need him more than they thought when they recruited him in Payne’s absense. Stubbs may get some point guard minutes during this stretch, as might Matt Gatens, Devyn Marble or even Zach McCabe.
McCabe was Iowa’s leading scorer with 16 points, including four trey’s. He did that in 16 minutes. No Iowa player was on the court for more than 24 minutes.
Enjoy this one, Iowa fans. It was a sign of life and the up tempo style we have all been craving since Tom Davis left returned to Carver for at least one night. More ‘learning experiences’ will be ahead, but I’ll not dwell on those tonight. I felt like I was 27 years old again, newly married, when up tempo Iowa basketball was something you could set your watch by.
Here’s to more nights like this one.
