Mr. Davis's Final Run

tksirius

tksirius

HN's Love Doctor
Really puts into perspective how horrible of a decision it was...

(What followed was a bittersweet run to the NCAA Tournament, with a finish the program hasn't topped in the 16 up-and-down seasons since.

“That’s how Mr. Davis was,â€￾ said Dean Oliver, who was a sophomore guard that season. “He was just a class act. I’m sure he had some feelings about (being let go), but he wasn’t going to have sour grapes over it.)

http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sports/college/iowa/basketball-men/2016/03/12/tom-davis-iowa-basketball-sweet-16-1999-moments-madness/81547880/
 
Great Read. Mr. Davis should have never been fired. The effects of that decision still haunt us to this date.
 
HaydenHawk56 said:
Great Read. Mr. Davis should have never been fired. The effects of that decision still haunt us to this date.
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As time has passed more and more people say it and I would be willing to say that some of those saying it now we're the same people that wanted him out. Listen I was living in Iowa and attending all the games at Carver and the MAJORITY of Iowa fans wanted change. I don't know how old some of you who keep bringing this up but kinda old, if you ask me!

The effects of that decision haunt us to to this day? Seriously now we just overstated things. Iowa making its 3rd NCAA appearance in a row, Let's not get carried away. Furthermore I see similarities (Tempo, Press, Good/BadSubstitution patterns, lack of recruiting) between Davis and Fran. Obviously the one big difference is the on court demeanor aside from that I see similarities.
 
Say what Bob? C'mon.

You don't lame-duck a coach for an entire season and expect any good to come out it.

The firing sucked. Period. Name me another example in which another school has done that to someone.

It cloaks the program in a dirty veil all season, hurts recruiting and of course is offending to the coach.

Boobs-ly burned the program for 10 years because of it. Idiot move.
 
Seth53 said:
Say what Bob? C'mon.

You don't lame-duck a coach for an entire season and expect any good to come out it.

The firing sucked. Period. Name me another example in which another school has done that to someone.

It cloaks the program in a dirty veil all season, hurts recruiting and of course is offending to the coach.

Boobs-ly burned the program for 10 years because of it. Idiot move.
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Seth, the firing was already a given. But if Blow-holes-by had hired Izzo or Coach K, nobody would remember Mr. Davis's final run.

I LIKED Mr. Davis a heck of a lot. But the firing, itself, wasn't the problem as much as HOW it was handled. But it is remembered primarily because of what followed.
 
hawkeyebob62 said:
It wasn't the "fire" that sucked. It was the subsequent "hire" that sucked, in retrospect.
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That '97 NIT game was my breaking point. That whole season I was leaning toward wanting him gone, but that specific game was the final straw. Alford was the rock star at the time and I wanted him. He was the guy that was going to take us to the "next level". If Davis wasn't fired are we talking about Collison playing with Oliver for 3 years? Hindsight being 20/20 obviously, that could have been a really good run if Davis wasn't fired.
 
trj said:
That '97 NIT game was my breaking point. That whole season I was leaning toward wanting him gone, but that specific game was the final straw. Alford was the rock star at the time and I wanted him. He was the guy that was going to take us to the "next level". If Davis wasn't fired are we talking about Collison playing with Oliver for 3 years? Hindsight being 20/20 obviously, that could have been a really good run if Davis wasn't fired.
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One of the big knocks on Mr. Davis was recruiting. But at least most of his recruits made it to campus. Alford? Not quite so much.

But no doubt, at the time he was hired, Alford was the Golden Boy with his Sweet 16 run with SW Mo State. And he probably isn't long for UCLA at this point, either.
 
trj said:
This is what happens when your team has a meltdown. They either get nostalgic or they do "what if" scenarios.
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I think I read the 1980 team was 10-8 in conference play and then went to the Final 4. It's best to let things run their course. We could bump the thread where everyone predicted Iowa's record after 8 games going into conference play. We won some we thought we would lose and we lost some we thought we would win. Sounds a lot like college basketball in general to me...
 
HawkPrdatr40 said:
As time has passed more and more people say it and I would be willing to say that some of those saying it now we're the same people that wanted him out. Listen I was living in Iowa and attending all the games at Carver and the MAJORITY of Iowa fans wanted change. I don't know how old some of you who keep bringing this up but kinda old, if you ask me!

The effects of that decision haunt us to to this day? Seriously now we just overstated things. Iowa making its 3rd NCAA appearance in a row, Let's not get carried away. Furthermore I see similarities (Tempo, Press, Good/BadSubstitution patterns, lack of recruiting) between Davis and Fran. Obviously the one big difference is the on court demeanor aside from that I see similarities.
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A lot of revisionist history when it comes to Davis. Great man, solid coach, who's legacy greatly benefitted from the two clowns who followed him and brought this program to its knees. I'd also throw Bowlsby into that group for not addressing the basketball facilities and putting Iowa way behind the competition. Its hard to blame Alford or Lick for the fact that Iowa had to share Carver with the woman for practice time.
 
WindsorHawk said:
I think I read the 1980 team was 10-8 in conference play and then went to the Final 4. It's best to let things run their course. We could bump the thread where everyone predicted Iowa's record after 8 games going into conference play. We won some we thought we would lose and we lost some we thought we would win. Sounds a lot like college basketball in general to me...
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I believe you're correct here but if I'm not mistaken, a lot of that had to do with Lester being hurt and he came back for the toward the end of the season and played in the tournament until getting hurt against Louisville in the semifinals.
 
I never understood this . This blowbird really made the biggest idiot moves in his career. If Blowbird haven't talk to him about looking for another coach, I'm pretty sure Dr. would have keep recruiting players to Iowa and still have few more runs in NCAA"S. Joey Range would have play for few more years for the Hawks. He could be on top 10 lists of all time Hawkeyes.
 
Niemo said:
Would love to see Tom Davis Court.
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Chris Street court, IMO, would be the proper way to go... Terrific player and person, whose legendary status has only grown over time. It would be cool to incorporate the famous image of Street's last game at Duke into the floor design somehow.. IMO, this should've been done 20 years ago, though.

Regarding Davis - good coach who just didn't recruit enough talent to really ever get us higher than 4-5 seed material tops. I don't understand the hate some of you guys have for him.

I do have to admit that back in 1998, I too was ready for a change... but I was young and stupid. We ran out a guy that ran a good, solid program. No, he wasn't as good as Lute, but he surely didn't deserve to be shown the door the way he was. And I agree, it was the subsequent hires that was the bigger problem.
 
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