HawkeyeHypnosis
Well-Known Member
Pieces from the Past: Tom Davis’ last dance at Iowa is a good dance | TheGazette
Here's an old article on the basketball side.
Here's an old article on the basketball side.
Pieces from the Past: Tom Davis’ last dance at Iowa is a good dance
- Thread starter HawkeyeHypnosis
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atomicblue224
Well-Known Member
i never understood why was he let go?
SteveGarvey
Well-Known Member
Too much hand-clapping, not enough results.
1977Hawkeye
Well-Known Member
Tom Davis was a terrific coach. He always had good teams and was a class act. Even in the few down years that he had, his teams always were a tough out for anybody who came to Carver.
SteveGarvey
Well-Known Member
I should say it was perceived that he wasn't getting enough results. How wrong we were.
He was not able to get some big time IA recruits to Iowa, attendance was dropping but that was due to bowlsby scheduling a softer Non Conf schedule, I heard Davis hardly ever attended the IA boys state BB tourney and that he like to play golf more than recruit and watch the AAU games when he was allowed to.
But whatever the total reason he should have been evaluated and asked to recruit better and given 3 more years, then if he couldnt produce a big 10 championship etc he could have been let go the regular way.
SpiderRico
Well-Known Member
Tom Davis and Kirk Ferentz's stories are very similar.
Both are very well respected by their peers and never did anything to bring shame or ill-will to the university. Both were never able to get the "big name" recruits, but always got the most out of what they had.
After good years in the top half of their careers, the bottom half of both were plagued with "average" finishes, with an occassional good team mixed in.
What's always interested me is the reaction to both men. On the one hand, once Davis had several average seasons, the fan base and donors began clamoring for a change. On the other hand, fans (for the most part) and donors are happy with KF's average seasons and you don't really hear clamoring for a change at the top.
I've always thought that the difference was due to the history of the two programs in relation to the age of the donors. In basketball, for nearly 50 years (with the exception of the Dick Schultz Era) Iowa had been a really good program. From Bucky O'Connor to Ralph Miller to Lute Olson to the early years of Mr. Davis......Iowa had it going pretty good. I think there was the perception that Iowa would always be good and so there was never much fear about replacing the coach.
On the flipside, before Hayden arrived, we had to suffer through 19 consecutive non-winning seasons. I think even now, that history weighs on the minds of a lot of big money donors that we are just one bad hire away from going back to those days. Plus, with football paying all the bills, you can't afford that kind of setback or else ALL programs will suffer.
I think what the Mr. Davis fiasco and subsequent hires have shown everyone is that, in college sports, the coach is probably the most important aspect of the program. In basketball, we were damn lucky to have the coaches we did and it's not as easy as they made it look. Same thing with football.
That's why I'm so happy to have guys like KF and FM on board because it's obvious they're great coaches and we need to do what's necessary to keep them around.....even if that means suffering through some mediocre seasons.
Both are very well respected by their peers and never did anything to bring shame or ill-will to the university. Both were never able to get the "big name" recruits, but always got the most out of what they had.
After good years in the top half of their careers, the bottom half of both were plagued with "average" finishes, with an occassional good team mixed in.
What's always interested me is the reaction to both men. On the one hand, once Davis had several average seasons, the fan base and donors began clamoring for a change. On the other hand, fans (for the most part) and donors are happy with KF's average seasons and you don't really hear clamoring for a change at the top.
I've always thought that the difference was due to the history of the two programs in relation to the age of the donors. In basketball, for nearly 50 years (with the exception of the Dick Schultz Era) Iowa had been a really good program. From Bucky O'Connor to Ralph Miller to Lute Olson to the early years of Mr. Davis......Iowa had it going pretty good. I think there was the perception that Iowa would always be good and so there was never much fear about replacing the coach.
On the flipside, before Hayden arrived, we had to suffer through 19 consecutive non-winning seasons. I think even now, that history weighs on the minds of a lot of big money donors that we are just one bad hire away from going back to those days. Plus, with football paying all the bills, you can't afford that kind of setback or else ALL programs will suffer.
I think what the Mr. Davis fiasco and subsequent hires have shown everyone is that, in college sports, the coach is probably the most important aspect of the program. In basketball, we were damn lucky to have the coaches we did and it's not as easy as they made it look. Same thing with football.
That's why I'm so happy to have guys like KF and FM on board because it's obvious they're great coaches and we need to do what's necessary to keep them around.....even if that means suffering through some mediocre seasons.
papathawki
Well-Known Member
SwirlinLingerie
Well-Known Member
Kind of. We're only a couple years removed from Iowa's first win in a BCS type bowl in 50 years. In contrast, at the time Bowlsby decided not to renew Davis' contract, Iowa hadn't advanced past the second round of the NCAA tournament in a decade. For your analogy to be true, Iowa would need to play in nothing but Insight, Alamo and Outback Bowls for another 8 years, and perhaps not even play in a bowl one of those seasons.
At that point, I'd buy the Davis-Ferentz career track comparisons. To take it one step further, you can imagine Ferentz getting forced out with several more years of middling level bowl games. However, if the next couple coaches struggled to make it to the Insight Bowl, you can imagine how much we'd reminisce about the Ferentz days, too.
I think the key difference between the two legacies (other than the Big Ten titles and Orange Bowl win) is that Ferentz appears to be refreshing and upgrading his staff in later years, which wasn't the case for Davis.
RocknRollface
Well-Known Member
Good post, I agree with your thoughts.
I will say this though, Davis had reached his ceiling. We saw what his style could do with good talent and then we saw him really not ever be able to land the talent necessary to make his style work against good teams.
Does that mean he should have been let go? probably not that way.
Ferentz is allot harder to figure out, hes more up and down and hes had much better highs than Davis although with more lows too.
I think people know that Iowa is not going to get another coach that can put the kind of talent on the field the KF can and everyone just hopes he will eventually figure out all the game day stuff that most other coaches seem to have no problem with.
Thawki
Well-Known Member
Of course KF has two conference championships while he has been leading Iowa football and TD had none in 13 years and his best team was in his first season with another coach's talent.
That might have something to do with it, along with the fact that KF actually does get some high level talent and most people would not say he is lazy on the recruiting trail. TD meanwhile was on record as saying his priorities changed after Chris Street died. It's great that a guy has perspective, but quite honestly we need more from a head coach of the Iowa Basketball program. We have that now.
Just because a future hire doesn't work out doesn't mean a change wasn't needed. You pay an AD to manage coaches and their programs, fire and hire coaches and generate revenue for the athletics department. Let them do their jobs and live with the results. People think Bump Elliott walked on water because he hired Fry and Gable. He also hired Lautebur, Commings, (re-hired) Nagel and let Ralph Miller get away and then hired Dick Schultz before finding Lute.
I for one am not willing to keep a coach around because I am afraid we can't do better than we are currently doing if the level is where it was at the end of the TD era. I have nothing against TD. I just think he could have done better if he worked harder at certain parts of his job at that point in his career.
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Thawki
Well-Known Member
I can't honestly believe this topic has already run its course. maybe that means the excitement around the program at this point outweighs the problems o f the past.
