The Alford Stuff

TChawk said:
Well at least he got us to the NCAA tourny, that is more than you can saw for the last 2 coaches so far.
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IMHO, this is a quote from an Alford apologist. Yes .. in 8 years, he got us to the dance 3 times. Not exactly stellar. In 5 more years, assuming he stays, Fran will have coached the same amount of time. My guess is that he will have more NCAA appearances than Alford. The only reason we haven't made it yet is that the program was in complete disarray when Fran got here and rebuilding was necessary. Alford took over a team that came off a Sweet 16 appearance.

I'll take Fran over Alford anyday.

GO HAWKS!!!
 
I'm not consumed with Alford hate like some are. I've pretty much moved on. But yeah, it burns me too when people like Dakich or Seth Davis blast Iowa for running Alford out of town and say that Iowa was the problem. And let's be clear about this - Alford left Iowa to stay ahead of the posse. He was on the hot seat, and he knew it.

If Alford is such a great coach, then how come he didn't win more than he did at Iowa?

Look. Alford's teams at Iowa rarely got out of the first round of whatever post-season tournament they played in (NIT or NCAA). That trend has continued at UNM if you look at Alf's resume. So nothing has changed except for the fact that he is racking up a lot of wins in a soft and very overrated conference, yet continues to fall flat on his face in the post-season.

I thought someone posted that Alford is now the only coach in history to lose to a 14 seed multiple times. And if you remember in 2010, his team was a 3 seed that year too, and barely escaped the first round. So Alf is an eyelash away from pulling the hat trick.

Get back to me when Alford starts leading his teams to the Sweet 16 or beyond on a regular basis.

Anyway, that's my take on the whole Alford topic. Back to my regularly scheduled programming of rooting for the Hawks tonight in the NIT, and enjoying me some more March Madness.
 
BJHawkstrong said:
I took some personal joy from the New Mexico upset last night, but honestly I don't place all Iowa's woes over the last decade on Alford alone. Yeah he didn't do himself any favors with our fanbase but I think some have gone a little overboard with their hatred. One thing I will say is that Iowans in general are some of the greatest people you will ever meet and will treat you well until you give them a reason not too. Apparently Steve gave many reasons because after reading some boards tonight it is pretty apparent how much disdain Hawk nation has for him.
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Riding the Christian high horse all the time, while subsequently coddling and bending over backwards to keep a rapist on the team (and the program was well aware of the danger long before Pierce got in trouble), certainly had a lot to do with it. His general arrogance and coaching flops took care of the rest.
 
BrueCrew3 said:
IMHO, this is a quote from an Alford apologist. Yes .. in 8 years, he got us to the dance 3 times. Not exactly stellar. In 5 more years, assuming he stays, Fran will have coached the same amount of time. My guess is that he will have more NCAA appearances than Alford. The only reason we haven't made it yet is that the program was in complete disarray when Fran got here and rebuilding was necessary. Alford took over a team that came off a Sweet 16 appearance.

I'll take Fran over Alford anyday.

GO HAWKS!!!
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+10000 to that. Fran is building. 11, 18, and now 22 wins and counting in 3 years. Fran is getting it done so far. Let's just hope he keeps that building process rolling.

Lick was a disaster, no more, no less. And Fran has had to deal with the ruins of what he inherited. It's really as simple as that.

Regardless, even if Fran can't get us to the NCAA Tournament (which I think he will), that doesn't mean Alford should get credit for simply being "less mediocre".

Besides - In my mind, this year's Iowa team is already as good, or better, than the vast majority of Alford's Iowa teams. You can almost argue that Fran has done more already than Alf did. In fact, I'd say Iowa's program is close to being back to where it was under Davis. Not quite, but close.
 
BrueCrew3 said:
IIRC it was Bowlsby who pushed Davis to the curb, not the fans. He (BB) wanted to get someone else in. I seem to remember the fans were upset that Davis wasn't retained.

I see Fran's tenure running very similar to Mr. Davis's. There will be some very good years, but also a lean year or two. Would I like to see the Hawks get to the point of not "if" we make the tournament but what our seed is going to be? ABSOLUTELY!! But Iowa is not, and probably never will be, the choice destination of the 5-stars. I'll be happy if Fran gets the program to the point of 8 out of 10 years the team makes it to the dance.

Just my $.02 .. ..

GO HAWKS!!!
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The fan base was pushing Davis out the door, I remember it well. People were expecting Iowa to compete for NC and Final Four appearances and "all" Davis did was get Iowa to the second round (at minimum) of the NCAA tournament. A lot of fans thought Davis should be getting better recruits to come to Iowa, it really got bad when LaFrenz decided to go to Kansas. Coming off a Sweet 16 appearance Davis had Nick Collison in the bag until Bowlsby announced Davis's contract would not be renewed, we can only guess how good Iowa could have been.

But even I jumped on the Alford band wagon when he was named the coach at Iowa, he was the young, up and coming, coach with an Indiana pedigree. It appeared Iowa was heading to greener pastures and then we all know what happened next.
 
tm3308 said:
Riding the Christian high horse all the time, while subsequently coddling and bending over backwards to keep a rapist on the team (and the program was well aware of the danger long before Pierce got in trouble), certainly had a lot to do with it. His general arrogance and coaching flops took care of the rest.
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Deace called Alford Worm Tounge I believe which is hilarious.

Alford and Gene Chizik have a lot in common if you ask me. Both using religion as a front be really being less than ethical people behind the scenes. When Alford had that spot on the 700 Club during his Iowa tenture it made me laugh.
 
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It was satisfying watching the Lobos lose last night. I didn't enjoy it, I wasn't hoping their team lost, I feel bad for their players, but I was certainly rooting for Harvard to win.

At some point in this guys career, the polish on the turd is going to wear off.

Who goes out and signs a contract extension right BEFORE they play their opening round NCAA game? Can any of you think of that ever happening before? Most coaches want to focus on the game at-hand and have absolutely no distractions leading up the NCAA tournament. Not wonderboy!

And please quit re-writing his time at Iowa. steve alford was going to get fired from his job here at Iowa but he jumped ship before it could happen. Tyler Smith was leaving the program. We didn't make the NCAA tournament. We had more player defections from Iowa during his tenure than ever before in the history of Iowa basketball. He was already given the ultimatum in the year prior. He was done.

Then he lands at NM. A team that on paper looked like they were a mid-tier program in a mid-major league. In reality they had a kid on their roster who was a former McDonalds AA who sat out the year prior due to transfer rules (JR Giddens). The kid ended up being an NBA 1st or 2nd round draft pick and alford walked assbackwards into that situation. Think about that for a second. A former McDonalds AA who was a starter at Kansas for 2 years before transferring is now running the show at a mid-major conference. The kid has his way the competition. Then alford goes out and pays a Houston based AAU coach to bring his star players to NM. He puts the AAU coach on his staff for 1 or 2 seasons. Now you have a mid-tier, mid-major team that has the talent of a mid-tier, major conference team. Of course they are going to win the league and make the NCAAs.

Noodle$ has more to do with his $ucce$$ than alford does. Noodle$ will likely never be a head ba$ketball coach becau$e of $ome of the thing$ he doe$.

Screw alford.
 
As the saying goes....religion is like your tally whacker...it's fine if you like it and are proud of it, but when you pull it out and start waving it in my face, that's when i have a problem with it. Or something like that
 
TChawk said:
Well at least he got us to the NCAA tourny, that is more than you can saw for the last 2 coaches so far.
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Iowa was already getting to the NCAA tournament before Alford got here, and on a more regular basis with a lot more success than Alford ever had (Davis never lost in the first round). The next level was supposed to be Elite Eight, Final Four appearances, shots at the National Championship which was something Davis did not do (1 Elite 8 appearance). Don't tell me how great everything was while Alford was here, he set the program back a notch and then bailed once his seat started to get a little warm. Not only did he set the program back but he also managed to upset the fan base, and most importantly, the students by protecting a rapist. The biggest deush bag Iowa has ever had as a coach in any sport.
 
The reality is the basketball program went backward under Alford and cratered under Lickliter. Thank God for Fran and his staff!
 
hawkeye12345 said:
It was satisfying watching the Lobos lose last night. I didn't enjoy it, I wasn't hoping their team lost, I feel bad for their players, but I was certainly rooting for Harvard to win.

At some point in this guys career, the polish on the turd is going to wear off.

Who goes out and signs a contract extension right BEFORE they play their opening round NCAA game? Can any of you think of that ever happening before? Most coaches want to focus on the game at-hand and have absolutely no distractions leading up the NCAA tournament. Not wonderboy!

And please quit re-writing his time at Iowa. steve alford was going to get fired from his job here at Iowa but he jumped ship before it could happen. Tyler Smith was leaving the program. We didn't make the NCAA tournament. We had more player defections from Iowa during his tenure than ever before in the history of Iowa basketball. He was already given the ultimatum in the year prior. He was done.

Then he lands at NM. A team that on paper looked like they were a mid-tier program in a mid-major league. In reality they had a kid on their roster who was a former McDonalds AA who sat out the year prior due to transfer rules (JR Giddens). The kid ended up being an NBA 1st or 2nd round draft pick and alford walked assbackwards into that situation. Think about that for a second. A former McDonalds AA who was a starter at Kansas for 2 years before transferring is now running the show at a mid-major conference. The kid has his way the competition. Then alford goes out and pays a Houston based AAU coach to bring his star players to NM. He puts the AAU coach on his staff for 1 or 2 seasons. Now you have a mid-tier, mid-major team that has the talent of a mid-tier, major conference team. Of course they are going to win the league and make the NCAAs.

Noodle$ has more to do with his $ucce$$ than alford does. Noodle$ will likely never be a head ba$ketball coach becau$e of $ome of the thing$ he doe$.

Screw alford.
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Great post! Let's not forget Alford took Iowa's top recruit Dairese Gary with him when he left Iowa.
 
theboat said:
I saw a stat that a 3 seed has lost to a 14 seed only 4 times in 10 years. Pretty funny that he had half.

Alford killed Iowa basketball for me. Barta buried it.

I am very happy that Iowa is back on the right track though, but I definitely love watching him fall on his face.
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Ditto. Nothing better than watching an arrogant jerk fall flat on his face.
 
BrueCrew3 said:
IIRC it was Bowlsby who pushed Davis to the curb, not the fans. He (BB) wanted to get someone else in. I seem to remember the fans were upset that Davis wasn't retained.

I see Fran's tenure running very similar to Mr. Davis's. There will be some very good years, but also a lean year or two. Would I like to see the Hawks get to the point of not "if" we make the tournament but what our seed is going to be? ABSOLUTELY!! But Iowa is not, and probably never will be, the choice destination of the 5-stars. I'll be happy if Fran gets the program to the point of 8 out of 10 years the team makes it to the dance.

Just my $.02 .. ..

GO HAWKS!!!
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I love what Fran is doing, but you do realize that the only decade Iowa has made 8 out of 10 NCAA tournaments is the 1980s? The rise of the MSU, OSU, Wisconsin programs since Iowa's heyday in the 1980s and the favorable skew toward getting mid-majors as at-large teams in the tournament make it extremely difficult for Iowa to have another 10-year run where they make the NCAA tournament 8 times.
Not saying it's impossible, just that making the tournament 80% of the time is a marker I'm not sure can be reasonably reached by a coach at Iowa. I'll be thrilled if Fran coaches at Iowa 10 more years and in that time we make the tourney 6 times. After making it 2 times in the last 10 years and 3 in the last 14 years, just getting there 2 years in a row and actually winning a game will be a huge first step.
 
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