Yes. Iowa basketball is a storied program with a rich tradition.
The timeline of Iowa's fall from relevance in my mind goes like this. Roy Williams stabs the beast and leaves it to bleed out. By picking Iowa's pocket for Collision, LaFrentz and Hinrich Roy really started a massive blood letting. Those guys playing for Tom Davis is a guaranteed Final 4 banner hanging in Carver. Instead the best our state has starts heading elsewhere to play ball. This cost Mr. Davis his job at Iowa and started the nasty tailspin for Iowa basketball.
Alford promptly came in and disgraced the program. He treated his players like they were above rules. His handling of Pierce left quite a bit to be desired. Pierce wasn't the only problem we had at the time though. Alford bread an environment that gave athletes superiority. Therefore bringing the bad stuff on himself. You will notice these things have followed the man at every stop. Both NM and UCLA have had player incidents. While individually they are of no fault of Alford's the pattern highlights the environment he builds. I will say this in defense of the man though. I believe he is a good coach and a heck of a recruiter. Alford might have been able to land a Harrison Barnes or Marcus Paige. He just wasn't a good fit, because he wanted to be beyond reproach, and he wanted special benefits for his players. I believe this led to the massive over reaction of Gary Barta by searching for a choir boy as replacement coach.
That leads up to possibly the worst 3 years of basketball that I have ever witnessed. Lickliter doesn't even deserve the print I have already given.
That leads way to Fran. Fran makes the necessary progress to get the team competitive again. In 7 seasons he has built 2 teams that were top 25 material. Both of those teams came up short when it mattered the most. The rate that Fran builds a good team is similar to the rate that Ferentz does it in football. I could indeed live with only having a really good team every four years if the other 3 years they were at least slightly better than average. Last season saw Fran's stock plummet to a new low. If Fran doesn't change the needle in a big way this season though I don't see how he survives another revival.
That sums it up pretty well.
I have to disagree somewhat on Alford. He really wasn't that great of a recruiter. Craig Neal, however, was pretty good, and kept Alford above water for the most part. Nevertheless, he missed on a lot of top recruits yearly. Much like Fran, he was always in the mix, but struggled to bring in the top targets. Also much like Fran, his team's performances were wildly inconsistent.
Mr. Davis's downfall wasn't just those misses, though those were the high profile ones. Keeping it real, he always was a fairly average recruiter who won primarily with his system (and, the rumor was that he always hated the recruiting aspect of being a college coach and let Pearl and Close do most of the heavy lifting). We saw early on what can happen when you combine his system with great recruits, but, his conference record without those first 3 seasons (where he relied on Raveling's recruits) was only 90 - 87. I loved Tom, but, after after suffering through the next two dumpster fire coaches, fans probably have applied a little revisionist history to his legacy. I think his situation was a classic example of
"The enemy of good is better." Fans just wanted a little more.
As for Fran, with that contract, he'll survive at least another 3-4 seasons. I could see his seat becoming a little warm with a repeat of last season, but, unless Barta is fired with him, I don't see him going anywhere anytime soon.
