Tom Davis vs. Johnny Orr

I'm not going to compare wins and losses but I think Orr had a much bigger impact then the good Dr. Don't forget one thing, both were forced out and Orr had nothing to do with ISU until Fred got the job.
 
Davis couldn't recruit. Even Iowa kids. Maybe 'cause it's Iowa? <P> His system won games. Not the players. Remind you of anyone?
 
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Davis couldn't recruit. Even Iowa kids. Maybe 'cause it's Iowa? <P> His system won games. Not the players. Remind you of anyone?

I am curious as to why you say this? Because he missed on Lafrentz?

Collison was going to be a Hawk until it was announced Mr. Davis would not be back.
 
Davis couldn't recruit. Even Iowa kids. Maybe 'cause it's Iowa? <P> His system won games. Not the players. Remind you of anyone?

Homer, I have to ask you again - what kind of interface are you using that doesn't allow carriage returns?!? Your "<P>" does not work (only a limited subset of HTML markup tags are recognized, and that is not one of them).
 
Orr's teams played exciting hoops and people nationwide talked about him in high regard. People gravitated to that i think. The comparison is silly as both were coaches the school was proud of and won some basketball games along the way.
 
I am curious as to why you say this? Because he missed on Lafrentz?

Collison was going to be a Hawk until it was announced Mr. Davis would not be back.
Hinrich was the other Iowa high school kid Mr. Davis missed out on at that time. Was too much for the Iowa 'faithful' to stand. Bing-bang... bye-bye.
IMO, the greatest and worst achievement for the Mr. Davis era at Iowa was the 1987 season.
Greatest because it was the highest showing of any Iowa team.
Worst because thereafter Mr. Davis Iowa teams consistently showed worst.
Mr. Davis couldn't recruit like the previous Iowa basketball coach. He could never get the level of athletes as that 1987 team..
Iowa's basketball coach before Mr. Davis was George Raveling. A fantastic recruiter. An average basketball coach.
More than not, Raveling's disagreements with Iowa fans had little or nothing to do with basketball.
Raveling left Iowa because he couldn't get along with 'knowledgeable' Iowa basketball fans.
BJ Armstrong was a Raveling recruit. Brad Louhas was a Raveling recruit. Ed Horton was a Raveling recruit.
Marble Sr. was a Raveling recruit. Bill Jones was a Raveling recruit.
Many of these players played substantial minutes for the 1987 team. A team that finished 8th in the NCAA Tournament after losing to The Runnin' Rebels.
Many Iowa fans thought the 1987 season was an anomaly.
More Iowa fans (and The Iowa Athletic Department) thought the 1987 season was a building block to sustained excellence in Iowa basketball.

Side note: Iowa originated the ally-oop play (I think the errant shot went to Les Jepsen who laid it up). Sportscasters laughed at how badly the previous shot.. pass? had missed. This was during a televised pre-Super Bowl game between (I'm guessing) Iowa VS North Carolina.
 
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I guess I see it that he kickstarted Hilton Magic. That and the program now is far from mediocre.

And my Lickliter point stands...how many fanbases support bad teams in great numbers? ISU didn't then and Iowa didn't with Lick.

Thank you for proving my point. You have a much better way with words than I do. Yes, ISU had .500+ basketball in the early 70's and people came to watch. Things went south for a few years and people stopped coming, because nobody wants to watch losing basketball (yes, Lickliter era Iowa fans included). Orr comes in and bad basketball is replaced with mediocre basketball and people return.

So to summarize, the point you proved to us all is that it wasn't Orr that made people return to Hilton, but the return of mediocrity that made people return. And for that, he got a friggin' statue.
 
Hinrich was the other Iowa high school kid Mr. Davis missed out on at that time. Was too much for the Iowa 'faithful' to stand. Bing-bang... bye-bye.
IMO, the greatest and worst achievement for the Mr. Davis era at Iowa was the 1987 season.
Greatest because it was the highest showing of any Iowa team.
Worst because thereafter Mr. Davis Iowa teams consistently showed worst.
Mr. Davis couldn't recruit like the previous Iowa basketball coach. He could never get the level of athletes as that 1987 team..
Iowa's basketball coach before Mr. Davis was George Raveling. A fantastic recruiter. An average basketball coach.
More than not, Raveling's disagreements with Iowa fans had little or nothing to do with basketball.
Raveling left Iowa because he couldn't get along with 'knowledgeable' Iowa basketball fans.
BJ Armstrong was a Raveling recruit. Brad Louhas was a Raveling recruit. Ed Horton was a Raveling recruit.
Marble Sr. was a Raveling recruit. Bill Jones was a Raveling recruit.
Many of these players played substantial minutes for the 1987 team. A team that finished 8th in the NCAA Tournament after losing to The Runnin' Rebels.
Many Iowa fans thought the 1987 season was an anomaly.
More Iowa fans (and The Iowa Athletic Department) thought the 1987 season was a building block to sustained excellence in Iowa basketball.

Side note: Iowa originated the ally-oop play (I think the errant shot went to Les Jepsen who laid it up). Sportscasters laughed at how badly the previous shot.. pass? had missed. This was during a televised pre-Super Bowl game between (I'm guessing) Iowa VS North Carolina.


How does a team finish 8th in the NCAA tourney?

If you are one of those "knowledgeable" fans that Raveling couldnt get along with then I in no way blame him for leaving Iowa City.
 
Thank you for proving my point. You have a much better way with words than I do. Yes, ISU had .500+ basketball in the early 70's and people came to watch. Things went south for a few years and people stopped coming, because nobody wants to watch losing basketball (yes, Lickliter era Iowa fans included). Orr comes in and bad basketball is replaced with mediocre basketball and people return.

So to summarize, the point you proved to us all is that it wasn't Orr that made people return to Hilton, but the return of mediocrity that made people return. And for that, he got a friggin' statue.
Wrong. Return of excitement and NCAA appearances.
 
If you compare the way the two coaches are viewed by their respective schools, you'd think Johnny was head and shoulders better than Tom. Johnny is a legend in their eyes, while Mr. Davis seems to be "a good/great coach that we enjoyed, but didn't appreciate until he was gone". You decide.

CoachMr. Davis DavisJohnny Orr
Years1314
Overall Record269-140 (66%)218-200 (52%)
Conference Record125-105 (54%)79-117 (40%)
Top Half Finishes105
Winning Conference Records92
Top 3 Finishes in Conference53
20 Win Seasons105
Losing Records Overall26
NCAA Wins133
Sweet 16 Appearances31
Elite 8 Appearances10
1st Round Losses04
Statues01
This says as much about Iowa fans as it does ISU fans per your second-to-last sentence.
 
He arrived in 1980. In 1972, ISU was 2nd nationally averaging over 15,500 per game. In 1973, they were 5th nationally averaging over 13,500. It was more of a matter of getting the fans to come back than it was building a fan base. Way overblown.

I'd love to see a link, because that first # is impossible. Hilton doesn't hold that many. Also, that was the first two years Hilton was open, and obviously there would be a bump there.

As for the records in those seasons he never finished above .500 in the conference or fifth in the big 8... It's not like those were some amazing teams.

Johnny means a lot to Iowa State fans because he made basketball fun. His success allowed Iowa State to hire a better coach in Floyd.
 
I love people that talk about the way past with mucho vigor like they lived it. Tell me, were you an adult pre-Orr? A child? Baby? Or just a stain on the mattress?
I am an old dude that grew up in the Barry Stevens era, when Hilton Magic was born. Does that revoke my authority?

I love how everyone here seems to be such an Orr scholar as well. Do you need to have been an adult during Kinnick's 1939 season to say he meant a lot to Iowa football? I am betting you were not even a wee stain then.
 
Orr's teams played exciting hoops and people nationwide talked about him in high regard. People gravitated to that i think. The comparison is silly as both were coaches the school was proud of and won some basketball games along the way.

Only a minuscule minority would disagree with this. Fortunately, a lot of the sideways logic you are seeing in this thread isn't remotely related to reality.
 
And I will add that I hold Mr. Davis in high regard. Quality coach, quality individual. No argument there.
 
Both were good men with positive attitudes. Orr's teams were fun to watch at Hilton and couldn't play defense on the road. Davis' teams were cardiacs that could come from 15 down any game or give up 15 any game. Both ran up and down the floor. Fun to watch and at times maddening.

The "vs." thing is --meh-- a created controversy because there's nothing else to do.
 
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