We are debating with a fan base that is okay with average to below average results so long as the head man is a character and says stuff that gets the fan base frothing at the mouth. It's not even worth it. The bottom line was that Johnny Orr was a mediocre coach, at best, while at ISU. He barely finished above .500 overall, rarely finished above .500 in the Big 8, could never win on the road and missed the NCAA tourney more than he made it in his time at ISU. But he had cool "Here's Johnny" music to come out to, he always had a joke about the Hawks to dispense to the fanbase and he was a genuinely goofy guy. So, of course, he got a statue erected in his honor.
No different than the guy running the football program now. He's got a losing overall record, his only success came with players that weren't his own, has never finished above .500 in the conference, has gone thru assistants like Mangino goes thru the buffet and just finished with a 3-9 record in a year that most new coaches would start seeing some great success since they have their system in place, their culture in place, their own players in place, etc. But because he puts out "So Proud" videos every now and then, has one upset win every year, and acts like a horse's a$$ most of the time, ISU fans, of course, eat it up.
Hawk fans have their own problems, but they are problems of expectations, not problems of settling.
At the end of the day, Mr. Davis was a heckuva coach that could coach circles around Orr and his success speaks for itself.