Alford had more transfers, including guys that committed, couldn't get eligible and went somewhere else than probably any Iowa coach in history. All in all, the transfers, never played or left for disciplinary/academic reasons are just stunning when you go commitment by commitment.
Freeman was an OK PG but utterly insubordinate. You may hate Lick but no serious adult thinks the players should run the team. In college the coach, especially the first year coach, will always win that battle. Freeman didn't poison Chicago, Bruce Pearl did. Alford and Tony's father were teammates, I think, but definitely had som Indiana connection. Tony and his utterly assholic father, who had to be removed from the Iowa locker room after a game, were a package deal. Tony had a tough time finding anywhere to play, transferred way down from Iowa to an Illinois directional school and did little there. I haven't heard of him having brilliant success as a coach so maybe he should have known his place in the authority schematic and just done what he was told.
Sommerville-all Alford and the involuntary redshirt. That kid would have taken a lot of Worley's minutes and, as well all know, Alford's system was based on pets, who frequently shared Alford's self centered and arrogant personalities. Huge loss.
Smith-at least he wasn't at Iowa when he graduated from shop lifting to armed robbery. Its an important difference because whenever the Clowns go low we just have to say "Sam Mack".
Gary would have been good but he was never coming here without the Fraud. Kelley, Fredrick, Fuller were/are all significant losses.
Probably the most significant loss to the team he was on was Jeff Peterson's late transfer, after the close of recruiting I think. Left us with just Cully Payne and L'il Lick at PG, a true freshman and a RS freshman that was never intended to play more than garbage minutes, so that was a huge loss. Another weird Alford guy. Left Iowa as a starter because he didn't like slow play, went to Arkansas started on a very up tempo team, made it one season there and ended up a reserve at Florida State.
What about that Dickerson kid at PG? He didn't last long. Think he was struggling with the three Rs and right away knew he wasn't going to be able to play a second semester. This is that draconian environment I talk about. What would it have hurt to let this kid play and at least keep him in an academic environment?
Tucker, what a waste of talent. That kid wasn't a hard core criminal like Pierre Pierce (yet another Alford recruit that did not play out his career at Iowa) or Tyler Smith but obviously a very immature stupid college drunk. Two seasons at Iowa and both were double digit averages on a team that did not score a lot points. Average tempo offensive and he'd have been closer to 14 or 15 ppg. There might be a football player, or maybe a few, that play PU at the Field House that could be a double digit scoring starter on any Iowa basketball team but no one else that plays PU at the legendary FH could do that, and most of us have played PU at the Field House. The kid shot 43% from 3 his freshman year. He would have scored at will on anyone at the Field House, except for maybe ex Hawkeyes and a handful of football players (maybe).
What about that dullard looking Alex Thompson (name ?) whose parents got a HS coach fired, left Ames for Iowa, good for us and awfully fun to poach a kid from Lames but its a special kind of guy that does that, and then, upon becoming an Iowa starter, transfers back. He sucked so no loss but I'm guessing Alford was drawn to him like a moth to a porchlight. I don't know if that kid was dumb but he looked so dumb he could have made a film career of playing the big quiet dummy that lays a thumb for the Boss.
We'll see how Nunge turns out. He was becoming a decent defensive player and rebounder. Depending on what we see from our new threesome this could be no loss-or that lack of shot blocking and rebounding might hurt badly. TBD.
Sonderleiter left the team specifically to hurt Alford. Reiners (sp?) had just been injured and Sondy was going to start. He timed his departure carefully. Hardly noble but it gives a lot of insight into what the non-pet players thought of the Fraud.
Of course Courtney Scott gave us some insight into the Alford system of "pets" and was a decent player. Given the mass of injuries to his class over time we'd have been better had he stayed. Think the guys from his freshmen class watched Courtney in the NCAA at least once.
Rod Griffin-another dullard that probably had more than a little trouble with the "three Rs". Low character guy, didn't follow team rules and couldn't shoot over a chair (but was deadly when open).
Last, and probably least, how do you leave Joe Fermino off this list?
So Tucker, Kelly, Peterson and Fuller really were big losses to a team that had no depth and little talent. Theirtransfers gutted the program. You lose one key player that's a player thing. You lose at least 4 impact players that's a coaches problem. A lesson on how to get fired in three seasons.
Sommerville was a significant loss. Fredrick and Nunge might be significant losses, time will tell.
Otherwise, most of the losses didn't really impact the course of the teams.
