ADVERTISEMENT

New Story ****Cooper Koch commits to Iowa****

This is absolutely huge! I was worried that his father‘s friendship with a certain assistant coach at Wisconsin would draw Cooper away.

you could argue that there are just as many ties to the Wisconsin program because of that as there are two Iowa.

If you read Cooper’s comments, sure, he loves the Hawkeyes, but really what made the difference was Franz style of coaching and the style of Iowa’s offense: positionless basketball.

I love it also because it is so fun to watch. I have never had more fun as a Hawkeye basketball fan then the last couple months of this season. I was in other states watching Iowa games and people were just gushing about how fun it is to watch the Hawkeyes, including Indiana and Illinois fans who are watching the same game with me.

Iowa is now a formidable basketball power in the Big Ten. They are now a formidable and perennial basketball power in the Big Ten. That is simply huge.

Fran is bringing in consistently outstanding talent. No we are not talking about one and done five star players, but we don’t really want that anyway. This is a family program and a team program not just a “catch lightning in a bottle“ program built on transfers and one and dones.

all the credit here is Fran’s

he has proven he can coach big time and be a talent and he has proven he can win Big Ten championships and now all that remains is for him to get back to the sweet 16 and beyond, because he’s been there before as a coach.

I have a feeling that even this year’s so-called rebuilding team is going to surprise a lot of people. And the future looks very very bright.

WELCOME TO THE HAWKEYE FAMILY COOPER!

Study hard, work hard, make your family and the Hawkeye family proud!
 
maybe you should be giving the shout out to Tom Davis for signing papa Koch and papa Murray?

Alford signed legacy Gatens which goes counter to your argument. Even Lickliter signed legacy Devn Marble. Signing legacies because you have the inside track is part of the job description.
Marble was not heavily recruited. I think he had offers from a couple of directional schools. Wasn’t like Lick had any real competition.
 
This is absolutely huge! I was worried that his father‘s friendship with a certain assistant coach at Wisconsin would draw Cooper away.

you could argue that there are just as many ties to the Wisconsin program because of that as there are two Iowa.

If you read Cooper’s comments, sure, he loves the Hawkeyes, but really what made the difference was Franz style of coaching and the style of Iowa’s offense: positionless basketball.

I love it also because it is so fun to watch. I have never had more fun as a Hawkeye basketball fan then the last couple months of this season. I was in other states watching Iowa games and people were just gushing about how fun it is to watch the Hawkeyes, including Indiana and Illinois fans who are watching the same game with me.

Iowa is now a formidable basketball power in the Big Ten. They are now a formidable and perennial basketball power in the Big Ten. That is simply huge.

Fran is bringing in consistently outstanding talent. No we are not talking about one and done five star players, but we don’t really want that anyway. This is a family program and a team program not just a “catch lightning in a bottle“ program built on transfers and one and dones.

all the credit here is Fran’s

he has proven he can coach big time and be a talent and he has proven he can win Big Ten championships and now all that remains is for him to get back to the sweet 16 and beyond, because he’s been there before as a coach.

I have a feeling that even this year’s so-called rebuilding team is going to surprise a lot of people. And the future looks very very bright.

WELCOME TO THE HAWKEYE FAMILY COOPER!

Study hard, work hard, make your family and the Hawkeye family proud!
Love the post! Love the enthusiasm!

Formidable and perennial B1G power?

Welll ....I'm not so sure about that.

;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: BlackNGoldBleeder
Marble was not heavily recruited. I think he had offers from a couple of directional schools. Wasn’t like Lick had any real competition.
McCaffery gave Devyn the option to go elsewhere if he really didn't want to play for him at Iowa, so McC re-recruited him in effect. If I remember correctly there were some hints that he might not come. Iowa ended up being a great place for him to display his talents, and McC really worked to bring his dad back into the Iowa family.
 
This is absolutely huge! I was worried that his father‘s friendship with a certain assistant coach at Wisconsin would draw Cooper away.

you could argue that there are just as many ties to the Wisconsin program because of that as there are two Iowa.

If you read Cooper’s comments, sure, he loves the Hawkeyes, but really what made the difference was Franz style of coaching and the style of Iowa’s offense: positionless basketball.

I love it also because it is so fun to watch. I have never had more fun as a Hawkeye basketball fan then the last couple months of this season. I was in other states watching Iowa games and people were just gushing about how fun it is to watch the Hawkeyes, including Indiana and Illinois fans who are watching the same game with me.

Iowa is now a formidable basketball power in the Big Ten. They are now a formidable and perennial basketball power in the Big Ten. That is simply huge.

Fran is bringing in consistently outstanding talent. No we are not talking about one and done five star players, but we don’t really want that anyway. This is a family program and a team program not just a “catch lightning in a bottle“ program built on transfers and one and dones.

all the credit here is Fran’s

he has proven he can coach big time and be a talent and he has proven he can win Big Ten championships and now all that remains is for him to get back to the sweet 16 and beyond, because he’s been there before as a coach.

I have a feeling that even this year’s so-called rebuilding team is going to surprise a lot of people. And the future looks very very bright.

WELCOME TO THE HAWKEYE FAMILY COOPER!

Study hard, work hard, make your family and the Hawkeye family proud!
You're right on about the play style. I live on the west coast and whenever I watch a game at my local watering hole, people comment about how much fun Iowa's style is to watch. I think we can sometimes take it for granted when we watch it 30+ times per year, but it really is unique to 98% of college basketball.
 
Oh hell yeah, great to have you in the Hawkeye fold Cooper!

This is a much bigger get than the average Iowa fan likely realizes. Cooper has a pretty unique skill set for a kid with his length and his potential ceiling is quite high IMO. Damn glad to have him!
 
Obligatory...

DentalPessimisticFireant-size_restricted.gif
EcCdqg.gif
 
McCaffery gave Devyn the option to go elsewhere if he really didn't want to play for him at Iowa, so McC re-recruited him in effect. If I remember correctly there were some hints that he might not come. Iowa ended up being a great place for him to display his talents, and McC really worked to bring his dad back into the Iowa family.

And I loved how Fran handled things when it was announced that Luka's # would be retired. His former player (Dev) and the Marble family were offended in how Gary Barta had treated Roy's legacy. Fran tried to make things right. Fran is the ultimate players' coach.
 
Fantastic! I'll say this to those who bag on Frans recruiting. One of the biggest things Fran did was to make a big point to welcome former Hawks back to the program. When Alford was here the Indiana troll did everything he could to alienate former players, and make them not welcome. This move by Fran and his involvement with Iowa high school and AAU teams is now starting to bear real fruit as the level of play continues to improve in the Hawkeye state high school hoopers. Great to welcome another Hawk legacy back to the nest.....And yes I know Koch plays in Illinois, but the point stands.....
Alford didn’t do “everything he could to alienate former players.” That was just his natural personality. He couldn’t help it. After a certain amount of time people figure you out and there is no hiding it. Maybe how religious he appears to be buys him a certain amount of time with some people.
 
Alford didn’t do “everything he could to alienate former players.” That was just his natural personality. He couldn’t help it. After a certain amount of time people figure you out and there is no hiding it. Maybe how religious he appears to be buys him a certain amount of time with some people.

Spot on! Alford was also drawn to similar types of low character personalities. There are damn few Hawks I haven't liked, and the few I didn't like all played for Alford. What do you know?

The false Christian piety was hard to take from a guy that lived his life. I don't really know how a good Christian is supposed to behave but I'm pretty sure it isn't Steve Alford's behavior.
 
And I loved how Fran handled things when it was announced that Luka's # would be retired. His former player (Dev) and the Marble family were offended in how Gary Barta had treated Roy's legacy. Fran tried to make things right. Fran is the ultimate players' coach.
Also, as some would say, he is da man
 
  • Like
Reactions: Franisdaman
Spot on! Alford was also drawn to similar types of low character personalities. There are damn few Hawks I haven't liked, and the few I didn't like all played for Alford. What do you know?

The false Christian piety was hard to take from a guy that lived his life. I don't really know how a good Christian is supposed to behave but I'm pretty sure it isn't Steve Alford's behavior.
Come on Deplorable. Way to draw unfair generalizations. Alford deserved to go from Iowa, he got out before Barta showed him the door. All of that deserved. But guys like Horner, Brunner, Haluska, Henderson, etc. were all recruited by Alford and when I hear Haluska interviewed in KCJJ he openly says he liked playing for Alford and still talks to him. So are all those guys "low-character?" Yes, he sealed his coaching fate at Iowa with how he handled Pierre Pierce. But he had some high-quality guys when he coached at Iowa.
 
This is absolutely huge! I was worried that his father‘s friendship with a certain assistant coach at Wisconsin would draw Cooper away.

you could argue that there are just as many ties to the Wisconsin program because of that as there are two Iowa.

If you read Cooper’s comments, sure, he loves the Hawkeyes, but really what made the difference was Franz style of coaching and the style of Iowa’s offense: positionless basketball.

I love it also because it is so fun to watch. I have never had more fun as a Hawkeye basketball fan then the last couple months of this season. I was in other states watching Iowa games and people were just gushing about how fun it is to watch the Hawkeyes, including Indiana and Illinois fans who are watching the same game with me.

Iowa is now a formidable basketball power in the Big Ten. They are now a formidable and perennial basketball power in the Big Ten. That is simply huge.

Fran is bringing in consistently outstanding talent. No we are not talking about one and done five star players, but we don’t really want that anyway. This is a family program and a team program not just a “catch lightning in a bottle“ program built on transfers and one and dones.

all the credit here is Fran’s

he has proven he can coach big time and be a talent and he has proven he can win Big Ten championships and now all that remains is for him to get back to the sweet 16 and beyond, because he’s been there before as a coach.

I have a feeling that even this year’s so-called rebuilding team is going to surprise a lot of people. And the future looks very very bright.

WELCOME TO THE HAWKEYE FAMILY COOPER!

Study hard, work hard, make your family and the Hawkeye family proud!
A few points:
  • Appreciate the back ground on the Wisconsin relationship as I hadn't tracked that.
  • "positionless basketball" is such an overused phrase. When you have multiple athletes with length you can claim that, but that isn't really how I would describe Hawkeye basketball. Individual players provide that flexibility, but not enough of those to claim it. Offensive style comes closer to it, but defensive deficiencies expose it.
  • Agree a free flowing offense is more fun to watch, but most any style can be fun when the team wins consistently. Iowa had both last year, especially later in the year.
  • Formidable/perennial seems to be a bit of hyperbole.
  • Consistently outstanding talent? I think general level is improving, but I would give Fran and staff more props for "development" of talent and feel they don't get enough props for that, but I wouldn't place them as elite recruiters. He is pulling in a type of player that fits his style and develops well, at least on offense.
  • All the credit is Fran's...and staff. He is responsible for the staff so he ultimately gets more credit and blame than he deserves individually.
  • I don't think he has proven he can win Big Ten Championships, although the conference tourney championship certainly took one goat off his back. Certainly a Sweet 16 appearance would remove another big one.
  • Agree to celebrate the top recruits.
 
Come on Deplorable. Way to draw unfair generalizations. Alford deserved to go from Iowa, he got out before Barta showed him the door. All of that deserved. But guys like Horner, Brunner, Haluska, Henderson, etc. were all recruited by Alford and when I hear Haluska interviewed in KCJJ he openly says he liked playing for Alford and still talks to him. So are all those guys "low-character?" Yes, he sealed his coaching fate at Iowa with how he handled Pierre Pierce. But he had some high-quality guys when he coached at Iowa.
Not unfair generalizations. I didn't say every Alford recruit, only that he was attracted to persons with similar defects in their character or personality. The asshole personality was just one of several items on list of Alford's failings.

Alford was obviously very self-absorbed. Three minutes in the guy's company told me that. Think of the hubris in demanding the I Club run dry events? The hustle he pulled on some young woman over a haircut or the John Deere dealer over a John Deere riding mower. Selfish and overly sensitive to his personal success.

Well, we all have character flaws. Selfishness is a character flaw that ranges from a mild self-absorption to the outer limits of the psychopathy spectrum. Alford was closer to the personality disorder point than he was to the mere healthy self-esteem and personal confidence point. Not a psycho, of course, but closer to actual narcissist than not.

Alford built the entire team structure to literally match his personality, not uncommon. Big problem with that is selfish players, e.g. Recker, Evans, Worley, and that dork that transferred to Iowa St types. Guys who never seemed to give it up. Guys that demanded more attention than merited or displayed a kind of shitty attitude on the floor. Those were the personalities attracted to Alford and he to them. That doesn't mean they were deeply flawed people, but this particular character flaw is really bad for team competitions. Especially if there are a significant number of others in the same team/staff possessed of that same flaw.

Now specifically Henderson, Pierce and Smith were criminals. Alford makes Henderson the senior captain and, next thing Henderson's the look-out guy for the top recruit freshmen's shoplifting. You think that only happened once? That was after the Pierce crimes, which were pretty heinous. Pierre was never really close to the other players and had a bad reputation before he started kidnapping and raping. Maybe we give Alford a pass on Pierre cuz Alford was still pretty young and had led a narrow and privileged life. I'm thinking an older and wiser man would have maybe seen some of the pyscho in Pierre before we offered, because it is usually there to detect.

This will put it in some prospective. In the days when a career generally/typically meant 8 consecutive semesters of eligibility and play. Alford had the same number of players play that then typical career as he had commitments and scholly players never play a minute of basketball at Iowa. Fourteen of each. In only 8 seasons.

 
  • Wow
Reactions: hopstiguy61
Alford had the same number of players play that then typical career as he had commitments and scholly players never play a minute of basketball at Iowa. Fourteen of each. In only 8 seasons.
14 commitments who never played a minute at Iowa? I'm trying to name them all. Off the top of my head I can think of:
  • Jamie Vanderbecken
  • Josh Rhodes
  • Beas Hamga
  • Marcellus Sommerville
  • Nathan Skinner
  • Dairese Gary
  • That kid who went to a fake high school
Who am I missing? I feel like there might be at least one or two more from the last few years when Alford/Neal really started getting into the shady side of recruiting.

There was certainly a bunch, but I'm skeptical that there were actually 14.
 
14 commitments who never played a minute at Iowa? I'm trying to name them all. Off the top of my head I can think of:
  • Jamie Vanderbecken
  • Josh Rhodes
  • Beas Hamga
  • Marcellus Sommerville
  • Nathan Skinner
  • Dairese Gary
  • That kid who went to a fake high school
Who am I missing? I feel like there might be at least one or two more from the last few years when Alford/Neal really started getting into the shady side of recruiting.

There was certainly a bunch, but I'm skeptical that there were actually 14.
Curtis Cuthpert? Is that spelled right? I think he was recruited under Dr. Tom.
 
Curtis Cuthpert? Is that spelled right? I think he was recruited under Dr. Tom.
Cuthpert was pre-Alford, as you noted. The claim above is that Alford had 14 commits never play a minute for Iowa, which may be true ... I just can't think of them all.
 
14 commitments who never played a minute at Iowa? I'm trying to name them all. Off the top of my head I can think of:
  • Jamie Vanderbecken
  • Josh Rhodes
  • Beas Hamga
  • Marcellus Sommerville
  • Nathan Skinner
  • Dairese Gary
  • That kid who went to a fake high school
Who am I missing? I feel like there might be at least one or two more from the last few years when Alford/Neal really started getting into the shady side of recruiting.

There was certainly a bunch, but I'm skeptical that there were actually 14.
Alford had a lot of misses. Wasn’t there a Hispanic big guy named Gomez or something like that? And who was the 6’7” kid from Indiana that Alford offered as a sophomore in high school and barely played a minute?
 
ADVERTISEMENT