Dr. Tom coached thirteen seasons at Iowa

[HawkIDrummer]

We have a team that is projected to be a 3 seed in the tourney and people are calling for Fran’s head? Crazy. We have lost 7 games but they include losses to the #1, 2, 4, and 5 teams in the country per Joe Lunardi’s current seeding. If anyone watched basketball yesterday, a bunch of similar teams lost.

I get Fran hasn’t made a Sweet 16 but there does need to be some reality as to where Iowa sits in the college basketball echelon. We are a mid-tier Big Ten team that Fran had to pull out of the basement.

I will say the biggest loss for Fran was not getting the older Ulis. If you add Ulis to the Jok, Uthoff, etc. team, I think they could have made a legit final four run.

Where do you read that?

 

[Eternal Return]

Yeah, Dr. Tom was fired because he never turned into Lute Olson. Is that still the standard Iowa fans are shooting for 40 years later? Why don't we finish the season first before declaring it a failure?

 

[ZumaHawk]

BnG Bleeder...I understand the comparisons between the 2 coaches and it’s very accurate so this is my opinion. Take it or leave it.

Ranked top 10 almost all year and have more top 25 wins than any other team in the nation. People dislike Fran more this year because he plays his kids. The Big10 is just plain tough this year!

 

[LetsGoHawks83]

Until Barta is gone, no I don’t want him to make another hire. The only hire by him that has been genuinely good is getting Heller for baseball.

While I agree with not letting him hire another... Barra did hire Fran and that has turned out pretty well. He surprisingly gave into pressure to cut ties with Lick too.

 

[TJFant]

With a 38% winning percentage in March (per posted TV statistics) and no Sweet 16 appearances, Fran has quite a ways to go to ever receive valid comparisons to Miller, Lute or Dr. Tom!

 

[thedudeguy]

LeFrentz got away from Dr. Tom partly because of KU obviously, but he was facing enormous pressure in becoming the savior of Iowa basketball. My sister in law worked with his dad at his high school and we had many discussions back in 85 about his recruitment. Even Hayden Fry publicily tried to push Raef into choosing the Hawks. After he made his decision he was vilified by Hawk fans for leaving the state, (I know hard to believe right). All this left him and his family with a very bitter taste when it came to Iowa. One which Raef has never gotten over, even though it's way past time to forget all that. He's made public statements that he would do whatever he could to steer any recruit, (especially Iowa kids) from ever choosing Iowa. Pretty sure he was hard after Collison and Heinrich to choose KU over Iowa, although as has been mentioned I think they may have ended up at Iowa had Davis not been told he wasn't being retained.

Raef lives near Decorah and is building a sports center near there. Great community guy.

 

[grayhair81]

I personally have no specific problem with that criteria.

But I don’t think that’s the criteria McCaffrery’s bosses are using to evaluating him. I think the real criteria looks something like this:

• Are players graduating at a high rate?
• Are players/coaches representing the university in a positive manner?
• Is the team competing at a high level, consistently qualifying for post-season play?
• Is the program in compliance with NCAA and university guidelines?

As long as McCaffery (and Ferentz and other coaches) are performing favorably against that criteria, they are probably going to keep their jobs. Honestly, a player getting arrested on the ped mall or negative press after chasing down a referee is probably a bigger problem for Fran than losing twice to a mediocre Indiana team.

Does Fran represent the University favorably? He has a reputation for being a hothead that melts down when breaks/calls go against him. He has gone after the home-court timekeeper and Leerfield's play-by-play guy. If he coached at ISU or any other B1G school, Iowa fans would have endless threads about what an a-hole he is.

 

[grayhair81]

Other issues that Davis had with Athletic Department management was that the NCAA was beginning to evaluate the strength of a team's schedule and not just looking at the W-L. Davis had a practice of scheduling cupcakes and with that he had the hopes of a .500 record in the conference to get those NCAA bids. That worked for quite a few seasons. Bowlesby mandated that Davis improve the quality of the teams on the schedule and Davis ignored him. That stubbornness, laziness if you will, cost Iowa a couple of NCAA invites and Bowlesby was incensed at Davis's insubordination. The Joey Range situation may have been the last straw. Range had charges of domestic abuse and the University wanted his scholarship offered revoked. The University did not want Range on campus. Davis ,again, didn't do that. And, no, Bowlesby did not have Alford lined up to accept the job. Alford really didn't become such a hot commodity until he took who was then SW Missouri State to the Sweet Sixteen in Davis's lame Duck season. Davis was famous for spending as much time as he could on the golf course. And, he best seasons were with Raveling's recruits. He had the absolute best roster his first year and should have won the National Title only to blow a 16 point lead to UNLV in the Elite Eight. No one I know has ever forgot that. And, then each of the next 2 years, still with Raveling's recruits, Davis proceeded to have worse W-L- records each ensuing season. The talk that I heard was that Heinrich was going to Iowa State and never considered Iowa and Collison was ever really considering Iowa either. I think people are forgetting that the recruitment of players doesn't start their senior years. Do not forget that in their senior seasons the first team All America team had 3 Iowa boys none of whom played at an Iowa school. Collison, Heinrich and Corver. And, don't get me talking about Davis's game time substitutions or his refusal to stop pressing even after giving up uncontested lay up after uncontested lay up. His last act of professionalism was that he allowed Life as a G to become ineligible for Alford because he didn't track his progression of credits.

Wait-Iowa's roster was better than UNLV's? And what did Raveling do with all those stud players? What did George or Lute do with Lohaus? Every one of the stars from the 86 team took their games to another level under Davis.

 

[grayhair81]

and prior to Range..there was Jeff Walker out of Springfield (who made Range look like a boy scout). I dont know about Davis recruiting efforts. I had heard that Walker was actually trying to enroll a year later & Coach wasn't totally against. Bowlsby wasn't thrilled.

Obviously Bowlsby wanted him out...which as AD is his position to do so...its the way he did it which was total BS & chicken sh*t on his part. There we also rumor articles in the newspapers in fall of '98 mentioning Alford.

Did TD sign a convicted felon?

 

[Lumas Etima]

Does Fran represent the University favorably? He has a reputation for being a hothead that melts down when breaks/calls go against him. He has gone after the home-court timekeeper and Leerfield's play-by-play guy. If he coached at ISU or any other B1G school, Iowa fans would have endless threads about what an a-hole he is.

I don’t disagree with this take. Honestly, I think Fran’s occasional antics are a bigger problem for his job security than his lack of Sweet 16s.

 

[jimbob22]

and prior to Range..there was Jeff Walker out of Springfield (who made Range look like a boy scout). I dont know about Davis recruiting efforts. I had heard that Walker was actually trying to enroll a year later & Coach wasn't totally against. Bowlsby wasn't thrilled.

Obviously Bowlsby wanted him out...which as AD is his position to do so...its the way he did it which was total BS & chicken sh*t on his part. There we also rumor articles in the newspapers in fall of '98 mentioning Alford.

My understanding was that Bowlsby told TD that his contract would not be renewed, but that he would not be fired. Instead of doing the normal thing -- resign -- TD played out the contract. Bowlsby was too nice, if the above scenario is true.

I've been watching Iowa hoops since the days of Sharm Scheuerman, and the only coach I'd take over Fran is Ralph Miller, though by a wide margin. Most of TD's teams (post-Raveling recruits) were hard to watch. The press was easily shredded by good teams. The top Big Ten teams would go up by 20, then lose interest, and win by 8 or 10.

As far as getting in the final 64, can you compare this era to TD's? It seems harder now, but I'll leave that question up to this board's wizards. But if TD's teams did better than Fran's, I've got to say it was easier then.

 

[iahawks10]

Did TD sign a convicted felon?

And yet Fran has had the least amount of the off the court issues from players than any Iowa coach in my lifetime.

Do you really want to compare Fran’s players to Davis’, Alford’s, or even Lickliter’s?

 

[mtown66]

Wait-Iowa's roster was better than UNLV's? And what did Raveling do with all those stud players? What did George or Lute do with Lohaus? Every one of the stars from the 86 team took their games to another level under Davis.

Hey, I know that you must be old, but you're making stuff up that I never said. I said that Davis had the best roster regarding Iowa teams. I never said that our roster was bester than UNLV's but since you mentioned that it is a debatable question. I believe that Raveling was about as successful with those players when they were freshmen and underclassmen as Davis was when Marble, Horton and Armstrong were seniors. Davis had not much to do with the improvement of those players. They got better because of experience. Look what Davis did when he finally put a team of his players on the floor. Wowsers!

 

[cidhawkeye]

Hey, I know that you must be old, but you're making stuff up that I never said. I said that Davis had the best roster regarding Iowa teams. I never said that our roster was bester than UNLV's but since you mentioned that it is a debatable question. I believe that Raveling was about as successful with those players when they were freshmen and underclassmen as Davis was when Marble, Horton and Armstrong were seniors. Davis had not much to do with the improvement of those players. They got better because of experience. Look what Davis did when he finally put a team of his players on the floor. Wowsers!

TD’s first four years with ‘his’ players had a .610 winning %, 8th, 5th, 5th and 3rd place conference finishes. Not stellar or wowsers

 

[iahawks10]

TD’s first four years with ‘his’ players had a .610 winning %, 8th, 5th, 5th and 3rd place conference finishes. Not stellar or wowsers

8th out of 10, tied for 2nd to last. Be thankful for Northwestern back in those days, I guess. Dr Tom did do something even Lickliter couldn’t accomplish and that happened in 93-94. Finished last in the B1G, tied with Northwestern.

 

[cidhawkeye]

8th out of 10, tied for 2nd to last. Be thankful for Northwestern back in those days, I guess. Dr Tom did do something even Lickliter couldn’t accomplish and that happened in 93-94. Finished last in the B1G, tied with Northwestern.

His players got a sweet 16 as well.

 

[iahawks10]

His players got a sweet 16 as well.

They did.

 

[iahawks10]

TD’s first four years with ‘his’ players had a .610 winning %, 8th, 5th, 5th and 3rd place conference finishes. Not stellar or wowsers

In this same time period for Fran, he had a .619 winning %, 6th, 3rd, 3rd, and 5th place in the B1G. 14 games above .500 in the B1G, as opposed to TD, who was 2 games under .500 in conference play during that time period. Also not stellar or wowsers for Fran. In fact, very comparable.

 

[perryhawk]

Davis did have a staggering amount of terrible luck.

Add in Ricky Davis deciding to become the first one and done ever as far as I can remember.

Matt Bullard was a really good player....and TWO YEARS IN A ROW blows out his knee early in the season.

 

[BlackNGoldBleeder]

BnG Bleeder...I understand the comparisons between the 2 coaches and it’s very accurate so this is my opinion. Take it or leave it.

Ranked top 10 almost all year and have more top 25 wins than any other team in the nation. People dislike Fran more this year because he plays his kids. The Big10 is just plain tough this year!

Agree, agree, agree.

I figured it was worth the discussion, though. As I said, it really boils down to how the team does in March. By no means am I calling for Fran's head. With that said, if he doesn't get Iowa to the second week of the tournament this season, I don't know that it ever happens under Fran. That's all.

 

[jamesvanderwulf]

Rodell Davis blew a knee out over the summer if I remember right...
He had potential to be a lot better than he was...

 

[HawkRugged17]

 

[HawkIDrummer]

And yet Fran has had the least amount of the off the court issues from players than any Iowa coach in my lifetime.

Do you really want to compare Fran’s players to Davis’, Alford’s, or even Lickliter’s?

I don't think any of our coaches sold out in this regard. They all took chances on a couple of guys...but none had a pattern of crap like we've seen at some other schools. I don't think that would play at IOWA.

 

[Rifler]

We dumped Davis for Alford, Alford for Lickliter and Lickliter for McCaffery,.. Fran finally has us back to a level of acceptability and we have a proven inability to successfully implement quick changes at the head coach position,.. I think we play this out.

 

[IAFB2021Champs]

LeFrentz got away from Dr. Tom partly because of KU obviously, but he was facing enormous pressure in becoming the savior of Iowa basketball. My sister in law worked with his dad at his high school and we had many discussions back in 85 about his recruitment. Even Hayden Fry publicily tried to push Raef into choosing the Hawks. After he made his decision he was vilified by Hawk fans for leaving the state, (I know hard to believe right). All this left him and his family with a very bitter taste when it came to Iowa. One which Raef has never gotten over, even though it's way past time to forget all that. He's made public statements that he would do whatever he could to steer any recruit, (especially Iowa kids) from ever choosing Iowa. Pretty sure he was hard after Collison and Heinrich to choose KU over Iowa, although as has been mentioned I think they may have ended up at Iowa had Davis not been told he wasn't being retained.

im guessing you meant in 95, anyway I would have to assume the lure of playing for a blue blood had a big role in his decision. He played hs basketball against my former school and I know the gym was packed for that game and I remember getting his autograph afterwards with a lot of us encouraging him to go to iowa. My family and I did the same thing another time when we saw him out and about on another occasion. I’m sure he knew a lot of Iowans would have loved for him to go to iowa but he wanted to play for a blue blood.
it would be interesting what his opinion on iowa basketball is during its current state. I know he is back in the decorah area as a basketball coach now and recently heard he purchased the old roller skate rink with plans on making it into a basketball gym.

 

[FranklinHawk]

Did TD sign a convicted felon?

Do you mean the one who never even made it on campus?

 

[iahawks10]

I don't think any of our coaches sold out in this regard. They all took chances on a couple of guys...but none had a pattern of crap like we've seen at some other schools. I don't think that would play at IOWA.

Agreed. Dr Tom took some chances with questionable recruits as noted. For the record, I really liked Joey Range. Liked his game and what I could tell, I liked his on court demeanor. I also thought Pierre Pierce’s on court demeanor was very good too. Clearly both players had issues off the court unfortunately.

My response was to the comment about Fran signing a convicted felon. IIRC correctly, Hubbard was a juvenile at the time and a lookout driver for some older kids who robbed and beat a man. Hubbard did his time and was looking to have a second chance. Obviously he was not the ideal recruit, but I don’t have much of a problem with giving a young man a second chance who completely screwed up his life at 17 years old. Hubbard had an extremely short leash while at Iowa given his circumstances and was asked to leave after a short time here. I thought Iowa handled the Hubbard situation about as good as they could have (knowing very little details/rumors as to why he was asked to leave).

My point though was that Fran has recruited high character young men in the grand scheme of it all. Outside of a couple OWI’s, I can’t think of very much trouble coming from the Iowa players in the last 11 years. I’ll put the character of Fran’s players up against any other Iowa coach’s in the last 40 years.

 

[L. Wade Childress]

Until Barta is gone, no I don’t want him to make another hire. The only hire by him that has been genuinely good is getting Heller for baseball.

lol what

 

[L. Wade Childress]

Fran also missed on Uthoff in 1st go around but he did lock down Ogelsby.

Fran is going no where and Iowa B-ball is back to 0.500 in B1G next year, or maybe worse. Hopefully no mass
transfers this spring.

I will hand it to Fran, he did score in Keegan and Kris, now he needs to play Kris.

jfc

 

[joelbc1]

Well, it could happen, but I would be shocked.

Iowa had pretty much topped out under Davis. The alumni and fans were pissed that Davis didn't work very hard at recruiting and some top Iowa kids got away. The Hawks were a couple of decades into being "good" and the fans desperately wanted the next level. The arena was full for every game and things were going very well for the program, but not at the top.

I think Bowlsby had Alford in his pocket from the time he told Davis he was not going to renew his contract. Alford looked like the total package and Bowlsby was ready to take the chance.

Barta is not a risk-taker. I don't think there is any way he would take the risk to get to the next level, now that Fran has finally (maybe) gotten it back to the Davis level.

Iowa fans “expectations” were over the top under Davis. Davis made hay with Raveling talent but couldn’t recruit like Ravs could ( no Iowa coach, except Evy and Gable could recruit like George). Those Iowa players included LaFrenz...he wasn’t going to Iowa regardless of what the well connected thought...the class Iowa really missed on was the guys from Iowa Falls, Sioux City and Pella. They could have had a couple of those, IF Bowlsby hadn’t fired TD. Iowa has no coach these kids senior HS year...so they went to established programs with established coaches..KU and Creighton.
Iowa fan is sometimes a little full of themselves. It isn’t easy. It isn’t perfect but it isn’t as easy as some here think.

 

[cecilB]

LeFrentz got away from Dr. Tom partly because of KU obviously, but he was facing enormous pressure in becoming the savior of Iowa basketball. My sister in law worked with his dad at his high school and we had many discussions back in 85 about his recruitment. Even Hayden Fry publicily tried to push Raef into choosing the Hawks. After he made his decision he was vilified by Hawk fans for leaving the state, (I know hard to believe right). All this left him and his family with a very bitter taste when it came to Iowa. One which Raef has never gotten over, even though it's way past time to forget all that. He's made public statements that he would do whatever he could to steer any recruit, (especially Iowa kids) from ever choosing Iowa. Pretty sure he was hard after Collison and Heinrich to choose KU over Iowa, although as has been mentioned I think they may have ended up at Iowa had Davis not been told he wasn't being retained.

Didn’t his dad take a job in Lawrence, as a ‘fundraiser’ for which his previous experience didn’t warrant?

 

[papabeef]

Other than LaFrentz, whom did Davis miss out on in the state? It's been said Nick Collison probably would have gone to Iowa had Davis not been let go. I mean, Davis landed Dean Oliver and Ricky Davis his last real recruiting class. Before that, Settles. So, other than LaFrentz, whom did he miss out on?

By comparison, Fran has whiffed on Paige, Carton, and Foster.

hinrich ?

 

[papabeef]

No he doesn’t get credit. Joe W was going to Iowa no matter who the coach was. Kenyon deserves the credit as he molded good young men. Fran wasn’t offering when they were coming out of high school. Only offered while the Murray’s were at prep school as a package deal. And this isn’t downplaying either Murray. Keegan has been very good. Haven’t seen enough of Kris yet. I’m just saying Kenyan’s persistence paid off. Kris might see some playing time now with Nunge out. Did Woodbury or Gessell lead Iowa into the sweet 16? Nope. I liked both of them but neither was ever 1st team big 10. Not that means too much as it’s kinda political unless your good enough from a lower big 10 school to be considered a no-brainer. They were not that. Average at best. Woodbury was 7’01” but had more eye pokes than dunks. One of them was from Nebraska too so doesn’t even apply to in state.

sorry dude i think most of us will fran credit for joe w and the murrays , they are at iowa .