ADVERTISEMENT

Everyone is Overreacting…

IChawkeye45

HB MVP
Jul 19, 2022
1,104
2,449
113
….How soon we forget about all these non-conference wins against the likes of: East Texas A&M, Southern, South Dakota, Washington State, Rider, USC Upstate, New Orleans, Utah, and New Hampshire. I mean do we not expect these wins against this elite schedule to pay dividends come March?!?!? 😊🤔
 
And Dr Tom’s successes came primarily with Raveling’s talent. Dr Tom could not recruit and cost his team a F4 berth with dreadful decisions vs UNLV. It was a good fire.
Yes & no. Dr. Tom was much better than Fran is. He was fired because everyone was drooling over Stevie "Wonderboy" Alford as the next hot coach. Iowa also thought Lickbutt was the next hottest coach. If they would've done their due diligence they'd have realized Brad Stevens was the brains at Butler.

Dr. Tom should not have been fired IMO. The UNLV team was a juggernaut. The Iowa players wet the bed in the 2nd half. Dr. Tom recruited well for Drake & when his son took over they made the sweet 16 I believe, with Dr. Tom's recruits.
 
I am not sure what you have been watching, or smoking. Drake’s best team lost first round. Nowhere near the Sweet 16.

Dr Tom was a very mediocre recruiter.

He botched the UNLV game when, up 17 and blowing the “juggernaught” off the court, Dr Tom decided to slow it down and take some time off the clock. That’s why they lost. Indiana won the natty that year and I think it was Iowa’s to win.

And speaking of juggernaut, Iowa put Bill Jones, BJ Armstrong, Kevin Gamble, Brad Lohaus, Ed Horton and Roy Marble in the League.

You clearly weren’t watching Iowa basketball in the mid- late 80s.
 
I am not sure what you have been watching, or smoking. Drake’s best team lost first round. Nowhere near the Sweet 16.

Dr Tom was a very mediocre recruiter.

He botched the UNLV game when, up 17 and blowing the “juggernaught” off the court, Dr Tom decided to slow it down and take some time off the clock. That’s why they lost. Indiana won the natty that year and I think it was Iowa’s to win.

And speaking of juggernaut, Iowa put Bill Jones, BJ Armstrong, Kevin Gamble, Brad Lohaus, Ed Horton and Roy Marble in the League.

You clearly weren’t watching Iowa basketball in the mid- late 80s.
Yep, I missed that. But I think they won 25+ games that year. Those were Dr. Tom's recruits.

2008 – Returning to the Dance

How long had it been since Drake had been to the NCAA tournament? Try 36 years. In Keno Davis’ only year with the program, he took the Bulldogs to a No. 5 seed and a 14th overall ranking in the Associated Press. They lost that year but getting back after so long had to feel sweet for the Bulldogs.
 
Yep, I missed that. But I think they won 25+ games that year. Those were Dr. Tom's recruits.

2008 – Returning to the Dance

How long had it been since Drake had been to the NCAA tournament? Try 36 years. In Keno Davis’ only year with the program, he took the Bulldogs to a No. 5 seed and a 14th overall ranking in the Associated Press. They lost that year but getting back after so long had to feel sweet for the Bulldogs.
Tom Davis won one less conference game in his 4 years than Kurt Kanaskie did in his last 4 years. Overall record for Davis was better. Davis is a much better coach than Kanaskie but he was not a miracle worker.
 
Drake has been choking in the NCAA tourney since at least 2008. Can’t event count how many games they’ve let slip through their fingers. They might not be a mid major basketball school with just a little more success.
 
And Dr Tom’s successes came primarily with Raveling’s talent. Dr Tom could not recruit and cost his team a F4 berth with dreadful decisions vs UNLV. It was a good fire.
Yes, Dr. Tom's best teams were with Raveling's recruits.

But many more years of success with his own
 
And Dr Tom’s successes came primarily with Raveling’s talent. Dr Tom could not recruit and cost his team a F4 berth with dreadful decisions vs UNLV. It was a good fire.
I am not sure what you have been watching, or smoking. Drake’s best team lost first round. Nowhere near the Sweet 16.

Dr Tom was a very mediocre recruiter.

He botched the UNLV game when, up 17 and blowing the “juggernaught” off the court, Dr Tom decided to slow it down and take some time off the clock. That’s why they lost. Indiana won the natty that year and I think it was Iowa’s to win.

And speaking of juggernaut, Iowa put Bill Jones, BJ Armstrong, Kevin Gamble, Brad Lohaus, Ed Horton and Roy Marble in the League.

You clearly weren’t watching Iowa basketball in the mid- late 80s.
Davis 100% did not slow it down vs UNLV.

One of the biggest fallacies in the history of Hawkeye athletics
 
  • Haha
Reactions: 83Hawk
Yes & no. Dr. Tom was much better than Fran is. He was fired because everyone was drooling over Stevie "Wonderboy" Alford as the next hot coach. Iowa also thought Lickbutt was the next hottest coach. If they would've done their due diligence they'd have realized Brad Stevens was the brains at Butler.

Dr. Tom should not have been fired IMO. The UNLV team was a juggernaut. The Iowa players wet the bed in the 2nd half. Dr. Tom recruited well for Drake & when his son took over they made the sweet 16 I believe, with Dr. Tom's recruits.
This, And Bowelsby trying to be a big name after trying to bring in the UNI coach for FB
 
Drake has been choking in the NCAA tourney since at least 2008. Can’t event count how many games they’ve let slip through their fingers. They might not be a mid major basketball school with just a little more success.
You mean kinda like Iowa then? ok
 
You mean kinda like Iowa then? ok
Not really Drake was winning, and winning big in some cases, recently before letting those games slip away. Iowa always seems to just get flat out boatraced when they lose (Oregon), or they are down by some much it’s hard to win (Tennessee) or they just plain are awful on the night (Richmond).
 
And Dr Tom’s successes came primarily with Raveling’s talent. Dr Tom could not recruit and cost his team a F4 berth with dreadful decisions vs UNLV. It was a good fire.
Wrong, his last team went to the Sweet 16 and played the eventual National Championship team tough. Come on man, think before you spout off. As far as the UNLV loss in the Elite Eight, it wasn’t bad decisions that beat us, they were on fire in the second half and our guys cooled off and didn’t make shots.
 
Yep, I missed that. But I think they won 25+ games that year. Those were Dr. Tom's recruits.

2008 – Returning to the Dance

How long had it been since Drake had been to the NCAA tournament? Try 36 years. In Keno Davis’ only year with the program, he took the Bulldogs to a No. 5 seed and a 14th overall ranking in the Associated Press. They lost that year but getting back after so long had to feel sweet for the Bulldogs.

Davis 100% did not slow it down vs UNLV.

One of the biggest fallacies in the history of Hawkeye athletics
You clearly didn’t watch the game, either. Hawks scored 53 points in the first half and a miserable 28 in the second half on 40% fewer attempts! What do you call slowing it down?
 
You clearly didn’t watch the game, either. Hawks scored 53 points in the first half and a miserable 28 in the second half on 40% fewer attempts! What do you call slowing it down?
Why would I make such a claim without having watched the game?

This is such a laughable narrative.

Not sure where you're getting your numbers. 30 FGA in 1st half. 24 FGA in the 2nd half, which is 20% fewer attempts.

It was 58 points in the 1st and 23 in the 2nd, btw.

UNLV made an adjustment at halftime to go back to the straight man defense they had played all year. In the 1st half, they were attempting to switch part of Iowa's flex action, and were very ineffective at it. Miscommunication left huge gaps and turned Iowa guys loose for wide open looks and lay-ups. Whith the 2nd half return to their base defense, UNLV was really able to get into Iowa and make it hard for them.

UNLV also starting hitting their shots in the 2nd half, which allowed them to pick up and dog BJ full-court and slow him down quite a bit.

The 1st half, UNLV missed a ton of quick jumpers, that played into the hands of Iowa to get out and run. They also turned the ball over 9 times in the 1st half, which helped Iowa run. Just 5 turns in the 2nd.

Iowa also got up a couple extra shots in the 1st half with the benefit of 5 offensive rebounds vs 2 in the 2nd.

The first half was incredibly fast-paced. Really your best argument for intentional pace differential was the FTA differential by half. 58-42 at half. That pace was bound to slow down some. Especially with a 45 second shot clock.

The 16 point halftime lead was cut to 4 with about 12 minutes to go. And UNLV had taken the lead with 10 minutes to go. So certainly Iowa wasn't, "sitting on the ball," at that point, if they ever were.

And they weren't. Within those 1st 8 minutes of the 2nd half, Iowa was full-court pressing (not a characteristic of a team trying to sit on the ball). Also within that 8 minutes were several turnovers by Iowa, as they had trouble adjusting to UNLV's adjustment. But Iowa also was able to get up several good looks during that time period. Most of them by one of their best players that had a really tough day, and just couldn't get them to fall.

UNLV held the lead the rest of the game and by as much as 8. Iowa cut it to 3 with about 4 minutes to go, and picked up full-court with their D. Even if having been pressing, a lot of coaches will drop the D back once it's become a one possession game with that much time left.

The only time I would say Iowa was conservative in the 2nd half was with about 7 or 8 minutes to go, a UNLV defender slipped, and Iowa had a momentary 5 on 4, only to have called a timeout. But it was with Lohaus with the ball over 25 ft from the basket. And Davis was one of the only coaches who even let his big guys touch the ball away from the basket back then. Definitely not a play worthy of a 38 year "conservative" narrative.

Sure, Iowa worked the offense some in the 2nd half and had some patient possessions. But that was never uncommon to Iowa, if they didn't get something in transition. They would have worked the offense more in the first half too had the scoring opportunities not had been so easy.

But again, for Iowa to have sat on the ball once the lead was erased, wouldn't have made a lot of sense, if that was ever their intention in the first place.

Which of course, with 20 minutes to go they weren't trying to run the clock. And there is plenty of evidence to support that in the first 8 minutes of play in the 2nd half, which is when the lead was erased
 
Yes & no. Dr. Tom was much better than Fran is. He was fired because everyone was drooling over Stevie "Wonderboy" Alford as the next hot coach. Iowa also thought Lickbutt was the next hottest coach. If they would've done their due diligence they'd have realized Brad Stevens was the brains at Butler.

Dr. Tom should not have been fired IMO. The UNLV team was a juggernaut. The Iowa players wet the bed in the 2nd half. Dr. Tom recruited well for Drake & when his son took over they made the sweet 16 I believe, with Dr. Tom's recruits.
Had the internet boards been alive and well in the 90's Tom Davis would have been roasted daily. In may ways he was EXACTLY like Fran in that he never changed anything. His teams were always the same. Press on every possession, bounce passes around the outside until someone decided to take a shot. Defense was the "I hope they miss" plan for 3 pointers.

I liked Dr Tom too, but at the end everyone (including me) was glad he was done and we could try something else. Iowa fans were BORED out of their minds.

p,s, when Bowlsby decided not to extend Davis, the fans had no idea Alford was the future.
 
Had the internet boards been alive and well in the 90's Tom Davis would have been roasted daily. In may ways he was EXACTLY like Fran in that he never changed anything. His teams were always the same. Press on every possession, bounce passes around the outside until someone decided to take a shot. Defense was the "I hope they miss" plan for 3 pointers.

I liked Dr Tom too, but at the end everyone (including me) was glad he was done and we could try something else. Iowa fans were BORED out of their minds.

p,s, when Bowlsby decided not to extend Davis, the fans had no idea Alford was the future.
Speak for yourself.

As I remember it, most of the fan base was appalled Davis wasn't renewed
 
  • Like
Reactions: littlez
I was ready to move on from Dr Tom.
It was tricky. Did not deserve firing so just not renewing his contract seemed to split the baby.

It hurt the program but no easy solution.
Probably should have fired him before last year.
 
Had the internet boards been alive and well in the 90's Tom Davis would have been roasted daily. In may ways he was EXACTLY like Fran in that he never changed anything. His teams were always the same. Press on every possession, bounce passes around the outside until someone decided to take a shot. Defense was the "I hope they miss" plan for 3 pointers.

I liked Dr Tom too, but at the end everyone (including me) was glad he was done and we could try something else. Iowa fans were BORED out of their minds.

p,s, when Bowlsby decided not to extend Davis, the fans had no idea Alford was the future.
Go watch our win over Arkansas in the round of 32 his final year and tell me that was boring. Or our Sweet 16 game against the National champs that came down to the final 2 minutes. I’d kill for that again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: eyesofhawk
Go watch our win over Arkansas in the round of 32 his final year and tell me that was boring. Or our Sweet 16 game against the National champs that came down to the final 2 minutes. I’d kill for that again.
So would I. But the fans didn't know what they had.

It all started, of course, when Hawkeye fans ran Dr. Tom Davis our of town when they were fed up with simply making the NCAA Tournament every season. Iowa has a rich and storied history that includes 26 Tournament appearances and 3 Final Fours. But in the late ‘90s, it had been a decade since the Hawkeyes had made it out of the Round of 32. After 4 trips beyond the second round in the decade from 1979-1988, that just wasn’t going to cut it anymore.


 
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT