Why was Tom Davis forced out?

[MAXIMUSHAWKEYE]

People keep forgetting, Iowa made the decision to not renew Dr Tom after the 1998 NIT first round loss season, not after the Sweet 16 season...

1998 NIT
1997 2nd Round Loss
1996 2nd Round Loss
1995 NIT
1994 No Post Season

That's years 8 through 12...it was time for a change...

What was crazier,we let him play out the last year of his contract. Essentially a lame duck year. Just stupid.It killed recruiting for that season. But we neve should have fired him. The Big 10 as a whole was much less competetive for the next several years. Davis likely would have done well. Its the same sentiment people say about Fran. They don't want just an NCAA appearance. They think Iowa can go to final fours. I think Fran can achieve that. But you never know.

 

[2432Hawk]

Dr Tom was retiring on the job his final years, his recruiting was lagging. Played and easy non conference and went 8-8 in the BIG. I was one of many that wanted a change. I hope I’m wrong, but afraid we will see the same thing from Fran the next 5 years.

Iowa's recruiting took a hit but that was thanks to Hunter Rawlings not Dr Tom

Once that cloud was removed Dr Tom's recruiting picked back up..... but the change from 15 to 13 scholarships left less room for error.

 

[Scott559]

For me the one constant at Iowa is the lack of committing to raise the level of the BB program from the University, IMO for the money invested in the program Iowa is getting a very good return in their investment with Fran, The same could be said of TD at the time.
Iowa pays for a mid/lower level Big 10 BB program and the fans want a top level program, History shows the powers that be are content.

 

[perryhawk]

Most of the reasons for Dr. Tom's removal have already been listed here...the main ones, not scheduling tougher in the pre-conference, spending time playing golf more so than recruiting..That said;

TD was a gentleman, a teacher of the game, he developed players at a very high level....I think of a guy like Jim Bartles(sp?) but there were many others. You could pretty much count on seniors that were in the rotation having a really good senior year. Yes there were frustrations with the zone defense and letting teams hit 3s repeatedly.

I was and still am a huge Tom Davis fan. He was a class act. He handled the Chris Street death with the utmost compassion and tact....his leadership was unreal in terms of how he navigated that tragedy. He was a good coach and was universally respected (except for some weird thing with Jim Calhoun at UConn at the time). Like many Iowa fans who have called for Kirk to be fired and then are whining and bitching about Fran.....we got what we deserved after Dr. Tom was pushed out.

I admit that Steve Alford WAS THE HOT COACH at the time....he appeared to be a great hire. He was the young star nationally at that time....it appeared to be a home run hire....but the rest is history as they say.

That's one of the main reasons this old fan is so into preaching caution to the fan base when they want to boot Kirk or Fran......we could end up like where Indiana is at right now.....or where Nebraska football has been for how long?

The thought that Fran is going to end up being retired while coaching is the kind of ridiculous reasoning that drives me crazy. Fran has repeatedly been repeatedly recognized as being a hard worker on the recruiting front...just listen to some of the current batch of kids we are recruiting talk about their conversations with Fran. He has sons on the team....how could someone assume that he would drop the ball when his son's are playing for him in terms of his effort that he is putting into the job. Look at him on the sidelines when things aren't going right...does he look like a guy that doesn't care? Of course not, you have to be more worried about him losing it than not caring.

We had a great season...it did not end the way we wanted or envisioned...but we SPENT THE YEAR HIGHLY RATED and played some great basketball on a very big stage....anybody that wants to dump Fran now is just foolish.

 

[perryhawk]

His golf game was excellent his last few years at iowa.

Actually I think his golf game was always pretty good...it wasn't just his last few years.

 

[sbhawk64]

TD was a horrible recruiter. he wanted to run but half of his players were suited to half court bball . the other half was suited. It was like having 2 half teams every year. TD's best year was when all of the players were run and gun type and he didnt recruit any of them

 

[doughuddl2]

Iowa's recruiting took a hit but that was thanks to Hunter Rawlings not Dr Tom

Once that cloud was removed Dr Tom's recruiting picked back up..... but the change from 15 to 13 scholarships left less room for error.

Dr. Tom whiffed on three Iowa boys.
Raef LaFrentz
Nick Collison
Kirk Hinrich

The last two sealed the deal to not extend his contract. Rumor was he liked to golf more than recruit. Those three NBAers would have changed Iowa basketball forever going forward.

 

[nck24]

Ok. Is Fran going to be fired/non-renewed then?

Ok. Is Fran going to be fired/non-renewed then?

Davis inherited a team with elite talent and over time made it into a very mediocre program. Fran inherited a bottom of the barrell team and over time has made it into a program that will consistantly be in the tourney and be a round of 32 team with no serious NBA talent. The progression has taken longer than I would like, but it has been upward.

 

[dekhawk]

Iowa's recruiting took a hit but that was thanks to Hunter Rawlings not Dr Tom

Once that cloud was removed Dr Tom's recruiting picked back up..... but the change from 15 to 13 scholarships left less room for error.

Davis inherited a team with elite talent and over time made it into a very mediocre program. Fran inherited a bottom of the barrell team and over time has made it into a program that will consistantly be in the tourney and be a round of 32 team with no serious NBA talent. The progression has taken longer than I would like, but it has been upward.

It’s year 11, how long does it take?

 

[HawkIDrummer]

Davis inherited a team with elite talent and over time made it into a very mediocre program. Fran inherited a bottom of the barrell team and over time has made it into a program that will consistantly be in the tourney and be a round of 32 team with no serious NBA talent. The progression has taken longer than I would like, but it has been upward.

Huh? You may wanna go back an re-read what you wrote.

 

[HawkIDrummer]

Oh, absolutely, that was the first strike, the disaster of the second Recker/Evans season was strike two, followed quickly by the Pierce "suspension".

My bigger point is that the Alford hiring looks bad in retrospect, but at the time, a LOT of Iowa fans thought they were headed to the promised land in the not so distant future.

FTR, I was all for Davis not coming back, but my God it was handled badly. You don't come out after the season and tell everyone your coach won't be back after the next season. Either don't make it public or fire him.

Alford is the classic Monet. Looks great from a distance but once you get close you see how messed up it is.

 

[perryhawk]

Dr. Tom whiffed on three Iowa boys.
Raef LaFrentz
Nick Collison
Kirk Hinrich

The last two sealed the deal to not extend his contract. Rumor was he liked to golf more than recruit. Those three NBAers would have changed Iowa basketball forever going forward.

I disagree with that statement on Raef......Dr. Tom recruited him in the best way possible. The problem was that Raef wanted to go to Kansas very early on....he favored them from the beginning. He and his dad told Dr. Tom (this was the word at the time in the recruiting news) that he wanted Iowa to take a step back and not push to hard....Iowa did all they could while respecting Raef's boundaries. I was at the scrimmage before the Football game when Raef visited with Ryan Bowen. They presented him cards or something signed by a bunch of Iowa kids wanting him to be a Hawkeye and the crowd cheered and the staff went all in where they could.....

On Collison the word was always that he favored Iowa but during his senior year Dr. Tom was being pushed out.....how the hell is he supposed to land the kid under those circumstances.

Hinrich was initially headed to ISU and then chose Kansas...

 

[2432Hawk]

Dr. Tom whiffed on three Iowa boys.
Raef LaFrentz
Nick Collison
Kirk Hinrich

The last two sealed the deal to not extend his contract. Rumor was he liked to golf more than recruit. Those three NBAers would have changed Iowa basketball forever going forward.

The last 2 had nothing to do with Dr. Tom because he was already a lame duck coach, and Raef was going to Kansas no matter what.

Try again

 

[doughuddl2]

The last 2 had nothing to do with Dr. Tom because he was already a lame duck coach, and Raef was going to Kansas no matter what.

Try again

You start recruiting years before. Whatever.

 

[nck24]

Ok. Is Fran going to be fired/non-renewed then?

Ok. Is Fran going to be fired/non-renewed then?

Davis inherited a team with elite talent and over time made it into a very mediocre program. Fran inherited a bottom of the barrell team and over time has made it into a program that will consistantly be in the tourney and be a round of 32 team with no serious NBA talent. The progression has taken longer than I would like, but it has been upward.

It’s year 11, how long does it take?

Other than the years with George's recruits, we are currently at the level of Tom's best, but have been trending upward. We shall see if Fran can use the success of the past three years to land some serious talent that we we were oh so close to landing in the last few years.

 

[CarterHall]

There’s also talk about Davis not strengthening the schedules. Iowa was 20-10 and 9-7, (before Georgia) making the NIT. Oddly enough, Indiana made the tournament that year after having one more loss and losing to Iowa twice (by 13 and 14).

Another reason going around was that Davis recruited Joey Range when he was specifically instructed not to by Bowlsby.

By what’s been said over the years, it sounds like there were many reasons why Davis’ contract wasn’t renewed. One thing is for certain though, Iowa didn’t just go to the sweet 16 and then they decided not to bring back Dr Tom. That’s not how it played out.

Don't forget about Jeff Walker as well. He was a peach.

 

[Ladell-hawk]

Dr. Tom whiffed on three Iowa boys.
Raef LaFrentz
Nick Collison
Kirk Hinrich

The last two sealed the deal to not extend his contract. Rumor was he liked to golf more than recruit. Those three NBAers would have changed Iowa basketball forever going forward.

This isn't true . Most observers felt Collison would have ended up at Iowa if they had kept Tom. As far as Raef LaFrentz, I don't think Tom did anything wrong in his recruitment. The kid was misguided and wanted to go to Kansas.

 

[NevadaHawk]

Bowlsby gave three official reasons, and, I think-not googling it, they were declining attendance, character of players, and poor scheduling.
In addition to Range, Bowlsby had suspended Chris Kingsbury for dirty play when I believe Davis had declined to and it was apparent that the Big 10 would do something if Iowa didn't.

Iowa Suspends Kingsbury For Three Games

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) _ Iowa's Chris Kingsbury, the school record-holder for 3-pointers, was suspended Tuesday for the next three games because of unsportsmanlike behavior in Iowa's loss to Penn State last weekend.

apnews.com

I think you can add to that the big money boosters were not happy with Dr. Tom.

 

[Ladell-hawk]

I think you can add to that the big money boosters were not happy with Dr. Tom.

Sounds like Bowlsby was meddling in the basketball program too much. I would trust Dr. Tom in these matters more than Bob. We all know how his decision to force Tom out and bring in Alford worked out.

 

[cidhawkeye]

I know that Parade All American teams ended in 2015 but in the last 5 years of TD he was at or near the top of the B1G in number of Parade All Americans

 

[NI hawk]

There’s also talk about Davis not strengthening the schedules. Iowa was 20-10 and 9-7, (before Georgia) making the NIT. Oddly enough, Indiana made the tournament that year after having one more loss and losing to Iowa twice (by 13 and 14).

Another reason going around was that Davis recruited Joey Range when he was specifically instructed not to by Bowlsby.

By what’s been said over the years, it sounds like there were many reasons why Davis’ contract wasn’t renewed. One thing is for certain though, Iowa didn’t just go to the sweet 16 and then they decided not to bring back Dr Tom. That’s not how it played out.

Indiana going instead of Iowa was a travesty. What a joke.

 

[fish1hawk]

I worked with a guy who's wife worked the dean's office at the time, she is now at a Illinois school . We watched the game where Evans was benched the first half for missing a class. He said that was Bowlsby. In addition to the Kingsbury on court behavior, he quit going to classes and he was often reported drunk. Bob told Tom to get him in class or discipline him with benching. Neither happened. Bob reportedly was furious that Tom blew him off

 

[CleteyColgate]

He'd just come off a 20-10 season in 1999 that took Iowa to the Sweet 16. He'd won 68% of his games over the previous five seasons. He was 4-3 in the NCAA tournament over that span. As things stand, outside of Vivian Stringer, Iowa hasn't had a coach, male or female, who has won at a higher percentage than Dr. Tom Davis since he was let go. Tell me again why Iowa pushed him out the door!

Many of his top recruits flunked out of school

 

[iahawks10]

Indiana going instead of Iowa was a travesty. What a joke.

Iowa’s sos that year according to collegeRPI was 111th. Somehow IU’s was 12th by playing two ranked non conf teams (Kentucky and Temple). Iowa’s non conf schedule was an absolute joke that season that season. Perhaps the committee was sending a message.

 

[Aleksei]

TD was a horrible recruiter. he wanted to run but half of his players were suited to half court bball . the other half was suited. It was like having 2 half teams every year. TD's best year was when all of the players were run and gun type and he didnt recruit any of them

So, Chris Street, Jess Settles, Kenyon Murray, Russ Millard, Val Barnes, Chris Kingsberry, James Winters, Ryan Bowen, Andre Woolridge, JR Koch, Kent McCausland, Dean Oliver, Guy Rucker, Joey Range, Ricky Davis were all terrible recruits?!!!!! I think we need to get rid of this myth that Davis was a terrible recruiter because he missed out on some of the big players that ended up elsewhere. We have never landed those types of players , e.g., LeFrentz, at Iowa!

 

[hawkifann]

It's a good thing they didn't change their minds, right? Savior Steve stepped in and went 14-16.

I’m was a big Dr. Tom fan and absolutely not a Steve Alford fan, but this is unfair. Alford had the benefit of both his own mojo plus Iowa’s 1999 Sweet 16 appearance for recruiting, but that didn’t help that first season, when the cupboard was left fairly bare. Iowa lost a lot of guys off that 1999 team.

 

[Aleksei]

I disagree with that statement on Raef......Dr. Tom recruited him in the best way possible. The problem was that Raef wanted to go to Kansas very early on....he favored them from the beginning. He and his dad told Dr. Tom (this was the word at the time in the recruiting news) that he wanted Iowa to take a step back and not push to hard....Iowa did all they could while respecting Raef's boundaries. I was at the scrimmage before the Football game when Raef visited with Ryan Bowen. They presented him cards or something signed by a bunch of Iowa kids wanting him to be a Hawkeye and the crowd cheered and the staff went all in where they could.....

On Collison the word was always that he favored Iowa but during his senior year Dr. Tom was being pushed out.....how the hell is he supposed to land the kid under those circumstances.

Hinrich was initially headed to ISU and then chose Kansas...

You’re Spot on. The people who say Dr Tom couldn’t recruit are just repeating a false myth that has been created on these types of boards. They also ignore the fact thatFran has lost a lot of the top recruits in the state. I listed the names of a few of the great players Dr T recruited in an earlier post.

 

[hawkifann]

Thanks for the information. That's all I wanted here. I was a kid when this all went down. I'm not trying to piss anyone off.

IMHO, there has been WAY too much energy spent on Alford vs. Davis. That was never the debate. There were two distinct decisions made:

1. What to do with Dr. Tom? - decision to let him go
2. With Dr. Tom leaving, who to hire?

Iowa absolutely did not push Dr Tom out to get Alford. Bowlsby decided he was done with Davis (for better or worse) and it played out as a lame duck year which I thought was incredibly stupid all along. Then, after that situation was established, Iowa had to decide who to get and they went for Alford.

 

[hawkifann]

It had been announced before the season that he wouldn't be back. It's not like decision was made and they kept it under wraps until the season was over. By the S16, I'm not sure Bowlsby could have convinced him to stay if he'd have wanted to.

Honestly, a big chunk of the fan base was ready to move on, whether they want to admit it now or not, and the Alford hire was loved by as big of a chunk of the base.

It wasn't until 3-4 years in that the narrative on Alford changed, for pretty good reasons.

As big a fan as I always was of Davis, I was fine to move on - I just thought the lame duck year was incredibly stupid.

 

[hawkifann]

Oh, absolutely, that was the first strike, the disaster of the second Recker/Evans season was strike two, followed quickly by the Pierce "suspension".

My bigger point is that the Alford hiring looks bad in retrospect, but at the time, a LOT of Iowa fans thought they were headed to the promised land in the not so distant future.

FTR, I was all for Davis not coming back, but my God it was handled badly. You don't come out after the season and tell everyone your coach won't be back after the next season. Either don't make it public or fire him.

Agreed. As I said in another post, it was 2 decisions - what to do with Davis? And then ok, who now? Alford was a reasonable choice, but had big risk factors. He had the SMSU tourney run. He knew the Big Ten. He had some name cache. What he didn’t have was a lot of experience. He was never an assistant, but he was the hot young thing that year. Some of those guys pan out, some don’t. He didn’t.

Sadly, he actually did a lot right to start. As already said in this season, his 14-16 year was actually a pretty good recruiting year. I thought he also coached really well through Rucker’s injury. After that, though, he was a mess. Playing Evans, then criticizing him after a poor performance for not going to class. Pierre Pierce....he wore people out fast because he’s just a terrible human being.

Then we followed him up with the dumpster fire that was Todd Lickliter.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

I think Davis' firing might have been as much players' off-court behavior, as on-court performance, but only insiders know any details. Maybe Dr. Tom's teams never lived up to his first year with Raveling's players, but they were almost always pretty good. Always getting to at least the second round of the dance is a pretty good accomplishment.

 

[iahawks10]

Agreed. As I said in another post, it was 2 decisions - what to do with Davis? And then ok, who now? Alford was a reasonable choice, but had big risk factors. He had the SMSU tourney run. He knew the Big Ten. He had some name cache. What he didn’t have was a lot of experience. He was never an assistant, but he was the hot young thing that year. Some of those guys pan out, some don’t. He didn’t.

Sadly, he actually did a lot right to start. As already said in this season, his 14-16 year was actually a pretty good recruiting year. I thought he also coached really well through Rucker’s injury. After that, though, he was a mess. Playing Evans, then criticizing him after a poor performance for not going to class. Pierre Pierce....he wore people out fast because he’s just a terrible human being.

Then we followed him up with the dumpster fire that was Todd Lickliter.

Bringing in Coach Neal was a step in the right direction to fix things for SA. The ship had sailed by that point though. Any chance of gaining those detractors left when N’western St hit the buzzer beater.

I thought Iowa would have been set up fairly well though. If Iowa could have got four years out of Tyler Smith (out of trouble), Tony Freeman, Jake Kelly, Jarryd Cole, Jeff Peterson, and Matt Gatens coming in a year later. Add in upperclassman in Looby, Cy Tate, and Justin Johnson. That is some fairly decent talent that could have competed.

 

[hawkifann]

Bringing in Coach Neal was a step in the right direction to fix things for SA. The ship had sailed by that point though. Any chance of gaining those detractors left when N’western St hit the buzzer beater.

I thought Iowa would have been set up fairly well though. If Iowa could have got four years out of Tyler Smith (out of trouble), Tony Freeman, Jake Kelly, Jarryd Cole, Jeff Peterson, and Matt Gatens coming in a year later. Add in upperclassman in Looby, Cy Tate, and Justin Johnson. That is some fairly decent talent that could have competed.

Alford has routinely had his path to success laid out in front of him. He always finds a way to steer off course.

I truly believe if he had even a hint of humility, he could be an outstanding college coach.

What I see as really ironic is that Steve Alford is in love with the image of Bob Knight.....but he saw Knight everyday and has never gone further than trying to emulate the image of Knight.

 

[NorthDSMHawk]

Can someone give me the story on Bowlsby/Davis/Range drama? Was about 10-11 during that time and don’t recall ever hearing about it.

 

[longliveCS40]

The Next Level™

 

[iowaathletes]

Can someone give me the story on Bowlsby/Davis/Range drama? Was about 10-11 during that time and don’t recall ever hearing about it.

Moments of Madness: Dr. Tom's final run at Iowa

A lame-duck coach. A group of zoned-in players. One 'Sweet' finish.

www.hawkcentral.com

 

[hawkeyeinmo]

He'd just come off a 20-10 season in 1999 that took Iowa to the Sweet 16. He'd won 68% of his games over the previous five seasons. He was 4-3 in the NCAA tournament over that span. As things stand, outside of Vivian Stringer, Iowa hasn't had a coach, male or female, who has won at a higher percentage than Dr. Tom Davis since he was let go. Tell me again why Iowa pushed him out the door!

Dr. Tom inherited not only NBA talent but a brand new basketball arena/facility to recruit to.

 

[Hawk_4shur]

Lots of good stuff in this thread.

Davis was a great man and a good coach at Iowa. The fans and Bowlsby wanted more. It was time to move on, but Bowlsby botched the transition. He made what looked like a great hire in Alford, but it turned out to be mostly a disaster.

I used to say that Davis could take a bunch of guys from the dorms and finish 5th in the B1G (then 10 teams). Or, he could take a bunch of 5 star guys and finish 5th. Obviously hyperbole, but it seemed like every season was a repeat of the previous one - just different guys.

It took 20 years, but I think Fran has the program in about the same place as it was when Davis was let go. I expect the arena to be mostly full next year, and the Hawks should be able to put a good product on the floor. I think it's safe to say that people care about Iowa basketball again after many years of apathy.

 

[TampaHawkfan]

Can someone give me the story on Bowlsby/Davis/Range drama? Was about 10-11 during that time and don’t recall ever hearing about it.

I'm just going by what I've read, but the story I've heard several times is that Bowlsby did not like Joey Range's character, and told Dr. Tom to not recruit him, but Davis recruited him anyway. Davis was soon pushed out the door, and Range wasn't far behind him.

I dug up a couple articles, that seem to support the theory. Range committed November 1997, and it was announced after that season (1997-98) that Davis's contract would not be renewed and Alford seemed to have it in for Joey Range from day 1.

Coincidence? Can only speculate, but from where I'm sitting, Steve Alford's first assignment as head coach must have been to get rid of Joey Range.

November 1997, Range commits:

Hawks find Range; Streak star commits

qconline.com

Another article:

Moments of Madness: Dr. Tom's final run at Iowa

A lame-duck coach. A group of zoned-in players. One 'Sweet' finish.

www.hawkcentral.com

Excerpt from the article:

Steve Alford, the former Indiana wunderkind, was hired as Davis’ replacement after his 22-win season at Southwest Missouri State.

What followed was a culture shock for Range, who spent time back in Galesburg before meeting his new coach.

“I walked in on the team meeting, sat down and Alford was like, ‘You go into the hallway. ... You’re not a part of this team until you’ve proven yourself to me,” Range recalled. “I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’”

Alford’s father, Sam, came out to the hallway and eased tensions, Range recalled. But Range says he knew, “Alford wasn’t for me.”

Alford announced in April that Range was banned from workouts, in order to concentrate on academics. Range eventually transferred to Hutchinson Community College and never played at the Division I level again.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

Fran should send Lick some money every month.

gets a lot of slack because of how awful Lick was.