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Why was Tom Davis forced out?

Tom Davis was a popular coach with everyone outside the program and for the most part with everyone inside until the last few years. He was a good guy and that carried him along, but one of the most irritatiing things with his style was he would take the air out of the ball, there being no shot clock, and so many fans were falling asleep the concession stands were barely breaking even.

Trying not to lose was painful to watch. They lost some big leads and it got really frustrating.

As for Alford, there was a growing dislike for his hair style leading to his downfall.
And Lute, what did his four corners do? Nothing worse then taking the momentum out of the offense by sitting on it. Tom may have done it but he isn't the only IOWA coach that shut the O down to use up clock only to lose the game.
 
Iowa losing Raef Lefrentz, Nick Collison& Kirk Hienrich to Kansas J-Hawks was a big factor besides the plateau T. Davis teams had reached. Ncaa win one lose one. TD wasn't a great recruiter but he was a great teacher of the game.
And he was the last Iowa coach to take us to the Sweet16...in the same year he was purged by Bowlsby.
 
. Never would have guessed Trump could completely own him in debates, but he did.
He did so by spewing a constant stream of insults. Poor Jeb. Being an old school politician, he assumed the debate would be a civil discourse regarding the real issues. With trump, that was never going to be the case.
 
Three things I remember about Kent Hill:
1. Bobby Knight having an in bounder throw the ball point blank into his nose as he was guarding the inbounds play.
If I remember correctly, Kent did not take kindly to this technique (which was a regular event with Knight) and picked up a foul by flicking a jab into the inbounders nose.
 
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 Tom Davis' best recruits were consistently not cutting it in the classroom
 
He did so by spewing a constant stream of insults. Poor Jeb. Being an old school politician, he assumed the debate would be a civil discourse regarding the real issues. With trump, that was never going to be the case.
No, he did so by controlling the narrative, and pouncing when Jeb was hesitant. Those who know Jeb Bush were, and still are, shocked by how timid and weak he was during his "campaign".
 
One of the ironies that the Democrat propaganda wing attacked constantly was Dubya was dumb, although he graduated from Yale and got an MBA at one of three best business schools on the planet. W had higher SATs than Gore or Kerry and tested higher on the GMAT than either Gore or Kerry on the LSATs.

After 2016 the reason W won and Jeb lost, badly, was pretty obvious. Jeb is a dud. A really boring guy when he's around. W lights up the room. He was just really stiff on TV.
Jeb really isn't a dud. He is pretty engaging and dynamic. But Trump just owned him.
Frankly, Trump did to Jeb what Jeb did to Buddy McKay and Bill Bright in his two races for Governor.

Jeb's second Lt. Gov., Toni Jennings, was one I thought would make a run at Governor. She had the background, the connections, and money certainly wasn't a problem. But I guess that's part of it. When the family construction biz is successful, it pays NOT to be Governor. But, she was as personable as faux-GOP Charlie Crist, Rick Scott or Ron DeSantis.

Bill McCollum, a guy I have known for years, had the FL Governor's race in the bag..until he didn't...before Rick Scott's first term. Great guy, smart as hell, but simply won't play "dirty", to his political detriment. That's probably why he has pretty much given up political life, I guess. Then again, Scott was able to use it to launch to the Senate, taking out the cancer that was Bill Nelson. You ought to hear my wife on the subject of Nelson and his family. Yikes!
 
I'll give you this: Jeb is better in person than on television, like both Poppy and W. But Poppy and W are much more personable and immensely likable. I don't think Jeb really wanted to run but you know its hard for a guy like that to resist family and party expectations.

The problem with the Bushes is historically they were not the men for the times. The whole new world order, which is really just a way of making it easy to screw the US on trade and export blue collar middle class jobs was The Poppy, Bubba, Dubya years saw the greatest movement of wealth in human history and it was all from the US. I was right there with 'em too. Big supporter of NAFTA when Bubba pushed that through on Republican votes. Unlike the Bushies, by 2008 I could see what is was doing.

Liked McCollum and love Rick Scott.

Bill Nelson...king of sleaze. My cousin worked in Florida GOP politics in the 90s before she moved to DC.
 
I'll give you this: Jeb is better in person than on television, like both Poppy and W. But Poppy and W are much more personable and immensely likable. I don't think Jeb really wanted to run but you know its hard for a guy like that to resist family and party expectations.

The problem with the Bushes is historically they were not the men for the times. The whole new world order, which is really just a way of making it easy to screw the US on trade and export blue collar middle class jobs was The Poppy, Bubba, Dubya years saw the greatest movement of wealth in human history and it was all from the US. I was right there with 'em too. Big supporter of NAFTA when Bubba pushed that through on Republican votes. Unlike the Bushies, by 2008 I could see what is was doing.

Liked McCollum and love Rick Scott.

Bill Nelson...king of sleaze. My cousin worked in Florida GOP politics in the 90s before she moved to DC.
Bill McCollum is too "nice" for politics. Surprised he lasted so long.

Nelson OTOH, is borderline reprehensible.

I was determined not to like Rick after he beat McCollum in Gov primary. A friend introduced us after the primary. Met him several times after, and really like him. Talk about a guy that has to deal with media distortion, BTW. Holy crap, what the media does covering for the Bidens, et. al., they do the exact opposite for Scott or DeSantis.

My problem with Nelson is more how they tried to use my wife as a connection to area church youth groups, particularly with the soon-to-be voting age group. When my friend heard about it, he told some folks who passed it around, and then called Nelson's office and said, "This is your lowest. I didn't think even you guys were capable of this".
 
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!
Recruiting.
 
Iowa jumped out of an airplane without a parachute when they let Davis go. Good man. Great coach. Iowa made it hard for him to recruit. It still is hard to get top talent here, in mass. The game plan after his departure is that they are still looking for that damned parachute.

Davis was not without fault. Nobody is. He and Fry and Ferentz are/were the best options we’ve had as coaches at the money maker sports. F Bowlsby and Rawlings and all who retarded the program.
 
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.
I never cared for Bowlsby. I am glad he left.
 
Ama, I presume you mean the University executives deplored the character and educational qualifications rather than poor basketball skills.

Although no one knew at the time, when Alford really was the hottest guy on coaching circuit, releasing Dr. Davis ended up destroying the accumulated cache of the previous 45 years of Iowa basketball.

When F McC was hired Iowa had become a punch line. The chaos and losing were stunning to every Iowa fan who started following Iowa BBall in the mid 50s through 1999. Now, 22 years later we have not yet reached the level of success in Dr. Davis' last year.

Now, we have the same people, or the same people second generation, that think our top ten BBall season was mediocre, or the lunatics that say we just need to give someone else a chance at football (before last season, coming off a ten win season capped by humiliating USC on national TV in a bowl game.

Staying as successful as we have, especially in football, is a remarkable testimony of Kirk Ferentz's true worth. McC is winning and winning tournament games. That's ever so much better than Alford and Lickliter.
 
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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.
The Kingsbury incident happened right in front of the bench and Davis didn’t even take him out of the game let alone discipline him. Also I think Roy Williams out recruited Davis for Raef LaFrentz which ay have also been a factor. Of course we don’t know how NIL was used by Kansas in those days.
 
The Kingsbury incident happened right in front of the bench and Davis didn’t even take him out of the game let alone discipline him. Also I think Roy Williams out recruited Davis for Raef LaFrentz which ay have also been a factor. Of course we don’t know how NIL was used by Kansas in those days.
Out recruited? Kansas vs Iowa. That's like you pulling up in a Pinto and me pulling up in a Ferrari and saying the girl went with me because I'm a smooth talker.
 
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UIowa had ZERO chance ever with Heinrich...he was KU pretty much all the way...Collison I heard, was a Hawkeye, LaFrentz was a miss. Tom Davis was “discharged” from UIowa and not be there for all 4 of his (Collison) years as a collegian, and Kansas got interested and made an offer. Davis’ “discharge” also probably cost UIowa another in-State player who chose a neighboring school...and he went on to have a 10+ year NBA career.
There was a lot of “alumni pressure” and antsiness because UIowa under Davis could never make “ the next step” ...a complaint Iowa fans love to make ;) . So Bowlsby hired Alford...but because of NCAA rules, all he could not tell UIowa basketball recruits was that Iowa had a “great young coach coming in”...It was a clusterphuque..several recruits went to o5rr schools because of the Davis cia hung change...and Davis probably would have landed a couple of these recruits, as he was coming off a very good year.
 
UIowa had ZERO chance ever with Heinrich...he was KU pretty much all the way...Collison I heard, was a Hawkeye, LaFrentz was a miss. Tom Davis was “discharged” from UIowa and not be there for all 4 of his (Collison) years as a collegian, and Kansas got interested and made an offer. Davis’ “discharge” also probably cost UIowa another in-State player who chose a neighboring school...and he went on to have a 10+ year NBA career.
There was a lot of “alumni pressure” and antsiness because UIowa under Davis could never make “ the next step” ...a complaint Iowa fans love to make ;) . So Bowlsby hired Alford...but because of NCAA rules, all he could not tell UIowa basketball recruits was that Iowa had a “great young coach coming in”...It was a clusterphuque..several recruits went to o5rr schools because of the Davis cia hung change...and Davis probably would have landed a couple of these recruits, as he was coming off a very good year.
Davis didn't make the NCAA tourney in 3 out of the last 5 years before the decision was made to let him go.
 
Davis didn't make the NCAA tourney in 3 out of the last 5 years before the decision was made to let him go.
But his last year he probably should have……he did great with a very suspect team…..Davis got screwed and bused by Bowlsby…..and Bowslby did hirer Alford….and the program took the next step…..backwards.
 
But his last year he probably should have……he did great with a very suspect team…..Davis got screwed and bused by Bowlsby…..and Bowslby did hirer Alford….and the program took the next step…..backwards.
Meh..once George's guys were gone Iowa was a perennial 3rd to 6th place team in the Big Ten. Pretty much what we are now.
 
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Meh..once George's guys were gone Iowa was a perennial 3rd to 6th place team in the Big Ten. Pretty much what we are now.
That's what we've always been...Or worse. Ed Martin/George just paid players in a time when it wasn't allowed to get all that talent. But the fanbase always thinks the next coach is the one to get us to the "next level."

Iowa doesn't have the history, prestige, facilities, fanbase, NIL, or in-state talent to get to the next level consistently. We will have flashes, usually when we have an unusually good group of recruited from in-state and land a couple players that develop well. But, for the most part, Iowa isn't going to be "next level" regardless who the coach is.
 
That's what we've always been...Or worse. Ed Martin/George just paid players in a time when it wasn't allowed to get all that talent. But the fanbase always thinks the next coach is the one to get us to the "next level."

Iowa doesn't have the history, prestige, facilities, fanbase, NIL, or in-state talent to get to the next level consistently. We will have flashes, usually when we have an unusually good group of recruited from in-state and land a couple players that develop well. But, for the most part, Iowa isn't going to be "next level" regardless who the coach is.
Yep.
 
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!
It was because fans thought they should do better.
 
That's what we've always been...Or worse. Ed Martin/George just paid players in a time when it wasn't allowed to get all that talent. But the fanbase always thinks the next coach is the one to get us to the "next level."

Iowa doesn't have the history, prestige, facilities, fanbase, NIL, or in-state talent to get to the next level consistently. We will have flashes, usually when we have an unusually good group of recruited from in-state and land a couple players that develop well. But, for the most part, Iowa isn't going to be "next level" regardless who the coach is.
This. We’ll never have a team again of 6-7 guys who played roles or had a cup of coffee in the NBA ever again. We actually were good at cheating. And guess what? Nobody cared. We freaking loved it!
 
Meh..once George's guys were gone Iowa was a perennial 3rd to 6th place team in the Big Ten. Pretty much what we are now.
Maybe that was because George was a magnificent recruiter? Davis got winning talent to IC…..Raveling got world class talent here……No Iowa coach in my lifetime had talent in Iowa City like George….no one. Miller got close but………….
 
UIowa didn’t cheat that bad….it wasn’t like we were Michigan or Illinois…..:mad:
You’re not that naive Joel. There were all kinds of levels but we’ve never came close to that kind of talent since.
 
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.

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.
Fran can’t & wont. SOS
 
Looking at this thread I’ve noticed we haven’t heard from the deplorable sleeping dog in a long time. Not complaining by the way.
 
UIowa had ZERO chance ever with Heinrich...he was KU pretty much all the way...Collison I heard, was a Hawkeye, LaFrentz was a miss. Tom Davis was “discharged” from UIowa and not be there for all 4 of his (Collison) years as a collegian, and Kansas got interested and made an offer. Davis’ “discharge” also probably cost UIowa another in-State player who chose a neighboring school...and he went on to have a 10+ year NBA career.
There was a lot of “alumni pressure” and antsiness because UIowa under Davis could never make “ the next step” ...a complaint Iowa fans love to make ;) . So Bowlsby hired Alford...but because of NCAA rules, all he could not tell UIowa basketball recruits was that Iowa had a “great young coach coming in”...It was a clusterphuque..several recruits went to o5rr schools because of the Davis cia hung change...and Davis probably would have landed a couple of these recruits, as he was coming off a very good year.
Collison and Hinrich were both Tim Floyd recruits at Iowa St until he went to the Bulls. I was very close to the Collison family, went to church with his dad & aunts & uncles. His grandpa worked at the Sacred Heart chruch in Boone. I Played at the same YMCA with them in Boone. I even went to college with them. BTW, Hinrich's dad & Collison's dad both went to Briar Cliff in Sioux City, as did most of his aunts & uncles. They were never in on the Hawkeyes. Collison's younger brother went to Briar Cliff as well. Boone is 15 miles from Ames, Cyclone country.
 
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