I have been watching the Hawkeyes since I was a little kid. The first coach I remember is Lute Olson. Since then, we have seen George Raveling, Tom Davis, and Steve Alford.
I was flipping through the media guide and decided to compare those coaches.
Tom Davis is the winningest Iowa coach ever with more than 100 wins more than the next closest, Lute Olson. He had a career .658 overall and .543 Big Ten record. He has always been my favorite since I was playing basketball during his time. I love teams that full court press and are not afraid to rotate players frequently.
Lute Olson didn’t do too bad either with a .651 overall and an even better .568 Big Ten record. It was very frustrating to watch him win the championship with Arizona but I still always vote for him unless he is playing Iowa.
George Raveling may not have had the winning percentage (.587 overall/.481 Big Ten) but his teams were a lot of fun to watch. The physicalness and athleticism were awesome.
So, how does Steve Alford compare. He is a little better overall the Raveling (.595). But, his Big Ten record was even worse at only .464.
One thing I will give Alford credit for is being able to get the team ready for the Big Ten tournament. If he could do anything nearly as competitive in the NCAA tournament, I could forgive the poor conference record.
Here’s a fun fact. The winningest coach percentage wise for Iowa was Ed Rule who coached 1902, 1904, 1906, and 1908. A different coach handled each of 1903, 1905, and 1907. Three different coaches. That’s seems pretty weird.