Tom Davis coaching news

Tom Davis has decided hand over the reigns of the Drake coaching job to his son.  He must have figured that now that he has beaten Iowa, there is really nothing left for him to accomplish.

Seriously though, Davis is one of my coaching heroes.  I have talked with him at basketball camps when I played during high school.  He is an amazing coach and mentor and college basketball will miss him whether they know it or not.

But, maybe he isn’t really retiring and heading off into the sunset.  Maybe he is buying into the rumors of Alford heading to New Mexico State and has decided to make himself available to come back to Iowa.

Just kidding of course.  Enjoy the golden year, Tom Davis.  You have definitely earned some rest and relaxation.

Alford rumor grows but still does not mean anything

Do you ever hear something that is a rumor and know it isn’t true but kind of wish it were?

I have already said that I do not think Alford is leaving Iowa to go to New Mexico State.  But the rumor is still around.

Apparently the rumor has grown.  Since Alford is allegedly thinking about going to New Mexico State, Iowa would need somebody to replace him, right?   The theory is that Lon Kruger, the UNLV coach, could be a potential candidate.

It isn’t going to happen.  Alford isn’t going anywhere.

But, what would Kruger bring to the table.  His team had 30 wins this year.  Alford had 17.  UNLV was 4-2 against top 25 teams so it wasn’t entirely just easy opponents that led to the 30 wins.  UNLV beat Wisconsin this year and is in the Sweet 16.  Iowa didn’t and isn’t.

Kruger also has experience coaching in the Big 10…at Illinois.  He led Illinois to the second round of the NCAA tournament three times in his 4 years there.  Alford has not reached the second round once yet at Iowa.  Kruger also led Florida to the Final Four back in 1994.  He also took Kansas State to four straight NCAA appearances and on one of those years made it to the Elite Eight.

Now, as I said, none of this is going to happen and I really don’t want to pick on Alford, but sometimes you hear the rumors and start to kind of wish it would happen.

I don’t know anything about the kind of person Kruger is.  I was in the military for most of the time he was at Illinois and wasn’t watching any basketball during that time.  Does he have a reputation for being a scum bag?  If not, I may have to cross my fingers a little bit.

Southern Illinois and the NCAA Tournament

How does Southern Illinois keep putting together teams that get good seeds and make good runs in the tournament? It seems like they are in the Sweet 16 or better every year.

I’m tired about hearing excuses from teams in bigger conferences complaining about how impossible it is to compete in recruiting against Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Texas and all the other traditionally good programs.  Don’t worry about trying to steal their players.  Go after the guys that are playing for Butler and Southern Illinois and the other great “mid major” programs.  They find a way to field teams that can beat the “bigger” programs and then have a little fun in March.

There is no reason a recruit would prefer to go to Butler or Southern Illinois because of the location and those programs do not get the exposure that even the worst teams in the Big 10 get.

So once a Big 10 coach realizes that he can’t steal the recruits from Kansas, maybe he should go fighting for the recruits at the successful smaller programs.

And I don’t buy the argument that the coaches are better at the mid major programs.  Most of the coaches in the Big 10 seem to have come from mid major programs.

Whether Butler and Southern Illinois have the firepower to beat Kansas and Florida is something we can talk about after their games this week.  What is certain is that these programs seem to find ways to consistently put teams on the court that could beat Iowa, Michigan and several other Big 10 schools and I would like to figure out why that is.

Michigan State battles for about 35 minutes

Michigan State looked very good for quite a while tonight. I love watching Neitzel play. His energy and willingness to put the team on his shoulders and see how far he can take them is inspiring to watch. Plus, he can actually make free throws. The Big 10 is going to miss him next year.

The team battled for as long as they could manage.

Unfortunately, Michigan State couldn’t get to the free throw line enough. That is probably common when your point guard takes 27 out of the 58 shots for the team. He carried the team for quite a while but eventually wore out. North Carolina was able to use several different good defenders to chase Neitzel around.

During the last few minutes, it didn’t look like anybody on the floor for Michigan State could do anything beside cross their fingers and throw the ball at the basket.

When Michigan State plays like they did today, they can beat almost anybody in the nation. I’ve heard a lot about how amazing North Carolina is supposed to be but seeing them handle Michigan State by just beating them down makes me believe that some team will have to play a pretty special game to beat them. If Texas wins tomorrow, that matchup between them and North Carolina will be something to pay attention to.

Other Big 10 news:

Indiana got hot toward the end to at least keep UCLA honest but not enough to win the game. Ohio State tried to throw away their game against Xavier. Other than that, a couple minor upsets with the biggest one being Washington State (3 seed) losing to Vanderbilt.

Let’s hope Purdue can pull out the first really huge upset of the tournament tomorrow against Florida.

The first Big 10 team out of the NCAA tournament

I was just checking the scores before writing a post congratulating the Big 10 on getting through the first round of the NCAA tournament without a loss. I knew Ohio State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan State and Purdue had won and the last I saw Illinois was beating up on Virginia late in the game which would have been a pretty big upset.

Apparently, the Illini forgot how to score any points over the last few minutes of the game and let Virginia come back and get the win. I was really pulling for Illinois since Pruitt went to my high school and was coached by the same coaches as I was.

I was entirely ready to suggest that maybe a one or two more Big 10 teams should have gotten into the tournament based on the first round success of the teams that did make it.

But, alas, Illinois choked meaning that I really can’t complain about Iowa or Michigan not making the cut. Especially since Michigan got pounded in the first round of the NIT and Iowa wasn’t even good enough to really deserve to get into the NIT this year.

The Big 10 is left with 5 pretty good looking teams with the lower 3 seeded teams getting some really great opportunities to make some noise.

Tomorrow Indiana gets to take on 2 seed UCLA. On Sunday, Michigan State gets to play 1 seed North Carolina and Purdue gets to play 1 seed Florida. Go Big 10. Destroys everybody’s office pool.

NCAA Tournament Day 1

There was exactly one real upset in the first day of the NCAA tournament. Two 9 seeds beat 8 seeds, but that isn’t really an upset and shouldn’t mess up anybody’s bracket too badly.

That one real upset was VCU beating Duke.

With Iowa not getting into either tournament, all I have left in the post season is rooting for Big 10 teams and rooting against Duke.

I may be a small, petty man, but I do am not a Duke fan. I respect the program and the coach (feel free to come to Iowa any time you want) but any team that wins that often goes on my short list of teams to root against.

In other tournament news, if you were a number 13 seed and hoped to advance to the second round, would you prefer to play Maryland, Texas, Virginia, or Southern Illinois. I’m a big fan of Southern for some reason but based on name recognition and history they do not strike the same fear as the other programs. I’m guessing Holy Cross thinks they have a legitimate chance today. They’re wrong but I bet they really believe it.

Also, is Michigan State a 9 seed that could actually scare UNC a little. When MSU is hot, they are about as good of a team as you’ll find. That should be a very good round 2 game.

Hawkeyes vs Badgers in review

I wish I could say that I was way off base with my prediction of the Hawkeyes vs Badgers game on last Saturday.

But, just like I said they:

• Lost
• Had trouble with the Badgers’ big guys
• Had trouble rebounding
• Had foul trouble (but with Smith, not the big guys)
• Had trouble getting Haluska to score

I will say that not many teams are going to win at the Kohl Center shooting 1 free throw in the first half. I will also say that Smith hurting his finger ruined any chances since he needed a huge game. But, after half time the Badgers sounded like they were clearly in control and Iowa would have had to play nearly perfectly to have a chance.

That’s why Wisconsin is #3 in the nation and Iowa is not ranked.

Fortunately, Iowa is still sitting 4th in the Big Ten. With MSU recently deciding they are done for the year, there is a good chance that Iowa can win 4 or even 5 of the remaining 5 games as long as they can finally figure out how to beat Northwestern. I think that at 18-12 or 19-11 and 4th place in the Big 10, they would probably get into the NCAA tournament. And, don’t forget that Indiana has 4 of their last 5 games on the road. If they happen to fall apart, Iowa could sneak into 3rd by the end of the season.

Which means it will soon be time to start the big debate about whether it is better for Iowa to shockingly lose in the first round of the NIT or disappointingly lose in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. I’ll go with the NCAA Tournament. If the team happens to get hot, I would much prefer to go a couple rounds in the NCAA Tournament than to win the NIT.

Decisive Underdogs

If you read it on the internet it must be true.

So, I was caught off guard when I was happily reading a post on the P-C Hawk Blog talking about what happened up in Minnesota for the Hawkeye basketball team. (Make sure you click on the Show Original Post to get the actual post.)

Hawkeyes won…sure. Hawkeyes scored more than usual…sure. Game they needed to win…check.

Then this little gem about Iowa’s upcoming schedule.

They have to continue to beat the teams they should beat –Northwestern and Purdue at home and Penn State on the road. They will be decisive underdogs at Wisconsin and Michigan State but then finish with an Illinois team that might be battling Iowa for an NCAA berth, assuming the Hawks take care of business.

Remember Sesame Street and the “One of these things is doing it’s own thing” song. Can you spot the odd ball statement above?

Decisive underdogs to Michigan State?

Didn’t Iowa beat MSU earlier in the season. Yes it was at home. Yes it was close. But what about this?

I’m sorry but you don’t lose 62 to 38 to anybody in the Big 10 not named Wisconsin or Ohio State, be 4-6 in the Big 10 and get to be called a decisive favorite over anybody.

38 points? The way Haluska has been shooting recently, he might be able to take down MSU by himself. Iowa can send him and Smith and let everybody else do homework that day.

Was it finals week at Michigan State? Wait, let me guess. This is going to be their wakeup game right?

Interviewing College Players

Susan Harman is annoyed that Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson didn’t let his players get interviewed by the press after they lost to Iowa the other day.

Who wants to listen to college athletes being interviewed by the press. It is all I can do to give my 110% to just stay with the game plan and keep myself awake when these kids talk. They are coached to give such boring answers.

If you want a good interview of the opinions of people associated with Indiana basketball, go take a microphone into any bar in the state of Indiana after the game. I guarantee that you won’t get the canned answers that the players have to give and Kelvin Sampson will have no way to keep them away from you.

Wisconsin loss good for Big 10

The Wisconsin Badgers finally lost a game. Nice run. They will surely start another one soon since they are the class of the Big 10 right now.

In the grand scheme of things, losing to Indiana is not a bad thing for the Big 10. Now instead of a conference of 2 good teams and a whole bunch of also rans, Indiana gets a big win which makes them a team to pay attention to, also.

I’m not sure if the Big 10 will manage more than 4 or 5 teams in the tournament, but it is certainly more entertaining to watch a 3 team race than a 2 team race. And, it will definitely help Indiana’s seed without hurting Wisconsin’s too badly.

Plus, it is fun to watch the Badger fan at work whine about the officiating at Indiana. It is refreshing to hear somebody beside me and my family complaining about it.