hawkeyecub

There are a lot of them in the Big Ten. Weber, Davis, Ryan, Izzo and Monson are all pretty bad. I don't think there's anyone who can work the refs and get more calls than Izzo though. I haven't seen much of Monson, and I don't think Davis and Weber are that bad. Ryan is the worst IMO. You don't think Davis and Weber are bad? Davis has that constant look on his face like he's either in pain or going to cry. Both he and Weber stare in disbelief with their mouths wide open after nearly every foul call on their team.

There are a lot of them in the Big Ten. Weber, Davis, Ryan, Izzo and Monson are all pretty bad. I don't think there's anyone who can work the refs and get more calls than Izzo though.

PSU? They've been no more successful than Iowa since joining the Big Ten. Especially recently. From 2000-2004 PSU was 16-24 in the Big Ten, including 3-13 in '03 and '04. During that 5-year span Iowa was 27-13 in the Big Ten. Last year they had an incredibly veteran team and need to show me they can keep it up.

Haluska grew up a Hawkeye fan, and we couldn't land him. Horner and Brunner didn't need to be recruited, they had committed when they were 6 or something. Nobody saw Hansen ever getting significant playing time. Henderson didn't have too many people knocking on his door, as I recall. Yada, yada. Tom Davis wasn't exactly the best at recruiting in-state either. Heinrich, Collison, and LaFrentz being 3 of the more recent big examples. Back to your point. They were right in not extending Tom Davis. He wasn't going to lead them anywhere, and it was time for him to move on. At the time of Davis's departure, there was a strong link between the program and Rick Majerus (he looked for real estate in the area) as well as some other candidates, but Alford was the big name at the time because of his Big Ten ties. Funny thing is, everyone bemoaned the hiring of Ferentz (vs alum Bobby Stoops) and celebrated the hiring of Alford. Funny how much difference a few short years will make. I agree with most of your post, except a couple of the recruiting parts. Haluska committed to ISU before he was a sophomore if I remember correctly. There was still some doubt as to how good he would be at that point, but Eustachy was big on him and he really liked Eustachy. Brunner didn't commit until the summer after his junior year. Henderson committed to Iowa State around his sophomore year I believe. Then I think it was around the end of his junior year where he changed his mind and decided on Iowa. But yeah I was anti-Ferentz and very pro-Alford early on. I wasn't opposed to Ferentz so much in the first couple of years, it was the 2001 season where we lost a lot of close games and he stuck with McCann rather than letting Banks take over at QB. I was really down on he and O'Keefe at times during that year. And even though everyone knew the talent base at OU was different than Iowa, it still didn't help when people like me wanted Bobby in the first place and then had to watch him win a national championship while we went 3-8. I'm still a fan of Alford, although I thought it was time for him to go heading into last March. I do think that he's grown into the job and become a much better coach over the last two years. You don't want to have to pay a guy $1M for on the job training, but that's another argument. I also think the addition of Craig Neal to the staff has made a big impact and has brought a new philosophy to our recruiting that appears much better at this point.

No 7-5 isn't elite and I never said it was. But your claim that we've regressed back to the middle of the Big Ten is ridiculous and I'm sure any fan of Big Ten football would tell you so. Would you say Michigan has regressed to the middle of the Big Ten? Then again you also are the guy who said that if you don't play in the national championship your team "sucks". I was at the Illinois game and it was completely full. The box score lists that 15,500 tickets were sold, and there were no empties that I could spot. They may have said that at the beginning because it was a bit of a late arriving crowd due to traffic being severely backed up with everyone arriving at the same time. Regardless he didn't cost his school any money. The atmosphere was also great for that game although it probably wasn't as good as Indiana or OSU. Like I said before I really don't care if you like Alford or not. He's a very polarizing figure within the Iowa fan base. I'm just trying to set the truth straight on a few issues.

Stop listening to B&B before you form your Alford opinions. If you dislike him, it should be solely for the reason that he is a bad coach. I dislike him because he defended Pierre Pierce and even went so far as to say he was the victim in his first sexuall assualt charge. The man was the national president of the FCA when he was in college, yet he sided with a rapist over a real victim. The fact that he has destroyed Iowa's program I like hjim for. I realize you guys are good this year, but after this year you guys will be really horrible. Find me where he said Pierre was the vicitim. Not once did that take place. He also never sided with Pierre over the victim. I also doubt that you know what actually took place, but it surely wasn't rape. There are a few reasons why the female and her family were so willing to settle so that the details didn't go public. Also how can you say we're good this year but will be "really horrible" afterward? You were on this board this summer saying that our lack of success the past few years wasn't Alford's fault, it was because we had no talent. So first of all how are we good without any talent this year and why will be worse if we aren't losing any talent? And who can forget your guarantee after the '03 football season that Iowa football would take a big step backwards because we were losing Gallery and Russell. Of course we improved by 2 games between the two years, but hey who cares. Yeah I admitted I was wrong about your football. They have however, regressed back to the middle of the Big Ten. Alford is a coach who hasn't had a alot of talent, but guess what everyone of those players he recruited. He has no one to blame but himelf for the lack of talent. After this years seniors leave you guys are really looking rough. Henderson and Haluska are good players, but the other guys don't show much at all. Alford in my opinion didn't learn how to build a program and that is his downfall, well that and he hasn't recruited his own state very well. Korver and Jacobson come to mind, how did he lose them to mid majors? How about me disliking him because last year he said he had the book on how to beat Illinois, even though his team never did. How about the fact he fought to have the tickets to the illinois game this year made unavailable until a week before the game. Way to cost your school a ton of money in lost ticket sales because you are embarrased that more of our fans would rather travel to watch us play than show up at home to cheer on the hawkeyes. How about when he called his team the big ten champions when they won the tournament title. :roll: No Steve you weren't Big Ten champions. Regressed to the middle of the Big Ten? LOL, wow you're funny. We finish tied for 3rd one season (after losing 3 defensive lineman to the NFL and losing a couple of games that came down to the last play) and all of a sudden we've regressed to the middle of the Big Ten? So in the last four years we've tied for two championships and the lowest we've finished is tied for 3rd. You lack any objectivity. That would be like me saying Illinois basketball has regressed to the middle of the Big Ten if they finish 3rd in basketball this year, which is very possible. Seriously, put your dislike or hatred aside and look at it objectively. It's not that hard for an adult. I can do it very well when analyzing Illinois basketball. When you don't, you make yourself look ridiculous. Secondly I really don't care if you like Steve Alford. Many Iowa fans don't. But again you look ridiculous for changing your reasons after you were called out on lies in your first post. You had no clue on the facts and were telling blatant lies (Alford said Pierre was the victim, blatant lie) to support your opinion. Now you don't like him for all of these reasons? Again you failed to get the facts right. The tickets for the Illinois game were available long before the week before the game. And he didn't cost his school any money because the game was a sellout. But hey why let the facts get in the way of another one of your rants, right? Good Lord.

Illinois is loaded. They'll be fine without Dee and Augustine next year. Sure they'll miss their experience and leadership, but they have more than enough talent to overcome that. They haven't exactly fallen apart without Head and Williams. As far as Iowa goes, the cupboard isn't bare. Will we be as good next year? Highly doubtful. It will be a much less experienced team and they won't be as strong inside. But we return our best overall player (Haluska) and will be very deep in the backcourt and have some solid recruits coming in who can make an impact. We'll need some big play out of Tate inside and improvement from our current big men (plus Thompson and Reed). Looby has been very impressive in practice and will be a poor man's blend of Thomas/Hansen. Landing Tyler Smith would be huge. We won't contend for the Big Ten, but we can make some noise.

Stop listening to B&B before you form your Alford opinions. If you dislike him, it should be solely for the reason that he is a bad coach. I dislike him because he defended Pierre Pierce and even went so far as to say he was the victim in his first sexuall assualt charge. The man was the national president of the FCA when he was in college, yet he sided with a rapist over a real victim. The fact that he has destroyed Iowa's program I like hjim for. I realize you guys are good this year, but after this year you guys will be really horrible. Find me where he said Pierre was the vicitim. Not once did that take place. He also never sided with Pierre over the victim. I also doubt that you know what actually took place, but it surely wasn't rape. There are a few reasons why the female and her family were so willing to settle so that the details didn't go public. Also how can you say we're good this year but will be "really horrible" afterward? You were on this board this summer saying that our lack of success the past few years wasn't Alford's fault, it was because we had no talent. So first of all how are we good without any talent this year and why will be worse if we aren't losing any talent? And who can forget your guarantee after the '03 football season that Iowa football would take a big step backwards because we were losing Gallery and Russell. Of course we improved by 2 games between the two years, but hey who cares.

Big win by Michigan tonight. If Iowa (vs. OSU) and Michigan (vs. Wisc)hold serve at home this weekend, we'll have a 5-way tie for first place in the Big Ten.

How about Vaden? He was 8-12 from 3! A lot of those came with a hand in his face or were shots he had to hurry. He was impressive last night. You guys did shoot 42% from 3 you know. The Hoosiers were hitting some tough three's all night long, you just couldn't get any other looks inside and there was no penetration.

What?

Very big game tonight. I'll be in Carver, hopefully we can get an atmosphere like we had for the Illinois game. As of yesterday there were still 2-3,000 tickets for sale which is sad. Hopefully we can get Marco in foul trouble early. It's either that or just let him get his 25-30 and try to stop you guys from outside. We need to start shooting like we're capable or this season could get away from us in a hurry. You can only rely on your defense for so long before you have to actually make some shots.

As another big ten fan it is fun this year during bball, the big 12 is horrible. But yeah during football it was rough and when Texas was as good as they were this year there isn't much you can say but agree. Yeah fun in terms of bragging rights right now I guess. But it would be awful to be stuck with all of that coverage of the Big 12, lack of coverage of the Big 10, and getting mostly Big 12 games on Saturday. Especially during football season.

You're right dal, they could win 6 games next year. They had a very young team last year with some solid recruits. I just don't expect it. I'll lay off of Zook. I think he's a great motivator, very good recruiter and a good position coach. I just think he's been in over his head and don't think he has the organizational skills, leadership or discipline required to be a big-time head coach. Plus I've gotta give it to you for being a Big 10 man stuck in Big 12 country. That's not fun.

Dal- the last time we played in a BCS bowl was 2003, so it's really not all that long ago. 4 straight January bowls though if you're counting. You guys have been to what, 1 in the last 20 years? 2 total bowls in the last 12? Yeah you're right, we only have approximately 3 million people in the great state of Iowa. Yet the 13 million in Illinois can't get more than 50,000 people to come to watch a coach who they're all sure will take them to the next level. Which is sadder? Enjoy the early stages of the Zook era while you don't know any better. Try going to the Illinois football page and watch the little video for "coachronzook.com". One of the most unintentionally funny things I've seen in quite a while. Well I guess since he told us that he calls recruits while he's in the shower. Or since he listed his bench press and squat in the media guide. Or since he thought Nate Kaeding (All-American kicker, Lou Groza winner) was a running back only 2 weeks before the Outback Bowl. Or going to a frat party in defense of his players who *surprise* were causing trouble and asking if anyone wanted to "throw down". This was a guy who went a 23-15 in his three years at Florida, despite always having one of the 5-10 most talented teams in the country. Not once could he take that talent and get to 9 wins. Not once could he avoid having 5 losses. His former players made him sound like a joke leading up to this year's Outback Bowl. Talking about how the whole trip was just a party, nobody cared about curfew and no one was serious. Meyer's biggest challenge this year has been cleaning up Zook's mess and trying to instill some discipline into those players. I'm sorry but he guy is a total joke as a head coach. Hey how is talking football during basketball season any different than all of the Illini fans that want to talk basketball during football season? Come on man. And I'll talk basketball any time. We're no where near Illinois' level but I'm still a major supporter and not full of hatred for Alford (who doesn't have a doctorate). By the way I'm the last guy who would ever consider Dr. Tom "almighty". And please don't take it personally, because I'm definitely not. I just enjoy a good give and take with Illini fans every now and then. Especially when you have such an easy target leading your program.

Just an awful shooting night and a pretty ugly win. We shot 1-20 from the outside tonight. Got some great looks, just couldn't knock one down. It looked like it would be a blowout early, but Minnesota got within 5 at the half. Coming out of the half we had 4 straight turnovers and they were knocking down some big shots. We had to stop them on the last possession in regulation and the first overtime just to keep the game going. Thankfully Erek Hansen played the best game of his career, getting 20 points and 5 blocks. Brunner scored 17 and set a Carver-Hawkeye Arena record with 23 rebounds (18 in regulation). Horner shot horribly but had 10 assists to only 2 turnovers in 51 minutes. This game kills the slim chance we had of going into the Breslin Center and sneaking out a win for the first time in 13 years. They've had all week off while 4 of our starters played 50 minutes last night.

Seconded, I'm fairly certain they used to play 18 Conference games before Penn State became a member. Why not 20? Well 20 conference games is a lot. I'm not sure if there are any conferences that play that many games. You would have to eliminate the Big Ten Tournament for sure (which I wouldn't be in favor of) plus start the season before New Year's where there isn't nearly as much exposure and with all of the bowl games, you could really hurt attendance. It would equal much less money. I agree that I miss the round-robin schedule, but with Penn State in the mix it's almost impossible to still have that. I absolutely love the Big Ten Tournament, and all conference tournaments. And while some teams can cost themselves a seed or two, the teams that are beating them can easily gain a seed or two in addition to letting a team play it's way into the NCAA's. I really don't think they place that big of an emphasis on it during seeding though. In fact the Big Ten gets hosed because they have to play their championship right before the pairings are announced and basically while the seeds are set. The winner gets no bonus for winning the BTT. 20 conference games is only two more games than what they used to play. The Pac-10 plays 18 conference games. Speaking for Illinois, starting the conference season prior to New Year's wouldn't hurt attendance a bit. We sell out during Christmas against the Longwoods and Oaklands of the world. Knowing the Hawkeye crowd, I doubt a Big Ten game between Christmas and New Year's would hurt attendance. Again, it's just two more games than what used to be played. What really is the purpose of the conference tourney other than money? At least the ACC gives the regular season conference crown to its conference tourney champion, in addition to the automatic bid. I think what you do over 2+ months means more than three days anyway. Yeah just two more games than used to be played, but four more games than are currently played. If you don't enjoy conference tournaments than nothing I can say will sway you. I personally love them and think Championship Week and that final weekend is one of the best few weeks in the sports world. And I guess Illinois fans can sell out those games between Christmas and New Year's. Lord knows they don't have any bowl games to travel to. Other teams (like Iowa, OSU, Mich, Wisconsin) tend to travel anywhere from 20,000-40,000 fans to their bowl destination during that week, leaving a much smaller group back in town to attend a basketball game during one of the best football weeks of the year. But I guess it's not fair to expect you guys to know much about that, nor will you have to as long as the Zooker is at the helm.

You can make the argument for parity (which is true) but overall this is the weakest I've seen the Big 12 in a long time. The Big 12 and Pac-10 are just bad this year. The Big East, Big Ten and ACC will probably gobble up 20, possibly 21 of the 34 at-large bids this year. I could definitely see the Big 12 and Pac-10 combining for only 6-7.

Seconded, I'm fairly certain they used to play 18 Conference games before Penn State became a member. Why not 20? Well 20 conference games is a lot. I'm not sure if there are any conferences that play that many games. You would have to eliminate the Big Ten Tournament for sure (which I wouldn't be in favor of) plus start the season before New Year's where there isn't nearly as much exposure and with all of the bowl games, you could really hurt attendance. It would equal much less money. I agree that I miss the round-robin schedule, but with Penn State in the mix it's almost impossible to still have that. I absolutely love the Big Ten Tournament, and all conference tournaments. And while some teams can cost themselves a seed or two, the teams that are beating them can easily gain a seed or two in addition to letting a team play it's way into the NCAA's. I really don't think they place that big of an emphasis on it during seeding though. In fact the Big Ten gets hosed because they have to play their championship right before the pairings are announced and basically while the seeds are set. The winner gets no bonus for winning the BTT.

The Badgers are definitely a real threat to win the conference. In fact I would probably consider them the favorite at this point. They don't lose at home, they don't have a real difficult road schedule, and Bo is one of the most underrated coaches in the country.

You guys shot very poorly from the outside but then seemed to get really tentative in the second half. We were playing very good defense (as we have all year) but just got lucky with you guys missing some open looks in the first half. In the second half I thought our defense was better, but when Dee and others got looks they passed them up and had to scramble late in the shot clock to throw something up. Jamar Smith was the one guy who took the shot every time he got an open look and I was surprised at the ones he missed in the first half. I don't know if I've seen that guy miss this year when I've seen an Illinois game. Taking Augustine out of the game was huge, he never really got involved. After he had that big dunk mid-way through the 2nd half I thought he was going to go on a tear but never did. Same thing with Dee when he knocked down that 3 early in the second half. I think everyone in the building thought he was going to get hot and take over after that shot but it never happened. You guys looked a lot more one-dimensional offensively than last year but I also think you play much better defense than last year's team. Guys are just a lot quicker on switch outs, get up on you much closer and really gave us no open looks in the first half. It looks to me like Bruce has put a much bigger emphasis on defense this year. Yeah Bruce has to concentrate more on defense this year because we don't have the same talent on offense. iowa would have probably beaten us anyway, but fwiw, the officiating in that game was the worst i've ever seen in any game this year, so far. every call favored iowa, every call. Every call? Come on. Illinois was making themselves vulnerable to a lot of those calls by doing more grabbing. I would agree that Iowa got the advantage overall in calls, but that's not a rarity when you go on the road in the Big Ten. The Illini fans at Carver were getting worked up over some of the calls midway through in the second half, but overall they weren't outraged and certainly didn't feel the way you did.

You guys shot very poorly from the outside but then seemed to get really tentative in the second half. We were playing very good defense (as we have all year) but just got lucky with you guys missing some open looks in the first half. In the second half I thought our defense was better, but when Dee and others got looks they passed them up and had to scramble late in the shot clock to throw something up. Jamar Smith was the one guy who took the shot every time he got an open look and I was surprised at the ones he missed in the first half. I don't know if I've seen that guy miss this year when I've seen an Illinois game. Taking Augustine out of the game was huge, he never really got involved. After he had that big dunk mid-way through the 2nd half I thought he was going to go on a tear but never did. Same thing with Dee when he knocked down that 3 early in the second half. I think everyone in the building thought he was going to get hot and take over after that shot but it never happened. You guys looked a lot more one-dimensional offensively than last year but I also think you play much better defense than last year's team. Guys are just a lot quicker on switch outs, get up on you much closer and really gave us no open looks in the first half. It looks to me like Bruce has put a much bigger emphasis on defense this year.

I guess thats one way to look at why the media gets so excited at the prospect of illinois losing. I don't get why Iowa fans stormed the court though. That was just hilarious. I thought it wasn't an upset??? :? Who said it wasn't an upset? If Majerus or one of the broadcasters did, they were wrong. You guys were what 54-1 in your last 55 regular season games? Even though a lot of people think we should contend for the conference this year, it's still a big upset. Bruce had some interesting comments after the game, saying that if Horner doesn't get hurt we're definitely a top 25 team and that we're respected more nationally than we are in our own state. It's sad, but he's right. It was a great atmosphere yesterday though. Not as many Illini fans as last year, but there was still some decent pockets of orange. They were incredibly loud and obnoxious before the game and during the first half. At the end it was almost a unanimous look of shock on their faces, I don't think any of them expected to lose that game. I saw about 4 different 16-0 signs that had to be folded up.

I HIGHLY doubt that the only additional player it's going to take to get Hendry to throw in Pie is Jorge Julio. Hendry simply will not send Prior, Hill and Pie while only getting Tejada, Bedard and Julio in return. He's way too high on Hill and Pie to accept that.

No there's not a difference as far as injury risk goes. If teams felt confident that he could play 2nd base effectively and stayed healthy, he would have been signed to do that. Instead nearly all of baseball felt he was resigned to 1B, 3B and LF.