Thoughts on Signing Day

Iowa’s basketball team continues to show enough signs of life to keep me interested in next year. They recently lost to OH St by 10 points, but played competitively throughout the game. Freshman Eric May has really stepped his game up.

The most interesting Hawkeye related story lately was national signing day last week. In addition to some big names (Andrew Donnal, Marcus Coker, and AJ Derby) that I’ve discussed previously on here, there were a few other exciting signings.

First, CJ Fiedorowicz, one of the top tight end prospects in the nation switched his commitment from Illinois to Iowa. The guy is 6’7” 240 lbs with great hands and speed. The skinny is that his blocking could use some work, but he’s come to the right program to learn that. Ferentz and co. seem to do well with project TEs, so a guy with this kind of talent should blossom. He is considered by the recruitophiles to be Iowa’s best prospect this year.

Second, Solon, IA native James Morris committed to Iowa in his sophomore year. Because of that, most other teams stayed away from pursuing him. Due to the lack of attention thrown his way, few recruitophiles took notice of his accomplishments. Everything I’ve heard about him indicates that he will contribute quite a bit for Iowa over the next few years. He’s coming in as a Linebacker, but ran the ball quite a bit in high school too.

I’m probably overlooking some future All-Big Ten player, but I think these guys are going to be a solid core for years to come. They aren’t considered the best class in the Big Ten, but that’s not Iowa’s style either. It’s fun for the fans to get excited about players but the bottom line is that “recruiting rankings” don’t really mean much.

For example, look back at the year 2002. Only 4 out of the top 10 prospects in the nation (all 5 star recruits) according to Rivals.com played in the NFL this year. Compare that to Iowa’s class of 02, ranked 42nd nationally (no 5 star recruits and only two 4 star recruits). 2 from that class are currently in the NFL. Think about that for a minute…it’s a pretty amazing stat.

Well, now that the Superbowl is over, it’s gonna be a while until football is on TV again. I’m fine with that as long as there is some good basketball on TV. So I probably won’t be watching the Hawkeyes anytime soon…

Darkest before the Dawn

Prior to this year, my memories of Hawkeye basketball have been limited to about 2 things. 

• First, the team with Luke Recker and Reggie Evans caught my attention during the NCAA tournament while I lived out in New York.
• Second, the team with Jeff Horner and Adam Haluska made some waves about 5 years ago but fell short in the first round of the tournament.

My introduction this year has been pretty disappointing.  Coach Todd Lickliter had his work cut out for him at the beginning of this year.  The biggest issue over the past few years has been retaining the talent that has come through the program and system.  Solid role players and veterans (Jake Kelly, Jermain Davis, Jeff Peterson, Chanse Creekmur, Tyler Smith, Tony Freeman just to name a few) have parted ways with the team and Coach Lickliter has been forced to give some very important minutes to very young players, namely Brennan Cougill and Cully Payne.

All this has meant some slow progress on the court.  He’s had to basically start at square one with new players this year.  He’s had to keep his finger in the dam all the while battling some serious health issues and accusations of favoritism with this son, who is also on the team, John Lickliter.

Here’s my advice to all Hawkeye basketball fans out there...Be patient and be supportive.

In Todd We Trust

Coach Lickliter may not have swept you off your feet when he came to Iowa City, but he is doing his job.  Consider this, recently the team has lost to Top 25 teams OH St and MI St by 8 and 7 points respectively.  Strangers to the situation are probably already clicking away from this page in disgust, but the truth is that that is quite an accomplishment!

Coach Todd is doing this with younger, less experienced and, let’s be honest, less skilled players.  He is getting more out of these players than most coaches could.  Hopefully these guys will stay around long enough to see some positive results in the win column.

Meanwhile, fans need to understand that this is a process.  Everyone had hoped that the program would be further along, but a lot of what happened was outside anyone’s control.  It’s not perfect, but it’s always darkest before the dawn.  Right?

Thoughts on Lane Kiffin

One of the pet topics on sports radio shows lately has been one Mister Lane Kiffin.  Kiffin, the cocky, outspoken, controversial coaching wunderkind bolted the University of Tennessee for a program that offered more money and glamour, the USC Trojans.  After promising everything to Tennessee fans, he changed his mind after only 14 months.

What has been most remarkable is the ferocious response of Tennessee fans.  Office furniture burning, student riots, obscenity laden graffiti…they’ve pulled out all the stops.  Kiffin’s desertion stinks, but football is just a game.  Vol fans need to take a deep breath.

The situation reminds me of a book I’m reading.  It’s called “In the Heart of the Sea.”  It’s about a whaling ship that was rammed by a giant whale in the middle of the pacific ocean.  The crew was forced to abandon ship and rely on small row boats for survival.  Amazingly some of them survived despite tremendous odds.  Of course, they had to resort to eating their dead comrades, but they did survive. 

Follow me here…Kiffin is the giant whale.  Instead of making the sailors (Vol fans) happy, healthy, and wise, he wrecked them and left them to fend for themselves in the middle of one of the most dangerous places on earth, the Pacific Ocean (i.e. the SEC). 

Tennessee will survive, but it’s going to be a long, harsh ride to survival.  Hopefully some one will come to their rescue before they start dumping salt and pepper on each other.

Watching this makes me thankful for the consistency in the Iowa coaching office.  Ferentz may not grab headlines like Kiffin, but it’s nice to not have to put up with this kind of garbage.

On a separate note, Iowa’s men’s basketball team won their first Big Ten game over Penn State this weekend!  Good job hawks!

Iowa Win Orange Bowl, 24-14

Wow, I’ve really fallen off the wagon with this whole blog thing. Busy holidays, 1 year old, new Wii for Christmas, blah blah blah…I’m back.

This is how you do it, take note Alabama players!

Anyway, about a week ago, Iowa stomped GA Tech in the Orange Bowl.  The 1st half was complete domination by Iowa’s defensive line, especially Adrian Clayborn (aka the freight train).  It was one interception by Stanzi (aka Captain America) away from a perfect half. 

GA Tech figured out a few things at halftime, but the damage was done.  Iowa never looked back.  On the bright side, GA Tech didn’t have the most embarrassing night in the stadium.  That title belonged to the host lady in the orange jacket… if you saw the opening coin toss and her dance in the halftime show, you know what I’m talking about.

It was one of their best performances of the year.  Ferentz and Norm Parker (aka Ole 8 toes), had the team thoroughly prepared for GA Tech’s game plan.

Next year should be fun… So far, 15 out of 22 starters should be returning, and Iowa is getting 2 expected starters from this year (Jewell Hampton and Jordan Bernstine) back, plus Iowa’s recruiting class is shaping up to be one of the Big XI’s best. 

Thanks Hawkeyes!  Great job!   Next post I might share my thoughts on the Lane Kiffin thing.  Now on to this year’s basketball team…if my stomach can handle it.