Former players thread

douglasbader

Said Tom Brady's Career Was Over in 2008
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
122,001
Reaction score
-2,722
Russ Millard was a beast...and Mike Jarvis was Uncle Phil

I have those game worn shorts (Alvin Robinson) somewhere at my parents house. I love those shorts.
 

CamelTones

Has Shoved A Live Shrimp Up His Ass
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Messages
25,597
Reaction score
4,864
Really nice play by Settles to crash the offensive glass.
 

douglasbader

Said Tom Brady's Career Was Over in 2008
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
122,001
Reaction score
-2,722
we are guessing that those aren’t the only shorts of Alvin you’ve spent time in
Athletic department sale was always good to grab a bunch of barely worn quality shit.
 

kenos

Might Need to GFH
Joined
Jan 30, 2021
Messages
2,173
Reaction score
2,375
Russ Millard was one of the most underrated Iowa dunkers of the last 40 years.
Stuck out of his natural position for his whole career -- really effective 4 who could run the floor.

I'm generally positive about Dr. Tom's recruiting (he couldn't make Walker and Range's choices for them), but his failure to capitalize on developing Jepsen and Earl by signing someone better than Greg Fucking Helmers or John Fucking Carter really sunk the talent of the mid-90s teams.
 

nolookpass

Feels the Bern
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
87,769
Reaction score
-85,759
who had the highest ceiling? Range, Walker or Ray Thompson?
 

Orestes

Invisible
Joined
Dec 3, 2007
Messages
8,105
Reaction score
3,273
Stuck out of his natural position for his whole career -- really effective 4 who could run the floor.

I'm generally positive about Dr. Tom's recruiting (he couldn't make Walker and Range's choices for them), but his failure to capitalize on developing Jepsen and Earl by signing someone better than Greg Fucking Helmers or John Fucking Carter really sunk the talent of the mid-90s teams.
What about Guy Mother Rucker? He had a helluva year when he had Woolridge feeding him the ball.
 

kenos

Might Need to GFH
Joined
Jan 30, 2021
Messages
2,173
Reaction score
2,375
What about Guy Mother Rucker? He had a helluva year when he had Woolridge feeding him the ball.
Lots of tools to work with, mostly from the neck down. Extremely poor decision making on the part of that young man...but, eventually he got it together.
 
Joined
May 22, 2014
Messages
1,581
Reaction score
-1,222
Stuck out of his natural position for his whole career -- really effective 4 who could run the floor.

I'm generally positive about Dr. Tom's recruiting (he couldn't make Walker and Range's choices for them), but his failure to capitalize on developing Jepsen and Earl by signing someone better than Greg Fucking Helmers or John Fucking Carter really sunk the talent of the mid-90s teams.
starting to like this totally new poster!
 

CamelTones

Has Shoved A Live Shrimp Up His Ass
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Messages
25,597
Reaction score
4,864
I know it’s not a given to make it to the sweet 16, but I was 10 and have always thought the most talented starting lineup I’ve witnessed at Iowa was Woolridge, Murray, Kingsbury, Settles and Millard.

Looking at the box score of their loss to Arizona in ‘96 Glasper started over Kingsbury. Arizona also crushed Iowa in 1988. Lute was kind of a dick to Dr. Tom.
 

thrawn

Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2019
Messages
23,303
Reaction score
52,258
I know it’s not a given to make it to the sweet 16, but I was 10 and have always thought the most talented starting lineup I’ve witnessed at Iowa was Woolridge, Murray, Kingsbury, Settles and Millard.

Looking at the box score of their loss to Arizona in ‘96 Glasper started over Kingsbury. Arizona also crushed Iowa in 1988. Lute was kind of a dick to Dr. Tom.
I didn’t realize Kingsbury and Murray were both MD AA. Iowa got a decent amount up until 1993, then they stopped getting them other than by transfer.


Seems like they kind of got jobbed on seeding due to some weaker OOC teams, although they played UConn, Duke, and Iowa State.

 

CamelTones

Has Shoved A Live Shrimp Up His Ass
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Messages
25,597
Reaction score
4,864
I got stuck down a rabbit hole going through some prior year results on thrawns link.

Alford was fucking terrible. Even worse than I remember.
 

BBK

THE GRINGOOOOO
Joined
Dec 8, 2009
Messages
83,470
Reaction score
13,593
Weren't both of those guys Iowa POY?
 

Mo T

Carnie Profiler
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Messages
40,725
Reaction score
-6,057
You shouldn’t be. He offered scholarships to Troy Skinner, Wade Lookingbill and so many other recruits who weren’t D1 players, much less Big Ten caliber.
Aren't there 300+ D1 schools? They were D1 players. They just were mediocre B10 players. You'll have that at Iowa. We've always had that at Iowa.
 

AZmessDAWG

Loved and Defended The Criminal Until the Bitter End
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
39,888
Reaction score
-7,246
You shouldn’t be. He offered scholarships to Troy Skinner, Wade Lookingbill and so many other recruits who weren’t D1 players, much less Big Ten caliber.
Those are outliers. He generally did a decent job.
 

douglasbader

Said Tom Brady's Career Was Over in 2008
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
122,001
Reaction score
-2,722
You shouldn’t be. He offered scholarships to Troy Skinner, Wade Lookingbill and so many other recruits who weren’t D1 players, much less Big Ten caliber.
That is a little harsh and don't agree on Lookingbill. He started 18 games as a Senior on the #13 team in the country and averaged 7 and 3.

He was mediocre, but to call him not a D1 or Big Ten player is stretching it.
 

douglasbader

Said Tom Brady's Career Was Over in 2008
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
122,001
Reaction score
-2,722
Every coach outside of the blue chip schools offers guys like Lookingbill and Skinner for various reasons. They might be local and POY types or developmental players.

There are 13 roster spots. You aren't ever going to get 13 high level players. At least a couple are going to be players like Skinner and Lookingbill.

Dr. Tom started to suck near the end of his career in recruiting because he got old/lazy and started golfing more and leaving the recruiting decisions up to assistants that weren't exactly great on recognizing talent. That is how you end up with guys like Marcelo Gomes and Antonio Ramos.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BBK

L. Wade Childress

Too stupid to be real
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
75,659
Reaction score
-1,156
Every coach outside of the blue chip schools offers guys like Lookingbill and Skinner for various reasons. They might be local and POY types or developmental players.

There are 13 roster spots. You aren't ever going to get 13 high level players. At least a couple are going to be players like Skinner and Lookingbill.
In state tuition
 

CamelTones

Has Shoved A Live Shrimp Up His Ass
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Messages
25,597
Reaction score
4,864
Tom enjoyed golf and hated recruiting. He also thought he could coach guys up to a level to make Iowa competitive. Look at the roster in 96-97 season. It was Woolridge and some guys that he got to second in the conference.

At least that's what one of his friends told me.
 

douglasbader

Said Tom Brady's Career Was Over in 2008
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
122,001
Reaction score
-2,722
Tom enjoyed golf and hated recruiting. He also thought he could coach guys up to a level to make Iowa competitive. Look at the roster in 96-97 season. It was Woolridge and some guys that he got to second in the conference.

At least that's what one of his friends told me.
This is 100% correct. I know for a fact in the last few years Dr. Tom essentially checked out. He came almost completely off the road when recruiting and started golfing even more and letting the assistants handle most of it. Same went for coaching day to day. The assistants were coaching up practice more and more with him taking a back seat and mostly watching.

Bowlsby fucked up handling things the way he did with the lame duck year, but it didn't come out of nowhere. He knew that his head coach was not putting in the work and it was showing and he had started to miss out on big time local guys along with high profile guys like Jeff Walker not working out and embarrassing the program.

You can point to 1997 and say "Hey, but he got Ricky and Dean" but even those guys had both been wrapped up for nearly 3 years at that point and he coasted off it.
 

AZmessDAWG

Loved and Defended The Criminal Until the Bitter End
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
39,888
Reaction score
-7,246
We are NOT going to let Camel just waltz in here and rewrite history. Not happening bud.
 

Squat Cobbler

Might Need to GFH
Joined
Apr 26, 2016
Messages
1,693
Reaction score
1,035
Hey mannnnnnn, there were two NBA players (four minutes is four minutes) on that 96-97 roster and neither were named Woolridge.
 
Joined
Apr 18, 2013
Messages
4,231
Reaction score
-978
Lookingbill was an unathletic 6-5 power forward who wasn’t a plus shooter and lacked strength. He had walk-on level talent. Darryl Moore had better stats as a senior.

There is absolutely no reason to offer kids like Lookingbill and Skinner with where the Iowa program was at the time. And you just can’t offer “nice kids who will try hard” with the attrition that takes place in college basketball. When Thompson and Garner left and Bullard got hurt in 89-90, they were screwed because of Dr. Tom’s decision to give scholarships to kids who had no business playing at the Big Ten level.
 

douglasbader

Said Tom Brady's Career Was Over in 2008
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
122,001
Reaction score
-2,722
Lookingbill was an unathletic 6-5 power forward who wasn’t a plus shooter and lacked strength. He had walk-on level talent. Darryl Moore had better stats as a senior.

There is absolutely no reason to offer kids like Lookingbill and Skinner with where the Iowa program was at the time. And you just can’t offer “nice kids who will try hard” with the attrition that takes place in college basketball. When Thompson and Garner left and Bullard got hurt in 89-90, they were screwed because of Dr. Tom’s decision to give scholarships to kids who had no business playing at the Big Ten level.
I'm not arguing that Wade Lookingbill was good. He wasn't.

But trying to argue that he wasn't a Division 1 player or was a walk on level talent is borderline silly. Daryl Moore is also an extreme example in the opposite direction. He bloomed late, was hyper athletic and is one of a very small percentage of walk on players that make an impact.

Most walk on players are guys like Austin Ash and Nico Hobbs, not Daryl Moore.
 
Joined
Apr 18, 2013
Messages
4,231
Reaction score
-978
But that’s the argument I’m making; that talent-wise, Lookingbill fits in that group of walk-ons. He’d be below guys like Baer and Moore, on a level with a Nate Koch, Riley Till or Brandon Welsch.

No way a program playing a winning, exciting brand of basketball with future NBA players up and down the roster should be offering kids like that.
 
Joined
Apr 18, 2013
Messages
4,231
Reaction score
-978
Another think that irked me about those offers, and several others Davis made: The players don’t fit your style of play. I really don’t understand how you utilize a pressing system and then recruit guards like a Skinner or Dale Reed.
 

douglasbader

Said Tom Brady's Career Was Over in 2008
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
122,001
Reaction score
-2,722
But that’s the argument I’m making; that talent-wise, Lookingbill fits in that group of walk-ons. He’d be below guys like Baer and Moore, on a level with a Nate Koch, Riley Till or Brandon Welsch.

No way a program playing a winning, exciting brand of basketball with future NBA players up and down the roster should be offering kids like that.
Lookingbill does not fit in that group of walk ons like Austin Ash and Niko Hobbs. That is absurd. He was far better than guys like that and Nate Koch or Riley Till. Welsch is a different story as he passed up offers to walk on and then had a nice career in Juco/Division 1 as a scholarship player his last 3 years. He wasn't some fill in grad transfer offer like Till is this year.

Baer and Moore were clearly scholarship guys that developed way late. They are extreme exceptions.

Again, find me a non-blue chip school that isn't offering at least 1 or more guys that aren't some combination of project/local guy/late fill in. Nearly everyone has guys like Lookingbill on their roster.
 
Top