The state of Iowa is enjoying a historic college hoops season
When the afternoon hosts at Iowa sports radio station KXNO had the nerve to open their show on Monday by discussing Green Bay's historic NFC championship game collapse, they soon received a deluge of angry phone calls.
"People were upset we didn't start by talking about Iowa and Iowa State basketball and their big wins over the weekend," assistant program director Andrew Downs said. "It's the biggest thing in the state right now."
College basketball is king in Iowa these days because three in-state teams are ranked in this week's AP Top 25 for the first time in the 66-year history of the poll. No. 25 Iowa (13-5) joined No. 20 Northern Iowa (16-2) and No. 9 Iowa State (13-3), giving the Hawkeye State more teams in the poll than any other state in the nation.
Iowa's unprecedented statewide success this season is remarkable considering it's not an especially fertile recruiting ground, nor do its schools even typically land its best in-state prospects. The last two Iowa-born McDonald's All-Americans, Marcus Paige and Harrison Barnes, both went to North Carolina, while fellow Iowa products Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison and Raef LaFrenz all starred at Kansas in the late 90s and early 2000s.
What the Iowa schools have done to offset that is hire coaches innovative enough to win without a steady stream of elite in-state recruits.
Fred Hoiberg has transformed Iowa State into a perennial Big 12 contender by turning the Cyclones into a popular destination for talented transfers in need of a second chance. Fran McCaffery has reinvigorated Iowa by speeding up its tempo and finding four-year Midwestern prospects eager to play that style. And Ben Jacobson has returned Northern Iowa to national prominence by combing Iowa and neighboring states for under-the-radar talent that will thrive in his slow-paced, defensive-oriented system.
"Having some consistency across the board is the biggest thing I would point to for why all three teams are having success," Jacobson said. "Myself, Fred and Fran have been at our jobs for a little while now. That consistency has helped. We each do it a little bit differently, but we've each made it work for us. Usually once you establish yourself, you have an opportunity to go get some good young players. I think all three of us are in that place right now."
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The program in the midst of a golden era is Iowa State, which has won at least one NCAA tournament game each of the past three years and advanced to its first Sweet 16 since 2000 last March. The Cyclones owe their success to athletic director Jamie Pollard's risky decision to hire a man who had never coached at any level before.
When Hoiberg first approached Pollard about coaching his alma mater in 2006 after Wayne Morgan was fired, the Iowa State athletic director didn't even grant the former Cyclones star an interview. Hoiberg became a folk hero among Iowa State fans by leading Ames High School to a state title as a senior, taking the Cyclones to three NCAA tournaments as a player and lasting 10 years in the NBA, but Pollard was savvy enough to realize being a great player did not ensure coaching success.
"I didn't even see it as a realistic option at that time," Pollard said. "Every outstanding player believes they can coach, and quite honestly they're a dime a dozen in this industry."
Hoiberg remained in contact with Pollard and expressed interest again in 2010 when Greg McDermott left for Creighton following four dismal years at Iowa State. This time, Pollard was more receptive since he had grown to appreciate Hoiberg's basketball savvy and ability to relate to people and he believed the former Iowa State standout had gained seasoning from spending the previous four years working under Kevin McHale in the front office of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
A job interview confirmed Pollard's interest. Hoiberg impressed his future boss by acknowledging his lack of recruiting experience would be a weakness and then by advocating that Iowa State retain ace recruiter T.J. Otzelberger to help offset that. What Hoiberg also recognized was that the Cyclones had a much more realistic chance of upgrading their talent level if the coaches initially focused on attracting top transfers rather than signing elite high school prospects.
"He knew he'd have to target kids who had chosen to go somewhere else initially and needed a second chance," Pollard said. "We had a long talk about transfers, making sure you get the right ones and that you don't sacrifice academics. I was comfortable with it because we built in some checks and balances to make sure we're getting the right kids. We've got a process where we're able to sit down with these young men and find out if they're really prepared to come here so we don't make a mistake."
In Hoiberg’s four-plus years at Iowa State, he has made the Cyclones a destination for transfers while also gradually sprinkling in more impact four-year prospects. At least one key transfer has started every season for Iowa State, from Chris Allen, to Royce White, to Will Clyburn, to DeAndre Kane, to Bryce Dejean-Jones.
Thanks to that influx of talent, a staff that consistently develops players and a fan base that has embraced Hoiberg’s approach, Iowa State has enjoyed success beyond what Pollard envisioned. The Cyclones haven’t lost at home to anyone besides Kansas in three years, haven’t finished lower than fourth in the Big 12 since Hoiberg’s debut season and haven’t fallen out of the AP Top 25 since 2013.
“You don't make hires unless you believe they're going to be successful, but the level of success that we've had is a pleasant surprise,” Pollard said. “How people have responded to him nationally is spectacular. He has gotten us national recognition and national credibility beyond what we expected.”
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If Iowa State's rebuild went at warp speed, Iowa's has gone at a more conventional pace. A coach with a history of resuscitating woebegone programs has taken the Hawkeyes from rock bottom, to respectability, to potentially the cusp of Big Ten title contention depending on how these next few weeks go.
Iowa athletic director Gary Barta faced pressure to make a strong hire after the first basketball coach he'd brought in proved to be a bust. Todd Lickliter led Butler to three Horizon League titles and a pair of Sweet 16s in his six seasons at the mid-major power, but his approach did not translate well at Iowa. He endured a rash of defections by top players, recruited mid-major-caliber replacements and alienated fans with his rigid, slow-paced offense and thinly veiled regret at having left Butler.
Barta's challenge after firing Lickliter in 2010 was to find a coach who could both build a Big Ten title contender and energize a fan base that had become uncharacteristically apathetic. Iowa typically packed 15,500-seat Carver-Hawkeye arena throughout the Tom Davis era, but attendance and alumni donations had tapered off under Steve Alford and eroded further during Lickliter's three consecutive losing seasons.
Enter McCaffery, a proven winner who had taken Lehigh and UNC Greensboro to the NCAA tournament and had just won his third straight conference championship at Siena. McCaffery quickly proved to Barta that he was serious about the job when the Siena coach arrived at his first interview, shook the athletic director's hand and announced that he wanted to be Iowa's next basketball coach.
"I don't know how much more I had to sell from there, but I could tell within 15 minutes that our personalities and our values aligned really well. What really intrigued me was he had built three programs into success stories. Doing it once, you might be able to do it with lightning in a bottle by accident. But doing it three times, he had a way of doing things that was successful."
McCaffery proved to be an ideal antidote to Lickliter in every way, from his quick-strike offense, to his relationship with his players, to his fiery sideline demeanor.
An Iowa program that played at the slowest pace in the plodding Big Ten under Lickliter suddenly morphed into the league's fastest team in three of McCaffery's first four seasons. Recruiting also picked up as McCaffery landed top 100 prospects Adam Woodbury and Mike Gessell in 2012 and lured former Iowa Mr. Basketball Jarrod Uthoff via transfer from Wisconsin the following year. Those two developments surely contributed to a surge in attendance from an average of 9,550 in Lickliter's final year to an average of 14,976 last season.
All that has been missing for McCaffery prior to this season is consistency in Big Ten play. The Hawkeyes surged into NCAA tournament contention late in the 2012-13 season before settling for an NIT bid and reaching the championship game. They then slipped into the NCAA tournament as a First Four team last March despite collapsing down the stretch with losses in seven of their last eight games. I
owa fans were not optimistic this would be a breakthrough season when their team endured second-half meltdowns against rival Iowa State and Northern Iowa in December, but the Hawkeyes have rebounded to start 4-1 in Big Ten play including a quality win over Nebraska and a pair of victories over Ohio State. If Iowa can survive a three-week stretch that includes three games against contenders Wisconsin and Maryland and road games at Purdue and Michigan, the Hawkeyes' schedule softens considerably during the final month of the season.
"Fran told me when he took the job, 'Let's go try to win a national championship,'" Barta said. "We have a long way to go to reach that, but he certainly has been building at a good pace with an exciting brand of basketball to watch and a great group of guys that you'd love to have in your home around your family. So far, so good."
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The last time Northern Iowa attained this sort of national prominence, the Panthers forced college hoops fans around the country to learn to pronounce "Farokhmanesh." Little-known Ali Farokhmanesh toppled No. 1 seed Kansas in the 2010 NCAA tournament with a game-clinching 3-pointer that remains an indelible March image even nearly five years later.
Northern Iowa won 20 or more games three times since 2010 and finished fourth or better in the Missouri Valley Conference each year, but the Panthers haven't challenged for a league title or an NCAA bid until this year. Last season was unusually mediocre as Northern Iowa abandoned its hardscrabble defensive identity and played at a faster tempo with disastrous results, finishing with its least wins in Jacobson's first eight years at the school.
"I made the mistake last year of getting away from what has been best for our program, that tough, rugged, defense-minded approach," Jacobson said. "Last year, I spent too much time with our offensive stuff and working on playing in transition. I felt like we had good depth and a lot of talented players, but we got away from spending the majority of our time on doing defensive drills and building the kind of toughness it takes for our program to have success. That falls squarely on my shoulders."
A renewed commitment to defense and the return of last season's six leading scorers raised hopes that Northern Iowa could ascend in the Valley pecking order this season and perhaps even challenge Wichita State for the league championship. The Panthers have met or even exceeded those expectations, starting 16-2 with quality wins over Iowa, Northwestern, Richmond and Stephen F. Austin and only a pair of narrow road losses to VCU and Evansville.
What's especially charming about Northern Iowa's success is that the Panthers are winning their own way. They play at the fourth slowest tempo of any team in the nation, they limit teams to 37.9 percent shooting and they win with almost exclusively under-the-radar recruits from Iowa and neighboring states.
Six-foot-8 forward Seth Tuttle, an Iowa native who chose the Panthers over South Dakota, Northern Colorado and Colorado State, averages a team-leading 14.9 points and 6.2 rebounds and shoots an impressive 62.6 percent from the floor. Perimeter standouts Deon Mitchell, Wes Washpun and Wyatt Lohaus were also regional recruits that Jacobson and his staff identified early and forged relationships with before other programs could get their foot in the door.
"What UNI has done is they're out looking at young talent in the state, trying to identify them as ninth and tenth graders," said Jamie Johnson, co-director of the Iowa Barnstormers grassroots program. "If they see what they like, they're not afraid to offer scholarships early. Some might say that's not wise, but it has proven to be successful. They know what they're looking for and they've been able to hang onto some good players even when other programs have come in afterward."
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The success of Iowa State, Iowa and Northern Iowa has grabbed the attention of a state starved for sporting success after a miserable college football season for the Cyclones and Hawkeyes.
The annual Big Four Classic pitting Iowa State against Drake and Iowa against Northern Iowa drew a sellout crowd to 16,100-seat Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines last month. Iowa State and Iowa have been filling their arenas, while Northern Iowa drew its biggest crowd of the season Sunday for a victory over Missouri State.
Fans have also packed sports bars across the state for big games this season.
The Front Row Bar, a Hawkeyes-themed sports bar in Clive, typically only drew huge crowds for football games in recent years but manager Brandon Corkrean said they've drawn as many as 90-100 fans for big Iowa basketball games this season. Iowa State basketball has been a similar draw at The Keg Stand in Des Moines, where a standing-room-only crowd roared with every Cyclones basket during Saturday night's win over Kansas.
"The last few games have been jam-packed, wall-to-wall," said Lindsey Brady, a manager at The Keg Stand. "It's Iowa, so we don't necessarily have a ton of things going on. When our teams do really well, even people that aren't basketball fans get excited and want to come out and support them."
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
