Damn I miss those games when Larry Morgan was one of the announcers. I'm so glad we didn't know then what was going to happen in 2 years. It's hard to believe Chris Street has been gone 25 years now. He was only a freshman here. I also hate that Tom Davis was forced out of his job as coach. He had the best record as a coach for Iowa basketball. I miss those days.
I recall they switched during the 1993-94 season at the IU-Illinois game, which was broadcast by ESPN. I was told later that ESPN wanted the better angle, and that the other games not covered by ESPN also put their cameras higher (i.e. the games that were covered by the regional carrier.)
@mongoose704 Hindsight is 20/20. Tom Davis had done a good job, but he was failing to sign the top players from Iowa (i.e., LaFrentz, Heinrich, Collison). Steve Alford was regarded as the hottest new coach in the country and just months earlier Bowlsby had failed to lure Bob Stoops, which caused a lot of anger at the time. It's easy to wish for the "good old days" of Davis compared to the current mess. But again, nobody predicted Alford would be a bust...
@NbrLine Why did you hate it? I can see how it was hard to see if a player was behind the 3-point arc on the opposite side of the camera, but I always thought it was cool being able to see that up close. They switched to the new angle permanently in the 1994 season.
A lot of it has to do with the mind game of coaching, to mess with the coach of the offensive team. Also, if the players originally set up with a look that suggests a jump shot from the perimeter area, it's a decent bet that the second time it'll be inside, and vice versa.
@geoffds It wasn't Davis' failure. Furthermore I and many others predicted the probability of Alford's failure. He never won a conference title and had only one good year prior. He was also inexperienced and not a proven recruiter. Considering what Davis accomplished, 9 NCAA tourney appearances, no first round losses, 3 sweet sixteens and an elite 8, firing him for Alford was like going double down on an 18. Ala Dukie V: "Bowlsby is insane if he thinks Alford will do better than Davis."
@geoffds So there was no hindsight whatsoever. Davis' last five years, Iowa had the combined 2nd best record in the Big Ten. Prior he had a mediocre run thanks to losing one McDonalds AA to untimely DEATH and Jess Settles numerous injuries. Nick Collison didn't come because Bowlsby fired TD and made him coach a lame duck year. Same with Hinrich! Those can't be blamed on TD. Currently it sounds like the inmates are running the asylum.
@mongoose704 Yeah. Posted "1 year ago"....how could I not tell that it was one day before McCaffery's hiring. (?) Anyway, still waiting on the sources that stated that the inmates were running the asylum. I think that the reshuffling had more to do with the inmates sucking at basketball...
@mongoose704 Inmates running asylum is untrue. If you say it "sounds" like that, you need to find better sources. Fran's was about as good of a hire that Iowa could get and he's doing about as well as he can. Top 20 recruiting class on the way, Basabe and Cartwright are par-to-solid big 10 players that nobody wanted. Aaron White looks like a Shurna type player, recruited by average mid-majors before he caught Fran's eye. *Davis did get screwed, though. No doubt about that.
