The Iowa Hawkeyes beat the Drake Bulldogs tonight 74-56. The Hawks were led by Pierre Pierce’s 17 points. Also in double figures were Jared Reiner (13), Greg Brunner (13) and Nick Dewitz (10). The Bulldogs only had one player in double figures, Nate Richie with 12. Iowa had a huge advantage inside as Drake has only 2 players over 6′7″ that played significant minutes, and the stats showed that as Iowa just pounded the ball inside (much to the seeming chagrin of Mac Macausland) and came up with many inside opportunities. What troubles me is that even with all the inside points, Iowa only shot 47% from the field - UGH! Also there were many careless turnovers; I guess you could attribute that to the score being so lopsided, but turnovers are never good.
Watching Drake’s offensive sets and defensive schemes was no different than watching the Davis-era Hawks, other than the talent level. They ran the same offenses, set the same pressure defenses, ran the same out of bounds plays even. I kinda feel bad for Tom as he only can go about 7 players deep; for the kind of game he coaches, he needs at least 9.
It wasn’t so much the game that was intriguing as the coaches. Steve Alford faced the man he replaced at Iowa, Tom Davis (now the coach for Drake). I said it when Davis was replaced: While I don’t like or agree with his offensive and defensive schemes, he does win a lot of games; I think that he was really given the short end of it when he was let go. Bob Bowlsby, the athletic director at Iowa, really made it known that Davis was not welcome. I do not recall if Davis was fired or if he resigned, but if he did resign it was under duress. I thought Bowlsby could have handled the situation with a lot more class; but, then again, he did the same thing to Hayden Fry. Not that I think Alford or Ferentz (Iowa football coach) have done bad jobs, it’s just that I got the impression that Bowlsby is a low-class/no-class heel.
