Those four varsity sports included men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis, and men’s gymnastics. University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld and Athletic Director Gary Barta released a joint letter, addressing the public on the difficult decision made by the university.

A source with knowledge of the decision told KRUI that there was no formal communication between the sports’ student-athlete leadership and the Iowa administration prior to Friday morning. The athletes first found out about their program’s discontinuation at the 10:30 A.M. meeting on Friday.

All four programs had attained varying degrees of success at the University of Iowa. Iowa’s swimming and diving program holds a notable place in the history of competitive swimming, as the program is the birthplace of the Butterfly stroke.

The technique was developed by Iowa swimming coach David Armbruster and athlete Jack Sieg in the early 1930s. While the technique was not initially accepted, the International Swimming Federation went on to adopt the stroke for races in international competition.

Men’s Gymnastics had seen newfound success in recent years, including winning a share of the Big Ten title in the 2018-19 season. That season saw three Iowa gymnasts take home All-American honors, and was also the 50 year anniversary of the program’s 1969 NCAA Championship.

Men’s Tennis also appeared to be on the rise as the 2019-20 season saw the program reach their highest ranking in school history with a high-water mark of #23. The program also saw it’s longest winning streak since 1991 by winning seven matches in a row.

The cuts came about from the aforementioned deficit in the 2020-21 Iowa athletic budget due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The budget deficit stands at $65-70 million and a loss of revenue of over $100 million, all stemming from the cancellation of the fall football season from Big Ten president’s and conference commissioner Kevin Warren.

Iowa becomes the first athletic department in the Big Ten to announce the discontinuation of athletic programs because of COVID-19 related financial hardship. While other schools have cut salaries and furloughed employees, it is with near-certainty that program cuts across the Big Ten will become prevalent without fall football revenue.

The post Iowa Athletic Department Announces Discontinuation of Four Sports appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Instead of the gridiron, this decision came on the hardwood, and the subject of the decision was Luka Garza. His decision? It’s time to ramp up for the winter of 2020-21 as the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year. The consensus 1st-team All-American is returning to Iowa City for his senior season.

Garza made the announcement via a Zoom conference on Sunday afternoon to a pool of reporters and a large audience watching the stream through YouTube. Social media was ablaze with hopes of a Black and Gold national title run this upcoming winter.

“At the end of the day, I felt very confident that I wanted to come back and finish my career at the University of Iowa,” Garza said. “Coach McCaffery saw something in me that not a lot of other coaches saw and he took a chance on me and I feel like he’s done so much for me in my career, it wouldn’t be right to not finish what I started.”

Garza’s decision makes Iowa an instant favorite to win its first Big Ten regular-season championship since 1979 and sets the stage for the program’s first-ever national championship. The Hawkeyes last made an appearance in a national title game in 1956, and the Final Four in 1980.

The 6’11” center’s decision came nearly 24 hours after Big Ten-rival Illinois saw their two stars, Ayo Donsumu and Kofi Cockburn return to school. While Garza said their decision had no impact on him, he said he was happy for them and couldn’t wait for the Big Ten season.

“My mind was made up before then, but it was obviously great to see those guys come back. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun to match-up with that team, they’re very talented and having those two back is going to help them a lot,” Garza said. “I’m very excited, the Big Ten is going to be really, really good this year and it’ll be fun to be a part of.”

With Garza’s return, there is the distinct possibility that the Big Ten could see four potential, preseason top-10 teams in men’s college basketball, an unprecedented number since the AP Poll began releasing preseason polls in 1961. Along with Iowa in that class is Illinois, and defending Big Ten co-champs Michigan State and Wisconsin.

While Garza is aware of all the hype surrounding the Iowa basketball program heading into the season, he made sure to reaffirm that it they will need to put in work.

“A lot of that doesn’t mean anything until we step on the court and prove what people are talking about,” Garza said. “That’s our focus right now, getting back on the court. We’re gonna work as hard as we did after that 14-19 season when we were set out to prove everyone wrong.”

Iowa basketball has come a long ways from that 14-19 season they had in 2017-18, a year which may now be viewed as the spring board to one of the most successful runs in Iowa basketball history.

As of right now, Iowa has the best starting five in all of college basketball with Luka Garza’s return.

A line up of Garza, Jordan Bohannon, CJ Fredrick, Conner McCaffery and Joe Wieskamp combined to average 63.1 PPG on a team that averaged 77.7 PPG in 2019-20. In total, those five make up 1,712 of Iowa’s 2,410 total points in 2019-20, 71% of their total points.

All five players shot 32% or better from three last season, with Jordan Bohannon having the lowest percentage as he only played 10 games. Add Joe Toussaint into the picture as a sixth man, Iowa returns 15.8 assists per game on a team that averaged 17.4 assists per game last season, which was fifth in all of college basketball.

It is likely that Iowa begins the 2020-21 season as a preseason top five team, which would be the first time they have held that position in the preseason poll in school history, as the previous high was #7, which Iowa held in 1983 and 1988 under George Raveling and Tom Davis, respectively.

Even if Iowa is given a top 5 ranking in the preseason polls, the chip on their shoulder is still a large one. This is an Iowa team that is hungry and eager. Eager to prove that they were more than able to make a run in Indianapolis for a Big Ten Tournament title and be the first Hawkeye men’s team to make it to the second weekend since 1999.

The players on this Iowa team showed game-in and game-out last season that they hold an “us against them mentality.” They weren’t afraid to let people know when they did something great or to go nose-to-nose with their doubters.

Last year’s Iowa team was the toughest I’ve ever seen, physically and mentally. Match that with another off-season of work and returning the best player in college basketball, this team could and very well should be competing, and maybe even celebrating, in Lucas Oil Stadium on April 5th, 2021.

The post Douglas: Garza’s return spells historic upcoming season for Iowa appeared first on KRUI Radio.