It’s been a while since Iowa fans heard from Cowherd, the last followed the early season loss to FCS opponent North Dakota State. The noise quieted but arose again when Dakich opened old wounds about former basketball coach Steve Alford.

Dakich claims that he “brokered the deal” for Alford to leave Iowa and accept a job at New Mexico. The comments aren’t out of the ordinary for Dakich, a well revered college basketball analyst, but the Twitter conversation with two Hawkeye Nation writers’ aids in rivaling him with Cowherd.

The Cowherd Era

Cowherd caught the attention of Hawkeye fans during Iowa football’s undefeated regular season by labeling their beloved team as posers in the College Football Playoff race. He argued that Iowa didn’t belong in the conversation because they aren’t a historic program. To make matters worse, Colin lived it up when the Hawkeyes fell to Michigan State and in the Rose Bowl to Stanford.

Hawkeye fans didn’t take to his comments lightly. Fans, along with the local sports media, responded to Cowherd. The responses, although very valid, elicited an onslaught of Hawkeye football criticism. He went as far as naming Iowa the ‘Fake ID’ of college football.

Cowherds main talking point revolved around Iowa’s lack of out of conference strength. The opponents Iowa faced weren’t up to the standard that Cowherd says it takes to be considered a contender. The Hawkeyes schedule, in Cowherd’s words, was a “creampuff”.

The FS1 host claims he isn’t anti-Iowa but that he is anti-poser. He feels teams need to earn their place at the table by beating all of their top-level opponents. Winning all of the games isn’t enough for him, something that drove Iowa fans up the wall.

Cowherd did offer Iowa ways to steer-clear of his criticism. He says he likes team that take risk and win games against legitimate opponents. The near future doesn’t offer any big time opponents for Iowa so Cowherd will likely return as soon as the Hawkeyes step onto a national stage again.

The Challenger, Dan Dakich

Frustration with Dakich stems from his Twitter antics. Earlier this year he engaged in arguments over social media with Michigan State fans. Dakich isn’t a favorite for many Big Ten schools outside of Indiana.

Iowa fans didn’t have much against him until Saturday morning when he took to Twitter against Hawkeye Nation writers Rob Howe and Jon Miller. Howe and Miller expressed their interest in Dakich’s comments about why Alford left Iowa City. They gave their accounts and Dakich attempted to justify his.

Saturday morning on ESPN, Dakich claimed that Alford left Iowa because the fans in New Mexico offered better fan support. He said that New Mexico would draw an average crowd of 15 thousand or more.

Miller responded with the true statistics. Iowa only trialed New Mexico in attendance in Alford’s final year. Fans jumped at the opportunity to defend their local writers against Dakich, who insulted the entire fan base.

Dakich’s final defense was to resort to name-calling. He referred to Howe as a ‘fan boy’ as well as tweeting that he ‘doesn’t know the truth.’ Again the Iowa fans backed their writers.

Hawkeye fans don’t take criticism of their teams lightly but they especially don’t enjoy their support to be questioned. Howe and Miller defended the fan base by arguing Dakich’s claim that the fans made Alford leave.

Although no one may ever pass Cowherd as Iowa’s most disliked, Dakich stole the spotlight for a brief moment. As for his comments about Steve Alford, it remains to be seen how much more of the past will be brought up as his name is considered for the vacant Indiana job.

The post ESPN’s Dan Dakich Joining Cowherd in Iowa Fans Minds appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Those mid-2000s teams brought joy to Hawkeye faithful carrying on the tradition set before them from the dominating Lute Olsen and Tom Davis eras. There was that “it” factor about Iowa Basketball that gave fans something to look forward to.

As the Steve Alford era went along that excitement began to diminish. One year removed from a NCAA tournament bid as a 3-seed, Iowa found themselves as a team that failed to make a postseason tournament in 2007 and a coach that was on his way out. In hopes to quickly revitalize a program before disaster struck, Hawks brought in Butler University head coach Todd Lickliter. Fresh off his National Coach of the Year honor and building of a mid-major powerhouse, many thought Lickliter could do the same at Iowa. To put it lightly, he did not. To say his three years as Iowa’s head man was miserable would be an understatement. His combined 38-57 record left the Iowa program in shambles and an institution that in no way was appealing to recruits. A once energetic young Hawk fan, excitement for Iowa basketball was now nothing more than a distant memory.

A program that hit rock bottom, the reigns were now handed over to Siena Head Coach Fran McCaffery to try and spark life back into Iowa basketball for the 2010-2011 campaign. His first season was as expected a struggle with only eleven wins, but the next year as Fran was able to bring in his own recruits, the team looked promising. With additions of a 6’9 lengthy forward from Strongsville, Ohio that had a knack for the ball, an up and coming 6’11 freak athlete from England, and a sharp shooter from Cedar Rapids, things started to look up. In these players first year in the program the team managed a winning season and a trip to a postseason tournament for the first time in five years.

Fast forward three years later, and this squad never looked back. From an NIT berth, to an NIT title appearance, to an NCAA tournament appearance and then a win in the tournament in their final year, this senior class improved every year under Fran and has solidified life back into a program that so badly needed it. Amassing eighty-five wins, four postseason tournament appearances for the first time in nearly a decade, and many gritty performances later, Aaron White, Gabriel Olaseni, Josh Oglesby, and Kyle Denning helped build a program from the ground up and should be commemorated for their feat. On behalf of Hawkeye nation, I thank you seniors for giving us fans something to look forward to, something to talk about without rolling our eyes, and most definitely something to be proud about. Aaron, Gabe, Josh, and Kyle thank you for being Hawkeyes and bringing out that little kid excitement in us once again. Who knows, maybe I’ll find myself out in my driveway acting like I’m Aaron White hitting a game winner just like old times.

The post My Tribute to the Hawkeye Seniors appeared first on KRUI Radio.

At his introductory press conference at UCLA, Alford replied to a question regarding the Pierre Pierce case, in which the former player was arrested and charged with sexual assault in 2002. Alford repeatedly defended Pierce and criticized the victim publicly.

“Well, that was an instance that happened years ago at the University of Iowa … I did everything I was supposed to do at the University of Iowa in that situation,” Alford said Tuesday afternoon.

This is in contrast to a report that the UI released in April of 2003.

On the administration’s behalf, UI spokesman Tom Moore countered Alford’s comments late Tuesday night.

“In 2002, then interim UI President William ‘Sandy’ Boyd charged an ad hoc committee with the responsibility to investigate the university’s role in the resolution of the criminal case involving former UI student-athlete Pierre Pierce,” Moore told KRUI. “We stand by the results of the report as issued in April 2003. No additional comments will be made at this time.”

At the time of the incident, Alford bullied the victim via the on-campus Athletes in Action program while pronouncing the innocence and character of Pierce. These assertions — along with allowing Pierce to remain on scholarship — prompted people to rally outside Carver-Hawkeye Arena during the early part of the 2002-03 season.

This type of public outcry eased, but frustration mounted amongst the fan base even up until Alford left Iowa for New Mexico in 2007. Pierce was eventually dismissed from the team, but due to a separate incident — his second arrest while playing for the Hawkeyes. He spent 11 months in prison after being released on probation.

The school’s investigation in 2003 revealed many concerns regarding Alford’s behavior.

“While Coach Alford believed he was acting as he had been directed in making the statements he made to the media, one set of those statements — confirming his certainty in Pierce’s innocence — implied that he disbelieved and discredited the claims of the student victim,” the report states, “and his words were perceived as reflecting the insensitivity to issues of sexual assault and sexual violence.

“In future, faculty, coaches, and other personnel should be given adequate instruction in media discourse.”

UCLA hired Alford on March 30 after the coach spent six years at UNM. He was at Southwest Missouri State from 1995-99 before his stint at Iowa.

The post UI stands by report in response to Alford comments appeared first on KRUI Radio.