Thursday, April 23, 2009

FOOTBALL: Did you know Bobby Bell is the "Greatest Defensive Player of All-Time"?

Well, according to Tim Brewster he is.




OK, Bell was good (strike that - GREAT), but to say the best defensive player of all-time? Really? Put down the juice, Brew.

Even if Brewster meant "Greatest [Minnesota Golden Gopher] Defensive Player of All-Time", I still would call him on it. Hell, I'd put Bronko Nagurski ahead of Bell. Sure, he made his living on offense, but he was a beast on defense, as well.

One thing is for certain, Brewster is... uh... excited...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

MEN'S BB: Steve Alford Tries to Spin, Ends Up Doing a 360

Props to Hockey04 for the link to the story, topingyou for pointing out the quote.

FoxSports reports on Alford's incentives.

Forget the fact that former Iowa Hawkeye Mens Basketball coach, Steve Alford, gets paid $10,000 for each time his team beats a Top 20 team. Instead, check out the way he tries to spin the academic successes of his players.

"Our academic situation has taken a 360-degree turn and all three seniors graduate (this spring), and Ro (junior Roman Martinez) will graduate next year. So we've really made a lot of strides in the areas I was hired."


Really? A 360-degree turn? Perhaps Steve needs to head back to grammar school and figure out where a 360-degrees puts you.

Derp.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

MEN'S BB: Who Is Iowa's Primary Target for 2009 Now?

With Malcolm Armstead likely out of the mix after "postponing" his visit to Iowa City, who does Iowa look at to bring in with one of their three outstanding scholarships available? By all accounts, Armstead's trip to St. John's went extremely well; couple that with a lack of communication between the staff and MA and things don't look too good for Iowa on that front.

Iowa needs to grab a backcourt player this year. I realize the staff doesn't want to just pick a warm body for the sake of filling a scholarship, but the backcourt needs some help. Not necessarily a point guard (Payne and Tucker can both handle that position), but either a 1 or 2. I don't think Iowa can really compete with only three scholarship guards on the team. Besides Armstead, I don't know of anyone else in the 2009 class that has a current scholarship.

One name floating around is Kaylon Williams, but as I've said before - he isn't ready for Iowa and Iowa isn't ready for him. A possible destination could be Kirkwood - maybe after a year there, the staff will give him another look and vice versa.

Dyricus Simms-Edwards visited Iowa last year and the staff liked what they saw. He was banged up last summer, so he didn't play much on the AAU circuit, but from what I've read on recruiting sites and blogs, he has legit game.

Kierre Greenwood's name was brought up when New Creations played SCC in game this past season. The Iowa staff was down there to look at some recruits and ended up bring impressed with his game. First hand accounts of his game seem to be encouraging. I don't know anything about this kid other than what I have Googled in the past - there wasn't much talk about him among anyone I have talked to.

So the short answer to who Iowa is recruiting at PG? Who the hell knows?

Thursday, April 09, 2009

MEN'S BB: As expected, 2009 PG Cully Payne Commits to Iowa

Rob Howe has confirmed that Cully Payne has verbally committed to the Iowa Hawkeye basketball program.

Iowa fills a much need roster spot with a much needed PG.

Iowa is still pursuing Malcolm Armstead, who will be making a visit to Iowa shortly.