The Hlog

Iowa Has Company in Its Basketball Misery

Iowa takes an 0-3 Big Ten record into Saturday night's game against Michigan State, with 0-4 appearing to be the likely mark after the game.

This is something new and not fun at Iowa. The Hawkeyes haven't been Final Four material for a long time, but they have seldom been as bad as they were in their 79-48 loss at Ohio State Wednesday night.

But it's not just Iowa that has introduced a new coach to a less-than-spectacular roster with predictably mediocre results.

Kentucky, under Billy Gillespie, was 6-7 going into Saturday. That's Kentucky.

Saint Louis, under Rick Majerus, lost at George Washington Thursday night by the ungodly score of 49-20. That's a record-low for points in the NCAA's shot clock era.

Michigan, under John Beilein, was 0-3 in the Big Ten and 4-11 overall as of Saturday morning.

Like Iowa's Todd Lickliter, Gillespie, Majerus and Beilein have all done significant things in major-college coaching. None of the four walked into a situation with the kind of talent to do significant things in their first years at their new schools. All are bound to do better in Year 2 and beyond.

First-year New Mexico Coach Steve Alford, meanwhile, has a team that woke up Saturday with a 14-2 record.

There's some sort of irony there, but I'll leave it to someone else to determine.


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