Johnny Orr Court?
- Thread starter cyowan
- Start date
Naming the court has been done so many times I think its kinda lame also. Bill Fennelly is the only person who would be worthy of that honor. He is the Bill Snyder of Women's College Basketball.
Pollard has said that the Big XII logo isn't on the court because after the flooding in Hilton in 2010 the athletic department needed a new basketball court and with the uncertainty of the Big XII at the time they decided not to put the logo on the court.
I will disagree with this. Johnny Orr made national headlines when he left Michigan to come to Iowa State. The program Johnny Orr inherited in basketball had a far leaner history than the program Dan McCarney inherited. Johnny Orr got Iowa State back to the NCAA tournament after a 40 year absence! His teams were competitive with any team in the country at Hilton Coliseum....this was even true during the down years. His upsets at Hilton Coliseum were against the top teams in the conference and country. Hilton Coliseum was cited by various publications as one of the best home courts in the country by numerous national publications. His win against Big 10 champion Michigan to go to the round of 16 was a far bigger win from a national perspective than Dan McCarney ever had. Jeff Grayer, Jeff Hornacek, and Fred Hoibergs jerseys are all hanging in the rafters at Iowa State. Johnny had to create and build a program that could develop such stars. The younger people on here do not realize that Larry Brown, arguably one of the best basketball coaches ever, along with Danny Manning a national championship MVP, "never" won a game at Hilton Coliseum. Johnny Orr created what we all enjoy today. Whether or not the floor should be named for him is another debate, but I just felt compelled to state that his accomplishments at Iowa State far surpass those of Dan McCarney, though I recognize he did many great things for ISU football as well. Go Cyclones!
I think Johnny has already been fittingly honored, but that comparison does a disservice to what Johnny meant to ISU basketball. We went from nowhere to mattering, and he built the excitement and filled Hilton. Think there was Hilton Magic before Johnny? Nope.
On behalf of the other posters here...no one is interested in the details of when you achieve an erection, no matter how rare an achievement it may be.
:no::no:
Personally, I've never been a fan of naming just the playing surface when the building also has a name (Sec Taylor Field at Principal Park, etc.). I despise the Mediacom Court in Carver, though that's admittedly got zero sentimental value. But it just doesn't roll off the tongue for me to say, for example, Tom Davis Court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, or Chris Kingsbury Quart at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Orr is definitely a guy worth honoring in some permanent way, but I don't feel naming the court after him is the way to go.
Orr is definitely a guy worth honoring in some permanent way, but I don't feel naming the court after him is the way to go.
very ignorant post. I could write a few paragraphs about why but I will keep it short. Do you realize they play 3 to 4 more regular season games now then they did in Orr's era? The Big 8 from 1984 to 1994 was a consistently very tough basketball conference. Many of the years 6 of the 8 teams were getting NCAA invites, including one year where 7 of the 8 teams got in. You can throw Orr's first 4 years out, he had to build that program up from nothing. Once he got it going, he took ISU to the NCCA tournament in 6 of his last 9 years on the job, don't you think that is pretty good? Actually it would have been 7 of 9 had his star center did not get hit by a train in his last year. I will go one step further and say it could have been 7 of his last 10 years had he not done the selfless thing and step down to give the new coach a year with 5 starters and two main backups coming back as seniors, and this allowed the new coach a whole year to recruit. Through his connections he was able to bring in good non conference competition from the Big 10 to play at Hilton. Most importantly he brought an interest, passion, and excitement to the program.
Johnny made all this happen, ask Fred ISU needs to do something smart for once, make it his court now
Not to detract from the excitement when Fred hits the floor, because it's great, but when Johnny hit the floor, pumping his fists to Heeerrreee's Johnny and the Tonight Show music, it was one of the coolest entrances in college basketball.
Little know fact, but Eddie Sutton has 2 courts named after him. The floor at GIA and the local DUI court.
Comparing Johnny Orr to Dan McCarney is ridiculous.
Johnny Orr made ISU legit enough to go out with success, and allow the guys after him to build on it.
Dan left scorched earth in his wake.
Johnny Orr made ISU legit enough to go out with success, and allow the guys after him to build on it.
Dan left scorched earth in his wake.
Absolutely correct. Johnny turned ISU basketball around while Dan went full circle with ISU football. Dan turned it around and then turned it around again on his way out the door and gave it a pile driver straight into the ground. The burning wreckage of Dan McCarney's ISU football program is what we refer to now as the Gene Chizik era.
I don't want to turn this thread into a McCarney debate, but saying he brought it full circle is a bit much. The way he left it wasn't close to as bad as it was when he came to ISU. There was a much better foundation for a quicker recovery when he left.
