Iowa baseball: Program turnaround has been amazing

The Iowa baseball program has been respectable under head coach Rick Heller. Prior to his arrival, the team hadn’t been to the postseason since 1990.

Look at the Iowa baseball program prior to the 2014 season and you will see a team that struck lightning in a bottle twice under then head coach Jack Dahm. Prior to him, Scott Broghamer lasted just six seasons with no winning records to show for it. And prior to him, Duane Banks, who the Hawkeyes home field is named after, was at the helm for 27+ seasons.

Banks lead the team to two NCAA Regionals and one NCAA College World Series appearance. He was essentially the Hayden Fry or the Kirk Ferentz for the baseball team. However, after Banks retired from his position, the baseball team just had not been the same. It’s difficult to follow in the footsteps of a coach who accumulated a total record of 901-585-4, but the team was a regular in the bottom half of the Big Ten standings.

I specifically recall going to a handful of games when I was in school there. All tickets were free and the games were poorly attended. While the Iowa baseball program was never going to be an elite program like an LSU or a North Carolina, the team was downright unwatchable.

That is until Rick Heller became the head coach for Iowa. Heller spent his previous four seasons at Indiana State under the same title. He has racked up an overall record of 202-127 and a conference record of 81-57 in his six seasons with the Hawkeyes. Heller’s Hawks are currently fourth in the Big Ten standings with five games to go in this season.

The team has made the NCAA Regionals in both 2015 and 2017 and are currently projected as a number three seed for the NCAA tournament. In the regular season, the Hawkeyes are 5-1 against teams ranked in the Top 25 this season. Under Heller, the Hawkeyes have had 20 guys get selected in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft in five seasons.

In the previous 14 seasons, the Hawkeyes had 21 guys get drafted with only Jason White selected before the sixth round in 2007. Since Rick Heller has taken over the Hawkeyes have never had a losing season and has accumulated at least 30 wins in all six years.

"“That this team has showed up and played hard every day and found ways to get it done when adversity struck, which it has a lot this year (is big),” Heller said. “A lot of guys have stepped up and played and came through. It is a good mark for us to get that 30th win … A good benchmark for our program, that even when we lose a lot of guys like we did last year and there are some things happen that you can’t control, that our program is bigger than anything. We just keep moving.” – via The Gazette"

Iowa will close out the season with a makeup game against Western Illinois and a three-game series at Maryland before starting the Big Ten Tournament.