Where Beane, whom Pitt played in the 2011 film adaptation of Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball," used advanced metrics and statistical analysis to better scout players and help the Oakland A's compete with large-market baseball teams, Iowa's evaluation process is a bit different from its peers.
Former Iowa recruiting coordinator Eric Johnson, who recently left the program after serving as school's recruiting coordinator for 10 years, said the Hawkeyes noticed there was "something different" about how Midwest players reacted in games when compared to players from outside of the region. That helped Iowa win a lot of ball games with players who were a half-inch shorter or a tenth of a second slower than their Big Ten competition that featured rosters full of four-star prospects from outside of the region.
"Anytime you're a state school, you owe it to that state to start in-state first and then recruit outwards within your region," Johnson said.
Johnson added: "You need to at least be thorough in your state and the surrounding states because those kids bleed that school's colors. They're grown up following those teams. When it gets down to the nitty-gritty, those kids are going to fight a little bit harder to be successful for that local school.
"Then you have the guys from places like Illinois, and now especially Ohio and Indiana, that were overlooked because Ohio State and Notre Dame are recruiting on such a national level. Those kids play so much harder because they have a chip on their shoulder. Ohio State and Notre Dame told them they weren't good enough to play there, and recruits like to prove they were wrong."
