Archie is part of the problem created by Lickliter and not part of the solution. You don't bring in a JC player as a project. A project is a freshman like Earl or Jespen. You bring in JC players to make an immediate impact like Cartwright. Cartwright is Iowa's best all round ball player.
Ralph Miller brought in Chris Percival, Sam Williams, John Johnson & Freddie Brown. Schultz brought in Ricky Williams, Candy LaPrince & the number one JC player in the country in James Speed. To be competitive, Lute immediately brought in three JC players.
Raveling brought in Kevin Gamble. Though, Gamble never saw the light of day under Raveling, he was the best player on the very talented '87 team. Over half of Iowa's regular seasons losses that year occurred when Gamble was out of the line-up.
Davis brought in Val Barnes.
You don't bring in JC players like Bawinkle, Davis & Archie. But when your coaching staff has absolutely no experience recruiting Division I players & the head coach believes that you can't get great talent; that is what Iowa was left with.