DeCourcy's opinion on Iowa hoops

[DodgerHawki]

Heard Mike DeCourcy on the radio here in KC this morning. Most of his appearance focused on Kansas/K-State/Mizzou as you would expect, but the final question was about Iowa, Alford/New Mexico.

His opinion was that Alford handled things poorly at Iowa, but that Iowa urged him out the door right at the point in time where he had rectified his biggest mistake at Iowa by upgrading his assistant staff. Now that is paying dividends for Alford at UNM.

Then Iowa compounded the problem by hiring a good coach (Lickliter) who is in way over his head as a recruiter in a major conference. He said Lickliter is a good man and a good coach, but that is not enough in a major conference. You have to be able to recruit to win in big-time leagues. DeCourcy was shocked that the Iowa administration did not require Lickliter to go outside his circle and get an assistant with instant recruiting ties. He was not optimistic that the Lickliter era will ultimately succeed at Iowa.

 

[jmarkhawk]

I concur with DeCourcey except for this one glaring part........Alford NEVER rectified anything when he was at Iowa!

#1 - He treated people like p!$$
#2 - He lied about the Mizzou job
#3 - He played favorites
#4 - 2 words.......Pierre Pierce

But I will agree with DeCourcey.......and I said it the day he was hired - Lickliter was the wrong hire and a change should be made at the end of this season!

 

[imported_ankle23]

I concur with DeCourcey except for this one glaring part........Alford NEVER rectified anything when he was at Iowa!

#1 - He treated people like p!$$
#2 - He lied about the Mizzou job
#3 - He played favorites
#4 - 2 words.......Pierre Pierce

But I will agree with DeCourcey.......and I said it the day he was hired - Lickliter was the wrong hire and a change should be made at the end of this season!

he said he rectified his assistant coaches, and if you look at that fact and compare them from when he came to iowa as compared to when he left iowa, i would have to agree with that point.

 

[DodgerHawki]

For a national guy...

I concur with DeCourcey except for this one glaring part........Alford NEVER rectified anything when he was at Iowa!

#1 - He treated people like p!$$
#2 - He lied about the Mizzou job
#3 - He played favorites
#4 - 2 words.......Pierre Pierce

But I will agree with DeCourcey.......and I said it the day he was hired - Lickliter was the wrong hire and a change should be made at the end of this season!

Decourcy had a very good overall understanding of the Iowa position, and his opinion is widely respected nationally. He did not go into all the Pierre Pierce thing, which is unimportant for non-Iowa fans. Points 1-3 are not relevant.

Decourcy's larger point was that if you are coaching in a premier conference you had better either be a top-notch recruiter, or hire a staff who has deep recruiting ties who can get you players you need to succeed.

 

[TurnipTruck]

I don't know who this DeCourcy guy is but it's painfully apparent that he doesn't know jack about Iowa basketball. This team has some serious talent. I'd put a team of Tucker, Payne, Gatens, Cole and Cougill up against anyone. I like our chances. Tucker is a legit star, Gatens is one of the top players in the Big Ten and we have three great freshmen. This is it! Go Hawks!

 

[FreddyBrown]

Re: For a national guy...

Decourcy knows his stuff but I don't agree with him on either side of this analysis. With regard to Lickliter, I don't think an AD hiring a recent national Coach of the Year was in a position to tell that coach he couldn't choose his own staff right out of the gate. I wouldn't be surprised if Barta has had conversations with Lick since about recruiting, but they seem to have somewhat righted the ship with the 2010 class, and it would be highly unusual for Barta to be dictating staff changes based on recruiting at this point.

The bigger issue at the moment in recruiting is Lickliter's judgment as to what to emphasize in player selection, and that's something that AD's really don't meddle in. As an AD you can't start telling your head coach what kind of player to target in recruiting. If things get to that point the AD is showing no faith in the coach's judgment and might as well go ahead and run him out.

I think the only possible staff change Barta will be concerning himself with in the foreseeable future is at the head coaching position. The 2011 class may only consist of a single recruit at this point, so that's not a huge concern for an AD. Lick either gets something done by year four, or we may have a new HC and a new staff will take over the recruiting for the 2012 class.

 

[MisterHappy]

Mike Decourcy writes about college basketball for The Sporting News. I'm not sure if he puts in the hours like Turnip or Spank but he knows hoops.

 

[hawkeyescott]

I don't know who this DeCourcy guy is but it's painfully apparent that he doesn't know jack about Iowa basketball. This team has some serious talent. I'd put a team of Tucker, Payne, Gatens, Cole and Cougill up against anyone. I like our chances. Tucker is a legit star, Gatens is one of the top players in the Big Ten and we have three great freshmen. This is it! Go Hawks!

LMAO!!!

I would too as long as those teams are Bowling Green and Prairie View and not UTSA or Duquesne.

 

[busabus114]

I don't know who this DeCourcy guy is but it's painfully apparent that he doesn't know jack about Iowa basketball. This team has some serious talent. I'd put a team of Tucker, Payne, Gatens, Cole and Cougill up against anyone. I like our chances. Tucker is a legit star, Gatens is one of the top players in the Big Ten and we have three great freshmen. This is it! Go Hawks!

I cant decide if all of your ridiculous posts are serious or jokes. You cant truly believe Tucker is a star right? Hard to be a star when you only do one thing (shoot 3's) and you dont even do that well

 

[smhawk]

We still were gaining momentum towards this slump when Alford left. We just didnt have a very atheletic team his last two years. Wasn't exactly a huge Seth Gorney fan :\

 

[JHawkI]

I cant decide if all of your ridiculous posts are serious or jokes. You cant truly believe Tucker is a star right? Hard to be a star when you only do one thing (shoot 3's) and you dont even do that well

Turnip is sarcastic-man. Everything he says...he means the opposite.

AS for DeCourcy...he is absolutely dead on in his analysis.
Barta cannot tell a coach who to hire, but it is his responsiblity to sit down with the prospective new 8.4 million dollar hire and have him lay out his exact recruiting program ,with a solid explanation how his staff and himself can achieve immediate results.
That is, if Barta understood the challenges of the Iowa job,which primarily is attracting top talent from out of state.

Honestly, I think Barta bought into the negative hype about SA and assumed that he was such a bad coach that a COY from Butler could waltz in here with a loras guy and a couple of novice assistants and deliver the goods,no problem.

SA did the same thing. I cannot believe that Bowlsby did not counsel Barta about the importance of the staff...another easy example was Mcdermott just down the road...early issues on recruiting...adjust and add an experienced recruiter...and boom, talent in town pronto.

Recruiting is at least 50% of this job,now.

 

[OPHawkJDGolfer]

I heard it too, and I think the initial characteriztion is a bit more negative (but only a slight, little bit) than it sounded on the radio, but he certainly felt that Iowa was coming off a having a head man that was a coach and not a recuirter and they needed a recruiter, which Lick is not. DeCourcey's thesis was Alford added the recruiting aspect by hiring Neal and they were turning the corner ...

I think a main isuse not addressed was the dwindling attendance and lack of public support for Alford and his program ... granted, winning generally cures all, and if he really would have turned a corner it might have come around, but he had dug himself a deep hole.

Frankly, I think one there is a very legitimate argument that the basketball program by has been mismanaged the Athletic Dept. since Tom Davis had 1 year left on his contract ...

 

[JHawkI]

Attendance did rise slightly the last 3 years of Alford from the bottom in 04.
It was still lagging around 12.3k but it beats the heck outta 10k.

I think the winning would have brought more fans in...if they won.

 

[busabus114]

We still were gaining momentum towards this slump when Alford left. We just didnt have a very atheletic team his last two years. Wasn't exactly a huge Seth Gorney fan :\

We won 25 games and the big ten tourney in Alfords 2nd to last season....not exactly a slump. Man, we are so far from 25 wins its scary

 

[jmarkhawk]

THE CLUE is in his name......he fell off the Turnip Truck!!!!

TT's posts are epic fail - kinda like spank saying lickliter would be BTCOTY!!!!

 

[bws258]

blah blah blah

you've earned a spot in my ignore list, and I've only seen 5 of your posts, that's gotta be a record or something

 

[JonDMiller]

I said in early March of 2006 that I felt like Alford was getting it, and I had hoped that Indiana did not hire him away, but I could understand that.

..and then the Mizzou flirtation, and I lost it and was done with him at that point

 

[NewMexHawk]

Decourcy hit the Iowa problem dead on as an outside observer...and many posters have many of the other problems that Iowa faces as inside observers.

Barta came in and really had no clue to the real problems in the Iowa BB program and I don't think he still does.

Lickliter nor his green assistants simply do not have the ability to recruit the players needed at this level and it is painfully apparent except to those who do not want to face it. The longer the man is here the deeper the Iowa program sinks...The quicker Lickliter and his staff is gone the quicker Barta (and I don't even know if he has the ability) can bring someone in who CAN recruit at this level.

Barta might be in way over HIS head...maybe it is time to be looking for another Bump Elliott?

 

[Sweetriver]

We won 25 games and the big ten tourney in Alfords 2nd to last season....not exactly a slump. Man, we are so far from 25 wins its scary

Yeah, but Alford did that entirely on the backs of three Iowa boys in Haluska, Horner and Brunner, it wasn't his recruiting. And it was Alford's one shiny year out of 6. The next year we were again a noncontender that didn't even get an NIT bid. When he left, the cubbard was bare. I think DeCourcy's opinions may not be exactly right, but they hold a lot of truth.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

Yeah, but Alford did that entirely on the backs of three Iowa boys in Haluska, Horner and Brunner, it wasn't his recruiting. And it was Alford's one shiny year out of 6. The next year we were again a noncontender that didn't even get an NIT bid. When he left, the cubbard was bare. I think DeCourcy's opinions may not be exactly right, but they hold a lot of truth.

This is pretty much true.. The heart of that 2005-06 team was the result of a particularly strong Iowan recruiting class. Not to mention, if Crazy Larry doesn't get himself canned, I'm not sure Haluska ever wears a Hawkeye jersey. That was a definite break for Alford, and you've got to figure the 2006-07 team WITHOUT Haluska (20+ PPG that year) would've been pretty dreadful. That 2005-06 team was definitely the exception to the rule that the Alford era was pretty uninspiring.

I have spent alot of time lately actually defending Alford in terms of where the program is TODAY, but the Lickliter era I think has pretty quickly made us forget exactly how mediocre Alford really was here, 2005-06 excluded.