DI Alford story

[Jjgoiowa11]

We were a stepping stone for Alfred, it was obvious and he wasnt too bright but come on..Lickliter was horrible. They installed those black curtains during todds era to come down and try to make carver not look as empty as it was.

I get it..alot of people hated steve and he did leave the cupboard pretty bare towards the end but if that was bare then what did Lickliter leave us/give us?? I talked w/ a few bball players and fball players alot that met Todd and they said he was the most awkward coach theyve ever spoke to...they were currently playing for him/iowa..

 

[Section136]

The real impact to the program happened with the NEXT HIRE, his name TODD LICKLITER. Let it go people!!

Like x1000.

 

[Section136]

Your crusade isn't going to get anyone to let it go. Give it up.

Alford's actions fractured the fanbase, which compounded the impact Lickliter had. He didn't walk into a very good situation.

Tork is right - YOU need to let go of YOUR crusdade.

You can say all you want about SA recruiting good players, but the truth is that in the end, he left the cupboard bare for that next hire. That shows bad recruiting. Why? Because, IMHO, people were appalled by his behavior during the PP incident and put off by his arrogance. And kids sensed that. So WHEN that next hire was made, there was nothing there. Was Lick a good hire? No. Did the program continue to it's downward spiral? Yes. But if the program had been left in better shape, it MIGHT not have happened.

You will NEVER convince me that SA isn't responsible for the dead period and that he didn't start the decline. And I'm sure there are a number of people on this forum that feel the same way.

Just my $.02 .. ..

GO HAWKS!!!

How long is the crusade against Alford going to go on?

We are more updated on his happenings than anything else currently related to the Iowa basketball program. He did a poor job at Iowa and has been gone for over 6 years. LET IT GO!

 

[tm3308]

How long is the crusade against Alford going to go on?

We are more updated on his happenings than anything else currently related to the Iowa basketball program. He did a poor job at Iowa and has been gone for over 6 years. LET IT GO!

It'll begin to fade once the program gets back to regularly making the NCAA tournament, IMO.

 

[Section136]

It'll begin to fade once the program gets back to regularly making the NCAA tournament, IMO.

I don't think we will stop hearing about Alford until he is out of coaching. Pathetic really.

 

[MisterLucky]

Lickliter perpetuated the perfect storm that Alford had imposed on the Iowa program. You had a disillusioned fan base, falling attendance and general disinterest surrounding Iowa Basketball. Then you hire a man who not only couldn't relate to young basketball players, but had no desire to interact with the fanbase or put in the work to recruit players that could compete in the Big Ten. Looking back, it still amazes me that any coach could have done what Coach McCaffery has done to rebuild all aspects of the program in such a short period of time.

 

[sportstalent]

The real impact to the program happened with the NEXT HIRE, his name TODD LICKLITER. Let it go people!!

While you are partially correct, Iowa made the wrong hire and if Lickliter was as much of a trainwreck to Iowa basketball Fran wouldn't have been able to recover as quickly as he has.

Alford threw integrity and any other positive adjective you can label a program with. There were multiple arrests, transfers, players not getting into school, accepting of anyone in the Spring signing period and bad relationships with the fanbase. He did everything wrong and if Lickliter would have had a reputation for building programs, would have set Lickliter up to fail, but he didn't, Iowa's mistake...they corrected that mistake.

Iowa basketball became a toxic environment under Lickliter, but that is not something that just happens in three years. Steve Alford may have won games, but he alienated himself more that Lickliter ever could have with the single act of proclaiming PP was innocent and then didn't back down from it until a decade later.

Keep this in mind, Alford graduated less than 10 freshman during his tenure, that is something that is absolutely appalling and if you have no problems with that then I am sorry.

 

[sportstalent]

Lickliter perpetuated the perfect storm that Alford had imposed on the Iowa program. You had a disillusioned fan base, falling attendance and general disinterest surrounding Iowa Basketball. Then you hire a man who not only couldn't relate to young basketball players, but had no desire to interact with the fanbase or put in the work to recruit players that could compete in the Big Ten. Looking back, it still amazes me that any coach could have done what Coach McCaffery has done to rebuild all aspects of the program in such a short period of time.

Agree here, Lickliter was bad no doubt about it. I have said for a long time that Iowa was the worst job of the Power Six conference times at the time Fran arrived. There was so much wrong, but all it took to right the ship was the right hire, something Barta failed at with Lickliter, but here is the thing at least he saw it and didn't keep him for 6 or 7 years, he took care of his mistake.
The lasting damage that would have been done to Iowa basketball could have been far worse, but Barta hit a home run with Fran. Fran is an honest guy who wants to be at Iowa, something I am not sure Alford ever really wanted and Lickliter wasn't around long enough, but from everything that I have read is he just didn't understand how critical it was not to be a bump on a log.
I hold no ill will towards Lickliter and as odd as it sounds, it is true, he is a decent human being, but he can't coach Big Ten basketball and can't rebuild programs. It is what it is. Alford's actions speak for themselves and with all the offseason issues Iowa had every year, it put a black eye on Iowa and until Iowa gets back to being a ranked team and in the NCAA people won't let it go.

 

[tm3308]

I don't think we will stop hearing about Alford until he is out of coaching. Pathetic really.

Just think about WHY we're still hearing about Alford. Depressing fact or not, he is the last coach to get us to the NCAA tournament. For nearly the last 15 years, Alford is the standard bearer of Iowa basketball success. But he had a great many flaws, both on a personal and basketball level. And because there has been little positive development (NCAA berths) since he left, people focus on it. When we get back to being a regular, people will have much better things to concern themselves with and Alford can fade in the rearview mirror.

I actually talked with Greg Brunner yesterday, and he said he felt like no matter what they did on the court, Pierce will always be their legacy. I don't think that's entirely true, although that is (rightfully) Alford's legacy here.

 

[SonofaSailor]

I smell a movie, HN Productions and KOK entertainment present Tork: A kid destined for greatness...shuns offers from SI and ESPN to return home to Corydon, Iowa. Takes over the failing newspaper in the small dying Iowa town...and because of his care and love for the town brings the schools sports teams, as well as the town itself back to it's feet...during the process he runs into Amy (Jennifer Lawrence), a high school acquaintance. The two fall madly in love and get married. The movie ends with the school winning the state title on a fake punt.

Sounds like a rough idea for screenplay...who on HN has camera experience?

 

[atomicblue224]

I really am not sure I want to go to a bigger paper; I'm a small town kid at heart. Even Iowa City, after living here for 5 years, is not really for me. So taking over and running a small town paper, hell maybe even in Corydon, would be fine with me. I love covering high school sports, and ran myself ragged driving home every Friday night this fall to cover Wayne's games on my own time and dime.

The only thing I think I would miss in a really small town are the in-depth profiles that I can write at the DI. In a town like Corydon, there really isn't a lot you can say about a kid that everybody doesn't already know. But those stories are a blast to write, and I'm not sure I want to go through the daily grind of covering high-profile sports for the rest of my life.

Come to Burlington Brah!

 

[okeefe4prez]

That was just in reference to the fact that I will likely have very few, if any more chances, to objectively bash Steve Alford. As for the "fitting" part, I mean out of all the countless possibilities for what would be my last story, it just happened to be this one. And the people I grew up with know just how much I despise Alford.

I don't think that op-ed was objective at all. That was an op-ed, not a story. You didn't get anyone who backed Alford to comment. You see, the issue Alford apologized about was merely that he followed the quaint, centuries old Anglo-American tradition of the accused being innocent until proven guilty, though not worded precisely the proper way. We all know that that idea has been tossed out the window and we saw it firsthand with the incident involving the Duke Lacrosse team. The rape victim center does not want these quaint presumptions to exist, they will fight like hell to ensure that they are quashed and you played right into it.

Now I don't want to put words into the Alford-bashers' mouths here, but from the vitriol I've read on this board and others, the gravest mistake of Alford was that he let Pierce back on the team following conviction. I don't see him apologizing for that. The whole thing seemed like when you do five things wrong and your mom makes you apologize and you apologize for one of the least bad things you did.

 

[HawkeyeShane]

You're better than Corydon, Tork.

You take that back you sumbitch! -Corydon

 

[HawkeyeShane]

While that would be awesome, grad school is not in my future. That takes money, and those pesky little things known as good grades. Mine took a pretty big hit once I started writing at the DI last year. Went from a 3.56 and the dean's list for the spring of 2010 to posting a 2.6 or worse in the three semesters since.

We're all staring at the elephant in the room...at least I am anyway...does your decision have less to do with money and grades and big paper/little paper and have more to do with Jamie Printy and the super hot soccer babe both being gone after this year???

 

[okeefe4prez]

I really am not sure I want to go to a bigger paper; I'm a small town kid at heart. Even Iowa City, after living here for 5 years, is not really for me. So taking over and running a small town paper, hell maybe even in Corydon, would be fine with me. I love covering high school sports, and ran myself ragged driving home every Friday night this fall to cover Wayne's games on my own time and dime.

The only thing I think I would miss in a really small town are the in-depth profiles that I can write at the DI. In a town like Corydon, there really isn't a lot you can say about a kid that everybody doesn't already know. But those stories are a blast to write, and I'm not sure I want to go through the daily grind of covering high-profile sports for the rest of my life.

Tork, please don't take this the wrong way, but if you are a month or so out of from graduation, you gotta get a plan in place ASAP. I don't know that the plan should involve Corydon. Maybe a month in Corydon, tops, unless you can land something. My guess is that the Corydon newspaper isn't a career for anyone, but rather a hobby, as I doubt it kicks off enough cash for even one person to work on it full time. If you want that to be your hobby and you want to live in Corydon, cool, but start pounding the pavement today to find a job down there. I've never been down there, but I suspect it maybe has a car dealer, a Casey's, a courthouse, a John Deere dealer, maybe a few grain elevators - can you get a decent job at one of those places or the other places in Corydon? You could probably do okay in sales down there as you'll wind up being one of the big guys in town, but then when you write for the newspaper, you won't be able to say anything bad about anyone because you won't want to hurt your day job. Query whether you want that sort of muzzle on your reporting.

If through some miracle the newspaper can support a person and you are hellbent on working there and you are confident you could make a long term career out of it, I would strongly suggest you try to find something in a bigger town where you will have an editor for at least a year. No one knows jack crap when they graduate from college and on the job training is absolutely critical -- get a few years of training by a real editor (if that even still exists and you can, I don't know) before you take a crack at something in Corydon.

In addition, what is your girl situation? If you don't have a long term girlfriend who you think you are going to marry, I honestly wouldn't recommend moving to Corydon right out of college because I bet there are very few single women there and nothing will make you miserable like being 26 and going on year 2 or 3 without a steady girlfriend because every girl who stayed in Corydon was married when she was 19.

If your personal economic situation relegates you to moving back into your old bedroom with your family, that's cool, I ain't gonna judge, but I'm just saying flying away from the nest for a few years when you're in your early 20's is a great thing to try because you may never have the chance to do it again.

 

[CAARHawk]

Don't be so sure.

Believe me .. what I've read from Tork is good stuff. He could survive in a larger town. Maybe even a bigger city. So please don't take this wrong.

Tork .. .. You're perfect for Corydon. Why? Because that's where you WANT to be. Small town newspapers are dying. It takes guys like you to want to make them survive.

I say go for it!! The chance may not be there 5 years from now.

GO HAWKS!!!

They are dying for the same reason the telegraph, 8 Track Tape, analog TV, and CDs died. We don't need somebody to try to make them survive. We need someone to come up with a better alternative.

 

[MisterLucky]

Just think about WHY we're still hearing about Alford. Depressing fact or not, he is the last coach to get us to the NCAA tournament. For nearly the last 15 years, Alford is the standard bearer of Iowa basketball success. But he had a great many flaws, both on a personal and basketball level. And because there has been little positive development (NCAA berths) since he left, people focus on it. When we get back to being a regular, people will have much better things to concern themselves with and Alford can fade in the rearview mirror.

I actually talked with Greg Brunner yesterday, and he said he felt like no matter what they did on the court, Pierce will always be their legacy. I don't think that's entirely true, although that is (rightfully) Alford's legacy here.

I guess I would take issue with this statement. In spite of the fact that Alford wracked up some wins doing his tenure here. I NEVER associated him with basketball success at Iowa. He was hired to take us to that famous "next level" and one NCAA victory in eight years is hardly a stellar accomplishment, particularly in light of the Davis era. The other two NCAA appearances he managed were utter disappointments (the beat down physically by Cincinnati and the legendary meltdown against Northwestern St.). Overall, if I had to employ a singular word for the Alford era, it would be underwhelming.

 

[tm3308]

I guess I would take issue with this statement. In spite of the fact that Alford wracked up some wins doing his tenure here. I NEVER associated him with basketball success at Iowa. He was hired to take us to that famous "next level" and one NCAA victory in eight years is hardly a stellar accomplishment, particularly in light of the Davis era. The other two NCAA appearances he managed were utter disappointments (the beat down physically by Cincinnati and the legendary meltdown against Northwestern St.). Overall, if I had to employ a singular word for the Alford era, it would be underwhelming.

I meant that in the 15-year period, meaning he's been the standard bearer in relation to Fran and Lickliter. Obvisouly, he's not the standard bearer for Iowa basketball in its entirety.

 

[tm3308]

Tork, please don't take this the wrong way, but if you are a month or so out of from graduation, you gotta get a plan in place ASAP. I don't know that the plan should involve Corydon. Maybe a month in Corydon, tops, unless you can land something. My guess is that the Corydon newspaper isn't a career for anyone, but rather a hobby, as I doubt it kicks off enough cash for even one person to work on it full time. If you want that to be your hobby and you want to live in Corydon, cool, but start pounding the pavement today to find a job down there. I've never been down there, but I suspect it maybe has a car dealer, a Casey's, a courthouse, a John Deere dealer, maybe a few grain elevators - can you get a decent job at one of those places or the other places in Corydon? You could probably do okay in sales down there as you'll wind up being one of the big guys in town, but then when you write for the newspaper, you won't be able to say anything bad about anyone because you won't want to hurt your day job. Query whether you want that sort of muzzle on your reporting.

If through some miracle the newspaper can support a person and you are hellbent on working there and you are confident you could make a long term career out of it, I would strongly suggest you try to find something in a bigger town where you will have an editor for at least a year. No one knows jack crap when they graduate from college and on the job training is absolutely critical -- get a few years of training by a real editor (if that even still exists and you can, I don't know) before you take a crack at something in Corydon.

In addition, what is your girl situation? If you don't have a long term girlfriend who you think you are going to marry, I honestly wouldn't recommend moving to Corydon right out of college because I bet there are very few single women there and nothing will make you miserable like being 26 and going on year 2 or 3 without a steady girlfriend because every girl who stayed in Corydon was married when she was 19.

If your personal economic situation relegates you to moving back into your old bedroom with your family, that's cool, I ain't gonna judge, but I'm just saying flying away from the nest for a few years when you're in your early 20's is a great thing to try because you may never have the chance to do it again.

I have no intention of going back to Corydon out of college. The whole running a small town paper is more my end game (maybe even like a post-retirement spot), not a starter gig. As of right now, I'm looking at Sports Spotlight in Des Moines, as well as the Clinton Herald (assistant sports editor). I'll be floating resumes around to places like the Register and Gazette, too.

 

[trj]

I have no intention of going back to Corydon out of college. The whole running a small town paper is more my end game (maybe even like a post-retirement spot), not a starter gig. As of right now, I'm looking at Sports Spotlight in Des Moines, as well as the Clinton Herald (assistant sports editor). I'll be floating resumes around to places like the Register and Gazette, too.

Based on what you are looking for the Des Moines gig wouldn't be bad at all. The Des Moines area is not as bad as you may think, you mention you live in Des Moines to other people and they cringe, for a young 20 something dude it is not ideal, but you can make it work.