Fuller leaving? It's a new coach. That in and of itself is a big reason. I would disagree on how bad/good this would be for McCaffery. It would be bad from the standpoint of losing one of our most talented players. But it would pale in comparison to the Peterson, Kelly and to a lesser extent Freeman transfers had on the Lickliter program. Those guys all decided to stay (or in Peterson's case, come to Iowa). After time in Lickliter's program, they couldn't wait to get out. Peterson was facing two years of starting and playing 30+ minutes a game and said "no thanks." Same for Kelly. Yes, Kelly's mother died, but he played for a whole year at Iowa after she died and before going to Indiana State. How many transfers do you see of guys who are getting major minutes at a power conference school leave for middling Mo Valley teams? You just don't. Yet Iowa had it happen twice.
I don't hold Smith against Lickliter, due to the coaching change. If he was considering leaving even while Alford was there (I believe he was), then a coaching change provided the natural out.
My hunch with Fuller is that he was 99% sure he was leaving if Lickliter was here, probably had even determined where he was going, or had narrowed it down to a couple of schools. Then Iowa gets a new coach, and now he's re-assessing what's going on. If McCaffery convinces a guy from the West Coast--who had already made up his mind to leave--to buy in and stay for two more years here, then he will have shown some serious recruiting chops right away.
