I am with you! This guy was handed a turd and told to polish it. Name one school that has had the same situation to deal with AND turned it around in 3 years. Quick touch point Alford left nothing to build on. Terrible to say, but similar to Fry leaving Iowa. It to Kirk 4 years....sound familiar? I agree Bud the pieces are there. Two all big ten freshmen. Three all big ten team players as sophomores and freshmen. A new facility is coming. A top thirty class of Freshmen coming in. An injured big man that has been able to practice with the team all year (Archie). These Freshmen that his the wall will not hit it next year (Cougill, May, Payne) they only played 20 games in high school last year not 30+ minutes in over 30 games. It happens to eveyrone. Todd should not be held responsible for not being able to coach Alfords undisciplined players that did not want to be a part of a system. We now have a foundation, and I think if we don't win more than we lose next year of if ANY scholarship player leaves this team we have a bright future. If we and of the previous things go wrong my support of Big Lick will be over. I belive today will create the motivation for the team to unite, and the coach to work as hard as he did in 2001 when he took a Butler team in his first year to it's best ever record and in his 2nd year went to the sweet 16 when the won a NCAA game for the first time in 38 years! Stick with this guy he is a winner, and after only 3 seasons has a team he can win with!!!!!!!!!!
Someone understands.
Though I don't see that what happened at Butler nearly a decade ago has any particular relevance for what will occur at Iowa. Trying to keep my own personal judgments at a minimum, nonetheless I do want to point to the irony that Lickliter's reputation coming in and the common wisdom about his strengths and weaknesses have proven largely mistaken: one principal negative was that he would not be able to recruit, and though the truth has yet to dawn on many fans (especially on the internet boards) that the initial impression was off-base and given the late start and his brief residence in Iowa his three recruiting classes look to be successful (Gatens & Fuller, then May & Payne plus Cougill, and now Larson, McCAbe, Marble & Brust (so far) is seven, eight, maybe more (Archie yet to show whether he can play BT basketball, another PG [juco] yet to sign).
The postive expectations were that he would prove to be a good teacher (and the obvious improvement in fundamentals is evidence bearing that out) AND he would be a very astute bench coach. Performance by the Hawkeyes has NOT supprted this expectation. The Hawkeye players almost always seem unprepared and without a game plan, his substitutions are puzzling to say the least, his use of his son while refusing to allow other walk-ons (Darrell Moore would not get a chance on this Iowa team) & the minutes given to Brommer over Cougill have no rational legitimation.
Still, it isn't clear that his dubious game management will not be different once he has adequate depth. We cannot deny that the poor guy had worse than a Hobson's choice: with only five healthy BT-quality players available most of the season, he either had to leave exhausted young guys to get run out of the gym in the last ten minutes--or he had to put guys on the floor who can't play to fall behind in the first half playing 4 vs 5 or even 3 vs 5 in effect.
But if Lickliter has not been successful as a game coach, there are the many other attributes of the job to consider. First & foremost, he faced the Herculean task of cleaning up the stable after Alford-Noodlesl: he had to repair relationships with the administration & faculty, with HS coaches, counselors & administrators, regain respect for the program, stem the bleeding of alumni & fan support, and drastically alter Hawkeye recruiting practices. He has done well in most of these regards, except fan support--charisma is not his forte & it isn't at all obvious that he could sell water to a millionaire dying of thirst in Death Valley. Secondly, he has to satisfy the administration, regents, major donors, faculty that he has a sound grasp of the University of Iowa's mission and values--and bluntly most of all it is because he is doing this well that neither Barta nor Mason nor the rest of the Iowa establishment are dissatisfied with the pace of progress in the program.
Joined a coffee session with friends & aqaintances in the administration yesterday, and got the chance to ask broadly about Lickliter's status of a member of the Board of Athletic Control. He said he couldn't give a definitive answer but he did mention that Lickliter's health is not really a major concern now, that personally he believes Lickliter sincerely thinks they have "turned the corner", expects to have a winning program as early as the next two years, and consequently has no inclination to walk away from the job...or by resigning relinquish the remainder of his contract. But the key comments were that the administration doesn't want a coaching change (certainly not now) and therefore is not inclined to consider buying out the contract while adding millions more of salary commitment to another coach so soon. There didn't seem to be any dissent to this summary.
Still, this is not necessarily the final truth. Mutual wearyness could bring Lickliter & Barta to the gloomy conclusion that the apathy and antagonism in a good share of the fan base will not be easily dissipated...and they try to work out some accomadation to salvage the coach's career and allow the Iowa program to get a fresh breath.
It is natural and probably inevitable that there is a continuous endemic failure on the part of the fans of college athletics to recognize that their perspective as fans is worlds apart from the broader overall purposes and goals of the university community itself. It is a waste of time to say it, but nonetheless it should be emphasized that winning games matters immensely more to fans than it does to the academic leaders whose primary feeling about athletics is whether they help or hurt the reputation and image of the university itself.
