I'm think the biggest problem with Lick was personality/people skills

[DuffMan]

I read the article about Fran and the I club today. It left thinking the biggest reason Lick didn’t work was his personality and the way he connected (or didn’t connect with people). One of the rumblings we heard off and on was that Lick didn’t connect to his players, that he was stand offish and aloof. I think it’s fair to say he was the same way with the fans.

It isn’t that he wasn’t nice, or genuine. He just didn’t seem to connect with people. Not his players, not his fans, not members of the media, and perhaps not even with the administration. If you ever watched him give an interview or listened to Hawk Talk on the radio it was evident that we just wasn’t comfortable in the spotlight.

I work in a profession where I am in contact with business owners and managers every day. Some people are introverted and some extroverted. While both can run a successful business I can tell you this. Those that are introverted tend to do better running small mom and pop businesses (Butler) than they do large multi-faceted companies (Iowa).

Ultimately it wasn’t the losses that sealed his fate here. It was the lack of connection that fans had with the program. We are seeing now that it wasn’t that fans had trouble connecting to Iowa Basketball, it was that we had trouble connecting with THAT Iowa Basketball, the program that much like it’s leader seemed to need just a little too much personal space. We can talk about a “bad system†or “lack of recruiting†but ultimately it wasn’t about that either. It was about a coach that for whatever reason didn’t connect with many of his players or people in the community that is Hawkeye Nation.

 

[JonDMiller]

That is certainly one factor that was not in Lickliter's favor

 

[pistons]

The guy was the worst coach to ever patrol the iowa sidelines

He doesnt like people

Butler fans were thrilled when we took him off their hands

Just a poor job by Barta of researching a candidate

 

[WestCoastHawk]

Thank you Captain Obvious.

 

[RobKong]

I was at Fran's first banquet last night, and was at one of Lickliter's first in his first year. Fran only said "Siena" one time the whole night. Lickliter talked about Butler most of his speech. I didn't think much of it at the time, but seeing how much Fran has engaged being a Hawkeye is quite a contrast from what Lickliter ever showed...

I'm really, really excited for the Fran era. And judging by the record crowd (which is saying something considering they honored hometown boy Mitch King last year,) the fans are as well.

 

[DuffMan]

That is certainly one factor that was not in Lickliter's favor

I think it was more than that. I think it was the one thing that everything else stemmed from.

 

[HawkeyeDug]

To play a little bit of Devil's advocate... He seemed to have done a pretty good job with Brust and Larson. They clearly liked him. I'm not really sure how to read that though. From an outsider's view he definitely seems to be lacking in the personality department, but is something the recruits must have liked. I guess we will never know.

 

[TChawk]

To play a little bit of Devil's advocate... He seemed to have done a pretty good job with Brust and Larson. They clearly liked him. I'm not really sure how to read that though. From an outsider's view he definitely seems to be lacking in the personality department, but is something the recruits must have liked. I guess we will never know.

I am not so sure it was him that they liked as much as it was the assistants that they were connecting with.

 

[busabus114]

I saw Fran in Iowa City last week and I went up and introduced myself. Im just a random guy in my 20's and he stood there and talked to me for five minutes just shooting the breeze. After talking to him all i could think about is how there is no way Lickliter wouldve carried on a conversation with me for that long.

Being personable goes a long way.....especially in the state of Iowa

 

[DuffMan]

To play a little bit of Devil's advocate... He seemed to have done a pretty good job with Brust and Larson. They clearly liked him. I'm not really sure how to read that though. From an outsider's view he definitely seems to be lacking in the personality department, but is something the recruits must have liked. I guess we will never know.

It's really not a matter of him "lacking" personality. Some people just connect differently than others. With some people it takes a long time to get inside and get trust, I think it's fair to say he is that guy.

 

[HawkeyeDug]

It's really not a matter of him "lacking" personality. Some people just connect differently than others. With some people it takes a long time to get inside and get trust, I think it's fair to say he is that guy.

I'm the same way. It takes a long time to get through the hard, prickly shell to get to the gooey center (that is still a little prickly). We're the best kind really.

 

[clicheusername3]

I'm the same way. It takes a long time to get through the hard, prickly shell to get to the gooey center (that is still a little prickly). We're the best kind really.

Sick.

 

[tubahawk]

I think it was more than that. I think it was the one thing that everything else stemmed from.

I think Licklitter would have gotten another year if his personality were more like Fran's. It was the poor performance that got him fired, but his inability to relate to fans and players expedited his departure.

 

[JHHawk]

Lick always struck me as a quirky personality,at the very least. Just listening to his interaction with Dolph in the post game shows and call in show,it was obvious that he was a bit of a contrarian,which often seemed to create tension between Dolph and himself.
He is gone, thankfully, so I am letting it go. Just so glad that Barta woke up and did the right thing in replacing Lick with Fran. Even if the team is not good next year, Frans personality will buy him more tolerance from the fans...I am convinced of that.
When I heard Larson's AAU coach say that Lick's approach to recruiting was not so much a sales pitch convincing recruits why Iowa is the place for them but like a job interview with the recruit needing to sell Lick on why they would be good for Iowa....I knew we were screwed.

 

[vince56]

Which speaks to what Izzo REALLY hated about Iowa releasing TL. Besides parroting the coaching union lines he knew a sitting duck when he played and recruited against one. TL was absolutely no future threat in either regard and Izzo knew it. Like competing with ISU football before Mac. It was a mercy firing if there ever was one. TL got major ka-ching to boot.

 

[HawkeyeDug]

Which speaks to what Izzo REALLY hated about Iowa releasing TL. Besides parroting the coaching union lines he knew a sitting duck when he played and recruited against one. TL was absolutely no future threat in either regard and Izzo knew it. Like competing with ISU football before Mac. It was a mercy firing if there ever was one. TL got major ka-ching to boot.

Iowa and Mich St don't really go after the same players.

 

[Billso]

Not all successful coaches are back-slappers. Lack of people skills isn't what got Lick fired, but because he'd failed to build a reservoir of goodwill, he didn't get the benefit of the doubt a more personable coach might have received.

 

[BirdistheWord]

I agree with your overall assessment of Lick, however i do somewhat disagree on your point about connecting with people and linking that to introverted/extroverted.

I know a lot of people who may be classified as introverted but they are friendly and do connect with people. I would say that yes, most people who are extroverted have a higher likelihood of connecting due to their ability to strike up conversations and such.

I think Lick was a combination of aloof, stubborn, and rigid plus being somewhat introverted.

 

[Hooper]

Something happened to Lick at Iowa. (health, maybe?) Ask Jordan or Cornette. They will tell you Lick was not like that at Butler. It is not true that Butler fans did not like him. Quite the contrary. I am convinced something happened to put him into his shell. I think the man had health issues or perhaps psycholigical. I do know that the losing took a toll on him. It was very difficult for him.

 

[greghammel]

I disagree that this happened to him while at Iowa. I had mentioned this on Hawks Nest Message Board back when he was first hired that I was on a flight from Norfolk VA to Atlanta and sat next to John Adams who had just been hired as the NCAA Head of Officials. He is also from Indiana and told me that he was very quirky and had bad personality/people skills and was over his head at Iowa.
I told him I was hoping Iowa would hire Bruce Pearl. He laughed and said that was where he was heading... to meet with him at 6 pm before they played a night game. He went on to say that Bruce Pearl would have been a bad choice too because he recruits at all costs and that it wouldn't surprise him if the group of freshmen didn't get into a lot of trouble.
2 years later both comments proved to be spot on and he was right.

So NO... this didn't happen AT Iowa.