Lickliter regrets leaving Butler for Iowa

BS. He had a choice. But, as the guardian of the grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade said, "He chose poorly".
 
Didn't he listen to his son, who said something like "But Dad, it's Iowa!"

Will let Todd deal with that one -- which probably involves him sitting at the kitchen counter with head in hands.
 
homes said:
BS. He had a choice. But, as the guardian of the grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade said, "He chose poorly".
Click to expand...

I think he meant that in the sense that it was the kind of offer he couldn't refuse. Iowa was still a solid program at the time and his stock was high. At the time, that was a pretty big step up. It wasn't like leaving Butler to take over Northwestern. Iowa was an upper-half Big Ten program. Few (if any) coaches in his position would turn down an offer like that.
 
Who cares. Unless this thread is about fran regretting coming to iowa. Adios lickball. Good luck with your future endeavors and sickeningly boring style of basketball.

One of his 3 years, I went to one game and actually did not watch another minute of ball all year. Not iowa, not anybody. If iowa was that bad, i had no interest in the season. Im so glad those days are gone.
 
tm3308 said:
I think he meant that in the sense that it was the kind of offer he couldn't refuse. Iowa was still a solid program at the time and his stock was high. At the time, that was a pretty big step up. It wasn't like leaving Butler to take over Northwestern. Iowa was an upper-half Big Ten program. Few (if any) coaches in his position would turn down an offer like that.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I don't blame him for taking the offer. I blame Barta for not doing enough due diligence on the hire to know that, regardless of his abilities as a coach, he was a TERRIBLE fit for the University of Iowa.
 
tm3308 said:
I think he meant that in the sense that it was the kind of offer he couldn't refuse. Iowa was still a solid program at the time and his stock was high. At the time, that was a pretty big step up. It wasn't like leaving Butler to take over Northwestern. Iowa was an upper-half Big Ten program. Few (if any) coaches in his position would turn down an offer like that.
Click to expand...

He had a choice. The rest is just BS rationalization. If he had no choice, then he should have no regrets. Stop being an apologist for him.

As far as turning down offers, look no further than his successor - Brad Stevens turned away many overtures to coach a bigger name college team. Also, Shaka Smart at VCU has repeatedly turned down chances. Staying with the theme of movie quotes, as the great Dirty Harry Callahan once said, "A man's got to know his limitations".
 
homes said:
He had a choice. The rest is just BS rationalization. If he had no choice, then he should have no regrets. Stop being an apologist for him.

As far as turning down offers, look no further than his successor - Brad Stevens turned away many overtures to coach a bigger name college team. Also, Shaka Smart at VCU has repeatedly turned down chances.
Click to expand...

Brad Steven took his team to back-to-back Final Fours. His situation was a little different than Lickliter's. Smart was looking at Illinois and UCLA, both schools with outrageous expectations; but he's the better comparison.

I don't hold the ill will for the guy that apparently some do on this board. Was he a bad fit? Absolutely. But I don't think he was a bad guy, and I do feel for him a little.
 
tm3308 said:
Brad Steven took his team to back-to-back Final Fours. His situation was a little different than Lickliter's. Smart was looking at Illinois and UCLA, both schools with outrageous expectations; but he's the better comparison.

I don't hold the ill will for the guy that apparently some do on this board. Was he a bad fit? Absolutely. But I don't think he was a bad guy, and I do feel for him a little.
Click to expand...

Don't think he's a bad guy, just unable to handle this level of competition. If anything, that was Barta's responsibility to flesh that out, but no one was saying that at the time Lickliter was hired, so difficult in my judgment to put the hire on Barta (although I do wonder if it was a clue to Barta that during the interview he nodded off listening to Lickliter talk). I give Barta credit for pulling the ripcord on him sooner, than later. Another year and it would have gotten even uglier I believe. Also, Lickliter came out of this just fine - $5+ million for the experience.
 
I hated the hire immediately and told everyone he was a snake oil salesman. I had never lost so many message board "friends" so quickly. This was at the same time I posted about the conversation I had on a flight w/ John Adams (Head of NCAA BB Officials) who told me 1. Lickliter had many issues and Iowa didn't do their homework and 2. Our old assistant Pearl was going to be in trouble with the recruiting he is doing.
 
greghammel said:
I hated the hire immediately and told everyone he was a snake oil salesman. I had never lost so many message board "friends" so quickly. This was at the same time I posted about the conversation I had on a flight w/ John Adams (Head of NCAA BB Officials) who told me 1. Lickliter had many issues and Iowa didn't do their homework and 2. Our old assistant Pearl was going to be in trouble with the recruiting he is doing.
Click to expand...

Whoa, good stuff there. Any more you can share?
 
tm3308 said:
Brad Steven took his team to back-to-back Final Fours. His situation was a little different than Lickliter's. Smart was looking at Illinois and UCLA, both schools with outrageous expectations; but he's the better comparison.

I don't hold the ill will for the guy that apparently some do on this board. Was he a bad fit? Absolutely. But I don't think he was a bad guy, and I do feel for him a little.
Click to expand...


I don't feel anything for anyone who did a ****** job and still got paid millions of dollars. I feel bad for kids in Africa who are dying because they don't have any food. Lickliter is very rich and doesn't deserve it, not really gonna lose any sleep feeling sorry for him.
 
gohawkz said:
I don't feel anything for anyone who did a ****** job and still got paid millions of dollars. I feel bad for kids in Africa who are dying because they don't have any food. Lickliter is very rich and doesn't deserve it, not really gonna lose any sleep feeling sorry for him.
Click to expand...

oh-you-watched-the-kony-video-on-facebook-tell-me-more-about-how-you-help-the-children-in-africa.jpg
 
I'm sure Lickliter regrets leaving Butler for Iowa. He got fired. That tends to leave a person with regrets. It leaves the hiring party (Iowa) with the same feelings I'm sure.

As for Lickliter not getting enough time.. All I can say is, look at Lick's 3 years at Iowa. Then look at Fran's first three years at Iowa, and tell me if you can see any difference. What I see is two coaches who were taking Iowa hoops in completely opposite directions. If Lick was going to get it done, we would have been seeing signs of it coming, but instead it looked like the wheels had come off. Lick was never going to win here, folks.

Making a coaching change after the 2009-10 season was not just the right choice, it was the ONLY choice.

I don't wish Lickliter any ill will at all. He seems like a good guy who was just in over his head in this league.
 
greghammel said:
I hated the hire immediately and told everyone he was a snake oil salesman. I had never lost so many message board "friends" so quickly. This was at the same time I posted about the conversation I had on a flight w/ John Adams (Head of NCAA BB Officials) who told me 1. Lickliter had many issues and Iowa didn't do their homework and 2. Our old assistant Pearl was going to be in trouble with the recruiting he is doing.
Click to expand...


Link?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top