Lickliter regrets leaving Butler for Iowa

[jacknicholson]

And you bow to the "King"? Just Kidding! I know what you mean .... Take care.

Always good to hear from you, Atomic, you are a kind man.....

 

[hawkeyebob62]

That's really harsh.

I don't blame the players. They were recruited to Iowa by the coaches. Blame the coaches. It's not the fault of the players if they weren't big enough or talented enough to compete in the Big Ten. They worked hard, competed hard and for the most part represented the U of I in a dignified manner off the court (a few exceptions).

I also don't hold any bad feelings for the ones who transferred. It was a terrible style of play, and it sounds as though Lickliter was very disconnected from his players. I had checked out long before they did. I couldn't stomach Iowa Basketball anymore.

If blame is going to be placed for defections/transfers/etc., credence must be given to what he inherited, including the fact Tyler Smith was probably going no matter who our coach was.

Yes, Lick sucked while he was our coach. I just don't "blame" him for it. And he probably doesn't understand that we might have hit apocalypse before he had "enough time" to turn things around.

About the only person on the team right now that MIGHT be able to survive Lick ball without putting a gun to his head is Woodbury. Although he runs the floor well, he could work within a Lickliter type game without actually falling asleep on the court mid-game.

 

[gohawkz]

What's a kony video?

 

[ColumbusHawk]

I'm sorry but Lick did not harm the Iowa program nearly as much as alford did.

Pre-alford, Iowa appeared in the NCAA Tourney 9 out of 13 years under Mr. Davis, 2 out of 3 years under Raveling, and the last 5 years under LUTE!!!!! For those of you that are mathematically challenged, that's 16 out 21 years Iowa was in the tournament pre-alford. That's pretty astounding when you think about it.

Boob Bowlsby f'ed up when he didn't renew Mr. Davis's contract and we went into a lame duck season - that was not alford's fault and I tried to cut the guy some slack when he first arrived on campus.... alford was a flash in the pan hire with very little real coaching experience and only 4 seasons of what some would loosely consider D1 coaching experience. He got lucky by taking a 12-seed on an epic sweet 16 run before Iowa hired him. In other words, the guy had no real coaching experience and it showed when he arrived at Iowa.

It didn't take long for players to start transferring...I think it was his second recruiting class that had Cortney Scott who left after his freshman year...that guy went on to help Oakland make the tourney. Then year after year players would defect or get kicked off the team....PP anyone?

Once alf let his dad go and actually brought in a decent staff it was really almost too late, the damage was already done. Noodle$ tried to save the day by bringing in the first 4* recruit since the Raveling days but they couldn't keep him happy.....

The writing on the wall for alford was when Vanderbeken and Crawford didn't show up on campus and Smith left...The AD had warned alford that any more player defections would not be a good thing for the program.....alf knew Tyler Smith was not coming back and jumped ship before he got canned (fact).

Lick got lucky with Gatens being from Iowa City...hell Daffy Duck could have coached Iowa and Matt would have stuck around. But Lick was in way over his head too. The program was already in a downward spiral and only Fran the Man himself could save it. Fortunately we only had to endure 3 years of Lick my %&$ ball before White Lightning arrived to save the day.

Anyway, long story short, Boob Bowlsby and alford destroyed a pretty damn good basketball program, Lick buried it, and Fran has pumped life back into the program.