Lick's Recruiting Strategy

H

HawkI101

Well-Known Member
I am on both sides of the fence with TL. I think he is as good a "coach" as the next guy, but I don't think coaching wins at this level and I don't believe he is a strong recruiter.

I was listening to the radio last night and heard Rob Howe talking about how TL doesn't go out and recruit like the other coaches do. He sends the assistants to do most of the work and even has them offer the scholarships, where the other Big Ten coaches are out there in the stands working for those recruits.

Is this a reason we only get the 2-3 star recruits and not any 4 star recruits? In my mind I think the best players want to see the head coach a lot, not the assistants, especially our assistants who aren't very well known.
 
HawkI101 said:
I am on both sides of the fence with TL. I think he is as good a "coach" as the next guy, but I don't think coaching wins at this level and I don't believe he is a strong recruiter.

I was listening to the radio last night and heard Rob Howe talking about how TL doesn't go out and recruit like the other coaches do. He sends the assistants to do most of the work and even has them offer the scholarships, where the other Big Ten coaches are out there in the stands working for those recruits.

Is this a reason we only get the 2-3 star recruits and not any 4 star recruits? In my mind I think the best players want to see the head coach a lot, not the assistants, especially our assistants who aren't very well known.
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I don't know if Rob really said that but it isn't true. I know this for a fact. I have seen Coach Lickliter at recruit's games. He does prefer to extend the offer when the recruit visits campus but that is not a hard and fast rule.
 
I will vouch that that is what he said with one little change. Howe explained that Lick lets his assistants do all the work and then comes in trying to make a big splash or I believe Howe or one of the guys said, like a shining knight on a horse, and i guess surprise the kid or something with an offer after little contact with Lick
 
Take this for what it's worth but Lick is not 'credited' with any recruits at Iowa per rivals site. What I mean by that is that under his bio in the recruiting section there aren't any players listed under his name.

When you look at Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, MSU, OSU, and Purdue there are players that are listed under their head coach as being lead recruiter. I don't know how accurate this information is so take it with a grain of salt.

FYI - Paul Lusk appears to be the top recruiter at Purdue. Sure would be nice to have an Iowa boy back although I doubt he would come back here. Did he break his leg and then transfer to SIU?
 
The specific example Rob cited was the recruitment of Chasson Randle, with Randle having told Rob that he had a good relationship with Bo, and with Bass Mouth at Illinois, and is interested in Iowa thanks to Coach Jordan--but doesn't really know Lick at this point.

Rob and the hosts characterized Lick's recruiting style as "old school" in that supposedly he likes to leave most of the leg work to assistants, and he comes in only at the end. Based on published reports we know that isn't entirely true, but it is concerning that a recruit as important and as easily accessible to Iowa City as Randle would say he doesn't really know our HC at this stage of his recruitment.

The hosts and Rob advocated that the "old school" style of recruiting doesn't work well anymore, as top recruits want to have substantial early contact with head coaches.
 
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FreddyBrown said:
The specific example Rob cited was the recruitment of Chasson Randle, with Randle having told Rob that he had a good relationship with Bo, and with Bass Mouth at Illinois, and is interested in Iowa thanks to Coach Jordan--but doesn't really know Lick at this point.

Rob and the hosts characterized Lick's recruiting style as "old school" in that supposedly he likes to leave most of the leg work to assistants, and he comes in only at the end. Based on published reports we know that isn't entirely true, but it is concerning that a recruit as important and as easily accessible to Iowa City as Randle would say he doesn't really know our HC at this stage of his recruitment.

The hosts and Rob advocated that the "old school" style of recruiting doesn't work well anymore, as top recruits want to have substantial early contact with head coaches.
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Thank you for stating that much better than my OP. I don't think a lot of "old school" anything works in many sports anymore. There are some things that do but now is more about evolving and adapting.
 
Mr. Davis was the basketball coach at Iowa 24 years ago and he left the program 11 years ago. A lot of things have changed in the world of basketball since then. The internet wasn't even being utilized until the mid-1990s.
 
hawkeye12345 said:
Mr. Davis was the basketball coach at Iowa 24 years ago and he left the program 11 years ago. A lot of things have changed in the world of basketball since then. The internet wasn't even being utilized until the mid-1990s.
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Those of us who were paying attention at the time will recall that Coach Davis's supposedly "hands off" recruiting style was one of the major criticisms leveled at him at least by fans. To what extent it contributed to Bowlsby's bad decision to run the guy off, I don't know. I do know that there was a widespread sense that Raef going to KU was the beginning of the end for TD, but that might have happened no matter how many times an Iowa coach was there to watch Raef play AAU games.
 
HawkI101 said:
I am on both sides of the fence with TL. I think he is as good a "coach" as the next guy, but I don't think coaching wins at this level and I don't believe he is a strong recruiter.

I was listening to the radio last night and heard Rob Howe talking about how TL doesn't go out and recruit like the other coaches do. He sends the assistants to do most of the work and even has them offer the scholarships, where the other Big Ten coaches are out there in the stands working for those recruits.

Is this a reason we only get the 2-3 star recruits and not any 4 star recruits? In my mind I think the best players want to see the head coach a lot, not the assistants, especially our assistants who aren't very well known.
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Lick was in Sioux City last night with Walthall to watch McCabe and Woodbury. And, I believe he was up in Cedar Rapids with Lavall when Paige and Oglesby faced off.
 
Lick's recruiting strategy at Butler was " I'll let Stevens go out and do all the work then at the end I'll step in and take credit for it" The difference at Iowa is he doesn't have anyone on this staff who can recruit at the same level that Stevens did at Butler.
 
I will never forget the story that Shannon Brown told...back around 2000 when he was a junior in HS,he was playing a summer AAU tourny down in Arkansas,and he was out early in the morning by himself shooting hoops in the middle of nowhere and a guy walked up...it was Tom Izzo, who had been recruiting him for a year or more already...just do not see Lick doing this kind of birddogging....sadly.
As Cadserv,Larsons AAU coach,who really likes lick said on TOB..
...lick's style is more that he screens potential recruits and wants them to pitch to him why he should offer them...part of the process to ensure that he gets kids that really will toe the line and are willing to play the ''right'' way. Now, maybe that was just with Cody...but again,sounds very old school, and unlikely to fetch top talent for Iowa.

I think this was the approach with Armstead last year as Walthall made many trips to florida,then Lick went down in December on the white horse...and Iowa offered...of course, Armstead never did visit Iowa,so that was a failed strategy,even with Walthalls former assistant coach as Chipolas head coach....who,now is working for Eustachy at Southern Miss, I believe...wish we had him on our staff.
 
McHawkin said:
Lick was in Sioux City last night with Walthall to watch McCabe and Woodbury. And, I believe he was up in Cedar Rapids with Lavall when Paige and Oglesby faced off.
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I know lick made a point of saying the other day that he is going to visit each of the committed recruits this season...Larson,Marble,McCabe and Brust....guess that is good, but how about tracking guys that have not committed to Iowa or anywhere yet?
 
JHHawk said:
I know lick made a point of saying the other day that he is going to visit each of the committed recruits this season...Larson,Marble,McCabe and Brust....guess that is good, but how about tracking guys that have not committed to Iowa or anywhere yet?
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Well, there was one time last year (before Brust committed) that Lick and Chad were supposed to go see Ben and then Jordan Threloff in open gyms. Lick and Chad's plane could not get off the ground because of severe weather, so Lick and Chad hopped in a rental and drove to Chicago to see Ben. This really impressed Ben, and ultimately helped in his final decision to choose Iowa.
 
I could be confusing recruits but I'm pretty sure Randle was sitting behind Iowa's bench for the Minnesota game and at halftime a couple of Minnesota's assistants went out of their way to say hi, and even Tubby gave him a wave and hello.

That makes me worry. Here the kid is sitting 10 ft from Lickliter and they haven't spoken, yet Tubby is in our arena 300 miles from home and has more of a relationship with the kid than our own coach.

It's really inexcusable if you ask me. Take a few minutes to talk to the kid Lick.
 
JHHawk said:
lick's style is more that he screens potential recruits and wants them to pitch to him why he should offer them...
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I have to say that this bothers me. Shouldn't a recruit's game be the pitch for why a coach should offer a scholarship, and shouldn't a coach be trying to sell the program to said recruit?

If I was a highly sought-after recruit with plenty of scholarship offers, and this may sound a little pompous, but if a coach said to me something along the lines of "Tell me why I should let you play here." I'd be thinking something like "Um, I have plenty of other coaches begging me to play for them. Tell ME why I should play for YOU and not one of the other coaches."
 
Look at UNC or UCONN with all their talent and both teams are on the bubble as of right now. Since they all 4-5 star guys all over the floor they should be racking up wins but they are not. It's a matter of putting the pieces together and every player knowing their role and liking their role on a team. Just like in any other sport the number of stars a recruit has isn't worth judging a kid over, kind of like on this board certain people like certain players and others don't agree.
 
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