I love the duel conversations within this thread: alford and lick; the starting 5 Very interesting combination.
Alford sucked and walked *** backwards into a loaded team at New Mexico. The UNM team had a McDonalds AA on the roster that didn't play the year prior. The same kid was also a 5th year senior who was Big12 Frosh team before he stabbed someone (Kansas). That kid is now playing in the NBA and single-handedly took the UNM team to the NCAA tournament.
Alford hired AAU assistants and basically bought the 3* and 4* talent his first two years. 3* and 4* talent will get you top 3 in the MWC and with a few lucky bounces it could land you in the NCAA tournament. alford is where he belongs. He is really good at a mid-major and sub par at the major college level.
During alfords tenure at Iowa, the roster was a revolving door from day 1. There were players that would commit and never make it to campus, players that were declared academically ineligible, players that transferred, etc., in every year while he was our coach.
Tyler Smith announced he was leaving BEFORE alford bailed for UNM. Alford was given his walking papers before his final season started and would have been fired had he not announced he was leaving for UNM. Smith was the last straw in the transfers. Yes the kid had medical issues that he had to deal with in Pulaski, TN but Pulaski is a solid 4 hour drive from Knoxville (UT). If the kid wanted to transfer to be closer to home, MTSU, Belmont, Lipscomb and Vanderbilt plus several other D1 basketball programs are hours closer. Smith skirted the system and bailed on a program that was nearing rock bottom and used his dads illness as an excuse.
As bad as alford was as a higher Lick was even worse. We were on a downward spiral before Lick got here and Lick just added weight so we could sink faster.
Now fast forward to today. We have a roster chalk full of mid-level talent and limited athleticism. God knows most of them are trying but they just aren't good enough to compete at this level. The players that Fran has brought in to the program are the best that we've got and Fran is simply trying to duct tape this team together until Yr 3. Fran is caught in a Catch22. Not enough talent in place to win but he needs to showcase what he would do if the players were here in order to get the type of players he wants which makes the current players look that much worse.
Summary: Alford sucked, Lick was like the plague and now Fran is left to pick up the pieces.