One argument to keep Coach Lick

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tmurph2643

Well-Known Member
I am turning over a new leaf... It has been hard to stomach watching this team play.. however I want to take a look at why we should keep Coach Lickliter in town.

1. He has one heck of a recruiting class coming in. If these kids stay for a second year under Lick and stay out of trouble after their freshmen year, this could be the class that turns the corner.

2. Each of the last three years we have shown a significant improvement from the beginning of the year to the end. (that is including the progress I have seen from beginning of year to now). The issue is that he has to re-teach the system every year to a new group. It will be interesting to see how many steps backward we will take without Tucker, however he hasn't been consistent and plays lazy bb at times... so it may not be as big of a blow as we think.

3. Matt Gatens: This is a local kid, who grew up a hawkeye, has always dreamed of being a hawkeye, and is everything we all want in a hawkeye. I think there is a better chance of Lick getting the ship righted in the next two years than a coach coming in and completely turning it around in the next two years. Matt Gatens deserves to play in a post-season game in his career and I think Lick gives them the best opportunity in the next two years.

My patience is running thinner than a lot of the Lick bashers, and pessimists.. I just try to stay positive. Lick is a great teacher of the game, when the guys run his offense it looks good... hence the 71 pts Iowa has put up the last two games...

I had to put something else in here, because it is getting hard to read a half million Tucker threads.
 
Point #2. Just curious on this comment

(that is including the progress I have seen from beginning of year to now)

What have you seen??
 
tmurph2643 said:
3. Matt Gatens: This is a local kid, who grew up a hawkeye, has always dreamed of being a hawkeye, and is everything we all want in a hawkeye. I think there is a better chance of Lick getting the ship righted in the next two years than a coach coming in and completely turning it around in the next two years. Matt Gatens deserves to play in a post-season game in his career and I think Lick gives them the best opportunity in the next two years.

QUOTE]


Gatens deserves to play in a post season game? I think that in sports you basically get what you deserve.
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HawkPrdatr40 said:
Point #2. Just curious on this comment

(that is including the progress I have seen from beginning of year to now)

What have you seen??
Click to expand...

If you're not measuring progress in wins and losses (which there is certainly an argument for), it is readily apparent to anyone who has watched this team that they're playing better now than they were at the beginning of the year.
 
HawkPrdatr40 said:
Point #2. Just curious on this comment

(that is including the progress I have seen from beginning of year to now)

What have you seen??
Click to expand...

they have been playing smarter bb... 8 TO's on Sat. 12 TO's against a very athletic ISU team. Granted they probably should have had more against Drake they did not.

In 4 of their last 6 games they have scored more than 70 pts. Considering they scored 50 against UTSA and Duquesne the first two games... it is obvious that they are running the offense better, getting and taking better shots, and playing with more confidence.

The biggest improvement i have seen has come from Cully Payne.. I think if this kid learns to not telegraph his passes, he could be a very solid PG. Reminds me a lot of Jeff Horner being able to pull up off the dribble and hit the trey.
 
The biggest argument is, I feel the University won't want to pay him to not coach. The University has been laying people off and their finances aren't the best. I don't think they'll get rid of Lick. He'll be here for a bit no matter what the results are to this year.
 
bcl20 said:
The biggest argument is, I feel the University won't want to pay him to not coach. The University has been laying people off and their finances aren't the best. I don't think they'll get rid of Lick. He'll be here for a bit no matter what the results are to this year.
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haha.. yes this is the biggest argument. I am just trying to give a basketball related argument to keep him here.
 
Lick's first team was better than his second. Lick's second team is better than this one. If Lick's third team is better than his fourth, is that progress? I think we're going in reverse. Agree on point #1 but I haven't seen any of them play. I going by what I hear and what I hear is on message boards. Oh no!
 
hawkdoctor said:
Lick's first team was better than his second. Lick's second team is better than this one. If Lick's third team is better than his fourth, is that progress? I think we're going in reverse. Agree on point #1 but I haven't seen any of them play. I going by what I hear and what I hear is on message boards. Oh no!
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I completely disagree. I think last years team would have mopped the floor with the team from his first year, much more talented and played better as a team... However, last years team was better than this years, but the loss of Jake Kelly was much more significant than the loss of Freeman... and loss of JPete was also brutal
 
I completely disagree. I think last years team would have mopped the floor with the team from his first year, much more talented and played better as a team... However, last years team was better than this years, but the loss of Jake Kelly was much more significant than the loss of Freeman... and loss of JPete was also brutal
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The point of the OP was progress. So I guess you like the progress the program is making since Lick arrived? This is the worst basketball team I've seen and I've followed Iowa basketball for 35 years.

The only hope that I have is next year's class and I'm going on what I read here. I'm very disappointed that we have only 10 scholarship players on the roster and now we have nine. Since I'm more critical of Lick's ability to recruit than his coaching, Tucker's leaving and Lick's ability to replace him has me nervous.
 
Adding to my post is people on these message boards will now say year four is the new year one since we had transfers. Never seen a guy get so many passes. You people must have really hated Alford!
 
hawkdoctor said:
Adding to my post is people on these message boards will now say year four is the new year one since we had transfers. Never seen a guy get so many passes. You people must have really hated Alford!
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Correct, I didn't like Alford, he took the program down in his 8 years, as it was MUCH worse off than when he inherited it. If Lick doesn't turn it around and gets fired, and leaves us with this mess that we have now, then I will NOT like what he did either.
 
tmurph2643 said:
I completely disagree. I think last years team would have mopped the floor with the team from his first year, much more talented and played better as a team... However, last years team was better than this years, but the loss of Jake Kelly was much more significant than the loss of Freeman... and loss of JPete was also brutal
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I have to disagree with your disagreement... Year 2's record in the Big Ten was 5-13. The record for year 1 was 6-12. Maybe the Big Ten was a little strong last year than it was the previous year, but the records say that year 1's team could've played with year 2's team any day of the week.

My biggest argument for giving Lickliter a 4th year is that the practice facility will be done by then, and is a nice bargaining chip for the new coach. Might be able to land a better coach with the practice facility complete. I would hope anyway.
 
hawkdoctor said:
Adding to my post is people on these message boards will now say year four is the new year one since we had transfers. Never seen a guy get so many passes. You people must have really hated Alford!
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I get what you are saying, and I don't like the progress that they have made if you are looking at progress from the time Lick got to Iowa City until now... no I am not happy with that nor should anybody.. I am sure it makes Lick just as sick as it does us.

However, the point I was making is that if he can keep all of his players for just one year... which it may not be this year... but I could see it being at the end of next year... we won't have to take a step back.. to take a step forward.
 
hawkdoctor said:
Adding to my post is people on these message boards will now say year four is the new year one since we had transfers. Never seen a guy get so many passes. You people must have really hated Alford!
Click to expand...

After next year, Lickliter is fair game, in my humble opinion.
 
1977Hawkeye said:
I have to disagree with your disagreement... Year 2's record in the Big Ten was 5-13. The record for year 1 was 6-12. Maybe the Big Ten was a little strong last year than it was the previous year, but the records say that year 1's team could've played with year 2's team any day of the week.

My biggest argument for giving Lickliter a 4th year is that the practice facility will be done by then, and is a nice bargaining chip for the new coach. Might be able to land a better coach with the practice facility complete. I would hope anyway.
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Ok, actually in retrospect you have an argument... i think the difference is Justin Johnson... if Lickliter can get that Justin Johnson type player... with the pure shooting ability, he will be in good shape.. hopefully brust is that type of player.
 
tmurph2643 said:
Ok, actually in retrospect you have an argument... i think the difference is Justin Johnson... if Lickliter can get that Justin Johnson type player... with the pure shooting ability, he will be in good shape.. hopefully brust is that type of player.
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Brust is better than Johnson. No lie.
 
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