P. Hardy- Hawks give plenty of reasons for leaving

[jparmley3]

When Barta hired Lickliter he was the reigning national coach of the year. How is that a bad hire? I think anyone would have made that decison. I think the defections are a combination of some special circumstances and Lickliters desire to only have certain kinds of players. He might be a little stubborn and not willing to adjust his coaching to fit the players, but most coaches do the same thing. Tom Davis was fortunate because Raveling gave him some awesome players who also happened to be a good fit for Mr. Davis's style of play. I mean really, Lickliter was starting from scratch and he's had some bad breaks. You can't compare the first 3 years of one coach with the first 3 years of another coach, situations are all different. If we aren't really good in Gatens senior year, than thats a problem, but I'm willing to wait rather than start over with a new coach who also needs 3 or 4 years, a new coach is not going to help us in the near future.

Who wants to play in this boring system?

For the apologist out there, they will say, 'well, Wisconsin seems to do fine with a boring offense.'

Wisconsin does well because of Bo Ryan and his ability to coach.

Unfortunately, Iowa does not have that luxury.

I was one of very few people who were against he Lick hire from Day One. My reasoning was that we had just got through with a coach who was a mid-major guy. Why get another one (Nat'l COY award withstanding)?

Also, you say it is tough to compare the first 3 seasons of one coach to another.

Let's be honest, Alford did not exactly have a full cupboard when he arrived.

And, there is another glaring difference between Lick and Alford:

the name.

Alford has a name, a history. And that name has the ability to draw recruits in based on individual accomplishment Steve had.

Lickliter does not.

And, obviously, it is showing.

And, will continue to show.

The incoming recruits are exciting, from all we read. But, they are not what they used to be.

Sad is the current state of Iowa basketball.

 

[9YRPLAN]

i love how the clueless barta-haters are so quick to jump all over the lick hire but conveniently ignore the well-underway facility renovation right in front of their face. of course they are also the same people who wanted alford gone no matter what the cost and dont even appreciate the fact that barta got it done for free.

 

[jparmley3]

i love how the clueless barta-haters are so quick to jump all over the lick hire but conveniently ignore the well-underway facility renovation right in front of their face. of course they are also the same people who wanted alford gone no matter what the cost and dont even appreciate the fact that barta got it done for free.

all the extra practice facilities in the world would not make the 2009-10 Iowa Men's basketball team any better than they are right now.

Do you really feel Iowa will have a shot at landing Marcus Paige because we are building better facilities?

I doubt it.

 

[NewMexHawk]

Barta was hired primarily to raise funds...

 

[ChosenChildren]

Didn't Iowa just win the Orange Bowl?

Barta is doing just fine - and oh, by the way, if you get to know him a little bit, you might realize that he is a great guy and Iowa is lucky to have him.

Lickliter will get 1 or 2 more seasons before Barta makes a move.

This Lickliter-Barta bashing is childish and ridiculous.

 

[HawkFantastic]

I think you're correct, however the results and circumstances are cannon fodder enough for most people. Funny, SA and TL couldn't be more different when it comes to their public persona, but so far they both have a fractured and devisive fan base in common which is very public.

 

[DDThompson]

Nothing new in the article. Just a refresher column because Tucker quit. He can save the article and when the next player transfers put that name at the top and reprint it again.

Could be a slow news day or he doesn't think Lickliter can get the job done and this is a good way of maintaining the friction in Hawkeye nation. Who knows but Harty?

 

[JHHawk]

Lets see what Barta has done on the bb front....he did nudge out SA....who has gone on to great success at NM the last three years, and hired Lick, who has taken Iowa to a 14-37 record vs Big Ten teams since....

Attendance? Under Barta it has gone from over 12k /game to around 9k/game....a 25% drop?

Under Barta the bb program has gone from earning around 3-4 million to 1-2 million/yr.

So, to summarize, under barta's guidance the bb program forced out a coach who has won 20+ games each of the 3 season since,to replace him with a coach who has come much closer to losing 20- games a year, cut bb income by 30-40% and cut attendance by at least 25%.....boy, that is a heckuva track record for any CEO...one that gets them fired,that is.

 

[DDThompson]

CEOs don't get fired. They get stock options and big bonuses. If their company doesn't make money, then taxpayers bail them out so they can still get stocks and big bonuses. And the president, who is good buddies with the current CEOs, has their back even though the present CEOs are taking the company down further than the previous CEOs who were held to a standard of success by the president that he doesn't hold the current CEOs because they weren't his guys.

president = Barta
taxpayers = Iowa fans
former CEOs = SA
current CEO = TL

Same tune. Different lyrics.

 

[JHHawk]

WTF are you talking about? Take your politics elsewhere,willya? Your analogy does not make sense anyway....just dumb.

 

[RADMAN]

HawkIreign, when did it go back to "girls" basketball? Do we refer to "boys" basketball? Since this board was started, we have some of the worst supporters in the history of UofI. The Karma here is so negative that I don't know why a coach would stay, period. I don't like where we are with "mens" basketball, and playing the blame card is just everyones mis-informed opinion. Lets work to get new practice facilities so that recruits are excited about coming here. The addition of a strength coach has improved the athletic ability of guys like Fuller and Cole. A dedicated practice facility would be huge right now.

 

[HawkI101]

HawkIreign, when did it go back to "girls" basketball? Do we refer to "boys" basketball? Since this board was started, we have some of the worst supporters in the history of UofI. The Karma here is so negative that I don't know why a coach would stay, period. I don't like where we are with "mens" basketball, and playing the blame card is just everyones mis-informed opinion. Lets work to get new practice facilities so that recruits are excited about coming here. The addition of a strength coach has improved the athletic ability of guys like Fuller and Cole. A dedicated practice facility would be huge right now.

Coaches don't care about whether they are getting the job done or not. TL knows he is not getting the job done and the fanbase is very fractured, but he will never quit because he gets paid millions of dollars. And people say "who would want to come to Iowa now" there are probably a lot of coaches that would come here because they will get PAID.

As far as Barta the only two sports that matter are Football and Mens Basketball when it comes to the success of an AD and he is at 50% in that area, not very good.

 

[latrans]

So Barta has done little besides destroy a basketball team and let a great football coach maintain. I can't speak on the wrestling thing because I pay little to no attention. Same with girls basketball. Maybe we should fire both Lickliter and Barta and let Dan Gable take over for both of them.

HEY! Now there's an idea!

 

[hoffahawk]

Harty is a tool and maybe if Palmer would have played some D he would still be playing for Iowa instead of playing against 6'2 power fowards at a D-II school. I always love the fact that people bring up his 19 and 21 point games but don't talk about the game following that where he couldn't stay with his man, took bad shots, and just wasn't playing well.

As far as the team missing something, in my mind they have played a lot better then I thought they would with what they had coming back.

for the 10,000,000,000,000th time next year is the make or break year for Lick.

 

[HawKCP]

I think Barta deserves plenty of credit for the football program. Remember that many of you on here have at one time or another been calling for Norm, KOK or even KF's jobs...and Barta showed at least some balls in sticking with those guys.

I would also wager to guess that most of you were loving it when Alford was nudged out and Lickliter was coming in...thus far the hire hasn't been overly great...but hey that's the business of hiring and firing.

I think that Barta should be given a tremendous amount of credit for being the type of leader who puts in place the people who he thinks are best suited to do their jobs and letting them do those jobs. Too many leaders in sports and in business are constantly micromanaging and hiring and firing and it might appease their own personal ego but it does not help their organization in the least. Turnover causes setbacks end of story...it cannot be good for a program to experience turnover. Sometimes it is necessary but it should be avoided as much as possible and Barta gets that...many message board posters never will.

 

[hawkdoctor]

Barta is going to have to answer for the athletic budget revenue. That is HIS responsibility. We are very lucky that the football program is where it is and that wrestling is so well supported. Even the women are supporter pretty well. Without the incredible support the football team has and how it balances the budget, Lick's seat would be hotter and Barta's patience would be tested.

 

[JHHawk]

Barta would be an idiot to have done anything with the football program...the outcry and fan apathy was about 2% of what you have in BB...even in 06 and 07. Attendance was strong, records were at .500 briefly...not exactly like having the worst 3 year run in the programs history with attendance at historical lows.

One big diff....KF had won two big ten titles in the prior 4 years...Lick has nothing to fall back on. Barta screwed the pooch on the 7 year contract. If it had been a 5 year deal, he could have cut the pain short by at least a year and bailed this year or next with minimal payout. He probably cost the school an additional 1.2 million with that contract...not chump change...on top of the 4 million a year in bb revenues we are losing with his choice as coach...no, Barta is a very mixed bag right now, on balance, and hurt the school more than helped it,imo.

Pushing SA out might have saved a 1.5 million buyout the following year,but in the end, we could end up big losers if we give lick 1.8 million to walk away next year, with 4 years of losing bb and 14-16 million in lost revenues...jury is definitely out on Mr Barta.

 

[BALDIES7980]

Didn't Iowa just win the Orange Bowl?

Barta is doing just fine - and oh, by the way, if you get to know him a little bit, you might realize that he is a great guy and Iowa is lucky to have him.

Lickliter will get 1 or 2 more seasons before Barta makes a move.

This Lickliter-Barta bashing is childish and ridiculous.

This stuff is opinions and you are the problem if you can't accept that people's opinions are different than yours.
I can't bash Barta because I don't know what he's said to Lick but in the public eye he is backing him 100%. Which is to be expected. However if he has not had some VERY serious discussions with Lick concerning the teams performance etc. Then my suggestion would be for Barta to start lining up a new gig as well.
Our program is a mess right now and IMO Lick has shown little to nothing that gives me hope he will right the ship. So if Barta hasn't seen and addressed that already then he is incapable of his duties as well.

 

[Hawkeye10970]

Pat Harty is the worst excuse for a sports journalist. Please don't take his crap seriously. It certainly doesn't deserve this much attention. He's a pot-stirrer and is paid to do so by his Gannett bosses. Complete and utter CRAP.

 

[ChosenChildren]

Football is the revenue sport and it is the only sport that really matters at a Big Ten school.

An AD has never been fired (ever) for not winning in basketball. The revenue from the Big Ten Network more than makes up for the lost basketball attendance. ADs are fired if they don't win in football. When Bump Elliott hired Hayden Fry, he made the comment that "it was his last hire" in football. When asked what he meant, he said that if Hayden didn't win, he knew that he would be fired.

Having said that, Barta will make a move at the end of next year if there is no real improvement with the basketball team.

I respect other people's opinions but I really don't see the point of constantly complaining about Lickliter and Barta. Are you hoping that he gets fired this year? NOT GONNA HAPPEN