Put yourself in Barta's shoes

[BSpringsteen]

You are Gary Barta, what do you do...

Do you fire a coach that was your marquee hire, thereby acknowledging a bad decision was made on your watch and that your second biggest revenue sport has been a financial liability because of it.

Making this decision makes you look like you have bad judgement.

Do you stand by your man and hope that things turn around and you look like the genius that hired basketballs Kirk Ferentz which undoubtedly earns you praise and a fat raise?

But another year of this and Lick may not be the only one in hot water.

Interesting conundrum.

 

[koolhandlick]

I think it all comes down to money. As long as the football team is winning Barta will probably get a pass. That could change on down the road however if the lost income from basketball starts to effect other sports programs.

 

[vbeachawk]

I cut Lick loose at season's end and start working right now to find his successor behind the scenes. Barta needs to try to turn this thing around before the bill comes due on the Carver expansion and so that the he can sell the high price booths when it is done. A new excitement is needed in Carver asap.

 

[lightning1]

I'd rather be the guy that admitted my mistake and attempted to fix it (with lots of help from BB people).
I say man-up and fire him. An announcement sort of like:
"We expect more here at the University of Iowa! We expect NCAA births and B10 titles! We appreciate the effort and energy TL put into his job here at Iowa but we are going in a different direction. We wish TL and his family the best of luck. An announcement on the new coaching search will be made when the time is right. Thank you."
I'd even allow Gary to cut and past this with no compensation asked or accepted.

 

[HawkPrdatr40]

AD all around the country make poor choices. I'm certainly not getting all worked up over this one hire. I don't agree with ripping on an Barta over taking the National Coach of the Year and bringing him to Iowa and as things stand right now doesn't look like it will work. Barta will do the right thing when he deems it necessary.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

Do you fire a coach that was your marquee hire, thereby acknowledging a bad decision was made on your watch and that your second biggest revenue sport has been a financial liability because of it.

Making this decision makes you look like you have bad judgement.

Lickliter's record at Iowa thusfar makes it look like Barta made a bad judgement.

If Barta wants to ride this hire into the ground come hell or high water, then I would have far less respect for the man than if he just admitted his mistake and cut his losses for the good of the program and the university.

I'm not saying Barta needs to fire Lickliter right now, but if it comes to that, than I think a responsible AD has to do what he has to do.

 

[BSpringsteen]

I'm not ripping on Barta, I'm just stating it is an interesting position to be in.

 

[ShadasRevenge]

AD all around the country make poor choices. I'm certainly not getting all worked up over this one hire. I don't agree with ripping on an Barta over taking the National Coach of the Year and bringing him to Iowa and as things stand right now doesn't look like it will work. Barta will do the right thing when he deems it necessary.

Bingo. Just look at ISU for a recent example. Pollard looked real bad when the Chiz took the first flight out of Ames, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Clones.

Granted, Chizik resigned and Lickliter (presumably) would get the ax, but the effect on their respective AD's would be the same.

 

[koolhandlick]

How can we go in a different direction when we have turned the corner ? Sounds like chasing your tail in a round room. But we are on the right track.

 

[HawkPrdatr40]

I'm not ripping on Barta, I'm just stating it is an interesting position to be in.

Poor word choice (ripping) by me, Springsteen. I didn't intend for it to sound that way.

 

[lightning1]

How can we go in a different direction when we have turned the corner ? Sounds like chasing your tail in a round room. But we are on the right track.

LMAO! I'd like to know who's track we're on and what their idea of right is.

 

[koolhandlick]

You need to ask Lick about that . He's the one who said that the program is on the right track and that we have turned the corner. And just today he says his son deserves more minutes. Sounds like a habit of foot in mouth.

 

[McHawkin]

You are Gary Barta, what do you do...

Do you fire a coach that was your marquee hire, thereby acknowledging a bad decision was made on your watch and that your second biggest revenue sport has been a financial liability because of it.

Making this decision makes you look like you have bad judgement.

This hire already makes Barta look like he has bad judgment. It is kind of a coin flip right now on whether he should give Lickliter one more year or not. I think a lot of people would like to see a coaching change at the end of the season, but on the other hand it can't really hurt to give Lick one more year. It probably can't get any worse than it is right now anyway.

 

[burky247]

I guess you have to ask what kind of effect firing the coach has on the new facilities under construction. Will the buyout and groundbreaking kind of tap us out of booster money? Can we continue moving forward with getting our facilities up to par with the rest of the Big Ten if we're paying a new coach millions plus buying out our old coach? Does that limit the pool of coaches we can try to influence to come into Iowa City?

 

[tweeterhawk]

I'd rather be the guy that admitted my mistake and attempted to fix it (with lots of help from BB people).
I say man-up and fire him. An announcement sort of like:
"We expect more here at the University of Iowa! We expect NCAA births and B10 titles! We appreciate the effort and energy TL put into his job here at Iowa but we are going in a different direction. We wish TL and his family the best of luck. An announcement on the new coaching search will be made when the time is right. Thank you."
I'd even allow Gary to cut and past this with no compensation asked or accepted.

+1

Begin the rebuilding process (again).

 

[pistons]

I would make the change

I would go out right now and look for a coach

I would fire Lick ten second after the Big Tournment play in game

 

[hawkeye12345]

If I were in his position, I would have a short list of potential candidates already on file. I would then have my agency making speculative inquiries with these coaches to see what kind of interest level is out there. If one of the coaches on my short list shows a keen interest then I execute but if there isn't a guarantee of me getting one of them then I ride this out another year. No sense in going further in the hole on the Lick contract than necessary IF you don't have a better solution in place prior to giving him the axe.

We don't want to take a bad situation and make it worse. Another year also buys a little more time on the upgraded facilities.

As much as I don't want to see Lick coach another game, let alone another year, I don't want to compound the problem by being forced to hire someone that isn't going to be any better than what we've got. We need a rock solid recruiter.

My #1 choice right now would be Billie Gillispie. He settled his suit with Kentucky in October but had a run-in with the Po Po in August for DUI. The trial starts next week and depending on the outcome of the trial I would either make the move at season end (assuming trial is over with in time) or next year. My only concerns about waiting a year is the expectation of him landing somewhere else at the end of this season.

That guy can flat our recruit AND coach. His drinking is certainly a problem but maybe he and Tucker could hang at his place.

 

[vbeachawk]

Gillespie would be an interesting hire.

 

[ShadasRevenge]

Gillespie would be an interesting hire.

Gillespie = bad. It's not like there were a ton of other schools beating down his door after Kentucky gave him the ax.

I hate to say it, but when/if Lickliiter is fired or resigns, a Paul Rhoads-type hire will be needed to re-unite the fan base.

 

[burky247]

How about the top assistant from Wisky? He's been getting a lot of pub lately. They were talking him up after the Wisky/MSU game and Bo spent his whole interview after the game talking him up.

Edit: That would be Greg Gard by the way.