Quick Iowa observations following Ohio State roadie

ForeverHawk said:
We won't need to worry about it for two reasons. One, if Tucker comes back this year to play and two, John will not play next year with the added depth. Anybody with any sense of logic understands why John is playing right now?
Click to expand...

My logic is this. If you are not good at basketball. You don't play. ever.
 
NewMexHawk said:
The program IS what it is. They may not win anymore games this year or they might win one or two, who knows. It doesn't really matter anymore this year. Iowa is as good as their record, which means that the program is in terrible shape. What we do know is that Iowa is going to lose more than 21 games this year. And before the season, many Hawk fans said this team was going to surprise all the negative Hawk fans. After a few games those same fans started saying, "We should have expected a bad season." Didn't take long for optimism to turn into excuses.

Whether the new recruiting class can come in and make much of a difference remains to be seen with lick ball. What the 4th year of this coaching staff and the new recruiting class converts into wins in the Big 10 should be the bottom line. We could definitely see the difference in talent between the two teams today. Again, Iowa is only as good as their record and where they are in the standings of the Big 10.

lil lick wouldn't even see an Iowa uniform if big lick wasn't the coach. A different coach wouldn't give lil lick the time of day as a walkon but big lick gives lil lick 10 to 12 minutes a game in the Big 10. THAT is a travesty. If nothing else big lick should at least hold tryouts for walkons but doesn't even have the honesty to do that, preferring to play his son. Then people get their panties in a bunch when lil lick is made fun of. But why should you get upset, the kid does not deserve to play on a Big 10 team and everyone knows it. Just because big lick is unable to recruit, lil lick gets a spot on the team and a lot of minutes that he does not deserve.

The kid is going to be made fun of regardless how hard he works or plays. Is it right? Doesn't matter...he is the coaches kid, he doesn't deserve to play, and it looks like favoritism...he IS going to take the brunt of the criticism. Get used to it because as long as lil Lick plays this many minutes the criticism isn't going to stop regardless whether he is a nice kid or works hard. Big lick set him up and lil lick is paying...
Click to expand...
John L is a walkon, so the ability to recruit is not a factor in him being on the team. He is playing because of circumstances (Tucker being suspended). The fact that he is the coach's son is the reason people are being critical. I agree with those who said if his name is John Smith, the criticism would not be the same.

Did you watch Michigan State play their 3rd string PG (Mike Kebler) who is a walkon yesterday? He played 5 minutes due to Lucas' injury. This on a team with all of the talent in the world. If his last name is Izzo, I am sure the attention would have been larger. They lost and their program is not in shambles, but circumstances dictated the situation of playing their 3rd string PG.

Did you see that Bruce Pearl's son had an increase in minutes since the Tyler Smith incident? They are winning, so not a big issue.
 
clicheusername3 said:
My logic is this. If you are not good at basketball. You don't play. ever.
Click to expand...

Well, that is where your logic is flawed. John Lickliter was the starting pg on a state championship basketball team. Can you say that??? He is not bad and he is not a big 10 player, but it is what it is. Again, for the slow ones on the board.......John Lickliter did not join this team team to contribute during games. He is on the team to learn from his dad so he can one day coach. He was forced into a situation to play because Anthony Tucker got suspended and 4 players transferred off of last year's team? Two of them being pg's!
 
ForeverHawk said:
Well, that is where your logic is flawed. John Lickliter was the starting pg on a state championship basketball team. Can you say that??? He is not bad and he is not a big 10 player, but it is what it is. Again, for the slow ones on the board.......John Lickliter did not join this team team to contribute during games. He is on the team to learn from his dad so he can one day coach. He was forced into a situation to play because Anthony Tucker got suspended and 4 players transferred off of last year's team? Two of them being pg's!
Click to expand...

Once again. I don't need excuses. Not good enough to play. then you don't play. its that simple. others may suffer because of this. doesn't matter. I don't want to hear about "the way it was supposed to be". Being a starting pg on the iowa state bball championship carries about as much weight as being the starting point guard on the alaska state bball champion.
 
Actually, Lick's inability to close on a PG recruit last season is why we are in this mess. Tucker is as much a PG as I am a bible salesman(this thread needed a Kingpin quote).

With no point guard coming in next season...and a combo guard in Payne continuing that role...the future continues to look bleak to me.
 
I don't have a problem with John Lickliter playing or getting more minutes since Iowa does not have a high level big ten point guard in the foreseeable future. You gotta play with the cards you have. JL is a walkon. He's the coaches son and is going to be held to a different standard than a John Doe point guard. My suggestion is for everyone to be honest and accept that he will and should get some minutes. This a young team and I don't think they can get any worse. Not sure of the downside of someone like JL playing here or there with spot duty. I'd say he's about as talented as Troy Skinner... yet I remember him playing quite a bit when he was the pg for Tom Davis. (note: I wasn't a fan of TS)

Please tell me where I have it wrong.
 
Last edited:
clicheusername3 said:
Once again. I don't need excuses. Not good enough to play. then you don't play. its that simple. others may suffer because of this. doesn't matter. I don't want to hear about "the way it was supposed to be". Being a starting pg on the iowa state bball championship carries about as much weight as being the starting point guard on the alaska state bball champion.
Click to expand...

Yes, we know JL isn't a Big Ten caliber player. He was FORCED into the duties that he has been performing for us. He really hasn't been THAT terrible. He has a 3 to 1 assist/turnover ratio. In case you didn't know, that's among team leaders.

Nobody is trying to make excuses. If the kid is our last option at PG, and we're down to our last option, we don't really have much choice but to play him. By all means, if you want to go and get us John Wall, Kalin Lucas, Robbie Hummel, Tyler Smith (who is available haha), and DeMarcus Cousins, then more power to you. But seeing as how the team is what it is, we play the cards that are dealt to us.
 
I was just thinking about the game today.... did anybody else notice that OSU went to the 1-3-1 press as soon as Lil lick entered the game? Maybe Matta thought they would take advantage of our weakness as far as depth at PG and force him into some turnovers.
 
Jon,

I think he was sticking up for his guy, regardless of whether or not it was his son. I think his point was that he's doing OK in practice and has shown he can hold his own in short spurts. Someone asked him about the number of minutes he played and I'm sure he got defensive. I know I got defensive when someone questioned what I was doing. And yes it does matter that you aren't at practice although thats not the point. As a coach, you sometimes get a little peeved when someone questions something but they don't know all the nuances of practices, meetings, walkthroughs, etc....

So his "he should have played more earlier" I don't think was an attempt to try and change urine to rainwater as much as it was, we as a coaches are comfortable with JL and probably waited too long to get him in there.

But its his kid so of course everything is magnified.
________
xLIttleWetPussy
 
Last edited:
Besides recruiting, Lickliter running players off has also contributed significantly to Lick's and Iowa's problems. J. Pete and Cully would have been an effective tandem and Iowa's record would be substantially better than it is.
 
ibahawkeye said:
I was just thinking about the game today.... did anybody else notice that OSU went to the 1-3-1 press as soon as Lil lick entered the game? Maybe Matta thought they would take advantage of our weakness as far as depth at PG and force him into some turnovers.
Click to expand...

They went to the 1-3-1 late in the close game in Iowa City, with Iowa leading, and that was all she wrote
 
ForeverHawk said:
False, they ran the 1-3-1 numerous times in the game, including when Cully was playing pg.
Click to expand...

I didn't say that they only ran the 1-3-1 when John was in the game...

I just think its kind of ironic that they started using it when John original came into this game.
 
ibahawkeye said:
I didn't say that they only ran the 1-3-1 when John was in the game...

I just think its kind of ironic that they started using it when John original came into this game.
Click to expand...

Without watching the game I couldn't tell you when they started it, I just know they played it when both were in. Are you referring to the press or the half court trap, because both have been referenced in this thread? The 1-3-1 half court D was what really killed us late in the first game as Jon said. I thought they handled it a little better today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(FOR FREDDY)
 
You've been on the board all day with strong opinions about the bball program and you didn't even watch the game?

Anyways, I was referring to the the press
 
burky247 said:
I agree. Which probably was TL's biggest mistake. He needs to be able to separate Jon(his son) and Jon(the walk on). Especially when a lot of fans are wondering why he got an automatic walk on spot.

Ya know, it's a recipe for disaster if a coach has his son on a team that is struggling. I remember Tubby's son getting lots of abuse at Kentucky when he was coaching there.
Click to expand...

Saul Smith actually had a little game.

That's one difference.
 
ibahawkeye said:
You've been on the board all day with strong opinions about the bball program and you didn't even watch the game?

Anyways, I was referring to the the press
Click to expand...

Of course I watched the game, what gave you the impression that I did not? The press was not a 1-3-1. The 1-3-1 was the half court defense that extended Iowa so far out to start their offense. OSU utilized it much more in the first game and it gave Iowa fits and essentially was the reason OSU won at Iowa. It was not used as much today. They tried to press Iowa, it was a light press, Iowa did not have much trouble with it as Iowa did not allow them to trap. The majority of Iowa's TO's did not come from the press, but in the half court sets.

Edit: Oh, after reading my post, I can see why you thought that. I meant to say without out re-watching the game. My bad!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top