reaction after Lickliter hiring

Hawk94

Hawk94

Active Member
I did not follow these boards until a year or 2 ago. I am just curious what the overwhelming thoughts were when Lickliter was hired. Did most of the diehards on this board view this as a good, great or bad hire.

I say this because I was very excited about the last two coaches and was obviously wrong. I was not excited about Fran and I am counting on being wrong again. Really good first day for coach.
 
I thought it was a bad hire for the first couple of days. Even after the presser, I wasn't sold. Then I got on board.
 
I was really excited when Alford was hired, and he did a lot of things right early on recruiting, student section, etc. But he was not the right personality and then PP. I did not like Lick from his press conference to his hiring of assistants, and his lack of a sense of urgency(possibly the most important trait of all the people I have hired). Fran definitely displayed a sense of urgency in a quiet, positive way.
 
I honestly felt Lickliter lacked confidence and the understanding of what Iowa was (he was more in tune with his "Butler Way") that frightened me the most. But I was glad to see he was different from Alford. Now with Fran, I feel completely different than Lick and even Alford. Fran knows what needs to be done and is already getting started, personable and understands Iowa. Fran is confident but not egotistical like Alford. This just feels better as a whole.
 
I thought Lick sounded like a good hire at the time...should've seen there'd be problems as he didn't have to build Butler from scratch. I'm getting the same good feeling about Coach McCaffery, but this time, I'm ALOT more informed so I feel better about the good feeling instead of wary of it.
 
Hawk94 said:
I did not follow these boards until a year or 2 ago. I am just curious what the overwhelming thoughts were when Lickliter was hired. Did most of the diehards on this board view this as a good, great or bad hire.

I say this because I was very excited about the last two coaches and was obviously wrong. I was not excited about Fran and I am counting on being wrong again. Really good first day for coach.
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I actually called what happened with Lick. I didn't like the style he was going to bring. I remember thinking it was different then anything we had ever seen. but what finally sold me was his previous record and that Wisconsin developed a pretty similar program. I did want to give him a chance but things just seemed to get worse. Goes to show sometimes gut instincts do work.

My initial reaction of todays hiring was much like that of someone that was just told Billy Toms was hired. Who? I honestly had to research him and then remembered he was mentioned early early on. In doing research and watching him speak today, I have a good feeling. Primarily because of his connections and past success with recruiting, and repeated evidence he can rebuild the right way and more then 2 teams he did it with going tothe NCAA tournament. Then of course the main fact that he is going to restore an up tempo game. Pretty excited to see if all players are going to stay, if we can sway a few prospects this way, and how the game looks feels and final results. So in short, we'll see......... but I'm optimistic.
 
HawkeyeRyno said:
I honestly felt Lickliter lacked confidence and the understanding of what Iowa was (he was more in tune with his "Butler Way") that frightened me the most. But I was glad to see he was different from Alford. Now with Fran, I feel completely different than Lick and even Alford. Fran knows what needs to be done and is already getting started, personable and understands Iowa. Fran is confident but not egotistical like Alford. This just feels better as a whole.
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I completely agree. I always got the feeling from Alford that "I'm really too good to be here" from Lick "I have not a clue what is going on and how I fix it" and from this guy...."I want to be here, my family wants to be here, we understand it's going to be work but we're here to get it done and have faith it can be." He did this in a confident and very much a Midwestern type mentality. I have no doubt he is going to communicate well with boosters, recruits and all that are involved in taking this program in the right direction.
 
Initially I was concerned, and then quickly warmed up to the idea, much like this time. But I like to consider myself a little wiser this time around, and here are the differences I see between Lickliter and McCaffery:

1. McCaffery's teams will run and press, unlike Lick's teams. I.E. More interesting to watch
2. McCaffery will reach out and establish AAU connections and whatever else he can (minus the dirty part of the AAU business) to get recruits
3. McCaffery will play whatever defense etc. is called for by the situation instead of sticking to a principle no matter what (i.e. - We are a man-to-man team. PERIOD. None of that with this coach.)
4. McCaffery relates to his players (having the team over for the NBA draft, for example) and be there for his players
5. McCaffery says he won't bench a player because they make a mistake, and will let them play and learn
6. McCaffery will show fire and intensity on the sidelines
7. McCaffery has spent time (as an assistant) in the Big East, so is familiar with life in a high-major conference, and knows what it means to compete in that type of league

Am I missing anything? I don't think we can say ANY of that for Lickliter. McCaffery seems to be the anti-Lickliter in every sense of the word.

It's easy to say now, with Lickliter bombing out and getting fired, and before McCaffery has coached a single game, but at present, I am liking this hire better than the Lickliter hire, and I feel like there are legit reasons to feel that way.

Will it pan out? I hope so, and time will tell, but I see several things already that I like better about McCaffery as compared to Lickliter.
 
I heard Lick at an I-Club banquet shortly after he was hired and I was impressed. He seemed very cerebral and actually kind of reminded me of Kirk at those events. I don't think I was wrong about him being smart and I think his intelligence might have worked against him. I think that was part of the reason he was so stubborn about making changes to his "system" and not tailoring his system to the roster he had.
 
I was pretty excited actually. I wanted Alford gone going back to the end of Luke and Reggie's senior season and was eager for new blood.
 
I felt that Barta hired Lickliter, in some ways, out of reaction to the experience Iowa had with Alford. For Alford's arrogance, Lickliter was humble. For Alford's lack of being personable, Lickliter seemed like a guy you'd run into at the diner.
I wonder if Fran is not, in some ways, a reaction to the experience Iowa had with Alford.
 
I remember being pretty excited about Lickliter (and was still an adament supporter of him up until the last month of the season). He reminded quite a bit of Ferentz, and I thought that was a good fit. On the other hand, I was just 16 when Lick was hired, so what did I know?

A friend of mine described Coach like this: he's much like Ferentz in that he can clearly articulate his thoughts and plans, with a dash of humor along the way, as well as having a connection with his players. But he also has a bit of Tom Brands in him, with his gametime fire, and his desire to keep former players involved with the program. I thought that was an excellent analysis, and it bodes well. You can't beat combining the best traits from two of the best coaches in the country and putting them into one guy.
 
I was confused at 1st because i didnt know who Lickliter was, then i got on board, then he hired Chad Walthall as his lead asst and i said "that seems weird" but i got fully on board anyways

No matter who the coach is, if you are a fan you are looking for any and all reasons to be optimistic
 
storminspank said:
Here was my first writings on Lickliter:
STORMINSPANK'S HAWKEYE RAMBLINGS: LICKLITER HIRED: Hawk fans, get ready for some S-L-O-W basketball

(Stallings might have been the better choice in hindsight. :) )
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Ended up being the writing on the wall. Stormin warned us three years ago!! My favorite comment from his post was by the man himself:

"No doubt. I am excited to see the Lickliter era start, for sure. Let's hope Lick can bring in some decent recruits and restore passion to the Iowa BB fan base...I hope we see more up and down action than the stats suggest."

...uh...well Stormin didn't get his wish...;)
 
busabus114 said:
I was confused at 1st because i didnt know who Lickliter was, then i got on board, then he hired Chad Walthall as his lead asst and i said "that seems weird" but i got fully on board anyways

No matter who the coach is, if you are a fan you are looking for any and all reasons to be optimistic
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I agree 100% with your last line there. Fortunately, it seems that we don't have to look too hard to find what feels like 100 reasons to be optimistic about Coach!
 
tm3308 said:
I agree 100% with your last line there. Fortunately, it seems that we don't have to look too hard to find what feels like 100 reasons to be optimistic about Coach!
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I just remember being incredibly underwhelmed. I for one did not have the hatred for Alford that many around here had, but I also grew up around the Barry Collier experiment at UNL. Then Lick went out and assembled the least qualified coaching staff in the nation which is when I officially went oh **** what did Barta do here. Also, all of the hoopla about him being named national coach of the year was one of the dumbest things I have ever seen.

With all of that being said, I love everything that I have heard from Fran so far. I am truly excited for Iowa basketball again which makes me a very happy person. I am not going to get to excited though until he announces his staff here.
 
Remember, this was coming off the Sweet 16 run and pushing the National Champ. That lead to initial optimism. I also like the three ball. However, then people started to be concerned about the pace.

After that, I got concerned about "The Butler Way" talk. In fact, I think I was the first to argue that it was bad form to use such language. It made me question why he left. Then the Butler boards were propping up Stevens and did not seem too unhappy to see Lick or the assistants that left with him go.

Then the final initial concern involved the Walthal hire, which actually might have been his best. But my concern was that he seemed to be really insular and only hired guys in his inner circle. We had gone through that with Alford's first crew. And, I hate to admit it, but I had some concerns about KF not going outside the box with respect to hiring assistants at that time. Remember when that was.

FM's chioce of assistants will say alot. If he does what Lick did, then it might not bode well. But, if he puts together a staff of guys who know this level, then I will be more optimistic.
 
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