Stormin, what do you know?

Sobiwan said:
I doubt that Mike picked the coach. The thing about last years team and Matt is that the team was very cliquey (is that even how you spell that?). Anyway Matt, and I believe, Tucker were making it hard on the incoming freshmen and basically running the team as if it was their team to run. You have to wonder where were the team captains Cole and Fuller were in all this. Maybe part of the problem or since Fuller is transfering maybe he was in the wrong clique and not supported in his efforts to get team unity. Anyway, this is some of what has been hinted at. I'm just retelling what has been said before. Maybe Spank can fill in the rest of the story.
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Fuller wasn't a captain.
 
2boys said:
Can we please stop the Gatens talk? Seriously, it's a huge accusation that many of you are making with ZERO FACTS that you are bringing to the table. It's very unfortunate people are going down this road and even more unfortunate that mods have started most of this.

I'm sure there is turmoil on the team. If you have ever been around a team that LOOSES, then there is going to be dissension. It goes with the territory, as loosing is very difficult, especially for kids who have very successful high school careers and haven't experienced much loosing in their lives.

There is ONE person to blame for this and that is Lick. This is the mess he created...plain and simple.
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I agree that blindly blaming a player on the team with no info is dangerous. As you said when a team only wins 10 games over the course of a year you are going to have players looking to point fingers at someone other than themselves. Coach Fran should be a breath of fresh air for these kids and a sign of change, or a chance to start over.

I played a college sport and there were several guys on the team that didn't get along with each other, it happens all over and isn't anything new, in saying that it's up to the coach to make sure when a team is on the field, court, or between the lines everybody is on the same page and is working together. After that it really doesn't matter who hangs out with who and such.

It isn't a secret that winning is a huge part of taking care of the small relationship riffs that can come up with any team, hopefully each and every player on the roster takes a good look in the mirror and looks at what they can do to make the team better which will help give the team a chance to win more games.
 
2boys said:
Can we please stop the Gatens talk? Seriously, it's a huge accusation that many of you are making with ZERO FACTS that you are bringing to the table. It's very unfortunate people are going down this road and even more unfortunate that mods have started most of this.

I'm sure there is turmoil on the team. If you have ever been around a team that LOOSES, then there is going to be dissension. It goes with the territory, as loosing is very difficult, especially for kids who have very successful high school careers and haven't experienced much loosing in their lives.

There is ONE person to blame for this and that is Lick. This is the mess he created...plain and simple.
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I've alluded to the situation myself based on what I've read/heard, but I think you make a very good point. It will not help anything if fans get the idea in their head that a player or his family are somehow to blame for the meltdown of this program. No matter what any individual player is rumored to have done or said, it should not and would not have had a major impact (and I'm not saying it did) if we had good leadership at the top of the program.

I believe we have good leadership now. We all ought to let go of the rumors and let it be at this point. Thanks for the reminder.
 
storminspank said:
Some of the stuff you have touched on is true on different levels.

Basically what I have been eluding to is that there are internal issues with players on the team. I think it had a tremendous impact on Fuller leaving, and is having the same sort of impact on some of the other rumors around involving other current players. Lickliter could not put out the fire that was started (although I don't think his approach was the way to go either). This why I had been saying in the past that the #1 thing Fran needed to do upon arriving at as Iowa's coach was to find a way to solve the internal issues... he needed to find a way to keep everyone that was worth keeping, on board. He missed on Fuller.

In regards to the assistants, I have no doubt in my mind if Walthall had been retained, Brust would have come out today saying he is a Hawkeye. I don't think that is a reason in itself to keep an assistant on the staff, but it tells you the type of relationship Chad had with this incoming class.

Lickliter himself being fired isn't/wasn't enough to deter the recruits or current players from remaining with the program. The way it all went down was unsettling to them and only helped to bring more issues internally...
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It really is an absolute shame how bad Lickliter let things get. That guy let his program and team become a mess of the worst kind. He did NOTHING to address it and we are now seeing how bad it really got internally.

Lickliter should be embarrassed and ashamed with how he ran this program/team. Retaining him like you wanted Spank would have been a disaster that set this program back a decade. We are probably looking at 3-5 years currently....Lickliter frankly makes Alford look like a saint in the locker room.
 
iahawk20 said:
It really is an absolute shame how bad Lickliter let things get. That guy let his program and team become a mess of the worst kind. He did NOTHING to address it and we are now seeing how bad it really got internally.

Lickliter should be embarrassed and ashamed with how he ran this program/team. Retaining him like you wanted Spank would have been a disaster that set this program back a decade. We are probably looking at 3-5 years currently....Lickliter frankly makes Alford look like a saint in the locker room.
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That's going a little far. Alford supported a rapist. Lickliter left the program in worse shape than when Alford left, but Alford and Bowlsby didn't leave a situation really designed to succeed, either.
 
I agree that the slate needs to be wiped clean and Coach Fran needs to be given the space and TIME to get this right.

I'm not troubled one bit losing players from a team that compiled the worst three-year record in Iowa history or recruits who committed to the coach and staff who were responsible for it.

Let the rebuilding begin.
 
I'm looking forward to watching Coach McCaffery and the hawks next year. I'm hoping that everything gets straightened out in the wash. I'm also very excited about the possibilities of the recruits that Coach will bring in. I've been glued to my iPhone watching the boards waiting for new news! Go get 'em Coach!!!
 
unfortunately, I heard a few things about Gatens from a good source too. Matt felt he should have been more of a focus in the offense and his dad was getting involved adding to things. Obviously this has caused some issues with chemistry with his teammates this year and at times showed on the court. Hopefully the team can get things figured out, be a team and get things back on track.
 
continued from my prior post- I'm not trying to blame Matt, just stating what I know. I think everyone on the team needs to do their part to make this better and that does start with the leadership at the top. I'm all for supporting coach & giving him a chance to get this turned around!
 
chr4hwks said:
unfortunately, I heard a few things about Gatens from a good source too. Matt felt he should have been more of a focus in the offense and his dad was getting involved adding to things. Obviously this has caused some issues with chemistry with his teammates this year and at times showed on the court. Hopefully the team can get things figured out, be a team and get things back on track.
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Ahh the good sources BS...sorry but that is what I am going to have to call it...seems to me this is just more rumors being spewed out...if you don't have facts and all you are going off is a so called source keep the crap to yourself and stop with the rumors! :mad:
 
So a player thinks he should be more of the focus of the offense is shattering news? Good grief, you do realize that MOST EVERY player at a D1 school was the focal point of the offense in junior high and high school right? That is ALL that they know. It is the coach's job to COMMUNICATE with these players and convince them that playing roles on the team is in the best interest of EVERYONE.

These young kids have big ego's and that is one of the reasons they are all very good players. It is a LACK OF LEADERSHIP BY LICK that let this type of thing infiltrate the entire team. Throw in loosing most every game on top of it and you're going to have infighting amongst the team.

The blame is 100% LICKS and that is where the buck should stop on this. It will be Fran's job to repair the bridges and most likely, it will take a cast of new players to make this happen. Which is also why players leaving now is a much better thing for the long term health of our program.

Please stop blaming Gatens or his father for any of this. As they say, the buck stops at the top and that was Lick.
 
For the record, I am just stating that there are some internal issues and Fran needs to fix them. The fault/blame can be passed around to many people in this case.
 
I haven't heard anything about Gatens, but certainly he looks like a troublemaker - his dour countenance on the court screams that he's a cancer in the clubhouse.

See, there's nothing to it. Spew some bs like the above on the internet, and some dope will mistake it for fact.

Let's stop with the madness about blaming Gatens or any other player. Unless something gets revealed and confirmed by insiders, it's us fans, spreading stuff like this, that become the cancer in the clubhouse - a self-inflicted wound.
 
chr4hwks said:
unfortunately, I heard a few things about Gatens from a good source too. Matt felt he should have been more of a focus in the offense and his dad was getting involved adding to things. Obviously this has caused some issues with chemistry with his teammates this year and at times showed on the court. Hopefully the team can get things figured out, be a team and get things back on track.
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You have to be careful with sources though. I personally know players on the team. I also know people who know people on the team. It's amazing how many different accounts I have heard of what transpired over the last 6 months. Sources have a tendency to be biased. Especially those who are involved in the situation. What I have learned is there really are no reliable sources when it comes to a situation like this.

All we really know is that there was major chaos within this team and Lick is the one responsible for it. I said from the beginning that FM's first responsiblity would be to break up the cliques and unite this team in any way possible. If that means losing players, so be it.

And people who actually think Mike Gatens had anything to do with this hire are really grasping at straws.
 
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Bottom line, Lick had lost this team well before this season started. It is really becoming clear he had no business coaching at Iowa and was way over his head. I'm confident this staff will right the ship.
 
storminspank said:
For the record, I am just stating that there are some internal issues and Fran needs to fix them. The fault/blame can be passed around to many people in this case.
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Yes and they are Lickliter and his staff. Sorry, this ALL falls squarely on them...every coach around the country has issues like this and most are able to solve them without things getting out of control.

Lick not only was not able to solve them but he was part of the problems and his lack of being able to relate to his team was a huge factor in this process going so far out of control we still have complete chaos even after him being run out of town.

Lickliter is something else...and not in a good way.
 
burky247 - I agree, there probably are different perspectives over what has transpired. I didn't mean for it to come across that Gatens is the main reason for the internal issues and shouldn't have singled out or specifically noted Matt in my post. The buck stops at the coach and lickliter wasn't getting it done. I'm ready for FM to get things turned around!
 
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