Talk about a turning point...

F

FreddyBrown

Moderator
That term has been thrown around here a lot the pasts several weeks, but I don't think I've seen such a sea change among attitudes toward the program based on one game as I've seen since Michigan.

I think the Illinois game will be telling as to the health of this program in a lot of respects, both on and off the court. I think the setup for that game in terms of both psychology and schedule, is such that it could and should produce the Hawks' best effort of the season. We should be able to clearly see it on the court. I think we will see it and the Hawks will win.

If they do, how will that affect the currect tidal wave of negativity?

On the other hand, if they don't win, and more importantly if we don't see a supreme effort by the team tomorrow night, what might that tell us about the state of the program? What will this place be like if that happens?

That last question is the only one to which I think there's a clear answer.
 
Freddy, we live in an instant gratification world right now. If Iowa wins tomorrow, the board will be quiet until the next loss takes place, and then it's more "hire keno" rhetoric.
 
knighthawk13 said:
Freddy, we live in an instant gratification world right now. If Iowa wins tomorrow, the board will be quiet until the next loss takes place, and then it's more "hire keno" rhetoric.
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Actually the board wont be quiet - the apologists will resurface and call out the haters. The haters will remain quiet until the 30 point loss happens at OSU on Sunday. After that beat down the haters will resurface and the apologists will remain quiet until something good happens

Rinse. Repeat
 
A win over a so-so Illinois program at home would be nice but still would not change my opinion (nor the opinion of 99 out of 100 Hawk fans) who want to see a change at the top ... Playing Illinois close at home or even notching a win against an average Illinois team is nice, but seeing us place one good game, then two bad games, one good game, two bad games, etc ... equates to having an average team ... Most Hawk fans expect more and they should ... Lick is getting an awful lot of coin to lead this program and in Year No. 3 he has underperformed without a doubt
 
Instant gratification? It's not like Iowa has been relevant lately. Other than the horner brunner haluska team that lost in the NCAA first round there hasn't been much to cheer about since march of 2001. I would not call this instant gratificAtion. The highs and lows are likely a byproduct of the fans desperately wanting something to feel good about again related to Iowa basketball

as Iowa fans we used to have one of the shortest offseason of any school in the nation. Football came on the radar in august then hoops took us through march along with wrestling then spring football

mid April to late July was our offseason. Or a little more than three months. We still have wrestling but that is not as popular as basketball. The offseasons are really, really long now. We need diversions during the long and cold winters.

Instead we have below average basketball.
 
I think it was Freddy Brown who mentioned Bobby Hansen's remarks after the OSU game that winning all 4 remaining home games should be the goal. At that time I said I would take winning 3 of 4 as a good sign.

Then came the Michigan game. That one really took the wind out of my sails. However, I'm going to give my last ounce of optomisim and stay with my previous statment that regardless of what happens at the away games, if we win 3 or 4 of our remaining home games I will start to feel good about us being on the right track.

I won't jump of the bridge if we lose the Illiniois game, but I'll be pretty darn close.
 
If we can get back to the way we were playing the previous four games I'll accept it for this season and I would like to win 5 Big Ten games. If people wont accept 5 Big Ten wins this year then we should have fired Lickliter after the transfers imo. Getting this years younger/less talented team to the same number of wins (in a tougher B10) as last years team is a small step in the right direction.

Obviously next year we would need to see much bigger strides forward.
 
Any way you cut it, having John Lickliter as Iowa's backup or starting pg is a recipe for disaster for Iowa and Lick. If Lick doesn't sign a pg in the spring and for some reason Cully isn't around for a full season next fall, JL will be the only pg/ball handler on the team. Doesn't that make you feel good?? Not me.
 
I also think this game sets up well for Iowa. Illini have been skimming by with some lucky wins, and just do not play typical Weber defense...so I have the Hawks pulling out a close one ..Iowa 62 Ill 61,with McCamey making everyone scared crapless as he finally misses a shot to win at the buzzer,sending home thousands of orange-clad yahoos quietly questioning if they will be left at the altar on Selection Sunday. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy just contemplating that possibility...GO HAWKS!!
 
FreddyBrown said:
That term has been thrown around here a lot the pasts several weeks, but I don't think I've seen such a sea change among attitudes toward the program based on one game as I've seen since Michigan.

I think the Illinois game will be telling as to the health of this program in a lot of respects, both on and off the court. I think the setup for that game in terms of both psychology and schedule, is such that it could and should produce the Hawks' best effort of the season. We should be able to clearly see it on the court. I think we will see it and the Hawks will win.

If they do, how will that affect the currect tidal wave of negativity?

On the other hand, if they don't win, and more importantly if we don't see a supreme effort by the team tomorrow night, what might that tell us about the state of the program? What will this place be like if that happens?

That last question is the only one to which I think there's a clear answer.
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The Michigan game didn't exactly see a complete 180 on fan sentiment. After the previous few games, there were alot of people acknowledge some improved play, but most people (myself included) were still pretty guarded in their optimism, and not quite ready to take the leap of faith based on a few decent games against mediocre opponents, save MSU.

The team really didn't show up for the Michigan game. It was very much like the Drake game last year after looking terrific against ISU. The fan base was starting to feel good, only to receive a kick in the crotch the next game. We've seen this before.

I'm not sure what you expect people to think when we are 2-7 in the conference.
 
1977Hawkeye said:
I'm not sure what you expect people to think when we are 2-7 in the conference.
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Clearly the number of people who think the program is in trouble has increased more than would have been expected from a single loss, standing alone. Or, at least, more people are openly expressing their concern.

I also think that dynamic has caused a lot of those who were already out for blood to express themselves liberally on the board.
 
Gotta give some of us "haters" credit for sticking with the hate. I absolutely hate the style of basketball Todd Lickliter coaches. I'm not overly impressed buy his recruiting. After two and a half years I still have no idea what people are talking about when they say that we just have to wait until everyone understands the system. What is the system? I'm clueless and I'm pretty sure most of the players are to. On top of all of that its just painful to watch. I love college basketball but this has gotten so bad that its hard for me to enjoy watching other teams play entertaining basketball.
 
FreddyBrown said:
Clearly the number of people who think the program is in trouble has increased more than would have been expected from a single loss, standing alone. Or, at least, more people are openly expressing their concern.

I also think that dynamic has caused a lot of those who were already out for blood to express themselves liberally on the board.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that the majority of the fan base was already concerned about the state of the program before Saturday's game - that is not a recent phenomena. I do think where some hope was starting to bud after a gritty effort against OSU, that there is now also some fresh concern sprouting following the Michigan game. And this is the most posting that I have seen from Jon Miller this season, and none of it is positive.
 
What really tickles me is the fact that 95% of people that spend time here believed that Iowa was going to win 0 or 1 game in Big Ten play this year.

So far, we have 2 wins, which would be 200% better than people that predicted 0 wins and 100% better than those that predicted 1. So by going with those percentages people should be more happy than they thought they'd be right?

One game can make or break a season in terms or momentum, but it is how you respond to the egg that was laid.
 
HawkeyeBBall said:
What really tickles me is the fact that 95% of people that spend time here believed that Iowa was going to win 0 or 1 game in Big Ten play this year.

So far, we have 2 wins, which would be 200% better than people that predicted 0 wins and 100% better than those that predicted 1. So by going with those percentages people should be more happy than they thought they'd be right?

One game can make or break a season in terms or momentum, but it is how you respond to the egg that was laid.
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According to that logic, if you expect to win just 1 conference game, we should be thrilled because the team doubled what was expected... Again, it is not automatically a good season just because a team exceeded expectations. Lower the bar enough, and it's impossible to fail.
 
Since the "crash" I don't remember my exact prediction. I believe I had them at 7-11.

I wasn't saying at all that it has been a good season, but we have been able to show some improvement with an ugly egg on Sunday, but I fully expect the team to turn it around and hopefully win tomorrow evening.
 
DesMoinesHawki said:
A win over a so-so Illinois program at home would be nice but still would not change my opinion (nor the opinion of 99 out of 100 Hawk fans) who want to see a change at the top ... Playing Illinois close at home or even notching a win against an average Illinois team is nice, but seeing us place one good game, then two bad games, one good game, two bad games, etc ... equates to having an average team ... Most Hawk fans expect more and they should ... Lick is getting an awful lot of coin to lead this program and in Year No. 3 he has underperformed without a doubt
Click to expand...

Really? 99% want a change at the top? I guess I'm one of the 1% who doesn't-not yet anyway. Wow, 99%. I didn't realize it was that high.
 
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