The Arms Race in College Basketball - Iowa is losing

ChosenChildren

ChosenChildren

Well-Known Member
To win in college basketball, you must recruit great players. Iowa cannot do that right now for the following reasons:

1. Our arena stinks.
2. Our fans do not come to the games.
3. We have no practice facility.
4. We have no strength training program for basketball.

Iowa appears to be doing something about it:

1. The arena is getting a much-needed facelift.
2. A practice facility will be built.
3. I believe that the strength training program will be upgraded.

Iowa is losing because we have fallen behind in the arms race. Either upgrade your facilities, or die. We are dying. It is not the coach (sorry Lick haters). We can't recruit because we have the worst arena and facilities in the Big Ten. There is nothing to sell potential recruits.
 
I'm pretty sure he would agree with me. College basketball today is a lot different than when he coached at Iowa. Study the facilities of all of the Big Ten teams for basketball, and particularly which schools have new arenas and practice facilities - you will be shocked what you discover.
 
ChosenChildren said:
To win in college basketball, you must recruit great players. Iowa cannot do that right now for the following reasons:

1. Our arena stinks.
2. Our fans do not come to the games.
3. We have no practice facility.
4. We have no strength training program for basketball.

Iowa appears to be doing something about it:

1. The arena is getting a much-needed facelift.
2. A practice facility will be built.
3. I believe that the strength training program will be upgraded.

Iowa is losing because we have fallen behind in the arms race. Either upgrade your facilities, or die. We are dying. It is not the coach (sorry Lick haters). We can't recruit because we have the worst arena and facilities in the Big Ten. There is nothing to sell potential recruits.
Click to expand...

Not really. Ever been to Northwestern for a game? It's a time-machine right back to the 1950s.

But other than that little quibble, I don't disagree with your opinion.
 
Northwestern has three things we do not have:

1. A separate practice facility.
2. A weight program.
3. One of the best academic institutions in the world.

Yes, their arena is worse, but they beat us in every other category.

The other schools are demolishing us.

My point is it is not the coaching, it is the facilities!!

Compare this to what we have spent to upgrade football during the Ferentz era!!!

Alford is right - we are a football school!!!
 
To your points...

ChosenChildren said:
To win in college basketball, you must recruit great players. Iowa cannot do that right now for the following reasons:

1. Our arena stinks.
2. Our fans do not come to the games.
3. We have no practice facility.
4. We have no strength training program for basketball.

Iowa appears to be doing something about it:

1. The arena is getting a much-needed facelift.
2. A practice facility will be built.
3. I believe that the strength training program will be upgraded.

Iowa is losing because we have fallen behind in the arms race. Either upgrade your facilities, or die. We are dying. It is not the coach (sorry Lick haters). We can't recruit because we have the worst arena and facilities in the Big Ten. There is nothing to sell potential recruits.
Click to expand...

1) False. Do you mean that it literally has a bad odor? I've been to 20+ arenas around the nation. CHA is not holding back Iowa. No, it is not as nice as the Kohl Center, but the Kohl Center is nearly new. When there are people there, CHA can be loud and a good place to watch a game.
2) Again false. Until the fanbase was ground into a pulp by a decade-long run of mediocrity, Iowa ranked among the top 15 annually in home attendance. Show me another place that would have packed-out crowds with 2 NCAA appearances and no NCAA wins in a decade.
3) True. A real black eye on the administration for the lack of attention to this. The fact that the men's and women's basketball teams can't practice when convenient for them, and that opposing teams have to be shipped to the North Gym or North Liberty for shootarounds is a problem.
4) False. I believe there is a strength coach for the men's and women's teams. What additional support do they need? I would argue that our strength and condition is good. Guys get stronger and get in better shape (Aaron Fuller is Exhibit A, Cougill is in way better shape than when he came in. he still has a ways to go but he is progressing.) Issue is with teh talent level.
 
ChosenChildren said:
To win in college basketball, you must recruit great players. Iowa cannot do that right now for the following reasons:

1. Our arena stinks.
2. Our fans do not come to the games.
3. We have no practice facility.
4. We have no strength training program for basketball.
Click to expand...

3 and 4) Looks like someone saw the Alford interview . . .

Seriously,
1) I agree. I've never been a fan of CHA.

2) You neglected this one.

a. Since the demand for tickets is so low, in the free market system, wouldn't a business owner lower prices to sell his supply and create interest and eventually demand for his supply and, in the end, loyalty to his business?

b. Iowa is using Big10 tv money as a buffer for BB losses. That'll catch up eventually.

c. Even the BIG$ and corporates can't give their season tickets away to employees, customers, or their kids.

The problem isn't the fans.
 
CHA is a PALACE compared to Williams(thats in Minnesota), and to say CHA stinks clearly demonstrated that you havent visited the other arenas. And, if you really were the expert you think you are, you would also know that Allen Fieldhouse cant hold a candle to CHA, and yet it doesnt hold back KU, does it?
 
I'm no expert, but I have been going to Iowa basketball games since 1963. Carver stinks because the fans are too far away from the floor. The opera seats make the fans comfortable and unwilling to get off of their butts. Carver stinks because there is no home-court advantage.

The Iowa Fieldhouse gave Iowa a home-court advantage. The fans were right on top of the action, similar to Kinnick.

Williams Arena (and yes I have been to games there) is a great fieldhouse, and gives Minnesota a great place to play. It is loud and the fans are right on top of the action.

Did you watch the Purdue-Indiana game tonight? Indiana won one Big Ten game last year, but had 17,000 fans going wild tonight. A great fan base and a great home court advantage.
 
What do you expect Iowa to do? Build a new arena every 10 years to keep up with everyone else? Schools like Wisconsin, Ohio St, and Penn St had very old dumpy arenas and were forced to open new ones recently. They should be better venues than Carver. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with CHA. That is not remotely a factor in our lack of success. Lack of training facilities, yes. That is probably the biggest one. Iowa basketball will be back, and I believe they will under Lick. The guy knows more about basketball than any of us could even pretend to know. He knows and understands this game very well. I am convinced given time he will get this program on track. I'm not happy with how long it has taken, or how much longer it might take, but I know he can get the job done. He'd be the first to admit he's failed up to this point, but he's not a loser and Iowa basketball will be back.
 
I think if you check my posts I have been one of Lickliter's biggest supporters over the past several weeks. I have never said that firing Lickliter is the answer - I think I am in the minority on that one.

We need to get the students closer to the floor and change the seating in Carver to create a home-court advantage. That advantage does not exist right now.

We need a basketball practice facility.

We need the Iowa fans and Iowa students to get behind this program.
 
Here's what is killing Iowa basketball, the last two coaches have hired horrible assistant coaches that had no recruiting connections and had no idea what level of talent they needed to recruit to win at the Big Ten level. Quit making excuses for Lickliter. We have poor talent, Spank has no idea what he is talking about. If Lickliter can recruit better talent they will win more games. Pretty fricking simple. Some of you people are simply ridiculous:D
 
ChosenChildren said:
I think if you check my posts I have been one of Lickliter's biggest supporters over the past several weeks. I have never said that firing Lickliter is the answer - I think I am in the minority on that one.

We need to get the students closer to the floor and change the seating in Carver to create a home-court advantage. That advantage does not exist right now.

We need a basketball practice facility.

We need the Iowa fans and Iowa students to get behind this program.
Click to expand...
The problem is everywhere and with everyone but the most obvious place then?
 
Dodger: Factually, we went to the NCAA tourny 3 times in SA's 8 years and did win an NCAA game in 2001 vs Creighton...just want to give credit to those 3 teams and the players that did make the tourny...two of them won BTT titles also.

Iowa averaged over 15k in 01,02 and 03....and sold out in 02.
Iowa fans will come when we win again.
Recruiting has been the problem. Some of it is facilities but most of it is a novice staff and a coach who did not have a clue about recruiting in a BCS conference.
 
Thank you for the correction...

JHHawk said:
Dodger: Factually, we went to the NCAA tourny 3 times in SA's 8 years and did win an NCAA game in 2001 vs Creighton...just want to give credit to those 3 teams and the players that did make the tourny...two of them won BTT titles also.

Iowa averaged over 15k in 01,02 and 03....and sold out in 02.
Iowa fans will come when we win again.
Recruiting has been the problem. Some of it is facilities but most of it is a novice staff and a coach who did not have a clue about recruiting in a BCS conference.
Click to expand...

one would think I would remember the one NCAA win this decade :)
No doubt the 3 NCAA appearances and two BTT titles look like the good old days compared to the last 4 years.
Would agree that the fans will come out again, and in droves, when the team starts winning again.
 
You can use the four reasons you have given but the PRIMARY reason is that Lickliter brought in inexperienced recruiters and he himself cannot recruit upper level players because of his "SYSTEM."

Those types of players simply do not want to play Lick ball...it is as simple as that. That is why Big lick continues to say that his system does not need star players to compete. It isn't that that the system doesn't need the players...he just cannot recruit the players because they won't play for him.

Matta adjusted his system and he now gets star players. Big lick refuses or cannot adjust his system and continues to flounder and puts a totally unacceptable product on the floor that few Iowans WANT to watch. And all he and Barta can do is offer up excuses as to why we should be patient for another 3 or 4 years and continue to watch this sickening product.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top