Try reading threads from before the season began

[HawkeyesWin]

I just read a bunch of posts from many excited fans at the beginning of this season. Its interesting to look back on those comments with perfect hind site and feel a little nostolgic for what might have been this year.

We had a high expectations for Tucker and the rest of the team and really thought this was the year for us to turn it around. Unfortunately we did turn it around, just not like we thought we would. I sincerely hope the next coach can get us pointing in the right direction.

 

[creslinhawk]

I just read a bunch of posts from many excited fans at the beginning of this season. Its interesting to look back on those comments with perfect hind site and feel a little nostolgic for what might have been this year.

We had a high expectations for Tucker and the rest of the team and really thought this was the year for us to turn it around. Unfortunately we did turn it around, just not like we thought we would. I sincerely hope the next coach can get us pointing in the right direction.

There were also a lot of people calling for 3 big ten wins....

 

[JonDMiller]

I said 3-5 Big Ten wins and 9-11 overall wins

 

[HawkeyesWin]

I said 3-5 Big Ten wins and 9-11 overall wins

Fair point and kudos for being accurate (I wish you had missed the mark) but there are a lot of fans pretty excited about this year before our team took the court.

 

[JonDMiller]

Fair point and kudos for being accurate (I wish you had missed the mark) but there are a lot of fans pretty excited about this year before our team took the court.

It's human nature to be optimistic. It's Hawkeye fan nature to be optimistic. I usually am. I was at the end of last year...right up until Kelly left, and then Peterson. Then I began to mentally brace myself for what I thought could be the worst season in Iowa history..and after the first game, a loss at home to Texas San Antonio, I mostly checked out in the hope department.

 

[ICHAWK]

I said 3-5 Big Ten wins and 9-11 overall wins

I predicted 5 Big Ten wins and 14 overall wins......

I don't understand people who predicted 1-0 Big Ten wins. Do people not remember how TERRIBLE Indiana was last year? They won 1 game and I did not see Iowa being as bad as they were. I did not understand the 18+ win predictions either. My fear of lack of a play maker came true and Iowa just struggled to score consistently.

That is why 2010-2011 scares me. Who is the play maker?

 

[glidinghawk]

I think I predicted 7 Big Ten wins.

GlidingHawk

 

[ColumbusHawk]

How about storminspank's eight part series on why Iowa would be better this year & his prediction that Lickliter would be in the running for Big Ten Coach of the Year!

The sad thing is that if nobody transfers & all the recruits honor their letter-of-intent, Iowa probably be no better than a ninth place team next year. Actually, they will, in all likelyhood, be picked to finish lower.

 

[npbed]

I said 3-5 Big Ten wins and 9-11 overall wins

Jon,

We all knew it was going to be a tough season with how young the team was. My question is if you knew that they would have 3-5 big ten wins and 9-11 total wins and then they lived up to that expectation, why would you be calling for the coaches head when they meet your expectations. We all knew it was going to be a difficult season, what I hate about our fan base is that when we have a tough season we have very little patience. Lickliter's era was disappointing, but I think IF he could have kept the team and the recruits together he was building exactly what we want at Iowa. A solid coach and teacher of the game that did things the right way with kids we wanted to support. IF important cogs were 100% going to leave if he stayed then I understand the decision by Barta. Though disappointing, after 9 player defections in three years, a Lickliter recruit and another starter leaving signals real problems.

I was just disappointed to hear you calling for his head. By the way, anyway you and deace want to present it, failing to support your team because you don't like "the product" is the definition of fair weather. I don't have a problem with fair weather fans, but you can't be "die-hard" and fair weather at the same time. I do like listening to your show because I like local hawkeye talk in the morning. But I turn to mike and mike whenever you say "in regards to" or deace tries to emphasize his point by saying it three times. Sometimes I barely get on the highway.

 

[PlanoHawk]

was there really excitement about this years' team at the beginning of the season?! i mean, i've only been on here a few weeks... but really?! i understand being optimistic, but wow. i understand the expecation of improvement... ok i'm done...lol!

 

[HAWKEY3]

Jon,

We all knew it was going to be a tough season with how young the team was. My question is if you knew that they would have 3-5 big ten wins and 9-11 total wins and then they lived up to that expectation, why would you be calling for the coaches head when they meet your expectations. We all knew it was going to be a difficult season, what I hate about our fan base is that when we have a tough season we have very little patience.

I believe that even for the fans going into the season expecting a pretty dismal record, nobody was prepared for the horrendous beatings we took at the end of the season. Compound that with the additional threat of player defection and popular sentiment shifted within a span of a couple of weeks.

I really wanted Iowa to show some life to round out the admittedly poor year. Instead they were decimated by Wisconsin and Minnesota by historic proportions. Not really anything you can blame on fan patience. The season ended in a train wreck.

 

[ICHAWK]

Jon,

We all knew it was going to be a tough season with how young the team was. My question is if you knew that they would have 3-5 big ten wins and 9-11 total wins and then they lived up to that expectation, why would you be calling for the coaches head when they meet your expectations. We all knew it was going to be a difficult season, what I hate about our fan base is that when we have a tough season we have very little patience. Lickliter's era was disappointing, but I think IF he could have kept the team and the recruits together he was building exactly what we want at Iowa.


If this was year 1, I would totally agree with you. The issue is this is year three, and just because some of us predicted a tough year does not mean the struggles were acceptable. We can debate who's fault the whole situation is, in my opinion Lick could have done a bit more to try to make the best of what he had (EX. deciding to play zone against Michigan in the final game he coached at Iowa despite playing Michigan 2+ times per year for 3 years)

I looked up Iowa's 22 loss's and the other team had an average largest lead of 19.64 points. That means in the 22 loss's Iowa averaged being down 19.64 points at some point in the game during each loss. That is absolutely brutal.

I was all for giving Lick a 4th year, but I had no confidence a 4th year was going to result in much more than 15-16 wins tops (depending how many cup cakes were scheduled in the pre season).

I fully understand the firing and I totally understand Jon saying he "did not support the product". It was flat out ugly at times.

 

[JHHawk]

In the preseason, I had Iowa going 11-21 (3-16). I thought we would beat USTA and Duquesne,but lose to IU on the road. Then we lost to USTA and Duquense and I feared we might not win a big ten game. Then IU's and NW's best players got hurt and I had hope again. If Coble and Creek had been healthy, I think we win 1 over IU and 1 over PSU.
The mere fact that many of us expected this disaster does not make it acceptable,just inevitable,after Jake and Jeff took off.
This ship was not going to turn around fast enough with Lick at the helm...his early momentum was blunted by transfers,and once that moment passes, dead coach walking.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

I predicted 5 Big Ten wins and 14 overall wins......

That's pretty much right where I was before the season started. After the first couple games of the season though, I pretty much cut my prediction in half (7-8 wins overall).

 

[atxhawk]

I was off by a game. I said they wouldn't win 10 games.

 

[spudhawk]

I predicted 5 Big Ten wins and 14 overall wins......

I don't understand people who predicted 1-0 Big Ten wins. Do people not remember how TERRIBLE Indiana was last year? They won 1 game and I did not see Iowa being as bad as they were. I did not understand the 18+ win predictions either. My fear of lack of a play maker came true and Iowa just struggled to score consistently.

That is why 2010-2011 scares me. Who is the play maker?

May certainly has the potential. He is very athletic and with a little polish could be the most effective player on this team.

 

[storminspank]

How about storminspank's eight part series on why Iowa would be better this year & his prediction that Lickliter would be in the running for Big Ten Coach of the Year!

The sad thing is that if nobody transfers & all the recruits honor their letter-of-intent, Iowa probably be no better than a ninth place team next year. Actually, they will, in all likelyhood, be picked to finish lower.

Actually, the series I wrote was Iowa Hoops Will Be Better Than You Think. It was aimed at those that thought Iowa would go winless in the Big Ten (and other expectations around that level). The series was not written to say Iowa will Better (as in better than the year before specifically), that's not what I wrote or what I conveyed in the series.

In regards to the Lickliter BTCOY thing - a lot of people like to continue to bring this up. If you go back and read that thread, I came out and said if Iowa could finish in the middle of the Big Ten, Lickliter should be considered for the Award. I also thought the team had potential to do that. I didn't expect Tucker to flame out again, and I didn't expect Fuller to be hurt most of the non-conference.

I predicted 17 wins, 7 in conf, no postseason. I was wrong.

I expected Iowa to be a below average team this year, but they didn't get to that level. It's not like I was expecting a team to make the postseason, just that I thought they would perform better than most expected. Again, I was wrong. No one is ever going to get them all right. I'm willing to accept that.

 

[ICHAWK]

Actually, the series I wrote was Iowa Hoops Will Be Better Than You Think. It was aimed at those that thought Iowa would go winless in the Big Ten (and other expectations around that level). The series was not written to say Iowa will Better (as in better than the year before specifically), that's not what I wrote or what I conveyed in the series.


Spank- I don't know why people are busting your balls so much....

I totally understood what your series was about. You were trying to give us pesimists a shot in the arm and build some hope. You were basically saying with how much Iowa was missing if Lick got them to middle of the pack it could be looked at as great coaching and worthy of coach of the year in the big ten.

I will agree Aaron Fuller actually played even better than I predicted this year. I thought he had some nice potential watching him as a freshmen, but he was a flat out animal at times during some games during the Big 10 season.

I think my reason for lack of hope was I saw zero play makers on the roster. I did not see Matt Gatens or Anthony Tucker as play makers based on watching them as freshmen. I knew nothing of incoming recruits Cully Payne or Eric May. They ended up not being play makers either hence Iowa struggled. I will admit Eric May was a lot more athletic than I anticipated. I think he was misused last year, it will be interesting to see what the new coach runs and if he can figure out a way to maximize Eric's athletic ability.

 

[OU812]

I agree with your post ICHAWK. Sometimes people just want to bring other guys down. It's easier to be negative and bust on people than to give a compliment when someone is right. I thought Fuller was great this year and hopefully he can get better.