Tucker wants to stay @ Iowa...

[HawkeyeWeb]

Please explain precisely how Lick "threw Tucker under the bus".

I agree. I would say it was the other way around. Tucker threw his team under the bus when he messed up the SECOND time!! It's time to move on, Anthony. If any of the current players don't like that then follow Tucker out the door. There is not one player on this team that is bigger than the collective team...including Gatens!

 

[LoewDog]

Wasn't the rumor that Fuller would leave if Lick stayed and as a result Gatens would leave if Fuller did?

All I have ever read is that Gatens and Fuller are wonderful young men.

 

[JHHawk]

These issues will work themselves naturally with the new coach. Some recruits might not come, some current players might leave, but I am hopeful that the players that remain will be the ones that want to stay for the long haul. It will likely be another hard year next year as these problems are resolved.

As for the Tucker situation, wasn't the fact that Tucker was given the silent treatment and this made (some) players unhappy a major reason that most people argued Lickliter should be fired in the first place? It seems disingenuous of these same fans to argue that a new coach should not try to right this wrong, if in fact he could do so.

One thing I do agree on, though, is that Tucker should not expect his scholarship back. You can't give those up and just waltz back in and take them back.

Not for me. My problem with lick was not that Tucker was leaving,in fact, I thought he should be kicked off in Jan.,my problem was with licks poor communication skills. He seemed to want to just avoid the whole decision by putting it off and not even addressing it with the players.
He allowed this to fester,which was just another case of bad leadership.
It was the last straw in a series of personnel situations that he handled poorly,imo. Freeman,Peterson,Davis,Palmer...ect.

Tucker needs to just move on.

 

[storminspank]

Wasn't the rumor that Fuller would leave if Lick stayed and as a result Gatens would leave if Fuller did?

All I have ever read is that Gatens and Fuller are wonderful young men.

For the 100th time, Fuller wasn't involved in what when down in Iowa City.

 

[HawkPrdatr40]

For the 100th time, Fuller wasn't involved in what when down in Iowa City.

Exactly Stormin....

Also, Jon nailed it with the Tucker/Gatens comments...

 

[mthawk00]

Regardless of what happened in the past would Tucker really be a difference maker on this team? Would we win that many more games with him next year? My thought is no, so lets move on. Let the new coach use the scholarship they way he sees fit for the future of the program.

 

[HeneryHawk]

Tucker has blown it four times in my book, drinking, grades, drinking, then quitting his team mid season(although, his previous selfish acts quit on the team too), he needs to go and start over, hopefully cleaning up his life and moving forward.

As for the cliques, that is a very revealing indictment of the lack of communication by Lickliter and the rest of the coaches. To interact with the players, to develop relationships and facilitate team activities/unity is part of the job description, and obviously not what Lickliter & Co were doing. A new coach will have his work cut out for him to end this, build a unified group, develop comradery(esprit de corps), and build a team identity/mission.

 

[hawkeye12345]

As in Kirk Ferentz? Please explain the connection here?

No, as in Ferentz's kid who got busted twice for alcohol and still remained on the football team.

 

[cscwick1]

I am interested in what people have to say about Ferentz vs Tucker as well...It seems pretty obvious a lot of people say Tucker needs to go with the alcohol violations but once the thread came up about Ferentz it seems people are avoiding the topic...Personally to me a majority of college students COULD get caught twice for alcohol so to kick someone off the team is definately debatable...but to say Tucker definately needs to go but Ferentz is a different story makes me go hmmmm...Thoughts...

 

[IAJay]

I don't think it is any secret of the division amongst the freshman and sophomore classes. I would be at the games very early and Gatens wouldn't even talk to the freshman, and it just looked like a very uncomfortable situation on the court. I have always been about as pro Gatens as I could, but it seems like a lot of this drama revolves around the Gatens/Tucker clique.

If the coach brings Tucker back, I will also be in the crowd that is super ****** and this is not what the new coach needs from a recently fractured fan base.

 

[HaydensHawk]

Playing PG for Lick will drive just about anybody to the booze. I think Tucker is a decent kid that didn't have much guidance at Iowa. Some kids need it more than others..

 

[BAVISHAWK]

Originally Posted by Billso
Please explain precisely how Lick "threw Tucker under the bus"

I think Tucker should move on, but not speaking or communicating with your player for over 5 weeks is Totaly Unacceptable!!! Lickliter did not even have the b*lls to anounce it to the team that Tucker was leaving, he ignored it.

 

[blkngoldUofI]

Tucker has made his bed over and over and over again and needs to lie in it and suffer the consequnces for his actions. If he would have gutted it out the rest of the season and make his move after the season this wouldn't be an issue. He could have stayed on scholly at Iowa and played basketball for the next coach. But in typical Tucker fashion he put himself and his needs in front of everyone else. Alcohol, grades, alcohol again and now hw wants his spot on the team bacK? Kid must think Iowa owes him instead of the other way around.

 

[JoeHawki]

Tucker essentially quit on the team by his request. Whether he was "forced" out or not, he could see the writing on the wall with Lick. Everyone new it was only a matter of time and Lick would be gone, so if Tucker was so interested in staying with the Hawks why didn't he ride it out and wait to start fresh with a new head coach. He has burned his bridge, and I don't think that any new coach worth his salt is going to go out on a limb this early in his tenure for a kid he didn't recruit, coach, and otherwise has no loyalties to, considering the baggage that Tucker brings with him. It would be best for AT and the Iowa program to get fresh starts without each other.

At the time that Tucker quit, Barta was on record that he was firmally in licks corner, and that lick was his guy. if i am a 19/20 year old guy, and i know i have done my part to get back on the team, and i am not playing anymore, i have a meeting wiht my coach to see what else i can do to get playing time. He had that meeting, and did not like the answer he got , so he felt to continue his basketball career, he felt it needed to transfer. I don't blame him. I am not excussing what he did, but he paid the price. I was very angry when he pulled this garbage, becasue he quit on his team, before he literally quit on them. But i think wwe all know from past history with Lick, that tucker was never going to minutes in games this season. if he did it would have been a minute here a minute there.

If the coach and tucker decide he needs to move on, i am fine with that. I can live with that. I think they just need to sit and talk before anything is decided. The one thing though i want to clarify is that i think he should walk on next season, and prove himself, and earn his scholly back.

 

[JoeHawki]

In tweets reacting to Lick's termination Roy Marble Jr. referred to Iowa as being a "clicky" place, suggesting it was the Gatens clique that got Lick fired. The new coach is going to have a lot of work to do. But I will say that a strong leader will be respected by those he is leading and there can be no place for cliques.

Marble being the new kid on the block, is not going to get off on the right foot, with the teams leader and now an upper classman with comments like that. New comers should keep the mouth quiet, and get inline.

 

[IAJay]

Marble being the new kid on the block, is not going to get off on the right foot, with the teams leader and now an upper classman with comments like that. New comers should keep the mouth quiet, and get inline.

Why? Why would you just fall in line with a team that is turning into two separate teams? The worst thing in basketball is a team that is less talented AND doesn't get along, so I would be worried if I was coming to Iowa as well.

 

[SBHawk]

Marble being the new kid on the block, is not going to get off on the right foot, with the teams leader and now an upper classman with comments like that. New comers should keep the mouth quiet, and get inline.

If what is said about cliques on the team is true (which I have no idea if they are) and Gatens being a part of one of the cliques, then he is not a team leader. He is one of the teams problems.

 

[rkhemp]

Please explain precisely how Lick "threw Tucker under the bus".

He didn't. He even went to bat for him.

 

[rkhemp]

Please explain precisely how Lick "threw Tucker under the bus".

No, as in Ferentz's kid who got busted twice for alcohol and still remained on the football team.

Oh, the one who has been suspended twice and hasn't played a game in his career. I see. I bet James quit as well.

 

[tm3308]

So if these were two parking or jaywalking tickets, should they also kick him off the team so it didn't get ugly and embarrassing?

A parking ticket is not the same as getting so wasted (while underage, to boot) that you're found passed out in an alley and need your stomach pumped. Then he's academically ineligible, and then he gets busted for drinking again. And the rumors in Iowa City were that even after his second offense, he was still downtown quite often. The kid never learned a damn thing, and that's something we don't need.