Very good piece on Tucker/Situation from Rob Howe

Obviously the PP situation is not hampering this year's team. It was a situation that alienated some fans...possibly even lots of fans. But as we saw under Alford after Pierce was gone...fans are willing to come out and watch good basketball. One thing I think Alford was wrong about is...the U of I is no more of a football school than a basketball school we just need a watchable product. I do agree with Jon's assessment that the basketball crowd is aging and that is having an impact...but I believe that eventually that will be a good thing for Iowa if we can get this thing turned around before we completely lose an entire generation of basketball fans. Could you imagine CHA with people who will actually stand and cheer sitting in the lower half of the stadium with a good team on the court?

I also think the fanbase is partly to blame for many reasons - not the least of which is that you need to realize what a huge part of a program the fanbase is and when we are leaving CHA empty because of rumors about free lawnmowers and try to hold grudges against a coach it's no wonder we (the fans) have run out nearly every decent basketball coach this school has had. I don't envy Lickliter for having the tough task of rejuvenating a program with very little fan support...what does he have to show recruits to attract them to IC?

Lastly, I absolutely will not buy that Lickliter was handed over a program that was in a poor state...go back and look at the roster that was handed over to Lickliter:

Tony Freeman JR
Justin Johnson SR
Tyler Smith SO
Cyrus Tate JR
Seth Gorney SR

Incoming Freshman from Alford:
Jake Kelly FR
Jarryd Cole FR
Jeff Peterson FR

Add David Palmer SO to the mix...and you've got a pretty good team with a good mix of young talent and veteran leadership. Say what you want...but I think Smith sticks around if Alford stays...so at least a small part of that is on Lickliter for not being able to keep him around.
 
What a great article.

This needs to be stickied and referred too anytime - which is daily- discussions over Lickliters job status come up.


I respect the consistency of holding coaches accountable.


Under Alford, every minor or major problem was laid before Alford's feet. A kid failed a class, it was Alfords fault. A kid didn't develop, it was Alford's fault. if a kid had his shoelace untied, it was Alford's fault.

Lickliter- because he IS A GOOD COACH- and A GOOD PERSON- has gotten a little bit of slack IMO. The heat has been turned up immensely, but not many were blaming Lick for Tuck's academic problems like Alford would have been blamed.

This article is dead on. Great perspective. 100% accurate.
 
Al Davis is responsible for the best quote ever uttered in the history of sports.

"JUST WIN BABY!"


Winning cures everything.

It's the only thing that will matter. Not progress, not moral victories, not one win at home against a ranked opponent, not playing well for one half against an impressive texas team.


JUST WIN BABY.
 
My apathy for the bball program didn't start until the new staff got to town. I do not enjoy the boring style of basketball. I think blaming the attendance issues on Alford is short sighted as I for one (and most people I know) used to attend games regularly when Alford was the coach and lost interest when I realized that the new staff has no interest in recruiting athletes and running a system that is entertaining to watch.
 
sdol said:
My apathy for the bball program didn't start until the new staff got to town. I do not enjoy the boring style of basketball. I think blaming the attendance issues on Alford is short sighted as I for one (and most people I know) used to attend games regularly when Alford was the coach and lost interest when I realized that the new staff has no interest in recruiting athletes and running a system that is entertaining to watch.
Click to expand...



Winning is entertaining.

Hell, they can keep the score in the 40's for all I care- if they WIN.

Lack of talent- mainly our talented players leaving- is more of a problem than the system itself.

I think Lick is a good coach, seems like a really good dude. If he can get some talent and use this system to win, I'm all for it!
 
First, since Lichliter is the CEO of Men's Basketball and CEOs are held accountable for bad business . . . wha . . .

Seems I have heard that a few banks, insurance companies, car companies, etc. the last year getting bailed out with billions of taxpayer dollars while still collecting big, fat checks while screwing up what they were responsible for.

Iowa MBB program is like one of those international banks, insurance/car companies. Throw more taxmoney at it and more bennies for the CEO. It'll work.

* * * * *

Second, I'm just a little sick-and-tired of reading that 20 year-olds are "kids." They are not.

20 year-olds shooting a weapon in Afghanistan = men
20 year-olds shooting a basketball in a college gym = kids

Eh, maybe it makes sense after all.
 
iahawk20 said:
Yeah those 25 wins in 2006 and being in the top 25 for national attendence were real killers when Lickliter came in.

Iowa basketball was light years ahead of this under Alford. Never thought I would say that! Lickliter has not improved the iowa basketball program in any single way. Not one.
Click to expand...

The stage was set when Alford left. Had Alford stayed his teams probably would not have been any better than Lickliters teams the past couple of years. Attendance was on the way down too, under Alford.
 
Regardless of what you think about the two coaches...there is no questioning that this program would be miles ahead of where it is right now had Alford not left and there is no question that the team Alford would currently have on the court would be selling out CHA. This would be a top 25 team in the best conference in America if Alford were still the coach.

Fans always want to hold coaches and players accountable for their actions...fans who feel they have a responsibility to run a coach out of town and took it upon themselves to run Alford out need to stand up and be counted for what they've done to this Iowa basketball program.
 
I have a hard time figuring out in most transfer situations where to assign blame but as Jon said, after a while the culmination of many transfers becomes "The Elephant in the Corner." I think that's a reasonable statement. At some point, no matter the reasons for the defections the numbers become too large to ignore.

Fans show less and less when the team fails to win, that's a given. When the team struggles and the fans fall off recruiting becomes tougher and tougher and unfortunately so does player retention.

With all of this said I still believe that it is ultimately the job of the Coach and the University to put together a good product and draw fans. If it takes gimmicks to get it off the ground then give us gimmicks. If it takes moving the students , then move them, new practice facility, then fund raise like hell and get it done. As a coach if it means changing up your style a bit then get after it, if you are at this level you had better know how to win more than just one way.

All of this, whether you happen to agree with me or not, brings us right back to our currently broken program and at the key question what is it going to take to fix it? Personally I haven't lost hope that Lickliter can correct the problem and coach a winning team here but I think I have lost faith in the fans returning until full scale changes are made. for the record I don't see that happening this year and I don't see us winning enough next season to appease the masses. Getting better? Absolutely just not better enough.

If / when changes are made, I certainly hope the fans return right away no matter what type of team we expect on the court. I really miss Iowa basketball in the winter. I still watch like I always have, I just miss the excitement of the program. Done with my rant and probably haven't said anything new.
 
HawKCP said:
Regardless of what you think about the two coaches...there is no questioning that this program would be miles ahead of where it is right now had Alford not left and there is no question that the team Alford would currently have on the court would be selling out CHA. This would be a top 25 team in the best conference in America if Alford were still the coach.

Fans always want to hold coaches and players accountable for their actions...fans who feel they have a responsibility to run a coach out of town and took it upon themselves to run Alford out need to stand up and be counted for what they've done to this Iowa basketball program.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how you could think this personally. If there was ever a coach who got less out of more it would have been Alford. The two most disappointing things in my basketball life were the waste of a year in 2001-2002. That team had no business winning 5 big team games, should have won 15 Big10 games. Then losing first round in the NCAA's in 2006. Mr. Davis wins first round games in his sleep, and Alford can't get a 3rd seed up to the task......

Those who ran THIS coach out of town need to stand up and be counted....9 NCAA appearances in 13 years. 13-9 NCAA tourney record, with 2 sweet 16 appearances. Yeah I'm talking Mr. Davis

Running this guy....3 NCAA appearances in 8 years with a 1-3 tourney record, was overdue. Remember he was brought in to get us PAST the sweet 16 and into the elite 8, as Mr. Davis and the sweet 16 were not good enough for folk. This isn't even talking about Alford personally, he just didn't do the job he was hired to do, period, end of story. Sorry to burst your fantasy world with facts. The fans had nothing to do with running Alford, it was his performance that did that.
 
Alford was 'run' out of town? When he made overtures to Missouri and left on his own to New Mexico, he was 'run' out of town? I think his ego had taken a hit and he was looking for a new opportunity. Good for him and good for us in my opinion.
 
JonDMiller said:
I think a good number of people disconnected from the program over the Pierre Pierce issues. And then save for one season, they haven't had a compelling reason to come back that outweighs their realizing they could live without going to games.

It's going to take winning, consistently, before people return consistently
Click to expand...


AMEN.....and the fact is - Todd Lickliter is NOT the coach that will win consistently and return fans to the seats!!!!
 
Alfraud left because he knew that his talent level was dropping and he wouldn't be able to live up to expectations here. despite that he has so many wins this year so far the year isn't over. How did his conference tourneys do in the last two years and how bout his NCAA tourneys at New Mexico? Oh yeah he didn't get selected for the NCAA either year.
Tyler Smith would have headed back to Tennessee anyway.
Also, lest we forget that the Big10 network started up, which has turned into a cash cow, but between it feuding with Mediacom and the consistent 6pm time slots on weeknights, no one could watch them on TV or make it to a weeknight game in time for tip off.
That more than anything else set the stage for our current fan apathy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top