Worthless SA has NM up to 6 on RPI

I'd rather make the NCAA Tournament and lose, rather than sit with a 6 - 7 win season.

Todd Lickliter is a terrible coach for us, he needs to go back to Butler.
 
1977Hawkeye said:
This is going to be another point of disagreement, but this is the $64000 question: Is Lickliter to be completely excused of all responsibility for "1/3 of his roster walking out the door" and just chalk it up to his being dealt a bad hand? Or should he be held to SOME sort of standard to work with what he has rather than trying to fit square pegs into round holes, and keep players in the program? You could just as easily argue that Lickliter nudged a lot of these players out the door because they weren't his type of players. Freeman for example. At the time, the talk I heard sounded like it was basically "Play my way or you don't play. It doesn't matter that you just led the team in scoring."

This team is young, inexperienced, and has no depth, because for one reason or another, Lickliter has been unabled to retain the players necessary to have upperclassmen, and the depth you speak of. This factor, and the transfers, go hand-in-hand IMO. You have to either blame Lickliter for both, or excuse him for both. Clearly, you are in the latter camp, I am in the former.

Regarding expectations for this year - I understand what you are saying, but low expectations still don't excuse poor results, do they? What if this is happening two years from now and the team still is expected to be bad? There comes a point where we have to stop saying "Well, we all knew the team would be awful this year, so don't be upset because that's what is happening." The question is: At what point should that be?
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Of course not, but it's worth noting that none of the players that left were his recruits. Maybe some of them didn't like the style of ball that he plays, and that's a fair enough point. Either way, I'll fall into your "camp" if there are defections after this season.

That wasn't meant as a slam, but I'm just trying to point out that everything isn't as black and white as people want it to be. I don't think anyone is really in either camp or sees things in as black and white a fashion as they might present here.

No they don't, but they should make it a bit easier to stomach. That sounds like a ****** thing to say, but that's how I see it. I want to see Iowa return to contending just as much as the next guy, but it should have been obvious to everyone. Regardless of your opinion as to why, this is a young team.

Assuming everyone comes back, I don't expect this team to be awful next year. I don't expect them to be great, but I would expect them to be a lot better. If that isn't the case and we're still seeing the same kind of basketball that we're seeing right now, then I'm all for Lickliter being shown the door.
 
AZmess said:
No its not.
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Yes, it is.

kimjongbooboo.jpg
 
I'm not surprised at all that Alford has the New Mexico program rolling in the right direction. Watching him at Iowa, I thought he really matured as a coach his last two seasons here. Bringing in Craig Neal had a lot to do with this, but I thought his best coaching job at Iowa was his last season here with that Haluska and Tyler Smith team. I'm not sure it ever would have worked out at Iowa as too many fans had already judged him and become disinterested in the program but I think he could be one of the top coaches in the country before his coaching career is over.
 
Sounds like we have a lot of Lobo fans on the Hawkeye board and a lot of guys with man crush on SA. Like shada has stated SA was in contact with NM while still employed at Iowa. He was the one openly looking to move on after he was told to win or your going to see the door. I'm not happy with where the program is but if Lick was fired today or at the end of the year it would only set the program back another 5 years. The practice facility is on it's way along with a nice recruiting class that is going to provide a lot of what is missing. The program needs to have kids that want to be Hawks and realize that it is a rebuilding process but at the end of the day they will leave a legacy that many Hawk fans will remember for years to come. Sorry to say but it is going to take time.
 
Drop the mid major crap... RPI takes that into consideration. They are a decent team at a school that would be tough to recruit to.
 
blkngoldUofI said:
I'm not happy with where the program is but if Lick was fired today or at the end of the year it would only set the program back another 5 years.
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I'm not sure where you are coming up with that 5 years?

IMO, A new coach (assuming he is the right guy) could come in and get a good recruiting class or two and have us playing much more competetive by the third year. I didn't necessarily say an NCAA tournament team, but you should see quite a bit of improvement. His first true recruiting class would hit campus in year 2, and be sophomores and starting to mature somewhat by year 3. And all of this is assuming that the new coach's predecessor left behind absolutely squat to work with.

5 years? I think that would have to assume that the new coach either:
A) Misses on his first couple of recruiting classes
B) The recruits don't pan out at all until they are seniors

But I guess it depends on how you define "set back the program". If you mean getting to the NCAA tournament, you may be close. If you mean sitting at the bottom of the league, then I disagree. Tubby has the Gophers playing much better in years 2 & 3, and they weren't far off of where we are now when he was hired.
 
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I'm so sick and tired of hearing about alford, I really am. The guy did nothing for OUR program while he was HERE. He was dealt a pretty good when he landed at NM getting a 6th year Sr that was a McDonalds AA that went to Kansas and then to NM. He also CLEARLY learned from his mistakes while he was at Iowa and immediately went out and hired Asst's that could actually recruit. In fact, he hired the kids coach out of Houston who is now no longer with the program once the kids were on campus - big shock.... Neal is the glue that holds alford together and alford also has strong ties to the Knight family which of course doesn't hurt. Iowa paid him millions of dollars and we had nothing in the tank when he left.

Lick stepped in to a program that didn't make the NCAAs and didn't have a McDonalds AA coming back to play...that kid left for Tennessee with no fault to be placed on Lick. Kelly's mom died....he moved on. Tony Freeman is having a great year at Southern Illinois and I wish I knew for certain why he left the program as this seems to have started the trend. David Palmer - that will be the biggest mystery to me. So there is certainly blame that can be placed squarely on Licks shoulders but at the same time what did we expect? We got a guy that was another mid-major coach that had great success at the mid-major level and is now "learning on the job" just like alford.

I'm not ready to send Lick packing but he needs to get his s*&t together in a hurry.
 
clicheusername3 said:
a mid major with more fans and people that care about the program than Iowa at this point...
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Imagine that, a program who's fans care about them when they are good.

Now that's a novel idea.

In all fairness, though, Lobos fans are usually pretty good fans of the program good or bad.
 
I've said it before and I will say it again:

CAN WE JUST GET OVER THIS MANCRUSH ON ALFRAUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As has pointed out at least twice, he was talking to New Mexico before Iowa's final game of the season and why: Because he was told to win or else. He knew better than anyone else the talent that would be returning and what he had recruited. Guess he figured he couldn't win with his own recruits. So all of you think Coach Lick could win with his players when he didn't believe he could do it himself???

Everyone seems to want to focus on the players that left, so here goes my thoughts:

Losing Smith and Kelly were very unfortunate situations that would not have changed no matter who the coach was.

Maybe Palmer would have helped this team, maybe not. He had two good games and then looked lost once teams started to focus on him.

Freeman didn't want to play the game the way coach (boss) wanted it played. In every business, listening to the boss is a very important quality. Freeman didn't want to listen to the boss. Most of us understand what happens to disgruntled employees and who wins.

Davis - had a good game against ISWho and then disappeared. Seemed a bit out of control most of the time.

Petersen - don't really get it other than I think maybe he is the one that the style of play really didn't fit and he wanted to go somewhere to play a different style.

Now I know I will get killed here but I am willing to wait to make judgment on this staff and the direction of the program until the end of next season with one big asterick.

*** IF we have SIGNIFICANT players leave after this year, then I will join the rest of you.

SIGNIFICANT - Payne, Gatens, Fuller, Cole, May, Cougill, Archie

EDIT: Yes I left Tucker off on purpose. Not that I don't want him to return and prove everyone wrong, I DO, but I am concerned about his priorities and it wouldn't be fair to use his departure against Coach Lick. I think Tucker can still have a very good career at Iowa and am hoping he will get it together and do so. Let's face it, plenty of kids drink while underage, I did it and most of you did also. It's just that Tucker needs to learn that what he does affects more than just himself. If he can get over his selfishness he could really be an asset to the program.
 
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testing132 said:
It must really suck to be 14-2....:)
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And, correct me if I am wrong, that is more than double Iowa's win total this year.

In fact, if we get to (7) wins - half the total of UNM right now - I would be shocked.

Like it or not, Alford's team is going to a postseason tournament.

We are not even going to be invited to serve drinks at the party.
 
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