Lickliter gone at Iowa??

[Mace]

Rumors abound in Iowa Ciy and Iowa that third year coach, Todd Lickliter, will resign at the end of the season. Former players, among others, have met with the AD and expressed their dissatisfaction with the direction of the program, and the fanbase has been very vocal in voicing their negative opinions of the coach. Lickliter has been hit with a large number of players transferring from the program and set record this year for number of losses.

Personally, I think Lickliter is a good coach and would get things turned around in a couple of years, but it appears he might not be given the opportunity. Recent rumors are that he has no relationship with his players and that a couple of key players are going to transfer if Lickliter returns. If it's true that he doesn't have any kind of relationship with his players, and that is the reason for all of the transfers, then it might be time for a change. I'm afraid that the Iowa fans have undermined Lickliter to the extent that a change might be necessary, as the dwindling crowds at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and the lack of enthusiasm shown by the fans/students for this team, will also doom Lickliter. Iowa has four good recruits coming in next year, and I think Lickliter has things going the right direction, but the losses have mounted up and the fans have jumped off the bandwagon...along with their money. It looks like Iowa will be making an early exit from the Big 10 tourney, so we may find out if the rumors are true in a few short days...or hours.

[Goober McTuber]

Nobody cares.

[TheJON]

Keno is going to be the next coach at Iowa. I would bet on that.

I like the hire. Have Dr. Tom as an assistant along with BJ Armstrong. Maybe bring back Rich Walker also. This would be a good staff. Keno is a good young coach. Providence is a horrible place to coach. You can't win there.

Good recruiting class coming in next year, everyone back. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, there wouldn't be if Lick sticks around because I think there will be more transfers. Nobody wants to play for him. Everyone is transferring. Former players are tweeting that nobody on the team likes him. Jon Miller has already said he thinks Gatens and Fuller might leave if Lick stays.

Barta won't say anything right now. But it would surprise me if Lickliter is still Iowa's coach beyond Tuesday.

All I know is I am fed up. I am fed up with the losing. I am even more fed up with the empty seats at Carver. It's time to change that. It's time to put an end to a divided fan base. It's time to bring back Hawkeye basketball. Keno would do that.

Good luck Coach Lick. You're a good coach, but this just isn't a good fit for you.

HIRE KENO!!!!! DO IT BARTA!

[Mace]

I read as much about Keno on Hawkeye Nation and agree that it would be a good hire if Lickliter is done. I'd also heard that there were a couple of players ready to leave but didn't have any names. Keno doesn't have much of a resume aside from one great year at Drake but I think he's a good young coach and, if he's the guy, could ignite the fanbase.

[Screw_Michigan]

doesn't have much of a resume aside from one great year

Are we talking about Matt Doherty here?

[Mace]

doesn't have much of a resume aside from one great year

Are we talking about Matt Doherty here?

Could be. Davis took Drake to the NCAA tourney in his first and only year as their head coach. I think he had a decent year at Providence last season but not so much this year. Finding the right fit is important and, due to his Iowa ties and his father's past success there, he might be the right guy.....assuming Lickliter is actually gone. We'll find out in a few days.

[Screw_Michigan]

Lemme know how that goes.

Sin,

Ernie Kent

[Mace]

It's official, Lickliter is done and the U of I will pay him $800,000 a year for the next three years not to coach the Hawkeyes. The search is on for someone who can lead Iowa out of the wilderness. Bruce Pearl is the overwhelming choice of the fans posting on the hawkeye message boards, and he would be a great hire, but I don't think he will have any interest in returning to Iowa City.

[TheJON]

These next few weeks are going to be interesting. I really have no idea who we are going to hire. All I know is we have a lot of money and Gary Barta is clearly prepared to open up the pocket book. He needs to because that's the only way we'll get a good coach considering the current state of Iowa hoops.

I'm hearing a wide range of candidates. One guy I think is a sleeper candidate is BJ Armstrong. I know, no coaching experience. So what? He could recruit to Iowa better than anyone that's ever been here. As long as he brings in an experienced staff, I think he'd be a great fit. Let's see here........the fans love him. He can recruit. He's a great communicator and could relate to his players well. And he has great knowledge of the game. Always thought he was meant for coaching. Sure there will be a learning curve, but that's okay. He will learn. Recruiting is 90% of coaching anyways.

Of all the candidates I'm hearing, these are the odds I'm giving them:

Bruce Pearl 17:1
Keno Davis 7:1
BJ Armstrong 11:1
Dana Altman 27:1
Kevin Stallings 16:1
Jamie Dixon 10:1
Billy Gillespie 13:1
Reggie Theus 15:1
Rick Majerus 20:1
Other 8:1

I would think Keno is the slight favorite over someone we're not talking about. One coach on the list that you would think is unlikely is Jamie Dixon, but it's not as unlikely as it sounds. Pittsburgh cannot compete financially with Iowa for a basketball coach and the Pitt hoops program is maybe the 4th biggest sport in that town. You don't normally see a coach leave for a lesser program like this, but when he'd only be 2nd fiddle and get paid a lot more, it makes more sense. People don't realize that of Iowa's last 5 basketball coaches, 3 of them have been national coach of the year. So we're not talking about a program that can't land big shot coaches. Heck, Steve Alford was the hot name in college basketball when we landed him. Sure, he turned out to be a miserable coach and an even worse person but that's not the point. We hired Todd Lickliter the year after he was national COY. We had Tom Davis, George Raveling, Lute Olson and Ralph Miller before that. So while most people laugh at Iowa hiring a big name coach, past history would indicate otherwise. When you've got money and at least some tradition (we used to have a lot of tradition but that piece of shit Alford hurt that) you can attract coaches.

I really do feel bad for Todd Lickliter. I think he's a good coach that CAN coach at this level. And I truly believe that a guy like him would succeed at Iowa under any other circumstances than now. It's just bad luck and bad timing with him. He came into a situation that this program has never really been in before. And Lick just isn't a good enough recruiter to get himself out of it and there's no way he could ever get the fan base behind him because of his boring personality. And the program will never get back to winning until the fans get back to giving a shit again. Hard to recruit to an empty arena.

[Screw_Michigan]

Pittsburgh cannot compete financially with Iowa for a basketball coach

You really are a fucking idiot.

[TheJON]

I should rephrase that........

Pittsburgh will not pay a coach what Iowa might be willing to. You can laugh at that all you want, but it's true.

[Screw_Michigan]

And Dixon's gonna pass up that palace of an arena, packed houses every night, some of the best ballers in the country and one of the best support systems in basketball to take some extra change and coach in the cultural and talent wasteland of America. Right. I'm sure he'll get right on that.

[Shine]

Iowa is the suck and deserves their shittiness. Yeah, if the crappy players are threatening to leave if the good coach is still there it only makes perfect Jonsense to get rid of the good coach and keep the shitty players.

Lute Olson non-Iowa: 632-204 (75.6%)
Lute Olson Iowa: 167-91 (64.7%)

Steve Alford non-Iowa: 232-102 (69.5%)
Steve Alford Iowa: 152-106 (58.9%)

Tom Davis non-Iowa: 328-216 (60.3%)
Tom Davis Iowa: 270-139 (66%)


Yeah, Lickliter is the probelm not the Iowa hoops program and their false sense of their proper place. Second tier Big 10 program with fan expectations of greatness.

[SunCoastSooner]

Pittsburgh cannot compete financially with Iowa for a basketball coach

You really are a fucking idiot.

Pretty much... dude has no clue about Pittsburgh's money train. I lived there for about a year out of college, if people recall, and I was pretty shocked about how serious the hard core money on the south side is about funding the school in general. Heinz field only really exists because of Pitt not just the Steelers and everyone knows how serious that town is about the Steelers.

[Mace]

I liked Lickliter as a coach, Shine, and I don't know the real story of why so many players were transferring every year, but what I do know is that there were only about 5,000 fans showing up for the games and that they lost a record number of games this year. The fans have turned their back on the program under Lickliter, and it began with Alford, and they did not like Lickliter's style of basketball. I think he would have gotten things turned around in a couple of years, had he been given the time, but I think the AD felt like he had to do something to turn it around now, and he gave in to fan pressure to fire Lick. Iowa has been playing freshmen and sophomores the past two years because veteran players continue to leave the program and you are not going to win with young players in the Big 10....especially the level of talent being recruited by Lickliter. I don't think it was fair to Lickliter but, on the other hand, I'm not sure we could have withstood another season like the past one with the fanbase abandoning the program as the losses continue to mount. I have no idea who will be the next coach, but they've got a lot of work to do if they hope to revitalize the program.

Funny that you list the former Iowa coaches (Olson and Davis) who had Iowa consistently in the upper tier of the conference and in the NCAA tournament in trying to prove a point...whatever that point might have been.

[Shine]

If the fans weren't showing up cuz of losses then that says it all. IU has won a total of 16 games the past two years and continues to set records for futility and Assembly Hall still gets 17K plus through the turnstiles.

[Mace]

I agree that all of the no-shows speaks volumes about the fanbase but the losses speak volumes about the coach and the players he's putting on the court. I guess it was nice that 17,000 hoosiers showed up to see Iowa kick their asses in Bloomington though.....and to provide Iowa with half of their conference wins this season. So, if Iowa is THAT bad, then just how fucking bad is Indiana right now?

[Shine]

[quote="Mace]then just how fucking bad is Indiana right now?[/quote]

We're so bad that Iowa fan can run smack at us. Yeah, really and truly THAT fucking bad.

Keep in mind that IU basically started over at zero when Crean took over a team returning zero scholarship players.

[Mace]

[quote="Mace]then just how fucking bad is Indiana right now?

We're so bad that Iowa fan can run smack at us. Yeah, really and truly THAT fucking bad.

Keep in mind that IU basically started over at zero when Crean took over a team returning zero scholarship players.[/quote][/quote][/quote]

I feel your pain. We need to get PSUfan in here and have a real Big 10 bottom feeder smack battle. :)

[TheJON]

I'm not going to mention the coach because you'll laugh when I tell you who it is (most don't actually know his resume), but here's a guy I would like to see Iowa hire......

He has been a head coach 6 years (all at the major college level). He is 10-1 in the first 2 rounds of the NCAA Tournament (2nd only to Dean Smith). He has won about 65% of his games and is 45 years old. He has won 21+ games in 5 of his 6 years as a head coach.

He gets a bad rap as a coach but most don't realize this guy was only 32 when he took over his program and not a whole heck of a lot of 32 year olds have the amount of success as he did.

[TheJON]

Iowa is the suck and deserves their shittiness. Yeah, if the crappy players are threatening to leave if the good coach is still there it only makes perfect Jonsense to get rid of the good coach and keep the shitty players.

Lute Olson non-Iowa: 632-204 (75.6%)
Lute Olson Iowa: 167-91 (64.7%)

Steve Alford non-Iowa: 232-102 (69.5%)
Steve Alford Iowa: 152-106 (58.9%)

Tom Davis non-Iowa: 328-216 (60.3%)
Tom Davis Iowa: 270-139 (66%)


Yeah, Lickliter is the probelm not the Iowa hoops program and their false sense of their proper place. Second tier Big 10 program with fan expectations of greatness.

This is easy to tear apart and it's very misleading.........

First off, Shine, you used to rip Alford a new asshole for how he handled the Pierre Pierce incident and thought he was a shitty coach. Now you're using him to prove your point? Makes sense. Do you know why Steve is no longer at Iowa? Because of Pierre Pierce. It didn't matter what he did after that, the fans hated him because of how he handled that situation. Most people here wanted Pierre gone and Alford tried to play Cop.

Now, as for the records there's a great explanation to that.........

1.Alford's only coaching outside of Iowa was at mid-major schools. Umm......a bit easier to win at the mid-major level than in the Big-10. Comparing his non-Iowa record vs his Iowa record is silly. Same thing with Lickliter

2.Lute Olson obviously went on to have a lot of success at Arizona. But you have to remember he won a Big-10 title and went to a Final 4 at Iowa, so we're talking about a guy that had some very good years in Iowa City.

3.Tom Davis. His previous jobs were in 2 major conferences. He had a lot more success at Iowa than anywhere else.

4.You left out George Raveling here. He was in between Lute and Dr. Tom. Raveling coached at 2 Pac-10 schools and had a higher winning percentage at Iowa than either of those schools.

The last 2 coaches we have hired from other major college programs were better at Iowa than those programs. So your argument is flawed.

I have no idea where you get that Iowa fans have a false sense of expectations. All we ask for is to be consistently competing for the NCAA Tournament and to be competitive in the Big-10. That's it. Oh sure, we may have a few knuckleheads that think we should win like UNC or Dook but they're in the small minority. I have no idea where you get this view of Iowa fan from. I will say this...........the right coach can take ANY program and make it one of the better programs in the country if they can recruit. Look at K-State. What the hell do they have that Iowa doesn't? They haven't got 1/100 of our tradition.

Plain and simple..........Lickliter had to go. He cannot recruit here. You can say it's not easy to recruit at Iowa. Bullshit. It's not easy to recruit McDonald's All-Americans to Iowa, but you sure as fuck can do better than what he did. On top of it, he scared off all of our best players. Tyler Smith did not want to play for him. Jake Kelly left. Players don't like him. Aaron Fuller (who has formed into a very nice Big-10 player) was going to transfer and potentially even Matt Gatens. Former players are Twittering about how much they hated the guy.

The fact of the matter is we have 3 Big-10 caliber players on this roster (Gatens, Fuller, May). That never happened the previous 40 years of Iowa basketball. These are the worst Iowa teams I've ever seen and the fact of the matter is Lickliter just does not have the ability to turn that around because he can't recruit.

I do not completely blame Lickliter. Alford is really the guy that deserves 99% of the blame. He really set this program back due to his handling of the Pierce situation and the non-stop roller coaster ride he put us fans through. We'd beat Michigan State, then lose to Northwestern. In 8 years the guy had a fucking losing record to god damn Northwestern. And then he finally puts together a consistent team in 2005-2006 (which was clearly the best team in the Big-10) and the piece of crap does what he always does- lose to a shit opponent on a fluke shot in the 1st round. The guy is cursed due to Karma. He's a bottom of the barrel human being. He's a notch above murderers and rapists which would explain why he chose to keep a rapist around. Did you watch the CBS selection show last weekend? Notice Alford first pumping and making sure he got his pie-hole out in front of the cameras? Then did you notice how all the other coaches they showed just kinda sat there and let the players enjoy their moment? That's Steve Alford for you.

But the worst thing is fans aren't showing up for the first time ever. We had down years during the Dr. Tom era, the Raveling era, the Lute Olson era, the Steve Alford era. But we still packed the arena (well, less during the Alford era because everyone hated the guy). But nobody cares for Lickliter. Nobody seemed to like the hire and on top of that he's putting the worst talent we've ever had on the court while running a boring system. My sister lives about 800 feet from center court and she went to 1 game this year. She used to go to almost every game even when Alfraud was coach. We can barely dribble a fucking basketball, they don't play hard for Lickliter, and it's very boring to watch. I still watch games but to be honest with you the only reason I do is because it's something I've always done. I hardly even enjoy watching the games anymore. The team gets down 8 points with 14:00 to go in the first half and they just quit. You can visibly see them just laying down and quitting. If you're gonna get beat, go down trying. I have no respect for teams that quit. But this is a reflection of the coach and shows how little they respect him. His job is on the line and what do they do? Finish the season with the 2 biggest losses in school history versus both Minnesota and Wisconsin and then follow that up with an effortless performance against Michigan in the Big-10 tournament.

Yeah, let's keep this guy. It's the program's fault, right? Iowa's fans are just being silly expecting to consistently contend for something they did consistently for 30 years (NCAA Tournament). Damn us myopians!!

[TheJON]

Pretty much... dude has no clue about Pittsburgh's money train. I lived there for about a year out of college, if people recall, and I was pretty shocked about how serious the hard core money on the south side is about funding the school in general. Heinz field only really exists because of Pitt not just the Steelers and everyone knows how serious that town is about the Steelers.

Actually, you have no clue what I know about Pitt's "money train". My bro-in-law is getting his Phd from Pitt and his parents donate quite a bit of money to that school. I know all about their wealth. In fact, I hear about it plenty. I just don't give a shit.

Pitt might have money but that doesn't mean they'll spend it on a basketball coach. Iowa has generally paid more for its basketball coaches than Pitt. Hell, we're paying our football coach more than double what they are. And not only that but I am very confident if Iowa wanted to offer Dixon more than $2 million, they could. Pitt would unlikely try and match that. Now, that doesn't mean he would take the Iowa job even in that scenario but my point is we have a lot of money so we can get a better coach than you would think. Do I think Jamie Dixon will be the next coach? No. Do I even think we'll attempt to get him? No, unless he makes it clear that he's looking at other opportunities.

[Screw_Michigan]

Iowa has generally paid more for its basketball coaches than Pitt.

Got a link for that? They're both state institutions, shouldn't be too difficult to find. Take your time.

[SunCoastSooner]

Pretty much... dude has no clue about Pittsburgh's money train. I lived there for about a year out of college, if people recall, and I was pretty shocked about how serious the hard core money on the south side is about funding the school in general. Heinz field only really exists because of Pitt not just the Steelers and everyone knows how serious that town is about the Steelers.

Actually, you have no clue what I know about Pitt's "money train". My bro-in-law is getting his Phd from Pitt and his parents donate quite a bit of money to that school. I know all about their wealth. In fact, I hear about it plenty. I just don't give a shit.

Pitt might have money but that doesn't mean they'll spend it on a basketball coach. Iowa has generally paid more for its basketball coaches than Pitt. Hell, we're paying our football coach more than double what they are. And not only that but I am very confident if Iowa wanted to offer Dixon more than $2 million, they could. Pitt would unlikely try and match that. Now, that doesn't mean he would take the Iowa job even in that scenario but my point is we have a lot of money so we can get a better coach than you would think. Do I think Jamie Dixon will be the next coach? No. Do I even think we'll attempt to get him? No, unless he makes it clear that he's looking at other opportunities.

Yeah, you're right Pittsburgh never spends money on their basketball program.

Sin,
Their less than a decade old state of the art basketball arena.

[Mace]

Iowa has generally paid more for its basketball coaches than Pitt.

Got a link for that? They're both state institutions, shouldn't be too difficult to find. Take your time.

I have no idea what Pitt pays their basketball coach, but Lickliter was paid $1.2 million (about $60,000 per loss/$120,000 per win) and will be paid $800,000 a year for the next three years to NOT coach the Hawkeyes.

[Screw_Michigan]

That's more than I expected. I'd like to see Pitt's numbers.

[Screw_Michigan]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/graphics ... /flash.htm

Pitt's contract with Dixon was not made public.

[TheJON]

That's more than I expected. I'd like to see Pitt's numbers.

Why is that more than you expected? We paid Alford $1 million or more per year for 8 years and this is the coach that fucked our basketball program in the ass. We've got $30 million renovations to Carver and a new practice facility being built as we speak. We pay our football coach $3 million per year and just spent almost $100 million to renovate Kinnick. And NONE of this is funded by taxpayer dollars. Not sure why you would be surprised to see that Lickliter was paid very well even without accomplishing anything.

[Goober McTuber]

So you consistently pay top dollar for shitty coaching. That's why you're I-O-W-A.

[Goober McTuber]

It's McCaffrey from Sienna.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5035286

[TheJON]

So you consistently pay top dollar for shitty coaching. That's why you're I-O-W-A.

Yep. It's a shame Ferentz is such a horrible coach.

[Goober McTuber]

So you consistently pay top dollar for shitty coaching. That's why you're I-O-W-A.

Yep. It's a shame Ferentz is such a horrible coach.

We're talking about basketball, you inimitable tard.

[TheJON]

So you consistently pay top dollar for shitty coaching. That's why you're I-O-W-A.

Yep. It's a shame Ferentz is such a horrible coach.

We're talking about basketball, you inimitable tard.

Hey retard, read my post about paying coaches (the one you responded to). I wasn't only mentioning hoops.

[Goober McTuber]

Yep. It's a shame Ferentz is such a horrible coach.

We're talking about basketball, you inimitable tard.

Hey retard, read my post about paying coaches (the one you responded to). I wasn't only mentioning hoops.

You were talking about basketball, and tangentially mentioned football and Kinnick, you braindead fuckwit. Face the facts. If you look at your past few basketball hires, Iowa is where basketball coaches go to die.

[Terry in Crapchester]

I really do feel bad for Todd Lickliter. I think he's a good coach that CAN coach at this level. And I truly believe that a guy like him would succeed at Iowa under any other circumstances than now. It's just bad luck and bad timing with him. He came into a situation that this program has never really been in before. And Lick just isn't a good enough recruiter to get himself out of it and there's no way he could ever get the fan base behind him because of his boring personality. And the program will never get back to winning until the fans get back to giving a shit again. Hard to recruit to an empty arena.

Recruiting is 90% of coaching anyways.

The fact of the matter is we have 3 Big-10 caliber players on this roster (Gatens, Fuller, May). That never happened the previous 40 years of Iowa basketball. These are the worst Iowa teams I've ever seen and the fact of the matter is Lickliter just does not have the ability to turn that around because he can't recruit.

So which is it, JON? Either Lickliter can succeed at that level, or he can't. And if he can't recruit sufficiently, by your own admission he can't succeed.

[TheJON]

Terry,

Let me explain............

I think Todd Lickliter CAN win at this level. In fact, I think if this were 1999 he would have been successful (assuming he was in his current age/experience level),

Lickliter's problems at Iowa were as much bad timing as they were his own fault. Go look at our attendance in Alford's last year and then Lickliter's 3 years. Then go check the previous 30. You'll see one of the biggest declines in sports history I would imagine. 1999 we averaged about 15,000 (sellout). 2010 the attendance was about 8,000 but really it was more like 5,000. We report SOLD tickets not actually butts in the seats- which is incredibly lame.

You can't recruit like that. Recruits come to visit with an empty arena and what kind of impression do you think that makes on them?

Lick does not have the ability to get us out of this mess because of his personality. He's not arrogant, he's not fiery, and he runs a BORING style of play. 3 things that do not attract recruits. But he is a good coach from a pure basketball standpoint.

Put Lickliter at a major college that has not fallen on such hard times as Iowa hoops has and there's no doubt in my mind he would win. He could win here at the right time. But he's not capable of re-energizing a fan base and if he can't re-energize the fan base, he won't be able to recruit. 6-7 years ago we wouldn't have needed him to do that because we were still packing the arena. Lickliter is a guy that can have success by taking over the program from a coach that left the program in good shape. Alford fucking destroyed this program because of the way his personality turned the fan base off (he's a bottom of the barrel human being), the Pierre Pierce fiasco(s) that really divided this campus, and the roller coaster ride on the court (beat Michigan State, lose to Northwestern). Having to deal with this garbage for 8 years really turned people off of the program. I stuck through it, but I gotta be honest.........I'm not really sure why. I think Coach Fran is the kind of coach that can re-energize our fan base. For the first time in 5 years I have seen mostly positive posts on our message boards. Everyone seems genuinely excited about this guy. He really hit one out of the park in his press conference.

[Goober McTuber]

Yet Alford moved on the "plum" job at New Mexico and turned them into an NCAA 3-seed.

Iowa = coaching graveyard.

[Mace]

Yet Alford moved on the "plum" job at New Mexico and turned them into an NCAA 3-seed.

Yes, he did, and how did that #3 seed work out for him? Pretty easy to win games in a shit conference and then get an undeserved high seeding in the tournament. There's a reason he left the Big 10 and had to settle for another mid-major job, Goobs. Alford is an arrogant piece of shit who needs an x and o coach on his sideline to actually coach his team. Next time you watch an Alford interview, pay attention to how much time he talks about his team compared to the amount of time he talks about himself and his playing days. That will tell you all you need to know about the pretty boy from Indiana.

Iowa = coaching graveyard.

Graveyard? I don't think so. Ralph Miller had success at Iowa and then at Oregon State, Lute at Iowa and Arizona, Alford had some half ass success at Iowa and then at New Mexico. Raveling left Iowa and went to USC. Not a great coach but a great recruiter. Doctor Tom had success at Iowa and then went to Drake, where he recruited and put them in position to make the NCAA tourney in his son's first year as the Drake HC.

Time will tell if Fran McCaffery is the right guy for the job in Iowa City, but I'm pretty excited and looking forward to next season. He has already energized the fanbase and the players, and it appears that all of the current players and recruits are staying in the program. That's something that Lickliter was unable to do. I still think Lickliter is a damn good basketball coach, but I think it's now obvious that he had no relationships with his players, and that that was a huge reason for all of the transfers in each of his three years at Iowa. You will not win in the Big 10 by putting a new group of freshmen and sophs on the floor every year. Iowa was close to winning a lot of games this year, including games against some of the top teams in the conference, and a new coach, a more up tempo game, and 15,000 fans in Carver-Hawkeye might make the difference. I look for Iowa to be much improved next season and am anxious to see how much success McCaffery will have on the recruiting trail.

[TheJON]

Yet Alford moved on the "plum" job at New Mexico and turned them into an NCAA 3-seed.

Iowa = coaching graveyard.

ALFORD MADE IOWA INTO A 3 SEED A FEW YEARS AGO, DUMBASS! The tard is coaching in a shit conference right now. Who gives a fuck if he's having success down there? Put that bitch in a major college program and he fails. I don't care if that's Iowa, Dook, UNC, Indiana, or UCLA. He would fall flat on his face.

Ralph Miller, Tom Davis, George Raveling and Lute Olson think you're a fucking moron. So do I.

This reminds me of a couple years ago when you tried telling me Ferentz sucks and Iowa's run of success is over and was all a bunch of luck.

Run along, little boy. Don't you have some fat UW cheerleaders to bang??

[Mace]

Alford is the cancer who was responsible for Iowa's demise in basketball....and Lickliter had very little to do with it. Most of the players transferring out of Iowa City upon Lickliter's arrival was, in no small part due to Alford. Alford didn't demand that his players attend class....they were there to play basketball....and Reggie Evans was a good example. I doubt that he could find his way to a classroom on campus. Alford was equally undemanding in practice. Very little conditioning or discipline (see Pierre Pierce) and the Palmer kid was one of the transfers after Lick's first season because he was lazy, out of shape, and didn't like the fact that Lickliter demanded players to get in shape to play the games, and to attend class to get a degree. Alford alienated every high school coach in the state with his arrogant and condescending attitude and spent no time with the high school coaches who paid to attend his clinic/golf outings....same for his top assistants. They were too good to associate with those coaches, and preferred to just take their money. High school coaches tell me that Lickliter would sit with them for hours, one on one, and talk basketball, and made every attempt to create relationships with those coaches. The state of the program was so bad after Alford's departure it was going to take a few more years for Lick to get his type of players on campus, and he was not given enough time to do that. The fanbase abandoned Lickliter, and the media was quick to hang him out to dry, and virtually left AD Gary Barta little choice but to fire him. ADs respond quickly to empty arenas and loads of bad press, not to mention a disgruntled fanbase threatening to stop donating to the university. Too bad for Lickliter, as I think he's a very good coach and will be successful at his next stop, wherever that might be. I think Lickliter is a very good human being too, just not a charismatic coach that could lead Iowa out of the wilderness in 3 years. McCaffery seems to have the charisma, and is already doing a great PR job trying to sell his program. Lickliter made some mistakes, no doubt, but very little had to do with x and o's or his coaching expertise. Alford fucked him by leaving him a bunch of lazy, undisciplined, and underachieving players, and Lickliter, not Alford, paid the price.