The team was so flat. It appeared, from my untrained eye, that the whole squad was just devastated that Tucker left. As if they thought help was finally coming when he was reinstated, only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them. Gatens was the worst (May and C-Payne, the ever-optimistic Froshes, didn’t quite seem as bad), but everybody played down today.

I read through the last line of posts, and I don’t see a mass exodus again this offseason. I may see Brommer leaving (big fucking deal), but not Fuller, not Cougill, and certainly not anybody else. To me, I’m still holding out hope that new blood arrives next year to influx into this year’s starting 5, and the team makes good strides next year. Tucker was the exception to the rule.

If I’m wrong, though…..man. What a waste of the last 5 years of Hawkeye basketball. Seriously. I hated Alford — hated him as a person, as a coach, as a developer of talent. And I blame TL’s first 2 years entirely on Alford’s inability to recruit talent. But if TL can’t get his own players to stick around, it’s time to move on. Which means another 3 years of misery before something changes. And that’s depressing. I hope it’s not true.

Yes, there’s been improvement. But I think you have to look at it compared to what we’re doing in football and in wrestling. Basketball should be a revenue sport… but with empty stands, its not going to be.

If there is another mass exodus I think he’s in a very precarious position.

I also believe that we would be able to attract a quality coach. Its not exactly a crap job at a crap school…

Fo show. But Payne was moderately impressive. And I was pining for more of those wacky jump passes of his. They are like little nuggets of suspense in a sea of Licksuck.

Basketball teams cultivate team morale very diffferent than do football teams. Football teams have waves of leadership, starting with the head coach, then position coach, then a player or two within that unit. You also have captains that have an overarching influence on the teams morale. Getting all of them to line up in a single purpose with shared values and goals is the challenge of a great football coach. Ferentz has mastered it. He understands that the players have to be a part of it or it won’t work, because Ferentz cannot connect equally with all the players.

Basketball allows for the head coach to be very hands on. 12 players, that’s it. So it is easy to give quality time to all of them. Yet, I cannot help but see a team that seems diffident and tired and disconnected from its coach. Which is VERY troubling. Again, and I have to stop saying it because I am tired of saying it, Lickliter looks lost as a leader. He looks whiny, he looks tired, he looks unprepared for postgame comments, he is not a very strong presence on campus (ala Brands and Ferentz), and he looks as if he is unable to put pieces together.

Someone esle mentioned Dr. Tom’s ability to put players together with seemingly incompatible skill sets. Whereas Lickliter burns through players who do not conform to his system. Well, this isn’t Kansas or Kentucky. Our cup does not runneth over. These players are recruited and they evolve as they evolve and a good coach will find a way to make use of their individual talents and move the process forward.

This Tucker thing is yet another example to me that Lickliter doesn’t understand the culture of his basketball program. The delicate balance and interconnectedness within a team, often referred to as chemistry. I see NO player emerging as a leader. I instead see Lickliter’s obsession with selflessness leading to a group of players who look around at crunch time for someone to lead—and no one ever steps up. And that falls on Lickliter because he has turned this team into a sort of 1970s Soviet citizenry. It’s getting sad and I am losing my faith in the man’s ability to lead.

What’s his buy out? OOps might be right. 1 more year.

Empty seats don’t pay for renovations.

Although 40 points is a new low, this is the sixth time this team has scored 50 or less this season. If you removed all coaching and told this bunch to just “go playground” they would score more points than this. And to think, they were actually following an offensive game plan enroute to these 40 points. I am a Hawk through and through but this is like being waterboarded for weeks on end. I am looking forward to track season.

But, I have a strange and daunting impulse to check in on this basketball team a few times a week, and see if things could possibly become worse. And I’m rarely frustrated.

Do you think we’ll score in the 20’s sometime this year, for a full game?

for Iowa. Ironic, isn’t it.

Let me say that I thought that Lick was the right hire in 2006. National Coach of the Year, good with the media, self-depricating humour….good guy to represent the state. But unless we had gotten Pitino, Caliparri, Coack K, Roy Williams to coach at Iowa, no one was going to be successful immediately at Iowa due to two reasons; the lack of talent that Eddie Munster left and more importantly, the biggest joke of a basketball facility in the midwest.

Key words: basketball facility. CHA with 15K in attendance is a true home court advantage, I love that arena. But the rest is a joke. How can we hold any coach accountable for recruiting when other schools facilities have state of the art bells and whistles that include basketball only practice courts, study rooms, cafeterias, lounges, video rooms, excercise rooms, training rooms, recruiting rooms. And not having to share most of these perks with wrestling, volleyball, womens basketball! You know, like what our football program now has. The Jacobson building and the Kinnick renovations are as much a part to the success of Iowa football in the aughts as our 8-toed defensive coordinator…..

The expansion of CHA is 10 years late. We all love our Hawks, we love Iowa City, and know that you can have a consistent 20 win season teams here. But it won’t happen when other coaches in the big ten can say about Hawkeye basketball, “You know, Joe Recruit, Iowa has to schedule practice time around wrestling, volleyball, and womens basketball, including their other support/training facilities. Now, let me show you around our state of the art facility.”

I don’t see things getting better. I don’t see us making the NCAA’s in the next two years. As we improve, so will the rest of the league. I think Lick should get another year but then Barta has to ask if too much damage has been done to Lick’s reputation for him to warrant an extension. Good guy, but not enough talent to run his style of offense against Big Ten competition. Don’t even get me started with the pick and roll offense that produces only 3-point shots.

The scary thing is that if we had the CHA expansion done 10 years ago, Steve Alford would probably be in his 3rd year as Indiana’s head coach.

But I’m watching the Iowa women right now (leading Illinois 31-6!!!), and the crowd is bigger than most of the mens games this year.
If Lickliter comes back next year, it will be inconceivebly empty in carver next year. The wrestling team already outdraws them, and next year the women(who are constantly improving[amazing concept, I know]) will outdraw them as well.

We need Black Heart Gold Pens!

I will buy some and send them to John Madden!!!!

Get on it people.