https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...lter-mccarty-names-todd-lickliter-replacement
Wow, D1 again! Who woulda thunk.
Wow, D1 again! Who woulda thunk.
Lickliters back!
- Thread starter slipHawk
- Start date
I could feel my arteries hardening when I read the title of your post, OP. My guess is that it will now take the equivalent of what used to be two years for the earth to rotate once around the sun.
Very glad to hear this news. He wasn't great at Iowa, but still way too good a coach to have his Hawkeye stint be his last shot at D1.
You take a contrarian view on this which I agree with. Todd didn't fit in the Big Ten but that applies to a good number of coaches. I have long felt that way about Fran too but ten years in he seems to have finally found his stride and shows indications of finishing his career here at his peak which I never saw coming. Lickliter knew how to coach defense but just didn't know how to relate to and retain players. No reason to hold a grudge against him and this seems more like a level where he can succeed. Hopefully he has learned some things along the way.
I wish Iowa would immediately schedule a home and home series with Evansville starting next season.
Lickliter's teams weren't very good defensively, based on defensive efficiency. This was masked by a molasses-style pace of play making the defensive "points per game" stats look good.
Lick may be able to have some success at Evansville if he has a good staff, but I agree that he just wasn't cut out for the Big Ten. The talent he was recruiting was never going to win much in this conference, and yes, player attrition was definitely an issue. I've been critical of Fran at times but it was pretty quickly apparent that he was a significant upgrade to Lickliter.
I hold no grudge and I wish Todd Lickliter all the best - just on someone else's sidelines.
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Honest question. It took Fran 10 years to find his stride or it took you 10 years to finally recognize it?
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This gets off topic but I think a good number of fans here felt that Fran has underachieved up to this point. I felt that way especially Woodbury and Gessell's senior season. He hasn't made it past the first weekend of the tournament in his career any way you slice it.
Just a couple of years ahead of Fran in age and I can vouch that with age and experience come wisdom. The same applies for coaches. Why I think Lickliter could still succeed in Division I down a level. He could become another late bloomer. But last chance to do it though no doubt.
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Perhaps they overachieved and came back to reality? I can’t think of one rational Iowa fan thinking Fran and Iowa has underachieved outside of the one season, 2017-18. Even then, it was a starting 5 that consisted of 3 SO and 2 FR.
I’ll pay more attention to Evansville now, but I can in no way see Lickliter being successful there.
With regards to Fran he did a good job turning around the program, the reason we hired him as he had spent his career doing that at other stops. He had no experience sustaining and taking programs to another level which showed through most of his teams IMO and you have a short memory if you have forgotten that a good many fans wanted Fran fired at one point.
Lickliter may or may not make it at Evansville and it won't shock me either if he doesn't have success there. He seems a decent enough coach and has had enough experience that he could put things together there you never know.
That’s exactly why I said “rational” Iowa fan. Those fans who you brought up will be back after the next loss and still be calling for Fran’s head. It’s like clockwork around here. Usually they are the ones who said Bohannon should be at UNI and Connor only plays because his dad is the coach or that he should stick to baseball. It’s pretty hard to take what they say seriously.
Lickliter is a terrible coach and I would personally be shocked if he were successful at Evansville or anywhere else for that matter.
This post is 100 percent accurate re/ Fran. There are a lot of frontrunners out there eager to exhibit their basketball expertise.
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