Well I have to admit… it wasn’t just the competition

[Pepperman]

I was cautious about reading too much into Iowa wins against crap teams. After the last 2 games I must admit things have in fact improved markedly.

I still am not a fan of our coaching staff but I have to give them credit for apparently fixing the team’s issues.

go Hawks

 

[General Tso]

Winning the next two will solidify this.

 

[Pepperman]

I hope iowa is not going to end up on the 8/9 line but dammit at least we’re in for sure. I don’t have high expectations but then again who knows when you’ve got Keegan on the floor.

 

[pmtdc]

I was cautious about reading too much into Iowa wins against crap teams. After the last 2 games I must admit things have in fact improved markedly.

I still am not a fan of our coaching staff but I have to give them credit for apparently fixing the team’s issues.

go Hawks

Let me guess, you where a Licklighter fan.

 

[Pepperman]

Let me guess, you where a Licklighter fan.

no. I actually got to the point where I stopped watching basketball when he was the coach.

 

[amahawk]

I hope that I was wrong about not making the tourney. Great win. I was shocked that Izzo was not more vocal during the game.

 

[jthawk]

no. I actually got to the point where I stopped watching basketball when he was the coach.

I’m curious. Have you been happy with any of Iowa ‘s coaching staffs through the years?

 

[HawkLogic]

Let me guess, you where a Licklighter fan.

I think those (not me) that wanted to give LIckliter his 4th year...and there were a bunch of them, tended to be people who lean toward maintaining status quo and relied on false arguments that Lickliter had been a stud at Butler (stephens was the stud) or that Lickliter had a great class coming in (partially true, Marble and Brust), or that Iowa wouldn't be able to find a coach after firing one so quickly (not true, lots of under the radar coaches want chance to make $3million/yr).

This year's Iowa team is playing better recently, and a large part of it is because they are playing better defense. This year they are not trying to hide poor defenders in a zone defense as the main defense. Even JBO is putting out more effort on defense than at anytime in his career.

Fran's lack of commitment to defense has often been brought up as limiting his success.

 

[goodbyebobby]

I hope that I was wrong about not making the tourney. Great win. I was shocked that Izzo was not more vocal during the game.

He knew it was over.

 

[BBHawk]

Let me guess, you where a Licklighter fan.

Nope. Linkletter fan.

Or was it Linklater?

Or Lackluster?

😉

 

[hawkifann]

I hope that I was wrong about not making the tourney. Great win. I was shocked that Izzo was not more vocal during the game.

He was early, but it got to a point where, really, what was he going to say? Iowa was out-hustling, out-touthing and out-executing MSU almost start to finish. Iowa just flat-out kicked their a$$.

 

[hawkifann]

I think those (not me) that wanted to give LIckliter his 4th year...and there were a bunch of them, tended to be people who lean toward maintaining status quo and relied on false arguments that Lickliter had been a stud at Butler (stephens was the stud) or that Lickliter had a great class coming in (partially true, Marble and Brust), or that Iowa wouldn't be able to find a coach after firing one so quickly (not true, lots of under the radar coaches want chance to make $3million/yr).

This year's Iowa team is playing better recently, and a large part of it is because they are playing better defense. This year they are not trying to hide poor defenders in a zone defense as the main defense. Even JBO is putting out more effort on defense than at anytime in his career.

Fran's lack of commitment to defense has often been brought up as limiting his success.

Under normal circumstances, I’m a “give a coach 4-5 years” guy, especially if he comes into a fading program (which Iowa kind of was late in Alford’s run). I wasn’t actively calling for Lick’s head, but I wasn’t defending him either. I was locked in on 4 years and out if things didn’t get better, so I was fine with him getting canned after three really sh1tty years.

You can fire a bad coach very quickly without it hitting the program’s reputation - you just can’t do that multiple times in a short period of time. At this point, at least in the major sports, Iowa has shown they will stand by coaches, so if one gets fired quickly, most are likely to see that as an aberration. 2 football coaches in 45 years, 6 basketball coaches in 45-ish years, 3 wrestling coaches in 40-ish years and, what, 4 women’s basketball coaches in 35-40 years? Todd Lickliter was absolutely the outlier and he earned that status.

 

[Pepperman]

I’m curious. Have you been happy with any of Iowa ‘s coaching staffs through the years?

yes of course. Many of them.

 

[sober_teacher]

Under normal circumstances, I’m a “give a coach 4-5 years” guy, especially if he comes into a fading program (which Iowa kind of was late in Alford’s run). I wasn’t actively calling for Lick’s head, but I wasn’t defending him either. I was locked in on 4 years and out if things didn’t get better, so I was fine with him getting canned after three really sh1tty years.

You can fire a bad coach very quickly without it hitting the program’s reputation - you just can’t do that multiple times in a short period of time. At this point, at least in the major sports, Iowa has shown they will stand by coaches, so if one gets fired quickly, most are likely to see that as an aberration. 2 football coaches in 45 years, 6 basketball coaches in 45-ish years, 3 wrestling coaches in 40-ish years and, what, 4 women’s basketball coaches in 35-40 years? Todd Lickliter was absolutely the outlier and he earned that status.

The general stability at Iowa is really quite remarkable. There’s been what, an average of four coaches or so at all other b10 schools since Kirk arrived? Similar turnover for hoops, though with greater variance as well.

I laugh at myself now when 12 years ago or so and the Iowa women were going thru a rough couple of years that I wondered if Bluder needed to go. Glad I was wrong.

 

[hawkifann]

The general stability at Iowa is really quite remarkable. There’s been what, an average of four coaches or so at all other b10 schools since Kirk arrived? Similar turnover for hoops, though with greater variance as well.

I laugh at myself now when 12 years ago or so and the Iowa women were going thru a rough couple of years that I wondered if Bluder needed to go. Glad I was wrong.

The general stability is pretty incredible. I forgot that Lute went all the way back to 1974, so while 6 coaches seems like a lot, that covers almost 50 years.

There’s an angle for criticisms that Iowa hasn’t hire elite coaches (outside of wrestling, not many real championship contenders among the top sports), but I think it’s pretty clear that Iowa has valued a high floor and stability over constantly having to find a new coach….and there’s value in that.

 

[sober_teacher]

The general stability is pretty incredible. I forgot that Lute went all the way back to 1974, so while 6 coaches seems like a lot, that covers almost 50 years.

There’s an angle for criticisms that Iowa hasn’t hire elite coaches (outside of wrestling, not many real championship contenders among the top sports), but I think it’s pretty clear that Iowa has valued a high floor and stability over constantly having to find a new coach….and there’s value in that.

I mean, being able to sustain the high points we’ve reached periodically would be nice obviously, but people keep underestimating how hard that is to sustain. Just to make that key hire in the first place, keep them, navigate the inevitable coaching turnover that comes with success, etc.

there are a number of things it’s fair to criticize the coaches for. But it’s not nothing to me that I know they won’t break the rules, and only rarely have ever embarrassed the university, their players largely do well academically, a fairly high number go on to succeed professionally in their sport relative to their peers. And so on.

 

[ssckelley]

I think those (not me) that wanted to give LIckliter his 4th year...and there were a bunch of them, tended to be people who lean toward maintaining status quo and relied on false arguments that Lickliter had been a stud at Butler (stephens was the stud) or that Lickliter had a great class coming in (partially true, Marble and Brust), or that Iowa wouldn't be able to find a coach after firing one so quickly (not true, lots of under the radar coaches want chance to make $3million/yr).

This year's Iowa team is playing better recently, and a large part of it is because they are playing better defense. This year they are not trying to hide poor defenders in a zone defense as the main defense. Even JBO is putting out more effort on defense than at anytime in his career.

Fran's lack of commitment to defense has often been brought up as limiting his success.

Couldn't have been that many people that wanted to keep Lick around, there's always going to be a few. I'm one of the last people that want coaching changes and I was relieved when Iowa fired Lick. I was literally falling asleep watching Iowa games as I could not stay awake for that type of basketball. Gatens threatening to transfer I think was the tipping point for a LOT of fans.

 

[sober_teacher]

Couldn't have been that many people that wanted to keep Lick around, there's always going to be a few. I'm one of the last people that want coaching changes and I was relieved when Iowa fired Lick. I was literally falling asleep watching Iowa games as I could not stay awake for that type of basketball. Gatens threatening to transfer I think was the tipping point for a LOT of fans.

I think that was the tipping point for Barta as well. You could see the fan interest falling, and now a local, lifelong Hawkeye wants to leave the program? The annual turnover Lickliter went thru was astonishing. He’d have had a solid roster if he kept the majority of them.

 

[WestCoastHawkI]

I was cautious about reading too much into Iowa wins against crap teams. After the last 2 games I must admit things have in fact improved markedly.

I still am not a fan of our coaching staff but I have to give them credit for apparently fixing the team’s issues.

go Hawks

I'm still cautious. Ohio St and Mich St haven't exactly been playing well recently. I'll be casually optimistic until the regular season is over. Let's see how we do against Illinois.

 

[Herky T Hawk]

The general stability is pretty incredible. I forgot that Lute went all the way back to 1974, so while 6 coaches seems like a lot, that covers almost 50 years.

There’s an angle for criticisms that Iowa hasn’t hire elite coaches (outside of wrestling, not many real championship contenders among the top sports), but I think it’s pretty clear that Iowa has valued a high floor and stability over constantly having to find a new coach….and there’s value in that.

I'd argue against your statement that we haven't hired elite coaches.
Lute, Hayden, Stringer, Gable, Brands, and Ferentz were/are all elite coaches.
Zalesky, Dr. Tom, and Bluder are in a next tier down of good but not elite. (Zalesky has three NCAA titles with Gable's wrestlers, Dr. Tom and Bluder each have an elite eight with Bluder also having a regular season Big Ten title and Dr. Tom having one stolen from him in 1997)
Angie Lee, George Raveling, and Steve Alford were ok coaches that underperformed expectations.
Lick was a disaster that should be coaching DIII and McMullen doesn't really count since Women's NCAA basketball wasn't much of a sport back then.

But 6 elite coaches with 3 more good ones out of 14 in the last 40 years is pretty dang good. I do agree with your high floor statement as only Lick(and McMullen who shouldn't count) was a low floor coach.