Todd Lickliter's firing as Iowa basketball coach became official Monday. The hammer did fall on his basketball head as rumored over the weekend.
Lickliter was a successful coach at Butler, but 38-58 at Iowa was unacceptable. Things just didn't click. He never seemed to bond with the Iowa fans either. Lickliter isn't your rah-rah slap you on the back kind of coach. His personality seemed reserved.
Lickliters' predecessor at Iowa, Steve Alford, also did not bond with the Iowa fans. But unlike Lickliter, Alford seemed to just irritate fans.
I think athletic director Gary Barta should hire a people's coach this time. How about a guy who mixes well with people and is a rah-rah personality? He needs to have a double major in public relations and coaching. He needs to get people excited about the Iowa program again and put people back in the seats.
Maybe Iowa should look at a Tom Davis clone. Davis took Hawkeye teams to the NCAA Tournament and won games there too before he was basically fired at the end of the 1998 season and allowed to coach until 1999. Davis preached an uptempo style and pressure defense. He also used many players.
Wins and loses make or break a coach, but as Iowa has discovered with its last two hires, public relations (or lack of it) is a critical equation as well.
What type of coach do you think Iowa should hire?
No comments:
Post a Comment