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Lickliter removed as Hawkeye coach as programs looks forward
IOWA CITY - For the second time in three years, the University of Iowa men's basketball program will seek another coach.
Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta ousted Todd Lickliter on Monday morning, less than three years after hiring him to replace Steve Alford in 2007. Lickliter was 38-58 in three seasons and twice guided the Hawkeyes to the most season losses in school history.
“I can't point to a specific incident,” Barta said in a news conference Monday, “but again when I sat down and I put all those pieces into the puzzle and I thought what it's going to take to come back in year four, come back next season and compete, I just felt like all the pieces weren't there and we needed to make a change.”
Lickliter had four years left on a seven-year contract. According to the contract's buyout clause, Iowa owes him $2.4 million spread over three installments. The first is due in 30 days, the others by June 30 in successive fiscal years.
Barta obtained approval for Lickliter's dismissal from University of Iowa President Sally Mason. He said Lickliter handled the dismissal “professionally.”
Barta highlighted three areas of concern that compelled him to fire Lickliter: win-loss record, declining attendance and deteriorating revenue. Men's basketball and football are the only sports that generate profit.
Do you agree with the decision to dismiss Lickliter?poll
“I just felt like all those three things: the record, the overall record, the competitiveness or lack thereof, the deep hole I think we've dug in attendance, and financially,” Barta said. “I just made the decision that we weren't prepared to go from year three to year four and take those things on.”
Iowa finished with all-time lows this year in attendance, averaging 9,550 tickets sold with barely 5,000 tickets used each game. Annual ticket revenue has gone from $4.03 million in 2005 to $2.68 million in 2009. This year's figures are expected to be significantly lower, although official numbers are unavailable.
On the court, Iowa limped to a 10-22 record this season and lost 15 games by 10 or more points. The team has lost 20 of its last 21 games away from home.
Iowa ended the season Thursday with a loss to Michigan in the Big Ten tournament. Barta said he had not decided Lickliter's fate until Monday.
Barta met with Lickliter at 9 a.m. Monday. Lickliter, who greeted a reporter on his way to the meeting, walked to the men's basketball suite eight minutes later. Within five minutes he left the suite in a direction away from reporters. He didn't respond when his name was called seeking comment.
Calls to Lickliter's attorney, Mark Messaglia, were not returned. Iowa assistant coach Joel Cornette, who played for Lickliter at Butler University, said it was a disappointing end.
“Obviously, you feel for coach,” Cornette said. “I played for him, I know how terrific he is as a guy. I just thought, to be honest, of how I could do my job better to help him out. When the ship goes down, you always think about what you could have done.”
Asked how Lickliter was doing, Cornette replied, “How anybody would be doing, I guess, if someone told you you weren't performing to expectations. It's just a tough day.”
Iowa had problems with transfers under Lickliter. Seven scholarship athletes with eligibility left the program since his first season as coach, including four after last season. Multiple players met with Barta late in the season, but Barta said it didn't affect his final decision.
Iowa will engage in its third coaching search since 1999, when Tom Davis' contract was not renewed. Iowa hired Alford to replace Davis, but the Hawkeyes have yet to sustain Davis' success. Davis took Iowa to nine NCAA tournaments in 13 years. Since he left 11 years ago, Iowa has advanced to three.
“What I am saying is in this case, at this point in time, with the circumstances we have here, it didn't work out,” Barta said.
He said the search for a coach would begin immediately. He didn't offer a timeline but said he'd “hire someone as fast as we possibility can but not at the expenses of finding the right person and the right fit.”
Who's next? Bruce Pearl, Keno Davis, UNI's Ben Jacobson?
IOWA CITY - When one era ends, another begins. In the interim of both, Iowa's men's basketball program faces a purgatory of coaching speculation in the next 10 to 14 days.
Todd Lickliter was fired as coach on Monday, and Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta has a litany of criteria for Lickliter's successor. That includes leadership, past success, good relations with student-athletes and sharing the same standards as the university when it comes to recruiting and representation.
Vote: Who should replace Lickliter?
Who should replace Lickliter?polls
Recruits taking ‘wait and see' approach
Devyn Marble said he could hear the strain in Todd Lickliter's voice when they talked Sunday.
“He just sounded real frustrated,” Marble said. “He didn't know what was going on.”
Lickliter was fired Monday as men's basketball coach at the University of Iowa. One of four signed recruits for the 2010-11 season, Marble found out about the firing when a reporter informed him just as his final class of the day was dismissed at Southfield-Lathrup High School in Michigan.
Hlas: Candidates must know hoops a big deal
Here's something people within the University of Iowa Athletics Department may need to understand:
You have to take care of the programs that take care of the other programs.
That means you give preferential treatment to the programs people actually care about in mass quantities. That's big daddy football. Wrestling is pretty self-sustaining.
Barta 'still believes' in players
Spring break shielded University of Iowa basketball players from standing in the back of the room Monday when Athletics Director Gary Barta announced he'd fired men's basketball coach Todd Lickliter.
Lickliter finished his three seasons with a 38-58 record, including 10-22 this season, the worst season in Iowa history.
After Iowa's exit from the Big Ten tournament last Thursday, freshman point guard Cully Payne was the only Hawkeye who said he might leave the program if Lickliter, 54, was fired. Payne's father, Kent, said Monday that Cully was in Florida with family for spring break. He said he hadn't talked to his son.
Updated links, video to Iowa basketball series
The Gazette, GazetteOnline.com and KCRG ran a series detailing the downfall of a proud basketball program. Here's a quick and easy place to find the links to stories, video and live chat replays.
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