Lickliter hopes to be back coaching next week

Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said Thursday that doctors are optimistic he won't suffer any long-terms effects following surgery to repair a carotid artery.

Lickliter was released from the hospital after a stent was placed in the artery on Saturday, and he's been advised by doctors to take the remainder of the week off to rest. Lickliter has missed two games and he won't coach in Friday's game at rival Iowa State as interim head coach Chad Walthall will again fill in.

The Hawkeyes (3-6) won't play again until hosting Drake on Dec. 19. Lickliter, with his voice still hoarse from the procedure, said that he's hopeful he'll be there.

"They thought if I rested this week - they really recommended that I just rest, try to recover - that next week I'd be back," he said. "You know, sort of ease back into it, but be at the Drake game and be prepared to coach. There's no reason why I can't. They feel like it really went well."

Lickliter went to a hospital for tests last Friday after suffering headaches. The doctors found the beginning of a tear in Lickliter's carotid artery - a vessel that supplies blood to the brain - and added the stent the next day.

Iowa played and beat Prairie View A&M that day, but Lickliter's absence caused a major stir as school said only that there had been an undisclosed medical procedure.

Lickliter lost four players to transfers last spring and this season is off to a terrible start, but he said that stress had nothing to do with the tear in his artery.

"In this profession, you can chalk everything up to stress. And it's not always that. That's not what this was. It was an injury," Lickliter said. "I just felt like I was fatigued and struggling, and I chalked it up to that. I'm thankful the doctors didn't chalk it up to that."

Lickliter's health issues flared up during the annual "Big Four" competition between Iowa's four Division I programs. Next up for the Hawkeyes is Iowa State (6-3), which has dropped three straight after a 6-0 start in which they won each game by at least 20 points.

The first two losses were nailbiters; a 67-65 defeat to Northwestern in Chicago when Iowa State shot just 28 percent in the second half and a 63-60 loss to Northern Iowa.

There was no doubt about the last loss: California out-rebounded the Cyclones 51-32 and cruised to an 82-63 win in Berkeley last Saturday.

"It was a tough week for us, and there's no way try and spin it and make it sound better than it was," Iowa State coach Greg McDermott said. "We have to play better in a lot of areas."

Iowa State's losing streak is especially disturbing given that it's come against the three best teams it's played so far. That's why McDermott is happy that Iowa is the only game on the schedule between now and Dec. 20, when the Cyclones host Bradley.

"We need some time where we're spending it on ourselves and not so much preparing on the next opponent, because we have a lot of things that we have to work out on both ends of the floor," McDermott said.

-- Associated Press