Lickliter missing UNI game due to health issue

Iowa Coach Todd Lickliter is unlikely to travel with the team to tomorrow night's game at Northern Iowa and remained hospitalized Monday after undergoing a “serious procedure” at University of Iowa Hospitals on Saturday.

Lickliter, 54, could return by Friday's game at Iowa State, Iowa Sports Information Director Phil Haddy said. Haddy was not specific about Lickliter's health issue but said Lickliter is feeling better.

“He's been having some severe headaches, and they did find a reason for the severe headaches and undertook a procedure to relieve it,” Haddy said. “At this time he's doing much better. He's still in the hospital (Monday). He hopes to get out (Monday), and he's very tired and very exhausted.”

Haddy said Monday night that Lickliter would stay in the hospital until at least today.

“He did not have an aneurysm,” Haddy said. “He did not have a stroke. He did not have a heart attack. He did not have anything along those lines.”

Assistant Coach Chad Walthall will fill in for Lickliter for the second consecutive game. Walthall, 41, coached at Loras College in Dubuque for seven seasons and served as the school's athletics director for four years before coming to Iowa with Lickliter in 2007.

Walthall said he's not doing anything differently in preparing the team and will stick to Lickliter's blueprint. He won't alter his approach from the way he coached at Loras.

“You're under a little bit different microscope here, obviously,” Walthall said. “But they're still 18-to-22-year-olds. You're still preparing; you just try to do the best job you can.

“Obviously it's very different being an assistant and put into this position a little bit. We need Coach (Lickliter) here as fast as he can get here, no question. But we'll hold the fort.”

Walthall coached with Lickliter for one season when both were assistants at Eastern Michigan. Walthall said Monday he'll shift his approach from a narrow scope to the big picture. Along with coaching responsibilities, Walthall also scouted Northern Iowa.

“I think it changes from the standpoint that as you're managing and taking the role of head coach,” Walthall said, “you have to evaluate what's going on and get a feel of game management a little more so. Whereas as an assistant, you're looking at particulars more.”

Iowa's other assistants - LaVall Jordan and Joel Cornette - previously played and later coached under Lickliter at Butler. Jordan works closely with the team's guards, while Cornette works with the post players.

Walthall said everybody's responsibilities stay similar in both practice and the games. The practice environment is in place, whether Lickliter is there or not. During games, Jordan calls many of the plays with input from the coaches and players.

“It's certainly not normal and none of us are pretending that life is normal and business as usual,” Walthall said. “But we're trying to handle it the way coach would want us to handle it. There's adversity in front of us. Certainly he'd the be the first one ... the world's not going to stop, you have to keep going on, and I think our players have accepted that.”