Well, the Hawkeyes are done, the girl Hawkeyes are done and now I'm
reading that there will be more defections from the Hawks once again.
I've been hearing about Jake Kelly deciding to leave the hawks as well
as Jermain Davis. And if that happens this will be the third straight
year that the Hawks would lose a good basketball player. Three seasons
ago it was Tyler Smith, last year it was Tony Freeman and now it looks
like Jake Kelly is gone as well.
It's hard to improve when you
have key members defect or get homesick or just leave. It seems like
this will be the third straight year of rebuilding for the hawks and I
donno if Todd Lickliter is just too hard on them or what the deal is,
seems like he can't keep the players on the team. But then again, all
three were from the Alford era. But perhaps Todd should just have
stayed at Butler if he had to deal with this nonsense. Oh well,
basketball is over, the only team I'm following in the NCAAs is Syracuse
since they took out Arizona State. But I'm sure the Tucson faithful
are rejoicing the fact that Arizona is still in there, worst team in the
Pac 10 still playing but in all fairness St Mary's should have gone
instead. I know, sour gripes from my view again.
UPDATE: Paul
Palmer, James Peterson all followed Davis and Kelly out the door so now
there's four open spots for the BB team for next season. It also means
that unless Lickliter can find some stud JC players that the Hawks will
be the doormat of the Big Ten. Unfortunately, When Jake Kelly's mom died
this year Kelly decided that he needed to be closer to home with his
father and Terre Haute seem to be his calling. You can't fault him for
that, I'd do the same thing if I was in his shoes. Peterson, was very reckless in terms of his playing, he did more turnovers than points it
seems and Davis wasn't a good fit. He thought he was Lebon James but
played like Rick James and it wasn't pretty. Palmer played two great
games and then teams began to solve him and rendered him useless for
the year.
Looks like the honeymoon is getting to be over for Todd
and company since I have read a bunch of emails from sportswriters at
the press citizen and QC Times and they're beginning to wonder if
Lickliter will continue to get recruits who up and bolt after a season of
playing here. I don't think it's dire like Kentucky booting Billy
Gillespie after two seasons and the two year grace period for Todd is
over. From here on out, it's a question of what's he going to do to get
the team in the right place and Hawk fans, while no way means are like
Kentucky fans (a lot of wildcat fans kinda wished they kept old Tubby
Smith) the patience is beginning to wear thin, especially with Todd's On
the Right Track remark. And the right track shouldn't mean 11th place
in the big ten. Gillespie started out losing 24 games for UTEP before
winning 21 the next season. But the cupboard was bare when Todd got
here and it seems like every season the Cupboard is still gathering dust
when the Hawks lose players that score. Certainly anybody can be
taught to play stiff defense and the Hawks do it well but we also need
scorers that can score, and big men in the middle to score from inside
and we haven't had that in three years. I like Todd Lickliter and
really wish that his system will start working but it's not the Butler
way anymore. It's the Iowa Hawkeye way and something needs to work or
Todd may not be back for a forth season. You can only rebuild so long
before you become a also ran and it doesn't look all that great when the
Hawk women continue to win 20 games a year and make some kind of
tournament while the Hawk men go one and gone in the Big Ten Tournies. I
think we need some kind of stable lineup that's going to be around for
three years and the coach's son being the point guard for next season
ain't going to cut it.
You can blame Todd or the long gone Steve
(Prettyboy) Alford for the demise of Hawk basketball and if Alford
stayed onward, we could going to the NITs and losing in the first round,
wearing ridiculous no name jerseys. Basically the fall guy is none
other than know it all John Bowlsby, the hack AD that forced Tom Davis
out of Iowa City and then moved on to make Stanford a laughing stock of
the Pac 10. Well the hawks didn't win any big ten titles for sure, but
they always managed to win enough games to get to the NCAAs. And
managed to win the first round most of the time, Davis was very good at
winning the first game of the tournaments. Alford never did if he did I
don't remember it although the Hawks did win the Big Ten Tournament in
the debut year. But Bowlsby started the great slide to which the Hawks
are now in the bottom in the big ten and with next year assured of being
in last place and not making any playoffs since that 26 win season of
2005. Bowlsby doesn't have to worry about the plight of the Hawks, he's
enjoying the Stanford sunshine. Too bad that Bump Elliott isn't alive
to see this mess.
It ain't much better in Iowa State. Greg
McDormett have lost ten players in the time he took over Iowa state so
perhaps it's the new instate rivalry game. To see how many players you
can lose. Oh, you won't get a trophy from this, just a last place
finish and angry fans and sportswriters.
As for Steve Alford, he
lasted into the second round of the NITs before Norte Dame knocked them
off by two points. Something that Alford is very good at, losing games
by a bucket. Wait till next year Lobos fans, now you know how us Hawk
fans feel like.
