*** Official Iowa State Season Thread ***

ISUChippewa

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Apr 10, 2006
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Lickliter would light Prohm up.

Lickliter actually had a pretty good first full season at Evansville. Took them from being 0-18 in the MVC last season to 7-11 and the 5 seed in the MVC tournament this season. The guy can coach; just not at the Big Ten level apparently.
 

larrysarmy

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Apr 11, 2006
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Have seen a few posts that we are in for a long rebuild because the condition Steve Prohm has left this program.

With the new transfer rules, I think ISU can rebuild in 2-3 years. Be a .500 Big 12 team in year 2 and an NCAA Tournament team in year 3. Hopefully, we could be an NCAA Tournament team in year 2, but that would require no mistakes in recruiting. It going to take adding talented, character players in the transfer market.

IMO there are 4 key players the new coach needs to keep for the rebuild: Hunter, Nunn, Hinson and Foster.

There are 3 guys that I struggle with their role in getting ISU back to respectable: Bolton, Walker and Dubar.
  • Bolton is a solid offensive player, but a liability on defense. He a ball dominant offensive player, which I don't know meshes with a program that wants to build around players like Hunter and Foster over the long term.
  • With Dubar, I see glimpses of a nice role player. But just haven't seen enough shooting ability to be a Big 12 level wing player.
  • Walker is another guy that shows glimpses of being a Big 12 level player. But he can also be a turnover machine and not the purest jump shooter. Can he develop into a solid Big 12 combo guard?
Then there is a group of players who would add depth to a competitive Big12 team in 2021/22 but longer term they don't get ISU back to an NCAA Tournament in year 2 or 3 because they will be seniors next season: Conditt, Johnson and Harris. I like each of those guys as bench players who if they play well, can be 20mpg guys off the bench. But if they don't make an impact when coming in, maybe they play 5-10mpg. I just haven't seen enough consistency from those 3 for them to be starters.

That leaves 2 player who seem overmatched at the Big 12 level: Jackson and Blackwell.

Well said. Just watching other mid to upper level big 12 teams, we currently don’t have anyone from position 1-5 on this rosterthat is elite at one specific skill or a mismatch compared to our peers. Even IF Bolton, Hunter, Foster, Hinson all come back-which is unlikely- that core is unproven at best. The rest of roster is a bunch a...meh. The rebuild will be long, because the big 12 top isn’t going anywhere for a few years. The roster will be makeshift for the first 2 years. Though with better D and higher IQ and situational coaching, we should hopefully see signs of improvement.
 
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cycophagus

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40 game minutes away from Perfection
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isucy86

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Lickliter actually had a pretty good first full season at Evansville. Took them from being 0-18 in the MVC last season to 7-11 and the 5 seed in the MVC tournament this season. The guy can coach; just not at the Big Ten level apparently.

Will be curious how Lickliter does over time. He had great success at Butler, albeit he just took over for prior coach who was successful.

IMO part of the issue with Lickliter's success at Iowa was he was taking over for a roster recruited by Steve Alford. Alford was very offensive minded and recruited players to fit his system. While Lickliter played a style more like Wisconsin under **** Bennett.

Whoever is ISU's next coach is going to have a similar struggle. He will have to provide strong vision and leadership immediately because he is going to need to implement a new culture and potentially reinvent existing players or build the roster from scratch.