Basketball Judas Left Lickliter No Chitwoods

No more than a week ago, I was convincing a buddy of mine that the 2007-2008 Hawkeye Basketball Team was at one of those pivotal points in the season where you thought the light was going to go on. They had just scared the hell out of 11th ranked Indiana in Iowa City and I thought that was it. I said to my buddy, “You know, they are really starting to get it, it’s kind of like in Hoosiers right before Jimmy Chitwood came back.” You could just feel like it was happening.

Well, to borrow from Rick Pitino, JIMMY CHITWOOD ISN’T COMING THROUGH THAT DOOR! (At least not this year.)


Our consolation prize walking through that door: Apparently Dan Bohall, who is out of detox after being found in a bathroom stall passed out in a dorm. Jimmy Chitwood he is not.

Where did it all go wrong, you ask?

March 2006, the day the Hawks lost to Northwestern State on that last-second shot, and Steve Alford (a.k.a. Basketball Judas) packed it in. Jeff Horner and Greg Brunner graduated. Adam Haluska and his hot wife were back, but that was it. They played out the 2006-2007 season, and Basketball Judas saw the cupboard was bare. He then pulled a Bobby Petrino and got the hell out of Dodge so he didn’t have to take the brunt of the mess he created, which has now turned into the current version of the 2007-2008 Iowa Hawkeyes.

So Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta hires 2007 Coach of the Year Todd Lickliter from Butler and we embark on this season. We could have brought Red Auerbach in here and there was no chance. Nobody expected a Final Four product here, but this???? Come the fuck on. The roster is loaded with guys that should be in the Prime Time league, not the Big 10. There are at least three players (Seth Gorney, “sober” Dan Bohall, JR Angle) and possible a fourth (Kurt Looby) that wouldn’t even make the team on any of the following: Drake, UNI, and the Clowns in Ames. Jeff Peterson, Jake Kelly, and Jarryd Cole are true freshman and playing like it. Pardon Jarryd Cole from that last statement because he was dominating before a torn ACL ended his season.

Tony Freeman can play in this league. Justin Johnson can play in this league. Cyrus Tate might be the only player in U of Iowa history other than Glen “Five Fouls to Give” Worley to get worse each year. David Palmer, touted by Basketball Judas as a “prized transfer from Seton Hall,” didn’t even make the trip last night to Columbus because he was “cleaning up some academic stuff.” So there you have it, your 2008 Hawkeye Basketball Team. And they wonder why Carver-Hawkeye Arena now draws more fans for Iowa Wrestling than they do for this shit.

The good news here…it’s going to get better. The bad news…not for a couple of years. Lickliter is a good coach. I believe it. Even the Butler team he recruited and coached last year is in the Top 20 with him gone. Ask Basketball Judas if that is the case where he was last year. Already you can see the concept of Lickliter’s offense makes sense, and they play their guts out on D most nights. We just don’t have anybody who can execute the game plan.

The good thing about basketball is it only takes a player or two to turn this deal around in a hurry. Everyone thought Doc Rivers was an idiot last year. The Celtics brought in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and now he looks like a genius. Unfortunately, as I said before, JIIMMY CHITWOOD IS NOT WALKING THROUGH THAT DOOR!!