Lickliter to leave Butler for Iowa coaching job

[Dback Jon]

ATLANTA -- Iowa chose Butler's Todd Lickliter as its next head coach on Monday night, and he will be introduced at a Tuesday news conference.

ESPN.com's Andy Katz first reported the hiring earlier Monday.

Lickliter will replace Steve Alford, who left for New Mexico last month.

Lickliter was 131-61 in six years at Butler and led the Bulldogs to 29 wins this season, including an appearance in the Sweet 16, where they lost to Florida. Lickliter is the latest Butler coach to land a big-time job, following the footsteps of Barry Collier (Nebraska's former coach) and Ohio State's Thad Matta.

Multiple sources told ESPN.com that Iowa offered the job to Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings, but he withdrew Monday morning. Iowa also spoke with Creighton's Dana Altman Sunday before he accepted Arkansas' job.

Lickliter's departure could open the door for Collier, who returned to his alma mater to be the athletic director last offseason.

Lickliter is Barta's first major hire at Iowa since succeeding current Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby last summer.

Barta was in transit from Atlanta to Iowa City and unavailable for comment, Iowa officials said. Lickliter was also unavailable for immediate comment Monday night

 

[Skkorpion]

Lickliter made a mistake here. He should have waited for a better offer. Iowa is the pits. Everybody who has that job can't wait to move on.

You couldn't pay me enough to live and work in Iowa. Gary Williams, Lute Olson, Steve Alford all moved on.

 

[Diamondback Jay]

Dr. Tom Davis didn't seem to mind Iowa too much Skorp.


As for Alford, I'm gonna continuously state that I think he was ran out of Ames, and New Mexico happened to be the willing party to hire him, thus allowing Alford to save face. Had New Mexico not hired him, I still think Iowa would have gotten rid of Alford one way or another. Trust me, there are few Hawkeye fans who were sad to see this guy go.

Also, didn't Williams coach Ohio State?