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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2008Todd LickliterCyrus TateINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA THE MODERATOR: Coach, we'll ask you to make a couple of quick opening comments. We'll take questions for the players then finish up with Coach. COACH LICKLITER: First of all, I thank the seniors for the way they accepted me. I appreciate that. It was a difficult transition for them, I'm sure. But they were a pleasure to work with this year. Everyone's disappointed. It wasn't the year that we had hoped for. But I don't think that we really allowed that to affect our effort and so I appreciate the effort the seniors gave, and I enjoyed getting to know them. I thought today it doesn't take a very astute basketball individual to figure out if you go two for seven from three and struggle from the line, that what you would be amazed at is it's an eight-point game. I'm surprised it's an eight-point game. They got on a run early. We couldn't stop them. We missed early and then from there it was fairly even. So guys defended fairly well. I thought Cyrus and Seth played well. Cyrus was very active. He's been very active toward the latter half of the season when I think he felt comfortable with what we were asking him to do. And really committed to playing high percentage basketball. So that's probably -- and John Beilein runs great stuff, as we all know. They've become more comfortable with it. They get good looks and they shared the ball and shot it well enough that Harris was really good. It's a tough way to lose. But like I told my son, who won the state championship the other day, I've not been around very many people that have finished their year on a win. What a great experience that would be. Most of us have to go out sometimes a lot earlier than we wanted to. But I guess it's part of the basketball life. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the two players, please. Q. Cyrus, what about your development this year? Do you feel that you've made a lot of improvement? CYRUS TATE: Yes. I feel like I tried my best, contribute the best I could for our team. In the beginning it was kind of rough. And I just really like Coach said, I bought into what was going on what Coach wanted me to do. And I just took it from there. As things progressed, my confidence built up and I was able to contribute every time for our team. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Finish up with questions for Coach Lickliter. Q. Todd, do you feel this team got better from the end of January to the end of the season? If so, how? If not, why? COACH LICKLITER: Are you just writing a column or a book? You want me to go through (laughter)? When you say why didn't they get better, I think that they probably played at times as well as they could. Were they consistently doing that, I don't think any of us do. We're not every day as good as we could be. With our group, we had a very small margin for error. So when we weren't on the top of our game, we struggled to compete. So did they get better? I believe I got the they better. Did they get good enough to compete in the Big Ten, no we did not. And I also think that if you look back and, I mean, I hope that -- as stating what I see, you asked my opinion -- I hope it's not perceived as an excuse. I thought the initial part of the Big Ten season was very demanding. I thought we played at a very high level. We weren't always rewarded. We played Purdue and Indiana well. We actually beat Michigan State. And I thought not physically but maybe emotionally, mentally, there was some, I don't know if fatigue is the right word, but a little bit of strain. And I think that's typical when you're asking people to play at the level we were asking them to play at to compete in this league. And so I do think they improved. I do not think we obviously improved enough. Q. You've had your scoring this year obviously but 16 minutes today without a field goal in the second half. What do you think was going on? What do you think was the problem? COACH LICKLITER: You tell me. I mean, this sincerely, did we have good looks? I believe we did have some good looks. And we're not a team -- Cyrus works incredibly hard, but he's really our only offensive rebounder, so we don't get a lot of second shots. We've got to make the shots we get. I thought we really got some good looks. And I've said this all along. If we come down and take bad shots, which we do occasionally, that really puts us in a tough spot. But I thought today we probably got enough good looks that if we were shooting the way we're capable, not the way we do all the time, then we would have been much more competitive. But two for 17 from the 3, you're probably going to have some droughts. Q. What do you want Jake Kelly to look like next year at this time? I mean body-wise, physicality? COACH LICKLITER: Great question. I would like for him to be about -- well, here's the thing, Randy. That's not my area. I'd love for him to be strong enough to compete in the Big Ten. And right now he'll tell you he's not. We have a strength and conditioning coach. You should ask him what you want him to look like. And then let's find out and let's make sure it happens. We're not -- fortunately for me, at this level, I don't have to oversee that. So Jake understands. Now we just have to give him the opportunity -- he has to put the work in. I'm a fortunate guy in that I've been able to coach some really good teams and some really good players. And the really good ones made gains in the off season in their strength. It is impossible to be too strong. Q. He said he wants to look like Jarryd Cole? COACH LICKLITER: I say set your goals high, Jake, and go for it. I'm with you. Q. You talked earlier this week, nine days off leading into the game. After it's all said and done how do you think that affected the team either overall positively, negatively, maybe not at all? COACH LICKLITER: That would be something that you would really have to -- I guess as you look at it I don't think we played very well so your initial response would be obviously it affects us adversely. And I think we'd be making an excuse there. I thought it was -- I didn't think it was a bad thing. And I still don't. I don't think we'd do anything different, either. The one thing that is difficult is you'd love to be able to shoot as I look, I'd love to have been able to shoot in this facility one time, either the night before or the day before. And I say that thinking we're a better shooting team. And it couldn't hurt. But other than that, I don't have any complaints with the time off. Q. Todd, you said a couple of weeks ago you would have a list of things to work on during the off season. You've had about 30 minutes now to move into the off season. Anything you can share with us at this point? COACH LICKLITER: Jim, I'm really not prepared at this time. What I meant to say, and I think as we went through the season, I was trying to assess what was available to us, what other programs had and what we may need to grow. I want to be competitive. And a part of that -- there's so many parts to being competitive at this level. I need to do my job. I need to be good at what I do. And I need to put a team on the floor that has a great understanding, competes hard every night, prepares well. And that's my responsibility. And then I know there's people at Iowa that want to do their part, too. We just need to get together and talk about some things that we think can advance Iowa basketball. And I apologize to you. I'm just not prepared now. Sometime maybe we can -- maybe we won't even have to announce it, you'll just see it. You'll say, well, that's a nice addition or whatever. Q. Was there anything about the last few months about this season that surprised you that you didn't know before you took this job, as you look back you didn't see coming? COACH LICKLITER: I initially was going to say that I was prepared to get on a bus and ride four or five hours after games and I got on an airplane and flew home. So I like that aspect, to be quite honest with you. I hadn't had that advantage before. But I don't think there was anything that -- we competed at a high level. And this is a competitive level. It's a great conference. But it's basketball. It's Division I basketball. And I was fully expecting what went on. There's always obstacles. And sometimes there's obstacles that -- I used to tell the guys all the time, you've got to move on. If the bus breaks down, we're going to play that night. So let's make sure when somebody throws us a curve ball we hit it. So you're going to live that way. That's the way life is and you've just got to be well grounded and prepared and everybody can perform well when everything is going smoothly. When things are tough, you have to continue to be poised and perform well. So there wasn't anything that I would say just knocked me off guard at all. THE MODERATOR: Appreciate your time, Coach. Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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