The Hlog

Goodbye, Tyler Smith ...

and Hello, new Iowa men's basketball coach Todd Lickliter.

Welcome to a starting lineup that could consist of Tony Freeman, Cyrus Tate, Kurt Looby, J.R. Angle and Justin Johnson. Or maybe Seth Gorney will start at center. At least it'll be an experienced lineup. Sort of.

Tyler Smith was perhaps as talented a basketball player as Iowa has had since, well, Ricky Davis. Who was another one-year Hawkeye. Davis is a 9-year NBA veteran at age 27. Smith is 20, and can't play for a Division I team next season. Who knows where Smith will end up, but I don't think he'll be on an NBA roster come November.

Iowa has a player named David Palmer. He'll score 30 points a game in the Prime Time League this summer for what that's worth, which isn't much. The coach who brought him along to Iowa City from Seton Hall was Billy Garrett, who has hooked on with his old pals at New Mexico, Steve Alford and Craig Neal.

Palmer can't follow Garrett to a third school without sitting out a second-straight season. He's burned his redshirt, thinking he'd play for Garrett and Alford. So he's stranded in Iowa. Which brings to mind an old Manfred Mann song entitled, strangely enough, "Stranded in Iowa."

Stranded in Iowa
Stranded in Iowa
Better get the Breakdown squad out
Get me rolling on
'Cause I can't keep my thoughts out of sight
Better get the Breakdown squad out
Get me rolling on
'Cause I need to feel the stars sleep by at night
I'm stranded all night, stranded all right

I have no idea what it means.

Coaches come and go, players come and go. Alford came to Iowa with a lot of fanfare. So did Smith. Now they're gone. Hawkeye basketball will survive.

But from Iowa's point of view, the coming season probably isn't the best one to return to an 18-game Big Ten season.

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