Former Iowa men’s basketball coach Todd Lickliter is back in NCAA Division I coaching.
Evansville finalized its new coaching staff Friday by naming Lickliter and Matthew Graves as assistants under new head coach Walter McCarty.
Lickliter, 62, was at Iowa from 2007-10, a dismal stretch for the program in which the Hawkeyes were 38-58 in three seasons, including 15-39 in the Big Ten. He was fired and replaced by current head coach Fran McCaffery.
Lickliter spent a year as an assistant at Miami (Ohio), then was head coach at NAIA Marian (Ind.) for three seasons (49-36) before becoming a scout for the Boston Celtics, led by fellow former Butler coach Brad Stevens. Lickliter was 131-61 in six years in charge of Butler, including an NABC national coach of the year honor in 2007 that helped lead him to the Iowa job.
“The opportunity to have someone with the experience of Todd Lickliter next to me in my first season as a head coach is very exciting,” said McCarty, who was most recently an assistant coach with the Celtics for five years. “With all of the experience he has had as a head coach, he will be invaluable to myself and our team. He has a great basketball mind and is a wonderful teacher of the game.”
Lickliter’s new gig will come with two trips to Iowa each year for Missouri Valley Conference games against Northern Iowa and Drake. Evansville was 17-15 last year and 7-11 in the Valley. Head coach Marty Simmons was fired after 11 seasons.