It’s been a quiet weekend on the Iowa basketball scene.

That’s probably not a good thing if your name is Todd Lickliter.

Iowa director of athletics Gary Barta remains in Indianapolis, where he was scheduled to attend meetings and participate in a retirement function for retiring Michigan athletics director Bill Martin before returning to Iowa City on Sunday.

Barta has offered nothing more than the cryptic statement he released Thursday which basically thanked Iowa’s players for the efforts during the season and offered no support for Hawkeye coaches, saying only that he would review the season in upcoming days as he does on an annual basis.

He will not likely meet with Lickliter until some point into the week. Media members have been told that there are “scheduling issues” that make a resolution in this situation unlikely until midweek at the earliest. By then, it should be known if Lickliter will be retained as the Hawkeye coach or if the man who hired him has decided to go in a different direction.

Change is likely. That change may likely start at the top, the most likely outcome given the silence of Barta. It could involve a shake-up of the staff. Lickliter made it clear during Thursday’s postgame that he has no plans to use health issues as a reason to quietly ride off into the night.

Barta has a handle on the attitude of fans. Many have been vocal in their displeasure where the program is at. Others have simply stopped purchasing tickets, offering a laundry list of excuses. Iowa’s losses do impact the athletic department’s bottom line.

If Barta chooses to cut Lickliter loose, that comes with a pricetag, too. The contract he agreed to with Lickliter would pay the Iowa coach $2.4 million if he is fired without cause at the current time - $600,000 for each of the four remaining years on the seven-year deal.

Beyond that, most replacements Iowa would be looking at likely have a buyout clause in their contract as well that would require payment to whatever institution the coach currently employs the coach. To secure Lickliter, Iowa cut Butler a check and Lickliter convinced his former employer to forego a clause that would have required the Hawkeyes and Bulldogs to play a home-and-home series within a specified timeframe.

That doesn’t even get into the type of dollars that could be involved in landing a new coach. Lickliter’s compensation at Iowa, including revenue from camps, TV and radio, etc., approaches $1.2 million. Iowa offered Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings a $1.4 million deal at the time it hired Lickliter, but was rejected.

A veteran coach in a top-level BCS program will likely command around $2 million per year. Coaches currently working at the mid-major level or assistants at that level would likely cost Iowa something in ballpark of what it is currently paying Lickliter.

That is the cost of change these days.

Iowa left the Big Ten Tournament today with more questions than answers.

Gary Barta’s silence concerning the future of coach Todd Lickliter speaks volumes, coming from a director of athletics who less than a month ago was saying that Lickliter would return as coach next season and that the future was headed in the right direction.

Patience — something Hawkeye fans have learned about as Iowa’s offense has worked throughout Lickliter’s three seasons — will be important.

Don’t expect any announcement about Lickliter’s future to come from Barta until sometime next week. Functions surrounding the Big Ten tourney will occupy Barta through Saturday night and other scheduling issues will likely push a meeting between athletic director and coach deeper into next week.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

Athletic directors are defined by the hires they make. Barta hired one of the hottest coaches in the country three years ago when he signed Lickliter to a seven-year contract shortly after the Butler coach had been named the Division I national coach of the year.

Barta’s predecessor, Bob Bowlsby, did the same when he signed Steve Alford nearly a decade earlier.

Barta needs to proceed with caution in this situation. Lickliter’s buyout will cost Iowa $2.4 million. That must weighed against the cost of declining fan interest in a program that once filled Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

How much is Iowa willing to pay a new coach?

Would a third-straight hire from the mid-major level ignite any passion among the Iowa fan base that has been less-than thrilled with the results of the last two coaches?

Would an assistant at a BCS school make sense?

And in the end, how would any decision impact the players who are in the program or who have signed letters of intent? Remember, Cully Payne signed with Iowa a year ago after being let out of his signed letter following a coaching change at Alabama. The look of Iowa’s highest-rated recruiting class in a decade could change depending on if a change is made or if the wrong hire is made?

There’s a lot on the line. It’s worth not rushing into anything.

Iowa basketball coach Todd Lickliter said during a Tuesday news conference that he does not anticipate any Hawkeyes transferring after the conclusion of the current season.

Then again, he wouldn’t be surprised by any departures either.

“Ultimately, it is on the individual as to whether they decide to persevere and endure it and continue to invest with the vision we have or not,” Lickliter said.

“I don’t foresee any of these guys not doing that, but as a said a while back, I’ve been in this long enough that nothing surprises me anymore.”

Four Hawkeyes left the Iowa program following the 2008-09 season and a total of six players who arrived at Iowa on scholarship have exited during Lickliter’s three-year tenure.

Retention issues have left the Hawkeyes with one of the Big Ten’s youngest teams the past two seasons, but Lickliter believes the current group of players will one day reap rewards from the experience they are gaining now.

“Ideally, freshmen should come in and get a few minutes and get a chance to get their feet wet. We’re not at that point,” Lickliter said. “We need for them to compete at a high level and we push them to do that. That’s not easy for players, it’s not easy for coaches.”

Lickliter said he and his staff talk to their players on a regular basis, letting them know that they were selected for scholarship offers by Iowa because they possessed they not only filled skill needs but because they were willing to be part of the growth process.

“It isn’t easy, but it never is,” Lickliter said. “A grind can be fun if you just stay with it with the knowledge that there is self satisfaction in not giving up. You never know when things are going to turn, but if you keep at it, that will happen. It’s a demanding thing and there are is a lot be said for guys who say ‘I’m going to persevere and make it happen.’ I like this group and I like their commitment.”

Anthony Tucker’s search for a new basketball home will take him to his home state.

The sophomore guard who left the Hawkeye program last month is expected to transfer to NCAA Division II power Winona State according to Golden Sports.net.

Tucker visited the campus in Winona, Minn., during the last weekend in February, attending the Warriors’ final regular-season home game against St. Cloud State.

Winona earned an at-large berth in this year’s NCAA Division II field after falling to Southwest Minnesota State in the second round of the Northern Sun Conference tourney over the weekend. The program won Division II national titles in 2006 and 2008 and also reached the D-II title game in 2007.

This year’s team is currently 20-9 and has just one senior in its line-up, leading scorer David Johnson, a first-team all-league pick who averages 19.1 points.

A move to Winona would reunite Tucker with a former high school teammate, Evansville transfer Curt Erickson. Former Iowa State player Clayton Vette is also on the Winona State roster, averaging just under 9 points per game this season.

Tucker, named Minnesota’s Mr. Basketball in 2008 after leading Minnetonka to the Class AAAA state championship, averaged 11.9 points in 11 games for Iowa this season before being suspended following his second arrest in 13 months on public intoxication charges on Dec. 20.

He was reinstated on Jan. 25 and was allowed to begin practices but did not appear in any more games for the Hawkeyes. He asked for and was granted a release from his scholarship following a meeting with coach Todd Lickliter on Feb. 11.

Minnesota has mixed its defenses a bit more in recent games, but the Iowa basketball team is preparing to see plenty of pressure Sunday when the Hawkeyes close out the Big Ten season at Minnesota.

The Golden Gophers forced the Hawkeyes into a season-high 25 turnovers with their defensive pressure in an 86-74 win in Iowa City on Jan. 2. Minnesota turned the takeaways into 45 points and most of Iowa’s issues came early. The Hawkeyes coughed up the basketball 18 times in the first half and fell behind 21-4 in a little over five minutes of a game Iowa never led.

“I think we’re better at dealing with pressure than we were at that time. It wasn’t just one guy. We all took turns giving it to them,” Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said. “It’s something we will need to be aware of, something we assume they will do. They jumped us in that game.”

That won’t be the only area of improvement Iowa will look to make in its final regular-season road game.

The Hawkeyes will attempt to recover from more recent struggles on the road as well. Iowa has lost its last five road games by double-digit margins, losing by an average of 18.2 points. The Hawkeyes have averaged just 48.2 points in those games, a fraction of the 69.5 points Iowa has averaged while splitting four home games during the same time span.

Iowa still ranks second in the Big Ten in 3-point field goals per game, but will look to reverse recent struggles from behind the arc as well. In its last three games, Iowa is a combined 9-of-53 from 3-point range, a 17-percent touch that is nearly half of the Hawkeyes’ season-long average from behind the arc.

As bad as things got for the Iowa basketball team during the first half of Wednesday’s lopsided loss at Wisconsin, things may have gotten even worse after the break.

The Badgers did not match the 18-0 run that overwhelmed the Hawkeyes midway through the opening half of the game, but Iowa didn’t do much to prevent Wisconsin from continuing to put on a clinic in the second half.

A 20-point halftime lead reached 30 points when Trevon Hughes scored on a lay-in with 2 minutes, 45 seconds left in the game, only adding frustration to an evening at the Kohl Center that was filled with frustration for the Hawkeyes.

“The hope at the half was to cut away at their lead in the second half, but that didn’t happen,” Iowa forward Jarryd Cole said. “One possession at a time, we expected to cut into it but we continued to struggle with the same things we struggled with in the first half. We quick shot. We didn’t show the patience we needed. We’ve got to work through that.”

The Hawkeyes, who have lost their last five road games by double-digit margins, have one last chance to correct that this season. Iowa finishes its regular-season schedule at Minnesota on Sunday.

In many respects, the Badgers simply did to Iowa what they have been doing to many opponents lately. Wisconsin shot 58.3 percent in the first half, the sixth time in the last eight games that the Badgers have topped 50 percent from the field in the opening half of a game.

The Badgers turned the ball over just seven times, slightly below their Big Ten-leading average of 9.2 per game.

Wisconsin has featured the stingiest defense in the Big Ten and the 16 first-half points Iowa mustered — including just 8 in the final 161/2 minutes — were the fewest allowed by the Badgers in the opening half of a game since Florida A&M scored 14 vs. Wisconsin on Nov. 16, 2007.

As he watches tape of Wisconsin, Iowa’s opponent on Wednesday night at the Kohl Center, one thing impresses Hawkeye coach Todd Lickliter more than anything.

“They are as poised as any team I’ve had the opportunity to watch throughout the year,” Lickliter said. “They can make plays early in the shot clock or late. They are very comfortable with both. We understand that we will have to be prepared to play good transition defense and be equally ready to defend until late in the shot clock. Their spacing is good and they use it well.”

Lickliter doesn’t see many openings on the other end of the court, either.

“They have a sound defensive approach as they have over the years and they will try to get you to shoot contested jump shots,” Lickliter said. “You have to be patient on your end and try to maintain good team defense. It’s a good system they run.”

Everything doesn’t show up in the boxscore.

Andrew Brommer had one of those performances for the Iowa basketball team Sunday in its 73-57 win over Indiana, a game where the Hawkeye bench didn’t provide points but it certainly provided attitude.

The Hawkeye sophomore didn’t score and fouled out in 10 minutes of action off of the bench, but he had a hand in helping Iowa secure a .500 finish for the season at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Brommer grabbed two rebounds, dove to save a ball as it was going out of bounds and had an important block in the first half and the effort didn’t go unnoticed.

“Those hustle plays Brommer made were huge,” Iowa sophomore Matt Gatens said. “Those are things that help decide games. Brommer had a huge block, saved a ball and (Aaron) Fuller came up big on the offensive boards a couple of times. Those all matter.”

Iowa coach Todd Lickliter praised what he saw from both the reserve big men who played off the bench, Brommer and Brennan Cougill.

“Andrew Brommer gave us a huge lift,” Lickliter said. “He was very active. Brennan Cougill went in and got a big rebound. He had a couple of great looks, but you’re not going to make all of the shots. We’ve kind of been spoilte by Brennan and think he’s going to make them all. He’s another guy that will make the next one all the time and I believe he will, too.”

 Iowa’s bench totaled one point in the win — a free throw by Devan Bawinkel after he was fouled during a rare second-half drive to the basket.

That, too, illustrated the type of aggression that allowed Iowa to earn its fourth Big Ten win of the season.

Indiana coach Tom Crean appreciated that as much as anything from what he saw from both teams.

“For two teams that are near the bottom of the Big Ten standings, that was a very hard-fought game,” Crean said. “Iowa is a very physical, aggressive and cerebral team. I’m very impressed with how they continue to improve and get better. They’re a lot like us in the fact that they’re fighting without a lot of great results.”

Devan Bawinkel, the only senior on the Iowa men’s basketball team will be honored prior to Sunday’s home game with Indiana.

The West Virginia transfer will be remembered for his long-distance dedication.

He ranks ninth in the Big Ten in 3-point percentage, shooting .391 on the season and is fifth in the league in 3-point shooting in conference play, knocking shots down at a 43.2-percent touch.

In two seasons on the court for the Hawkeyes, Bawinkel has attempted 225 shots. Of those, 220 have come from behind the 3-point arc. That includes all 81 shots he has attempted this season. Of the 84 shots he has made for Iowa, 83 have have been from 3-point range.

Bawinkel still contends he was behind the line on the one basket that was ruled a 2-point shot. 

“I know what my role is and that’s pretty much what I do,” Bawinkel said.

The 6-foot-5 senior from Winnebago, Ill., can dunk and says he can knock down shorter jumpers as well. He passed up a chance to go to the rim a couple of weeks ago, feeding the ball to a teammate down low instead.

Bawinkel said he doesn’t have any built-up desire to take the ball to the rim.

“Never say never. It might happen someitme, but mostly I want to do what is best for the team and if that means me going to the hoop, I’ll do that. If somebody else is closer and has a better shot, I’ll dish it off to him.”

Bawinkel began his collegiate career playing for current Michigan coach John Beilein at West Virginia. Beilein calls Bawinkel one of the toughest players he has seen, in part because Bawinkel saw considerable time for the Mountaineers as a freshman while playing with a broken hand.

“When coach Beilein left and coach (Bob) Huggins came in, I knew that my chance to compete wasn’t going to be the same,” Bawinkel said. “I found a good opportunity. To play in the Big Ten, to play at Carver-Hawkeye and to play against top-level competition, I’m going to leave here with a lot of good memories.”

One of the four players who has signed with the Hawkeyes as part of the 2010 recruiting class is currently riding the pine.

Cody Larson has worked beyond an ankle injury that sidelined him earlier in his senior season at Sioux Falls Roosevelt HS in South Dakota, but the 6-foot-8 senior is now riding the pine for another reason.

Citing privacy rules, details are sketchy but Larson did sit out a game Tuesday and his status for the remainder of the regular season and the postseason, which begins next week, is unannounced.

Mark Meile, the activities director for the Sioux Falls school district, did tell the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader that the district had taken some action at Roosevelt.

“I can confirm that we had some disciplinary action taken at Roosevelt involving activities rules,” Meile told the publication.

That’s as far as he would go.

Larson currently averages 18 points and 7 rebounds for the Roughriders.