This was rumored during the Big Ten Tourney, and now it seems official: According to Jeff Goodman of FOX Sports, Iowa is parting ways with Todd Lickliter after three seasons.

There are two sides to this one:

Half-full: Anyone else think he got a bit of a raw deal? Sure, Iowa hasn’t done much under his watch. But like the Hoosiers, the Hawkeyes are a very young squad with some promise. They also have a decent recruiting class coming in. The man needs more time.

Half-empty: In three years, Lickliter hasn’t done much to show he can build a winning program there. He didn’t inherit a program in disarray. He just hasn’t gotten it done. Time to move on.

Which side do you fall on?

No, Penn State hasn’t won a conference game yet, and yes, the Hoosiers almost let a comfortable lead slip away, (again) but given all that this team has endured — and must still endure — opponents really aren’t the concern right now.

And, given all their lessons in the stark reality of college basketball, surely the Hoosiers know what comes next: another test.

Iowa makes the trip east Sunday evening to meet Indiana inside Assembly Hall. Beset by transfers, player ineligibility and a general post-Steve Alford malaise that’s left the program appearing almost drunken at times, the Hawkeyes were the one team in the Big Ten that stood any chance of being worse than Indiana when the season started.

Now the Hawkeyes, led by former Butler coach Todd Lickliter, are 7-12 and 1-5 in the Big Ten, the lone conference victory being a three-point home win against the absent Nittany Lions.

Second-leading scorer Anthony Tucker, suspended after a second arrest in December, will return to practice with his team Monday, but he’ll miss the trip to Bloomington. That means Iowa brings just one double-digit scorer — Matt Gatens — east for Sunday’s tussle.

This is all a drawn-out way of saying the Hoosiers should (and will) be expected to win come Sunday’s tipoff. It seems simple enough, but consider this: Indiana was pegged right around a 10-point underdog at Penn State, a team that had not won a Big Ten game in five tries, and oddsmakers don’t have their jobs just because they know a guy who knows a guy.

As has been repeated ad nauseum, expectations for this team are bottom-of-the-barrel. But when you beat Michigan and Minnesota and you manage a 3-3 start in conference play, said expectations are raised, if only slightly.

So for quite possibly the first time since Tom Crean’s first Big Ten game, Indiana will be expected to win a conference game. So now it’s time for the Hoosiers to learn how to play with real expectations, if only briefly. Just another step up or down the ladder, depending upon the performance IU turns out.

Come to think of it, we really should have assigned Iowa to PostmanE, seeing as the Quad Cities were his home base during the developmental years. But alas, here I am typing this for you guys. So yes: the biggest and boldest news out of Iowa before this season started was the departure of Stevie Alford and the entrance of Todd Lickliter. Lickliter brings with him quite a resume over from Butler — although, when Alford came to Iowa, he looked like a pretty darn good coach, too — including a Sweet 16 appearance last season. (IU’s loss to Butler up in Indy at the start of last year was perhaps the single most frustrating game I’ve ever seen.)

But although Lickliter has proven himself worthy of stepping into a pair of Big Ten shoes, he doesn’t quite have the talent or depth to make a splash yet. For starters, the Hawkeyes are 6-6 so far on the year. Here’s who they’ve lost to: Bradley, Utah State, Wake Forest, Louisiana-Monroe, Iowa State and Drake. Not exactly all world beaters. Now, the mediocre start can in part be attributed to the “star” of this team, guard Tony Freeman, being out 10 of the first eleven games with a broken foot. In the two games he’s played in this year, he’s averaging 15 points. The Hawkeyes are 1-1 with him in the lineup.

Iowa does have size and some experience up front with Seth Gorney and Kurt Looby which, in years past, could have caused some matchup problems for the Hoosiers. But I think this year, unlike the last few, with D.J. White really asserting himself as of late and the platoon of Lance Stemler, Deandre Thomas and Mike White being servicable, this shouldn’t pose as much of a problem as year’s past.

The bottom line: Iowa is not very good. This is perhaps a perfect opponent for IU to start its Big Ten campaign against on the road. With a win, it will give the Hoosiers confidence that they can actually win on the road this year in conference, something they struggled with mightily last year.