Like the fundraising and leadership role mentions in his bio. Good results for UIC teams in the classroom although that feels like a minimum requirement. Think he is also an east coast guy. Maryland/Villanova degrees suggests he understands the importance of basketball.

Hard to assess his time at UIC as the first half of his tenure was affected by COVID and the second half was affected by the Flames moving to the MVC. The performance of college basketball teams in Chicago isn't too dissimilar from DC ones. UIC hasn't been relevant in basketball in a long time/is a tough job in general.

Lipitz hired Luke Yaklich in 2020, who seemed like an up-and-comer known for his defense teachings but for whatever reason he did not pan out, likely due to a combination of the factors mentioned above. Things seemed to be turning around for them during OOC play this past year (they beat both us and Loyola) but UIC flamed out (pun intended) during conference play. They hired Rob Ehsan (some Maryland connections there since he was assistant there at the beginning of his career) this offseason. That would really screw UIC over if Lipitz hired a new guy and just bolted.

His hire on the WBB side seemed to be a massive upgrade, as UIC has made back to back postseason tournaments (CBI/NIT). The previous coach (hired by the AD before Lipitz) there was absolutely brutal, as the Flames had to have been one of the worst teams in the country (from a pure W-L perspective alone).

UIC Volleyball, Tennis, Baseball, and Soccer all seemed to be decent this year (relatively speaking) although that's second to basketball.

Anyways, regardless of whether it's Lipitz or someone else hopefully the new AD gets the support they need from the board of trustees and other leaders of the university.