Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - 3 Hawkeye Keys to Beating South Carolina in the Final 4

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

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Well, the day is here. Iowa gets ready to take on number one in undefeated South Carolina. We will give you what Iowa has to do to pull off one of the biggest shockers in college basketball. All coming up today on Locked On Hawkeyes. Our Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast coming to you from the road, making our way to Dallas and getting ready for the Iowa matchup against South Carolina in the Final Four.

Today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, official sportsbook of Locked On. Make every moment more. Visit FanDuel.com slash Locked On today to get started. Well, I will tell you, making the way down I-35 and getting to Dallas, there are a ton of Hawkeyes out there making the same trip down there. Going to be great this evening to see what the environment is.

Certainly, I anticipate it is going to be a decided advantage for Iowa, not just in the matchup against South Carolina, but more importantly, just overall of the four teams that are going to make their way there. I'm sure LSU is going to have a nice fan base, Virginia Tech making it there for the first time. They're going to obviously have a lot of excitement as that program is beginning, began to build, but I will tell you, obviously Iowa proximity, that's going to be a part of it too. That's a huge, huge part where people now can get down to Dallas from Iowa City in under 12 hours, 10 hours from the Des Moines area.

That is going to make a big difference to the people going down there, direct flights out of Cedar Rapids and out of Des Moines, getting to Dallas. So I think we're going to see a big contingent of Hawkeye fans. I'm looking forward to that, and I'll tell you from the road, not going to be a surprise when you see that thing and open things up and how many people are going to make their way there. So speaking of that, we're going to get into some keys here for the game tonight. We've got some other news and notes as well.

A little football talk, as we heard from a couple of the players the other day. A lot of big storylines, obviously, with spring football that we continue to talk about. Men's basketball, they're continuing to look in the transfer portal. We'll get a little bit deeper into that certainly next week and talk about the way that that is playing out for the Hawkeyes and of course we have baseball softball also happening you know an unfortunate part though of the weather so today if you're watching this a little bit earlier watching in the morning here on Friday morning you will see that the Iowa baseball game against Maryland a huge series Maryland you know anticipated to be if not the top team, one of the top two teams in the Big Ten in baseball this season.

Have to shuffle some things around with the weather and the wind, most importantly, that is hitting eastern Iowa. And though we hit a little bit of that on the drive on Thursday night, certainly got pushed around a little bit in the vehicle in the long drive down here. I will tell you that certainly this is one where the disappointment of the people that were hoping to get to Carver, obviously watch the game, be there, be around brethren, the Hawkeye brethren. It's tough. It really is, but you have to make those decisions

and that's ultimately what they had to do in making the decision that 50, 70 mile an hour wins is what they're talking about. The possibility of that, just the prudent decision, obviously, is to go in that direction and decide that you're not going to, obviously, have that open event. So if you're planning on that, I hate to tell you, not going to happen. Going to have to find some alternate plans, either at home or maybe go out and about. I'll tell you, I've been out for an Iowa women's basketball game, and the crowds, it's just like watching a football game, just like watching a men's game. They're the Hawkeyes, right?

They've got the Hawkeyes across the chest. And if you're newly jumping on this bandwagon, hey, welcome aboard. We've still got plenty of room for you and what's going to be fun. What's it going to take to beat South Carolina? A lot. We'll talk about that when we come back here. This is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. A lot.

We'll talk about that when we come back here. This is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes brought to you by our friends at FanDuel. Well, the tournament heats up. We are down to just a total of eight for the women's, four in the men. There's no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. That's because right now FanDuel is giving new customers a no sweat first bet up to $1,000. That's $1,000 back in bonus bets.

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Thanks for making LockedOn Hawkeyes your first listen every day. So apologies, not sure how the audio quality is going to be here today as we are on the road. I'm going to have the full complement and the whole equipment set up as we go forward for this one. But just wanted to give one more kind of thoughts, final thoughts, give you a lay of the land of what we're seeing. It is going to be a huge Hawkeye contingent, and that's going to, at minimum, help.

You know, if this, Iowa getting off to a good start. We've talked this week, and crossover edition with Andrew Lyon of the Lockdown Gamecocks, excuse me, podcast. Talked a little bit about that. There's been some slow starts this year for South Carolina, so it goes hand-in-hand, right? You need to get off to a good start, get that anticipation early on, and maybe put a little bit of doubt in South Carolina. Look, you're not going to hit them with something that they haven't seen before. But when you're working on a 42-game winning streak dating back to last season,

when you're defending national champion, punching them in the mouth, literally, figuratively, that can be a good thing. I brought it up earlier in the week and somebody on my radio show first brought it up and I thought it was a great comparison. No, there are a few differences. The biggest thing is going back to the early 90s and if you're an old dude like me, you certainly remember Duke UNLV. What happened the year previous? They played in the national championship game, and Duke got run out of the building. They got beat by 30. UNLV brought basically everybody back. Larry Johnson, Stacey Augman. I can go on and on and on with that team. On the other side for Duke,

it's Leitner, Turley, it's Eckerd. And right away in that game, in the second game, in the rematch, And right away in that game, in the second game, in the rematch, and this is not a rematch, so this is a difference, but right away UNLV realized, oh, this is a different team than we anticipated. This is not the team we beat a year ago. Now, we don't have the rematch angle here, but if Iowa can come out right away, you get Kaitlin going, you hit a couple of three-pointers, you start to get that doubt to creep in just a little bit.

Mention the fan base is going to be behind you. There is going to be over 20,000 people in the building and say just a fan percentage. I would guess it'll be certainly north of half will be Iowa fans. I really anticipate that, that we are trending towards 10,000 Hawkeye fans getting into the building for the game here this evening. That'll be a component of it. But how do you do that? Well, there are simple parts of this, right? We're not talking about anything too in-depth here, but it starts on rebounding.

We've talked about the numbers. Offensive rebound, South Carolina gets nearly 50% of the misses. They miss a shot, 48.7% of the time, they go up and get the rebound. You can't allow that to happen. You saw what happened in Maryland. It was just, you know, make a shot and go back and get it again. That's difficult. That means all five players are going to be guarding. That also means when you play that direction, that it's probably going to slow down your opportunities at getting out in transition.

You're not going to be able to run in the same fashion that we see this Iowa women's team love to do. You're not going to be able to push the ball up at the same level. You can still push it. You can get a steal. You can get a turnover. You're going to do that. But with most everybody having to go to the boards, now Kaitlin's not going to be able to walk out and go towards half court

as she does a lot of times when she knows that Sonano's got the rebound and be able to toss it up and get that break going right away and the secondary breaks that they run. Still going to be able to run, not at the same level, half to rebound. Now, it's not something, well, we got to out-rebound them. That's not realistic. It just isn't. The South Carolina team is so big and so physical and so tough and such a good rebounding team, and Iowa is okay defensive rebounding, but they're certainly not an elite team. It's not realistic for you to say Iowa I was going to out-rebound them. Can you hold them, I'll say 12 offensive rebounds or less. I think that'd be big. Hope that South Carolina continues

to struggle to shoot the ball. They're shooting just 31% from downtown. If you can do that, keep the rebounding at bay. 12 offensive rebounds or less. Get out-ed only by 8, 10, 12, maybe in that range. You give yourself a shot. Number two, another one that kind of goes without saying, they've got to shoot it well. This is not going to be an Iowa team. You're not going to see everybody beating their players off the bounce. Bria Beal is one of the best on-ball defenders in college basketball.

She was a finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year. She is, as a perimeter defender, as tough as you're going to be, but she's not alone, and they've got a slew of guards. And it goes to, yeah, they'll be switching players up, and they'll be throwing a lot of different looks at Kate McClure, but that also means on the perimeter, you're not going to see Kate Martin a whole lot turn to the corner and get into the rim.

You're not going to see that from Gabby Marshall. You're not going to see this playmaking ability that's going to go out there. And what that means, when those spot-up opportunities are there, you have to knock them down. They open three-pointers, and it goes for everybody. From Warnock to Gabby Marshall, Kate Martin, who has proven that she can shoot it from out there, 39% from three, going to have to do that.

And on top of it, Kaitlyn, those deep ones that she's been so good with this year. Saw a number. She's hit nine three-pointers this season from over 30 feet. She's shooting a better percentage from 25 feet than she is from just the normal three-point line. She is an incredible talent. We know that she's going to have to be hitting as well. And I'm not talking about going 10 of 30 from three. Now, this is probably, again, to pull this upset here,

we're talking about 15 threes, at least a dozen, and shooting it at a high clip, 40, 45, maybe 50% of what it's going to take to be able to do that. It's a tall task, no doubt about it. And finally, you have to control this team. And kind of going back to what we said, let that doubt creep in. Punch him in the mouth right away. Show that you also can be aggressive. Got to stay out of foul trouble. Don't have the same kind of depth that the South Carolina team does. Going to have to

have that. There are so many components here, but there's a chance, right? And that's all you can ask for. We will see what happens this evening. 8.30 is the estimated tip time. It'll come after game one, LSU against Virginia Tech. Iowa for the first time in 30 years is in the final four. I saw something earlier in the week here just for the state of Iowa. Number of times that we've had a final four Four. I saw something earlier in the week here just for the state of Iowa, the number of times that we've had a Final Four team. I think the Iowa State men made it back in, like, the 40s, twice in the 50s, and then 1980 for the Iowa men's team, 1993, and now 2023, and Drake had one or two teams that made the Final Four back in the 60s.

That's it. Not a whole lot of time that we've been able to have this here in the state of Iowa. And yet, here we are. Enjoy it. I'm going to be enjoying it. I'm looking forward to that. We will wrap things up on the other side. Take a look around Iowa sports.

A little football news and notes. Also going to get into the baseball team and their big series against Maryland. That's as we continue on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Well, the Built March Madness bracket is here. We know you have a favorite bar or puff, and now it's your time to make it count. Go to BuiltMarchMadness.com to vote for your favorites. I'm going to be voting for the brownie better puff. It is so good.

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Run to BuiltMarchMadness.com right now to vote for your favorite R-Puff and pick up a box while you're there. You can vote every day in March. So hop in and support your pick. All right, Trent Conant back, wrapping up with you on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. So as we finish things up here today, Iowa baseball starts at noon against Maryland, just a monstrous series for them. They have an opportunity to get off to a really good start now in the Big Ten.

Excuse me. Dropped the game, a midweek game earlier this week at Illinois State. Not a good one. No doubt about it. And can't afford many of those with the teams that they play in the middle of the week. We saw what a detriment that was a season ago to them. Iowa football, got to see a little bit of Cade McNamara. They had the open practice for the beat writers

as they were over there the other day in Iowa City. We're going to have plenty more. But, hey, we got a lot going on here. We're going to enjoy this women's Final Four run. We will talk more on the football side of things next week. We will get into the men's basketball team and the transfer portal. And hopefully we're talking about an Iowa win tonight against South Carolina.

I will be there and I will be in your feeds with an instant reaction podcast after things go final and after we get back to the hotel and get settled in. Happy to be here in Dallas with my seven-year-old daughter. The excitement. She's in fact over there working on her sign right now, hoping to get on TV.

We're going to be way too high for her to be on TV. But having a great time, enjoying the moment, and enjoying certainly this Hawkeye women's basketball run. Thanks, as always, for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. Make sure you hit that subscribe button if you're on YouTube. Five-star rating on podcasts helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. We'll talk to you again soon. Let's get it done tonight.

Go Hawks.