Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - ALERT: Iowa's Basketball RESURRECTION Begins | Can McCollum's Recruits SILENCE the Doubters?

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Iowa Hawkeyes basketball enters a new era with coach Ben McCollum. Will his arrival spark a resurgence for the program?Trent Condon breaks down the Hawkeyes' offseason moves, including key roster additions and player development. The discussion shifts to football, where Iowa's clash with Iowa State lands a prime-time slot on Fox's Big Noon Kickoff. Scott Dochterman of The Athletic joins to analyze Mark Gronowski's potential impact as Iowa's new quarterback and the Big Ten's stance on playoff structures.Tune in for insider perspectives on Iowa's basketball transformation and the football team's path to success in the upcoming season.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Summer practices have begun for Iowa basketball and this men's basketball team in year number one of Ben McCullum, they're gonna be real good. You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. 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. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. I've been covering the Hawkeyes for over 20 years on the radio here in the state of Iowa. You can hear me currently on the Iowa Sports Radio Network each weekday from noon to two and talk in the world of sports with Ken Miller on KXNO in Des Moines and across the Iowa Sports Radio Network each weekday from noon to two and talk in the world of sports with Ken Miller on KXNO in Des Moines and across the Iowa Sports Radio Network we have stations in Sioux City, the Quad Cities, Cedar Rapids

and Iowa City each weekday from noon to do. Today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKDOWNCOLLege at MonarchMoney.com for 50% off your first year. We got football talk coming your way. We'll be joined by Scott Dockerman from the Athletic Look at Iowa Football. Fox making the decision to put Iowa-Iowa State for the big noon kickoff at 11 o'clock. Plus we'll talk Mark Gronowski, the new quarterback for the Hawkeyes, coming up with Scott Dockerman. The Iowa women's basketball program has also made a new hire and Jasmine Walker will talk about her impact to the Iowa women's basketball program. But

we begin today on the men's basketball front as Iowa basketball. That's right. June 3rd, they are opening up their summer work. So the new staff comes in led by Ben McCollum. As we talked about last week, Ben McCollum has done a lot of good. Bate McCollum, his son, is the latest addition to the roster and a lot of conversation. I know a lot of people with thoughts and comments of that over on the YouTube side of things is where you can comment each and every day. In fact, if you're watching this on YouTube right now, hit that subscribe button while you're there. If you're listening on the podcast side, five star reviews greatly helps us and a shout out to every dares with this each and every day. But we talked a lot about that last week and my excitement for this team continues to build and it's happened again here at the beginning of the week.

So two more things. One, Jeff Goodman, longtime national scribe on college basketball, him along with Rob Doster created the field of 68. Great website, great resource and a great podcast that they put together talking college basketball and they do it in a myriad of different ways. But those two guys know the game. Those two guys, Rob Doster is one that I've known for a number of years now are incredibly well and they're not one to pump sunshine up the rear somebody when they don't deserve it. But Goodman called the biggest off season winner, Iowa basketball. That's right.

Iowa ahead of Michigan, Kentucky, St. John's, Florida, Louisville, NC state, Houston, Auburn and Texas. That's his top 10. And, NC State, Houston, Auburn and Texas. That's his top 10. And he's got the Iowa Hawkeyes at the top of the list. He starts as we all should with Ben McCollum getting Ben McCollum was a great coup and it kind of goes in line with Iowa and without the connection that you had, and it's kind of silly because that connection is always there. And there was a reason that Ben McCollum

was always on the list, but his connection, his love affair, his growth in the state of Iowa and what Iowa basketball meant to him. He's probably not the coach at Iowa without that. This is a guy that was wanted across the country. There were bigger programs. There were programs with bigger profiles,

certainly than Iowa, that were interested in Ben McCollum. There were programs that bigger profiles certainly than Iowa that were interested in Ben McCollum There were programs that had maybe a lot more on the positive side of the ledger than Iowa Hoops does right now That wanted Ben McCollum to be their coach and yet he took this job He took this job knowing some of the obstacles They're in place some of the things that they're going to have to overcome as a program to get to the level that he expects that he anticipates yet He did it. He took this job and that is a great coup for Beth gets for this athletic department And what they were able to do But then to do that and to bring in Bennett starts and to be able to get Bennett starts that in the open market

Would have been one of the highest paid players in all of college basketball this season. That will not be the case at Iowa, but it would have been the case if he would have went in the open market. And instead of Bennett starts doing that, starts made the decision that he is going with McCollum and he's going to be an Iowa Hawkeye for his final year of eligibility. Then you also look what they did bringing in Brendan Hausson, bringing in fool Garris. Both of those guys are going to be high-impact players coupled with the decision of creating a roster of Drake guys

Guys that know his system guys that know that what he wants and I know it's still pictures I know that's all that it is and that's all that we're getting out of practice. I will see later today Maybe they'll have a couple of highlights that they'll be able to post out there on the social media accounts for Iowa basketball Oh a couple of things stood out though from these still pictures first Teams pretty cut this team already physically looks a lot different than a frame of Caffrey coach team Already physically looks a lot different than a frame of Caffrey coach team And the development that it's still gonna happen and continuing to build on that these are good things Iowa to play the style of ball

that Ben McCollum wants Has to be physically better now when you bring in a roster that basically is completely replaced outside of Cooper Koch Jake cook You have a new roster that is coming in and it's easier to a identify the guys that you want But also bring in the kind of guys that are gonna play your style so Sturtz and Manwha and Howard and Combs and banks those guys coming in and One final thing on this front, you know know we've talked about some of the other guys fool garis house and those guys are gonna be starters What they're gonna get out of some of the other ones is

Trevin, urock We've talked about urock a lot because i broadcast a lot of his games Live in the community know the, all the different things. I think he's going to surprise some people this year. It's not that my expectation for Yurok is that he's going to come in and dominate the big 10, no. That he's even going to play 15 minutes a game. But he is going to be a guy that's going to play this year. And I think he's going to play better than a lot of people anticipate. Yurok has a lot of skills and athletically there's work that needs to be done,

but his skillset coupled with the body up to six foot, 11, 250 pounds moves better maybe than you think. And yet still has growth that's going to happen. And I think you're going to see that body start to catch up and that athleticism start to catch up with him. He's going to be a nice piece, eight, 10, 12 minutes a game, probably in that range, but I think Uroch's gonna be a part of that this season. Expectation baseline year number one, when you start with an All-American candidate

point guard and Bennett Sturtz, at minimum, an NCAA tournament team. The upside is going to be there. We'll continue to look for those glimpses of Iowa basketball and and social media clips. Give us some highlights, come on. Help us out, give us something here. It's the off season.

We need something to chew on and make us through these summer months. Well, we got football to talk about as well as we continue to count down the days before the opener for Iowa football. Scott Dockerman is going to join us. We'll talk a little bit about Mark Gronowski. We'll also talk some big picture stuff

in college football after last week, the SEC meetings, what came out of that, what it means for Iowa, but more importantly what it means for college football as a whole. We'll do that as we continue. This is Locked On Hawkeyes. Ever check your bank account and wonder where'd all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment. It's easy to lose track That's where Monarch money comes in It's your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances Monarch money isn't just a budgeting app It's a complete financial command center

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We can do that though with monarch money Track shared and personal accounts You can set goals for your family and stay on the same page without the stress like we do take control of your finances with Monarch money use code locked on college at monarch money comm for 50% off your first year That's monarch money comm with the code locked on college for half off your first year. That's monarch money.com with the code locked on college for half off your first year, monarch money.com right now, Scott Dockerman from the athletic, he's been busy writing about the Hawkeye offense, keeping up with the SEC and their plans to well do what they do to college sports.

We'll see where it ends. Doc, good to talk to you. Trent, Ken, thanks for coming on. I guess where I wanna start, Doc, is with one of our talking points from last week and just the fact that I learned that some rules, some strings had to be pulled, some, I don't know if it was back and forth,

horse trading or whatever, but for Fox to get the CyHawk game and do so in the 11 o'clock central window, that's quite a coup, Scott Jockerman. Hey, good to be on with you guys. And what transpired, and I talked to all the heads of all three networks and did a story on the draft between how the Big Ten media partners draft the Big Ten games. And this was the first year where the Big Ten was supposed to have one of its games in the big noontime slot every single week. Last year, it had, there was room for one Big 12 game. And part of that was because Texas and Oklahoma were still, when the whole thing was negotiated, we're still part of the big 12.

So they had room for one of those games. Well, that of course ended. And then they ended up going with Penn State at West Virginia last year. But this was the first year where there was supposed to be a big 10 only window at a big 10 campus. But as you saw, maybe the week that was, week two for the Big Ten, they have nothing, nothing of value at all on one of its home campuses. And Fox initially had it slated for the middle of the day,

and I think it was FIU at Penn State was gonna be on Fox, and they just didn't feel very good about it. And so they went to the big 10 and said, Hey, is there any way we can get an exception here? We'd like to be an aims big rivalry game, two teams that combined for 19 wins last year. You still have a big 10 game. We still have a relationship with the big 12 and the big 10 granted that. So, uh, it's going to be, uh, you know, quite the atmosphere. You're going to get a big new kickoff show. You're going to get big new exposure and it's going to be a go to an already big day in

central Iowa. An interesting note to me because I always thought it was 51-49%. That's the ownership of the Big Ten network. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when this launched, wasn't the Big Ten owned 51%, Fox owned 49%? Because in one of your articles last week, you mentioned that Fox now owns 61%. Do you know kind of the loopholes or just the maturations of how we got to that point? Because that was always my belief that at least

the Big Ten owns a majority share of the Big Ten Network. Yeah, in the very beginning, the Big Ten owns a majority share of the Big Ten network? In the very beginning, the Big Ten owned 51% and Fox owned 49%, which allowed the Big Ten to kind of have a controlling leverage over the network. Well, about three to four years in, it was right around 2010 or 11, I can't remember which year, they flipped the equity. So it went 51, 49 in favor of Fox, and they paid pretty significant money.

Well, during the COVID year and all the schools were hurting financially, Fox then bought 10 more percent equity. And so that gave everybody a pretty good shot in the arm, even though some schools had to still borrow $50 million from their central fund, but, uh, most of them don't really helped out. So yeah, that's why it's now 61 to 39% in favor of, uh, Fox on PTN. I saw that note in your article talking about the potential, what was looking like Ohio state, Texas being a Sunday game and Texas saying no

to that. Why do we have to be robbed of everything as sports fans? I mean, the standalone window with that game at minimum is gonna be a preseason top five game. That's just as football fans frustrating, but I guess we just have to accept it, right, Doc? That's the new way to the world. Just accept it, not anything we can do. It comes down to the powers that be.

Yeah, it would have been a bit of fun switching back and forth between that and Notre Dame Miami, I think. But you know, that's what happens to these days. You know, the schools have veto power, which is understandable to move a day. It's not so much you can't move, you can't determine the time, but you can determine the day. And I know that Texas was kind of being flippant.

And you know, Chris Del Conte said, well, I got to go to church that day or something like that. Come on. You know, you can go to church in Columbus. They've got some great cathedrals there. But, you know, it's just kind of funny that that was what ended up not happening. So, you know, but for the people of Ohio State, you know, they were really upset. Their last six games of the regular season last year, all were at noon. And five of them were on big noon. And some of it was Ohio State, or it was Fox's fault. Some of it was just bad luck. But I mean, they're really trying to get out of

that wave there. And then the Big Ten kind of stepped in in the next two weeks and put them once at prime time on Peacock against Ohio and then another in the next two weeks and put them once at prime time on Peacock against Ohio and then another in the midday. I think it was against Grambling. And I'd expect a few others to move around. The balance throughout the season is a lot better than it was last year. But yeah, it would have been great to see that one in prime time on a Sunday night. I know Fox would have wanted that too.

Doc, I'm guessing you would love to be in the room either at Fox, NBC or CBS. The Big Ten TV draft really is fascinating. It's something that, I guess I wasn't even aware that this takes place until you started talking about it within the last couple of years, but it really is something to behold just to see kind of the chessboard

and the pieces all these networks are moving to try and obtain the best game in their slots on their networks. Yeah, it was a lot of fun to report that and talk to each of the different networks because they all come from different perspectives and they all have different factors. I mean, whether it's their predetermined time slot and then

the external things. I mean, like NBC has to consider things like Notre Dame football. And when it is one of Notre Dame in prime time, Fox has... The reason why there is a drop in Friday games is they decided to go heavy with baseball playoffs the final two Fridays in October rather than scheduling college football. And you've got to take that into consideration. And then you've got to look at the landscape and okay, what big game is going on on the SEC this night? Maybe for NBC, we punt a little bit or maybe we ramp it up. So I think everything that they do is really interesting to me.

And they all were pretty universal in how they approached it and said, you know, they started really examining the schedules back as soon as they were announced back in December and started having war games. They'd have, you know, different groups play Fox and CBS while NBC was sitting in the air, try to get in their heads, try to figure out exactly what each network wanted to do and what their strategies were and that way they could really fit well. One of the things kind of left on the cutting room floor was I asked them specifically, do you guys ever get like, like a fantasy football draft, do you ever say yes?

I can't believe it fell to us or no no, you know, oh man, you know, you got me right one pick earlier, and they're like yes, but we'll never tell you which one. It's a little, maybe in a few years if we're revisiting it, but you know, that really was fascinating, because there are times when everything you wanna do, and it's just one step out of your control, or falls right to you, That also is fascinating to me.

You also wrote last week in what was a busy week for you, Doc, about the new and improved Iowa offense, at least that's the hope with Mark Garnowski taking over. Doc, it just comes into my mind so often when Garnowski comes up. He wasn't in the portal yet. Yet you brought up his name as the kind of guy, if he would enter the portal, that's who Iowa needs. And then it happens very quickly that it all came together. It just feels like Doc talking to you. This is about as close as a perfect relationship as I was going to find,

at least in the current structure at the quarterback position. Yeah. Right place, right time right now. I mean, you know, I think he is, he's perfect for what Iowa wants to do. He can make every throw and, you know, Lester wants to go deep more often than they did because they didn't have anybody to do it. And he's accurate, he's tough, he's physical, he can do all those things and provide leadership and swagger. And, you know, I mean, they've had various players be able to do some of that. I mean, I think Spencer had a lot of swagger and, but he just wasn't really accurate enough and couldn't run. And Mark

can run. He's a very good running quarterback. He has 37 runnishing touchdowns and as well as what, 90 some odd, I think, maybe more than that, passing touchdowns. So you've got the right quarterback for your system and can do everything. And then you throw on the two of the best returning alignment in the country and Logan Jones and Jennings Dunker and some other pieces. And this really looks like a team that could take a major step forward as it did last year. You know, they went from 15.4 points per game to 27.7. And so that was a pretty big jump. And I think they're more than capable of making

a, you know, maybe they'll fall down a little bit in the running game because you don't have Caleb Johnson, but having a quarterback like Mark Grunowski will more than make up for it. And, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if they nudge this over, not just over 30 points a game. And, you know, maybe they, maybe they even get in the neighborhood of the high 300s, maybe even across the 400 barrier and yards per game. If they can do that, then this will be a very potent offense. Steve McLaughlin Did Tony Petitti take you up on your offer to talk, as you put out there last week? Tony Petitti I'm surprised we haven't heard anything from the conference talk. Maybe it's

apparent that that's what they want and we'll just let the SEC be seen as the bad guy in all of this and saying he's willing to play that role and he's doing a very good job of it because everybody is pissed off at him for the most part. But nothing for Petite as of yet, right? No, I even had a long conversation on Friday night because I kept pressing it, you know, that, hey, everybody else is talking about you guys. You're the ones that are now looking like the bad guy because you introduced this rule, this structure for the college football playoff

of the four automatics for them and the SEC, two for the Big 12 and ACC. And I'm actually writing something about that as we speak, although I stopped typing for the few minutes we're on. Thank you. So. But a lot of that, the numbers really won't change that much for the Big Ten, whether they go to four or they go to open. But there's a significant amount of distrust on the Big

Ten for the Selection Committee in the way it's kind of been treated in the past. And it goes back to, the example I'm using is is 2018 and this is a bowl game of all things. But when Penn State got stacked behind Florida and LSU and, and Florida played two group, two FCS opponents, and then two other opponents in the non-conference that didn't have winning records and Penn State plays ACC divisional champ and 11 and two team, and then plays a nine game league schedule, you know, plays three teams ranked in the top 10 and 11 and two team, and then plays a nine game league schedule, you know, plays three teams ranked in the top 10 and, and still falls behind has the same record. And it's just like, well, what are we doing for all of this? You know, we've

got a nine game schedule. We bumped all this stuff up and yet here we are. So that's kind of where the roots of the distrust lie with, with the selection committee. And that's kind of why they want to take, take out some of the subjectivity, I guess you could say, and make it just uniform that way. We'll see if they get something similar to that. Right now, all the momentum is on a 5-11, but that favors the SEC more than anybody else. I mean, the Big 12 would have only gotten one team in last year if that would have happened.

They would have at least gotten two with this philosophy and the, the sec traditionally, you know, even though it plays only eight league games and a lot of times, in fact, um, looking at it this year, they only have, um, three teams play 10 power five opponents, power four opponents, only three out of their 16. And in the big 10, it's what? Oh, 12. But the SEC somehow says it's got a better strength of schedule. And so that that's something

that they were, they're really combating it. So we'll see what happens. I think the big 10 just wants to be a little bit quiet. I disagree with that, but that's their prerogative to say and do what they want. Uh, doc, good stuff. We will look for that piece that you're typing as we spoke, as you said, you put it on the back burner, but back to work, Doc. Thanks for doing this for us. We will read you as we always do with the athletic. Thank you, Scott Dockerman. All right. Thanks guys. Appreciate it. You're the same, Scott Dockerman, as we check in on a variety of topics. Always great stuff from Scott Dockerman, diving deep into the world of Iowa football.

Big thank you to him for joining us here today. We continue Lockdown Hawkeyes. We got some news and notes to get into, including a new women's basketball coach. Jasmine Walker is her name. We'll talk about that. Plus Iowa baseball, some great news potentially for the Iowa baseball program. Even as a bunch of guys are ending the portal will do that next locked on Hawkeyes Try kind of back with you one final time. This is locked on Hawkeyes

Thanks for being with us and making locked on Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Thanks to you every dayers with us each and every day That's what we do your team every day here on the Lockdown Network. If you're watching on YouTube, hit subscribe, five star review on the podcast side. Wrapping things up today. Let's kick things off first with Jasmine Walker, the new assistant coach by way of GW coming into Jan Jensen's program. Chad Leistecal from the Des Moines Register with some good reporting on this. He mentioned that this is going to be kind of the lead role in the recruiting side of things. And that's something we've talked about a ton. You kind of look at this Iowa roster, very young,

kind of that transition now as we're coming on the heels of the Caitlin Clark era, moving past that. Levina Stolke for another season. She'll be kind of one of the faces of this program, what that's gonna look like. But after Lucy Olson now departs and on to the WNBA it's now gonna be kind of about that roster flux and then on top of it what it's going to look like in the class of 2026-27 as I was involved with a number

of big-time prospects in those classes are they gonna be able to finish this off and continue the momentum that was created by Caitlin Clark Meg Augustus and beforehand to become a Perennial contender to take that next step as a program from what they were for almost the whole Lisa Bluter era Good enough to make the tournament win a game sometimes too But that was the ceiling now can that ceiling raise and And the ability to do that all comes down to players. You talk about investment in the program, the fan base and the way that they supported it, but you have to have the players enabled to do that.

That's now gonna be a big part of what's happening with Walker. And to mention the Iowa baseball program is it was obviously a disappointing end the way this finished up. And I know there were a lot of frustrations that were out there On the second phase of the Dwayne Banks field renovations are now up to the Regents and for their approval This comes from the University of Iowa press release announced earlier today

The University of Iowa athletic department plays to continue renovating Dwayne Banks field Penning approval by the Board of Regents State of Iowa next week. The second phase of a donor-funded project to improve the game day experience when it consists of reconstructing the press box. As a media member, somebody that called games there for the state baseball tournament for a couple of years, thank goodness, yes, that is absolutely needed. Also, adding new seating, other improvements, including an ADA compliant restroom and ramp to connect the new clubhouse with the first baseline grandstand.

So a lot that needs to happen there, felt like it was happening. There was funds that they thought they had secured that weren't there. A developer here in central Iowa that didn't have the money that apparently they thought they were getting from that. And that's a different story with a whole lot of different permutations that are out there on that front.

Rick Heller is doing as much as you possibly can with less at the big 10 level, at the baseball level, at the university of Iowa. I was incredibly lucky to have him. But in order to compete, you need funds, need people investing. You also need facilities and they continue to work on that and trying to get them up to at least somewhat of an even play in the Big 10. But you look around the conference, you look at the other places that have invested Iowa legs behind. This is another step and let's hope it happens because with no other division one programs in the state, we look at all the success

of Iowa kids and what they've been able to do with this baseball program you would hate to see this program crater in a way that it was for a long time before coach Heller got here and the opportunities that were there for so many kids in our state for that to go away don't want to see that by any level. Thanks for being with this as always and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We are with you each and every day throughout the course of the week. And for your second listen make sure you're checking out the Portal show. If you're a football fan it is a must watch and listen each and every day. Brian Smith

has the latest rumors, Portal entries, and signing. Be the most informed fan on the rapid changes to the college football landscape With the portal you can find the portal on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts and with the becoming recruiting season now Brian does a great job on that front also find out the latest and some of the big names that I was after With the portal we're with you each and every day talking. I will Hawkeyes Thanks for being with us hit that subscribe button again if you're watching us on YouTube or a five star review all helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Coming up tomorrow on the program we'll be joined by Tavian Banks, the former Hawkeye

great no not the basketball player, not Tavian Banks, Tavian Banks the football player, the former star. He's got a couple of football camps coming up this summer for youth across the state of Iowa. Great opportunity for your youngster to get involved and learn from Tavian Banks, Tim Dwight, and a host of other former Hawkeye greats and other great coaches. We'll give you more details on that. Plus, hopefully we'll get some video out of the opening practice for Iowa basketball. Always football topics to get into, including Kirk Ferentz. Where is he as it rates of the best coaches in college football? That's all coming your way tomorrow. Thanks for being with us and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen

every day. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Until then, go Hawks.