Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Analysis of Northwestern loss | #13 Women's team off to 2-0 start | Men's team beats Green Bay

Episode Date: November 12, 2018

We will be breaking down the Hawks loss to Northwestern with a quick recap and analysis of how the rush defense failed and where the play calling went wrong. We touch on the women's field hockey team losing in the NCAA tournament, #13 women's basketball team starting 2-0, and #3 wrestling team notching 1,000 dual wins before wrapping up with analysis of the men's basketball game vs Green Bay.Follow us on Twitter @LockedOnIowa and follow host Andrew Wade @wade_andrew Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the premiere episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes, the latest addition to the Locked On Sports Network's Growing Lineup at College podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at dearoldgold.com, where you can find analysis pieces on all things black and yellow, and we have an exciting premiere episode for you today. Before we take a look at today's topics, though, I wanted to quickly give an overview of what you can expect with the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast going forward. We will be recording at least four episodes every single week and dedicating every single episode to covering

the ins and outs of Hawkeye athletics, which means previewing the big games, recapping performances, discussing issues and opinions on the direction of different Hawkeye athletics, and hopefully having a few surprise guest appearances from former Hawkeye athletes. With that being said, let's get started with today's episode. We have three awesome segments for you today. The first segment, we're going to be recapping the Hawkeyes' disappointing loss to Northwestern. What went wrong? Who did well? Which, surprise, not a ton of people. And what the heck is going on with Noah Fant, the All-American tight end who just can't seem to get in the game for whatever reason? On segment two, we're going to be giving you a rundown of other Hawkeye sports,

On segment two, we're going to be giving you a rundown of other Hawkeye sports, including the women's field hockey trip to the NCAA tournament, the women's basketball team's hot start, and then also how the number three ranked wrestling team is currently doing this season. And finally, on segment three, we're going to be reviewing the men's basketball team's 2-0 start, including today's victory over the Green Bay Phoenix. Before I jump in though, I want to make sure to please subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and please leave us a review. All feedback is good, constructive criticism, whatever you may have, would love to hear from you, as well as what kind of things you would like to hear going forward on the podcast. For segment one, I wanted to talk about the Hawkeye loss to Northwestern. And if you are like me, you were extremely disappointed on Saturday.

I think, at least from my perspective, it was definitely a game that I anticipated Iowa winning. Obviously, Vegas anticipated Iowa winning as well. They had Iowa listed as a 10-point favorite going against Northwestern. However, for anyone who's been a fan of the Iowa football program for some time, you know that Northwestern just seems to have Iowa's number. Whether it was back in 2009 when the Northwestern Wildcats knocked out Ricky Stanzi and ended up ruining Iowa's undefeated season, or the last two seasons really where Northwestern has made Iowa look bad at their own game. In this game particularly, Iowa did fall to Northwestern 14-10, and the first half was honestly just a snore fest. It featured nine punts and just one field goal, with the Hawks heading

into half up 3-0. The second half livened up a bit, but obviously not in the way that Hawkeye fans would have liked. The Northwestern Wildcats were able to get on the board with a touchdown after they worked their way down the field. There was a questionable pass interference call on Matt Hankins, and that was followed by an obvious Northwestern fumble that would not be able to be reviewed because the referees blew the whistle dead. Big missed opportunity there, and that's kind of a really big theme from the day. The refereeing was not on par with what we've typically seen. I know against Purdue, there was definitely some questionable calls to end the game that I was a little frustrated with,

especially that pass interference on Julius Brentz. And against Northwestern, it seemed like the first three quarters of the game, there was definitely some questionable calls or no calls, specifically going against Iowa. This is another example of kind of where a missed opportunity would ultimately lead to a Northwestern touchdown and put the Wildcats back in the ballgame. The following possession, Iowa would miss the field goal, but then were able to get an interception from Clayton Thorson with Jake Gervais getting a tip ball. And they were able to score on a Amir Smith-Marset 28-yard

touchdown reception from junior quarterback Nathan Stanley. After that, kind of another theme of the day, there's a terrible punt by Colton Rastetter. And it seems like he's really been struggling the last couple of weeks. He's only been averaging around 35 yards per punt, which is not ideal. And he's really been struggling the last couple of weeks. He's only been averaging around 35 yards per punt, which is not ideal. And he's really not flipping the field position the way we traditionally see the Iowa football team do. Kirk France teams, they do a great job of protecting the ball, playing sound defense, and utilizing special teams in the best capacity. And that includes on the punting game, kicking the ball far, good coverage, maintaining the, you know, containing the kick returners and so on and so forth. And it just hasn't been the case as of late.

And with that bad pump by Colton Rassetter, the Wildcats were able to return it pretty far up the field, and they were able to get on the board quickly to go up 14 to 10. With the game looking definitely in Northwestern's favor, Iowa had two opportunities to really score and they lost two fumbles by one by McKee Sargent and the other one by Ivory Kelly Martin, which is unfortunately the first two fumbles lost by an Iowa running back since last year. And that's really been the theme of the season so far. And whether it was Wisconsin losing two special teams fumbles,

really hurt them in that game. Against Penn State, it was the goal line interception. Against Purdue last week, it was the inability to cover Terry Wright. And then the late game refereeing that kind of messed up the Hawks. And then finally in this game against the Wildcats, having two fumbles in the final two drives. This Hawkeye team is much more talented than the record shows, and it's unfortunate that it's coming down to just honestly eight to ten plays that have really put the Hawks at six and four as opposed to maybe 9-1 or even 10-0.

A couple big disappointments for me, at least from this game, is the rush defense, though. Isaiah Bowser has not been the best running back for Northwestern, and Northwestern overall just hasn't been a great running team this season after Jeremy Larkin retired, unfortunately, due to some medical conditions. Since then, though, Northwestern hasn't been able to run the ball overly well. Against Nebraska, they had less than 30 yards. I think against Michigan State and Michigan, they also had less than 30 yards.

Against Iowa, however, they put up 184 yards, which was their best day of the year. And this is against a stout Iowa run defense, an Iowa run defense that I believe before the Northwestern game is ranked top three in the nation. This defense has held the likes of Miles Sanders to 3.6 yards per carry. DJ Knox to 3.8 yards per carry. They held the entire Maryland, Indiana and Minnesota teams to under 68 yards total in each of those games. Heisman Trophy candidate at the least at the beginning of the season, Jonathan Taylor, was only able to manage 113 yards against this team. And David Montgomery, who is projected to be potentially an early second-round draft pick in this upcoming year's draft. He only got 44 yards against the

Hawks. So to see Isaiah Bowser go off for 165 yards at a 5.3 yard per carry clip is really unfortunate and definitely disappointing. Another area that I kind of struggled with in watching this game was the play calling. And a lot of fans can kind of get on the fact that it didn't seem like Nate Stanley was pressing the ball downfield, but I counter that with it. And a lot of fans can kind of get on the fact that it didn't seem like Nate Stanley was pressing the ball downfield, but I counter that with, it seemed like a lot of the plays were designed to go horizontally.

And that definitely is a staple of a Brian Ferentz offense. They like to do a lot of the bubble screens, but it seemed like they were relying more on the bubble screen than they typically have. Going to Nick Easley, who is a fantastic receiver and did a great job of still getting upfield and getting some yards. But for the most part, the play calling seemed to be going

more horizontally and less vertically, especially against a depleted Northwestern secondary that had three of their top corners out of the game for the most part. It wasn't all bad though. There were a few guys that I wanted to call out from the game, specifically Amir Smith-Marset, who has been electrifying on special teams. He's against the Northwestern Wildcats. He had three returns for 100 yards, and he reeled in four catches for 90 yards, including a beautiful catch on third down where he managed to haul the ball in, tap his foot. It was initially called incomplete complete, but they eventually

overturned that. And then obviously the 28 yard touchdown reception. And then on the defensive side of the ball, I wanted to give a game ball to Amani Hooker, who had six tackles, one sack, and a pass defended. And in general, he's just been a jack of all trades for the Hawkeye defense and really kind of the linchpin of that defense. And I'm really thankful that he's a junior. Hopefully he's going to be back next year. I haven't seen him on a lot of draft boards, so definitely some hope coming back for next year, but overall just a disappointing game.

If you're like me, it was definitely frustrating. You were expecting to see a win. A team with such high hopes coming into the season should have beat Wisconsin could have been, you know, seven and oh, going into Penn state loss on could have been you know 7-0 going into Penn State lost on the last you know last couple minutes against Penn State lost on the last second

field goal to Purdue and then lost Northwestern in the waning minutes of yet you know of Saturday's game so definitely unfortunate hopefully we can move on we'll be talking a little bit more on the upcoming episodes this week about the Illinois game and what Iowa needs to do to get back on the winning track. So definitely stay tuned for Wednesday and Thursday's episodes for that. For segment two, we have coming up next, we are planning to do this pretty much every Monday, but we're going to be giving you a rundown of how the other Iowa Hawkeyes athletic teams performed over the course of the week, including the number 13 women's basketball team's hot start to begin the season. But before I talk about the past week of excitement at Hawkeye Athletics, I have a message for you, the listener, because if you're like me, you hate to miss your

favorite team play, regardless of who they are playing. That's where Sling TV comes in. Now, for me personally, I never have to miss a football or a basketball game. And the best part is I no longer have to pay for a bunch of channels I don't even watch with a typical cable package. And believe me, those cable packages are getting pretty pricey. For just $30 a month, you get access to ESPN, the Big Ten Network, and more without the hassle of a long-term contract. What's even more exciting is that we have a fantastic offer for you. Locked On listeners can get a free seven-day trial by going to sling.com slash locked on. That's S-L-I-N-G dot com slash locked on.

Never miss a game again with Sling TV. Never miss a game again with Sling TV. All right, before we jump into segment two, wanted to give a quick heads up for segment three. We're going to be covering the men's basketball team's 2-0 start, including yesterday's win over Green Bay, and want to take a look at what's on the horizon for Fran McCaffrey's basketball team because they do have a few tough games coming up in the 2K Empire Classic. Before we talk about that though, let's jump into how the other Hawkeye athletic teams have done over the past week. And there's been a lot of exciting games. It's a great time

to be an Iowa Hawkeye fan. A lot of big things happening outside of the football world, which a lot of us like to get wrapped up into. But there's other teams doing fantastic things, including the women's field hockey team. The ladies field hockey team received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament after falling in the Big Ten tournament. On Friday afternoon, the number seven Hawkeyes fell to number 12 Wake Forest in the Sweet 16. the number seven Hawkeyes fell to number 12 Wake Forest in the Sweet 16. Unfortunately, that is the conclusion of the season, but it's always great whenever a Hawkeye program can make the NCAA tournament, regardless of what sport it is.

Definitely a good season for the ladies there. Maddie Murphy was named to the first team All-Big Ten team, and Katie Burch and Sophie Sunderland were also named to the second team All-Big Ten team. So congrats, ladies. Nice work. Way to represent the Hawkeyes. The women's basketball team has also been off to a pretty hot start. The number 13 women's basketball team made quick work of their two opponents this past week, beating NAIA Dakota Wesleyan University 102-54, before taking care of Oral Roberts University 90-77 on Friday evening.

As expected, All-American forward Megan Gustafson paced the team in points in both contests. And against Oral Roberts, she led the team in points, boards, assists, and blocks. They're led by a predominantly veteran group of players. They're starting three seniors, a junior and a redshirt sophomore and coming off of a season where they kind of ended last year on a sour note as the number six seed they lost in the first round last year. So definitely unfortunate, but this team is looking to rebound and make a much deeper return into the NCAA tournament this upcoming season. And in the wrestling world, the number three wrestling team, the Iowa Hawkeyes men's wrestling

team, opened up the season with two dual matches versus Cal State Bakersfield and Kent State this past week. They put away both teams pretty easily. They beat Cal State Bakersfield 36-3 and then followed that up with a 45-0 win over Kent State to notch their 1,000th dual win in program history. The Hawks are just one of four teams to ever achieve that. So some pretty awesome stuff going on in the Hawkeye athletic world.

Obviously, a lot of us care pretty significantly about the football team and the men's basketball team, and that's what's going to get a lot of the hype. But it's really important for us to also make sure that we're supporting the other Hawkeye athletic teams, especially because they're pretty fantastic in doing an outstanding job so far in this young school year. And that's it for segment two. For segment three, as we talked about, we're going to be jumping into the weekly rundown of the men's basketball team, talking through their two games so far, including yesterday's victory over Green Bay. Green Bay. All right, so we are back with the segment three of our episode today, talking on the men's basketball team. And for those of you who didn't get a chance to watch them last year, a little bit of a disappointing season. It was the second worst season in the Fran McCaffrey era.

The team went 14 and 18, but there's a lot of high expectations, at least on my part for this team this year and potentially into next year. They have a couple really good young players coming in. Connor McCaffrey, last year's four-star recruit, who had a couple illnesses and injury issues and that sort of thing, is back and looking great this year. We also brought in Joe Weiskamp, who is a former four-star recruit from Muscatine, Iowa, former Gatorade Player of the Year from Iowa. So fantastic addition to this team. And there were no major losses from this team.

So definitely a team that's on the rise and could be pretty good this year if they're able to figure out a few of the issues. And definitely a good thing we had a few warm-up games this year before we're jumping into next Thursday's game against number 14, Oregon. So last night or yesterday afternoon, if you had an opportunity to, the Hawks did beat the Green Bay Phoenix 93-82. And kind of like the game against the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Kangaroos, the Hawks got off to a slow start. At the end of the first half, they only led 47 to 46, and they were only one of eight from three points. But it was kind of an interesting game because

the Phoenix lineup consisted of no players over 6'6". Obviously, the Iowa Hawkeyes starting lineup already has Tyler Cook and Luke Garza who are bigger than that. And additionally, Frank McCaffrey has a wealth of big men at his disposal and big men that not only can play down in the post, but also spread it out kind of Dirk Nowitzki style. Definitely some interesting matchup combinations they have there. But that small, quick lineup of the Phoenix, we're kind of getting to the Hawkeyes early on. And that's why, as I

said, they were only up 47 to 46 at halftime. Obviously, the lack of shooting from behind the arc wasn't very great. Going one for eight is never an ideal scenario. And on the game, I believe they were shooting 27% from three points. So they only made five three-pointers the entire game and Jordan Bohannon actually made three of those. So not an ideal shooting performance. One of the big things from this game is actually the Hawks shot 45 free throws compared to the 16 that the Phoenix shot. So definitely awesome to see the Hawkeyes get into the line. They were converting at a 70% clip there as well. For the game, the big men are really kind of stealing the show, though,

and that makes sense. With a small, quick lineup, it's important that Fran McCaffrey's team can feed the ball down low to the big men. When your tallest guy is 6'6", for Green Bay, you definitely need to be getting it to the tall guys that Iowa ball down low to the big men. When you're tallest guy is 6'6 for Green Bay, you definitely need to be getting it to the tall guys that Iowa features down low, including Tyler Cook, Luke Garza, Ryan Kreener, and Nicholas Beyer. So Tyler Cook and Luke Garza actually kind of paced the Hawkeyes in scoring. They had 17 points each.

Each had about five or six boards. And then Nicholas Beyer had 12 points. And Ryan Creener actually was really the one who impressed me probably the most, just based on the way he was able to score in such different and effective ways. Being seven foot tall, pretty surprising to watch him drive from the three-point line and dunk it on the Green Bay Phoenix, another possession he was able to post up and put it in for a nice bank off the backboard. And then another possession with Conor McCaffrey at the point. They did a nice little pick and roll and handed it actually back to Kreener,

who popped a three-pointer from behind the arc and made it. So definitely interesting to see the different ways that he can score, and that's quite a mismatch for any program going up against the Iowa Hawkeyes. When you have a 7-foot-tall player who can play inside and out so effectively, that's definitely going to make yourself kind of dangerous, which is awesome. Minutes leaders for the day, Jordan Bohannon came in at 36 minutes. Joe Weiskamp came in at 30 minutes. Luke Garza came in at 36 minutes. Tyler Cook at 24.

So those are kind of the guys that were pacing the team there. And it'll be interesting to see kind of one of the big questions I have from the game is what kind of lineup combinations are we going to have? Over the last two games, Frank McCaffrey has been sort of tinkering with a lineup that features Connor McCaffrey at the point and actually moving Bohannon over to the shooting guard role. Bohannon is definitely a natural score. He's good at feeding the ball to others, but it seems like McCaffrey really operates well with the ball in his hands and Bohannon can, you know, be that effective scorer off the side if McCaffrey can, you know, create for him. So definitely some interesting things to see there. And it may actually push Isaiah Moss to the bench,

which again, interesting scenario we have coming on, seeing how Jordan, you know, Jordan Mohannon and Connor McCaffrey operate together could provide some unique lineup combinations for the Iowa Hawkeyes. That's it for the game though, against Green Bay. The next game for Iowa is in New York, another game in the 2K Empire Classic. They're facing off against the number 14 Oregon Ducks

and five-star center Bull Bull, who is highly regarded. He can play inside and out, and that'll be a really good test for the Hawkeyes lineup that features a lot of height and length on that team and, in general, a lot of height and length on that team and in general a lot of athleticism and scoring prowess so how can they stop Bull Bull on the defensive side of the ball be kind of one of the big matchups we'll be watching but if you're interested in that we'll definitely be previewing that matchup on Wednesday's episode so stay tuned for that and that'll wrap it up for our three segments for today coming up on on tomorrow's episode, we're going to be previewing the postseason opportunities

for the Iowa football team. And there are some postseason opportunities. There's really one that kind of stakes out, one to talk through that with you, give you some insight as to how that process happens, what different results over the next two weeks can mean for the Iowa Hawkeyes so you have an idea of what to be looking forward to. We're also going to be recapping an exciting weekend in the Big Ten West.

Definitely some interesting scores. Purdue got blown out by Minnesota. Wisconsin lost another game. So we'll be talking a little bit more about the Big Ten West and what happened this past weekend. And then we're going to be looking ahead to the potential of next year's Hawkeye football team. If you're like me, this past weekend was definitely a kick in the stomach, not an ideal

game. In fact, really the past three weekends have been really frustrating. And so I wanted to review what we can be on the lookout for next year, because there's a ton of potential with this team. I think there's a really good opportunity if the ball falls the right way for the Hawkeyes. As we've seen the last couple of games, it hasn't been the case, but there's definitely a good opportunity for next year's team to be that special Iowa team that we look forward to seeing every three to four years in Kirk Francis' program. So that'll do it for our Monday morning episode. As I said before, I'm your host, Andrew Wade, and you can find me on Twitter at

Wade underscore Andrew, and you can follow all of the exciting happenings of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast on Twitter at Locked On Iowa. Again, on Twitter, Locked On Iowa, make sure to follow us. We'll be posting fun, exciting content. We'll be letting you know when our next episodes are coming out. And as we begin to post more episodes, we'll start having some additional Fan Friday type stuff where you can send over questions to us and we can start answering those on an extra special Friday episode for you all before the weekend begins. So please make sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at.

And please leave us a review. Let us know what you think of the podcast. Let us know what things you're interested in hearing about definitely want to keep this open to you the listener to get the information that you're really looking forward to receiving on a daily basis for your beloved Hawkeye beloved Iowa Hawkeyes again thank you for joining us on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast have a fantastic day Hawkeye, and we will be back tomorrow.