Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Another buzzer beater for the win! | Wrestling dominates, again | Women take down #7 Maryland

Episode Date: February 18, 2019

The Hawks won in miraculous fashion again! Joe Wieskamp hits a buzzer-beating three for the win over Rutgers. As we do every Monday on segment two, we are doing our Hawkeye roundup where we cover all the Hawkeye sporting events that took place over the weekend. We wrap up the show talking about what the next few weeks will look like for the women's and men's basketball teams. Where will they be ranked, what seed could they get in the NCAA tournament, we have it all covered right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast featuring everything you want to know about your University of Iowa Hawkeyes. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at dearoldgold.com, where you can find analysis pieces on all things black and yellow. And it was a fantastic and exciting weekend in Iowa athletics this past weekend. The women knocked off number seven, Maryland. The men beat Rutgers on a buzzer beater three-pointer corner bank shot. I mean, so many words to describe that three-pointer. It was

absolutely incredible and a fantastic way to, you know, kind of end the week for the Iowa Hawkeye men's basketball team. Among other things, a couple other sports won some big games. We're going to cover that though on segment number two. On segment number one, we're going to talk about the Iowa Rutgers game, talk a little bit about what happened, give you some of the highlights and whatnot, and give you our analysis on that game. On segment number two, we're going to be covering the other Iowa sports. So that's going to be one of our main segments on Monday, is just covering what happened in Iowa athletics this past weekend.

And then finally, on segment number three, we're going to be talking about the basketball teams and kind of what their postseason and the end of regular season futures hold for each of these teams. Before we do that, though, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And, you know, if you have a smart speaker at home, it's really easy to listen to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. All you need to do is tell Siri, Google, or Alexa to play podcast Lockdown Hawkeyes. It's that easy to get you the most recent episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. All right, let's jump right into it, though. The men had a fantastic win against Rutgers this weekend. Obviously, if you didn't get a chance to watch it, make sure to go back and watch the highlights. It was truly, truly incredible and fantastic. They beat Rutgers

71-69. It was actually Iowa's third lowest scoring performance of the year, and that's a huge testament to Rutgers' defense. They were fantastic. I mean, enough can't be said about Rutgers and their length and their size and how well they did defending the Hawks. You know, a lot of games were Iowa. I think back to the Michigan State game, both times, you know, Iowa struggled at times and played bad basketball. And I think there were a few questionable things Iowa did. I mean, Rutgers forced 10 turnovers in the first half. Iowa averages 12.

A lot of that, though, was Iowa just having lazy passes. They were lackadaisical on the offense side of the floor. There's a couple passes that made me question, were you even watching what was going on? They were very clearly pointing out exactly who they're going to throw to with their eyes. It's very easy for Rutgers to read that. They had a few really easy fast break points in the first half. That was a little little bit unfortunate, but overall, Rutgers' defense was outstanding. Iowa did a good job of battling throughout that game, and people don't realize that playing at Rutgers is not exactly easy.

I mean, they've knocked off a couple ranked teams this year at Rutgers. That crowd was loud and ready to be there, hoping to knock off Iowa. Obviously, it didn't happen, but a huge, huge win for the Hawks. Not necessarily on the stat sheet, not necessarily beating a Rutgers team isn't a Quadrant 1 win. That's a Quadrant 2 win. Rutgers is outside of the top 75 in that rank, so it wasn't a Quadrant 1 win. But anyways, beating a team like Rutgers at Rutgers, any team, you know, anytime you win in the Big Ten Conference is a huge win regardless.

But just how they won was absolutely incredible. You know, Iowa was up kind of holding off, you know, Rutgers' kind of final attack the last couple minutes, and I thought, you know, if Iowa can just hold on to this ball, we'll be good. Rutgers gets the ball. They make a three-pointer. I believe it was Geo make a three-pointer. I believe it was Geo Baker.

Three-pointer with three seconds left in the game. I was like, oh, this is not good. But then, you know, Faye McCaffrey designed a play, and I don't honestly know what the heck he was trying to do. I don't necessarily agree with the call. Three seconds left, that gives you a little bit of time to inbound the ball at half court, maybe run up and take a three. But instead, Connor McCaffrey chucks the ball down the court. Nick Bayer somehow manages to get a hand on it, knocks it backwards.

Weiskamp, you know, Weiskamp, sorry, gets the ball, turns around, chucks it, somehow banks off the backboard from the corner, goes in, three-pointer, Hawks win. It was freaking awesome. Much like, you know, if anything, I think the winning shot that Jordan Bohannon had against Northwestern, right, the comeback was incredible. But that shot itself was not as incredible as Joe Wieskamp's, not necessarily in skill. I mean, I think Wieskamp's was a little bit more luck, you know, and not take anything away from him. But when you're turning around and just popping a shot and it bangs off the backboard, let's be honest here,

When you're turning around and just popping a shot and it bangs off the backboard, let's be honest here, let's call a spade a spade. That was a little lucky, but I think it was a cooler, more exciting, I guess, shot just because it was even more improbable. You get the ball to Jordan Bohannon and not take anything away from Jordan Bohannon because he's a fantastic clutch shooter, but you almost kind of expected him to do that considering he just did that against Indiana the week, you know, a couple of days before, but either way, fantastic. One of the things I love about this team is their perseverance. They don't give up when things get tough. And I think when you start making some of those buzzer beater shots, you start making

some of those clutch shots. It, it honestly becomes contagious and becomes sort of an option or an item that makes you a dangerous team because you start getting that confidence in yourself when you have that game on the line you don't think you can make it you don't hope you can make it you know you can make it and that's going to be dangerous for the Hawks come March and for the Hawks pace just because they're starting to get you know that swag and knowing that they can win those games and again people are going to point out that they beat Rutgers at Rutgers, whatever, not a big win.

Again, I don't care. It was the Big Ten Conference and they won. Iowa got to 20 wins, which is really that threshold for, you know, will you be in the NCAA tournament or not? Iowa is definitely going to make it now, which is fantastic. It's now a matter of what seed are they going to be. And we'll talk about that a little bit on segment number three because I have some strong feelings about this.

But it'll be interesting to see kind of where they end up. I feel like they're not getting a lot of love right now. But, you know, overall, still awesome to get that win. They have a few other games to wrap up this season. They have a way game, you know, at the Kohl Center in Madison, which isn't going to be an easy game. But outside of that, a lot of their games are very winnable the rest of the way out. I mean, they have Rutgers coming to them, which I think playing at Carver is going to be easier for the Hawks. So I foresee

this team getting 23, 24 wins by the end of the season and just the regular season, which would be the best regular season of Fran McCaffrey's career in Iowa. For the game, though, the two guys kind of led that team. Jordan Bohannon, he had 18 points, and Isaiah Moss had 17 points. Again, Isaiah Moss is really key to this team going far. I think a lot of people don't realize just how important he is to this team. When he is hot, it is tough to defend him. He can shoot the three. He can drive.

He's 6'5 and athletic. I mean, this guy is just as much of a matchup problem as Tyler Cook is, right? So the size, the length, the athleticism is hugely beneficial for the Hawks if he can get that going. It's just Moss is such a streaky shooter. I mean, he has just as many zero point and two point games as he does 15, 16, 17 point games. So it's a matter of really getting him going during March Madness and in the NCAA tournament. Also, as we talked about the defense, Iowa shot just 46% from field. They shot 38% from three, which was huge, obviously, and they got the threes that ultimately mattered. So again, Iowa won big game, huge for their season, getting that 20th win, getting another road win that

actually brings them above 500 on the road, getting that Big Ten victory. We'll see how this works out for them as they take on Maryland tomorrow evening at Carver Hawkeye Arena, which we'll be covering on tomorrow morning's podcast. We'll be giving you a full preview of what to expect for that game, so make sure you're tuning in to that. That being said, though, we're going to give a few seconds to have our sponsors of the show give a few messages, and then we're going to get back to you with segment number two. We're going to be talking about this week in sports.

We are back with this week in sports, and we're going to be doing this every single Monday, giving you the second segment of every single Monday, just talking about Iowa Hawkeye athletics and the main sports that we don't typically cover, right? I mean, I would love to cover every sport in full detail. It's impossible for me to watch every single Hawkeye sporting event though. I just, it's, you know, it's tough when you have other commitments going on. So I do want to cover that stuff though on this, on this segment, every single Monday, at least giving you a recap of what has happened and some analysis on some of

those, you know, some of those meets games, et cetera, outside of what we typically cover, which is, you know, the basketball and football games.

So on the diamond though, baseball had a solid weekend opening weekend. They went two and one, they lost their first game to George Mason, but rebounded with 10 to one and 10, nothing wins over Pittsburgh and Marshall. They are 2-1 from the Diamond 9 Sunshine State Classic Series. Quite the mouthful there.

They are back in action this weekend having a four-game series in Hawaii. So a little bit jealous there. That weather is probably much better than it is in Iowa or where I'm at in Colorado. The softball team struggled a little bit on the diamond in the Diamond 9 Citrus Blossom Tournament. So many Diamond 9 and Citrus and Sunshine and Happiness and Oranges and stuff, but they went two and three in that tournament. They dropped games to Villanova, Missouri, and St. Joe's. They did actually get some wins though,

two to one over Kansas, and they beat UMass five to three. One of the big things I think is kind of interesting about this team though, they haven't really scored a lot. Offensively, they've kind of been in a slump. I mean, they've scored five runs twice. And then for the most part, they've been, you know, at two or one or no runs or shut out, you know what I mean? So interesting to see if they can get back in action offensively next weekend. They're now going down to Orlando again for the Diamond Nine Citrus Classic. So, man, all these sunshine and happiness things going on down in Orlando. But they have a five-game weekend this upcoming weekend.

See if they can't get above 500. They are currently three and six. So if they're able to go four and one, that would put them at seven and seven and get them at least at 500 after these first three tournaments of the season. Wrestling had another outstanding weekend. They beat Indiana 37-9 and they beat Wisconsin 35-2. They have a huge match against No. 2 Oklahoma State, I believe, next weekend. I'll give more details on that, give at least a preview of that,

because that's going to be a really fun matchup. I'm going to try to watch that as well. A lot of ranked wrestlers going head-to-head, kind of a really good preview of what Iowa can expect when they go into the national championship. But right now, they are 14-0. Can they end the regular season perfect? I think they could. This team is outstanding. I mean, they are just absolutely obliterating ranked teams. I mean, Wisconsin is ranked and they got two points in Iowa. So the wrestling team is doing fantastic led by, you know, brands. So absolutely love it. Women's tennis and men's tennis both had good weekends. The women's tennis knocked off Marquette seven to nothing to move to seven and oh, the men's tennis team defeated UMKC and Omaha this weekend,

4-3 and 5-2. They are currently 8-1. Their next matchup is against Cornell this Sunday in Ithaca, New York. See if they can't move to 9-1 for their tennis season. And then track, they are getting ready for the Big Ten Indoor Championships, which are next weekend for both men's and women's. We'll try to give you some coverage of that on the following week's shows during segment number two, which is our Hawkeye Roundup. That'll do it though for segment number two on our Hawkeye Roundup. We're going to be giving you a few messages from our sponsors here,

and they'll be joining you after that to cover segment number three. We're going to be talking about basketball, the men's team and women's team, kind of where they're ranked, where we expect them to be ranked, and could they move up, and where could they be in the NCAA tournament. So stay tuned for that on segment number three. And just a reminder, before you get to our messages from our sponsors, make sure you're tuning into our show daily. You can do that. Just subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify. That'll

give you each episode downloaded directly to your phone or smart device every single day that we post a show, which is typically Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. We might be giving you a special Wednesday episode just to cover the Maryland game for the men's basketball team, but we'll see about that on Wednesday morning. I'll definitely let you know on our Twitter account at LockedOnIowa. And also just make sure if you have a smart speaker at home, it's really easy to listen to the LockedOnHawkeyes podcast.

All you need to do is tell Siri, Google, or Alexa to play podcast LockedOnHawkeyes. All right, that'll do it for segment number two. We'll be right back after a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back with segment number three, covering the men's and women's basketball team. The women's basketball team beat Illinois Thursday 88-66.

They also beat number seven Maryland 86-73 yesterday. It was a fantastic game. Iowa was really in control of it for most of the game. They would go on a streak, get up eight, nine points. Maryland would battle back. Iowa would do it again. Maryland would battle back. There really wasn't a point where Iowa was down by a lot. Megan Gustafson had another double-double, a fantastic game by her.

I mean, if she's not National Player of the Year, who the heck could be? Honestly, it'd be shocking to me to not see her be named National Player of the Year. So we'll be following that very closely as well. I mean, what she does on the court is outstanding. Marilyn did a really good job of trying to defend her, and she still beats them in whatever way she can. I mean, watching that game, she's incredibly active, hustles a ton on offense and defense.

I mean, she's constantly moving around, trying to get good positioning so she can make a play offensively. Loved watching it. Loved watching her play that game. You know, obviously a big win against number seven, Maryland. It's actually Iowa's first win over Maryland since Maryland joined the Big Ten. So fantastic for the women there. That gives them a share of first place. And technically, they have the tiebreaker after beating Maryland. They also beat Rutgers. So they have the tiebreaker over the number two and number three teams in the conference but this will give them a number one seed in the Big Ten Conference Tournament obviously huge give them a double bye going into that tournament good chance for them to potentially pull off the the Big Ten Conference win and they

have three regular season games left Indiana Nebraska and Northwestern if they can close that out obviously they will control their own destiny and get that number one seat in the Big Ten Conference Tournament. What I find interesting about this though, right now, the NCAA Tournament revealed their top 16 teams. Iowa was 10th on that team, or on that list. And with this win over number seven Maryland, where could they be at? Right. So the, the rankings or the NCAA tournament committee, just giving that as a kind of a heads up as to where they see teams right now, Iowa beating Maryland though is huge.

Could that vault, you know, put them into a number two seat in the NCAA tournament. I personally think so, especially if Iowa goes and wins their next three regular season games, when's the big 10 title. I think they are the number two team. And that's huge. I mean, honestly, having the number two or number three seed is huge because that will

give them, they won't see one of the top four teams until the Elite Eight. So a really, an easier path for them having one of those seeds, having the number two seed will give them against the number 15 team coming into the tournament. So a good opportunity for them to advance with a little bit easier games for the NCAA tournament. As far as rankings go, beating number seven, Maryland in such a good fashion, that's huge for them. Right now, Iowa's ranked number 14th. The rankings will come out later this morning. I bet there'll be around number 10 is kind of my guess. So we'll see how that kind of plays out. The men's basketball team is kind of interesting. You know, They are struggling

to get the notoriety they should have just because people look at the box score and say, oh, they barely beat Northwestern or, oh, they barely beat Rutgers. Can we just admit that winning in the Big Ten is a big deal regardless of who they are playing? For some reason, they keep dropping in the rankings, which is a little bit ridiculous.

I mean, last week they dropped one. Are they going to drop this week? I'm not really sure. There's a couple teams that have lost games this week that I think Iowa could potentially jump. Most notably, Wisconsin was on a two-game losing streak. I want to say there's a – let me check real quick the polls. Yeah, so Wisconsin just lost to Michigan State by eight points, and Kansas State, number 18 Kansas State

dropped a game to number 23 Iowa State at home Iowa State's getting a lot of love so my guess is Iowa's going to move up one spot that 20th spot because Iowa State's going to take Kansas State's spot they're going to jump over Iowa which is a little bit ridiculous

but not a big deal I mean ultimately it doesn't really matter where teams are ranked at here I would like to see Iowa get up in that top 16, though, by the end of the season, potentially giving them a chance at a three or a four seed, which would be huge for the Hawks. I talked about this in an article on dearoldgold.com, but Iowa really doesn't have a chance at being in Des Moines for the NCAA tournament,

but the best way they're going to get a chance is by continuing to win and moving up in the rankings. Just because the way the geographical spectrum works for the NCAA tournament is really there's a ton of teams in that Midwest area, and a lot of their closest spots are Des Moines. So there's a chance Iowa could still play two games in Des Moines in front of a home crowd, but they would need to jump an Iowa State. They would need to jump a Michigan State and Michigan. There's some other things that could happen, but really it's looking like Iowa's going to need to jump five or six teams to be able to make it up into Des Moines.

The best way they can do that is just to win and hope they get a few lucky bounces on their side, fates in their hands, a couple other teams lose a couple games, and that way Iowa could see themselves in Des Moines. As far as rankings, like I said, I think they're going to maybe move up one spot to a 20th spot. As far as seeds go, right now I'd probably have them pegged at a number five seed or a number four seed. I think there's a really good chance they can move up to a number three seed if they continue playing the way they are right now. And what's really huge is they have a chance at potentially getting into those top four

spots for the Big Ten Conference with a couple wins this week you know try the next couple weeks knocking off Wisconsin especially be huge in a couple weeks that would give them a double buy going into the Big Ten Men's Conference Tournament so that'd be huge they have a lot to play for right now again the 20th win that gives them a pretty good chance of getting into the NCAA tournament, but who cares about getting into the NCAA tournament? We want to go far and we want to go for a long time. We want to see them in the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight. It's been a long time since we've had some real excitement in the men's basketball program. So to be able to go far would be huge for that team. And they're really a a dangerous team both for opposing squads and for

fans right because they they they have such inconsistent play sometimes going up and down and up and down but I truly think this team has the talent though to go at least to the sweet 16 and I think possibly the elite eight if they can go on a run and get get hot in the NCAA tournament so we'll see we'll be keeping you covered and posted on that but I'll kind kind of do it for segment number three, giving you kind of our insights for the basketball team. One other thing I wanted to make mention of is that Akram Wadley made his AAF debut yesterday for the Atlanta legends. I believe he had three carries and also eight catches for 70 yards. So good opening performance for him. The Atlanta legends are not exactly a very strong team, but we'll be giving you more coverage on that on tomorrow's show.

And I'll possibly be writing some articles on Akron Wilde's performance on DRLgold.com. So make sure you're checking that out as well. Get as much content as you can about your Iowa Hawkeyes. That being said, though, I hope you had a fantastic weekend. Like I said, it was a great weekend for Iowa Hawkeye Athletics, both basketball teams winning, wrestling winning, tennis winning. Hope you was a great weekend for Iowa Hawkeye athletics, both basketball teams winning, wrestling, winning tennis, winning. Hope you had a great weekend in general and we're able to stay out of the cold and the snow and bad weather blasting your state right now.

And we'll be back tomorrow on our Tuesday episode. Just a reminder, you can find us on Twitter at locked on Iowa, and you can find me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew, and make sure you're subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts at. And please leave us a review. Let us know what you think of the show. And finally, you can reach us on email at LockedOnHawkeyes at gmail.com.

So again, thank you for joining us on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and we'll be back tomorrow.