Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BONUS: David Eickholt previews Iowa/Ohio State, Big Ten Tournament & Iowa Basketball's Future

Starting point is 00:00:00 that I called is there hot guy insider dot com part of the 24 seven sports network hello David Trenton Ken thank you for coming on David how are you doing good man I'm actually so slight correction Sean Bach is in Indianapolis I actually have taken this time to go back to my second home on Nashville I'm actually get go reconnect with Cody Goodwin and our good friend Kenny didn't Lloyd Smith nice And hang out down here for a couple days. So it's a nice little getaway So I'm sure you know all the crazy Iowa news that's gonna happen Absolutely. No, it normally does when you guys take any time off at all. Well, well good appreciate you coming on So I want to go back before we kind of get into tonight's game

Starting point is 00:00:42 You've seen all of them as Trent and I have seen this year with the Hawks, or the majority of them, Big 10 plus was not on my agenda so I missed those. But I thought that Iowa played their best game against Nebraska is where I'm going, David. I thought that obviously high stakes for both teams if you want to call them that. I mean, obviously the loser doesn't have any more basketball to play one would think. Iowa had to win. they did and they did so Convincingly was that their best game of the year? I

Starting point is 00:01:09 Think it's gotta be up there I mean especially when you think about their performances on the road, especially since the turn of the calendar I mean you throw in you know before that They lost 85 to 83 against Michigan and people forget like Peyton Sanford had a good look From three-point range to win that game. It did not end up going down, but then Nebraska game. I thought it was kind of a perfect storm of things, right? Like despite all the diversity, despite all the injuries, Josh Dix had a really

Starting point is 00:01:34 strong second half Peyton Sanford and price Samper. I thought game as a Hawkeye too. I mean, 11 rebounds and you can see kind of his steady improvement is over the last five weeks or so. and rebounds and you can see kind of his steady improvement is over the last five weeks or so. It was a must-win game and you have to think about like this too, Ken, like Nebraska fans have to be pretty sick of Iowa in these sort of situations, whether it be to make a bowl game, whether it be make a conference tournament, like Iowa just finds a way to beat Nebraska and the other side of it too is this is where I think it's really funny just the state of college basketball today.

Starting point is 00:02:07 The bubble is so weak this year. I mean, Nebraska was essentially the first four out, uh, hanging, you know, for the NCAA tournament, hang into that game against Iowa. Then once Iowa beat them, they were eliminated from their own conference tournament, but I thought Iowa did a really nice job. I think holding Bryce Williams to seven points was an accomplishment. I really liked the gesture with Joang Gary. Right when he fell down with 45 seconds left, I thought that was a really,

Starting point is 00:02:33 really cool thing. And it does kind of remind you that there are things bigger than, than, than sports and, and just kind of what it means to the community. And remember Joang Gary is a guy that did not start his career at Nebraska and he had, he was injured last season, but so it's kind of cool to see the bonds kind of form there, but I'm right there with you. I thought their defense played really well. I think they let Sam Weyberg shoot. And I think that was a game plan purpose to continue to pull Bryce Williams.

Starting point is 00:02:58 Those are the most win game and you have to give credit to them. They found a way to get it done. Got it done. And it punches their ticket in against Ohio State. Buckeyes and Iowa estimated 530 tipoff here this evening. Saw this game earlier this year in Columbus. Iowa hung around for a while and then wheels just kind of fell off as happened plenty of times here. What kind of chance do you give the Hawks tonight of pulling off the upset, getting the win and at least building the season out for another day?

Starting point is 00:03:30 I mean, it's probably I give about 25 to 30 percent chance. Iowa is listed as the five and a half point dog from most of the books that I've seen, but it really comes down to this. Ohio State's a tremendous three-point defense and if Iowa's not hitting threes, I don't think they're going to be able to beat him up on the inside. Evan Bronze has been a really nice storyline over the past six weeks. I know last time we talked, I praised him. I think he earned his credit as well in that Nebraska game, especially in that first half, but if Iowa does not hit more than eight to nine, it probably nine threes. I don't think they're really going to have much of a chance. I'm looking for Bruce Thornton to have a really big game for Ohio state.

Starting point is 00:04:02 I think Devin Royals capable of going for at least 20 as well. He's had games like that this season. But if Iowa's not hitting threes and they aren't getting back in transition, I mean, even in that game against Ohio State, they really kept it close for a half. But that opening five minutes on the road this season, barring the Rutgers game and the Nebraska game, Iowa's really struggled. They can compete for 20 minutes and then went right when they let the game get away from them, it just sort of is the domino effect. So that's kind of going to be the big thing for me. If it's a close game at halftime and Iowa comes out aggressively and really executes well in the first five minutes, then I think they have a chance. If it gets down double digits with 14 minutes

Starting point is 00:04:42 to go, you're going to got a hard time buying stock. Yep, I'm with you. Help me out with that Ohio State game. For whatever reason, I've had this block all week long. I thought that was the game that Josh Dix was sick in. He couldn't, he couldn't, didn't finish the game, came out with like eight minutes left in the second half, he didn't score, and he didn't see the floor again. Do you remember that David? It does ring a bell. I don't think it was the it could have been the Owen Freeman game as well, but I don't remember the specific day off off top my head, but I know Iowa still had a chance with about 12 minutes to go and then Owen Freeman didn't play kind of the past eight to nine minutes

Starting point is 00:05:21 of that contest as well. So it definitely was one of the two. Maybe it was Josh Dix, he struggled in that game and Fran just selected to play some different guys because we have seen that a time or two this season as well. But it's been a really weird sort of circumstance too. I mean, I feel like in most of the road games and you know, barring there's been no single digit road games since the turn of the calendar, I feel like we all have a pretty good idea of the trajectory that the game's going with about 11, 12 minutes to go in these games. Definitely do. You mentioned Price, his improvement. A guy that I continue just to wonder about his future, Sadio Traore. He's been getting minutes. It's been inconsistent, certainly. When you look at him, and again, it's college basketball We don't know what who's gonna be around

Starting point is 00:06:05 But do you think that there's still a chance that he could blossom into even more outside of a bench piece on a good team Is there more upside on Sadu Traore? I Mean, I've been high on him ever since he got to Iowa. I still think he's a really really good player I think he is jump shot needs improving. I think his decision-making at times needs to be improved I think his on-ball defense is improving. I think his decision making at times needs to be improved. I think his on ball defense is tremendous, but the thing is with Sadu, I think, you know, what you're going to get out of him based on his first two to three minutes on the floor. Is it clicking for him or is it not?

Starting point is 00:06:35 And again, we've seen this over the last couple of months when it comes to Sadu Traore. He makes a couple of bad decisions early or, you know, misses a couple of jump shots early, misses a defensive assignment. Frannel started him, but he's also been very quick to pull him to the bench. There was a game, I believe about three weeks ago, where he started the game. He only played two and a half minutes for the entire game and we asked him post game about it and he said it was the coach's decision.

Starting point is 00:06:59 So I think it's a little bit more of a mental block, but if you're asking me about his skill set and what he's capable of, I do think that Sadu is capable of being a very, very good power conference player. Will he ever get there? I'm not quite sure. I think that this is going to be a huge off season for him to be able to kind of figure things out and see what he wants his career to be and what he can make his career to be. Here's one, and I'll be down by this. The Atlanta

Starting point is 00:07:25 Dream of the WNBA have just moved their game against Indiana from a 5,000 seat building to a 17,000 seat building. So she's done it again. She's filled up another arena and caused another team to leave their home building. Of course Caitlin Clark and her teammates but that news just broke. You know, I think they should be uplifting me entirely. Oh, for sure. I move every single every single one of the 17,000 not just the fever arena. No, not just the fever everybody. It's unbelievable how she moves the needle like nothing I've ever seen in sports, quite

Starting point is 00:08:00 frankly, but she's done again. All right, so back to back to tonight. Well, let's look forward. And then we have to go back to look forward because Frank McCaffrey said this yesterday that he believes that there will be postseason for this group this year, whether that be the NIT or I think more likely the Crown Tournament. Did you hear McCaffrey say that? And do you have a feeling, Aline, as to which tournament do you think that they would be invited to? I mean, do you guys want a classic David Hott take?

Starting point is 00:08:30 Vegas. That might ruffle some feathers? What is it? Here's where I'm at with this. If Fran McCaffrey is coming back next season, because again, we have not heard a defensive answer, Fran says they're going to play postseason. And I think if Fran returns, I think that's the right thing to do. And this is no disrespect to the seniors but if you're gonna make a coaching change I think it's worse for the program if you

Starting point is 00:08:52 take part in postseason action especially the crown. I don't think it makes sense on any sort of level because you're gonna need to get a new coach in place. The crown does not begin until March 31st and the transfer portal opens up on the 24th. And if Iowa is not in there early and often and working to secure as big of NIL funds as they possibly can to field the best team, then I think there could be more problems going into next season because how many times have we heard throughout the course of the last couple of years of this discussion that the resources for Iowa men's basketball

Starting point is 00:09:25 are not there and that includes NIL. And yes, I think the crown does offer an NIL sort of prize that gets put into it. But again, if Fran McCaffrey is not coming back, how many players are you going to have to play for the crown and who's gonna coach that tournament? So I mean, there's so many other questions that you'd have to figure out

Starting point is 00:09:42 in such a short amount of time. So if Fran is gone, I think Iowa needs to focus on the program itself. And while I would feel for Drew Selwell, for Evan Bronze, for Peyton Sanford, you have to look forward because that's kind of the generation that we're in and you know the age that we're in when it comes to college basketball and college athletics. And you need seven guys, seven scholarship players apparently to even be, to even qualify for that tournament. So now we're starting to look at the rocks.

Starting point is 00:10:09 Who would stick around? Who would make it work? And how many guys took NIL pay cuts to come play for Framicaffery? Because I can tell you there's at least three players that could have left for substantial pay increases. Yeah, and I know of two of them, so you're probably right. No doubt about it. Well when it comes to a close when the regular season, well the tournament season finishes up here in the next couple of days, how quickly will

Starting point is 00:10:33 we know, how quickly will Beth Getz either make the decision it's happening? Are we talking a day later or are we gonna sit in limbo for a while? I mean this has to be something that's down the forefront of Beth Getz's mind. But again, the other side of it is this is not just a symbol of the coaching change. There has to be substantial resources poured into this program. If she wants to revive it, like I may sound, you know, maybe talking hyperbole is maybe being a little bit over dramatic. But guys, this could be one of Beth Getz's biggest legacy moments.

Starting point is 00:11:02 She's got one more. How long she's here at Iowa. One bigger, but you're right. Rebuilding the men's basketball program. You have to upgrade Carver. You have to increase the NIL funding. You're probably, if you get rid of Fran or not, people are going to remember the decision to have him return or leave.

Starting point is 00:11:17 But this is the lowest attendance season since 1964. And you're going to have to raise NIL funds. This is the first real challenge that Beth G guess is faced and the first legacy defying decision That she's gonna have to make and if I'm her I say it very very quickly quite frankly I think if you let it go past Monday I think that's a mistake and if I'm her and if Iowa gets eliminated tonight or tomorrow I think the decision should be made to the donors and into the public by the weekend I think that's the smart thing to do.

Starting point is 00:11:45 The Gazette, did you see the Gazette came out? They had one of those FOIA requests as far as tickets scanned and the average was like just a tick over 5,000. The building was 33% full. That was not surprising. That's unbelievable. That does not surprise me whatsoever. It really is unbelievable, but at the same time, if you're in attendance and I would

Starting point is 00:12:08 try to do a couple games this year, it's completely believable. It really is. And you know the other side of it too is, and again I might ruffle some feathers here, yes, the venue has some issues, but the difference in self-created energy between the women's team, between the wrestling program and the men's program is Unbelievable like you have to get Carver exciting. I remember when frame of camp he got hired. It was like let's get let's get mad again Yep You got to get mad again, too. Mm-hmm. You have to create your own energy at some point

Starting point is 00:12:40 it does go beyond the school and you have to be able to create a hostile atmosphere with what you have. And maybe new energy does that, but I do think that the fan base going in the next season, regardless of who's the coach, needs to take that personally. And I think that the energy needs to be there. Otherwise, you're looking at a similar type season, I think. David Eichholt, HawkeyeInsider.com. Join Nashville, David. Appreciate you doing this for us and we'll talk to you down the road. Thank you, David Eicholt, HawkeyeInsider.com, enjoy Nashville David, appreciate you doing this for us and we'll talk to you down the road. Thank you David Eicholt.

Starting point is 00:13:08 Yeah, thanks guys, I appreciate you. Take care. Good to talk to you. David Eicholt as we check in on Iowa.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BONUS: David Eickholt previews Iowa/Ohio State, Big Ten Tournament & Iowa Basketball's Future

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