Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BREAKTHROUGH? Iowa Basketball CLUBS Ole Miss as Bennett Stirtz and Cooper Koch SHINE in Signature Win

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

Iowa Hawkeyes claim their first signature win of the season, outlasting Ole Miss 74-69 behind Bennett Stirtz’s All-American caliber performance. Is a championship run brewing for this revamped squad under head coach Ben McCollum? Stirtz dazzles with 29 points and masterful game control, while freshman Cooper Koch erupts for a double-double—positioning Iowa as a rising threat in college basketball.Trent Condon breaks down Iowa’s evolving identity, spotlighting McCollum’s slow-paced, efficient offense and major defensive improvements. The episode dissects Kael Combs’ unsung contributions, rotation changes, and the team’s national-best effective field goal shooting. Key topics include crucial adjustments, upcoming championship clash with Grand Canyon, and the emerging Iowa-Nebraska football rivalry. Plus, get the latest women’s basketball injury updates as the Hawkeyes surge toward a top-10 Cy-Hawk showdown. Will Iowa’s new system fuel consistent success all season?Follow Trent Condon on X: https://twitter.com/trentcondonLISTEN TO THE PODCAST: APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-hawkeyes-daily-podcast-on-iowa-hawkeyes-football/id1441592240SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/0GTyz5ygevcGXdTF6QSoEoYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnHawkeyesSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Omaha SteaksSave big on unforgettable gifts with Omaha Steaks. Visit https://OmahaSteaks.com for 50% off site-wide and an extra 20% off select favorites during their Cyber Sale.And for an additional $35 off, use promo code COLLEGE at checkout. WayfairDon’t miss out on early Black Friday deals.Head to https://Wayfair.com now to shop Wayfair’s Black Friday sale for up to 70% off. Sale ends December 7th.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bennett starts plays like an All-American, and Iowa maybe has their next star in Cooper Couch. Iowa gets their first signature win of the season over Ole Miss. You are Locked-on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked on Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We are your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast as we talk to you five days a week at minimum about everything going on in the world of Hawkeye athletics, football, basketball, and a whole lot more. I've been covered the Hawkeyes for over 20 years on the radio.

You can hear me currently on the Iowa Sports Radio Network each weekday from noon to two with stations in Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Quad Cities and Sioux City. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. If your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the Fandual app today. We will break down the victory for Iowa as they knock off Ole Miss 74-269. The great play once again, a Bennett starts, no surprise there.

Now about the play of Cooper Cotch. We'll break things down and take a peek forward as I. Iowa moves on to the championship game in their matchup here, the little four team tournament that they're playing in Palm Desert. We will get into that. Talk a little more about how different this Iowa basketball team and what it's going to look like. We got some football talk coming up here later on the program

and women's hoops back on the hardwood. What is the latest on Chit Chat, Right, and her possible return after the injury that she sustained last week down in Florida. But we begin at a rapid reaction here to the Iowa victory against Ole Miss. And boy, it looks a whole lot different. And I know for a lot of people, it takes a little bit of time to transition into basketball season. You still have football. And as we moved into November this season, obviously with what was still at the time in front of the Hawkeyes

before their matchups against Oregon, against USC, it takes a little while. Now, that's not the case for me. Every day, as you know, if you've been listening to us for a while, Iowa basketball is my first love. That is really where my fandom took hold. Yeah, I was in kindergarten in 85 and seeing that team ascended number one and football was incredible. But for me growing up, as much as I loved Iowa football, Iowa basketball was number one. It was the only sporting event that you get in the wintertime.

If you didn't have cable like I didn't, it was something that you look forward to back in the day and those Thursday nights and then the Saturday game that would come along. There's just something about Iowa basketball and it's still out of every sport and all the fandom that I have. I'm a Bears fan. I'm a Twins fan. Of course, the Hawkeyes on all different realms. But Iowa basketball, Iowa men's basketball gives me still the most visceral, angry reactions that I'm going to have just watching the game.

And to watching the game, how different this thing looks. And as you go back and after the last 16 years, another thing everyday listeners certainly know is I was not somebody that was going to be nonstop ripping Fray McCaffrey as we talked about the last two years. You could tell it was time for a change. But he pulled this program out of the quagmire. And after the depth set, it was left in after the awfulness of Steve Alford, coupled with his ineptitude, coupled with his arrogance to Todd Licklider, who we learned had no business, certainly coaching a power conference basketball team, to have Ray McCaffrey pulled them out. It needs to be commended.

And I think as we get more distance, that will happen. But what you saw on the floor tonight is a completely different brain of basketball than what you saw under Fray McCaffrey. Yes, they play at a slow pace, slow tempo. That is going to be Iowa basketball under Ben McCollum. That is the way that this team is going to play. And the likelihood under his tenure, the way they're probably always going to play. That's just the way that he builds his basketball teams and you're going to have to grow accustomed to it. But it doesn't have to be boring and it doesn't have to be like lick letter ball.

it doesn't have to be like Bo Ryan or before him Dick Bennett or at Wisconsin or what we saw Tony Bennett morph into at Virginia it doesn't have to be that slowdown grinded out hideous style because there is movement there is action there are things that are done during the course of this one and it can be entertaining and when you see and when you look at those nuances and you find those things and you see what they're doing offensively and you find the cuts and you see the extra pass and you see just the way that they play it is such a different style and a different brand of basketball that's not going to change this year so right now after this one over at ken pom khen pomroy's website iowa adjusted tempo is 356 in the country

in terms of average possession length how long they have the basketball during a possession they're 340 they're going to eat a lot of clock it's going to be in sturt's hands a ton it'll be a little bit Combs, as we saw again tonight, but that's what you're going to get with this squad. It's going to be methodical. It's going to grind teams out, and you're going to work to get that great shot towards the end of the shot clock. But on the other end of the floor, there's defense, there's rotations, there's help. And it doesn't lead to nonstop wide open looks like we saw before.

And when you talk about the efficiency that they play with and playing at a high level, even not doing it at a high pace, you can still be. an incredibly proficient offensive team as this team is six games into the season without having to play and get the ball up and now the floor and just jack up a bunch of shots. So Iowa right now is number one in the country out of the, what, 360 some teams in D1 college basketball. They are number one in effective field goal percentage. And what that means it is a stat that measures shooting efficiency, extra weight is given to you for three point shots. Very simple metric, but a metric that a lot of people look at.

offensive basketball when you're playing at a high level. Iowa is number one in the country. And when you have a point guard like Bennett Sturts, who goes up against a future pro from Ole Miss, a former pro as well from France, he's going to have another difficult matchup coming up here in a couple of games against Michigan State and fears who is outstanding. Very well could have a good one against Grand Canyon

or Utah, the winner of that one. But you're never going to get Bennett Sturts away from the way he wants to dictate. I've never seen a point guard that is able to dictate the way the game is going to be played like him. He is incredible.

You can't make him go faster. You can't make him get out of the way that he wants to play. You look at the game, Iowa doesn't have a fast break point. You might say, oh, that's terrible. They try to run a couple of times and they turn it over.

But how about this? Until that push-off file in the final moments of the game, which, okay, push-off foul, that was whistled against Sturts. With that, they didn't turn the ball over, didn't have a turnover for 26 minutes of game time.

They had five in the first half, had one more there in the second, that turnover on the Sturts offensive foul. That's it. And two of those turnovers gave them when they tried to go fast and fast break. So this is the style that they're going to do. And that's how you be incredibly efficient on that end of the floor. But as good as Bennett Sturts was,

and knocking down shots and stepbacks and do everything. It only had a couple assists in the game still as great as he was. And he was great. He's the MVP that he should be. And regardless of what Roy Hibbert says after the game that he shouldn't be shooting so much, I'm an idiot. You have the Cooper Koch coming out party. We're going to talk about him.

We'll talk about the rest of the guys. Bennett Sturt's outstanding performance as he goes off in this one, and Iowa gets a win 74-269 over Ole Miss. the play of Sturt's 29 points in the game as he knocks down six of eight three pointers and at the free throw line five of six but there were other guys Cooper Couch at the forefront of what this means for Iowa basketball and what it still can be this season expectations are they growing first major win of the season we'll talk about the rest of the guys after Sturts including Cooper Cotch when we come back locked on Hawkeyes

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You can jump aboard with that and a whole lot more. How about with the weather conditions coming to Lincoln? 39 and a half the over-under in that game. Odds subject to change, but maybe one to keep an eye on. Right now, Fandual is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. That's right, $300 in bonus bets for new customers when your first $1.00 bet wins. Head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Trent, kind of back with you once again here on Locked on Hawkeyes.

Thanks for being with us and making Locked on Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Make sure you hit subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube, five-star reviews if you're on the podcast side. All that helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. And thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Back to the game, Iowa over Ole Miss 74-269. talked a lot about Bennett Sturts, a few other guys. Cooper Cotch double-double.

And what I'd love for this one, we knew that Cooper Cotch could shoot it. And he had the injury plagued year a year ago. And with it, kind of wondered, you know, where is he going to fit? You saw that shooting ability, beautiful form. One thing that I always talked about with Cooper, though, is yes, being a legacy, his dad J.R. playing for the Hawkeyes and being on the last Sweet 16 team under Dr. Tom. That definitely helped. But it's pretty rare.

for Iowa to get a guy in basketball out of high school that has offers from the home state school, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Purdue. That's usually not a group of teams that Iowa does very well. Had to head. Oh, yes, it helped a ton. The Pops was a hawk guy. I don't think there's any doubt about that. And when Cooper Cotch committed under Fram McCaffery,

he seemed like the perfect prototype for his system. long, lanky, incredibly good shooter from the outside. It felt like exactly the kind of guy. And when he became the lone holdover from the previous regime, he wondered how it was going to translate. The defensive issues that you still see with those players crop up. And you see with Fran's team now out at Penn. If he was going to be able to pick up on the defensive end of the floor

to match up with the skill set that he has offensively. And when he look at the double double he had, 14 points, knocks down a three-pointer. mixing it up inside had a really couple of really tough finishes in there and then some of those rebounds i mean these were just not rebounds off the rim comes to him jumps up and gets it these were forceful these were in traffic these were with some dudes in old miss they had some athletes didn't they and to do that in this kind of game i think said a ton you saw a guy that is buying in a guy that is completely understanding what it means and that's important that's important

when you are the only holdover, you are the legacy guy, you have a lot of things there and to buy in to get everybody else. Yes, it's easy for the Drake transfers to buy in because they knew what they were going to get. But for this one, I think it says a ton, says a ton about him and about this performance. Speaking of that, what I will bring up Kale Combs. You know, Kale does a whole lot for this squad. It's not going to show up. He's not going to be a guy that likely he's ever going to go for 25 points in a game or anything like that. He'll also have some scoring outputs. I don't think there's any. doubt. But overall, when you go through and you look at just what he's able to do to take some pressure off of Bennett's starts, handling the ball at different times, being the point guard, different sets that they do, just taking away some of that wear and tear. In fact, he plays the second most minutes in a game, 38 minutes in this one for kale combs. And he saw a lot of guys that came in, did some different things, and really helped out. Isaiah Howard, a couple of good plays, including the dunk. Now, he's got to shoot the ball better. at 0 for 3 at the 3 point line.

He's got to be able to knock down shots, and that has not happened, certainly at a high level. This was also a game where Iowa was struggling with foul trouble. Now, what I love, another one for you every day,ers, you know, the two foul thing drove me crazy. And I interviewed Fran, and I asked him about it. This was a while ago, I don't know, 7, 8 years ago probably now. But I wanted to ask him about it.

And he gave his justification. I didn't think it was right. disagreed with it because in the game in the first half when you had a bunch of guys in foul trouble, a bunch of guys that under the previous regime wouldn't have played at all. Well, it was a 31-31 game at the half just because of not playing guys because of fouls, you're down five, six, eight points at the half because of that hard and fast rule. And when the question came up to Coach McCollum last week, he was asked about it, he said, He's played guys in the first half with four fouls before.

It's about trusting your guys. And that was something that Fran was always so good about talking about trusting your guys and those kind of things. Late game situations, he didn't like using timeouts, even though he was incredible in drawing up plays offensively. Another thing that drove me crazy. But you believe in your guys. Well, if you believe in your guys enough to let them go without calling a timeout in a late game situation, how can you not trust them enough to keep them playing with two fouls in the first half? And here's the other thing.

You pick up the third. It's not like you can't play. You're not done. You get five to play with. Coach McCollum gets that. And it showed up in a big time way. Not the best performance from a few guys. There were some head-scratching moments,

but it's going to happen. Step up in competition. Another thing that was interesting is they gave a little bit of run, but just eight minutes from Hausen. You really saw the rotation tighten up. Talked about Howard, had a dunk in the game. Hit a couple of buckets, but didn't shoot it well. Still, what he was doing on the defensive end of the floor.

Getting a couple of tough rebounds in there. But it was Sturts and Combs in the backcourt, a bunch of Cooper Cotch, Tavion Banks, who had two fouls in the first half, including a silly one. Manwa mixing it up in there. Fool Garris, who also battled foul trouble. Hit a big three in the first half. But that rotation really tightened up. Is this the likelihood of kind of what we're going to see throughout the course of this one?

Now, as I look, looks like it's going to be Grand Canyon. They are up in their game against Utah here as they're coming to the final few minutes of that one. It'll be a matchup, be a ton of fans there for Grand Canyon. They had a ton in the building as they were showing on TV even before the Iowa Old Miss game came to a close. That'll be what's in front of the Hawkeyes. 830 will be the tip off central time. CBS Sports Network again, we'll have that one. Iowa, have a shot to go 7 and 0, and there'll be a decided favorite in.

that game. We got more here. Let's talk a little football and some women's basketball as we continue. A lot more coming up for you. Iowa, Nebraska, Black Friday on the gridiron. We'll talk some football next with you. Locked on Hawkeyes. Trent, kind of back with you one final time. This is Locked on Hawkeyes. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes. Your first listen every day. Now, as you can probably here. Yes, I am battling a bit of a cold. So we're going to fight through this one. We've got a lot of fun things coming up for you here. The rest of the week, though, on Lockdown Hawkeyes. We'll be back with you tomorrow night after that championship game for Iowa out in a palm, as it will be Grand Canyon, likely in the championship game. Again,

830 for that one on CBS Sports Network. And we'll have a rapid reaction podcast after that one goes final for you on Wednesday night. Then on Thursday, crossover edition with my old friend, Mitch Sherman, who runs one half of locked on Nebraska over there. We'll break things down, get his perspective on that game. You know, it's so interesting, we go back to a year ago in the matchup against Nebraska. And there was so much pomp and circumstance and an extra that happened after the game. And I was a little bit surprised there wasn't more talk about it, at least from the Iowa perspective of what we heard after the game. Jay Higgins going up and shaking the hand of Matt Rule because apparently didn't know who he was.

was hopping around on the tiger hawk on the on the middle of the field before the beginning began the no handshake in overtime we did hear though from logan jones who grew up a husker poor guy well yeah it's certainly a younger guy like that i mean he didn't even get to see the heyday but uh didn't get that offer when kelvin bell uh sent out a tweet as there were some people talking about that which i got a kick out of that regardless there is extra and this rivalry Is this becoming the rivalry game for Iowa? I don't know that's a difficult conversation because I've long maintained.

Rivalry, it depends on where you are. It depends on friends, family, other circumstances. I grew up in Osage, grew up in North Iowa, friends, family up in Minneapolis. Now, we didn't go to Des Moines for trips. We went to Minneapolis because it was closer. There's a lot more to do in Minneapolis. So for me, growing up, the Minnesota rivalry was the biggest. Plus, as a little kid, a huge bronze pig, we, that's the thing's incredible, right?

So for me, it was always that one. Also had family in Wisconsin. Aunt and uncle, two cousins that lived in Madison. So that was always a big one. We'd go over there. Wisconsin was big. But for me, it was always Minnesota. I know for you over in eastern Iowa, and certainly in the Quad Cities, it's Illinois, is a big one for you.

And it's different in different pockets. But I married in to the west side of the state. My wife is through Sioux City. And because of that, I have definitely got to see what that rivalry means over there. Certainly in Sioux City, very split between Nebraska and Iowa fans. You, yeah, have a few Iowa State fans, but they're pretty few and far between. In comparison, certainly to the other two. In fact, that's where I'm going to be for Thanksgiving.

We'll have a Rapid Reaction podcast Friday after it goes final against the Huskers. This rivalry, there's so much more Because you got the components where Living in the past, right? The Nebraska fans that continue to talk about the 90s And think that it's coming back There's another part of the fan base that doesn't remember it Or understands the reality that

And that era of college football is not coming back And the likelihood that they ever become That kind of national championship program Is never going to happen again. but that faction seems pretty small, at least the online faction that we mostly deal with. So you got a bunch of different realms, right? A lot of different things.

But there's something about it. You got the in-state rivalry with Iowa State, where I'm located in Des Moines. That's always a huge one. But there's other rivalries. Maybe this is the nastiest one. This is the one where it gets a little uglier, both online and what we've seen even on the field.

And there's another component, too, where it feels like this game out of the rivalry games and they all matter. And Kirk talks about them all. But maybe this one does matter a little bit more for Kirk. For a guy, his age,

obviously saw what they were building themselves into in the 70s, saw what they morphed into in the 90s and a lot of wins in between. It does feel like there's a little extra hop in this step for Kirk Ferrence when Nebraska Week comes here. You couple that with the athletic director 10 years ago in the comments he made about we had to evaluate where Iowa was

after they one of the few times beat Iowa over the last 15 years. And I think that certainly is something that was not forgot about Kirk Farris because Kirk Farrant doesn't forget anything, right? So you have that part of it. I just think this game does mean a little bit more, even though Kirk would never admit that. Every game's important. Every rivalry game's great. Playing for a trophy is always important.

It does feel like there is always a little something more here with Nebraska. I'm beating the end and going into Lincoln, a place that they haven't lost since 2011. Now, we said that leading into the Iowa State game this year. Iowa hadn't lost in aim since 2011, and that came to a close. Let's not let that happen this weekend. One final thought, women's basketball back on the hardwood. We await what's going to be happening with Chit Chat, Right, dealing with an upper body injury. It's not like a bunch, shoulder, head, neck, a whole lot.

there according to Jan Jensen after the game against Miami as Iowa got the win in that one and had to hold on for dear life as they got the championship down in Florida in the tournament they played there had the really nice win obviously against Baylor still undefeated them up to number 11 now in the AP and setting up which should be an incredible SciHawk game coming up here they got Western Illinois again they'll be a huge huge favorite in this game against the leathernecks Bart Torvick's analytic website has Iowa favored against Western Illinois by 30 points So that tells you a ton there probably makes a whole lot of sense to have chit-chat if it's close. Sit out this one.

They do have a home game though coming up this weekend against Fairfield, who has been a really good program. Now they win upper 20s, 30 games a year playing in their small conference. Are they in the Metro? I believe they are regardless. That's been a program that's won a ton of games and pretty good opponent coming in after that. So if it's close, sit or out, get her ready. And then Iowa will definitely ramp things up. With Big Ten play, they'll open up against Rutgers.

That will be on the road. And then after that, the matchup against Iowa State that comes up on December 10th. Ooh, that could be a big one. Possibility, both those teams ranked in the top 10 as that one will be happening over in Ames. With that, we are out of time. I need to get a cough drop. And we'll be back with you tomorrow after Iowa plays in the championship game against Grand Canyon and hopefully moves to 7 and O.

Then on Thursday, we will have a. special edition, crossover edition of Locked on Hawkeyes. Mitch Sherman and myself breaking down Iowa, Nebraska for you. And of course, after goes final on Friday, right here, Locked on Hawkeyes. Make sure you don't miss any of it. Hit subscribe if you're watching us on YouTube, five-star review on the podcast side. All of that helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Thanks for being with us, and thanks for helping make Lockdown, the number one sports podcast network.

We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Until then, go Hawks. Thank you.