Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Crossover episode with Locked On Badgers breaking down tonight's men's basketball game

Episode Date: January 27, 2020

We've got a crossover episode with Asher Low of the Locked On Badgers breaking down tonight's basketball game versus the Wisconsin Badgers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith! Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown, 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10.

Taking a shot in the end zone. It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's even one you haven't. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes podcast,

your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I'm your host, Andrew Wade. We are back with another great episode today. As I teased on our Friday morning episode, we have a crossover show with the Locked On Badgers podcast to cover the Iowa men's basketball team's game versus Wisconsin tonight. We're going to be breaking that down over the course of the entire show. It is a full 25 minutes dedicated just to that analysis and that insight as to what

to expect in tonight's matchup. Before we jump into that though, lots of things I want to quickly cover. expect in tonight's matchup. Before we jump into that though, lots of things I want to quickly cover. First, the women's basketball team crushed it yesterday in action against Michigan State. And during the Megan Gustafson retirement ceremony, they won 74-57, another win for the women's basketball team to move to 17-3, continuing that first place spot in the Big Ten. Big games out of McKenna Warnick, who kind of came on strong. And then Kathleen Doyle, another great game for her. Struggled from the three-point line, but put up 20 points, six rebounds, and five assists.

So women get another great win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. So fantastic for them. The men's wrestling team also defeated number three, Ohio State, as expected. Kind of funny listening to Tom Brands talking about the performance and the fact that he was a little bit disappointed. It almost seemed like he was disappointed to not win by more, but I love the attempt for perfection and the want for that perfection and the need for that perfection from that wrestling team.

That's what's going to get them to the NCAA wrestling tournament and winning that thing ultimately. So awesome stuff out of that. I also want to quickly do a moment of silence for Kobe Bryant. I know this is an Iowa Hawkeye podcast, but obviously a lot of people are hurting and grieving over the loss of one of the great athletic icons of this era. So quickly do a moment of silence for Kobe Bryant, his family, and the rest of the families impacted by the helicopter crash yesterday in LA. All right. So like I said, today's episode, we're going to be covering the men's basketball team's

game versus Wisconsin. Before we jump into that, just make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. And make sure to go follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where you can get all the latest updates of what is happening on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. So let's jump into that episode with Asher Lowe from the Locked On Badgers right now. All right, Asher, my man, I'm happy to have you on the show talking about Locked On Iowa

and Locked On Badgers, talking about the Iowa-Wisconsin men's basketball game coming up. As we record this, it's actually Saturday, but when this actually airs, it'll be tonight. So my first question for you, man, is from a Wisconsin perspective, what has it been like without Ethan Happ? You know, Andrew, first of all, great to be doing a crossover episode with you. I love doing these before teams play, especially in the Big Ten. It's a lot of fun to be able to do this on, locked on, and have other hosts around the Big Ten campuses.

So without Ethan Happ, this team looks completely different in the way that you never really know. I think the biggest difference with this team is that you never know who is going to lead you in scoring on a night-to-night basis, who is going to be the guy at the end of the game, for example, in a close game, which we know in the Big Ten there's going to be a lot of. You don't really know who you're going to, right, before the night starts. And it's sort of a next man up, just especially offensively when I say this. Defensively, you know, it's a team effort, and defensively there's a lot of good individual pieces on this team that collectively make a great defensive unit, but offensively without Ethan Happ,

it's a next man up mentality of who is going to be that dude on a night to night basis. It's been Kobe King. Sometimes it's been, you know, Nate Reavers quite a few times. It's been Micah Potter. Even in the last couple of weeks, sometimes it's been Micah Potter even in the last couple weeks

sometimes it's been Brad Davidson at the end of games in that Maryland game if you watch that sequence where he got the steal and then hit the corner three for the win so you don't know who's going to step up on a night-to-night basis but there's a fun in that as well absolutely man and it provides some versatility if one person's struggling another person can step up and I think we've seen that with Iowa in the past years where one person is struggling and they kind of just fold so it is nice to have that depth on your team Micah Potter is an interesting one it looks like he's played in 10 games but hasn't started a single game what's the story on that was he injured before that so this has been an ongoing saga in many different ways. This has probably been the most ridiculous story to follow.

One of the most ridiculous stories in college basketball. I don't want to get hyperbolic right away, but it's been one of the most ridiculous stories in college basketball, no doubt about it. So Micah Potter sat out all last year after transferring from Ohio State. Why did he transfer, you ask? This will be important in a second. But he transferred because

of basically you know he wanted to stay at ohio state he just his his brother was there playing football but he wanted a different you know he wanted a different basketball environment a different academic environment he wanted to transfer for very normal reasons that a transfer transfers right and so he transfers to wisconsin sits out all of last year the beginning of this year starts and i literally cannot give you a good answer as to why andrew and i still have not figured it out wisconsin people have not figured it out it baffles me to this day but honestly nothing should surprise me with the ncaa the ncaa holds him out this year after sitting out a full year as a transfer with very little reason at all wisconsin has multiple hearings with the ncaa multiple times they contest that and the the

the not exactly suspension if you will but holding him out uh as a transfer that was supposed to take place until the uw green bay game, which was in late December. And so he was held out, held out, held out. And Wisconsin, I believe three separate occasions this season, maybe even less, maybe more, tried with the NCAA to get him to be able to play, get a waiver for him to be able to play. And three multiple times, however many times it was, the NCAA denied that waiver. So he sits out until the Green Bay game due to transfer rules that aren't,

those aren't the transfer rules. Wisconsin played a guy against St. Mary's named Logan Johnson who transferred from Cincinnati who didn't sit out a single game. Micah Potter, literally the epitome of a great student athlete, sat out a year and a half. Go figure. That's ridiculous. I can't explain that one to you at all.

That makes no sense at all. So that's why he was out. And I promise you it's as confusing as I'm laying it out to you that that's how we felt here in Madison. We had no idea as to why this was happening. And so Michael Potter is freed by the NCAA in that Green Bay game. And it takes him a little while to get himself right. I understand not starting him,

and I understand giving him some time to acclimate. But there's also been questions now, and I think we have the answer at least from Greg Gard, who's Wisconsin's head coach. There's been questions as to why he's not playing more. He's still not starting. There's been many times where he's played in shorter stints. He hasn't played together with Nate Reavers.

That's been a big topic of conversation as to whether he should or not. His offense has been a welcome, welcome sight for Wisconsin. He's shooting it at an extremely high clip from three in the mid-40s. And his offense has been huge, but his pick-and-roll defense especially, his team defense has not always been there. And that's been a reason as to why Greg guard has sat him in certain areas in certain times of the game and has all of it been justified. I wouldn't say so.

I would have liked to see him play a little more than he has, but, but he's still playing more minutes than he did at the beginning of the year. And we'll see if he continues to grow. Yeah. I think, I mean, that's, I appreciate that backstory. I now thinking about it, I definitely remember hearing some stuff about that, but obviously didn't follow it super closely.

I think it's interesting, you know, Wisconsin does play great team defense. That's one of their staples. I feel like where they're always going to be at least in the right position and force you to get a great shot off. Micah Potter's with the Nate Reavers would be a twin towers down low. And I think that would be a really interesting matchup if Potter came on in addition to Reavers on the floor because Iowa has two big guys but right now you know Wisconsin's lineup matches up pretty darn perfect with Iowa's

in terms of like a size or size comparison you have Luka Garza on Nate Reavers two 6-11 guys we're likely going to have you know uh Connor McCaffrey playing that small forward, power forward spot at 6-6. You got Joey's camp at 6-6. And then, you know, obviously CJ Frederick at 6-4 and Joe Toussaint at 6-0. So kind of an interesting like height advantage there or height, just kind of a thing to note.

But with Micah Potter on the floor, that could really change the dynamic of the game. It absolutely could. I mean, fans have been asking, I think it's more of a thing to note with Micah Potter on the floor that could really change the dynamic of the game it absolutely could I mean fans have been asking I think it's more of a fan question than a media question at this point as to why you know I'm a student I'm a senior at Wisconsin so I'm very connected in with like hyperbolic fans right so like all my friends essentially but you're right there in the mix of it yeah I mean my first two years here, I was going to the games in the student section. Right. So it's a little different. And now covering them,

it's obviously a different perspective, but you know, I still, I still talk to fans more than I talked to the media. So I, people are wondering why they're not playing together a lot. They played together in the Michigan state game for very, very short minutes,

two different stints. They didn't look great together, but I think that it's, it's crazy to judge them off of a Michigan State game where almost nothing went right for Wisconsin on the road at the Breslin Center. There were things that were working very well offensively, even in those limited minutes. To me, just watching it, this team ran a horn set,

which means they put Potter and Reavers together, one at each block, and they would have the point guard take it up, whether it's Trice or Davison, and then Potter or Reavers would run some action, whether one of them slips, one of them screens, whether they set a screen for each other, a cross screen on the elbows. That set was working really well.

So I wonder if we see that against Iowa, against a bigger team. Yeah, I think it would be definitely a fun and interesting matchup having Potter and Reavers out there with Ryan Kreener and Luka Garza. And you touched on one thing. Obviously, you didn't play well against Michigan State on the road. The Big Ten has been just a disaster for teams going on the road this year. Except for it looks like Wisconsin hasn't had the worst of luck, right? You lost to Michigan State, you lost to Purdue, and you lost to purdue and you lost to ruckers

um none of those teams are teams to hang your hat on you know your hat on that's not a bad loss by any means but you also took down penn state and ohio state on the road as well so what has it been about wisconsin to kind of stick into some of these games obviously it's a little bit um probably tough to think about that considering last night's ordeal but what has it been like for Wisconsin? Why have they been so successful on the road? And by so successful, I mean not losing every single away game. Well, last night was a tough one.

Mackey Arena, where Purdue plays, has been a house of horrors. That puts it nicely when you're talking about Wisconsin going in there over the last number of years. In their last 44 games at Mackey going into last night, Wisconsin was four and 40. Wow. Not only has it been, it's been, it's been really bad. Like it hasn't just been, it's been bad. Like it's been one of the worst matchups for any big 10 team on the road in the conference going Wisconsin at Purdue. It's been a disaster.

And multiple times since I've been at Wisconsin, the batters have not only lost there, they've been completely the game has been over at halftime. So whatever it is about that place as a Wisconsin fan, I don't think anybody wants to see this team playing there ever again. And so in terms of the other games, you mentioned the Penn state game and the Ohio state, you know, I think one thing about Wisconsin is that offense doesn't always travel

and shooting doesn't always travel, you know, individual offense, ISO ball doesn't always travel defense and toughness generally travel pretty well. And I think that because of that, because that is Wisconsin's identity and not the former, you know, being a great offensive team, that's not who this team is at all. And hasn't been for a number of years since, you know, the days of really Frank Kaminsky. That travels, the defense travels.

And that's one of the reasons I think that in these low scoring games on the road, which both those games have been, the Penn game the penn state game i don't think penn state scored a basket for like eight minutes the first eight minutes of that game and that just takes a crowd way out of the game right oh ruins it exactly so so i think that that that is a big reason as to why wisconsin has been good on the road makes sense and i think that's something that iowa needs to be concerned about. They struggle sometimes and they play very good defensive teams. They just took on Rutgers and actually had a pretty good offensive performance. They're doing it with a pretty

short bench, but especially, you know, we talked about playing poorly at Purdue. It seems like the last decade, whenever Wisconsin plays Iowa, it doesn't really matter where it's at. Wisconsin's going to win. What I'm looking at, and I'm going to combine football and basketball here, the football team, 7-1 over the last eight years. That is tough to say. In the basketball realm, the Hawks have won two of the last three, four, five, eight. So Iowa is 2-6, six or sorry two and eight against Wisconsin over the last 10 games as well whether or not it's at Iowa or not so something that Iowa needs to be worried

about and I think we've seen Carver Hawkeye Arena get a little bit more packed get a little bit more interested in men's basketball so hopefully the arena is rocking but that does worry me a team like Wisconsin coming on the road like you said defense travels well and if Iowa isn't shooting the ball well Wisconsin can stay in that game stay in that game hang in that game and all they need at that point is a good shot at the end to win it out yeah exactly if Wisconsin you know is in this game which I think is really what Badger fans I don't know I don't know if they expect to win on the road at Iowa but to hang in it and to be competitive and to be competitive down the stretch, I think that puts a lot of pressure on Iowa. And that could easily turn into a win as it did at the end against Maryland, as it did against Penn State when Penn State made

their run and came back in the second half. So Wisconsin just has to hang tough and hang in this, not let it get away in the first half like it did at Mackey's so quickly. Absolutely, man. So from your perspective, what is – you probably heard about Luka Garza a bit, right? A little bit, yeah. Yeah. Do you have any concerns about how he's going to match up with Nate Revers? I haven't been able to watch Revers a ton.

Obviously last year watched Ethan Happ a bunch as he was probably going to be a pro prospect and all that stuff, but haven't seen Nate Revers a ton obviously last year um watched ethan hap a bunch um as he was you know probably going to be a pro prospect and all that stuff but um haven't seen nate reavers a ton what are your thoughts on how he can handle luke garza so nate rivers is really really good at a few things defensively he's he's got great great timing and reaction in terms of blocking shots he's a fantastic shot blocker for his size because he's not a huge huge big man right yeah he's averaging 2.1 blocks a game yes absolutely and that's because he he can not only can he block shots he can change shots but his athleticism you know his ability to get up his ability to read uh shooters in the lane his ability to do all those things you know sky high ability off the charts ability do all those things, you know, sky-high ability, off-the-charts ability in all those areas, which makes him a great shot blocker.

He's not a good shot blocker. He's a great shot blocker. The thing about Luke Garza, Luke Garza that Nate Rivers doesn't see all the time, is just the pure size. Luke Garza has him both in terms of strength and in terms of a little bit of height where Nate Rivers doesn't usually get tons of blocks on guys that are bigger than him. Usually it's guards coming in the lane

where I see Nate get a lot of his blocks. In terms of help side, Nate will come off the weak side and just make a nice play on a guard who beats their man up top. But Luka Garza has a lot of size, right? To me, the thing with Luka Garza is that if he's stepping out and hitting the three ball, which he does better than he's done all of his career this year.

He's crushing it this year from three. Yeah, I'm looking at the number, 38.5%, which from last year, 29%, a 9% increase. That's amazing stuff. I mean, especially as a big – to me, if he's doing that – and it's actually similar to Nate Reavers in terms of his offense if Nate's hitting the three ball it opens up a whole world not only for him but for Wisconsin's offense if Lou Garza hits open threes against Wisconsin

I'm gonna I'm gonna be watching the game I'm gonna shrug my shoulders and I'm gonna say you know that guy beat us but if I think Wisconsin has to live to a certain extent and Nate Re think Wisconsin has to live to a certain extent and Nate Rivers has to live to a certain extent with Luka Garza's threes just because one-on-one in the post, the double can come, but Iowa has lethal shooters as well around him. I think the loss of Jordan Bahannon is huge. I'm going to ask you about that I think in a bit.

But with lethal shooters around Garza, it's really tough to stop if he's hitting an outside shot himself. Yeah. Just a lot of different weapons all over the board. I do want to, I'll get to the Jordan Mohannon thing in a second. I have one last question about the Wisconsin team. Typically a pretty good three point shooting team. I think oddly enough, Iowa Wisconsin's teams are similarly composed in most years. I think, again, the team defense is what really separates Wisconsin from Iowa in

those situations. Iowa, Fran McCaffrey likes to run a bunch of different defensive schemes, and I think at times it can actually be confusing for Iowa, and they lack sometimes the athletes to play some of his his schemes but as far as Wisconsin's three-point shooting when I'm looking at it right now you have three guys shooting over 35 percent but you have a couple other guys who do like to shoot the three pretty consistently Nate Reavers Brad Davison and Aleem Ford who aren't shooting very well has that been a source of frustration for fans or is that you you know, they kind of had a couple of bad games and they've been hitting it on lately. Man, Andrew, when this team has looked bad,

the shooting has been horrendous against, against teams that this team, this Wisconsin team should have not easily beaten. I don't want to give any disrespect, but beaten. And these were two games in Brooklyn that I look at specifically. Wisconsin went to the Barclays Center and played in a thing called the Legends Classic, one of those early season tournaments. Yeah, that was a bad three-game stretch for y'all. Oh, man.

Oh, my goodness. There were two games at Barclays against Richmond and against New Mexico, both games that on paper Wisconsin probably should have won. Richmond's a very good team. I love the Atlantic 10. Don't get me wrong. I'm actually a huge mid-major nerd, but I love Richmond. Champ week and mid-major season is my favorite week in college basketball.

I like it more than the tournament in some ways. But, you know, that game against Richmond, it kind of started just a horrendous trend from three. Wisconsin was seven for 27 in that game from three. They only scored 52 points. And then they compounded with an effort after that against New Mexico that somehow got even worse. They put up 50 points and lost by nine to a New Mexico team

that Wisconsin should beat nine times out of ten, in my opinion, at least this year. Is that their one quad three loss? Is that the quadrant three loss that that has to be the quad three loss yeah i would assume that has to be it and that's a loss right that that can that can be a killer because it's a neutral site new mexico actually i don't know i don't know if you watch much if you watch much late night mountain west basketball but new mexico has an amazing environment at home but the fact that that loss was they actually played a place called the pit it's kind of gets kind of lit there but the fact

that that loss was a neutral site is really a killer to me in terms of a tournament resume and and to look at that and it's all because of Wisconsin's struggles in the three ball they've gone through some horrendous stretches this year shooting the basketball at Michigan State was another example of that game where nothing went right in terms of outside shooting and Brad Davidson's had his struggles this year you know he had the marquee moment against Maryland of course that the game winning moment but outside of that he's really struggled shooting the basketball I really hope that Maryland game gives him confidence heading forward in the Big Ten and we'll see if it does yeah man I hope it doesn't for my own completely biased sake, right?

But I will say this. I've never really been a big Brad Davidson fan. He reminds me a lot of – who was that point guard or the guard for Duke? Grayson Allen. He reminds me a lot of a poor man's Grayson Allen in terms of antics and skill set to an extent, and I'm just not a huge fan, but anyways, I could digress a bit on that. That's a compliment actually.

I think that's a Brad Davidson comment to say, I feel like he is the kind of the guy, if you look at this Wisconsin team and you're like, you're an opposing fan and you're like, who do I not like on this team? I feel like Brad would be the first thing that comes to mind is because of the dirty kind of gritty plays he made. Not, not dirty to say he trips people like Grayson Allen does.

I mean, that's unfair, but he makes, he makes gritty plays. When I say dirty, I mean, I mean more gritty. And that's something that fans get extremely annoyed at. And I feel like that's a compliment to him. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, it's good for him that he's the person I think of when I think of Wisconsin thing, I don't want to play him. And I think on our side, that is our Connor McCaffrey.

That's kind of his type of style. I mean, he's going to be going for everything and now it's Joe Toussaint. And we're going to talk a little about this, but Joe Toussaint is similar to that kind of a player where he's not necessarily the, like I said, dirty, but he is going to be running all over the place and he's going to make your team get so annoyed by his energy and the fact that he's constantly pushing the ball up.

So I know you had a quick question or a question on the Jordan Mohannon situation. Do you want to ask that? Maybe we can dive into that topic as well. Yeah, a few questions I want to ask you, I guess, starting with that one about Iowa. So kind of just to flip the interview on its head here and get some insight on the Hawkeyes.

So I guess my first question in watching, I watched Iowa for one of the I guess my first question in watching, I watched Iowa for one of the, not the first time this season, I've watched them at points throughout the season, but I watched almost the whole game against Rutgers, and it was a great, great battle. I loved that game. It was everything the Big Ten really is,

with a little bit more offense added. So that was fun. But that Rutgers game, it really jumped out to me that Jordan Bahannon, first of all, I didn't know he was out for the year. And I heard on that broadcast that they had shut him down, whether it was his decision, I guess. I asked you, what was the injury?

Was that his decision to shut himself down? Was that a medical staff decision? And with Joe Toussaint, I'm watching him. Can I give you a second thing to bounce off of that? I'm watching him, and I'm like, this guy does not look like an Iowa point guard to me. He is shifty. He looks like he's playing at Rucker Park in New York, right?

He's got that streetball game, that AAU kind of game to him where he's just kind of herky-jerky. He can get to the rim. He's fun to watch, and he's extremely effective when he's not necessarily out of control. When he's under control, all that speed, all that pace, and he's from the Bronx, that makes a lot of sense to me now that I look at it. He's got exactly that New York streetball game to him,

which was surprising to me watching that from an Iowa point guard. Yeah, I was going to say, I wasn't sure if you knew that he was from New York. So if you didn't know he was from New York, your impression was spot on. And it is very different for Iowa basketball. One of the things that I think fans and everyone who kind of follows the team Yeah, your impression was spot on. And it is very different for Iowa basketball. One of the things that I think fans and, you know, everyone who kind of follows the team has been wanting for the last five or six years is that dynamic playmaker who can break down a defense and dished out to the three-pointers, three-point shooters.

You know, Jordan Mohannon is a fantastic point guard, right? Don't get me wrong. But he's not the guy who's going to beat you off the dribble. And what we've seen in games where Iowa goes to the NCAA tournament they need a guy like that and they need a guy who's going to really set the tempo defensively as well and bring that energy on the defensive side I think you know Iowa playing a team like Tennessee last year in the NCAA tournament makes you realize the kind of athletes that some of these teams have at point guards you know at the point guard position and that Iowa just has not had that that being said Connor McCaffrey isn't

necessarily that guy who is you know going to break a team down off the dribble but he is one of the smartest basketball players I've watched play for Iowa in the last 10 years so now to the point about the Jordan Mohannon question I think I could dive a little bit more into point guards after that if you want. But Jordan Mohannon had an issue with his hip last year, dealt with a lot of pain, decided he was going to do surgery right after the season because he wanted to play pain-free for his senior season. The plan all along was basically he was going to try to come back, and if he didn't feel 100% healthy, he was going to shut it down after 10 games,

preserve a redshirt opportunity, and come back and if he didn't feel 100 healthy he was going to shut it down after 10 games preserve a redshirt opportunity and come back the following year um you know as the point guard right so turns out um he actually knew he was going to shut it down the entire time because he had basically the entire time um because once he had the other hip fixed or he had one hip fixed the other hip apparently was actually even worse and was being masked by the pain of the other hip. So it turns out he needed double hip surgery. Essentially, he had the first side done, played 10 games, and then he went in to get surgery on the other hip after that. So that is why he is out. We actually had him on the show this summer and asked him that question. Yeah, it was fun, man. It was good talking to him. Good dude all around. But even then he was, you know, he wasn't disclosing anything,

but it sounds like that was pretty much the plan all along. So like there really wasn't much of a decision. He was basically going to be sitting out after 10 games and coming back next year. So if this team somehow manages to return Luca Garza and Joe Weiskamp next year, along with Jordan Bohannon. To me, this might be the best opportunity Iowa's had in the last three decades to go

to the final four. I completely would side with that. I actually, you know, yeah. If Jordan Bohannon comes back healthy, man, what about Bohannon and Toussaint together?

That's a great little, Oh my gosh. Thunder and lightning combination. They're different players, and I feel like they can really combine each other well. Yeah. I mean, the nice thing with Iowa right now is you have a lot of versatility. You have a Connor McCaffer who can play point guard,

but he can also play power forward if you want. He's a big guy. He's a 6'6 guy. He's scrappy. He can play a couple different positions. Joe Wieskamp is a traditional shooting guard, but he plays small forward. C.J. Frederick is a solid 3 and D guy at that shooting guard position, a guy that Iowa hasn't had.

I would say he's a rich man's Josh Oglesby. I heard that from a person who follows us, and I thought that was a really great description. Basically, a really good 3 and D guy, one of the best that Iowa's had in some time at that spot. And then you talked about Joe Toussaint, like you said, the, the out of control nature at times it can be a spark and it can be a, you know, a big deflator for Iowa at times, you know,

whether it's a bad turnover here or forcing the ball and, and not, you know, getting a good shot off. That is what we're going to live with, with him, right? He's an athlete that we need and as he continues to develop he's going to be an incredible asset for Iowa in the future but he needs to get that experience that playing time now but part of the battle with Fran McCaffrey is learning how to slow him down without ruining what makes him great and we've seen that in a couple games where Fran McCaffrey has not been afraid to switch up his lineup and basically completely change kind of the game plan of what they want to do. If Toussaint comes out and he's playing really well,

he's probably going to stay in the game and play 30 minutes like he did against Rutgers. You know, he had a few stretches there where he kind of struggled, but for the most part, he turned in a really great performance. Other times, we've seen him come out, struggle, and they put Bakari Evelyn in. And Evelyn is a grad transfer guard from Val Prezzo used to play at Nebraska transferred to Val Prezzo's had some knee injuries that and whatnot

now plays at Iowa and when they're looking for a stabilizing force they bring Evelyn in so it is interesting that Iowa has a not a lot of depth but they have a little bit of versatility with the depth they do have to kind of bring in some guys and mix and match their lineups to face whatever team they're going against. Sorry, that was an incredibly long-winded answer. My apologies. No, it was a long-winded question. It was two separate questions basically wrapped into one.

But with Joe Toussaint, can I make a petition for Iowa fans right now for what to call Joe Toussaint? Go for it, man. Can they call him Baby Lance Stevenson. Because when I watched him, he was literally six-foot Lance Stevenson. Yeah. He reminds me so much of Lance. Yeah, and it's funny, too, because defensively, you know,

when I think of Lance Stevenson, I think of a guy who can kind of shoot the ball but also play really good defense. And Joe, that is – I mean, dude, he's been a spark on the defensive side of the ball, but also play really good defense. And Joe, that is, I mean, do that. He's been a spark on the defensive side of the ball right now. If you look at Ken Palm, Iowa's defensive rating is the best they've had since the Jared Uthoff years. So in the last five years, the best defensive team Iowa has had. And that's a big reason why they're able to actually beat some of these teams

on a more consistent basis, which is nice to see. A question for you about this, this specific matchup, this Wisconsin-Iowa matchup. How do you see the Hawkeyes lining up? You mentioned the multiple defensive schemes from Fran McCaffrey. How do you expect Iowa to attack Wisconsin? So as far as attacking, I think they're obviously going to come out running. You want Joe in there. I think Joe is a better athlete than what Wisconsin has.

So I think he's a good opportunity to kind of break down the defense, kind of like what they want him to do in general. Obviously, they're going to get Luka Garza going. That's going to be the big matchup. As soon as you get Luka Garza going, Wisconsin has to make a decision of whether they try to trap and get down and close in on Luka Garza, or do they stay at home with the three-point shooters? So you get Luka Garza going first.

I think he's the guy who could probably easily get going, and then you start looking for your three-point shooters. And, I mean, that's pretty much – that's kind of the MO for Iowa in general, but I think that's really how they could win that game, let Joe be the best athlete on the court. So from an athletic perspective, I feel pretty good about this game. Defensively, it's going to be interesting. Again, it depends on how well Wisconsin is shooting the ball. As you said, Iowa has struggled in the past when they play a zone defense.

Any of the variants of the zone defense have not really worked a ton sometimes with teams with three-point shooting, and they don't really help on each side very well right so they don't transition over and actually work as a team very well so I could see them maybe moving to man if that you know if Wisconsin is getting going moving the man for a bit just because I think athletically speaking Iowa can match up pretty well and man defense against Wisconsin yeah I would personally expect Iowa to go to go with not all, a lot of man against Wisconsin. They don't have – one thing this Badger team struggles with is having guys like Joe Toussaint, guys that one-on-one can beat their man.

And there's literally – I kid you not, at most times, there's two to three players on Wisconsin's roster that I feel confident can do that. Yeah, same with Iowa usually. In the post, not necessarily obviously beating you off the dribble, but he can, he can score on a guy one-on-one pretty consistently. That's Kobe King as well, who has had, you know, a much,

a much better year this year than he did than he did last year. He's really taken on a bigger role and him and Aleem Ford are the two guys that were expected to take on much bigger roles this year. In addition to Nate and Aleem Ford is kind of, kind of slumped dropped off a little bit. Whereas Kobe King has really taken his role effectively. I think he's really good at breaking you down off the dribble. There's back.

In fact, been a lot of Wisconsin spread ISOs run for him, which is not something we usually see when you think about Wisconsin basketball offense, but we'll see if we see those against Iowa. But yeah, that's something that i think i wouldn't be surprised if iowa runs strictly man at least a lot of it maybe some full court pressure which i've seen fair mccaffrey put in place but yeah time it's just so tough with the lack of depth that's the reason why they kind of have to switch back and forth right they only have eight scholarship guys um playing so playing. So that's where – I think the man defense makes a ton of sense.

Full court pressure, too. We've seen Iowa be pretty successful in that. I mean, that's how – against Tennessee last year in the NCAA tournament, that was all them. That was just an effort to get back and actually manage to get back in the game, which is super impressive. That was a great game. Oh, my gosh.

That went to overtime, right? Yeah. I mean, to be honest, I think at that point when it went to overtime, I was like, you know what? I'm just happy we made it a game at this point. And there's no – like Iowa was playing. I think they just – they didn't switch anyone out. They were basically playing the same five guys for 20 minutes

and said, go for it. We need to win. To even come back was impressive enough. But I digress a bit. I think, yeah, the man – you know, we could see that happen. I think Iowa's going to need, you know, we could see that happen. I think was, you know, I was going to need to probably come out in the zone first just to maybe save some of their legs. And if they need to, in the second half,

start amping the tempo up a little bit with that, but it's just, it is tough, right? Like Jordan Bohannon, I'm out for the year. Jack, you know, Jack Nudge out for the year, starting four, Patrick McCaffrey, a top 100 recruit is out for the year. You four. Patrick McCaffrey, a top 100 recruit, is out for the year. You don't expect that coming into this season, so it makes it a little bit difficult for them to do all the variants of what they'd like to do. So I think next year, I think you said it earlier,

but man, is Iowa the favorite to win the Big Ten next year right now? Oh my gosh. If we don't have an exodus like last year, where half our team left during the summer, then yes, I would be surprised if they are not. It all depends on Luka Garza. And I think that depends on how NBA scouts view him. I think Joe Wieskamp will be an NBA player at some point, but I don't think he's there yet. I know he toured with the NBA last year, but I still don't see him doing it. So if Joe Wieskamp and Luka Garza come back, if Iowa's not the Big Ten favorite, I will be shocked.

This team, and maybe you've kind of seen this before, when Iowa gets down, they just let it happen and they lose. This team is resilient. They're tough. And now they're also back to that talent as well, a guy like Luka Garza. But it's not very often you see a top five national player of the year, Ken, that go back to school. So I'm just anxiously waiting

now you know i i'd be shocked if louis garza tries to go pro honestly i don't think right now he's a bit of a dinosaur yeah if you look at in the nba game so i man i i feel like with the way nba drafts work the way nba scouting works i'd be shocked to see him anywhere near a first round projection i'd be surprised to see him even in the 30s or 40s to be honest on draft boards correct me if i'm wrong there but i know i don't disagree at all i just think it's i mean it's just so tough when you have that kind of hype who knows what he thinks about that right but i agree i mean his his moves are good but he's not that athletic down low. He's very crafty. Kind of like, you know, not to make a comparison,

but like Ethan Happ wasn't the most athletic guy, but he's really crafty when he was down in the post. And he found ways to win and get a basket in there. I feel like Luka Garza has some semblance of that as well. Right. I feel like Luka Garza is if, you know, if Ethan Happ could shoot, there you go. Yeah, exactly. Well, cool, man. Do you have any other questions about Iowa

or any questions you would like to know for your listeners of the Locked On Badgers podcast before we jump off for the show today? Yeah, Locked On Badgers, I try to do a score prediction every single game and usually a Vegas spread prediction, but we don't have Vegas spread out yet. So I guess just a score prediction from you, a prediction of how you think this game will go.

Yeah, this is going to be a homer pick, obviously, but Iowa's done pretty well at home, and I do trust them to come out with this game shooting, and especially Wisconsin being a team that has had their number pretty significantly in the past. I do expect this to be a good game, but I think Iowa's going to pull away late. I'm predicting Wisconsin's D in their slow tempo pace.

I'll probably say in 68 to 63. I like that. I like a game in the 60s. Yeah, I don't. That gives Wisconsin a chance. That gives Wisconsin a chance if it's in the 60s, I would say. It does. I just don't foresee Iowa doing that well I mean I think they're gonna

do fine offensively but I think Wisconsin just does a really great job of slowing the pace of play and so even if defense isn't there Iowa just isn't gonna have as many possessions because Wisconsin just slows the pace of play down so much I think that yeah Wisconsin's pace is certainly and playing at their pace is essential to winning this game, no doubt about it, staying in this game even. And we've seen Wisconsin slow teams down. They slowed Nebraska down.

Obviously, Iowa is not Nebraska, but they slowed Nebraska down effectively in the second half at the Kohl Center this past Tuesday. So I've seen them slow teams that want to play faster down pretty effectively. With this game, to me, I think that I'd be shocked if Wisconsin comes out and lays another dud. I also will say I've been pretty good predicting

Wisconsin basketball games this year until I was completely blinded by the bias and I picked Wisconsin to win at Mackey going against all statistical evidence. So I'm going to go Iowa wins this game, but it's extremely close down the stretch, but Carver Hawkeye arena just kind of gives them that extra boost. I'll go Iowa 67, Wisconsin 63.

I like it, man. We're on the same page. Well, hopefully, hopefully both of our predictions come true. And if not, we'll see. Absolutely, man. Well, Asher, I had a blast talking to you, man. Maybe we can hop on after the game and talk a little bit about some of our thoughts from the game itself. Or maybe we'll be talking later on. Yeah, let's plan on it.

And maybe we'll talk before the Big Ten tournament as well. Love having some other locked-on folks on the call. And I think it gives everyone a great perspective on the other team. I can watch Wisconsin as much as I can, but you've watched Wisconsin every single game. You have an idea of what they're going to do, and that's going to be really beneficial for my fans and vice versa. So love having you on the show, buddy,

and let's maybe try to plan something for a couple days from now. Yeah, thank you for coming on Locked On Badgers as well. Right back at you. I love having the insight, especially about the Bahan stuff. I didn't really realize, you know, all that injury insight was awesome to hear. And I think great for, for listeners to hear about Jordan Bahan and a guy that, you know, has Wisconsin ties and a guy that I think Wisconsin fans know, know well over the past couple of years.

So I was love to hear that. And I love to hear the insight on Joe Tucson as well. Thank you so much for, for providing all that Iowa basketball knowledge. Absolutely, man. Well, have a great day, Asher. You too. Talk to you soon. All right, and that'll conclude our episode. Again, a big shout-out to Asher Lowe of the Locked on Badgers podcast for joining the show and talking to us about what to expect from Wisconsin in this game tonight.

Hopefully Iowa can get a win at Carver. They've kind of struggled against Wisconsin the past couple years, both basketball and football wise. So they'd be a good opportunity to continue to build on that momentum they've built out in the Big Ten. They need that going into another tough week in Big Ten basketball. So more to come on that on tomorrow's episode, we're going to be breaking down the last day of the Senior Bowl, talking about Michael Ojemudia's performance. Would have loved to cover it on today's show, but obviously a lot of content with the Wisconsin analysis.

So we're going to be covering the Senior Bowl and a few other things on tomorrow's episode, including the analysis of tonight's game. So stay tuned for that on tomorrow's episode. If you did like what you heard today, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Again, appreciate you all for tuning in to today's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Have a great day, Hawkeye Nation. Go Hawks. We'll see you next time.