Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Does Iowa Face a Must Win Situation vs. Northwestern? + Senior Day Women's Preview

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's a must-win situation for Iowa basketball tonight I'll tell you why we'll get it done against the Wildcats and what it does for their Big Ten prospects today Locked on Hawkeye 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 Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find podcasts.

Starting point is 00:00:37 You can also watch us on YouTube. Hit subscribe while you're watching. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. If you are listening on the audio side, five star reviews greatly appreciate that to each and every one of you. We got basketball on the horizon today a lot of hoop stock as we make our way through the end of the regular season. Coming up a little bit later on we will talk about the women's basketball

Starting point is 00:00:58 team their matchup this weekend against Wisconsin it is senior day and not just the seniors Lucy Olson coming in with her final year of eligibility and some of the other names and kidding including Sydney of Walter but a possibility. Kylie Fierbach coming back for another season. We will get into that a little bit later on when we talk some Iowa women's hoops. Plus Tom Cakert is gonna stop in from HawkeyeReport.com. Part of On 3 Media. Always gonna get the great perspective of Tom Cakert is gonna stop in from HawkeyeReport.com. Part of On 3 Media, always gonna get the great perspective of Tom Cakert, who will be joining us here

Starting point is 00:01:28 in just a little bit. But we start with tonight's matchup for Iowa against Northwestern. Northwestern comes in winners of two in a row. And when you're talking about the bottom of the Big Ten, that's not too shabby. So Iowa fighting for their NCAA tournament. No, no, no. For their Big Ten tournament lives. The loss to Illinois was expected. The losses

Starting point is 00:01:55 that have come against Maryland, Wisconsin, and Purdue. There's been so many times where at this point in the season with Owen Freeman being out, Cooper Katch being lost for the year, you're seeing a team incredibly banged up with Josh Dix and Peyton Sanford. They just don't have the horses. And honestly, it's difficult for me to come in here and freak out, get belligerent, lose my mind, get overly upset when you're just outmanned. That's not to give an excuse to the team or to give an excuse to Fray McCaffrey for being in the spot that they are. It's just reality. And the reality is that this team doesn't have enough to compete.

Starting point is 00:02:41 That's not the case though tonight because this Northwestern team that they face off, Iowa over at Fandula, currently a four and a half point underdog, Iowa faces a team that has some of their own issues. Bricks Barnheiser, really skilled guy, can beat you from the outside, can knock down to three, can beat you inside, good off the bounce, he's hurt. Jalen Leach, another one of off the bounce. He's hurt. Jalen leach another one of their big contributors. He's hurt. After Nick Martinelli, who's outstanding by the way, Martinelli has really, really improved his game from what we saw in the early portions of his career. And this is a guy that has morphed into one of the better

Starting point is 00:03:23 players in the big 10. He's gotten much bigger and he is scoring at a high level because well he has to. You look through what he has done recently he's been putting up some big point totals because of those other injuries. Then Ty Barry that feels like he might have played with Evan Eshmeyer. Youngster's looking up. He's been around for a little bit. I know it's his fifth year of a man. Feels like Ty Barry's been around. But after that, this team is depleted immensely. Nicholson's a big body inside. He is what he is, right? Big body. Give him space. He gets an angle inside. He can make some plays, but this is not a very good team. Yeah, they beat Ohio State and Minnesota. This is of the remaining three

Starting point is 00:04:05 games, probably the most winnable. And as we've talked about, in order for Iowa to qualify for the Big Ten tournament, they have to win at least one. They have to get one more victory in order for that to happen. That's what needs to be done for it to go. You have to be able to find a victory, not a big ask, but one. And I played around with the projection site, Drake, you've heard it again, yes, bball.notnothing.net. And what I've gone through.

Starting point is 00:04:33 First, when you calculate the seeds, and everybody, that's a favorite wins. I was on the outside looking in. They finish in a tie for 15th place, but it's against Minnesota, and the Gophers had the tiebreaker. You give them a win here and even move around a bunch of other things. I was in because they'll have two victories against Northwestern with all

Starting point is 00:04:53 those tiebreakers having those two victories against Northwestern, even in a multi-team tie, that's going to be incredibly big for Iowa. So I just played that. And the way it sets, I was in the Big Ten tournament with a win tonight, they'd be taking on Indiana in the opening round with a win they get UCLA. Look, I was not going to go on a deep run. It's not going to matter. But you want to be there.

Starting point is 00:05:13 You want to at least at minimum be there. Now, this leads to a conversation that Fray McCaffrey had after Mike Rhodes was freaking out. And it's qualifying for the Big Ten tournament, where only 15 of the 18 teams get in. Personally, I am not a fan of this and it's not because Iowa, well maybe it's a little bit, because Iowa's down here struggling to get into the Big Ten tournament. One thing though that I love about college basketball, one of the things that is my favorite

Starting point is 00:05:39 part is when we get to this point, we got our first bracket by by the way. 31 brackets will be coming for Conference Tournament Week. Our first one is set in the Atlantic sun. And I'll probably be betting on the A sun. But I love the ability. You could have a crappy year. But you still have that final shot. You still have a way to play your way in to the big dance. We've seen teams with losing records,

Starting point is 00:06:06 we've seen teams come out of nowhere. You go back to just a year ago when NC State was on their way to they win five games in five days in the ACC tournament and they get in. It doesn't happen often but it does happen from time to time and I still enjoy that part of college basketball. Then outside of the Ivy League, everybody had a shot to play your way in. And so many teams saw their season come too close, and you know. But at least you had that shot.

Starting point is 00:06:36 And with this structure, we might say, well, man, with 18 teams, there's got to be a stopping point. This is as simple as it is. And in fact, I like the structure of this a whole lot more than the current structure. Because when you go this direction, it makes a ton of sense. So the Wednesday of the opener of the Big Ten tournament, you have three games. The 10 versus the 15, the 11 versus the 14, and the 12 against the 13. That's what you have. In order to make this work, you're just adding two more games.

Starting point is 00:07:08 So the top eight seeds, the top half of your league, gets buys and you're left with these five games. The nine seed gets the 18, the 10 against the 17, the 11 against the 16, 12 against the 15, the 13 against the 14. Two extra games, sell it off to Peacock or BTN or whatever, it's still going to get a number. People are still going to watch still. People are going to bet on it. Why those three teams don't even get the opportunity, I don't get it.

Starting point is 00:07:43 Look, if you can't finish in the top half of the league, you don't get a buy. It's fair. You're the ninth seed, you get the 18. Pass along. It can happen. It's happened before. I like this structure a whole lot more. Hopefully, this is something that will be coming to the Big 10, the ACC along with it, as they've of course expanded out to 18 teams with the addition of Stanford, weird, and Cal SMU joined it in there. So things also looking a little bit different. That's what I would do, but in order for Iowa to get it done has to win. Now of the three games, because Northwestern's had more struggles this year, this might be the more likely one.

Starting point is 00:08:22 All three of these games though are basically in the same boat. And it doesn't matter which of the three they win. I think this one goes a little bit further, but you have to get a win. Maybe it's Thursday on senior night against Michigan State. Maybe they surprise us all, lose these next two, and then finally, right the ship with a win against Northwestern. You have to get a win though. It's as simple as that, and it starts tonight against Northwestern. You have to get a win though. It's as simple as that and it starts tonight against Northwestern. Back on the other side we talk Hawkeye hoops with Tom Kaikert from HawkeyeReport.com plus Kylie Feerbach. Should she come back to Iowa for her sixth year and how does she fit into the future plans of the Hawkeyes? Plus a parent getting a little chirpy in the women's basketball team.

Starting point is 00:09:03 We'll do that as we continue Locked On Hawkeyes. Life moves fast, especially when you have a family. One day you're watching your kids take their first steps and before you know it, they're off to college. That's why securing their future is so important. Fabric by Gerber Life makes it simple to get term life insurance that fits your family's needs. With Fabric, you can apply for term life insurance online right from your couch. You can be covered in under 10 minutes and in many cases no health exam is required. As a parent,

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Starting point is 00:10:16 He's already in Evanston, Northwestern, Iowa. The rematch tonight, way back December the 3rd. Crazy that that's when that game was played, right? It was a different world. It was. It blew entirely. You know, in the one point... Who hit the shot at the end?

Starting point is 00:10:31 Dicks. Dicks hit the big one at the end to propel them over the top. Hello, Tom Caker. Boy, oh boy, you were all over TV the other night, by the way. I'm sure many people have pointed that out to you. But when you're in Champaign, those media seats seats, you're gonna get your mug on TV. I know that's not why you're there, but that's certainly part of it. Yeah, I was told I was on I knew I was gonna be on a lot. But that this means

Starting point is 00:10:57 you know, you got something to get the mice out of that house. Right? There you go. And I love the fact that you were actually writing down on a pad with a pen, you weren't typing, you I love the fact that you are actually writing down on a pad with a pen you're typing you're doing the whole school. But Bowen camp would be proud of you. Yes, that's what I do I just were just John I are ancient people and we just write notes all about what's going on the floor and it just

Starting point is 00:11:20 it helps you remember what's going on I keep all that stuff at home and put it on a file. It's just, I'm weird that way. That's good, good stuff. Well, here we go tonight. I think it's a big spot. Trent thinks they've got to get one of the next three, right, and he's right.

Starting point is 00:11:37 I think this is the more likely of the other two. Michigan State coming and on the road at Nebraska, because Nebraska will have a ton to play for us perhaps as well. Um, when you watch this Northwestern team, what do you see? Obviously Nick Martinelli stands up. But what else? They have gotten better after losing two starters and they've kind of figured things out the last, I mean, on the road and went at Ohio state and then go up and Minnesota's playing better.

Starting point is 00:12:06 And they went up there and just handled their business. And that impresses me when a team, you know, they lose leech, they lose, um, barnheiser and lose both those guys. And, and they've kind of Chris Collins is such a good coach. And um, by the way, if something happens, I'd float his name out there a little bit maybe. Okay. You know, you know.

Starting point is 00:12:31 Okay. Interesting. Put that one in the back pocket. Interesting name. Yes. Yeah, just be a name I'd call, but you know, not saying anything's happening. I don't know what's gonna happen,

Starting point is 00:12:41 but I thought it was interesting by the way guys, that Beth Getz was on the trip to Champaign. I just thought that was interesting that she was made that trip because that's not like one of those where like in the here in Evanston where you're gonna, you know, you maybe have some donors and stuff like that. Go to the Big Ten offices, shake a couple hands there. That would make sense. Champaign, got a whole lot going on there outside of farms. No, that's south farms and if the wind's blowing the wrong direction, you're in for a long day.

Starting point is 00:13:13 Nice. Oh, God. So what do you expect tonight, Tom? What kind of effort? We've seen the effort. Obviously, we said this during the week, Trent said, I would have a chance. Essentially, Dix and Payton Samford both have to have 25 right around there. Yeah. Not one of them, both of them. And, and they both really struggled last time out. What do you expect tonight?

Starting point is 00:13:33 And both of those guys are pretty beat up. I think Payton's going to have a bounce back game. He just, he tends to bounce back pretty well. And you guys will remember last year, um, Josh Dix had at that point, his best game of his career at Northwestern and really kind of carried him down the stretch to a win. So your odds are that both those guys are going to play pretty well tonight. But is that going to be enough Northwestern just what, what's impressed me about Northwestern since they've lost the two starters is they handled Ohio State to 49 points. I mean that's you know that's an Ohio State team that correct me if

Starting point is 00:14:13 I'm wrong went out the SC and won this week you know it's just that they are playing really good defense right now and holding teams under 70 points and I always got it I was margin for error is just so razor thin. And the thing that I've noticed with this Iowa team in the stretch is they may hang with teams in the first half, you know, they've got the Maryland game where they were up 51 to 47 and a half time.

Starting point is 00:14:40 And then the bottom just falls out in the second half. That happened again at Illinois where the bottom just kind of falls out. And if folks might be interested in dabbling a bit in some things, maybe that's something you look at at half time. Yeah. It's a cousin, Sal does that in football all the time from Jimmy Kimmel Live. He's got a gambling show now. You bet one team in the first half, then come back. Moneyline on the other team does that a lot in the NFL? Maybe that's something here for Iowa Northwestern tonight. Iowa in the first half, Northwestern

Starting point is 00:15:11 overall and usually get 7-8 to 1 when you're doing things like that. Well, gambling will continue. We will have lots of bets out there, but would you bet right now that Iowa does make the Big Ten tournament? I wouldn't. I don't think they're going to wouldn't. I don't think they're gonna make it. I don't think they're gonna make it. I just don't, I don't, they're not gonna be favored to win any games. No.

Starting point is 00:15:32 You know, they're not favored tonight. They're not gonna be favored against Michigan State. They're not gonna be favored at Pinnacle Bank Arena. They're just not. So the odds would be they're not making it. And, you know, Fran yesterday kind of laid the groundwork for that a little bit, talking about how, um, because apparently Mike Rhodes, the Penn State coach, called it something bleep bleep bleep. Uh, I think was the term

Starting point is 00:16:00 we can't say on, uh, Will you say the horse part? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and we can't So yeah, there there's some frustration from coaches. I thought it was odd that they made that decision to begin with you know the Conference makes so much money already. What's what's a couple more games gonna hurt? I totally agree. Well, and it's two more games. That's all that it is. It's two more games. You have the nine play the 18, the 10 against the 17. All done that opening Wednesday instead of three

Starting point is 00:16:32 games, you have five. It's not that big of a deal. I I'm I'm baffled. Now looking back, we should have made a bigger deal about it. It's two more games. It's just it was ridiculous that they made that decision, but it's what they're going to do. And Minnesota has the tiebreaker over Iowa, right? The head to head, the head to head. They got the head to head there.

Starting point is 00:16:54 You know, they, the other head to heads are okay, but like if they went, if they went tonight, then I think they're basically locked to be in, um, you're talking Minnesota. No, Iowa wins tonight because then they'd have the two wins over Northwestern so they'd have all the time. Oh yeah yeah yeah. Three and a game up on the cats so I would think they'd be in pretty good shape. Huge score. Because Minnesota's got so they play they're at Nebraska. They've got some tricky spots coming up they got to Wisconsin.

Starting point is 00:17:26 I can't remember. Oh, it's at Rutgers. Yeah, Rutgers. At Rutgers. On that bubble too. Rutgers is on that bubble too. If you play around over at bball.notnothing.net get drink if you've heard that one time or two before.

Starting point is 00:17:39 If you go over there you put Iowa in and play with a bunch of different scenarios. I was still in the Big Ten tournament with the win tonight That two wins against Northwestern goes a long, long way. Yeah, huge. What about Drew Thelwell? What do you think? When do you see, will we see him tonight? Supposed to see him. That's what Fran said yesterday, that he expects him to play. Now, how effective he will be is the $64,000 question because kid wants to play, but he resprayed it before the last game. And so it's just, why you wonder if he's gonna how much he can give them and

Starting point is 00:18:14 that was the Wisconsin game. He got hurt. He under the basket. He came back in, came back in, back in, yeah, and tried to play through it. But you knew it was going to pay for it. But you knew he was going to pay for it. But you knew he was going to pay for it regardless. So, yeah, so we came out there and kind of gutted it out. If they can get 15 minutes out of him and some solid defense and maybe a couple shots, boy, that just helps them so much because they just need another score because otherwise it's it's Peyton it's price and it's

Starting point is 00:18:50 Josh Josh Dix. That's kind of your scoring output output for the team. So you know, unless you can get 15 from Riley Mulvey. Well, 15 minutes you're gonna get I don't know if you're gonna get 15 points out of him though. Rock Hardy came to life last time out. He had 16. On the offensive end. Other end, different stories it usually is. Tom, does Beth Getz know? Is her decision already made? Is her decision made? And maybe a step further if it it is do other people in the basketball offices know? I don't think so.

Starting point is 00:19:28 I don't think she's me just based on talking to people around bath. You know, Beth does not can ever be a definitive answer. I got one of those comments the other day on the podcast. Why don't you guys just ask them? She's not gonna I you know, she's not gonna tell you. So, and nor should she. I don't think she's made a decision, but I think there might be a lean in the direction

Starting point is 00:19:54 that most people think this is gonna end up. But that's just my guess on nothing other than kind of reading the room a little bit. You know, she made that trip. I thought that was interesting. She's been at all the home games. She sees the, it's a financial decision, guys. It's not as much about Fran and performance

Starting point is 00:20:18 because guys have bad years. You just, you have one of those years and you can chalk it up to injuries, whatever. And you got a good recruiting class coming in and you could you can sell it. You could you could, you know, sell going forward. But it's just. That's in seats. That's lost revenue. And in this era, when you're paying twenty point five million dollars going out the door for paying players, you're going gonna have to make it up somewhere and it's it's about to see

Starting point is 00:20:48 tom kaker at hawkeye report dot com tom thank you we appreciate it uh... enjoy uh... eviston tonight and we will talk with you next week uh... i guess that we uh... in advance of maybe a do or die against nebraska on sunday to bring the curtain down in the regular season tom thank you. Okay, thanks, guys. Yep, good to talk to you, Tom Kekert, HawkeyeReport.com. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes is brought to you by PrizePix. March basketball, it's here, and there's no better way to get in on the action than with prize picks.

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Starting point is 00:22:38 Wrapping things up with a little women's basketball talk and it is Senior Day. It is the regular season finale. It's a bad Wisconsin team coming to town. I think all those things all kind of go hand in hand together. This is a game that it's kind of crazy just to think back and to look at things in this women's basketball program. It hasn't been great overall at Wisconsin. Iowa's dominated the series, and this is another one that definitely should be in the win column, pulling up the numbers currently in this and there we go scrolling through getting back to my Iowa page there they are 21st in the country at Bart Torvik and the projections have Iowa favored in this one by 21 points 79 58 the final should be a

Starting point is 00:23:40 coast. The conversation is about though the seniors Lucy Olson going out there for her final time at Carver Hawkeye Arena. Sydney Folter, the longtime star. As you every dayers know, I have such an affinity for her game, the way that she plays, just how excellent she has been taking and getting the most out of that 5 foot 11 frame and mixing it up inside and doing the dirty work and doing the little things and it's been tremendous to watch and by the way going out shooting 45% now from three after that big performance. We'll see her out there one

Starting point is 00:24:19 more time. Addison O'Grady and though it hasn't probably been as consistent as we wanted, Addison has been a big part of this team and been a big part of their success. A.J. Eddinger, one that didn't progress like she was billed coming out of Michigan. She was a high four star. A lot of people thought that she was going to be somebody that's going to be a multi-year starter and it didn't turn out out that way but her contributions to the program and then finally we get to Kylie Feerbach and what she is going to do to wrap up her career because she would have a six-year eligibility and if she is going to exercise that come back for another season come back for a new go-around that's gonna look a lot

Starting point is 00:25:02 different Stolke you'll be back Taylor McCabe will be back. That freshman class, obviously, you anticipate they're all going to be there, though. If you listen to Aaliyah Gutten's dad, maybe not. A.J. Gutten, former Indiana Hoosier, has got a lot to say on social media. And I had a tweet up there asking how you get into the portal. Quickly took that down. Weird. That aside, it will anticipate. How about that? And also this environment for all the freshmen. You know we saw good things out of Ava Hytton. Didn't play a ton this year. Good saw good things out of both Stremlo and Mullaney. Hytton's been the one that's played the most but with all these players there's gonna be other opportunities out there and you have to

Starting point is 00:25:48 re-recruit all of your players. That is the reality of college athletics, but it's going to be about the seniors out there. I know they'll get a great ovation. We know also that this is going to be it, right? They're going to qualify for the NCAA tournament. Unless they get in a deep run in the Big Ten tournament, they'll probably have to win it all to get all the way up to a top four seed. But I don't know if you saw it earlier today, Charlie Kreen from ESPN, their women's bracketologist, he updated his bracket and as we thought, Iowa has moved up now to a sixth seed.

Starting point is 00:26:24 Sometimes I feel like I'm on crazy pills, felt like I was alone on an island. bracket and as we thought Iowa has moved up now to a sixth seed. Now sometimes I feel like I'm on crazy pills felt like I was alone on an island here a couple of games back after they started ripping off those victories and moving up and annoying was in front of them I said now this team can attain a whole lot more than people are talking about a bubble and being stuck in an 8-9 game I think there's more there. Work to be had. Finish off Wisconsin, get it done in the Big Ten tournament. Speaking of that, one final thing here locked on Hawkeyes, and that is what the Big Ten tournament is going to look like. So after the games this weekend,

Starting point is 00:26:54 we will know the bracket will be released. So I went over once again to one of my favorite websites, play along with me, bball.notnothing.net, and I projected who I believe is going to win this weekend. UCLA USC, got UCLA. Michigan State hosting the Gophers, give me Sparty. I took Michigan on the road at Illinois. Iowa over Wisconsin, Maryland over Ohio State, Nebraska beating Northwestern, Indiana beating Purdue, Penn State beating Rutgers and Washington beating Oregon. So I did all that and it spits out the bracket. So Iowa in this scenario is tied for eighth place in the Big Ten, tied with Oregon, Indiana and Nebraska.

Starting point is 00:27:38 But because Iowa is one and three combined against those three opponents, Iowa falls to 11th seed. Not great. However, look at this path. You open up with a rematch against Wisconsin, then you get Michigan State after that Ohio State before you're in the semi-finals if it plays out in that fashion. It's a lot. Obviously things will change because it's not going to go exactly the way you anticipate over the weekend. It never does, but that path is another good one. This Iowa team had really good even before Caitlin Clark. This team's been really good in the Big Ten tournament. Thanks for being with

Starting point is 00:28:17 us today and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We also got you covered with Lockdown Big Ten. Craig Schieann doing great work putting the Big Ten first and talking Big Ten storylines each and every day. Plus your favorite team MLB. Spring Training is here. NFL getting ramped up for draft coverage. NBA, NHL right in the middle of the season all covered right here on the Lockdown Network. Your team every day. We got you covered on the Hawkeye front each and every day. We'll be back with you tonight after Iowa Northwestern goes final with an

Starting point is 00:28:48 instant reaction podcast. Thanks for being with us and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks!

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Does Iowa Face a Must Win Situation vs. Northwestern? + Senior Day Women's Preview

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