Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Former SDSU All-American Mike Daum joins us to talk about playing for the Iowa United, TBT, and his career to this point

Episode Date: May 12, 2020

We are joined by 3x Summit League Player of the Year Mike Daum for our special TBT Tuesday episode where he talks about his time with the Jackrabbits, playing overseas in Spain, and why he is looking forward to playing with the Iowa United in this year's $2 million winner-take-all TBT tournament. 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. Welcome back to a very special TBT Tuesday episode of the Locked On Iowa podcast,

your daily podcast covering the Iowa Hawkeyes and, on Tuesdays, the Iowa United on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and I'm excited to be back for another episode of the show. And on today's episode, we have former South Dakota State Jackrabbit, three-time Summit League Player of the Year, the leading scorer in the history of the Summit League, and former All-American and current professional basketball player overseas in Spain. We have Mike Dahm on the show today. Really excited to be bringing you this interview.

Had a fantastic time talking with him about his time overseas, his time at South Dakota State, his NBA opportunities post the draft, and then also what he's looking forward to most about playing with the Iowa United in the $2 million winner-take-all TBT tournament this summer. Before we do that, though, we have a few housekeeping items to take care of. I just want to quickly remind you that today's episode is brought to you by the great folks at Built Bar, the best tasting protein bar on the market. It's my go-to anytime I have a workout. High in protein, low in calories, low in sugar, a great source to get you your post-workout nutrition that you need right after a workout. And right now we have a great discount you can use. Use the promo code LOCKEDON for $10 off your first order of Built Bars at BuiltBar.com.

Also, if you are tuning in for the first time and you do like the show today, make sure to give us that five-star review and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And as always, have to shout out the folks who are bringing this podcast episode to life, the Iowa United. You can follow them on Twitter at IowaTBT, and make sure to follow Mike Daum at TheDominator24, D-A-U-M-I-N-A-T-O-R 24. You can follow him on Twitter as well.

That being said, let's jump into the show, the interview with Mike Daum right now. All right, I am joined here by three-time Summit League Player of the Year, Mike Dahm. Mike, I'm happy to have you on the show, man. Really excited to watch you play for the Iowa United. How are you doing today, man? I'm doing really well. I appreciate you having me on. I'm excited to just kind of get to know you and get my name out there a little bit.

Absolutely, man. So let's start with the easy question first. How did you hear about Iowa United, and what kind of brought you to this team or what kind of made you feel like you should be a part of this team as opposed to other TBT teams? Yeah, for sure. I mean, first off, Jeff Horner was kind of the one who reached out to me and just sent like a simple text messages, you know, telling me he was at North Dakota State when I played there and things like that. So I was kind of, I mean, I knew what the TBT was. I had a couple of buddies who played on TBT teams, you know, earlier,

and I was kind of skeptical about doing it, obviously, just because I, it's an unknown territory for me. I've never done it before, but obviously after, you know, having a professional year under my belt, I understand, I understand everything now. So I was able to, I mean, he's pretty much just laid out everything and he's like let's just you know stay in touch throughout uh you know the rest of my professional season and um I don't know just just kind of him staying in touch with me the whole time built that relationship for me to just kind of trust him and then that kind of just led to me you know joining on with the with the Iowa United absolutely man and um I mean Jeff Warner's

a great dude I had him on the show last year uh fantastic coach I think a really great asset to the Iowa United um having played obviously in the state uh coaching at the college ranks right now I think that's an awesome awesome guy to play under for a couple games yeah for sure no he I mean you know like you said he's just a solid dude and I think it was just you know just the consistent communication and uh you know consistency of that just a solid dude. I think it was just the consistent communication and consistency of that just helped lead me to wanting to play for it. Awesome, man. We'll get on the Iowa United piece a little bit later as well,

but let's take a step back and start with your time coming out of Nebraska, a small town in western Nebraska, and you ultimately end up at South Dakota State. I looked up your recruiting rankings. There really wasn't any. I think obviously they got a lot of things wrong there. I think that's pretty obvious to everyone. But what was your recruiting experience like, and how did you get on South Dakota State's radar?

Yeah, you know, my recruiting experience was a different one for sure. I mean, coming from Western Nebraska, it's not this, you know, not this high profile place where, you know, there's going to be a lot of college coaches around and things like that. So I actually had to join an AAU team out of Fort Collins, Colorado. And ultimately that just led to me being able to get good exposure to these Division I coaches. So from then, I mean, I joined it my freshman summer, and then from then on, you know, it was just driving an hour and a half every day to practices and things like that, just a lot of time commitment, but, you know, all of it paid off for me, and then obviously being able to get an offer from South Dakota State, and I think I had, I don't know, eight or

nine other Division I offers um so for me you know South Dakota State was you know one of those schools that just had a really bright future in my eyes been to the NCAA tournament before and for me obviously I just wanted to play in the NCAA tournament that's like a kid's dream ever since I was little so that's kind of what led to me going on to South Dakota State it's uh it's been. Yeah, so I want to touch on the NCAA tournament piece here in a second. But I'm just shocked. So is Kimbrough, Nebraska really only an hour and a half away from Fort Collins? Yeah, yeah, that's it.

We're so far on the western side of the state. Right in the bottom of the panhandle. We're like... You're close to Cheyenne. Yeah, yeah, very close. Only an hour away from Cheyenne. The borders to Wyoming is 20 minutes and the border to Colorado is like 30 minutes. That makes sense. I don't know why, when I looked it up originally, for some reason,

I knew it was on the western side, but I didn't realize just how western that was. But that makes a lot more sense. Alright, well, I actually live in Denver, so I'm not too far from your hometown. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, no, I visit Denver frequently. Yeah, it's a great place. If you're ever out here,'re ever out here man i'll get you a beer for sure for sure awesome dude well um so let's get to the ncaa tournament piece you you know that was one of your dreams growing up and i think you uh you were able to accomplish that you played in three ncaa tournaments um what were those experiences like for you oh they were one of a kind you know those are those are the those are

the type of things that i'll never forget those Those are the things that, you know, when I grow old with my family and with my teammates, we'll just be able to sit back and laugh on all the moments and all the time we shared. But making it to the NCAA tournament, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You know, for me, I'm a guy who really likes to take care of my teammates. And for me, just being able to you know make it there seeing the joy on my teammates face after you know winning a conference championship and then just the just spending each day with those guys you know the travel to the the NCAA location and just having

all the fun with uh with social media and the media you know side of things that goes on so for me it was it's a it's a fantastic experience one that i'll never forget that's awesome man um and if you had to pick probably the best experience or the best moment from your your three ncaa tournaments what would it be oh that's tough i'm gonna have to go with probably probably the first ncaa tournament i played in um you know that that very first one you know was just something it was a new territory for me i've never you know, that, that very first one, you know, was just something that was a new territory for me. I've never, you know, never experienced anything quite like it. Um, I think just getting out in front, we played Maryland that year too.

So it was, it was a fantastic game. The crowd was crazy. And, uh, that's definitely, that's definitely the one that I'll never forget. That's awesome, man. Just want to give a quick, you know, quick shout out to our sponsors at Built Bar. They make an incredible tasting protein bar. I have tried so many protein bars over the course of kind of my training and whatnot for the last 10 years, doing marathons, half Ironmans, and full Ironmans.

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Use promo code LOCKEDON for $10 off at BuiltBar.com. So then obviously playing in the NCAA tournament, that was a big goal of yours. Coming into South Dakota State though, prior to getting to the NCAA tournaments, you did ultimately have to redshirt a year. Do you feel like that really helped your development and what were you working on during that one year time period to kind of get into the position to be a three-time Summit League Player of the Year? Yeah, that redshirt year was super crucial for me. I mean, for me personally, I came out of Kimmel, Nebraska, kind of this chunky, you know, 6'9 kid who just shot the basketball pretty well. And I realized right away that first summer that i got to college how you know physical the game was how much more there was you know to it going

into college so for me i really took that that redshirt year to you know work on my body um and just make sure that i was preparing myself for you know for the division one level and i have you know so many guys to thank my strength coach there all the players on the team at the time the coaching staff just because you know they all pushed me to you know be something better than I even uh you know originally thought I could be so it was a lot of a lot of just time hard work it was you know at the end of the day it was hard because that year I come in with three other freshmen and those two guys are playing right away and I'm just practicing practicing practicing no games no games so um it was tough mentally it was tough physically but you know at the end of the day I knew it was going to be super beneficial for me and then

you know everything just kind of paid off I just started to you know focus on doing what I could to help the team win and uh things started working out absolutely man and um speaking of kind of the growth and development and the fact you know, obviously you could shoot the ball really well. Is that something you just naturally were always able to do at a decent clip and then you kind of kept working on it? Were you a smaller kid initially that just had to learn some of those guard skills? What was kind of your story behind being able to shoot the ball from behind the arc? So, I mean, you shot 41% for your college career

while attempting 4.8 three-pointers per game. Like, that's pretty impressive, man. Yeah, not bad. I mean, I do have to credit all that to my mom. I mean, my mom, she's the one who really taught me how to shoot at such a young age. I mean, we had so many just fun games where at a young age I was just learning to, you know, flick my wrist and really get good spin on the ball which is something that's super crucial so for me you kind of said it at a young age I was you know

smaller but I did you know my mom had a basketball in my hand it seemed like 24-7 I was always dribbling it around so I felt like at such a young age and the height I was I was able to learn kind of these guard skills that just stuck with me as I started to, you know, hit a growth spurt. But for me, yeah, shooting has always been kind of something that's been natural just because of how much I've worked on it, just countless hours, you know, on my front court in Nebraska, in the gym with my mom and things like that. So definitely just, you know, time and work has paid off for me in that aspect of things. Yeah, and it looks like, did your mom play professional basketball?

Is that an accurate statement? Yes, yes, she did. She played pro basketball for three or four years, four or five maybe. I'm not sure. I should know. I should know that. But no, she was a baller. She's definitely the real baller of the family, and I have to credit her with a lot of things.

That's awesome. Do you know where she played at? She was in – oh, my gosh. I should know how to say this. She was in Australia for a little bit, and then she was in – man, I can't think of it. It's over in Europe somewhere. But she was over in the same area that I was, not in Spain,

but she was over in that same hemisphere. So she was a baller, though. You know, she thrived at it. That's awesome. And I'm looking, I mean, I just did a quick Google search, right? I mean, you can find anything on Google, and your dad played for the Cowboys as well. So you come from a pretty impressive athletic background, man.

Yeah, my genes are really, really good. I'm not complaining about that one bit. That's awesome. So in your time at South Dakota State, you are a three-time Summit League Player of the Year. I know I've mentioned that a couple times. I just think it's really impressive. I want to make sure the people that are listening to this who don't know you understand just how the talent you're bringing to the team. Four-time First Team All-Conference, two-time ap honorable or honorable mention all-american and third team

all-american once you own the school record and points and rebounds out of all those accolades um which honor means the most to you man uh that's a tough question um i don't know i i'm not really sure i i couldn't i couldn't just just necessarily say one means the most to me. I mean, they're all really special. But I mean, for me, at the end of the day, it's never really been about just personal accolades or just trying to break records or set new records. I'm a guy who really does just like to focus on you know enjoying the time um at the moment and just really enjoying who I'm around the coaching staff I'm with so for me to get all those accolades it's it's so much more behind that it's having you know the right teammates

that you know are willing to make the extra pass it's having a coaching staff who's willing to you know build offenses um to key certain shots and things like that so i couldn't necessarily say that just one accolade means the most um you know a huge shout out to all the teammates coaches um and all the support that i've had throughout everything so i can't i can't really narrow that one down that's a tough question for me i think that's fair but i think that's a pretty good answer um that's typically what i hear anyways from folks when I talk to them on the phone and stuff. The personal accolades are great and all, but it was a byproduct of everything else that happened. That's great, but it wasn't the ultimate goal usually.

Exactly, yeah. I completely agree. Awesome, man. After South Dakota State, you actually declared early for the NBA draft a year earlier, got some feedback, went back to school, went undrafted in 2019 and signed on with the Portland Trailblazers for the Summer League. I want to get a sense of what happened during that NBA draft. Were you talking to a lot of teams leading up to the draft? What was it like immediately after the draft? Did you have a lot of teams that were interested in getting you on their Summer League teams

or getting you on a two-way contract, that kind of thing? Yeah, it was definitely an interesting time for me. Not a lot of people know, but right after my senior season, I actually had a stress fracture in my foot. And that kind of hindered my entire draft process. So for me, I didn't get to do a single draft workout. I didn't have the chance to try to get invited to the NBA Combine. I just kind of didn't really have a chance to go out and show teams, you know, what I could do in person. And that was one thing that was, you know, I was going to use obviously to my advantage

was those NBA workouts. So I never really got the chance to do it. I really did let my agent handle all of that stuff. I kind of told him, I'm like, listen, keep me my agent handle all of that stuff I kind of told them I'm like listen keep me out of the loop on things I kind of just want to focus on rehabbing my foot and getting everything better um and then obviously the draft comes I'm hopeful that maybe something will happen but obviously you know at the end of the day I'm a realistic person and I know that you know not having that draft um you know that draft combine or anything like that exposure did kind of hurt me in the long run but uh or in the short run but uh you know I was still able to you know, that draft combine or anything like that exposure did kind of hurt me in the long run, but, or in the short run, but, you know, I was still able to, you know, be fortunate enough to

get picked up by Portland for, for summer league, which was, which was a fantastic experience. And I'm very thankful for the organization for that opportunity. Yeah. Were you a hundred percent healthy for your time with Portland? I was, I was, I finally, I finally, you know, I rehabbed that pretty much that entire draft process. And I was, I was a hundred percent by the time, uh, the summer league rolled around. So I was ready to go, but at the end of the day for me, I still, you know, I, I didn't get a play five on five at all. I was still trying to kind of get myself back in the groove, um, when summer league rolled around. So I definitely feel like I could have done better, but you know, like I like I said it was a it was still a great opportunity for me to just kind of get out there a

little bit definitely man everything kind of happens for a reason and you ultimately ended up playing overseas in Spain which sounds like similar area to where your your mother played a while back I don't know how to I'm gonna butcher the team, so I might need your help here, but Rio, Natura, Monbus. You know what? What is the team you play for? We just call it Monbus Obra Dario. Okay, perfect. So you can just stick with Obra.

That'll just be easy. I like it. Obra. All right, so you play for Obra over in Spain. Sounds like the northwestern corner of Spain, kind of by Portugal. How has that been? What has that transition been like going from small town Nebraska to South Dakota State to Spain? Yeah, I mean, the transition wasn't that bad at all. You know, for me, you know, there's a new step in the road every single, you know, every single level you go up from high school to college, college to professional. So

there's a learning curve to every new level of of basketball but for me um this one this transition has been the easiest um you know for me going in i still have to work hard because you come in as a rookie and you know there's guys on this team who are 15 16 year veterans and you have to prove yourself to them prove yourself to the coaching staff uh but for me this first year experience was was fantastic it was you know a chance for me to you know, a chance for me to travel the world, a chance for me to, you know, make a living on doing what I love and what I've dreamed of since I was a little kid. So I'm just counting my blessings each day that I get the opportunity to play basketball. Awesome, man. That's really, I mean, it sounds like, I mean,

I'm looking at the stats right now. You're shooting 45% from three, Obviously having a pretty good shooting year, getting 3.7 rebounds per game. Sounds like your team's kind of in the middle of the road at this point. As far as, you know, the coronavirus pandemic, is the season planning on getting going again? And if so, are you planning on returning this year to finish out the season? Yeah, it was a, you know, crazy time that we're living in right now. Obviously hope everyone is is at home and safe but um it was a hard time for sure i mean we went we went from one day

practicing to get ready to guard this really good shooter of the of this team we're getting ready to play to pretty much coaching staff and all our front office people telling everyone to just stay home and that season's postponed indefinitely but uh actually the spain league just came out they're proposing a 12 team tournament to finish in the canary islands um at the end of may i want to say and we actually just missed the cut of being um in the in that 12 team you know top 12 team standing so for me my season um is officially over i think it was officially announced like last week. And last week I was still in Spain. So for me, it was kind of a

sad way to end the season, but, you know, understand the circumstances that we're in. So, you know, I still am questioning whether they're even going to be able to finish this season. I feel like it's just going to keep getting pushed back, but, you know, hopefully things start to go back to normal here soon. Definitely. were in Spain um as late as last week yeah I uh I just got back to the states um on Tuesday oh man that's crazy yeah so I was I was still over there um just kind of waiting for the final verdict of what was going to happen with the league and then was was lucky enough to be able to catch a flight get back over here to the states still yeah i have a couple questions on that so my one of my good friends actually lives um in mallorca right now and he was saying that they are on full lockdown

i mean not even like american lockdown basically you just can't leave your house um it was that how it was in your part of spain or what was that what were you basically doing? Oh yeah, it was, it was that, um, we weren't, we weren't allowed to leave the house unless you were going to the grocery store. Um, you weren't allowed to drive in the car with more than two or more than one person. If you had two people, you could get fined. Um, but yeah, it was, I literally was in my house for like a month and a half, I think, um, pretty much just trying to do a bunch of at-home workouts, playing video games, just trying to keep my mind busy. So it was a difficult time, but at the same time, you know, I'm a guy who's very simple and it doesn't take a lot to,

you know, keep me busy. So I was able to, you know, just keep my mind rolling during that time. Yeah, man, that's tough so what video games were you playing a lot of fortnight a lot of call of duty with with with my friends and then I play some computer games too so uh just just just the just the typical typical games absolutely yeah totally totally get that I tried playing fortnight a couple times and uh everyone just kicks my butt. So I went to Call of Duty where at least if I die, I can get back in the game, man. I'm not good enough to play the one death and you're out thing.

Yeah, it's tough. So then flying back from Spain, was it eerie flying from Spain back to America? How many people were on your plane? Yeah, it was crazy. My travel was unorthodox. The airport in Santiago, where my team is, was actually closed. So I had to get on a bus, like a seven-hour bus ride from Santiago to Madrid. And I know Madrid's a hotspot right now.

So I was all decked out with my mask and my gloves. I was prepared with my sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer um but it was it was definitely crazy you know I flew from Madrid to London and that that flight was actually it was pretty full surprisingly but you could tell it was a lot of like people from London or it was some Americans that were just trying to get out of there at the time. But then the big jumbo jet flight from London to Dallas, there was like a total of, I think, 20 people on the flight. And it was just insane. It's crazy going into these places where you're so used to seeing so many people and there's just nobody there. It's kind of a spooky feeling, but travel was definitely different. But I'm definitely thankful that I was able to get home. Yeah. Wow. That I can only imagine. I've seen

pictures of, and I fly a lot for work. So I see, I mean, I've seen pictures of people on planes and like, that is just something I've never seen before. So to fly from, fly from overseas and have 20 people on your plane is, is kind of eerie, man. Yeah, it was crazy. So now you're in Portland and obviously it sounds like you're quarantining with your girlfriend. What are you doing right now to stay in shape while you're back in the States? Well, I'm lucky. My girl has a really nice sport court here at her house, and then she's got an at-home gym. And then I make her take me to this, like, there's like this trail and hill we can run up. So we jog there, and then I make her take me to this like uh there's like this this trail and hill we can run

up so I we jog there and then I make her run hill sprints with me but I just I'm doing I'm doing anything and everything to to try to stay in a little bit of shape before things start opening up but I mean right now you know just doing that for quarantine and then eventually I'll get the chance to head back home and get to a get to to a good gym and, and start getting myself back in real shape. And that dude, you're putting her through the ring or making her run hills with you. Oh yeah. Well, she's a, she's actually a professional volleyball player, so she's a, she's, it's good for her too. That's good, man. Well, um, I would not want to run hills right now. That sounds, that sounds miserable, but I definitely get it.

Glad you're able to stay in shape a little bit. Sounds like you're able to get a few shots up as well at the court you guys have, it sounds like, right? Oh, yeah. No, it's nice. It's really nice. So, yeah, I'm able to keep in touch with basketball a little bit. Awesome, man. So, next season, are you planning on sticking with your Spain team? What's the goal for next season kind of are you planning on um sticking with your spain team what's the

goal for next season yeah i mean for me you know the goal is to you know good lord will and eventually try to get back to the united states um i mean it's a it's been a dream of mine to to play in the play in the nba ever since i was a little kid so for me um i'm not really sure yet haven't made any final decisions um definitely still trying to wait to see how the the rest of the acb league finishes out um and just kind of see you know the status of the world right now i i have a feeling you know basketball might be postponed you know for a little bit longer um but for me i'm just gonna you know let my let my agent do all that work and just kind of sit back and work and

work out, try to stay in shape. And then I'll wait for him to give me that call and tell me what's next for a minute. Absolutely, man. And so obviously you have the TBT coming up. That'll be, it sounds like, the next opportunity to play organized basketball. Has it always been a goal to play in the TBT? Sounds like you knew some people who have played in it before. You kept in touch with Jeff Horner. But has it always been a goal, something you looked at in previous years and said, that'd be fun to play in the TBT? It sounds like you knew some people who have played in it before. You kept in touch with Jeff Horner, but has it always been a goal,

something you looked at in previous years and said that would be fun to play in? It definitely was. You know, I was actually – I've been pretty unfamiliar with it. I've heard about it the past, you know, four or five years, but I've never really done my own research. I've had people reach out to me and ask me about it or tell me about it um you know but after you know kind of seeing some of my buddies who played in it seeing you know the legit payoff at the end of it is is uh something that's very enticing to me so um i think it's going to be a fantastic experience it's something that i'm really looking forward to

and i mean you can just tell the competition level is there 100%. The guys that you see, you know, signing on with some of these teams are crazy good. And, you know, I've had some crazy careers. So this is something that I'm really looking forward to. Absolutely. And out of the guys on the Iowa United team, how familiar are you with the guys on the team? And is there anyone in particular that stands out as someone you've been looking forward to playing with? I mean, I do know a couple of the guys um you know i know nick uh we played me and nick played against each other a couple times um throughout college and then uh i'm trying to think i'm still i'm still bad with names i'm trying to learn everything there's another guy

who's got uh his brother uh played at uh oral roberts oh yeah josh josh young yep yep yep yep josh young so we play i played against his brother so i was kind of familiar with him um and then me and peter jock had we worked out one year i think it was the year uh his draft year i was down in phoenix with him working out so i got to got to know him but uh i mean looking at everybody else, I've done my research. I've watched some film and stuff. But, I mean, these guys look like just, you know, a solid group of guys. You know, they all seem like team players. And I think that, you know, we've got something special going into this year's TBT.

Yeah, so with that being said, what are your expectations then for this year? Do you feel like this is a team that can truly compete for the $2 million winner-take-all prize? I mean, I want to say yes. I'm a very competitive guy. And, you know, I'm a guy who likes to win, likes to have confidence with what he's doing. So, I mean, just looking at, you know,

kind of looking at the group of guys we have, I think we got a lot of underdog guys who are going to surprise a lot of people this year. You know, I don't want to get ahead of myself with expectations-wise, but, you know, I like to take things, you know, one game by, you know, game by day. And I think, you know, if we just go out there, you know, play with a lot of effort, play with a lot of energy, we can surprise a lot of people this year. I couldn't agree more, man. I think the team that Matt and Jeff have worked on putting together is a really solid team from top to bottom

and has a lot of really great pieces that I think fit really nicely together, especially for the tournament this year. So really excited to watch you guys play in that. Going on to a few other kind of non-basketball questions, kind of wrap up and get to know you stuff. The first one I have to ask, because the state of Iowa has four main schools, Iowa State, Iowa, UNI, and Drake. UNI and Drake don't play Nebraska.

Iowa State used to play Nebraska a lot, and Iowa now hates Nebraska. Do you like Nebraska? I do like Nebraska. You know, know, obviously they, they always have a special place in my heart. Um, I, I do have to admit, I, I was a little salty coming out of high school that I didn't get, you know, an offer from Nebraska, but, uh, but for me, I completely understand, you know, the coaching staff at the time with coach miles um you know i i do have a soft spot for them but i do i do think that they kind of put themselves in position to to catch a little heat yeah i that was that was probably the best uh the most pc answer you could

give for for being a nebraska fan i just find it funny i'm one of my best friends is a nebraska fan and i just like to give them a lot of crap. But, man, for both sides not thinking it's a rivalry, the amount of time that each side invests in hating on the other one sure makes it seem like it's a rivalry. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's funny, man. All right, so we're just going to do a couple things to get to know you. What is your favorite superhero? My favorite superhero is Spider-Man. Any particular reason uh ever since

i was younger i think the very first the very first one that came out uh we have a we have a theater in my hometown it's not open anymore so um it's kind of sad but we have a theater in my hometown and i remember the first showing with the toby mcguire spider-man and i got to go there and i got like this big spider-Man foam finger and I thought it was the coolest thing ever and I think ever since then I was just a huge huge Spider-Man fan. Okay so that raises the million dollar question here do you like Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man or Tom Holland's? It's like it's hard because realistically the the the newest one with tom is like it's it's more realistic it's more you know how spider-man was in the comics as a young teenager and you can tell he's stressed about

the real life things schools friends relationships things like that i mean when i still see you know i still go back and watch the toby maguire spider-man and i just still see like this grown man who's in high school and gets these powers so I don't know it's it's a tough one I probably have to go with the the newest ones are better but deep down in my heart like Tobey Tobey Maguire is my guy all right I can respect that so um poor Andrew Garfield I didn't even mention him does he is he the is he the third out of that three list of three yeah for sure for sure I think I don't i don't even know what was going on with those movies the storyline is not bad but i i don't know i i wasn't a big fan of those yeah

those are i don't even honestly remember the andrew garfield era um so i mean i've watched all the spider-mans and i honestly couldn't tell you what happened in his um that just kind of speaks volumes to how how successful that part of the franchise was. Favorite pump-up song before a game? Ooh. This is tough. This is probably going to go against what a lot of people think, but I've got to go with How to Save a Life by The Fret. I don't know why.

I'm a big Frey fan. I like listening to that kind of style of music. And, you know, for me, it's not always about just these huge pump-up beats, but I just like getting into the rhythm of the music. So for me, I can put that song on and get going really quick. Definitely a unique choice. I have not heard that on any of my interviews before. But I can see it.

It's kind of like a calming type of thing, getting in the mood and stuff i can okay i can see that definitely like i said definitely one of the more unique answers i've gotten um favorite place to eat either at south dakota state on campus or just in general that's a good question at south dak Dakota State, they have this sports bar and grill called Cubby's. So that was like a go-to spot for me after games with my family. It's just kind of a bar and grill. It's really laid back. It's a good scene. But, man, just in general, I don't know.

I'm a simple, like, Subway guy. I love eating Subway. Just a nice ham and cheese sandwich can go a long ways for me. I get that. I mean, I'm a Chipotle guy. I just need a couple tacos, man. I'm happy. Okay. Okay. Favorite non-basketball activity? Probably playing video games. Yeah, I feel like, I don't know, ever since I was younger, I've been playing video games with my cousins, with my friends. So it's something that I do often. And I'm fortunate enough to be able to play basketball and play video games and not have to worry about schoolwork or sitting at a desk job anymore. So I'm cool with that. sitting at a desk job anymore so I'm cool with that definitely man it sounds like um I talked to a few of the other guys on the you know Iowa United last year and then um doing you know this

year coming up to uh the TBT tournament and a lot of guys do play Call of Duty you all should get a Twitch stream together and um air that for some of the Iowa United fans see if uh see if people like to tag along and watch what you guys do oh yeah I would I would for sure I'm sure when when things start getting closer and we start getting into some group text messages, we'll get something figured out because I'm a big – I wouldn't say that I'm super, super nice at the video games, but I play a decent amount, so I feel like I can hold my own. So I think we could get a nice little squad run going in Call of Duty.

I love Matt. I'll talk to Matt and see if he can put those plans in place. I know Deontay loves doing that, so loves playing Call of Duty. I think that would be a lot of fun to watch you guys get on that. For sure, for sure. Awesome, man. So final question for you. For the people who haven't had an opportunity to watch you play,

I've seen you play before live and also went back and watched some YouTube videos, so I have a pretty good idea. But from your mouth, what do you bring to this team? Consistency. I would say that's kind of the biggest thing I bring. I'm just a guy who's going to be super consistent, you know, whether it's just rebounding, you know, boxing out, scoring, things like that. I want to be a guy that, you know, guys can, you know, lean on or look to, you know, late in games when things are, you know, can can you know lean on or look to you know late in games when things are you know might be shaky or the score might be close and and just me being a calming

factor um i'm a guy who likes to try to keep you know everyone in it together because at the end of the day when you have a team that you know believes in something together you're gonna you're gonna do um you know more successful things than other teams who start to break off in those situations. So for me, I just try to keep everyone together. You know, we're all in this together. Keep huddles going through certain plays, certain times. It doesn't matter, but just try to keep everyone level-headed. So that's definitely what I would bring to the table.

Dude, that was a great answer. I feel like I would have probably led with the ability to kind of do inside-out type of stuff, shooting the three and also play inside. But I think the glue guy aspect is something that a lot of people don't even think about. It's one of the most crucial aspects to a team. Yep, for sure. I love it, man. Well, Mike, I really appreciate your time.

It's a Sunday morning. You're spending the time talking to me as opposed to doing literally anything else you could be doing. So I absolutely appreciate it. Stay safe out there, buddy. Looking forward to talking to you more as the tournament gets closer. And good luck, man. Hey, man. I appreciate you having me on.

It was great to talk to you. Awesome, man. Talk to you later, bud. All right. Sounds good. See you. Bye. All right.

And that will do it for our TBT Tuesday episode of the show. A big shout out to Mike Don for taking his time to talk to me on a Sunday when we recorded. Absolutely appreciate his time. Hope you all enjoyed a little bit more insight into his college career, kind of his recruiting process post-college, what he did with the draft and how that impacted his potential pro prospects, and then how his time was overseas in Spain and what he's looking most forward to

playing with the Iowa United this summer sounds like he's very excited to play with some of these guys has a bit of familiarity with a few of these folks so really excited to see him on the court with the Iowa United in the $2 million

winner take all TBT tournament this summer again if you did like what you heard today make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at and make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And if you are a fan of the Iowa United,

which I'm assuming you are if you're listening to this show, honestly, I don't know why you wouldn't be. It's a great opportunity to see all the major schools in the state of Iowa and a few of the surrounding folks all come together for a good cause and to win some money and represent the great state of Iowa. But again, if you are a fan, make sure to follow the Iowa United on Twitter at IowaTBT

and make sure to follow our guy Mike Dom at Dominator24 on Twitter. Thank you all for tuning in. Have a fantastic and safe day and let's go Iowa. We'll see you next time.