Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeye Elvis joins to break down Iowa's dominating win over Northwestern to take 1st place in the Big Ten

Episode Date: January 18, 2021

Hawkeye Elvis joins the show today to talk about how he became Hawkeye Elvis, how the current state of Hawkeye athletics might be the best we've ever seen, and to help break down the huge win over Northwestern yesterday.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Monday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and today's episode is brought to you by Built Bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code LOCKDOWN and you'll get 20% off your next order. And today is a very special episode

because it is not just me talking on the show. I'm joined by the man, the myth, the legend, Hawkeye Elvis. How is it going, man? Hey, man, I'm doing pretty good. Just hanging out in my black and gold jungle room here after a big Hawkeye W. I love it. I mean, my wife and I are looking to purchase a new house soon,

and I told her the one thing I need is a man cave, because if I get a man cave, I can decorate it however I want, and it'll be absolutely decked out. Right now, I just have my basement. I'm at least able to put up a couple TVs, but I'm excited to have a room that looks like yours, man. You got the Hawkeye logo, the Tiger Hawk in the back. I love it.

Got it. I got the carpet, everything. I'd show you more of the places kind of trash for my kids being home over the weekend, but no, I wanted one room in the house and it was the basement and this is what I did do it. So I love it. How's your wife feel about that? She didn't care. She got there. Actually the walls are black and gold. She helped me paint it and decorate it and stuff like that. So no, my basement, she got the rest of the house seemed like a fair trade. That's amazing. I love you. I mean, that's kind of what I was going for.

If I get one room, you can decorate everything else however you want to. I don't care, which is actually kind of how it works out anyways. But I figured if I pretend like it's a trade-off, it'll seem like it's better in her eyes and I can get the room I want. Yes, absolutely. So we are here. We're going to talk about some basketball today. Later on in the show by myself, I'm going to talk about some wrestling.

It has been a great weekend though. Andowa hawkeye athletics the men's team dominates northwestern the wrestling team dominates nebraska and honestly probably could have maybe squeaked out a perfect record or perfect score against nebraska but that's neither here nor there the women also take place tomorrow against five and five purdue at 3 30 p.m and you can watch that on the big 10 network and the women's basketball team as always is phenomenal to watch but Hawkeye Elvis we have you here to talk about Iowa basketball but first I want to talk about you how did you become Hawkeye Elvis I know it's out there but for the people who are listening here who haven't read the the article um how have you become Hawkeye Elvis well you know when you when you grew up in the state of Iowa you like one of the two big

teams and it's the Hawkeyes the Cyclones and ironically even though I grew up really close to Ames, you know, I was just kind of watching sports and stuff when Hayden Fry took over the team and Lute Olsen was coaching the basketball team. And, you know, that was, that was a big deal. And so I just, I was, I was drawn to the Tiger Hawk, as I say. And then I've always been a huge Elvis fan. My mom, I would, I would go around as a kid and listen to my mom's like Elvis 78s. And so I've had season football tickets for 15, 15 years. And at the Indiana game in 09,

when Tyler Sash had the pinball interception, that game was on Halloween. And so everybody in the crowd was all dressed up in these crazy costumes and went back to my mom's house. I'm like, mom, can you make me an Elvis jumpsuit? That was, you know, Iowa theme and tiger Hawk. And she said, yeah. So a year later I show up we're playing michigan state it was a the micah hyde teller sash interception we blew out sparty uh and a wig sunglasses and a jumpsuit and people just lost their minds i thought it was great and i thought okay that was fun um then i wore to one basketball game and then the next year i'd wear to one or two football games and one or two basketball games and then more times than not when uh when I wouldn't dress up as a game people like hey we gotta have Elvis here um you know but I really kind of burst on a lot of consciousness

when I went down to the North Carolina game a few years ago when we beat them down there uh and it just kind of took off from there I'm fortunate that I've always been kind of in the right place in the right time for Iowa athletics kind of like Forrest Gump. And, uh, you know, it it's been going for 10 plus years now and it's a lot of fun. So. That was quite the cyclical thing, especially the fact that you tied it into Forrest Gump, who also in the very opening scene is dancing to Elvis. I absolutely love how that all, I don't know if you meant to do that,

but it all came full circle at the end there. So I love it. Um, so it's been basically 10 years that you've really been kind of going strong with Hawkeye Elvis. Do you have any plans of giving it up or is this kind of your identity now? You know, it's, it's a part of me. And I've said, as long as people still enjoy it, you know, people still want a picture of me when I go to games and stuff. And I can't wait until we can all be back together in person, watch these games.

But yeah, it's kind of who I am now, and I've enjoyed it, and the people enjoyed it, so I'm going to keep going. I love it, and I couldn't agree more. I've made so many friends the last – especially the last year on Twitter talking Iowa Hawkeye sports. I'm excited to see everyone on game day. It is going to be a blast. That first game at Kinnick is going to be absolutely wild,

and I cannot wait for that. Hopefully everyone can – we can get to that point safely. As far as the Iowa Hawkeyes go, you talked about being there for the Hayden Fry, Lou Olsen era. Are we experiencing something very similar to that? Because that was the heyday of Iowa Hawkeye athletics from a basketball and football perspective. But I could argue that right now we're in that era as well. I mean, we're, we're back. Basketball is, I mean, especially, I mean, I feel pretty good after watching that Northwestern game about how this team can handle the rest of the big 10,

not saying Northwestern is the cream of the crop. We still have a lot of good teams to play, but this basketball team, they just keep getting better and better and better. And that football team I posted on Twitter, but we returned 14 of 22 starters. So would you say this is comparable to the early eighties for you? I think, uh passing it, if we're honest, because you look at Hayden Fry. Hayden was the benchmark and pulled the Iowa program out of the doldrums and turned it into what – he laid the foundation for that. And then finally, Kirk Ferencz took over, and Kirk's the winningest football coach in Iowa history.

And what you see now with Iowa basketball, guess who the second winningest coach in Iowa basketball is? It's see now with Iowa basketball, guess who the second winningest coach in Iowa basketball is? It's not Lute Olson. Love Lute. Still mad at Arizona that he left, but it's Fran McCaffrey. And, you know, you don't get to be the second winningest coach at any program without just racking up a lot of wins and a lot of excitement and having a lot of good guys. And I'd say that, you know, we're on the cusp of that. Getting to a sweet 16, getting to an elite eight, I think that would finally start to get us over the hump.

I couldn't agree more. And I think it would get kind of the monkey off the back for Fran as well. Whenever Iowa has a bad game, you see the Fran haters come out in full force. I have always been a big proponent of Fran. I feel like there are definitely things I wish he would improve on, which we can talk about. but I think overall, I have really loved his coaching style. And I really

love when you talk to any of the former players, how much they love Fran and what he's done. I mean, and turning it around from the lick ladder years. I mean, that was a, that was a tough thing to overhaul and he, he managed to do it and put Iowa back on the map. I mean, even getting to this position is still impressive. So, so full disclosure, Margaret McCaffrey is my cousin. Really? Yeah, no kidding. So, I mean, I, I've known Fran and Margaret. I mean, I, I've known Fran back when he was coaching UNC Greensboro. And I live in Minneapolis and they were playing the Gophers, like one of those early paycheck games for those teams.

And there were like a dozen of us in the family went over. We all had breakfast in the, or all had dinner before the game at stubborn herbs. And then went over and watched the govers just absolutely just thrash them. So, you know, he goes to Sienna has that amazing success there. And then when the Iowa job opened, I'm like, Oh my God, that would be so perfect. And I was down in Iowa for a weekend and I'm driving home and my stepmother

calls me and says, I need you to pull over. I'm thinking, oh my God, somebody died. And so I pull over and she goes, Fran got the Iowa job. And I'm like, ah! That's amazing. For me personally, it's been amazing because here's a program I've been a fan of my entire life. And now because of this connection, the type of access I've had to the program and just being around the people in the program has been amazing. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty phenomenal. I mean, I've seen you sit core side a lot too, not saying that's because of Fran, but obviously you have those connections, right? But one of the things I think is really cool about you, and I noticed this a couple of weeks ago, and this is

actually one of the reasons I wanted to reach out was you said, don't come at the players, come at me. And I think that's a very important message. And I'm kind of getting a little bit spiral here, but that's a really important message. I think people need to realize, and we can talk about that and get, then get into the Iowa basketball game that took place today, because that was after the, I think that was after the Minnesota game, Iowa blows a seven point lead. And that was, that was tough one to swallow the Gonzaga game. I was all right with it. It was frustrating, but I saw there was potential. I saw that half our team wasn't shooting the ball well. Jalen Suggs was lights out shooting.

Gonzaga's a good team. Minnesota, the fact that we were winning that game, we should have won that game, and we blow a seven-point lead makes it incredibly tough. And then you obviously look at certain people who might have misread those, whatever it might be, but it wasn't just those people who struggled, right? And a lot of people kind of came, you know, misread those, whatever it might be, but it wasn't just that those people who struggled. Right. And there wasn't a lot of people kind of came to that decision. Right.

So anyways, after that game, you get on Twitter and say don't come at players because people were posting some nasty things and we saw some death threats. I mean, that is absolutely pathetic. And honestly, if anyone's listening to this show, I don't want you listening if you're going to be that kind of person talking to those Iowa players. And I want to, I want to get a sense from you about how you feel about these Iowa players. Cause it seems like

you have a good connection. You know, these players and you care about them almost kind of like they're your sons. All right. I'll need to quickly pause that conversation with Hawkeye Elvis. I know you're enjoying it. I'm enjoying it. It's honestly, it was a blast recording with him, but I do have a message for you from betonline.ag, the online sports book experts out there. It is the only place I go to get my bets in and put a little bit of extra money in my pocket. With all the sports going on right now, right? We got the NFL playoffs, which, oh my gosh,

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If you're betting this year and want more wins, listen to Locked On Bets with your old boy Q and Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They're picking college basketball, football, and NBA locks all winter long. Subscribe to Locked On Bets wherever you get your podcast at. And I'll give you a free bet right now. Anytime I was in a game, you bet on them to cover the spread because they have been absolutely crushing it. Now let's get back to our programming with Hawkeye Elvis. You know, having that family connection with Fran and Margaret, and I can't ever speak objectively about them because it's your family. And, you know, the other thing, I've been fortunate

because I've been able to really develop friendship with a lot of the players' parents because I'm, you know, we're kind of the same age, you know. Frank Garza's a friend of mine. You know, Rich I'm, you know, we're kind of the same age, you know, Frank Garst is a friend of mine, you know, Rich and Nancy Kreener, they're great people, Jordan's family, and because a lot of times, especially at road games, I'd sit with them and get to know them, and so, you know, as part of that, these guys feel like, for me, they feel like my kids, it feels like my family out there game, so I do take it personally. The Minnesota game was a couple of things. One, you know, having to play on Christmas night without anybody in the building because

the COVID restrictions are not uniform across the Big Ten. Different cities have different regulations. So family and friends can be in attendance in Iowa City, but nobody's getting into Williams Arena. And then the fact that they had to come up here and play on Christmas night, not even see their families. My mom was up here visiting. And so mom and I went down to Williams

because I knew when the team was going to get off the bus, I dressed up. I watched the guys get off the bus and said, Merry Christmas, go Hawks. And, you know, so they could at least see one friendly face. Yeah. It's tough because it's the holidays. You're used to being with your friends and family.

And great, dude. I mean, they're friends and family, but it's not their actual family. want to yell and scream at Fran and say you should have fouled up three you yell and scream at Fran but when you go after the players personally I hate that and I knew it was coming and I just I hate it and it makes me mad and so I started a lot of Twitter fights that night with people who wanted to take shots at kids and I'm like they're kids they're unpaid and they're playing on Christmas night away from your families to give you two hours of entertainment, you know, and the other thing too, and I can say this now in retrospect, that Minnesota loss does not look all that bad considering they beat Michigan. They beat,

they've got some quality wins. They're inconsistent, but man, you know, they did us a favor and knocked off Michigan the other day. So I've said our, both our win and lost Minnesota both look really good. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's interesting for me. There I've said our, both our win and lost in Minnesota, both look really good. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's interesting for me. There's a fine line, right? There's a balance of critiquing what happened, right? I mean, we need to get better at shooting free throws down the stretch. I think that's a fair criticism. I think Fran should have fouled, but I think you never go at a person. You never tag a person. You never call them out on Twitter and say you suck. That's where it becomes across the line. And so I agree with you um and and like you said that minnesota loss

doesn't look that bad and especially if you look at any of the big 10 games outside of iowa no one's been consistently able to win these games and again you could probably say they should have won minnesota and had there been some better strategic decision making down the stretch they would have beat Minnesota and they'd be undefeated in Big Ten play which is something that no other team can say and they haven't been blown out yet which is also something that almost no other team can say in the Big Ten the other funny thing about that Minnesota game at the end people like oh Jordan Bohannon shouldn't have had that shot and and at that point Jordan hadn't gone on a little tear that he's on now um oh Jordan has no business taking that shot. Well, yeah, he does.

I mean, how many times has he won games like that? He had a 35 footer at the buzzer for us. I mean, I don't want anybody else, but Jordan taking that shot at the end of the game. Yeah. It's a, it's a nice ebb and flow. Cause with Jordan, the two years ago, he struggled out of the gate and he was doing terrible shooting the ball. And then he got hot and he became our key guy down the stretch.

And then even this season, he struggled out of the ball. And then he got hot and he became our key guy down the stretch. And then even this season, he struggled out of the gate. And so it's frustrating because when you watch a guy like him shoot, you know how well he can shoot. And when he's not shooting well, it does hurt the team, right? Because you're, if you're going Oh, of six from three, that's not ideal, but also the only way a shooter can get out of that funk is to continue shooting the ball. And then obviously we see what's happening now, and he's popping it from 35 feet back and draining it like nobody's business. So it is – I mean, it's funny how things change over the span of 22 days and the perspective of Iowa Hawkeye fans. But I think we can all agree right now everyone's pretty happy

in Iowa Hawkeye Nation. This game was a lot of fun watching Iowa take down Northwestern. Northwestern always scares me. I think it's just football just gets to my head, and I get really worried about watching Iowa take down Northwestern. Northwestern always scares me. I think it's just football just gets to my head, and I get really worried about watching any game versus Northwestern. But Iowa defeats Northwestern 96-73. Early on in the first half, it was getting a little worrisome. Booboy got going from three, and, you know, that's kind of the thing where we see one or two guys kind of get hot

occasionally, and we're struggling to defend them. But Fran lit into his team and they responded outstandingly and that is one of the reasons why I love Fran what were your thoughts though early on in the first half those first 10 minutes Iowa shooting the ball well but so is Northwestern you know everybody everybody made a big deal about Bowie oh he's been on this terrible streak so the guy's really good though. I mean, you know, a guy like that is going to break out and yeah, people can say, oh, it always happens to Iowa with a guy who goes one for eight or one for nine all week, then comes out and hits lights out against Iowa.

True. And, and you know, the nice thing is too, with, with us playing somebody like Northwestern, give, give them credit. They were hitting their shots. You know, we went up 19 to nine, they came back on this run. And then what you saw saw was i think you saw just a little bit of a little bit of softness a little bit of out of focus on defense yep and that's what uh that's what prompted fran to uh very colorfully uh describe uh how the fact that everybody was was freaking open uh and to to stop that and the nice thing is having a veteran group of guys like this, you know, they responded and, you know, everybody's like, oh, call a timeout. The guy got it.

Well, no, this is a group that can, you know, take a lead, get punched in the mouth by somebody and go, oh, okay, let's turn it around. That happened against Iowa State. That happened against North Carolina. You know, teams are going to go, I mean, even bad teams will hit shots and go on runs against you. That's the nature of the game. And that's how you respond to that. And that's how you just, you know, close out shots, better have better spacing on offense to keep firing the ball and, and, you know, be where you're supposed to be defensively.

And they did, they turned that around, especially from that point on through the rest of the game. Yeah. I mean, they, they handled that game very easily after that 10-minute mark of the first half. I want to get your perspective on this because for me, it's been kind of an evolution of this team. And this team is a veteran squad. They've been playing together for years. But two years ago, when they almost beat Tennessee, that season, it was up and down.

They would beat a team pretty well. They would get destroyed. They'd beat a team pretty well. They'd get destroyed. There wasn't a lot of close wins per se, a couple of them, Jordan Bohannon did carry them, but it was mostly Jordan Bohannon carrying them, right? It wasn't the whole team. They get into that game.

They go against Tennessee. They're down, you know, 20 something points and everyone's thinking, wow, we're done. And they Mount the most impressive comeback I've ever seen. And they lose in overtime since that time. I feel like the squad has continued to actually develop more resiliency and handle adversity even better. Last year, it became a situation where sometimes they'd get down,

but the next game they come back strong. And now it's you get down in game and they don't let it affect them and they go back and they go on a run. Is that something you're seeing as well or something you're noticing that the team seems to be even more resilient two years later from that Tennessee loss? Well, I mean, you, you look at, look at the guys now who are around two years ago. Um, and it's, it's the entire starting five. No, they were all here two years ago. All those guys, even, even guys who are a junior like Connor, Connor's been in the program

for four years and Connor's been, Connor's been in iowa basketball since he moved to iowa city 10 years ago you know these are guys who inherently know um you know no franz offense can do that but more than that you see you see that experience uh and you see that experience and jack nunji um has been around the program a long time jordan's been around it uh we's camp all these guys were there two years ago um and they know how that felt how that that felt to end the season that way and okay we don't want we don't want to feel like that so what do we have to do and then you see the guys putting in the time putting in the dedication to to turn that around and what you have is you have a really veteran squad who's uh gonna make a deep run this year all right y'all last Last message for you before we get into the final part of our conversation with Hawkeye

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sure to check that out. Make sure to follow us wherever you download podcasts at or subscribe wherever you download podcasts at whether that is Google Podcasts, Apple Podcast podcast or spotify because we have shows dropping every single week day of the week monday tuesday wednesday thursday thursday friday let's get back into our content with hawkeye elvis and we're going to wrap up with some wrestling talk after that couldn't agree more and part of the reason why they're going to make that run where everyone could easily point to luca garza and i think that's a very obvious one you You could point to Jordan Bohannon or the veteran squad.

But what impresses me the most is the bench. And I know that's sometimes not the common thing to point out, but Iowa's bench is showing me that this team can figure it out defensively. Two things, actually. Fran, after the Minnesota game, I feel like has been quicker to move to his bench if the starters are not responding defensively. And the backups, the bench players, have feel like has been quicker to move to his bench. If the starters are not responding defensively and the backups, the bench players have responded in those situations and the backups have actually been performing better than a lot of teams starters. Um, this game, for

example, the maximum amount of minutes played Joe Weiskamp at 27 for a starter. We saw Keegan Murray play 16 and wow, he has been phenomenal this entire year. Patrick McCaffrey, 13 minutes, Jack Nunji, 17, Joe Toussaint, 13. I mean, getting that kind of production or getting those kinds of minutes from backups and winning by 23 is very impressive. What has impressed you most about this bench for Iowa? You know, it goes deeper than that. If you look back to the Rutgers game, Conor gets- Oh my, Perkins and Aaron Ullis? You know, those guys get thrown straight into the fire on a road game. And again,

people can say, oh, well, Rutgers may not be that good well yeah they've still been ranked and there's still a tough out and at that point I think they'd only lost one game at home over the last two years and now you've got starters with fouls you got Connor out with an injury and you're going to stick those two guys out on the floor in the first half in a game that you absolutely have to win and to have them respond. You know, and Brandon's always been able to find sort of that guy who can come off the bench and spark you. And he might only see the floor for two minutes. Last year, I think Riley Till really did a good job filling that role.

You know, is Riley going to see the floor of night? No. Can he come in and you can absolutely depend on him to do the right things for two or three minutes and get us through a stretch? Yeah. Now you've got Perkins. Now you've got Ulis. And put them on the floor with Keegan Murray.

And damn, if they're not some of the best freshmen in the country, maybe not the country, but at least the conference, and they can hold their own, especially when you have those three freshmen with a senior out on the floor or a junior like jack so um i've been impressed with that i mean people would say oh france france playing too many guys that was always a knock in your his rotation is too deep i don't know if that was true but i think you know he's learned from that too and he's figured out how can i how can i rotate these guys in more effectively and have the pieces fit together? And there were a couple times in a couple of the games where I didn't see it.

You know, people always say, oh, well, what's this lineup doing on the floor? Well, I don't know if I've seen that this year, especially a couple games. It's like, wow, you have a great mix of exciting freshman talent and a great mix of senior veterans. And they're just trashing people. Yeah, I mean, I couldn't agree more. Early on in the season, there was definitely a couple of times where I saw a few squad, you know, a few of the rotations come in and the offense just goes completely dead. That just radio silence on the offense. But what is impressed?

One of the things that's pressing the most as well is like you said, Fran and his rotations, which again has always been a knock on him. There's always been an issue of if you have too many players, Fran doesn't know how to play them all and get them in at the same time. But he arguably has his deepest squad he's ever had. I would put up our backups against some of the starters in the Big Ten, and they would win, I would say, at least 50-50, which is pretty impressive considering they're all freshmen.

I'm pretty impressed with what Fran's been doing, though. He's finding the right rotations to put in. You look at the – what is the Minnesota game or was it the Rutgers game where the, yeah, he put in all the backups and they literally went on a run to get Iowa the lead. I'm getting my games because it seems like it's happened every single game where he, the offense,

the starters kind of struggle a little bit. He puts in the, you know, the depth players, they come in and get a lead for Iowa. And he's been able to pull all the right buttons, push all the right triggers to get this team going, which has been very impressive. And two of the most impressive has been Patrick McCaffrey and Keegan Murray. And those two together have a dynamic that I don't completely understand, but it just seems to work against Northwestern.

Patrick McCaffrey driving to the basket, which also Patrick McCaffrey is one of our best drivers in terms of one of the best attackers of the rim and Keegan Murray just always gets in the right spot, gets Keegan Murray for a nice dunk. What were your thoughts on those two and, and how excited are you for the future of them? I'll add one more name to the mix and it's Joe Toussaint. Yeah. Because you put Joe on it because Joe and Patrick are like best friends and watch the

two of them on the court. A lot of times they've played together a lot. They are inseparable. Um, and when, when you spend that much time, uh, you know, with your best friends and stuff, you're gonna, you're just going to inherently know where they're at and what they're going to do. Uh, and so man, between the three of those guys, just, you know, take those three, you put a, put some more seasoning on Perkins and ULIS and give, uh, give another one of the big guys another year man the future looks great too and it just goes to show you too you

look at guys like keegan murray who had how many offers coming out of steve rapids yeah two and one was western illinois you know he goes to prep school he gets uh gets a year of meat on him and i i could make a straight-faced argument for freshman of the year in the Big Ten the way he's come into the games and impacted, and I don't think a lot of people would argue with me. But having that group of guys, and you said, you know, you talked about our second team being able to beat most. They weren't beating the first team at the second half of the day.

They're out there against Nance and Bowie and all those starters for Northwestern and beating them. So the future is only going to be, you know, continuing to be bright because brands finding these guys, you know, and it's going to make, it's going to make more guys go, you know what? If I'm going to flip a coin between somewhere else in Iowa, I want to go to Iowa. Yeah. I couldn't agree more.

What he's been doing has been so impressive and it seems like everything is coming together. And one of the knocks on Iowa when you listen to analysts coming into this season was could Iowa be a final four team and a lot of it honestly pointed back to Fran as a coach and that they couldn't trust Fran's team they couldn't trust how he handled things but also they're clearly forgetting the fact that Fran was the one who built this team from the ground up he's the one who brought in these players he's the one that's created this offensive system that is quite possibly the greatest college basketball offense. I don't mean to be, you know, sound a little bit ridiculous here, but it might be one of the best college

offenses I've ever seen in my entire life. Look at the top five, look at the top 10 career scorers in Iowa history. Four of them, five of them played for France. you know you've got guys like aaron white in there who was you know who like aaron white what's he gonna do you know dev marble is oh you only gave him a scholarship because he's roy's kid you know luca garza these are guys that fran went out and found and brought to iowa and you know he's you know the man's vision has always been fantastic uh and to find those guys and bring them into the program and he's continuing to do that couldn't agree more another thing i feel like iowa has been improving on as of late is rebounding and that it was a struggle early on this season especially against gonzaga we gave them so many second half points um early on in this game i saw

a stat that iowa was up 10 to 2 in second half opportunity points, and it goes back to rebounding. Iowa out-rebounds Northwestern 40-27, 33-21 on the defense side of the ball, offensively 7-6, and that does change the game. And I've been really impressed with how active Iowa has been grabbing rebounds. Is there anything you've seen that's kind of impressed you about that or anything that you've seen that you can articulate that basically says this is why it's happening? Well, if you look at all the Big Ten games, nobody out rebounded us in a big 10 game even though even the loss at minnesota we out rebounded them um there were a couple of plays today that i thought um you know spoke to that rebounding edge too and

it was um i know that uh well keegan had a block yep uh and uh and garza had a block. Yep. And Garza had a block. And you didn't see him swatting the ball out of bounds like they did in the 80s and 90s to give him a finger wag. You saw them blocking it and then getting the rebound and turning that into a transition and turning that into points. When you're doing that, you know, you're giving yourself another possession. You know, you're probably getting three, four, five possessions a uh by tracking down that block shot and making something out of it and uh at with iowa's offensive uh for you know efficiency you know you're gonna give iowa more possessions good luck yeah and i feel like iowa's done a great job of boxing out being active down there i mean a couple times we saw today where there'd be two iowa guys boxing out northwestern guys and allowing another Iowa guy to attack the rim and get the, you know, get the

board, which has been very impressive because that was also a concern of mine. And if you look at Kempom, it's still a concern technically from a statistical perspective, Iowa isn't the best defensive rebounding team. However, what we're seeing in these games is that they are doing enough to win these games. Clearly they're doing enough to win these games clearly they're doing enough to win these games because you beat northwestern by 23 three-point shooting has came on strong i was saying that you're beating a part of the year if we can just get one or two guys hitting shots from behind the arc consistently we're going to win every single game and for a while there we were riding with just one guy each time is luca one game it was jordan one game it was cj one game but now we're starting to see it come together. CJ,

especially got it back together after struggling the last couple of games, put up 13 points on three or six shooting from three, four, seven from the field. He did leave the game with an injury. Sounds like he's healthy and going to be okay. But it was nice to see CJ get his stroke back a little bit in this game. You know, I, I don't think that that cj necessarily lost his stroke i think what you see too with this iowa team is you don't need all the perimeter guys to be on every night um you know luca luca's gonna be luca he's gonna give you 20 and 10 every single night

um you know is he gonna kick the ball you know he's gonna kick it to jordan okay jordan's gonna go off or have a night um people like oh what's wrong with weas camp we can't well weas camp isn't off i mean it's just that the different guys are being found on the perimeter um and when when guys are hot they you know you go with the hot hand you let them shoot and you know cj just probably wasn't wasn't looking necessarily for as many shots he wasn't shot hunting you know he was realizing that oh okay let's make that extra pass. Let's kick it back out. Let's kick it back in.

You know, it doesn't have to be, oh, we need this guy to do this. It's going to rotate and it's going to change every night. And again, that speaks to the versatility of this team. And frankly, I think what makes us really dangerous is, oh, okay, we're going to come in and shut down X, you know, this guy.

We're going to shut down Bohannon. Fine. You're going to sag off Connor McCaffrey. He's going to hit you with a three, you know, you're going to let CJ drive the basket or sit out and nail freeze on you. Fine. But it's, it's always somebody else. And if it's not one of those guys, you know, it's Keegan who can step out and have a free off the bench for you. Yeah. I mean the ball movement today, I think what you were alluding to was phenomenal. I mean, there was a couple of times where, I mean, it was,

it was a thing of beauty watching them just rotate the ball around the perimeter in such a phenomenal fashion. And you talk about the fact that you try to guard one guy, but it opens up several other guys. And I want to point back to Luca Garza because everything revolves around him. Ultimately, how can you not revolve around the national player of the year? He's going to be the national player of the year. If he's not, the system's rigged just like it was against Keith Duncan last year and against Howard Linderbaum this year. I could go on and on about how Iowa's not getting the respect they deserve in national awards, but 17 points a day. And Iowa wins by 23.

I'm going to keep going back to that because 17 points, the national player of the year gets 17 points, and Iowa destroys Northwestern. That should scare a lot of teams because Luca didn't have to do a lot because Iowa was so handedly winning without him having to be the main guy. He sat, he sat at the 12 minute mark. It didn't come back.

The guy who played, I think he only played 23 minutes, 24 minutes, four minutes, you know, and you know, he's always going to be there when we need him. But again, if we could rest it, unfortunately, we're getting more rest in some spots now at the Nebraska game postponed. Yeah. Michigan State the week before. But, boy, you're going to give somebody who works as hard as Luke Garza does, you know, some extra rest. Okay. Yeah.

You know, I think, yeah. And, you know, thinking back to talking about rotations and number of guys that played i feel like in the past not the recent past maybe four or five six years ago i don't know that iowa had the bench depth uh to really give uh some of the starters a break uh where the starters wouldn't have to go out and play 38 39 minutes a night um where you could give guys some quality rest in there. And it's a long season and you get to the end of the season in March and you're tired. You know, the longer you can go into a season and keeping your guys fresh, that's what you see.

That's what you see with these veteran quality teams who make runs. Look at, you know, Virginia, a couple of years ago, veteran team, who had a lot of depth and were able to not, you know, sort of wear guys out as the season went on. Yeah. I mean, the fact that we talk about Fran and his rotations and how, you know, people have some bones to pick with them, right. One of the things is the Fran fade and we could, we can,

we could trademark that because people say it a lot, right. But it does speak to the matter that at the end of February, beginning of part of March, Iowa has historically struggled more than they have at the beginning part of the season. That is what the records say. Now, you point back to the fact that we haven't had that depth, and that is a big part of it. Our teams are, you know, our guys are playing 35, 36 minutes.

They're going to be exhausted. But when you get to sit Luka Garza for 16 minutes in a Big Ten matchup against a team that has been ranked periodically throughout the season, that's ideal because that's going to set Iowa up to then dominate the competition. They're going to be preparing for a very tough stretch coming up. Nebraska was going to be a really nice, easy game, hopefully, and then they're going to get into that stretch with Illinois going on through just a gauntlet of ranked teams, but this is setting Iowa up very nicely to be able to play these ranked teams and have their starters rested and ready to go.

Well, and if you look at our schedule, I mean, we still have to play Wisconsin twice. We still got to play Michigan. There, you know, people said there are no nights off in the Big Ten, especially on the road. And if you look at what we've got coming up, oh, well, we're going to have another February fade. Well, I don't think you're going to have a February fade. Half the day, more than half the conference is ranked, you know, and the top 15, they're good. So, uh, yeah, it's, it's going

to be a battle, but it's going to be a fun battle to see, you know, how well we can do and where we end up going. I couldn't agree more. So last thoughts for you from you, what are your expectations for this team? What are you, where do you think this team ends up at the end of the season you know it's hard it's hard to not see us go to the final four um at just again i think that you look at who we played uh you know the quality of teams we played and you know we were we were a cold shooting night on a neutral floor against arguably the best team in the country and Gonzaga. And we lost by 11. Yep.

You know, we missed free throws and we missed shots that we care, you know, that we don't usually miss. I would absolutely play Gonzaga again with the way this team is playing now versus mid December on a neutral court. Okay. Yeah.

I mean, I'm, and I'm not the only one saying that of course, Hawkeye Elvis is going to say final four for this team, but's not just me it's guys uh you know recover this stuff uh you know nationwide and and final four would be beautiful uh you know at this point too this past year in this past season man any game we get to watch i will play i'll take it i'm not going to complain could i think that's the thing we do we did point back to is the fact that at least we're getting to watch basketball regardless and you actually point out something very um crucial

about the gonzaga game i was shot terribly in that game and i actually did the math on it if they just shot i can't remember my math because it's back a couple a couple agendas ago a couple weeks ago right but if they shot even at 33 percent from three which is significantly below their average on the season they win that game game. That's how close they were. Or if you shoot what their average was a season from free throw 72 ish percent, they win that game along with those threes. I mean, that's how close they were to winning that game. They were just shooting very poorly and Gonzaga was being Gonzaga and you

can't have that kind of night against Gonzaga. I mean, sucks is going to be playing the NBA next year. Yeah. I mean, Fran, Fran loves sucksuggs. He was recruiting Suggs. Too bad we couldn't get Suggs, but I'm happy with our team the way it is. It'll be fun when we beat them ultimately in the tournament, hopefully. But I couldn't agree more. I do see the Final Four in our picture at some point once we get there in Indianapolis.

Should be a lot of fun. Hawkeye Elvis, where can folks find you? I know you're active on Twitter. You're a fun follow. Where can they find you at? They can find me at Hawkeye Elvis on on twitter i'm on there all the time uh you know love to interact with iowa fans love to uh to chat with them and joke around a lot and uh you know it's a great distraction from everybody's day and uh just just to have some conversations so follow me

on there absolutely and uh make sure to go do your jordan bohan in three-point dance i saw that as well that was uh that was a lot of fun i fun. I mean, your enthusiasm for his threes were exactly what I was feeling. I was like, yeah! Like, just jumping up and putting my arms like, are you okay? I'm like, it was just an amazing transition three-point. I was like, what are you talking about? But I feel like the dance is probably a better way to celebrate. A little bit quieter, but also gets the emotion out,

as opposed to me just screaming in my house. So I appreciate that. Well, Hawkeye, it's been a blast recording with you i appreciate your time we'll have to have you on again later man hey thanks for having me on i appreciate it go hawks all right and that finishes our conversation with hawkeye elvis i do want to quickly run through the wrestling um i had a great conversation with him so we went a little bit over what i was planning but i do want to quickly run through the wrestling from this past weekend if you haven't had a chance make sure you go follow cody goodwin though we did a great preview last wednesday he's a phenomenal follow if you're into run through the wrestling from this past weekend. If you haven't had a chance, make sure you go follow Cody Goodwin, though.

We did a great preview last Wednesday. He's a phenomenal follow if you're into wrestling or just into Iowa Hawkeye. The Iowa Hawkeye is absolutely dominating. But on Friday night against a ranked Nebraska team, ranked as high as four by some outlets, Iowa won 31-6. Spencer Lee got things started dominating Nebraska. Liam Cronin in a 121 pin getting Iowa up 6-0. Austin DeSantos takes down Alex Thompson 21-5 in a tech fall in the second round.

Seven takedowns for him. Iowa got up 11-0. Jaden Ironman, man this kid's going to be a freaking beast. Won 8-4. Put Iowa up 14-0. Max Mirren comes in. Wins by a decision. Iowa's up 17-0. Caleb Young comes in,

wins in a major decision, up 21-0. Alex Marinelli comes in at 165, takes down number 17. Peyton Robb wins that decision as well. Iowa goes up 24-0. We get a little bit of a change here. Michael Kimmerer held out due to injury concerns. Michael would have liked to go. Brands did not want him to go. They insert true freshman Patrick Kennedy, and he absolutely showed what he can do in his career as an Iowa Hawkeye. Despite the fact that he lost, he lost No. 4 Mikey Labriola 7-4. But what was impressive was he was not too afraid of the moment. Both times where Mikey got his takedowns on Patrick,

Warren Patrick was trying to get his and be aggressive towards Mikey. Iowa went down 24-3 after that. Nelson Brands comes in at number 8 at 184 and just takes down number 6 Taylor Benz in a very dominating fashion. Gives me a lot of hope going into this season at 184. Iowa went up 28-3. Jacob Warner lost a hard fought match 3-2 versus Eric Schultz. You could tell he was pissed off about that. Didn't want to shake his hand.

Iowa went up 28-6. Stayed the same, obviously. Nebraska scoring three points with that win. And then finally, to round out the night, Tony Cassiope dominated Christian Lance. Dominates is an interesting word, right? But he did get a ton of writing time. Easily cruised to a win, I should say.

And Iowa went up 31-6. There are a few other matches after that. Some extra matches, not going to go into that just because, again, the show has been pretty long today. And I hope you really enjoyed it. But I loved having Hawkeye Elvis on. He was a fantastic person to join the show and break down the Iowa-Northwestern game. And we'll be back tomorrow with more content,

breaking down all the things you want to know about your Iowa Hawkeye athletic community, specifically jumping into more NFL draft talk, talking a little bit about the Iowa Hawkeyes going into next year as well. We've got a few more news and information or bits of information. Matt Hankins is returning. Digimon Colbert is not returning. What does this mean for the team? We're going to break all of that down on tomorrow.

Very Hawkeye football-dominated show on the show tomorrow. Again, if you love the show, give us that five-star review and subscribe wherever you downloaded the podcast at. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As always, Hawkeye Nation, I love and appreciate you tuning in every single weekday to listen to our show. Have a fantastic Monday and let's go Hawks.