Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeye Hoops clubbed at Northwestern, Baseball starts 3-0, Wrestlers Roll

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

Trent Condon kicks off a new week of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast with a look back at the rough loss at Northwestern.The Hawkeyes had one of their worst offensive and defensive performances of the season. What do we read into that if anything? Can this just be chalked up to a bad shooting night and you flush the game and move on?Then a look at what's next for Iowa and how it can get tricky along with the latest in the computer numbers including the NCAA NET rankings.Two foul participation also reared its ugly head in this one with Tony Perkins sattled to the bench with foul trouble in the first half.Then a look at the wrestling team finishing up the regular season with a full line up along with a dominating performance against Oklahoma State, some talk about the baseball team getting off to a 3-0 start and the womens' team rolling.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, it was setting up to be an epic weekend in Hawkeye sports. We start things off. The Iowa women's team cruised to a road victory against Nebraska. We see the wrestling team dominate Oklahoma State in their last duel of the regular season. The Iowa baseball team sweeps three games and gets off to a 3-0 start over the weekend. Even the softball team picked up a couple of wins

in the ACC Big Ten Challenge. And then Sunday night, oh boy, it all came crashing down with the thud. The men's team clobbered by Northwestern. Our Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in once again to the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast. I'm Trent Condon. I'm glad to have you aboard with us here today as we talk the world of Hawkeye sports. We are available everywhere you get podcasts.

You can also find us on YouTube while you're there. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by LinkedIn. With LinkedIn Jobs, you can hire qualified candidates more efficiently by matching open roles with people who have the skills, values, and experiences to help you achieve your 2023 goals. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockdown college terms and conditions apply. Well, here we go. And we're going to

kick things off here today, talking plenty about the men's basketball team and an instant reaction podcast after a disappointing performance out in Evanston. Second place on the line, Iowa could have got into a tie for second place and also got the tiebreaker over Northwestern with a win here. And they were shell-shocked, just absolutely from the opening whistle. They got beat by a better team. And at least on this Sunday night, that's what it was, a better basketball team on the other side in Northwestern.

You know, go back a couple weeks. Last time we saw Iowa-Northwestern play, and really that was my biggest takeaway. Yeah, Iowa got the win, shot the ball really well the second half, kind of pulled away late, maybe some tired legs for Northwestern, but regardless, it was a nice win for Iowa. But my biggest takeaway, because that was really the first game that I'd seen Northwestern

start to finish. I'd seen him plenty of times throughout the year, but watching him for all 40 minutes and I walked away impressed. And Iowa had their troubles here in this one. Ty Berry starts going early on. He's hitting shots all over the place. We know what a problem that backcourt can be. And it certainly showed up in a bigtime way. So let's get into it here. There's plenty of big-picture things that we can take a look at with this Iowa basketball team. We'll talk about that. We'll cap what happened over the weekend as well with baseball

and, of course, what happened on the wrestling mat in the senior day for Spencer Lee and the rest of the seniors out there and a great performance against Oklahoma State. So there is going to be some positives, but it's hard to find many positives coming out of the Iowa loss. 80-60 the final here, and frankly, it wasn't even that close. It was just absolutely up and down the floor. Iowa could never find their way, and it was one of those nights where Iowa couldn't hit shots. This turns out to be one of their worst offensive performances of the year.

In fact, their fourth worst offensive performances of the year. In fact, their fourth worst offensive performance of the season, their worst game offensively since dating all the way back to that game against Nebraska early in the season, early in the big 10 slate. Of course, I was struggling at that time. I thought maybe we were past this and maybe that was just wishful thinking more than anything. Look, any basketball team could have a clunky performance. And you just hope it doesn't come in March. You hope that it's not one of those performances. And that's what happened to Iowa last year in the NCAA tournament.

You don't want that to happen. But coupled with their fourth worst performance on the offensive end of the floor, there's also their sixth worst performance defensively by efficiency metrics. I mean, that's just a combination where you're going to get blown out when you're playing the second-place team in the Big Ten. And we can argue the merits if you wanted this Northwestern team and how good they are and what kind of sustainability they're going to have in the NCAA tournament. That aside, that's a different conversation for a different day. You have second place out there, and to get run off

the floor like that. Now, ultimately, I would just miss a bunch of open shots. It can be frustrating. You're seeing open shots, shots that they normally make, and you have that component, and they're just not falling. For whatever reason, the environment, I don't believe that. We've seen Iowa play offensively and better environments than that. Hey, student section was banked out. That house was full.

I know it's a lot louder now after they reconfigured Welsh-Ryan, play offensively and better environments than that. Hey, student section was banked out. That house was full. I know it's a lot louder now after they reconfigured Welsh Ryan, and it's a lot better building than it was when it was a glorified high school gym. Now, it's not big by any means, but it's a much better environment, and winning helps too, right? I mean, Northwestern being a winning team, that's also going to help out and make that environment that much better. It was a good environment, but I can't chalk it up to that. You can't just say, well, you know, it was a tough, that's going to be a tough environment

for you. You're going to be in trouble. You're going to be in trouble on Wednesday when you got to go to Madison, even with all the woes and warts that this Wisconsin team has, you're going to get absolutely throttled by Indiana going there. That's going to be a completely different environment. There's going to be double the people, more than double the people inside the building at Assembly Hall when Iowa makes their way over to Bloomington. So can't play that game. You miss shots. And sometimes it's very boring when you just simplify it to something as simple as that. Iowa missed shots and missed a lot of shots that they normally make. But here's where my frustration gets. And there's two things in the first half. So Iowa, a couple of times, a battle back.

They got it to seven, one point. Connor took an ill-advised three after they got back-to-back steals and it looked like, all right, here comes a little bit of a run. Connor wasn't shooting the ball well. Nobody was shooting the ball well. So it kind of goes twofold. First of all, you're one of 16 from three before Aaron Ewells banks in a three at the horn to make it, what, an 11-point game, go into the halftime locker room,

and you feel like, eh, maybe that's going to be something that gives him a little bit of life, and it just didn't happen. But you won a 16 before that last shot, and you just keep chucking. Now, that's the mentality of Iowa basketball. I mean, that's Fran McCaffrey. He continually works with his guys to shoot the ball.

You're open. If you're a three-point shooter, shoot the ball. You're open. If you're a three-point shooter, shoot the ball. If you're whatever offensive player, that's what he teaches. It does a beautiful job in the motion offense when it's clicking, as we saw against Ohio State in the second half when they were just rolling along. It can be a thing of beauty. It was clunky here.

Any offense is going to be clunky when you're missing shots like that. But when you're struggling like that, maybe put your head down a little bit more. Get to the rim. Get some post-ups. And I know every time Rapraccio was getting it, they were doubling. And Philip had, he was bad tonight. He just was. He just did not play well. He didn't do a good job against a seven-footer Nicholson. They were bringing a double every time he'd get it in the post. He wasn't getting it out there quick enough. He wasn't effective enough getting it out there. Every time he'd get it in the post, he wasn't getting it out there quick enough. He wasn't effective enough getting it out there.

And it led to bad offensive scheme. You couple that with Tony Perkins, who has to go to the bench with two fouls in the Fran McCaffrey rule. And you're left with not a whole lot of guys that can go off the bounce and beat their guy and actually do something effectively there. So it's all rolled together. And that goes into a diatribe that I'm sure my radio listeners that listen to me throughout the years over the last couple decades now know it drives me insane and it's Fran McCaffrey and he's not alone well coaches and it doesn't matter the level you can watch a junior high game a high school game a college game an NBA game though it's different with the six fouls there but there are many coaches that subscribe to the theory that you get two, you're not going to play the rest of the half. Now, Fran McCaffrey,

he takes it to another level. You look at two foul participation numbers over at Ken Pomeroy, KenPom.com. And Iowa is the lowest in the country. He just doesn't do it. He just doesn't do it. So here's the numbers here. I got to bring them up because they're pretty incredible. Two foul participation, 363rd in the country this year, 0.1% of the time does somebody play in the first half when they have two fouls. It's unthinkable, absolutely unthinkable that that number is at that level. Yep, that's where we are. You got to scroll all the way to the bottom because they are the lowest team in all of college basketball.

That's right. All the way at the bottom in two-foul participation. So that's what you're left with right here. Iowa will not play guys. Fran McCaffrey will not play guys when they get two fouls. Tony Perkins picks up two. And the game's slipping away. And at one point in the first half, what'd they get down?

16? Where they chipped away a little bit at it? Look, I know. You win games in the second half, right? There's never been a game won in the first half. Well, never maybe is a strong word. Rarely is a game won in the first half. But plenty of games are lost.

And this one, I think you can argue, was lost in the first half. You found yourself down. There were plenty of games are lost. And this one, I think you can argue, was lost in the first half. You found yourself down. There were plenty of opportunities. Northwestern, when they started to slow down a little bit and stop making every shot as they were for the first eight minutes of the game, you had an opportunity here. And Tony Perkins is sitting there, and we know what he can do,

and we saw at the beginning of the second half, his ability to get to the rim, to get in the paint, the pull-up jumper. It's something that they just don't have on the roster. Yeah, Ulysses can do it a little bit, right? Okay. Murray's got a little bit of that to his game. Connor, at times, it'll throw up, you know, some crazy bank shot and go win. But for the most part, again, talking in generalities here, it's not the way this team is built short of Tony Perkins. Again, talking in generalities here, it's not the way this team is built short of Tony Perkins.

And he's saddled the bench. This game is lost there. Not only that, you pick up your third foul. It's bad. I get it. Because one foul in the second half, and you're sitting for a long time. I completely understand that. And it's very difficult to push that button again. You know, a guy picks up that fourth foul two minutes into the second half, and he's going to sit there until, what, at minimum, the 10-minute mark,

maybe even the under eight before you get him back in there. So I understand that theory. But when you do it the way that Fran McCaffrey does, you're fouling out your own guy. I mean, best-case scenario, your guy plays, say, 18 minutes in the second half. Well, if only he had four because he had two fouls in the first half, you only got 22 minutes. Iowa, they need Tony Perkins when he's right playing a whole lot more than 22 minutes. They need him out there 28-30. And you're not giving your player the ability to

do that. Another thing that I always question about this is Fran believes in his guys. I mean, I've never heard a coach before in college basketball that pumps up his own guys more than Fran McCaffrey does. He trusts them. Late game situations, doesn't like to use timeouts because he trusts them. He trusts them to do so many things. He trusts them to run motion offense. He trusts them to be in the right spots and do the right things. He has so much trust, but why doesn't he trust them not to pick up his ticking tech third foul the first half? All this trust. Look, I've talked to Fran about it before. I know our theories are completely different.

I just think there has to be time and circumstance. And it's become such a hard and fast rule. At times, absolutely. Your team built like Iowa right now with Rabracha and just not having a whole lot of other help than him. And he picks up a second foul. I get that. I understand why you don't want him out there picking up that third, because in the second half of a game,

you just don't have a whole lot of places to go. Murray, your best player. I get that. If that's something that you're thinking about, but the way this game was going, the gateway was played. There has to be at least some thought process given to what you're doing in

the situation. I hate hard and fast rules. and that's unfortunately what we have with Fran McCaffrey and the two-foul rule. We're going to continue on here and look a little more big picture. Can we flush this? And what does it mean going forward? What did this do to Iowa's numbers as well? A drop in the net rankings and maybe bigger than you think.

That's as we continue here on Locked On Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by our friends at LinkedIn. LinkedIn Jobs, always doing great work for us here on the Locked On Network. And, well, if you're a small business owner, you are a hiring manager, you know that your success in 2023 all depends on the team members you surround yourself with. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. With LinkedIn Jobs, you can hire qualified candidates more efficiently by matching open roles with people who have the skills, values, and experiences to help you achieve your goals.

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all on one platform. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockdowncollege. Again, linkedin.com slash lockdowncollege to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Trent Conner back with you again here on Locked On Hawkeyes. Thanks as always for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. And for your second listen, don't forget about our new podcast.

It is Locked On College Basketball. As we count down the days until March Madness, it's everything that you need to know about college basketball all in one place. You can hear the big names, the experts, insiders, coaches, and players with Locked On College Basketball, available on YouTube and wherever you get podcasts. As we roll through here, big picture. What does this mean?

So Iowa after the loss here. Well, it's a loss, right? And I heard a lot of this after the game and read a lot of this after the game. Well, it's a quad one loss. This is a quality loss. It's not going to ding your resume. And on the surface, you're exactly right. But something we've talked about in the past and trying to educate maybe these numbers a little bit more and what the net system is, is it is a measure more than just what the schedule was

of the past with the RPI system, but it also measures efficiency. Now, the winning number, if you will, is capped at 10. It doesn't matter if you win by 10, 20, 30, or 80, it's still capped at 10. And they basically put this in place so you didn't have teams late in games running it up. That's true. But it also measures efficiency, and that is not capped. And in a game like this, where Iowa, again, had some of their worst both offensive and defensive performances, it's going to be impactful. You know, you don't usually see a whole lot of rising and falling, at least big jumps, this deep into the season. Well, Iowa did.

They fell six spots in the net rankings here after the loss this evening to Northwestern. That's a stinger. They're down to 42 right now. Not in bubble consideration. Again, and here's another thing to alwaysern. That's a stinger. They're down to 42 right now. Not in bubble consideration. Again, and here's another thing to always realize. I know us as fans, there's times where we overreact. I overreact. You overreact. You're ticked off after the game. You go down that road. Sky is falling. All that stuff. I do it. Yelling at my TV. It happens. I get it.

I'm right there with you. It happens to me a lot. Especially with Iowa basketball. I mean, there's not another sport out there that I scream at my television more than Hawkeye basketball. It's not even close. Football team, I get frustrated. Watching my favorite baseball team, the Twins, absolutely. Watching the Bears, it's been a long time. But for whatever reason, Iowa basketball, it ticks me off more than anything. I get more frustrated watching

an Iowa game when it's not going well than any other sport. And you get those overreactions. Well, we have to remember, it's not in a vacuum, right? What happens with Iowa, it's not alone. It's not by itself. It's everything else going around college basketball. And you look at teams with similar profiles. Iowa's in really good shape. They got the fifth most wins, quad one wins, in all of college basketball.

That's a good piece of the resume. The bad loss to Eastern Illinois, it's going to be there. But remember, it also was without Chris Murray and without Connor McCaffrey. So that's going to be in consideration when the tournaments are coming together and when we get the selections coming out there. That is also going to be part of the consideration. Look around. Look at that bubble.

Not very good. And there's going to be teams that are going to rise and fall here, but Iowa's still in really, really good shape. Don't worry about the skies falling or free and fade and all these different things because ultimately, when you look at it big picture, Iowa is just fine right now. Now you go and lose to Wisconsin. Wisconsin's just out of the top 75. I think they're 76, in fact,

after the rankings updated here this evening. With that, it's right on the fringes of a quad one game. You'd like to see them finish the season in the top 75. Now, you don't want it to happen against Iowa because now you're 0-2 against Wisconsin. They're going to be, again, right on those fringes there. And if the Badgers crap the bed the rest of the way, well, now you're in trouble.

And then after that, you get Michigan State. Look, you should have won the game in East Lansing, but there's no gimmies against an Izzo team. We know that team. They got talent offensively. They could have one of those nights where they hit 12 three-pointers, and all of a sudden, you're looking up and you're losing 80 to 75, and now you're reeling. Then you got to go to Bloomington after that, and they got revenge on their mind before finished up with Nebraska. And yeah, not only did we lose to Nebraska earlier this year and looked awful in the process of doing it, the Cornhuskers are playing a whole heck of a lot better

than they were way back in that game almost two months ago. See, add all this up. Yes, it can get scary. Right now, we're fine. But around that corner, just as always lingering, isn't it? That this thing could get out of hand in a hurry. Chris Murray, not very good. He had 14. Connor, after the unbelievable performance against Ohio State, he wasn't good. Uless was really the only guy in Perkins when he was able to play when he wasn't sitting on the bench with foul trouble, which is one of those

nights. So we flush it. We move on. I know that's what the team's going to do. They're going to move past this quickly. They've got to get ready to go get a road win against Wisconsin. That's what we're going to try to do. It's going to be difficult. We'll talk more later in the week about the Big Ten picture in general. And this thing can slip and slide a little bit too.

Use the website I've told you guys about before, where you project the NCAA, or excuse me, the Big Ten Tournament. All you do is you punch in who you think is going to win each of the games and it spits out what the seeding is going to be for the Big Ten Tournament. I did that this evening. Spit out

Iowa's the 7th seed. Playing the 10th seed Penn State, I think it was, in the first round with Indiana the 2 seed. Then waiting for them in the quarterfinals if they get by the Nittany Lions. That's not good. That's not a great path. That means probably a couple losses here the rest of the way. I had them losing both road games and winning both home games.

Again, still fine for the NCAA tournament, but still out there. We'll talk about that more in the week. Also went on across the Big Ten landscape this weekend,ed Nebraska. They get another victory over the weekend on Sunday as well. Purdue bouncing back in a big way. Indiana surviving against Illinois in a game where the Hoosiers frankly did not play very well and they still got the victory. A lot going on in the Big Ten. We'll continue to break things down here on that front on Locked on Hawkeyes. We cap things off with some positivity. That's right.

The Iowa baseball team off to a 3-0 start on the year. And the Iowa wrestlers finish off the year with a big win against Oklahoma State. That's all as we roll through here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode of Locked on Hawkeyes is brought to you by Built Bar. Hey, if if you're looking for a great treat don't want all those fat and calories you gotta try a built bar what makes built bar so good well for starters they're all covered in 100 real chocolate and they come in great flavors churro peanut butter brownie and coconut almond i'm not sure how Bill does it, but these bars taste like a candy bar while maintaining amazing macros. What's even better?

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Grab a 13-bar big box with the hip flavors of brownie batter and churro. And you can thank me later. Tread kind of finishing up with you one final time here on Locked On Hawkeyes. As always, thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. So over to some positives, and let's kick things off on the wrestling, Matt.

So over the last week i've been at wells fargo arena in downtown des moines calling the state wrestling tournament one of my favorite events of the year the pomp and circumstance around it saturday the grand march my favorite session is always friday where you get the semi-finals going on those wrestlers trying to get to the championship and just how cool that is and the fight that you get out of it. And you also have the blood round going on now with the new structure where the guys are just wrestling one more time to try to get on the podium. And you lose, you're not going to be part of the top eight. You win, you move on, and you know you've guaranteed yourself a placement

and a top eight finish. So you have that going on Friday night, Saturday night, the championship. Got to see Ben Keeter in all four of his matches. Now, the first two were really quick. I had a couple of pins within the first 15 seconds of both of those matches. Took a little bit longer in the semifinals. Took nearly to the end. And then in the championship bout against Dubuque Hempstead's Joseph Lewis,

it was a technical fall, so it went the distance. It went almost all the way to the end there. But watching Ben Keeter, so it went the distance. It went almost all the way to the end there. But watch him beg Keeter. I mean, he's just so different. A four-time state champion becoming the 32 four-time state champion in Iowa high school state history. I mean, that's an accomplishment in its own right. Also did it by going undefeated.

Only the seventh wrestler to accomplish that feat, having the goose egg behind his name. But watching this guy, the ability that he has, with the size that he has, we're talking about rarefied hair. He is one of only four wrestlers to accomplish what he has already on the world stage as a high schooler. Not one of those other guys as Spencer Lee, and we saw how his career certainly has gone,

injuries aside, and just how unbelievable he is. But it does leave you pondering, right? What is it going to be for him trying to play both football and wrestle? Weight-wise, that's going to be a consideration. Is he going to be a heavyweight? Something you'd anticipate. He wrestles 220 here in high school.

Going to get bigger. What high school, going to get bigger. You know, what is his role going to be at Iowa? I look at him a little bit, or the way that he plays, kind of like Matt Roth coming in. You remember Matt Roth? Of course, we remember him getting to the quarterback all the time, coming off the edge, having a good pro career with the Dolphins and Browns and a few others, and still getting sacks when he made it to the league. But Matt Roth was brought in as a middle linebacker and he got bigger when they put him out there and they've also simplified it for him. Just keep it simple. Go get the quarterback, right? He was a third down specialist during the 2002 season, played full-time basically in 2003. But maybe is that a role that would make more

sense for Ben Keeter? Instead of being a linebacker and all the reads that you have to go through, is him becoming more of a specialist because the pounding that he's going to take and the physicality that's going to go along with it is it more likely. And he's going to get up to say 245, 250, 260 in that range on the wrestling mat. And I don't know body structure wise

exactly what it's going to be, but just for argument's sake, say that's what he's going to be with the speed that he has has with that rush ability that certainly I saw at the high school level, even playing linebacker for Iowa City City High. Is that something to make sense? What I do know is he is worth the price of admission. He's going to be fun. Now, Tony Cassiope, maybe he comes back for another year. I believe he does have the COVID year and he could come back for another season. He may end his heavyweight for one more year. Keeter basically red shirts and then is

ready to go. Maybe that's a path that they decide to go that avenue. Maybe that's crazy too. I mean, no way they even do that with a guy that is as talented as Ben Keeter. I'm not exactly sure the brands will figure that out as we know, but just an idea and a thought process out there because playing football full-time, being the middle linebacker, making all the calls, just everything that's going to go along with it, plus the weight training, the training in general, how different it is for wrestling compared to football at the collegiate level. Yeah, they marry when you're at the high school level, just completely different when you get to the collegiate level. We don't see this very

often anymore. I know there's been some guys way back in the past that have done it, but just an idea that we throw out there. To the wrestling team currently on campus, what a fun meet it was on Sunday, just beating Oklahoma State and seeing John Smith over there whining. I get a kick out of it. I really do. There's just something fun always about beating John Smith,

and I'm sure it's more of a generational thing. If you're somebody, you know, my age range or a little bit older, remember John Smith, both as a wrestler and what he did moving on to the international stage before coming back and becoming the Oklahoma state coach. It's just, he's a fun guy to be. We'll put it that way. Eight out of 10 matches go. I was way they fall in the last one of the day.

I has a Seabrook. There's something funky about his style. I like it. I think he's got a real chance of being an All-American. He's ranked 13th going in it from Flow Wrestling. Got to be in the top eight, obviously, to be an All-American. I think he's got a real chance. We kick things off with Kennedy.

He gets the win. I really like the future of Patrick Kennedy. Want to see that offense continue to build, get more offense going, generate that. That's a kid that was able to do that before. Abe Asad back in the lineup. That was great to see. Went out there, not only won, but won against a top 10 ranked wrestler.

So that was very, very good. As Iowa, one of the few times this year, really they've had their full complement of the lineup one through 10. Spencer Lee, of course, doing his thing and doing it very quickly. Less than a minute goes out there. this year really they've had their full complement of the lineup one through ten uh spencer lee of course doing his thing and doing it very quickly in less than a minute goes out there in his final appearance at carver hawkeye arena and getting the win on his way to what feels like an inevitable fourth national championship he just he's such an easy guy to like and for the people that are there i would love to get a little bit more information about the way the senior day ceremonies went after the meet. Obviously, right afterwards, basketball popped

on, and that's where my attention was afterwards with the Iowa Northwestern game. But I heard from a few people that were there and just said it was so cool, and the ovation and the celebration of that senior class, but especially, obviously, of Spencer Lee. A lot to get excited about. There really was. I walked away excited about this team. We've talked a little bit in the past. It's going to be tough. Look, chasing down Penn State, it's a behemoth. It's going to have to be something where basically everything goes perfectly in order to pull it off. But is there a 1-10 chance? Is it 1-20? I don't know, but I know there's a chance. And it's good at minimum to have a chance going on on what Penn State's built, what they have,

and the returning national champions that they already have on their roster. The bonus points that they're going to score. Spencer Lee, we're going to need kind of a Ben Keeter type of performance, right? We're going to need probably a couple pins, maybe three out of Spencer Lee. You're going to have to have him at his absolute apex. You got to have some of those fringe guys. I mentioned Seabrook, maybe a Brody Teske, a guy like that, a surprise All-American.

That's definitely going to help. And then some of your aces. You got to have Real Woods not just get to the national championship or even win a national championship. He's probably going to have to score bonus points to get there. Same thing with Cassiope. Not just get there, win a national championship. Going to have to be bonus points.

It's a lot. I know we're asking a lot, but there is a chance. Finally, Iowa baseball with the sweep over the weekend. Beat Indiana State, you know, pretty good, solid, let's say, Missouri Valley Conference team. Also remember the Missouri Valley, more times than not, a higher rated baseball conference than the Big Ten. So something to keep in the back of your mind. Oh, it's just Indiana State. They played a conference, at least for baseball, that rates better than the Big Ten. So something to keep in the back of your mind. Oh, it's just Indiana State. They play in a conference, at least for baseball, that rates better than the Big Ten.

So you got that component. That was a nice one. Quinny Peck was not very good last year, not very good this year, but still. Iowa, 3-0 start. And they got a huge weekend coming up next weekend. They go back down south. They'll go to Texas this time. It's Sam Houston State to open things up.

Then LSU on Saturday. I mean, LSU. They're taking on LSU baseball. They get an opportunity there. Wrap it up against Kansas State. If Iowa can go down there, at minimum get a game. If they can steal two, maybe we can start to get excited about this Iowa baseball team.

I believe this is certainly one of their best shots that they have had to get back to the NCAA tournament since the last time in 2017. It feels like it's setting up for them to have a real opportunity to get there like this team, like the makeup and what we saw from Brody Brecht, maybe making that ascension to becoming a guy that you can count on to be a starter. What are your guys probably on Saturday, be your Saturday starter. It's a real opportunity there. Marcus Morgan, he was good against

Quinnipiac as well. We're off to a good start. 3-0. Don't lose those dumb ones, right? Don't have the RPI killers in there. Beat the bad teams you're supposed to. Opportunities are going to be there. They got Texas Tech for a series later on this season. There's going to be plenty of opportunities. They don't get Maryland, only team in the top 25 from the Big Ten this year, but at minimum, they're a Big Ten tournament team. They're going to advance once again, be in that top eight. But I think there can be even more out of this Iowa baseball team. And we'll talk about that more here in the coming weeks.

We'll downer with the men's team, but positives, women's basketball, they roll huge matchup against Maryland coming up this week. We'll break that one down as well coming up a little bit later on. That'll do it for today. Thanks again for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. For your second listen, check out our brand new podcast

Locked On College Basketball. Our experts, Isaac Shade and Andy Patton, bring you everything you need to know on and off the floor. Hear from the big names, the coaches, the players, all throughout the college hoops landscape. It's Locked college basketball available on YouTube and wherever you get podcasts. We'll talk to you again tomorrow.

Hopefully a brighter tomorrow for us in Hawkeye fandom. After the men's loss, we'll talk about everything going on in the world of Hawkeye, Hawkeye athletics. Then we'll talk to you tomorrow.