Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeye sports have fantastic weekend | Men's Big Ten standings analysis | Cool it on the TJ Bollers situation, ya'll

Episode Date: February 24, 2020

We kick off the show talking about all of the great Hawkeye wins over this weekend in women's basketball, softball, baseball, and wrestling before diving into the current situation in the Men's Big Ten basketball standings. 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 to a Monday morning edition 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 we are back for another episode of this beautiful show. It is Monday morning, and a lot of great things took place this weekend in Iowa Hawkeye Athletics and we're going to be covering it all right here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. First off, I want to quickly apologize. I am dealing with a cold, so if my voice sounds a little bit funky, that is the reason why. So my apologies there, but we're going to get through it and we're going to cover all the things we need to cover on today's show.

We're going to kick it off by starting with a Hawkeye Sports Roundup talking about the women's basketball team, the softball team, the baseball team, and the men's wrestling team. Before jumping into some Big Ten men's basketball talk, lots of action took place this weekend and want to cover what that means for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Before wrapping up, just a brief piece on TJ Bowler's, the Iowa legacy who is likely not playing at Iowa, four-star recruit, top 100 player. I want to talk a little bit about him and kind of my thoughts on him as well. So let's kick it off though. Before we do that, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at,

whether that is Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or the brand new Himalaya Podcast app. And make sure to go follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. All right, like I said, a great weekend in Iowa Hawkeye Athletics. The women's basketball team got a win over Penn State. Fantastic win for them. They are very close to that number one seed. That being said, Maryland and Northwestern are currently ahead of them. They are very close to that number one seed. That being said, Maryland and Northwestern

are currently ahead of them. So let's look at a little bit about what the Iowa women's basketball team needs to do. Right now there is obviously a tiebreaker situation that could come into effect for the women's basketball team and that will be huge because right now the women are 22-5 with a conference record of 13-3. Northwestern is 22-5 with a conference record of 13-3. Northwestern is 24-3 with a conference record of 14-2, and Maryland is 23-4 with a conference record of 14-2. And this is where the tiebreaker stuff comes in very handy. In Big Ten basketball, the tiebreaker for the first seed or any of the seeds really is your head-to-head record.

first seed or any of the seeds really is your head-to-head record. Iowa gets the nod over Northwestern here because they are 1-0 versus Northwestern over on the season. However, against Maryland, they have split, so they are 1-1 against Maryland. But it's very key, right? They have one game back. Maryland gets Purdue at home and Minnesota on the road. Northwestern gets Ohio State on the road and 11-16 Illinois at home. So we need Maryland to drop one game, and we need Northwestern to drop at least one game. We also need Iowa to win out, and they don't have an easy schedule. They get Minnesota before going on the road versus Rutgers, a decent Rutgers team. Now, here's where it gets interesting at. If Maryland loses a game and Northwestern loses a game and Iowa wins out,

that puts them all in a three-way tie for first place in the Big Ten. Then what happens is it's each team's record versus the next highest team. And I believe where that comes down to is if Iowa's trying to beat out Maryland, it's against Northwestern. And if Maryland is 1-1 versus Northwestern, Iowa is 1-0 versus Northwestern. So Iowa actually gets a tiebreaker. So in most situations, as long as these three teams finish tied for the conference lead, or the conference record at first place, Iowa is going to get that tiebreaker,

which is huge for the Hawks. But now they need to take care of business and win out their last two games. They need a little bit of help from Maryland and Northwestern to lose at least one of their next two games. Let's move over into the softball. Women went 5-0 on the weekend in Hawaii, moving to 12-2, which is a fantastic start for them. They beat Hawaii 2-1, Portland State 8-0, UMKC 2-1, Portland State 8-3, and UMKC 4-2. So fantastic job by the women down in Hawaii this weekend. The baseball team had an up and down weekend. They lost to San Diego State 1-4 on Friday. They had a fantastic pitching performance

by Jack Dreyer who allowed just one run in the first six innings on just three hits. He struggled in the seventh inning walking two batters who eventually scored. That was kind of the difference in that game. Isaiah Fullard knocked in the only run for Iowa, which is a Ben Norman scored run. On Saturday, though, this team rebounded pretty well and beat number 18 Arizona 4-1 on the heels of a Grant Judkins fantastic performance. He allowed just two hits and no runs in six innings. The offense did all of his damage in the second and third inning,

and the bullpen allowed just one run in the seventh. A couple guys finished with multiple hits, Peyton Williams, Austin Martin, and Matthew Sosa. Peyton Williams also added two RBIs, and Martin finished with two runs as well. And then finally on Sunday, the men's baseball team dropped a game in San Diego against the University of San Diego, 5-10. And then finally, to wrap it up, the men's wrestling team,

as we always expect them to this season, came away with an easy victory over a top 10 ranked Oklahoma State team, 34-6 on Senior Day. The only losses were number 19, Wyatt Sheets, who beat number five, Caleb Young in a nine to four decision. And then number 14, Anthony Montalvo beat Nelson Brands in an eight to two decision. Those were the only losses on the day for the Iowa Hawkeyes on senior day. So great stuff by them taking care of a typically pretty strong Oklahoma State team this year, a little bit down, but great on the wrestling team for doing that and taking care of that and finishing the regular season undefeated. So love to see that from that team and excited to see them in postseason play this season. That'll do it, though, for segment number one of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast.

Coming up in just a few short seconds, we're going to be talking about the men's basketball team and what they need to do to win the Big Ten Conference title. We are back with segment number two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. And as I said before we left the show for a quick break, we are going to be talking about the men's basketball team and what needs to happen for them to potentially win the Big Ten Conference title. It is a stretch for that to happen, definitely. Don't get me wrong. There is a very small chance they actually do win the Big Ten Conference title.

As one of my good friends appropriately pointed out to me, Iowa is just as close to first as they are to 12th in the Big Ten. So got to keep that in mind as well. But let's at least talk about the situation and what needs to happen because this weekend was a great weekend for Iowa Hawkeyes fans, especially if they want to see this team finish with the number one seed in the Big Ten tournament. Penn State fell to Indiana 68-60.

Wisconsin beat Rutgers 79-70. Not a huge deal there, but still kind of important to keep in mind. Ohio State took down Maryland, which is a huge, huge win for Iowa Hawkeyes. And Michigan took down Purdue 71-63. So that was a big deal. And if Nebraska could just do something good for once and actually beat Illinois in tonight's game, that'll be huge for Iowa as well. And why this is a big deal is because Iowa is very close in the standings.

They are tied for second in a four-way tie with Penn State, Michigan State, and Wisconsin. So essentially what we need is for those teams to lose and for Iowa to continue winning. And that starts tomorrow night when Iowa takes on Michigan State. And that is going to be a huge game. And we're going to talk about this on tomorrow's show, but Iowa has struggled mightily against Michigan State over the last three decades, especially on the road at Michigan State. So if Iowa can pull that one out, that would be huge for this team.

And they need to win every single game if they want to have an opportunity to get a number one seed in the Big Ten tournament and win the conference outright in the regular season, which is something that, to be honest, we should not have been expecting at all at the beginning of the season. So even to be in this position is huge for the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Fran McCaffrey coached team. So looking at the conference standings as we speak right now,

Maryland is 22-5 with a 12-4 conference record. Penn State is 20-7 with a 10-6 conference record. Iowa is 19-8 with a 10-6 conference record. Michigan State 18-9. And Wisconsin 17-10, all with a 10-6 conference record. So just two games back from Maryland. You need Maryland to lose at least two games and Iowa to win out if they want an opportunity there. The nice thing is as we talk about some of those splits and some of those tiebreakers,

what we did with the women's basketball team, Iowa does own the tiebreakers or have the opportunity to at least work on those tiebreakers. When you think about Maryland, they have a 1-1 record against Maryland. That means Maryland does not have the advantage there. When you look at Penn State, Iowa gets Penn State at home this week. Sorry, excuse me, in the next couple of days. On Saturday to be exact. That's an opportunity if they win that.

They at least get rid of the tiebreaker there. The opportunity for Penn State to win that tiebreaker. They get Michigan State tomorrow. That'll be their only game against Michigan State, another opportunity to get that tiebreaker. And they've only played Wisconsin once, and that'll be it for the year. And they get Wisconsin. They have that tiebreaker over Wisconsin as well, which is absolutely huge. And then Illinois, they have beaten them once.

They have a game against Illinois on the road against Illinois later on in this season. And that will be an opportunity to at least secure that tiebreaker, if not not lose it. They are 1-1 against Michigan. That is another tiebreaker they own. And they've beaten Rutgers. So Iowa has done a great job of at least getting their tiebreakers in order. They have the opportunity as long as they win out. They're not going to be screwed by a bad record against a team or an unfortunate tiebreaker that

leaves them moving down in the standings. So that is great to hear. This week, a couple big games, obviously with the implications of the Big Ten standings. We have Iowa at Michigan State. We have Rutgers at Penn State on Wednesday. We have Maryland at Minnesota on Wednesday. I don't like the Gophers, but I'm definitely rooting for the Gophers on Wednesday.

Wisconsin at Michigan on Thursday. I want to see Wisconsin lose that. And Illinois at Northwestern on Thursday. I want to see Illinois lose that as well, which is going to be a tough game. But again, there is a chance. Again, the fact that Iowa is even in this conversation is huge. And that brings me to my next point about Fran McCaffrey was not on the list of the top 15 coaches or the finalist list for the coach of the year. And I think that is an absolute travesty. What Fran McCaffrey has done with this squad this year is truly impressive.

I've always thought Fran McCaffrey was a great coach. I've had former Iowa basketball players on the show and they've made note about how great of a coach Fran McCaffrey was a great coach. I've had former Iowa basketball players on the show, and they've made note about how great of a coach Fran McCaffrey is. And the fact that he's not even being considered a top 15 coach or a top 15 coaching performance this year is, to me, complete garbage. You've got Penn State's coach. You've got Illinois' coach. They do deserve to be on that list.

I don't disagree with that. But Fran McCaffrey has done just a superb job given the circumstances. Again, let's look at it. We've talked about it a lot, but let's look at it again. They lost two starters on this year's team. So Jordan Bohannon and Jack Nunge. Patrick McCaffrey, probably the number six player on this team, gone for the season. CJ Frederick out for decent chunks of the year.

From last year's squad, they lost Isaiah Moss, the starting shooting guard. They lost Tyler Cook, the starting power forward. They lost Macy Daly, one of their key reserve players. They lost Nicholas Bayer, their sixth man of the year type of guy. That is not easy to sustain those losses and still put together a really good team. And they're doing it with a true freshman at point guard. They're doing it with a hybrid guard at shooting guard, depending on where you put Connor McCaffrey in that situation. Not a great shooter. A redshirt freshman at shooting guard, depending on where you're putting CJ Frederick and Connor McCaffrey. You got Joe Wieskamp, who is a stud, but getting really just targeted heavily by teams.

And then you got, you know, Luka Garza, who is an absolute beast this year. Not exactly the easiest coaching performance for Fran McCaffrey. Now he's putting these guys in a situation to win. He's feeding the ball to Luka Garza and letting the offense run through him. And you can really appreciate what he's done this season, this coaching performance, by getting Iowa even in the position to get a number one seat in the Big Ten. So to me, that's bullcrap that we're not even talking about Fran McCaffrey as the coach of the year. And I think it's just disappointing that the national media continues to overlook the Iowa Hawkeyes

in every aspect of basketball. Luka Garza, I think, should be a frontrunner for the National Player of the Year. Dick Vitale said it as well. I actually saw he commented on a post by David Eichel, a reporter for Iowa from 24-7 Sports. If you don't follow him, make sure you do. I love his work as well. Big fan of his and all of the stuff he does,

and he does a great job of contributing to the Iowa Hawkeye athletic journalism community. But Dick Vitale even commented that he thinks Luka Garza is the National Player of the Year. I completely agree there, but I just don't doubt the fact that the national media will somehow find a way to screw the Iowa Hawkeyes over, and I just hate to see that. It's just a travesty that Iowa doesn't get the recognition they deserve and the time they deserve it.

So that being said, coming up, we're going to take a quick break. We're going to come up and talk about the rankings this morning and the TJ Bowler situation. So I'll be happening in just a few short seconds. We are back with our final segment of the Locked on Hawkeyes show today. As I said, we're going to talk a little bit about the rankings. I also wanted to quickly mention the fact that even if Iowa doesn't finish in first, all they need to do is get at least fourth because that will give them a double bye in the Big Ten Conference Tournament,

and that is a huge advantage for any team. An advantage that Iowa could definitely take advantage of considering their limited bench. That means they need to put together just a few good games to win a Big Ten Conference Tournament title, and that would give them an opportunity to get an even better seat in the NCAA Tournament. So even if they don't get first, they need to at least finish in the top four for that coveted double bye.

As far as the rankings go, when I look at the rankings right now, I think Iowa's going to move up. They have an opportunity to move up as high as 17th in my opinion. The three teams in front of them all are coming off losses. West Virginia, Colorado, and Marquette. Marquette specifically is on a three-game losing streak. So I think Iowa is assuredly going to move into the top 20, probably 19 or 18, with that opportunity to move to 17th.

We'll find that out though today when the AP rankings come out. And let's talk a little bit about the TJ Bowler situation. If you did not get an opportunity to make sure to check out the athletics article, Scott Dohterman, or Dohterman, excuse me, article on TJ Bowlers. I thought it was really fascinating, the inside look at him. There was some pushback or some feedback on an article written about TJ Bowlers earlier in this month by another reporter covering the Iowa Hawkeyes. And there's a lot of backlash about the sentiment about whether or not TJ Bowlers and Iowa make a good fit. And has Iowa even tried to get TJ Bowlers and Iowa Hawkeye legacy to come to Iowa, considering he's literally in their backyard. Hawkeye legacy to come to Iowa, considering he's literally in their backyard.

He's a top 100 player, a four-star recruit for the in-state Iowa squad. Got to love that. Love having talented players right in the state of Iowa. Love to see that talent pool continue to grow. That being said, it looks like we're basically guaranteed to not get TJ Bullers at Iowa. And when you look at the interview that Scott did with TJ and the conversation he brought up, it makes a ton of sense. TJ Bullers wants to major in civil engineering, and he wants to be in a versatile front.

He wants to be able to stand up. He wants to be able to play down. He wants to be versatile. And when I look at Iowa's defense, that is the one thing I think they are kind of lacking. They do a great job. Don't get me wrong. Phil Parker's defense is fantastic, and he does a great job of plugging and playing folks in there. And without

having the most athletic players on that team does a wonderful job of putting them in positions to not get burnt by that lack of athleticism or lack of speed. As long as everyone plays their role, that though means that we're not going to see players moving around a ton. The fact that we had the cash position is a huge, huge development for that defense. That was something unheard of before where Iowa typically just played that 4-3 front. The switch of offenses to being a more spread attack in the Big Ten definitely caused some of that to kind of speed up. But we're not used to seeing those kind of changes on the Iowa Hawkeye defense.

So if he wants to stand up and play hand in the dirt, that just isn't going to happen typically with Iowa. There's a few third down defenses that Phil Parker has. I know they have the NASCAR defense and whatnot that could have seen maybe bowlers play in a different spot, but just not going to get that versatility, in my opinion, on the defensive line. Likely going to be playing hand in the dirt all the time if you want to play Iowa. The other thing is the civil engineering degree. Sounds like education is huge for him. His dad, especially being an Iowa Hawkeye fullback, had an opportunity to play in the NFL, hurt his knee,

so didn't get an opportunity to play professional football that much. Thankfully, he had a great degree from Iowa and was able to turn that into a successful business later in his career. TJ Bullers wants a civil engineering degree. Let's be honest, Iowa isn't the best place for that. I'm not saying Iowa is a bad place, but the engineering school is typically, if you're looking at in-state schools, Iowa State is going to be that engineering school as opposed to Iowa. There's also other schools he's looking at. Cal, for example, that could be a great engineering school. If education is truly that important to him, I think at Iowa he can get a fantastic education,

and the coaches are going to be really, really willing to work with him on that education. But is it the education he wants from in terms of a degree standpoint? It sounds like that is not, which is why he's looking at other schools as well. I think my big point here is that it definitely sucks to not be able to get a top 100 recruit, a legacy recruit to Iowa. That being said, this is a freaking teenager. Give him a break and give his family a break. And please don't be those people who make a big deal of it if he doesn't commit to Iowa

when he eventually does not commit to Iowa. Please be respectful to him and his family. They are very active in the Iowa Hawkeye community. Obviously, his dad is really involved with the Iowa Hawkeyes. So I think my point here is really just this is not going to go Iowa's way. And you need to be respectful human beings. Um, and I think that'll show a lot about Iowa's character, but we're definitely going to get some of those crappy people on Twitter who are going to say crap to this kid and say crap to his family. And I want you all to try to minimize that as much as possible. And that is, you know, that's kind of my thing. And, uh, maybe, maybe

went on a little bit of a rant there, but thank you for coming to my TED Talk today on how to handle recruiting and teenagers' decisions. I think if we can all handle it with grace and dignity, that actually makes us look even better as a program to other incoming recruits. So just keep that in mind as this decision kind of plays out and ultimately

plays out not in Iowa's favor. But that being said, that'll do it for our show today. I appreciate you all tuning in to the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast on this beautiful Monday morning. Apologies again for my voice. Also apologies, my dog was in the room and made a few little bit, he made a few noises here and there.

So apologies if you heard that come through on the show. If you did like what you hear today, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We'll be back with another show tomorrow covering the Iowa-Michigan State game and giving you a full preview of that, so stay tuned for that on tomorrow's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Again, have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and go Hawks! We'll see you next time.