Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeyes Game Plan vs. Iowa State, John Bohnenkamp Joins the Show, & Nonconference Hoops Schedule Released

Starting point is 00:00:00 What's Iowa's best game plan for knocking off Iowa State at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday? We explore what it's going to take to beat the Cyclones. The non-conference basketball schedule has been released, and it is an ugly one at Carver Hawkeye Arena coming up this winter. Plus, Jon Boenkamp joins us all today. Locked on Hawkeyes. You are locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:35 Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find podcasts. You can also watch us on YouTube. While you're there, make sure you hit that subscribe button. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.

Starting point is 00:00:55 Now through September 22nd, all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit FanDuel.com to get started. Well, we start as we break things down, and it's now time to get a little bit deeper into the game. What we expect to see at Kinnick Stadium coming up on Saturday, 2.30 kickoff on CBS. The first game at Kinnick Stadium that'll be broadcast on CBS since 1985. And of course, the number one versus number two matchup with Iowa beating Michigan 12-10 in that one. This will not have those kind of stakes. This one's still pretty big, though. Iowa with

Starting point is 00:01:37 an opportunity to jump out to a nice start to the season, not give one back. And as we mentioned yesterday, every dayers, you'll remember this. This is a group of Iowa Hawkeye players that haven't beat Iowa State in Kinnick Stadium for the most part. Outside of the veterans, the fifth and sixth year guys, you have to go back to 2018, the last time Iowa beat Iowa State inside of Kinnick Stadium. Of course, that has not been the case at Jack Trice's. They've had a lot of success there.

Starting point is 00:02:03 No game in 2020. And then 2022, the disaster. Fullback fumble was just one of those days on a rain-drenched afternoon at Kinnick Stadium. This looks a lot better. The weather looks to be picture perfect. Couldn't ask for better. It's approaching 70 degrees, clear skies, a beautiful day for football, a beautiful day for tailgating. Also going to be over in Iowa City. I'm going to be part of the pre-pre-game show with 600 WMT over in Cedar Rapids.

Starting point is 00:02:34 Excited for that one. As you're getting ready for the game, pop that one on. I'll be part of the Hawkeye Bumper Brigade, getting things started before the Learfield Network takes over with Gary Dolphin and newly minted color commentator Pat Angerer. So that'll be taken up starting at 1130 as when we'll get started with that one on Saturday morning. That aside, let's get into the game and the matchup here with Iowa State and Iowa.

Starting point is 00:02:59 There's a few things and a few elements that continue to excite me about this team. Yes, we've talked about the second half and how good it looked and Cade McNamara really seeming like he was found his footing throughout the course of that game late in the first half and into the second half and just how well that he played. You also have Tim Lester and, you know, watching now the game for the third time. And yes, I'm sick, but was watching it for a third time here this evening. And one thing that really jumped out to me is you see the in-game adjustments right the little things that they were doing the uh plays that we hadn't seen before the route concepts and it's something that yes i've

Starting point is 00:03:36 been complaining about for years i've complained about the route concepts that i was been running for the better part of a decade but because it just just didn't make sense, both in the Greg Davis era and the Brian Ferentz era, what they were trying to do in the ground game, it just didn't marry with what Iowa is doing in the passing game. And now you see route concepts that make sense. You understand what Tim Lester's trying to do, and you can see schematically that this team has taken a big step forward. And I think what you're going to see in this one, it was a very vanilla game plan, pretty boring overall what they did in the game against Illinois State.

Starting point is 00:04:10 I think you're going to see a lot more elements. I mean, you go back to the first half and you look at the runs that Kamari Moulton was able to get, there just wasn't a whole lot there because they weren't doing a whole lot. I think you're going to see even more jet sweep motion coming up this week. Could be Caleb Weijin getting him involved in that.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Caleb Brown's going to be back. Could that be a possibility? More swings, more screen passes and the like. I think you're going to see a much more diversified game plan Iowa from Iowa coming up this weekend. Speaking of that motion, last year, Iowa famously lasted a lot of categories in college football offensively, including in just using motion. Just 25.5% of snaps a year ago used motion.

Starting point is 00:04:53 Last week, it was up to 52.1%. And I think that number is going to go north coming up this week. You're going up against an Iowa State team that is incredibly banged up in the linebacker spot. Their best linebacker, Caleb Bacon, is out for this game and out for the foreseeable future. Not only that, but their depth has already been impacted. A freshman that played a year ago, Willich, he's out for the season. He tore his ACL back in spring. Some of their other young guys have been banged up. McLaughlin didn't play a week ago. So they are really light at the linebacker spot. And I have a feeling John Haycock, their fine defensive coordinator, is going to come up with something a little bit different,

Starting point is 00:05:31 a game plan, a scheme that's going to look different. One thing over in Iowa State, they've been talking about a lot during the summertime that's come up is them using more four-man fronts. Now it didn't happen a week ago. They didn't use it a whole lot against North Dakota. I do wonder this week, they're pretty deep and as deep as they've ever been at defensive line. If that's a way that they go when you're looking at kind of more of a four, two kind of look out of them defensively, but that aside, that's from the Iowa state perspective, back to the Iowa perspective and what we're going to see more motion. I think that's going to continue. You're going to see those kinds of

Starting point is 00:06:02 things. And there was also elements of the game that Iowa obviously was able to exploit at different times, but I think is going to open up. You go back and you look at that RPO play that Jacob Gill, no, check that. I believe it was Van Der Zee actually caught the ball on that one. Beautifully designed play. They came out in the second half and you saw right after that play, Iowa picked up a big gain on the ground because they've been crashing down and just, it keeps them back a little bit. Iowa State's going to be aggressive.

Starting point is 00:06:30 Iowa State is normally aggressive, but if you can get those RPO elements into the game, I think it's going to go a long way for Iowa, not just winning this game, but possibly getting out to a comfortable lead and doing those kinds of things. Another thing that I love to see as I was watching the game is just the way that the pocket was moving. We talk about the route concepts and the way that they all connect, seeing what they're trying to do, moving eyes with the motion, all those different things. But the pocket moving horizontally, moving in and out, side to side,

Starting point is 00:06:59 doing different things with the pocket as well, I think that was very helpful for Cade Bactamara as he was working his way back. I think you can see him get more comfortable with that. That's something that is good for Iowa. Not just a sitting duck back there in the pocket, but you move that pocket around a little bit and you change things up that way. It can change, obviously, what the defense is seeing and the ability for Cade McNamara to tuck and run. And he can do that. Yes, he's not Michael Vick, but he's also not Spencer Petras. And there's a lot more athleticism to tuck and run. And he can do that. Yes, he's not Michael Vick, but he's also not Spencer Petras. And there's a lot more athleticism to him and a guy that if he needs

Starting point is 00:07:30 to pick up a first down with his feet, he has that kind of ability. I really liked what we saw on that aspect, you know, and one other thing that took away. And I think this is going to be a big part of the game. I believe that if I was Iowa State, I'd be going another direction. Look, they've tried to out Iowa, Iowa in the last seven meetings under Matt Campbell, and it worked out once. The last game at Kinnick Stadium back in 2022, the 10-7 victory. Outside of that, however, this thing hasn't worked for them. Now, yes, there's been some bounces that have gone Iowa's way. Iowa's made some plays and ultimately won these football games outside of that one, but they're trying to play Iowa football, and that's the way they're built. I mean, that's the way that they play, but their advantages are at the wide receiver position. They have a fine young

Starting point is 00:08:18 quarterback, and Rocco Beck continued to see his maturation, and he saw from what he was in game two a year ago in game three to what he turned into a season ago. I'd be slinging it around. That's what I'd be doing. Take the Northwestern offense of the mid-2000s through the 2015 dink, dunk, drop-off passes. I wouldn't worry about the run game because with their offensive line also banged up, much like their linebacker core, I don't believe they're going to be able to run the football against Iowa instead of worrying about the run game no go to what is your strength and that is those wide receivers Ben Brommer is a good wide tight end excuse me and I think that is the way to do it if I was going to do it it's forcing

Starting point is 00:08:59 turnovers and if it does turn into that game we saw early in the game last week Jabari Harris saw the couple of plays that were going right at him, giving that soft zone and then jumped the route and got the interception. That's going to give Iowa an ability. And I think you're going to see that aggressiveness start to pick up if we do see Iowa State come up with that kind of game plan. You know, it's a working theory that I had throughout the course of the spring and summer. What we've seen the last two years, you saw the turnovers that are forced by the Iowa defense the last couple of years. They've really dissipated.

Starting point is 00:09:28 They've gone back from what they were in some of the highest levels that we saw in forcing turnovers. Well, you saw Sebastian Castor come up, trying to punch that ball out. Here is jumping around. With Iowa's offense, if they make the improvements this year,

Starting point is 00:09:42 teams are not just going to be able to rely, well, we're going to punt it back to them because we don't think that offense can do anything. If the offense is just okay, teams are going to have to be more aggressive against this Iowa defense. And you know what that means? Turnovers.

Starting point is 00:09:56 That's good for the Hawkeyes. We got more football talk coming up for you. John Boenkamp from the Associated Press is going to join us. We'll talk a little bit to John about what he is expecting to see on Saturday. Also talk a little basketball with him as the non-conference schedule was released yesterday. We'll get into that with John Boenkamp.

Starting point is 00:10:15 We continue here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode of Locked On Hawkeyes is brought to you by the FanDuel Sportsbook. Look, we talk a lot about FanDuel. It is America's number one sportsbook. Well, we have something a little different for you. Now through September 22nd, all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Then with a YouTube TV-based plan, you'll be able to

Starting point is 00:10:46 watch every regular season game Sunday afternoon out of market game. All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel at any time. Of course, the big one this week for us, Iowa, Iowa State. Hawkeyes currently a two and a half point favorite, though that number is starting to move in the market. In fact, as we record right now, Iowa still favored by two and a half at FanDuel. The juice, though, heavily juiced up to minus 118. Now, that is normally where you're going to see that thing flip over a half point and move to the Hawkeyes being a three point underdog. Looking at some of the betting splits out there,

Starting point is 00:11:21 the money basically even slightly swayed towards Iowa. Same in terms of the ticket count, but not overwhelming here. I wonder, I saw this happen in a lot of sportsbooks over the last couple of hours if we did see maybe one of those betting syndicates come in and bet on the Hawkeyes. You can bet on whatever you would like. It feels like at FanDuel Sportsbook, America's number one sportsbook. NFL Week, we're at one coming up this weekend. And we got you covered with FanDuel.

Starting point is 00:11:46 And make sure you check out NFL Sunday Ticket in that three-week plan that you get with FanDuel. Join FanDuel.com and visit FanDuel.com to download America's number one sportsbook. John Bowenkamp covers Iowa for the Associated Press, HawkeyeNation.com, et cetera, et cetera. And John joins us to preview CyHawk from their perspective. You heard the press conferences yesterday, John Bowenkamp.

Starting point is 00:12:26 First of all, good to speak with you, as always. Oh, as always. So a takeaway or two from you. Obviously, it had to be different for Ferentz. I love the fact that he was asked, you know, what was Saturday like? It had to be like nothing he has experienced in decades, quite frankly, of his coaching career. But is it maybe a takeaway or two from you listening to Coach Ferentz before we dive into it a little more in depth?

Starting point is 00:12:50 You know, when he was talking about that, I was trying to imagine what that would have been like for him. Because, I mean, I just don't know how you process that when all you've done for the last however many years is coach a football game on saturday your team on a saturday now you're watching them on tv it had to be really weird for him so i was fascinated but the takeaways are i mean i i think they were they were really happy with what what happened last saturday i think they liked what they got out of the offense last saturday they

Starting point is 00:13:21 really liked they got out of defense Now you've got a bigger game. It was very tame over there yesterday. Everybody was saying all the right things. Hey, this is a big game, whatever. But they're all big games, and you know that's not true. And so, I mean, it was pretty tame. I mean, I think they're pretty focused on this game, and they know this is a big early test for them to kind of see where they're at right now on both sides of the ball.

Starting point is 00:13:47 It's a big step up in competition going up against this Iowa State team. Talented up front, defense, Haycock always brings one. And they can chuck the ball up and around the yard. With that, game plan schematically wise, what you saw from Tim Lester's offense, and is it something that's sustainable? What we saw, and certainly during the second half of the game a sign of things to come or that was a tired Illinois State team doesn't have the same scholarship numbers as Iowa they just wore them down in a hot afternoon your takeaway from the second half of the offense as a whole

Starting point is 00:14:17 well I mean I they executed and then I mean Kirk Fern said that last week you know in talking about you know when everybody's at well what's the scheme going to be like? What are you going to do here? And he's like, it doesn't really matter. We have to execute. And they executed. They blocked well. They didn't block very well in the first quarter, in the first half.

Starting point is 00:14:35 But the offensive line was much better. But again, some of that is just wearing down an opponent. But they ran the ball well. I mean, Cade McNamara was really good. And I mean, again, I know you can say, well, it's an FCS team, but he put passes right on the money. It wasn't just, you know, against a defense that was struggling. He threw good passes on Saturday in that second half.

Starting point is 00:14:58 So if you put all that together, I mean, it's just a simple block and and make plays and that's what they did and and i think from that aspect you can see that that this often was was really in kind of a groove when that game was over with well i'm thinking back to the month of august and i know you didn't get kade mcnamara every week anything like that i think you might have had him once or twice but then leading up to the game against Illinois State. But where I'm going to go afterwards, because he had to be relieved. Like, Hawkeye Nation, quite frankly, probably the same way, because they hadn't seen much of their quarterback, certainly when he's been healthy. And they wanted to know, is Cade McNamara the guy?

Starting point is 00:15:39 Maybe Sullivan, because we kept hearing that last week after you saw the kids' day practice. Did you sense relief from McNamara after he went out and things turned out the way that they did last week? Yeah, and I mean, he had said before the game that he was 100% healthy. We had to see that. We had to see that from a media perspective, from a fan perspective. You know, the people watching outside and on on tv they had to see that he struggled a little bit you know in the first few possessions and everybody of course was freaking out on social media and it was funny how that all kind of shut up very quickly yeah um and and nobody and nobody

Starting point is 00:16:15 ever stood oh well maybe you're wrong it's just everybody you know went moved some other direction there but but i mean he he threw good again like i said he threw good, again, like I said, he threw good passes. I mean, that, that, that touchdown pass Jacob Gill, I don't know how you throw that any better. And I mean, it's double coverage and he had good position and there was only one the only thing that he was feeling sore about. It wasn't a sore knee. It wasn't a sore quad. And he said he came out of it feeling very good. And so when he's healthy, I think you saw the other day what he is capable of doing and why Iowa wanted him a year ago and broke, you know, made contact before he was in the portal, that sort of thing. But you see why they want him.

Starting point is 00:17:09 Yeah, no doubt. And that was the playmaker we saw at Michigan at least for a half. And certainly he looked quicker than I anticipated coming off that ACL tear. A little athleticism. He's not Randall Cunningham back there, but he can move. He can make some plays with his feet. And that's another competent part of this. Suddenly that is all coming together. How does Caleb Brown and Caleb Johnson, the Caleb's, how do they fit in this week after the

Starting point is 00:17:32 second half running the, after the suspension by Johnson and then Caleb Brown coming back into the mix of wide receiver, what do you expect out of those two Saturday? I think, I think we'll see a lot of Caleb Johnson. I just think he's that good. And he has served his penalty now. And I think we see a lot of him. And as for Caleb Brown, I do think we see him a little bit. But right now, I mean, some guys have kind of established themselves as receivers. And so, you know, where does he kind of fit in? I'm not sure yet.

Starting point is 00:18:00 We'll find out on Saturday. But you've got some guys that the other day established themselves a little bit. And Seth Anderson the same way. Whenever he comes back from whatever his injury is, where does he fit in with this group? So I think maybe the wide receiver room is a little better than maybe we thought it was. And I think you saw that on Saturday. So it's just a matter of where those guys kind of fit in. But I think Caleb Johnson gets a lot of carries on Saturday.

Starting point is 00:18:26 And I think, you know, you saw in the second half what he could do. I'm with you. I thought Gil, I mean, I don't remember a bit Northwestern. I don't. Yeah. But Reece Vanderson, I'd never seen Reece Vanderson play. And I love the fact that he's 6'4", and he's a big target. And I wish there was more height on the roster.

Starting point is 00:18:45 Bowie wasn't out of place. Yeah, it's going to be fascinating because, obviously, Caleb Brown's got talent. Nobody's not saying that he's not good enough to play, but there's guys ahead of him now. And, look, I think that through the air, I think Iowa could have a very big day. I do, John.

Starting point is 00:19:01 I think the tight ends, particularly Lachey, Iowa State is so banged up at linebacker i think that could be the difference in this football game yeah and i mean you saw the tight ends get some work on saturday but i mean and but i mean you could tell that that playbook was pretty short yesterday now you're going to kind of open it up a little bit and and you're going to use those good because you know what you have you know what You know what they can do. And so, I mean, I just think you're going to see a little bit more of this offense than what we saw on Saturday. You're going to see a little more creativity.

Starting point is 00:19:34 You're going to see a lot more motion. Like I said, I think they played that game pretty straightforward. Second half they made some adjustments, did a few things here and there, but for the most part it was pretty straightforward. I think maybe you see some more motions, more things like that on Saturday. Iowa State, what concerns you most from a Hawkeye perspective? When you look at the matchup against ISU,

Starting point is 00:19:53 what are some things that I was going to have to shore up on Saturday in your mind? I don't want to say a weird defense. It's a different defense than what they're used to seeing. So how do they handle it? How does that front line handle what Iowa State can throw at them? I mean, they didn't handle in the first half some of the blitzing and some of the things that Illinois State did.

Starting point is 00:20:14 You know that's on tape now. You know Iowa State's thing. That, to me, is going to be the biggest thing is how they handle that defense and all that. I think defensively on Iowa's defense versus Iowa's defense versus Iowa State's offense, I think the Hawkeyes are pretty solid there. I think it's going to be tough for Iowa State to do

Starting point is 00:20:31 some of the things that they like to do because I just think Iowa right now is just so good from front to back. You saw a really good play out of the secondary from Iowa. I think that it's going to be kind of hard maybe for them to move the ball, and if that's the case, then I think this is an Iowa win.

Starting point is 00:20:50 Yeah, not crazy. I thought the same way. I just can't get over, John, I mean, how many times Illinois State's training staff was on the field this past Saturday? That was a fight, and they finished second a lot of those times. They really did because, wow, I don't know if it was I was just that much more physical. Now they'll get tested because I think Rocco Beck's a really good quarterback,

Starting point is 00:21:11 but I'm not sure they have a running game at Iowa State I'm talking about. They've got great receivers, but if they don't get time to throw the football, if they can't establish the run, if the Hawks know that they have to throw the ball, this plays right into Iowa's hand. We'll see. We'll see. Again, with the Iowa defense, what I said, the offense, I don't think you saw everything the other day. I think you're going to see a few more things there. I'm sure Parker figured out. He always does. Even with one arm, he still fixes it out. Was there any

Starting point is 00:21:43 point when you guys were watching Riley Moss and you're thinking, you know what? There's a guy that's going to be a starting corner in the NFL because that's what he is. He's won the starting quarterback job opposite Pat Sertan. And if you think that Moss might be a little bit busy in the first few weeks, I mean, what a story. You covered him.

Starting point is 00:22:00 You covered him, John Bowenkamp. And here he is. He's hurt, never got his opportunity last year, but he's starting for the Broncos in that secondary. How about that? Hard-working kid. I mean, I go back, and I think back to when he was a freshman and got picked on a lot by opposing quarterbacks.

Starting point is 00:22:18 Purdue in particular, right? Oh, God, yeah, that day was just terrible. And then you saw where he grew as a player. And so where he's at right now i mean that's just and again these are the guys that kirk ferens puts in the nfl these are hard-working guys that have that have figured that know how to figure things out and you could you could see that that he's i mean if he's he's starting he's figured things out in the nfl and that's that's a that's a pretty big step for a football player. We know you'll be in Carver coming up this winter. Which one of these

Starting point is 00:22:47 excites you the most? Texas A&M Commerce? Southern? South Dakota? Rider? Oh, Rider? South Dakota, you know how I am. I'm a Summit League. You are. Even though I don't cover the Summit, I'm still a Summit League. So it's the Coyotes.

Starting point is 00:23:03 Well, to finish the non-conference home schedule, New Orleans new hampshire and south carolina upstate outside of the sidewalk game that's what the home fans will be delivered up while they play games in moline kansas city and sioux falls but that's attendance right i'm sure they get a better guarantee going out and playing these neutral court games compared to people that show up in Carver now. Yeah, and again, the NCAA tournament committee is going to see a home game against the top 10 team in three neutral court games, and neutral court is a metric they use. Again, I've been seeing people complain about this on Twitter, and I want to say to go out and find me a power four team

Starting point is 00:23:40 that plays a lot of home and homes right now. You don't see it. And I mean, I know Illinois has got a lot of games on their schedule. If you look at them, they're all on neutral court somewhere. And I mean, that's the wave of the future right now in college basketball is all these matchups, but they're somewhere else. And, you know, I mean, Iowa State's going to be there. And, yeah, I wish it rather was.

Starting point is 00:24:01 But then you also get 10 home games against some really good teams. So it is what it is. and it's not something unusual for them. And look at Iowa State's game. And the people go to hell, you know. So, again, I'm just, you know, I'm looking forward to this season. I want to see what these guys do. I think this is an NCAA tournament team, and I think a lot of things are going to go right for them.

Starting point is 00:24:22 I think it's a good group. John Boenkamp, Associated Press, Hawkeye nation, et cetera, et cetera. He joins us every couple of weeks, John, we didn't get to your Dodgers. We'll do that at some point. That'll be fine. We'll talk soon, John. Thank you, buddy. All right.

Starting point is 00:24:37 Thank you. We're done here. We're done. See you later. To seal his line. He's a good dude. John Bowen cap. All right. So we'll take it. John Bowen Kemp. All right, so we'll take a time out.

Starting point is 00:24:46 John Bowen Kemp joining us. Appreciate John, as always, talking a little Iowa football with us as we get ready for Cy Hawk Week. And some basketball. A little deeper thought in that basketball. Non-conference schedule that will be delivered up. And did Iowa find a little bit of a loophole here as it pertains to that? John Bowen Kemp believes that Iowa is going to be a team in the NCAA

Starting point is 00:25:08 tournament this season. It's hard to disagree, certainly from my vantage point. Also want to let you know, college football season, with its back, it's not too late to catch up on everything happening inside the Big Ten. Locked on Big Ten has you covered with Craig Scheman. Not only that, we have locked on college football. Find out who you believe and who our Big Ten. Locked on Big Ten has you covered with Craig Scheman. Not only that, we have Locked On College Football. Find out who you believe and who our hosts believe are going to be teams in the college football playoff. What is

Starting point is 00:25:31 happening with the new conferences? Everything you need to know all in one place. Be sure to follow and subscribe to the Locked On College Football podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Some thoughts on that non-conference schedule as we continue. This is Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Some thoughts on that non-conference schedule as we continue. This is Locked On Hawkeyes.

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Starting point is 00:27:10 Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockdowncollege. Once again, that's linkedin.com slash lockdowncollege to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Trent Conant back with you one final time on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Pumped up for Saturday. Excited to get back over and looking forward to what should be a fun afternoon.

Starting point is 00:27:39 I believe we'll make our official prediction tomorrow on the show and give you our perspective of how things are going to play out. We talked a lot today about the game plan for Iowa football, what they're going to do, what I believe they should do in order to peel off the victory. And we'll dive a little bit deeper, more into that. Mentioned earlier FanDuel and the number that has been bouncing around a whole bunch of different places, up to three, a couple of places. and around a whole bunch of different places, up to three a couple of places. I saw one of the sharper books, circa 51% at last check of the money and 57% of the bets were on Iowa. That is not a big public sway that you see a lot of times

Starting point is 00:28:15 where you kind of want to go the other direction. In the gambling parlance, it's called reverse line movement, something we don't have certainly in this spot. Mentioned the non-conference basketball schedule. We'll wrap up with that. Not exactly the who's who coming to Carver, coming up this winter outside of the matchup against Iowa State. Game one after the exhibition against Minnesota Duluth,

Starting point is 00:28:37 it'll be Texas A&M. Commerce, they'll be coming in. Their net last year was 333rd in the country. Southern will be the next team that will be making their way to Carver. 257 their net. Back to South Dakota. The Coyotes played them in the NIT a few years ago. They've been a decent program in the Horizon League.

Starting point is 00:28:58 Not last season. They were 322nd in the country. Rider, 220. Out of these by games, that's the high water mark. South Carolina upstate, 303. New Orleans, 340. New Hampshire, 230. And of course, the Iowa

Starting point is 00:29:14 State matchup. They were 6th last year in the net, so that's a pretty good one there. But the angle that I'm wondering about here. So well before it became really an outcry for a lot of people, including a lot of ACC coaches a year ago, you take on these bye games, you take on the worst of the worst, and you drill them, it helps you out of the NCAA net,

Starting point is 00:29:32 the ranking system that they use and what they moved on from, the old RPI system. It was a welcome change. It was something that needed to happen. And though victory margin is capped at 10, the analytic numbers are not capped. And because of that, you go out there and beat a terrible team by 50, it's going to help you. And Iowa's done that.

Starting point is 00:29:49 And they've done that incredibly well. Not just beating these teams, but throttling them. That impacts your NCAA net. And they've done a good job. And a lot of other teams started to pick up on that and picked it up. Now, I wonder about this new angle. Now, I was not playing in an exempt tournament this year. Disappointing because you normally at least get a couple, if not three good games that come out of those exempt tournaments. But they're playing the three neutral court games against Washington State, an NCAA tournament team from a year ago, made the round of 32 as they knocked out Drake in the first round.

Starting point is 00:30:19 Their net was 44 last season. Utah State, another team that was a tournament team, take them out in Kansas City. 38 is the net there. And then the matchup against Utah in Sioux Falls, a net of 48. They were a bubble team throughout the course of the year. If those teams are at least comparable to what they were a year ago and you can win at minimum two out of those three,

Starting point is 00:30:42 I think it's going to go a long way of building up that resume. I think this Iowa basketball team is going to be good. I think they're going to be one of the surprises of the Big Ten this season. I think they're going to be undervalued, probably disregarded. I don't think they can win a Big Ten championship. Even finishing the top five in this new league of 18 teams is going to be incredibly difficult. But top seven, eight, I think that's a good range for this Iowa team. I think they're going to take a big, but top seven, eight, I think that's a good range for this Iowa team. I think they're going to take a big step forward here this season. Thanks for being with us. This is Locked On Hawkeyes with you each and every day.

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Starting point is 00:31:33 and all the analytics. And however, all that stuff works, well, certainly well over my head. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen today. Now go check out Lockdown College Football and the Lockdown College Football podcast. From NIL deals to the never-ending

Starting point is 00:31:47 conference realignment rumors, Spencer McLaughlin gets you ready for an exciting season on the gridiron. You can find the link to Locked On College Football in the description

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Starting point is 00:32:07 Looking forward to it. Iowa, Iowa State. It's hate week. We'll be back with you tomorrow. Until then, go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeyes Game Plan vs. Iowa State, John Bohnenkamp Joins the Show, & Nonconference Hoops Schedule Released

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