Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawks get BIG road win vs Rutgers | How does Petras stack up vs other first year starting QBs at Iowa | We FINALLY get a wrestling schedule

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

The men's basketball team clawed its' way to a victory on the road against Rutgers with two guards ailing due to injury. We break down what we learned and how the Hawkeyes squeezed out that huge road ...win before analyzing Spencer Petras' first year as a starter versus all other first-year starters under Kirk. It doesn't shake out well for Spencer. We wrap up with some women's basketball and wrestling talk.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Monday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and today's episode is brought to you by Built Bar. Go to BuiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get 20% off your next order. And we have a lot to cover on today's show. We're going to be giving you a recap of that win over Rutgers, giving you the good, the bad, what to look forward to from that.
Starting point is 00:00:38 We're also going to be talking about Spencer Petras because, and I'll give a little bit of explanation, about Spencer Petras because, and I'll give a little bit of explanation, we do have Matt Vandenberg joining the show Wednesday morning to give us, you know, and work with us on a recap of this season. Matt had a lot of great insight throughout the season, thought it'd be appropriate to wrap up the season with him because we didn't get a chance to talk to him on the Michigan game. We didn't get a chance to talk to him after Missouri game because neither of those games happened.
Starting point is 00:01:03 And we want to have another opportunity to chat with Matt more about this football season because it was just a ton of fun to watch him, especially on the last six-game winning streak. We're going to be asking him about Spencer Petras. Before we get into that, though, I want to give a little bit of an analysis of Spencer and how he stacks up to other first-year starting quarterbacks in the Kirk Ferentz era. It is a little bit eye-opening, So that will be coming up on segment number two. And then finally on segment number three, we're going to be giving a recap of the Iowa women's basketball game that took place yesterday against Illinois. And also doing a little bit of a breakdown of the men's wrestling team.
Starting point is 00:01:35 That schedule came out. Want to make sure we cover that as well. Before we get into any of that though, one quick news note thing to bring up. Cooper DeJean is the recipient of the Adidas Football Player of the Year Award. Fantastic player, four-star recruit joining Iowa, most likely going to be playing defensive back, but what he did in his high school prep career was just truly amazing and obviously well-deserved that he's getting that award. Let's get into Iowa Rutgers talk though, because that was a slugfest.
Starting point is 00:02:05 And if anyone remembers last year or listened to our preview episode with Bakari Evelyn, Rutgers was going to be like this. It was always going to be a tough game. And if you didn't expect that, then you don't know Rutgers basketball and you don't know Big Ten basketball because Big Ten basketball can be pretty physical and Rutgers basketball even more so is more physical, especially when they play Iowa. I don't think it's just a specifically Iowa thing. I think that's how Rutgers plays. And what I thought was most impressive was the fact that that isn't traditionally Iowa's style of basketball, but they stepped up to the challenge and they battled back.
Starting point is 00:02:49 And I thought they played, I mean, that was, they showed me a lot in that game. If you look back to the Minnesota game, I don't want to keep bringing that up, but that was a game where Iowa should have won. They had a seven point lead with 30 seconds left. They should have won and they were unable to close it out. And I talked about it after the show. I said, great teams finish off close games. Good teams finish them off most of the time. Iowa is still working to become great.
Starting point is 00:03:12 We have a lot of season left, but this was a very big step, closing out that game 77-75. And who closed it out I think was even more impressive. That was Keegan Murray. And I remember more impressive. That was Keegan Murray. And I remember them extending an offer to Keegan Murray. That was back when I was still doing this show. It was early on when I was doing this show. But I was really excited about the prospects of the Murray Twins when you did a little bit more research into digging in.
Starting point is 00:03:43 But when Iowa offered them, they did not have a star behind their name. Right? That's how obscure the offer initially seemed. And now you're looking at it and you're like, wow, holy crap, Fran, good work. That is impressive because what Keegan Murray has done so far in his young Iowa Hawkeye career has been truly impressive. Hitting those two free throws to basically close out the game is something that you cannot overstate. It's important.
Starting point is 00:04:13 That was huge to be able to do that, to be able to help close out that game for the Hawks. That is amazing. And it just goes to show just how important he's going to be to the success of this Iowa basketball program for years to come. I also thought Luka Garza put the team on his back and did a fantastic job of saying, give me the ball. I'm going to the hoop. I'm going to win this game.
Starting point is 00:04:37 Can't understate Joe Wieskamp as well. The fact that he had his final two free throws. Again, free throws were not a, free throws were definitely one of the issues we had against Minnesota. They were not the issue against Rutgers. Again, Keegan Murray hits both his free throws with 17 seconds left to give Iowa the tie and then ultimately the lead. And then Joe Wieskamp made his first free throw. It would have been great to see him make that second free throw,
Starting point is 00:05:01 but hit that first one regardless to at least make it so Rutgers had to at least get a shot. We could have fouled them, I guess, and brought them to the line, but it gave us a little bit of comfort there. But again, Keegan Murray being able to do that as a true freshman is really fantastic stuff. I thought overall Luka Garza did a great job of battling throughout the game, as we saw, as we expect from Luka Garza. 35 minutes of play, and he was able to put up great numbers, especially in the second half after Myles Johnson was getting in a little bit of foul trouble. 9 of 11 from the field in 35 minutes, scoring 25 points. 1 of 2 from 3. 8 of 9, or sorry, excuse me, 6 of 7 from the free throw line.
Starting point is 00:05:42 So great stuff. Iowa overall did a great, much better job, more in line with what they typically do from the charity stripe, 18-23 in this game. One of the things I thought was really interesting was the fact that Iowa actually shot pretty well in this game, and yet Rutgers was in the game throughout, right? So Iowa shot 46% from the field,
Starting point is 00:06:04 50% from two, 38% or 39% from three. Rutgers shot 44% from the field, 45% from two and 39% from three. They just took a lot more shots than Iowa did. When you look at it overall, they shot 71 times. Iowa shot 56. They were getting a lot more second chance opportunities against the Hawks. That goes to show, I mean, they shot 71 times. Iowa shot 56. They were getting a lot more second-chance opportunities against the Hawks. That goes to show they had 15 offensive rebounds compared to Iowa's 9. I thought Iowa did a good job of getting involved actively on the glass, but some of those balls, it was a battle to get every single basketball. Sometimes Rutgers just wanted more.
Starting point is 00:06:41 They did a better job of getting in position. But I also thought what I really like to see, you know, Luka Garza would at times, very selflessly, he would clear out Miles Johnson and allow any number of Iowa Hawkeyes to attack the rim and try to get that rebound. But a lot of those boards, it wasn't going to the first person who touched it. It was the fifth and sixth person who touched it at times because it was just bouncing around hands because hands are flying
Starting point is 00:07:04 literally everywhere. So, again, a real ugly game all around and the fact that Iowa showed that they can play that way and win that way was huge to me two other things I want I'm probably just going to kind of ramble over things I want to touch on but Connor McCaffrey being out was a huge loss for the Hawks especially given the fact that it seemed like Joe Toussaint might still be a bit hobbled. Fran McCaffrey said that they should both be available for the next game that we do have, but not exactly ideal when you have your... He could be considered a power forward
Starting point is 00:07:40 and basically where he's getting in at, but he does play a lot of point. But it sounds like we're going to have him back for the Maryland game as well as Joe Toussaint. Real quick on the Connor McCaffrey front, the fact that he didn't play the entire second half and came in just to inbounds the ball goes to show you so much about him and what he means to this team as far as a decision maker. And I think when people get frustrated by Connor McCaffrey, it's because he can't shoot the ball that well. He's not a great shooter. Arguably, he's probably one of the worst shooters on this team. But he's also one of the most valuable players on this team as well. Joe Toussaint is another guy who's very valuable and would have been really helpful in this game.
Starting point is 00:08:14 But because he was unable to go for as many minutes, we actually saw some interesting rotations. And I notated that as well. I thought the rotation, and I'm going to try to pull it up real quick. Let me see where it is at. But I thought when Tony Perkins got in there with Aaron Ullis, the defensive energy was phenomenal. That final lineup they had in the first half, I thought they really brought a ton of energy defensively
Starting point is 00:08:39 with Perkins and Ullis in there. Perkins, literally the first time he touched the ball, turned the ball over, but after that settled into his ways, I thought looked very athletic attacking the basket, very explosive. Aaron Ulas, I thought, did a phenomenal job of coming in and doing exactly what Iowa needed at that point guard position, giving them a Joe Toussaint-like play there and allowing Jordan Bohannon to play more of the two, and he did a really good job.
Starting point is 00:09:04 Jordan Bohannon was not, again, understand him, 5 of 7 from the field, 3 of 5 from 3-point line. He played a great game and had some very big shots, as we've come to expect from Jordan Bohannon in his career. But nothing gets me going more than Iowa has the opportunity to take the lead. Jordan Bohannon just dribbling the ball down the court and 5 feet behind the perimeter just pops it up and drills it. That's a Jordan Bohannon move. You can tell he's shooting with confidence when he does that. And I thought a couple other things. Iowa, Jack Nunji not doing that well offensively. I have, again, not impressed him. I thought his ball handling was relatively poor, not having a lot of touch when he's shooting. He did hit one three on a very wide open three-point shot. I believe Aaron Ulas was the guy who gave him that assist.
Starting point is 00:09:49 But defensively, Jack Nunji brought it then. Six defensive rebounds, three blocks, one steal. Overall, the defense was involved in a way we don't see typically from Iowa. Nine blocks in this game, two from Luka Garza on the same exact possession, three from Keegan Murray, three from Nunji, one from CJ Frederick. Eight steals, again, forcing those turnovers. Rutgers has not been a very high turnover team. On the other side, Rutgers did a great job as well.
Starting point is 00:10:17 Eleven steals, eight blocks for them. The difference here was fouls. The officiating was very questionable throughout. I felt like Iowa was the beneficiary of bad officiating early on in the game. I felt like Rutgers was the beneficiary of bad officiating. I guess Rutgers was the beneficiary in the middle of the game. And then Iowa, towards the end, they actually started calling it relatively normally, I thought. Iowa got away with a few in that first half.
Starting point is 00:10:43 In the second half, the officials definitely clamped down. Iowa finished with 13 personal fouls. Rutgers finished with 21. And again, look at those free throws. Rutgers shot 4 of 12 from three throws. Iowa had 23 free throw attempts, hit 18 of them. And that was the difference in this very pivotal Big Ten matchup on the road. And for those of you who are questioning can this Iowa team do it again after losing to Minnesota on the road. I think they showed you they can. It's a dogfight every single game in the Big Ten. Especially on the road. Iowa should have won the Minnesota game.
Starting point is 00:11:17 But they turned it around. They beat Northwestern at home. They beat a ranked Northwestern at home. They go on the road and beat a very, very, very good Rutgers team. This is a team that is a top 16, top 15, top 14 team in the nation, however you want to swing it. Rutgers is a fantastic, phenomenal team, and Iowa beat them despite not being able to play the game they wanted to play.
Starting point is 00:11:35 They didn't have Joe Toussaint. They didn't have Conor McCaffrey. They went to some interesting rotations where they were not typically in. C.J. Frederick got in foul trouble. Joe Wieskamp wasn't shooting the ball well, and yet they found a way to win. And that's my big takeaway from the win over Rutgers. Again, a big, big win over there. They get Maryland later this week, followed by Minnesota on Sunday.
Starting point is 00:11:56 We'll be giving you previews of all those games coming up before those games actually hit. We're going to take a quick break, though, and then get into some more talk about Spencer Petras breaking down his season versus some of the other Iowa quarterbacks. And again, what you're going to find out is very interesting, in my opinion. Before we get into any of that, though, I do have a very important message for you
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Starting point is 00:13:42 Lee has been absolutely crushing. I believe he's nine and one as far as winning days goes, um, going at least two and one, possibly three and oh, so make sure to check out locked on bets and then head over to bet online.ag to get all of your betting needs in place. Let's get into that Spencer Petras talk because I know we talked a lot about with Matt and we're going to be talking about it with Matt on Wednesday's show as well. But I wanted to at least dive into the stats. And stats do not tell the entire story. But they do tell a little bit of it.
Starting point is 00:14:10 They do paint you a picture. And then you combine that with the eye test. And you start getting down to the nitty-gritty of what actually happened. Spencer Petras struggled this year. Let's be very honest about that. He struggled throughout this season. He got better towards the end. Especially the second half of that Wisconsin game. He really stepped up.
Starting point is 00:14:30 Can he make that next step? Time will tell. But when I look at his season statistically, and I know it was an interesting season not getting an offseason, but he has been in this program for three years now at this point. So I compared him against every first year starter in the Kirk Ferentz era after Brad Banks. I didn't feel like Brad Banks was a very good one to compare against. It wasn't going to add anything to our analysis because he had a Heisman season in his first season as a starter. I also normalized the stats as well. So Spencer Petras' stats are based off of 13 games. Everyone except for CJ.J. Beathard and Drew Tate and Jake Christensen
Starting point is 00:15:07 are under the 13-game allotment as well. Jake Christensen had 12. Drew Tate had 12. But we just kept it like that, and then we'll go through the stats. So if you normalize Spencer Petras for 13 games, he threw for 2,549 yards, 57.1% completion percentage, 15 touchdowns, 8 interceptions for a 119 quarterback rating. And a quarterback rating is always an interesting way to look at it, but definitely giving you some of that perspective. Now, when you compare that against all the other Iowa quarterbacks, here's where that stacks up in terms of your first year production. Yards, 4 of 9.
Starting point is 00:15:47 yards four of nine and yards is probably the least important stat of up there because if you throw the ball more like he did you're gonna get more yards completion percentage six of nine this is interesting now the three guys he beat out at 57.1 percent nate stanley jake christensen and nate chandler i'll let you figure out figure out what two of those three have in common there. Touchdowns, 8 of 9. The only one he would have beat was Ricky Stanzi. The only one he would have beat was Ricky Stanzi. So that's always interesting because Ricky Stanzi is often revered as one of the best players in Iowa history. Statistically speaking, he wasn't necessarily the greatest quarterback by any means, though.
Starting point is 00:16:29 But again, Ricky Sanzy, first year, 14 touchdowns, 9 interceptions. What's interesting, if you look to his sophomore or his next year, his junior year, 17 touchdowns, 15 interceptions. Ricky was a little bit, you know, sometimes not erratic, but willing to take chances. But Iowa was able to overcome that because of his stellar play and crunch time interceptions five of nine the only people he beat out in terms of interceptions Jake Ruddock Nate Chandler Drew Tate and Ricky Stanzi again you can go one of two ways with those stats especially when you look at it from a quarterback perspective and how people
Starting point is 00:17:02 look at either Drew Tate and Ricky Stanzi or Jake Ruddock and Nathan Chandler. Quarterback rating, he was 8 of 9 at 119. The only person that was lower than him, Jake Christensen, 116.9. Everyone else was higher. The next closest, the next two closest players in terms of quarterback rating though, The next two closest players in terms of quarterback rating, though, was Nathan Chandler at 122 and Jake Ruddock at 126. So the four lowest QB ratings in Iowa history under Kirk Ferentz here after Brad Banks. So again, we're getting a little bit specific there, but out of the nine quarterbacks, it goes Jake Christensen, Spencer Petras, Nathan Chandler, Jake Ruddock. Now, why I did all that analysis, because I thought it was interesting. You know, Kirk is, he's a guy who's loyal.
Starting point is 00:17:57 He's a guy who, if you work hard, you know, you're going to get the benefit of the doubt from him. But Kirk also is not going to lose games because he thinks the guy did a really good job of practicing. He's going to play the best players. And we have seen there be times where we have had quarterback controversies and people lose their job to younger players who haven't started games. And that's why I wanted to bring this up. There are three quarterbacks since Brad Banks that have lost their job at Iowa. quarterbacks sent Brad Banks that have lost their job at Iowa. It started with Nathan Chandler. It was Jake Christensen and then Jake Ruddock. James Vandenberg is an interesting case. He didn't lose his job by any means, but there's also, you know, wasn't exactly a surefire candidate behind him necessarily, right? Jake Ruddock, again, also lost his job. So three people have
Starting point is 00:18:44 lost their job. And again, you look at it statistically speaking, Spencer Petras is more in line with a Nate Chandler, with a Jake Rudolph or a Jake Christensen than he is with a CJ Beathard, who was a year older, to be fair, or a Drew Tate or even a James Vandenberg. When you look at it from a touchdown to interception number as well, Spencer Petras, not up to the Nate Stanley or the James Vandenberg numbers as we've seen them in their first years. Or even the C.J. Beathard numbers. 17-5 with C.J. Beathard. Nate Stanley, 26-6.
Starting point is 00:19:17 James Vandenberg, 25-7 versus Spencer Petras, which is 15-8. And again, a lot of that can be traced back to his first couple games. Definitely improved as he went on, but not as much as you would hope. And then factor in the fact that Spencer had probably one of the best wide receiver groups in the history of the program at that time and was still unable to be as successful as you would have liked to have seen. Now, one thing to also note, Nate Stanley played as a true sophomore. CJ Beathard, I believe, was a junior at the time.
Starting point is 00:19:50 Jake Ruddock was a junior. No, he was a sophomore, excuse me. James Vandenberg was a junior. I think even maybe a red shirt junior there. Ricky Stanzi was a true sophomore. Jake Christensen, I believe, was a sophomore. Drew Tate, sophomore. Nathan Chandler, either sophomore or junior. But again, the reason why I pointed that out is the fact that
Starting point is 00:20:11 the only stat that Spencer Petras looked good in was yards. Completion percentage, bottom half, bottom third. TDs, very bottom. Interceptions, bottom half. QB rating, bottom two. And the people he's matching up with are the guys who had their jobs taken. And then you factor in who was behind those guys. Nathan Chandler, behind Texan Drew Tate. Jake Christensen, behind him. Very confident, high moxie player Ricky Stanzi. Jake Ruddock, behind him.
Starting point is 00:20:44 NFL quarterback and very confident player Sh Shadid Beathard. That's some similar traits there as well. And then you look at Alex Padilla and Deuce Hogan, and I don't want to write off Alex Padilla because he's clearly the number two for a reason, but we have a full offseason, and you look at a guy like Deuce Hogan, who is a high moxie kind of guy. He's a very confident player. And I'm not saying Spencer isn't.
Starting point is 00:21:09 I'm not saying that Alex Padilla isn't. I'm just trying to point out some similarities between the situation we're going through. Similarities between what we've seen in the past. And these high confidence guys have beaten out some of these guys who maybe haven't performed nearly as well. And it doesn't matter what your ranking is. Jake Christensen, a top 100 player, lost his job. Jake Ruddock, he was number 627, lost his job to Sidney Beathard, who was ranked in the top 1,000. So I mean, there are opportunities here. Jake Christensen, again, 86, lost his job to Ricky Sanzy at 422. Nate Chandler, I couldn't find his ranking,
Starting point is 00:21:42 but Drew Tate was ranked 215 and took his job. So there is a history of having this happen. Now, as you're going to listen to when we talk to Matt on our Wednesday show, this doesn't mean everything. We have a full offseason. Everyone has to compete, and the best player is going to play. Spencer Petras did not secure his starting role next year. And even if he technically had by the media standards, he still had to come out and compete because these other guys, Alex
Starting point is 00:22:10 Padilla, Deuce Hogan, Joey Labasse, they're going to be competing for that starting role and they're going to make Spencer better. And whoever wins that role rightfully earned it and deserved it. But I just want to point out some of the interesting similarities between Spencer and some of the other quarterbacks who maybe haven't had as much history in the Iowa Hawkeye football program because they lost their jobs and where his similarities match up. Again, we have a long offseason to talk all about this, but I wanted to at least break it down before we got to that conversation with Massey.
Starting point is 00:22:37 I had a little bit more context going into that conversation. That does it for segment number two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Coming up on segment number three, we're going to be getting into a few other news notes, breaking down that women's basketball game, talking about the wrestling schedule, and then wrapping up the show. Before we get into any of that, though, you know if you've listened to the show before, I love Bilt Bars. Bilt Bar is the best tasting protein bar on the market.
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Starting point is 00:23:55 and you'll get 20% off your next order. That's right. Use promo code LOCKEDON for 20% off at BuiltBar.com. All right, y'all. We do have some really awesome content coming up this week. I am going to be on vacation Thursday and Friday, but we'll still be dropping shows. They'll be a little bit prerecorded for those Thursday and Friday shows.
Starting point is 00:24:15 But tomorrow, we have the newest member of the Iowa Hawkeye football community, Leah Vann, the Cedar Rapids Gazette football beat writer. She's going to be hopping on the show talking all about her story. It's an amazing story. I think you're really going to enjoy it. She's an amazing addition to the Iowa Hawkeye football community. She's going to be doing some
Starting point is 00:24:35 really great stuff for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Coming up on Wednesday, we also have Matt Vandenberg joining the show to give us that recap, that breakdown of this Iowa Hawkeye football season, giving us a little bit of insight into that training approach for Pro Day. Also talking a bit about opting in, opting out, and why some should or should not do that. And then schooling me a little bit on what a true gray shirt means.
Starting point is 00:24:59 That was a fun conversation as well. Matt Vandenberg, as you all know, a fantastic guest we've had on throughout the season. He's back as well on Wednesday. So Leah tomorrow, Matt on Wednesday, and then more traditional Iowa Hawkeye content Thursday and Friday. But let's get into the rest of our show right now. So to wrap up our Monday morning episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, going to break down the women's basketball game versus Illinois, and then also talk a little bit about the
Starting point is 00:25:24 wrestling schedule because we finally got a schedule. And to be honest, there's not a lot to say other than the women absolutely dominated an Illinois basketball squad, 107-68. They got up to a 52-25 first half advantage, added 11 more in the third quarter, and then obviously coasted from there. Almost everyone got playing time in this game, which was phenomenal. Kaitlyn Clark, again, she got hers.
Starting point is 00:25:49 21 points, 7 of 16 shooting, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. McKenna Warnick, 18 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists. And Monica Chinano, 7 of 8 for 15 points and 4 rebounds. So again, Iowa's trifecta absolutely crushing it. Iowa shot 54% from the field and 42% from three, which is always going to make a huge difference. This women's basketball team, again, they've only had one loss this entire season,
Starting point is 00:26:11 and this is a team you need to be watching. I know it's tough to watch them on Big Ten Plus when they're typically featured, but whenever you get a chance to, make sure to check out this women's basketball team. Not only are we witnessing Lisa Bluter do it again, this team is currently ranked 34th in the AP poll, going to keep continuing to climb as they continue to win
Starting point is 00:26:29 these games. Obviously, that's how it works. And they get Minnesota this upcoming Wednesday evening at 6 p.m., so obviously another opportunity to add a win there against a struggling Minnesota squad. But again, this Iowa basketball team under Lisa Bluter is phenomenal to watch, a lot of fun, and Kaitlin Clark is probably the frontrunner, in my opinion, for Big Ten Player of the Year, if not a least freshman of the year and a future All-American, a future National Player of the Year candidate, which is not something you can say very often, but apparently Iowa has these people come through the program every single year as of late, so make sure to check out the women's basketball team. On the wrestling side, we finally got a schedule. So I'm going to break down the schedule quick and then give a few
Starting point is 00:27:07 tidbits and notes. January 15th is when Iowa kicks off getting Nebraska and at home. Uh, January 22nd, we get, you know, we're going to Minnesota, January 31st, we host Illinois and Michigan. We on February 7th, we go to West Lafayette to get Purdue and Ohio State. February 12th, we head to Happy Valley to get Penn State. February 19th, Northwestern at Northwestern. February 21st, Wisconsin at Wisconsin. So again, mostly a complete Big Ten slate there. The interesting thing, obviously, five dual meets, two kind of tri-meets to be a little bit interesting to see how that plays out, what the strategy goes into that.
Starting point is 00:27:47 The Big Ten Championships are taking place March 6th and 7th, followed by the National Wrestling Championships March 18th and 20th, which Iowa should undoubtedly be favored in at this point. Unfortunately, I know Hawkeye wrestling fans, we pack that arena easily at Carver, but there are no fans allowed throughout the season, only family members of student athletes. So unfortunately, that is not going to be something we're going to be able to watch, especially in a year where Iowa should once again be favored to win a national title, a national team title.
Starting point is 00:28:14 They return nine of 10 All-Americans from 2020, again, a year where they were favored significantly going into the national championships before that got canceled due to COVID. They return everyone except for Pat Lugo. That's Spencer Lee, Austin DeSanto, Caleb Young, Alex Marinelli, Michael Caramare, Abe Asad, Jacob Warner, and Tony Cassiope. They have a lot. And then when you think about the fact that Pat Lugo's eligibility has ended, he is gone. But in his place is Jaden Ironman of Missouri, a three-time All-American from Missouri, wanted to wrestle at Iowa.
Starting point is 00:28:48 He's traditionally wrestling at 141, but I think with Max Maron currently at 141, Ironman, it makes sense to move up to the next spot, taking over Pat Lugo's spot. In his only wrestle for three years, he's taken fifth, fourth, and third, respectively, at the national championships. So again, Iowa is replacing an All-American with another All-American. And this is another season where Iowa should come away as the national champions of collegiate wrestling. The only thing that could be interesting to watch out for is obviously the COVID issues. How does that impact different wrestling meets? We saw with football where we had multiple games canceled, not necessarily on the Iowa side until late in the season,
Starting point is 00:29:27 but across the regular season. How does that work with some of these wrestlers? How does it work with meets? Iowa, I do believe has, in my personal opinion, the most depth of all these wrestling programs. Not only do they have all these All-Americans returning, but they have a lot of depth as well. So that will be an advantage for Iowa,
Starting point is 00:29:42 especially in some of these other meets, maybe not Penn State, but other meets for them if they have any COVID issues. Obviously hoping that that doesn't happen, but you just never know in these times. You never know who might have to be out at any given time, but Iowa has a ton of depth to be able to handle that. So again, the women's basketball team crushing Illinois. They play Minnesota on Wednesday. The wrestling squad, they have their first meet in just under two weeks of taking on Nebraska. It's nice to see that wrestling team get back in the groove of things and carry home
Starting point is 00:30:10 what hopefully should be a national title for the Iowa wrestling squad. That will do it for our show today. Just a reminder that we have Leah Vann on the show tomorrow and we have Matt Vandenberg on the show on Wednesday, so stay tuned for that. If you love the show, give us that five-star review and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast app. And as always, folks, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We'll see you next time.

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