Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawks rise in AP Top-25 | Wrestling team remains undefeated | Hawks secure two football commitments

Episode Date: February 5, 2019

The Hawks are rising in the AP Top-25 poll after their big win over Michigan, but how far can they go? Also, why is Iowa State ranked ahead of them? We discuss this plus we talk about Joe Wieskamp winning Big Ten Freshman of the Week again. Segment number two has us covering all of the Hawkeye sports that are currently in session including wrestling, women's basketball, and gymnastics. To wrap up today's show we talk about a few commitments Iowa received today as well as a way too early preview of the class of 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast featuring everything you want to know about your University of Iowa Hawkeyes. I'm your host Andrew Wade, editor over at dearoldgold.com, part of the fan-sided network, and you can find all things black and yellow analysis pieces on there. I write a ton of content on there, so it only makes sense to also transition some of that information and knowledge over into podcast form on the Locked On Sports Network. If you missed our episode from yesterday, make sure you take a look.

We had a fantastic conversation talking about takeaways from Iowa versus Michigan, talking a little bit about, you know, Fran McCaffrey and what, you know, folks think about him and whether or not that should be the right way to go about it. And then we also talked about recruiting. Obviously, with signing day coming up tomorrow, that is huge on Iowa and their coaching staff's kind of forefront. They're looking at what can they do to wrap up and solidify that class. So make sure you tune into yesterday's episode if you want to find out about a few of the targets that are still outstanding for the Iowa Hawkeyes. That being said, we do have some news to cover today about recruiting, but we're going to get to that in just a second.

On segment number one for today, we're going to be talking about the Iowa men's basketball team. Rankings came out today and also some big news for Joe Weiskamp, so we want to cover that. Also, some big news for Joe Weiskamp, so I want to cover that. On segment number two, we're going to be talking about Iowa Hawkeye sports as a whole, covering women's basketball, wrestling, gymnastics, tennis, you name it. We're going to give you the lowdown on what has happened recently and what's upcoming for those sports. That way you can stay in the know. And then finally, on segment number three, we're going to be covering recruiting.

There was one big commitment today from a person in the class of 2019. There was also a commitment from the class of 2020. And we're also going to be talking about another prospect who could be making a decision on Wednesday to commit to the Iowa Hawkeyes football program. Before we jump into segment number one, though, make sure you're subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And if you have a smart speaker at home, it's that easy to listen to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

All you need to do is tell Siri, Google, or Alexa to play podcast Lockdown Hawkeyes. It's that easy to listen to every episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. That being said though, let's jump right into it. As you probably gathered, we have an action-packed episode. Want to make sure we have plenty of time to cover all the topics on the agenda for today. So that being said, the Iowa men's basketball team, they came off a big win against number five Michigan this past week. That was awesome.

As everyone could expect, they were going to jump right back into the top 25. Funny enough, I remember seeing a tweet this past week. Someone, you know, an Iowa basketball fan was saying there's no way Iowa finishes in the top 25 or even hits a top 25 the rest of the season. I thought that was really interesting for a couple reasons. Obviously, Iowa had a lot more games to play. They've only lost five games to that point. And to just basically say there's no chance Iowa bounces in the top 25 the rest of the season was a little bit ridiculous. And as we've seen a week later, that tweet did not age very well. Because Iowa is ranked 20th in the nation after that big win. They jumped up six spots, coming up from 26th in the nation. So we're still in the bubble last week, even after losses to Michigan State and Minnesota. But again, beating Michigan prompts

them up into top 20 status. One of the interesting things I wanted to cover, though, that I find kind of interesting is that Iowa State is 17th. All right, so Iowa, Iowa State have the exact same record. Iowa beat Iowa State. Now granted, Iowa State had a win against Kansas. They also had a win against Texas Tech. But Texas Tech is not the same Texas Tech team that Iowa State beat earlier. Texas Tech was ranked 8th. They're now ranked 18th.

Kansas is not the same Kansas team that everyone thought they were going to be. So despite getting a top five win, Kansas is now 13th in the nation, and they have five losses as well. So those losses, or those wins, sorry, excuse me, are not aging as well as we would have thought they have. And so it's kind of interesting to me to see Iowa State still a little bit above Iowa. And I know the game that Iowa State played, that was in December. A lot has changed since then. Iowa State had some injuries.

They were getting some guys back into the rotation. Meanwhile, Iowa came out ready to kick some butt after losing to Michigan State and Wisconsin earlier that week. But just again, a little interesting to see kind of how the dynamics of that top 25 ranking plays out. And it really doesn't have that big of an impact overall. I mean, it's nice to see. It gives you a good idea about where Iowa could potentially be slotted in terms of the NCAA tournament. At this point, you know, top 20, that's looking at like a five or six seed. So as they continue to win, and I think there's a very good chance. I mean, their schedule isn't easy by any means. I mean, the Big Ten Conference is not easy. However,

these games are all winnable games. There's not a Michigan State or a Michigan left on the schedule. So that bodes pretty well for Iowa. Have some, I would say, pretty winnable games, especially at home. I mean, they're going to get, let me confirm this, but I believe they get Northwestern and Penn State at home in the coming weeks. Sorry, they get Northwestern at home. They go on the road against Rutgers, not exactly a huge game. They have Indiana coming to Carver, which is going to be a kind of interesting game just because Indiana struggled as of late. They have Rutgers at home as well. So right there, you have Rutgers, Indiana,

and Northwestern at home. You know, Iowa plays pretty well at Carver. Those should be wins. They also take on number 24, Maryland at home. That'll be a really fun game to watch. And then they have a couple road games, which will be a little bit more difficult. But regardless, I still expect Iowa to kind of stick around that top 25. And if they can go on a run like they did, you know, just a few weeks ago, there's a chance that we're talking about Iowa as a three or four seed. I mean, they have that much talent. They have the ability to be that kind of a team. It's just a matter of putting it all together consistently. In other news for Iowa basketball, though,

Joe Wieskamp, star freshman, received Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors after his fantastic performance against Michigan, going 6 of 10, getting 16 points. I believe he brought in 7 rebounds, had 5 steals and 2 assists, so fantastic for him. That's his actual second honor of the year, so pretty outstanding for Joe Wieskamp. Obviously, we had some pretty high expectations of him coming into the season, being a top 60 recruit, being a four-star recruit, and being the third highest-ranked recruit ever in Iowa basketball history

since they've been tracking that information. So awesome to see that. I mean, he's going to be a star, and we talked about that on yesterday's show. Joe Wieskamp's going to be a star. We talked about that on yesterday's show. Joe Wieskamp's going to be a star. And Iowa has a lot of things going for it with Joe Wieskamp sticking around, obviously, sticking around and being here for hopefully another year or two. kind of point guard and running the point from that spot. The Luka Garza has been fantastic at that center position. So there's a lot of things that are kind of going in Iowa's favor, not just this year, but in the future and coming seasons. But that'll wrap it up for segment number one. Just wanted to give you a recap of where Iowa is,

kind of my thoughts on the ranking and kind of what to expect going forward. Just a reminder, on segment number two, we are going to be talking about Iowa Hawkeye Athletics talking about the wrestling team the tennis team and women's basketball so make sure to stay tuned for that piece of the show segment number two as we jump into a few messages from our sponsors all right we are back after those messages from our sponsors. And like I said, for segment number two, we're going to be covering what is going on in Iowa Hawkeye Athletics.

Just a reminder that in segment number three, we are going to be talking about recruiting and a few of the commitments that Iowa has gotten over the past couple days and what to expect over the coming days. Just like I said, yesterday we covered, you know, overall where's Iowa at in recruiting, who's left there, who are they really recruiting for that class 2019 to kind of round that out.

And over the next couple days, we're going to be providing you kind of the late-breaking news as it's getting announced, letting you know what recruits are committing to the Iowa Hawkeye football program. But segment number two, lots of stuff to cover, lots of sports in play, starting with women's basketball. Their game on Thursday was canceled against Michigan, lots of bad weather, obviously the polar vortex and that cold weather, not exactly conducive to getting people out and safely getting to games. So they canceled the game on Thursday, rescheduled

it to Friday. Iowa did lose to Michigan, but they rebounded pretty quickly and knocked off Penn State in Pennsylvania, 81-61 Sunday. So fantastic performance by the women. As expected, Megan Gustafson had a fantastic game. She scored 30 points and brought in 11 rebounds and also had three blocks, shot 13 of 18, while Mackenzie Meyer put up 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting. So good job, women. They are taking on the Michigan State Spartans Thursday at Carver Hawkeye Arena,

so make sure to check out that game. Make sure to get tickets if you're in the Iowa City area. Like I've said multiple times on the show, you do not want to miss this women's basketball team. They are a very strong team, and led by Gustafson, they have the opportunity to go pretty far in the NCAA tournament. The wrestling team continued their winning streak. They are now 11-0 after beating the 11th ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers. They won 20-13. And Iowa has moved up to third in the nation after starting 11-0. They are back in action Friday against unranked Maryland. And one thing I wanted to call out, I love this night. I reposted it on LockedOnIowa's Twitter account.

Make sure you're following us there. Austin Santo, that guy's a little crazy, got some balls. Against Nebraska, he picked up his guy, gave a thumbs up to Nebraska as he was carrying him, and just chucked him to the ground to win the match, and then had the audacity to really just kind of call out the entire Nebraska fan base. So that guy is nuts. Love to see that kind of stuff, though. I mean, yeah, it's a little bit taunting,

and that's probably not appropriate in college athletics, but it's still a little bit exciting. I love to see the energy and kind of Baker Mayfield-esque in a sense. I mean, I love to see guys have that confidence and that swagger to do some stuff like that. So fun to see. The men, like I said, are taking on Maryland on Friday night. So stay tuned for information on that. The ninth-ranked men's gymnastics team, they actually split their home opener against No. 6 Minnesota, losing to Minnesota and beating UIC.

The Hawks were in first place after three events, but they ultimately fell behind as 2018 NCAA runner-up Shane Wiskus from Minnesota kind of, let's be honest, he just kicked butt the rest of the way through and really carried Minnesota to victory there. But fantastic to see the men's gymnastic team, you know, get off to at least a decent start in the opening part of the season. It's going to be fun to watch them continue this as they go on. The 2-4 women's gymnastic team, they lost to Ohio State, and I can only imagine to be one of the closest scores ever. They lost 195

to 194.775. So, fair evenly, even match. They lost that, unfortunately. Big, big contest coming up. Women's tennis, they are 4-0 right now, and they take on Iowa State Friday. And, big contest coming up. Women's tennis. They are 4-0 right now, and they take on Iowa State Friday. And as you've heard us talk about before, the Seahawks series is a huge deal,

and this would be a huge win for the women's tennis team. Although Iowa really has a lot of leeway, they built up a pretty big margin in that Seahawks series. That being said, it would be awesome to stomp our in-state rival Iowa State again in another sport on Friday night. The women's swimming and diving team, they finished their regular season 6-6. They beat Northern Iowa and Western Illinois in a meet this past week, and they're getting ready for the Big Ten Championship starting February 20th. So stay tuned for information on that. We'll

try to give you some previews of that and who we can expect to hopefully maybe take home some championships in the Big Ten Championship. The men's tennis team is also off to a hot start. They are currently 5-0 and they are taking on Miami this Friday in Iowa City. So hopefully get a big win there. Get that season 6-0 before they kind of really jump into that Big Ten Conference schedule. And the softball team is back in action. They are here for their first game of the season this weekend in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They are in the 2019 Tiger Classic, which, like I said, kicks off this Friday. They have four games scheduled in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So some fun stuff coming up for the softball team.

And the men's baseball team actually, you know, kicked off practice this past week. Lots of snow on the ground. I'm assuming, I hope, they were indoors for a lot of the past couple weeks. They actually are not playing this upcoming weekend, but they are going to be playing in the Diamond Nine Sunshade State Classic Series February 15th in Kissimmee, Florida. So that's kind of when their season kicks off. And then they have a pretty fun four-game series against Hawaii in Honolulu. That'll be fun for the men to get going there. Rick Keller has a fantastic squad put together again.

Although they lost a few of their top hitters, a lot of high expectations for an Iowa baseball team that has shown that regardless of who they are losing, Heller Ball can really get them to some new heights. So fun to see them kick off some of those sports. We'll obviously be keeping you posted on how each of those sports are doing on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. That'll do it, though, for segment number two. Just a reminder that on segment number three, we're going to be talking about recruiting. So that'll be coming up here in just a few moments after a few messages from our sponsors.

All right, we are back with segment number three after those messages from our sponsors. Thank you again for everyone who is sponsoring the show. We really appreciate it. It helps us do what we do and provide you fantastic content on a daily basis. Just a reminder, segment number three, we're going to be talking about recruitment, and that's really going to be the theme of this week. As things pop up, we're going to be letting you know about it. So if you love recruitment, if you love hearing about the future of the Iowa Hawkeye football program. Check out yesterday's podcast.

We covered some of the guys that are outstanding in the class of 2019. A few commitments. We actually got Michael Sleep Dalton, the punter from Arizona State. That's huge for the Hawks, especially because their punting game was so weak this past season. That happened yesterday. We also got a commitment today. Actually, two commitments if you look at the class of 2020. So let's cover that.

In addition, we also found out another guy is going to be committing, hopefully committing, on Wednesday when he announces his decision. So let's start off with Jamari Harris, three-star safety from Illinois. He is the 43rd highest ranked player in the state of Illinois. This is really a guy that a lot of recruiting pundits kind of think that he's going to be filling that role of that cash role that Imani Hooker played. Not necessarily this season. There's a few guys who can take on that role this season, but in the future, that's kind of where they have him projected at. So, a fantastic grab by Iowa late in the recruiting process. I mean, they didn't really start recruiting him until the last couple weeks. Love to see that. He actually had a

really, you know really kind of a Q, not Q is the right word, but a nice post on Twitter, thanking people. I wanted to read that to you just to hear what kind of guy Jamari Harris is. He says, First, I would like to say thank you to my mother.

Without her and her sacrifices for my sisters and I, I wouldn't be able to be in the position I'm in. Next, I'd like to able to be in the position I'm in. Next, I'd like to thank everyone who's helped me. Without the help and encouragement from you all, I wouldn't be where I am with the great people I am with. I'd like to thank all the coaches who recruited me through this process and believed in my talents. Thus being said, I'm 100% committed to the University of Iowa.

So, awesome news. Good grab by Iowa late in the game. Love to see that kind of commitment on the Iowa football staff to reel in those guys last second. Another guy they're hoping to reel in last second is Tajier McColl, defensive end from Florida. He's a two-star recruit, getting some late interest from a couple different schools, including the Hawks.

He is expected to announce his decision Wednesday on February 6th during the signing period. I do strongly feel like he's going to be coming to the Hawks. A lot of the reports out there is that he had a successful visit this past weekend with Iowa, loves the campus, loves the university, and Iowa is his biggest offer to date. I'm hoping he makes that commitment. Iowa needs some depth on the defensive line. I know he's a young player, two-star recruit, probably going to need some

time to develop in the Iowa Hawkeye football program, but the Hawks need some depth down there. Also on the recruiting front, the class of 2020 received another commitment. Council Bluffs defensive lineman Logan Jones, a three-star prospect. He's ranked 585th nationally. Big get for the Hawks. Again, bolstering that defensive line depth. Good prospect to grab, especially so early in the game. And, you know, watch out for the Hawks.

They're putting up a pretty darn good class so far. Their class of 2020 is currently ranked 14th in the nation. Obviously led by four-star quarterback Deuce Hogan from Grapevine, Texas. Plus, they have a few other top 600 players. And right now, that class is good enough for fifth in the Big Ten, which is actually saying a lot about the Big Ten. Fourteen teams in the nation, sorry, thirteen teams in the nation, Iowa is behind. And they are behind four of those teams that are in the big 10 so big big get by the big 10 just getting you know good recruiting class started big big get for the Hawks for getting that you know Logan Jones out of Council Bluffs stealing

him out of really Nebraska's backyard kind of you know I know it's you think of Iowa you think of the state of Iowa you think why can't Iowa get those guys? But Counts of Bluffs, that's Nebraska territory. I mean, that's kind of a tough grab. And even then, it's somewhat Iowa State territory, especially if you look at kind of the general division of the state in terms of rooting interest. I mean, typically you see the western, northwestern part of the state is more Iowa State focused. The eastern part of the state is more Iowa focused. So a great grab by the Hawkeye coaching staff. We'll keep you posted on the kind of recruiting stuff that's going on over the next

couple days. Like I said, we expect to see a few more commitments. And then after that, we'll start diving right into the class of 2020. Like I said, there's some, we got some good prospects coming in already that are already committed to the Hawks. And as you know, Iowa likes to, they stay committed to their guys, especially if their guys stay committed to them. So I expect, you know, not a lot of movement around that. And then we'll take a look at, you know, what, what players are actually getting offers from the Hawks and where are the Hawks at in terms of recruiting those guys and where are they on the kind of list of priorities for those prospects. That being said though, that'll do it for our Tuesday morning episode. Again, I apologize for yesterday's episode getting out to you late,

but you'll have this morning's episode ready for your drive this morning. I hope you have a fantastic Tuesday, Hawkeye Nation. Just a reminder that you can follow me on Twitter, Wade underscore Andrew, and you can follow all the exciting happenings of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast on Twitter at Locked on Iowa. And make sure you're subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And please leave us a review.

Let us know what you think. You can also reach out to me with questions, comments, and suggestions at Locked on Hawkeyes at gmail.com. Thank you again for joining us on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and we'll be back tomorrow.