Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - How does the Iowa basketball team secure a double-bye with a tough schedule? | Iowa Hawkeyes podcast

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

The men's Iowa basketball team still has a shot at securing a coveted double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament in March, but they are going to need some help. We break down what Fran McCaffery's Iowa Hawkeye squad must do to get the 4th seed and what help they need from other teams to get them there as well as why it is so important to get that 4th seed.We finish up by discussing the women's basketball team and their disappointing loss last night to Maryland and how that hurt their chances at a Big Ten regular-season title. 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 “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline..net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, excited to be back for another show today. And on today's episode of the show, we're going to be talking about the Iowa men's basketball team and how they can secure a coveted double bye in the Big Ten tournament. It is not out of the realm of possibilities,

but they need some help along the way. We're also going to be talking about the Iowa women's basketball team. They took on Maryland last night. It was a disappointing loss for the women at Carver. So we're going to be talking about that, what went wrong, what went right, and what they need to improve on going forward. And finally, the Iowa Hawkeyes landed a recruit in the class of 2023. We'll briefly touch on that. We'll give you more details on that later on.

But first, I want to thank you all for making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. And today's episode is brought to you by rockauto.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need.

Visit rockauto.com and tell them what gone sent you so let's get into it sorry about hearing my mouth um let's get into it the men's basketball team has had a nice run the last couple of games since losing the penn state in double overtime they've reeled off three nice wins slow starts but great finishes and they've easily won those three games. The question now is, is this team trending up? Have they figured it out? Or is it just a product of the bad teams they have played, right? No one's sitting there saying, wow, you crushed Nebraska. Great job.

Great job, Fran. Great job, Iowa Hawkeyes. But there are some really nice takeaways from those games. Defensively, when they needed to, they locked down, especially against Maryland. I thought they locked down very, very nicely. Offensively, they're starting to figure out their group. They made that lineup change before that Minnesota game. Jordan Bohannon has looked really good in those minutes.

Joe Toussaint has looked great coming off the bench. We've seen Keegan Murray reach an even another level of play that we were We've seen Keegan Murray reaching even another level of play that we were not expecting for Keegan Murray. And it's just overall very impressive what Iowa has done the last three games. So coming up, they have a very important stretch for them. They have Michigan at Ohio State and versus Michigan State all in the span of five days. They then get at Nebraska versus Northwestern at Michigan at Illinois. Right now, Iowa is seven and six in the Big Ten Conference, and they are projected to go four and three the remaining seven games, which would put them at 11 and nine in a Big Ten Conference play.

That's good enough to get in the NCAA tournament. At that point, you're looking at probably a single buy in the Big Ten tournament, right? A sixth seed or maybe a seventh seed. But I want to talk to you about how does Iowa get a double buy? First and foremost, they need to win, right? Especially against Ohio State. I think Ohio State is a huge opportunity. Michigan State, they really can only afford to lose to Illinois if they want to be a top four team in the Big Ten so quickly though let's go through the rankings in the Big Ten you have Illinois at number one in Big Ten Conference play at Purdue at two Wisconsin at three let's go through records actually quickly 11 Illinois 11 and 3 Purdue 11 and 4 Wisconsin

10 and 4 Michigan State 9 and 4 Ohio State 8 4 ruckers 9 and 5 kind of shocked there eh iowa 7 and 6 michigan 7 and 6 and indiana 7 and 7 theoretically all those teams have an opportunity to secure a double buy the double buy is really important um first and foremost you get the time to rest, right? That is the biggest thing. If you are either playing the playing game or you're on the single buy, you have a game back to back to back. And it's tough to do that in the Big Ten.

It's tough to do that in any conference, but especially going up against maybe a nine or a ten seed in that first game and then turning right around and playing in Illinois or Purdue or Wisconsin or Michigan State is never an easy thing to do. and you're doing it with 24 hours of rest. So it makes it that much more difficult to turn things around for any basketball team. So getting a double bye gives you two days rest in that tournament. It then gives you a team that either has played either back-to-back games or a game yesterday within 24 hours, giving Iowa an easy road to getting to the championship game or at least the semifinals and then the championship game because the double bye gets you automatically into the quarterfinals.

That also helps out Iowa's tournament resume. Everything that Iowa's doing right now plays into Iowa playing in the tournament. At this point, I think it's safe to say Iowa should be in the NCAA tournament as long as they don't have a complete collapse in the next seven games. But where are they going to be seeded at in the NCAA tournament? That also is important as well. As we talked about with Trey Demps, maybe you're a seven seed and you end up playing a two seed in the second round. A two seed is really dependent on the matchups for if you can advance past that time, you get a six seed.

Now you're looking at a little bit easier of a matchup. You're not getting one of those top eight teams in the country. So that's really where it becomes incredibly important in that round of 32. A one is probably playing an eight. A two is playing a seven. A three is playing a six, right? And obviously there's opportunities for upsets along the way, but once you get into NCAA tournament time, that's also really important. So everything Iowa's doing now, yes, the record matters for NCAA tournament. It also matters for the Big Ten tournament, and the Big Ten tournament matters for the NCAA tournament. So it's all cascading on top of each other to get Iowa into a good position to go far.

And as we talked about with Trey Demps, he feels like this is a team that could actually make a run given the right matchups. And that is a very key thing. As we saw last year with Iowa versus Oregon, it was the perfectly imperfect matchup for Iowa. Oregon, small, quick, and could shoot. And they got hot in that game. Iowa banged up, not as athletic, couldn't shoot the ball as well that day, and they fell in the

second round, a disappointing exit for the Iowa basketball team, given how much high hopes we had going into that season. One of the best teams Fran McCaffrey has had, if not the best team Fran McCaffrey has had in his entire career with the Iowa Hawkeyes and across college basketball. Coming up, we're going to talk more about the actual teams and what needs to happen for Iowa to make a run. So we're going to be talking about that here in a few short moments. But first, I want to remind you that BetOnline.net has you covered throughout basketball season. I know football is over, but basketball is full steam ahead. We got pro and we got college hoops every single night,

and you can make all of your bets at BetOnline.net. From all the latest odds, totals, player performance props to where the next fired coach is going to land, BetOnline.net is the number one spot for all of your sports betting needs. BetOnline.net remains the best spot for all of your sports scores, podcasts, and news this season. And it's not just basketball. BetOnline.net is your source spot for all of your sports scores, podcasts, and news this season. And it's not just basketball. BetOnline.net is your source for hockey, boxing, and UFC odds, right down to Olympic coverage and information as well.

I told you last week I placed a bet on Sean White to win the gold. It was an unfortunate ending for the greatest snowboarder in Olympic history. However, I placed that bet on BetOnline.net because I trust BetOnline.net with all my betting needs. So head over to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. BetOnline.net, it's where the game starts. All right, y'all. And I want to say thank you again for making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first

listen every single day. You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. So let's get into it. We talked about why it's important to go into the Big Ten tournament and having a double bye, why it's so coveted amongst these teams. Let's talk about how Iowa can actually get there. So there's projections coming out each and every day, statistical projections. The models say Iowa has the best chance of finishing seventh in the conference there is a 10% chance though they get fourth they're basically out of contention

for first and second and I'll explain why here in a second so again we talked about the big 10 conference standings and when you look at it excuse me sorry I have a I don't know why I have a hair in my mouth but when you look at the conference standings, again, Illinois, Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Ohio State, Rutgers, and Iowa. Illinois has a very nice schedule. They are projected to go five and one, which would put them at 16 and four, which would give them either the conference title or a share of the conference title, depending on how Purdue finishes out. They have at Rutgers, at Michigan State versus Ohio State, at Michigan versus Penn State versus Iowa. So not the easiest schedule by any means, right?

We've seen what teams have done at Rutgers. At Michigan State, it's not easy. Versus Ohio State, Ohio State's a solid basketball team, and they get Iowa. So it's not a done deal here, but you expect them to probably win those games. They've had some injury problems, but they're getting healthier.

Purdue, projected to go 5-0. At Northwestern, burst Rutgers. At Michigan State, at Wisconsin, burst Indiana. You expect them to probably go 4-1 at the very bare minimum there. Wisconsin, and the tough part about these top three teams is Iowa lost to Purdue twice. Iowa lost to Wisconsin once. So you really need Iowa to get a game ahead of them to be able to break in that tiebreaker situation. But Wisconsin has at Indiana, versus Michigan at Minnesota, at Rutgers versus Purdue, and versus Nebraska.

They're projected to go three and four down the stretch, or they could go three and four down the stretch. They're projected to go four or two in that stretch. We'll put them at 16 and six. So again, we talked about what to expect for this Wisconsin team. I would expect Illinois, Purdue, and Wisconsin. They're in a good spot to really get those top three seeds. So really, to me, it's up to those last four seeds. And it is not going to be easy. Michigan State has a very tough schedule. That's the four seed right now. They are currently 9-4, and Iowa plays them once. So there's an opportunity there for Iowa to get that tiebreaker, give them a loss, and you look at their schedule,

and you have to feel pretty good about Michigan State's schedule. At Penn State, not an easy game. We've seen that to this point. Versus Illinois, could be a loss. At Iowa, could be a loss. Versus Purdue, could be a loss. At Iowa, could be a loss. Versus Purdue, could be a loss. At Michigan, could be a loss. At Ohio State, the only game I look there and I say this definitely, without a doubt, should be a win is versus Maryland at the end of the season. All right, so you look at that, and that is one, two, three, four, five, six losses. That would put

Michigan, say, at a 10 and 10 record at the end of the season they have a very difficult stretch down here coming up in the next couple of games very very difficult ohio state pretty easy first minnesota first iowa first indiana they got three home games at illinois at maryland first nebraska first michigan state first michigan they're at Maryland versus Nebraska versus Michigan State versus Michigan. They're currently 8-4. They're projected to go 7-1 in the remaining eight games. However, maybe they drop a few games, right? But versus Iowa is not a gimme by any means. Indiana is not a gimme.

Indiana has been solid throughout the season. At Illinois, tough. Versus Michigan State versus Michigan. Michigan was projected to be a top-ten team coming into the season. So if they can go 4-4, will really help out iowa in this situation ruckers is nine and five a little bit unexpected but they're projected to go one and five in the remaining six games to finish out at 10 and 10 if illinois at home at purdue at michigan wisconsin at home at indiana can stay at home not they've been really good at home for Rutgers, but on the road, not as much. So an opportunity there as well.

So really when you're looking at this, Ohio State is the biggest competitor for that four seed for Iowa. Iowa now seven and six. They're projected to go four and three in the remaining seven games. First Michigan, projected to be a win. At Ohio State, projected to be a loss. First Michigan State, a win. At Nebraska, a win. First Northwest to be a win. At Ohio State, projected to be a loss. First Michigan State, a win. At Nebraska, a win.

First Northwestern, a win. At Michigan, at Illinois, both losses. So that puts them at 11-9. Now we just talked about Ohio State. If they go 7-1, they'll be 15-5. Iowa's not going to get into the tournament that way, or get into the big-time tournament as a four seed. But I think it's very realistic to see Ohio State go four and four.

Iowa needs to beat Ohio State. So these next three games are really crucial for Iowa's ability to get to that number four seed. You beat Michigan, you beat Ohio State on the road in a shocking upset, and you beat Michigan State, you get Nebraska. That's four games. Iowa is now 11-6. Ohio State has five losses at this point. Now you're just hoping for a loss to an Illinois or a loss to a Michigan State or Michigan.

And Iowa is in the driver's seat over Ohio State. So that's how that game becomes even more important. Now what if Iowa loses to Ohio State? Well, basically you have to kind of win out at that point to have a one-game advantage over Ohio State. If Ohio State goes 4-4, they're put at that 12-8 spot. If Iowa loses to Ohio State but they win the rest of their games, they're still sitting at 13-7, which is going to be better than that 12-8 record. So Iowa basically, if they want any wiggle room, right, to lose any of their games down the stretch,

they need to beat Ohio State on Saturday. That would allow them to potentially have two losses over the next seven games and still make a number four seed. Again, you look at Michigan State, you need to beat Michigan State. Michigan's right on their tails as well. You need to beat Michigan. Maybe you lose at Michigan, right? I to beat michigan maybe you lose at michigan right i think that's that's okay you lose at illinois so maybe you drop those last two games but you win your next five games iowa should be the number four seed michigan is currently sitting

right behind iowa at seven and six again they have two games left for iowa they're projected to go three and four which would put them at ten and ten. If Iowa beats them, we're fine there, right? So Rutgers projected to go one and five, finishing at 10 and 10. Michigan, seven and six, projected to go three and four, finishing at 10 and 10. Michigan State, projected to go three and four, finishing at 12 and eight, but maybe they lose a game, all right? If Iowa beats Michigan State, Michigan State's 12 and eight, Iowa's going to get over them Michigan State's 12 and 8 I was gonna get over them if I was 12 and 8 as well Ohio State is really the key here you need Ohio State to go 4 and 4 you are basically the rest of season root

against Ohio State you want to root against Michigan State and Rutgers off this point Illinois Purdue Wisconsin who the heck cares this point they're going to be in we want to root against those other teams for Iowa to get an opportunity. As these games happen, as things pop up, we'll make sure to cover all that right here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Coming up, we're going to be talking about this women's basketball team and the disappointing loss they suffered last night versus Maryland. Not a lot of fun in that game. So we're going to be talking about all that here in a few short moments short moments but first this episode is brought to you by rockauto.com and I wanted to remind you that because with the ever-increasing numbers of makes and models it is now impossible for your

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I didn't have to go to a brick-and-mortar store. I didn't have to wait while the person behind the counter chooses whatever parts they feel like are the best and i got to have a big selection while i use rockauto.com's remarkably easy to navigate website so if you need some parts or something for your car go to rockauto.com right now and see all the parts available for your car or truck right locked on and their how did you hear about us box so they know that we sent you amazing selection reliably low, all the parts your car will ever need, rockauto.com. All right, y'all, we talked about the men's basketball team. It's now time to talk about the Iowa women's basketball team.

Before we get to that, though, I wanted to quickly make sure you knew that the Iowa football team did land a top recruit for them. Six foot four, 260 pound defensive end, Chase Brackney in the class of 2023. Same high school as Alice Padilla and Cherry Creek. So I'm going to try to get out there and watch him play football this upcoming fall. But not ranked currently by 24-7 sports. However, that does not mean he is not a good player. More than likely when the new rankings come out, he'll probably be a three star or high three star type player. Already has offers, when the new rankings come out, he'll probably be a three-star or high three-star type player.

Already has offers from USC, Nebraska, and Colorado. So his recruiting process is certainly picking up as we speak. And again, as more information comes out, as we can get a chance to look at some of the tape, we'll be breaking that down right here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. And we'll be dropping a one-minute teaser video on our YouTube channel as well that you can quickly watch to get a highlight or an update on what Chase Brackney brings to the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The fourth commit in this class of 2023, though, I expect there to be a few more over the next couple of months. Let's get into Iowa women's basketball, though. Last night, taking on Maryland, and it was a game that they absolutely needed to win. With Indiana losing to Nebraska, which was unexpected but very exciting, Iowa had an opportunity to really control their own destiny going forward to win the Big Ten Conference title. They failed. Point blank, they failed at doing that.

Kudos to Maryland. I thought they had a phenomenal game plan. They did a good job of hitting shots when they needed to, shooting 45% from three, with several of those threes coming when Iowa was making a run, a 7-0 run, a 10-0 run. Maryland knocked down a three

and built that lead up again. Just a really kind of gross game, though, for this women's basketball team. They did technically commit the same amount of turnovers as Maryland 19-19, but really iowa's turnovers were sloppy right i i cannot i cannot tell you how many times i counted them i think it might have been eight or nine entry luck entry any sorry entry feeds to the post where our post players would drop it or our guard who was cutting to the basket would drop it and go out of bounds probably eight or nine times those things have got to get cleaned up

rebounding was atrocious iowa got out rebounded 47 to 31 and it wasn't like maryland was just towering over iowa iowa was in good position they just couldn't get the basket. They couldn't get the basketball. A great example of just how ridiculous some of these things were, there was a ball that bounced off the rim late in the game. Kaitlin Clark and Monica Shinano went towards the ball, bounced off Monica's hands, went out of bounds. I mean, this was going on throughout the game. So a very infuriating game to watch, nonetheless.

And I thought the officiating was very interesting as well. Basically, a WWE match. Kaitlyn Clark was having tons of problems getting into the lane, getting shoved, pushed. One of the plays, she got tripped, got the basketball, and then went down and drained a three. No call. one of the later turnovers to kind of seal the deal she got ran over i just i don't understand uh what the officials are exactly watching this game and it wasn't just on and against iowa there were several of these things against maryland too but it was just such a weird

game to watch they get iowa dropping a game they absolutely had to have. And with Maryland having star guard Ashley Owusu out, this was a prime opportunity for the Hawks to get a signature win, which they have not gotten this entire year. They have no signature wins on the resume. It didn't help that McKenna Warnock is still not in this game, and we expected her to probably be back, but turns out she was not. But now Iowa has two games versus Indiana coming up.

Those are very crucial games. They're going to need some help in addition to those games to be able to win a Big Ten title. But we'll see how that all plays out. One of the more interesting things I thought from this game, though how how Maryland was guarding Caitlin Clark now the way Maryland guarded Caitlin Clark is not going to be reminiscent of how other teams can guard Caitlin Clark because Maryland has tall long lean defenders who can guard quick guards so they had a six foot three lady on Caitlin Clark they were guarding her five feet outside of the three-point line really not giving Caitlin Clark any opportunity to shoot threes and with their ability their size or length they're able to close out on some of the three-point line, really not giving Kaitlyn Clark any opportunity to shoot threes, and with their ability, their size, their length, they're able to close out on some of the three-point shots, so really impacting Kaitlyn Clark a little bit there, and honestly, Kaitlyn Clark just didn't

have a great night. Things just were not falling for her at all. There were several times where balls would go in the basket and bounce out, it seemed like, three or four rim outs on three-point shots. Kaitlyn Clark finished with 19 points on 7 of 25 shooting, 3 of 13 from 3. Six rebounds, six assists, one steal. Ten turnovers. I would argue those ten turnovers, five of them or six of them, were just dropped balls into the post. So don't look too much into that but just

a disappointing game all around for the iowa hawkeye women's squad no one else could really get going monica had 16 points but was struggling with foul trouble throughout the game did finish on 16 points of 7-10 shooting but did ultimately foul out kate martin was in foul trouble as well with four fouls but finished with 10 points we got some decent minutes from allison brady i thought who's a true freshman eight points in this game six rebounds two steals uh in 13 minutes of play i would love to see a little bit more of allison brady really was impressed by what we saw from her um interesting enough kylie firebuck a big time transfer from iowa state this past season only getting five minutes in this game so really interesting to see kind of how her minutes have slipped a little bit the rotation kind of switching up for her um in in this iowa hawkeyes

lineup obviously not the best game though for the women's team they needed that win they did not get that win and now it's time to turn their attention to indiana where they have an opportunity to get a signature win and put themselves back into the contention to possibly win a big 10 conference or regular season conference title. Coming up on tomorrow's show, David Deani, Coach David Deani of the Iowa Women's Soccer Team is joining us on the show, so you definitely got to check out that episode. Really enjoyed talking to him.

The YouTube show will drop tonight at 5 p.m., and the podcast will drop tomorrow morning, so be on the lookout for that. And I want to remind you, if you want more Locked On content and you want to know how to bet on any games today, check out the Locked On Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping us for at least a link to Paramount Sports. They do a great job of breaking down three to four games every single day, so you can put some money in your pocket by going to betonline.net. That does do it for our show today.

Have a fantastic Tuesday, y'all. And as always, Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks.