Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - How Iowa basketball can beat Purdue Boilermakers plus why removing divisions is great for B1G football

Episode Date: January 27, 2022

The Iowa basketball team takes on a top-10 Purdue Boilermaker basketball squad this evening, and we break down how this Iowa Hawkeye squad can leave victorious and what (if any) weak spots this Purdue team has. WIth Keagan Murray playing in this game, and with Purdue struggling on the road, is this an opportunity for a major upset and a quadrant one win for Iowa?We discuss that before diving into the news that the Big Ten is exploring the removal of divisions for Big Ten Football. We tell you why that is not only huge news but why it is the right move for the good of the conference.The show wraps up with a quick talk about retirement rumors for one Iowa Hawkeye offensive lineman.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.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.NetSuiteOver twenty-seven thousand businesses already use NetSuite and RIGHT NOW through the end of the year NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind financing program to those ready to upgrade at NetSuite.com/LOCKEDONNCAA.GetUpsideJust download the FREE GetUpside App and use promo code SCORE to get 25 cents per gallon or more cash back on your first tank. 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 a Thursday morning 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 on this beautiful Thursday. And on today's show, we're going to be giving you a preview of tonight's game, Iowa versus top 10 ranked Purdue.

We're also going to be talking about the rumor that one of Iowa's starting offensive linemen may be retiring from football. How does Iowa replace him? And finally, Gary Barta says some interesting stuff in an interview with Scott Dockerman saying the Big Ten could be scrapping divisions. So we're going to be breaking all of that down on today's show. Before we get to that, though, 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. So let's get into it. The men's basketball team has a big game tonight against Purdue. And it's interesting because last time they played Purdue, they didn't have Keegan Murray. And yet they almost won that game. They made it a game towards the end. They did not give up. They kept fighting, and doing that on the road against a very talented Purdue team is not very easy. They ultimately fell to Purdue 70-7, 270, the first loss of the season for the

Iowa Hawkeyes. In that game, kind of a collection of decent efforts from a couple players. Tony Perkins had 14 points on 4 of 9 shooting. We saw Chris Murray have 12 points on 3 of 6 shooting. And Patrick McCaffrey put together 15 points on 4 of 9 shooting. But ultimately, Iowa got out-rebounded pretty severely. A deficit of minus 12 rebounds. They did win the turnover battle. And that was pretty solid. But they ultimately had a significant amount of personal fouls.

Phil Brawcha fouling out, Chris Murray being in foul trouble, Aaron Ulis being in foul trouble. So across the board, not an overall great game for the Hawks, but the fact that they were able to keep that game pretty close without their star player is overall very impressive, mounting a 10-point surplus in quarter four to almost get that win against Purdue. So what do we expect in this game?

Well, Purdue on the road hasn't been the best team. When you look at their road games, right, there's been a lot of opportunities there for teams to take advantage of that. Indiana, they lost to Indiana on the road. They lost to Wisconsin at home. They lost to Rutgers on the road. They almost lost to Indiana on the road. They lost to Wisconsin at home. They lost to Rutgers on the road. They almost lost to Illinois. They beat them in double overtime on the road.

They barely beat Penn State 74-67 on the road, and they had to have an overtime victory over NC State at a neutral court to win 82-72 early on in the season. Purdue has not been as solid in games away from the Mackey Arena. Now, when you look at Purdue, it's tough to find a big weakness. Overall, they are a very strong team from top to bottom. They have a lot of players, and arguably their second string unit could probably be starting for most Big Ten teams. The fact that you have Travion Williams, a potential first-round draft pick,

coming off the bench is pretty darn impressive. So when you look at this team, the one thing that stands out is potentially their defense. 65th, according to Kempom, a defensive rating. They're not very good at forcing turnovers, and they're not great at defending the three. Now going up against an Iowa team that turns over the ball at a significantly low pace, which is phenomenal. An Iowa team that has the ability to get hot from three and an Iowa team that is one of the better offenses in the entire country, currently ranked sixth in offensive adjusted efficiency. There's an opportunity here for Iowa to get a signature win, a quad one win against one of the top teams in the country

against Purdue. They also have Keegan Murray returning. So there's a lot of opportunities here that Iowa didn't have in that past game. And now when you look at their previous games that they did lose him, there's a couple things that stand out to me. Steals and turnovers hurt them bad. But otherwise, the other teams didn't shoot overly well. The only team that did was Rutgers, who shot 50% for three. So there's opportunities here, and it plays really well into what Iowa does best. Defensively, they're not the best defensive team, but we've seen them pick up that defensive intensity. Turnover-wise, Iowa is one of the better teams in the country at forcing turnovers and stealing the ball.

47th in the country at steal percentage. So that is a very impressive rate. Now the things Iowa doesn't do well, Purdue does do well. So Iowa doesn't rebound overly. Struggled with that at times. Purdue, one of the better teams in the country in rebounding percentage. 8th in offensive rebounding percentage. 12th in defensive rebounding percentage.

And again, that last game, Iowa lost that rebounding battle pretty significantly. That's going to happen when you have such a big team like Purdue, the 18th tallest team in the country. At center, they got 7'4", 295-pound Zach Eadie. Coming in to replace him, they have 6'10", 255-pound Travion Williams. Caleb Furst is 6'10", 230-pound freshman. They have decent size and length at their perimeter player as well. And when you look at Purdue's offense, they do a lot of things really well.

They don't make a lot of mistakes. They can shoot the three really well. They can post up with two big men. And Travion is a phenomenal passer. So even if you try to double him, he's typically going to find the open outlet pass and get a good three-point opportunity. So Iowa has had two very good games defensively. If they want to win this game, they need to put together another good game defensively.

And you would like to see Jordan Bohannon, who had a very nice game last, or the last game against Penn State put it together and hit four or five threes in this game I also expect to see Joshua Gundelay in this game potentially Riley Mulvey as well Phillip Abracha is going to be overmatched against Travion Williams and Zach Eadie you need to have decent minutes from Josh and or Riley to be able to compete in this game. Otherwise, Purdue is going to destroy Iowa down low. So how does Iowa win? They force a lot of turnovers versus Purdue. They stop the perimeter shooting. They cannot let a guy like Sasha Strativic, Sasha Stefanovic, wow, I messed up that whole name, get hot from three. And this is a very strong three-point shooting team, and they need to get it going offensively. They need to be able to have some firepower of

their own. They need to be able to click when it comes to hitting shots and score probably 80 to 84 points to win against Purdue. When you look at Purdue, again, I mentioned the three-point shooting. Purdue has eight guys shooting over 35% from three and another one, Brandon Newman, has eight guys shooting over 35% from three. And another one, Brandon Newman, who was a freshman last year, shooting 32.5% from three this year, shot 38% last year. So it's going to be interesting. Jaden Ivey, also a big time player for Purdue, seems like he is going to be suiting up and playing. Also worth noting that Mason Gillis, their starting power forward was not really in full condition and best shape against Iowa. The first time they played, he's also gonna be back in this game.

So while we have Keegan Murray back, they also have a couple of guys back as well, um, from injury. So it'll be an interesting game. Currently, Iowa is getting two and a half points at home at Carver Hawkeye arena on Thursday evening tonight. Um, at this point I would struggle to take the two and a half, but I would definitely take the over at whatever you can get it at. I believe both these teams are going to be scoring the ball quite often in this game.

It'll be a good matchup, and as always, we'll be breaking it down on tomorrow's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, so stay tuned for that. Before we get into our next topic of conversation, Gary Barta is potentially scrapping, or the Big Ten is potentially scrapping divisions. So stay tuned for that. Before we get into our next topic of conversation, Gary Barta is potentially scrapping, or the Big Ten is potentially scrapping divisions. I first want to remind you that there is a situation that could be pretty costly to your organization.

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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 Gary Barta told The Athletic that the Big Ten could be scrapping divisions. And how they would do this is they would drop to eight games and drop divisions. They would potentially pick three games that you would definitely have, so three guaranteed matchups each year, and recycle the other five games between the other ten teams. So let me tell you why this is a great decision.

It makes a ton of sense. Now, it wouldn't always help out Iowa, especially since we've had the divisions kind of put in place, but it makes a ton of sense for the Big Ten. You drop to eight games, which gives you an extra game in the schedule that you can play against a Pac-12 team or an ACC team, expanding your market share, expanding the teams you're playing against, expanding the ability for you to show and showcase how good of a conference the Big Ten is, especially when you're going up

against the ACC and the Pac-12. It's going to be great for fans. I don't know about you, but I would love to be able to go to a game Iowa versus Arizona State down in Tempe. I would going to be great for fans. I don't know about you, but I would love to be able to go to a game, Iowa versus Arizona State down in Tempe. I would love to be able to go to the game, Iowa versus UCLA. Fans would get up for that. It'd be a great experience for the Hawks. Think about how many fans went to the Iowa-Maryland game this past year. We haven't had a lot of home games. We haven't had a lot of away games there.

So a really cool opportunity there. Furthermore, the media rights are expiring after the 2022 season. So it's a perfect and prime opportunity for the Big Ten to really discuss changing up the schedule, changing up the divisions. The most important piece of this, though, is the fact that this helps strengthen the Big Ten's appeal to the college football playoff, which we all know is basically a scam. And you need to be able to do everything perfect or beat Alabama or Georgia to be able to get in. So

unless you are Alabama or Georgia or any other team in the SEC, you're already put at a disadvantage. So the best advantage the Big Ten can do is to put their teams in a prime position to be able to make the Big Ten championship game. The best way to do that is to put the top two teams against each other for the conference championship at the end of the year. Now, that would mean that in this past season, it would have been Ohio State versus Michigan. That would have been a pretty fun Big Ten Championship game, arguably a lot better than what we saw Michigan versus Iowa.

Now, again, that hurts the Hawks some years, but in some years, it's not a problem. Think back to when Drew Tate was quarterback, Iowa had a share of the big 10 title. They could have had an opportunity to play them. And was it that Drew Tate years? I think, I think that was it. Yeah. The Drew Tate era, that would have been an opportunity for Iowa to play Ohio state in a big 10 championship game and give them another chance to maybe make a college football playoff. And then you think about how could this actually work, right? When the Big Ten tried to go to protected rivalries, Iowa lost out on the game versus Wisconsin.

But when you're protecting three games, honestly, it works for every single team except for Michigan. three games. Honestly, it works for every single team except for Michigan. Currently, Michigan has four rivalries currently scheduled or currently in their kind of rivalry playbook. They have four rivalries. So they would need to get rid of one of those on a consistent basis. But the other teams, for the most part, they all have three rivalries or they are missing a rivalry. So you look at Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue. All those teams only have two rivalry games. Rutgers has zero. So you have some opportunity here to create some rivalries, but also protect the most important rivalries. For Iowa, that would be arguably Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska.

Those would be Iowa's three rivalry games. If you get to play Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska plus Iowa State every single year, and then you get to cycle through five of the other 13 teams, or five of the other 10 teams on a yearly basis, that's a pretty darn good opportunity for Iowa to showcase what it wants to do, play a different variety of schedule, and honestly, it means you aren't playing Purdue every single year. And I'm very happy about that. I'm very happy about not playing Northwestern every single year. I would love to play Rutgers and Maryland just as much as we do play Purdue or Northwestern.

The other thing is that ninth game, that crossover game between the Pac-12 or the ACC allows for other rivalry games as well. Penn State versus Pitt, Penn State versus Syracuse, Maryland versus Virginia, or Maryland versus West Virginia, or even Colorado versus Nebraska. Some of those games haven't gone on the past couple of years. Now, some of that is due to COVID. Some of that is due to scheduling issues, but you put in the Pac-12 ACC games, there's an opportunity there to get additional non-conference rivalry games, which we don't always get. I would love to see a Penn State versus Pitt or even a Penn State versus Syracuse, a longstanding historic rivalry that we don't get anymore.

And again, I think for the most part, this would be fantastic for the Big Ten, a great opportunity to showcase their conference against some of the premier other conferences in the country. It'd be an opportunity for them to showcase their top two teams in the Big Ten championship game and send them to potentially a college ball playoff. And it allows a little bit more scheduling flexibility so we can see Iowa play some other teams across the board. I think it's a great idea. Let's scrap the divisions. Let's move to that. I hope we can do it in 2023. That would be my ideal situation. And again, as long as we get Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska as our protected rivalries,

I'm happy with it. And for the most part, outside of Michigan, the Big Ten should be able to protect every single rivalry that is in the rivalry playbook or rivalry schedule for each of these teams. They should be able to protect every single rivalry except for Michigan. And I am really struggling with the word rivalry. Wow. So I'm going to move on. Coming up, we're going to talk about an Iowa offensive lineman

who is potentially retiring. We've heard some rumors about it. We're going to talk about that here in a few short moments. But first, BetOnline would like to wish you a happy new betting year as we continue our march to the playoffs and beyond. BetOnline remains the number one spot for all the best sports wagering action for 2022. And with a new year comes a new updated desktop and a mobile website, plus a fantastic bonus opportunity for you all at BetOnline.ag.

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BetOnline.ag, where the game starts. And hey, Hawkeye fans, this is your host, Andrew Wade, with an incredible app everyone who buys gas needs to know about. It's called GetUpside. My listeners are earning cash back for every gallon of gas every time they fill up. Just download the free GetUpside app in the App Store or Google Play right now. Use the promo code SCORE, that's S-C-O-R-E, for 25 cents per gallon or more

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and the potential opportunities with the Big Ten scrapping divisions. We've talked about the Iowa basketball team and their upcoming game tonight versus Purdue. Now we're turning our attention to a potentially retired offensive lineman for the Iowa Hawkeyes. I am talking about versatile, former three-star recruit Cody Ince. He's a guy who is expected to be a starter next year. This past year, he was a guy who Iowa had a lot of high hopes for. Playing in 19 games throughout his career, he started the last six games of the 2022 season. And I remind you that 2022 season, those last six games were very strong performances

from the Iowa Hawkeye squad. He started the last six games of that season, earning honorable mention, all Big Ten honors, while playing a variety of different positions, mostly guard. Coming into this past off season, the biggest news about Cody Ince was the fact that Kirk Behrens felt like Cody Ince could play all five positions.

He had that versatility to be able to play guard, center, or tackle at any spot, which is a very rare thing to see. Unfortunately, the offensive line struggled. Cody Ince struggled with injuries and other family-type things and was unable to get as much of a solid production or performance as he probably would have liked, or what we were all expecting after such a strong season the previous year. Now it sounds like at least the rumors floating around the Iowa football program is that Kodians is retiring.

I'm not saying he is retiring until I officially hear it, but if he were to retire, that is a big loss for the Hawkeyes. It now means that guard spot is just in bridge to lose. It now means that Hunter Norzad, the Cornell transfer, is that much more important of a get for Iowa. It now means we have some question marks. There's even less experience on this offensive line. With Tyler Linderbaum leaving,

the most experienced offensive lineman left was Cody Ince. Now you have arguably Mason Richmond, maybe a Jack Plum if he starts as the most experienced offense. Maybe Justin Bray has gotten a couple games. So you're really putting in together a very youthful offensive line. Now Mason Richmond is pretty much slotted at that left tackle spot. I would expect with Kodians being gone, Justin Britt will be slotted in at the other

guard, one of the other guard spots. Hunter Norzad kind of depends on how Iowa, honestly depends on how Iowa feels about Connor Colby, I would guess. But Hunter Norzad probably playing that guard spot. Connor Colby potentially sliding out. We could see both Stevens rotate inside. We could see David Davikoff on the outside. I cannot imagine a scenario where we go into the season and Jack

Plum and Nick DeYoung or Nick DeYoung are one of the starting tackles. So to me, that means it's either Connor Colby or David Davikoff. At the guard, it means now we're looking at Justin Britt, Connor Colby, or Bo Stevens. At center, we're looking at potentially Tyler Ellsbury, Michael Moslinski, or Matt Fagan. And Hunter Norris will only provide additional competition there as well. Again, this is a big loss for the Hawks. A three-star recruit, a top 1,000 player,

19 games of service for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and honorable mention all Big Ten offensive linemen. It's a huge loss to the Hawks. I have no doubt they are going to be working on replacing him. Obviously Hunter Norris would be a huge gift for the Hawkeyes and we will find out more about that in the next week or two hopefully. This is going to open up even more question marks for an already inexperienced offensive line. Can they figure out how to be better next year? Can they collectively as a unit be a better unit? Because this offense only goes as far as their offensive line? Can they figure out how to be better next year? Can they collectively as a unit be a better unit? Because this offense only goes as far as their offensive line goes

because their offensive line dictates their entire rushing attack. The rushing attack opens up the passing attack for the Iowa Hawkeyes. So as we get more information on that or as that news breaks, if it does break, or maybe Kodians isn't going to retire and he is coming back, which would be phenomenal news. But as more information comes out about that, we will make sure to break all that right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. That will do it for our show today.

Just want to remind you that you can make all of your bets at betonline.ag and you can get those bets by listening to the Locked On Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports dropping three to four games every single day right there at betonline.ag. So be on the lookout for that. And we will be dropping another episode tomorrow morning, breaking down the Iowa versus Purdue game that just happened and the big time wrestling matchup between Iowa and Penn State coming up tomorrow night as well.

Stay tuned for all that. I appreciate you all tuning in to today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic Thursday, Hawkeye Nation. And as always, let's go Hawks.