Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - How Iowa Hawkeyes' Resilience Shines in Ohio State Comeback Loss, Iowa Men fall to Maryland

Starting point is 00:00:00 Iowa women's basketball comes roaring back against Ohio State forces overtime down a dozen with 90 seconds to play. It's not enough. We break it down today Locked On Hawkeyes. You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in I'm Trent Condon and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find

Starting point is 00:00:38 podcasts. You can also watch us on YouTube. While you're there hit subscribe just takes a moment and helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel right now. New FanDuel customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Well, if you were on Ohio State laying the 5 and 1 half earlier today, well, you had some salty moments

Starting point is 00:01:03 down the stretch. If you were an Iowa fan after they forced overtime overtime you had those five and a half in your back pocket you were feeling good Alas overtime well they signed up for 45 and the Buckeyes get it done in this one 86 78 the final as Iowa gets off to an incredibly slow start offense just couldn't get anything going the turnovers were there and just open shots were not falling when they had opportunities throughout the course of the first half. They just they couldn't find a way but eventually they did. It

Starting point is 00:01:33 took a long long time but before the miraculous comeback to force overtime and something that I think is yet another building block for this Iowa women's basketball team. We're gonna talk also today about the men's team, a disappointing second half effort against Maryland on Sunday. We're going to get into that as well. A lot of basketball here to kick off the week.

Starting point is 00:01:52 We got football coming up for you this week. We got wrestling coming up this week with the Iowa High School Boys Tournament happening this week after we saw the girls a couple of weeks ago. And looking forward to that as I'll be broadcasting play by play of the state wrestling tournament but we'll talk some Hawkeye wrestling with you coming up this week as well but right now let's talk about what we saw

Starting point is 00:02:13 this afternoon started in the morning in fact eleven a.m. tip time on Fox it's Presidents Day alright things are a little bit weird and that's why kind of our schedule this week is a little bit weird as well wanted to wait for this one to go final after the way things went against Maryland on Sunday evening on the men's side of things. A game where Iowa walks in against the top 10

Starting point is 00:02:33 opponent in Ohio State. A top 10 opponent that doesn't care for Iowa very much. You can tell that there is some animosity there. There's some frustration for the Buckeye side. Yet there's also been the games where Iowa, going back to a season ago, mentioned this earlier, late last week, I believe it was, where we talked about that matchup

Starting point is 00:02:54 against the Buckeyes last year when Cody McMahon went off in the fourth quarter and left me questioning just how good this women's program was gonna be. And were they, did they have enough to bounce back into a be a team that can get back to another Final Four and do those kind of things and of course they did and played for another national championship. So I was dead wrong, but the questions

Starting point is 00:03:15 were there and I walk away from this one. Yeah, frustrated the way that overtime went and certainly when I would jumped out and got that quickly no T you're excited about that all right things are gonna go different they're gonna pull off a shocker here they're gonna get a huge road victory their best road victory of the year stacked up with what they'd already done the winning streak was gonna go to seven and then it didn't happen you got to start and you got a credit coding man. She's a stud. She really is. She's just a talented player, a nightmare matchup for Iowa and for everybody. The way her inside outside game, the

Starting point is 00:03:52 versatility that she has, the athleticism, the side, the speed, the ability to step out, knock down shots, and she just so good at generating contact and getting the free throw line. And that showed up in a big time way as well. I went down the stretch in overtime 0 for 6. Did they lose? Did they run out of gas? I think that's also a fair question to ask because when you look through and you remember the way this thing played out, they had the miraculous comeback in the last 96 seconds, they did it without Kyle Fierbach who followed out of the game. And then you go a step further and you look at other players. A falter was out of the game as she followed out. You had three different players that followed out. A falter, Fierbach, and Hannah Stalky. Four fouls for Lucy Olsen and Aliyah Guyton. And this is not to say it was foul calls, the reason that they did it. It just ran out of juice. It ran out of players. And it was a weird game, a wild game. Iowa comes back, gets it back within two

Starting point is 00:04:50 in the fourth quarter. Here we go. Or maybe it's three. Whatever it was. Got it there about midway through the fourth quarter. And they just had been chipping away, chipping away, down double digits at the half. And then Ohio State just responded right back and got play after play made a couple of buckets.

Starting point is 00:05:07 All of a sudden it's 10 and then it stretches out and it gets up to 12 with 96 seconds. So I'm doing my radio show. You can catch on the Iowa Sports Radio Network including KXNO in Des Moines, KXIC 800 over in Iowa City. You can hear us at 95.7 in Cedar Rapids, also the Quad Cities and Sioux City, all across the state. And let's do it with David Eichel from 247 Sports. And he mentioned to me, when Ohio State had kind

Starting point is 00:05:34 of regained the advantage and built it back up to, I think it was eight at the time, we're in a commercial break. And he said, oh, I'd just like to see them force overtime. They did it. They forced overtime. Now, we wanted to see them force overtime. They did it. They forced overtime. Now, we wanted to see more than that. But to do that in Columbus, to do that against a team that doesn't like

Starting point is 00:05:54 you, to do that in that kind of spot where you just frankly, you're not playing that well. 20 turnovers in the game. You look at the overall numbers, 26 of 62 shooting. They finished 9 to 25, but until that final minute and a half, they're awful from behind the arc. Missing free throws, 17 to 24. And maybe the biggest takeaway from this one is Lucy Olson, who had a chance to put it away earlier this year in the home loss against Nebraska, had struggled at the free throw line throughout this one. She was four of eight at the free throw line. And what does she do? She steps up, homie knocks down two free throws, sets it to overtime, and away we go. They didn't get the win. The winning streak is over for Iowa. Yet I walk away from this one saying, I believe in them even more. I don't believe personally that Ohio State is a top 10 team. I think it's more schedule based. I think that this is a team that looks more destined to be a team that gets to the round of 32, maybe upset, maybe a sweet 16, but that's about the highest upside.

Starting point is 00:07:06 Personally, I see from this Buckeye team, unless McMahon goes off, and she could absolutely do that as well. But from the Iowa perspective, from the Hawkeye side of things, seeing the squad do this in that kind of spot, I said the perfect spot for them is to be like a sixth seed, right? All right, you get an 11 seed in the first round, you're going to be favored that matchup, it'll be difficult, but it should be a victory. Could be an at large team, one of the final at large teams in or could be an automatic qualifier. But then you get a three seed. And when

Starting point is 00:07:41 you look at women's college basketball and after that upper crust, and however you break it down, UCLA, USC, UConn, South Carolina, obviously what UConn did to South Carolina over the weekend, eye opening, Notre Dame, the new number one, LSU, I think you throw in the mix. After that, that group of seven, the gap's pretty big. We saw Ohio State, North Carolina, TCU, and these are the teams you're talking about on that three line. A K-State, an NC-State, good teams. And even on their home floor, which they will have home court advantage in that potential round of 32 matchup, these are all winnable games. Iowa still has an

Starting point is 00:08:27 incredibly difficult one. It's going to be tough obviously what they're gonna have coming up here before the finale against Wisconsin. But even as the streak comes to an end at six, I walk away saying the team's got a chance. The team's got a chance to make a run from Lucy Olson's play in a game where she wasn't playing at a high level and to come back and do that. We know what the rest of this group can do. The freshmen knowing their roles, everybody ready to go. We're learning a lot about this team and about this program and cradies say in a day where you don't play really well, I thought that was an eye-opening performance. Iowa now is off until the matchup against UCLA.

Starting point is 00:09:10 Now it is not undefeated number one UCLA like we thought potentially we were going to see. And I think a lot of us were hopeful that that was gonna be the case as they took their first loss of the season last week, losing on the road at USC across town. They bounce back and got a nice win against Michigan State. They will host Illinois will the Bruins this week on Thursday before they make their way

Starting point is 00:09:34 to Iowa City. Both Lauren Betts and company, we're going to break down this game. We're going to talk about it a whole lot more. It is going to be an incredibly difficult matchup, but this one could change the course again of this Iowa women's team. It's been a fun ride, and we'll continue with you each and every day talking Hawkeyes and certainly about this women's team.

Starting point is 00:09:54 Well, we go from a loss that you can take some good things away to men's basketball. We will get into it a second half to forget from the Hawkeye men as they get clubbed at Maryland a season on the brink. We'll hit the men's side as we continue here. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast. When the game tips off, the NBA action is just getting started,

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Starting point is 00:11:30 Back with you once again Lockdown Hawkeyes thanks for being with us and as always thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day we go from disappointment yet some silver linings on the women's side to the men's team that gets clubbed against Maryland. So for half of the game, that is probably about as well as Iowa can play against a good defense, certainly on the road. And we talked about the road walls and after the road victory against

Starting point is 00:11:59 Rutgers getting win number one of the season on the road for this men's team, There was, I don't want to say optimism because that's going too far, but that glimmer of hope, that glimmer of hope that maybe just maybe Peyton Sanford and his final go around in a Hawkeye uniform and this ragtag bunch can put it together and play well. We knew going into the game that Drew Thelwell was going to be out. We also found out that Riley Mulvey also is going to be out right when we got to know Riley Mulvey also is going to be out right when we get to know Riley Mulvey. There he goes with an

Starting point is 00:12:27 injury down. It was going to be difficult against this big physical frontline. Yeah, Julian Reese and then you throw into the fact of what they have with Queen the freshman. So they're a load inside a huge physical team. And then the backcourt of Rice and Gillespie and Miguel. All those guys played incredibly well. Yet Iowa leads this one 51-47. And I'm not gonna lie, I had that little thought.

Starting point is 00:13:00 You know what? If they can pull this one off, dot dot dot. I allowed myself to go there. And it's dumb and it's stupid because I know this team is too banged up, too broken, too just done for it to come back. And we see every march that conversation that every team that is off the bubble that needs a run they all believe that they're going to do that or at least they say they believe that they're going to do it and maybe it does give you that hope but I had that hope for a moment and then very quickly that hope went away so Maryland comes out in the second half they switched to own. What I loved in the first half was you saw Harding.

Starting point is 00:13:47 Brock was getting guys in the right spot, but it wasn't just passing to the open guy. He was hitting guys right in their shooting motion because Iowa puts up 51. How many of those shots though were pass on the money got right there beautiful pass and then you're able to see them just go up and elevate and knock it down Sanford had a bunch of those in the first half you saw that a couple of times from a couple of different shooters out there they got the ball in the right spot Trey already got it in the right spot they were able to

Starting point is 00:14:20 elevate right away and go so Maryland comes out to start the second half and they say, enough of this man, because they're shooting over the top of it. And if they get any glimpse, they're not gonna down, we're gonna go zone. And Iowa didn't have a response. A team playing without two starters. Now you're back up big, because your starter one, Freeman,

Starting point is 00:14:39 decides to shut it down. You have all this happening, and decides to shut it down. You have all this happening and you know when Maryland just gets going a little bit, this thing's over. I might be reading too much into things and that's what we do. Look, when we're talking every single day about the Hawkeyes, we're going to probably over-specify just little instances. I just thought it was incredibly weird. End of the ball game, completely out of hand. You're getting beat by, at some point, over 30. You're down by 25.

Starting point is 00:15:14 And he still had Peyton Sanford out there, who finishes with 14 and 10, a double-double. 6 and 15 overall, 2 and 7 from behind the arc, but we know how the second half went. And you have him out on the floor in a season where he has struggled. He's overcome shoulder injuries. He hasn't certainly been 100%. Really?

Starting point is 00:15:36 I know there's not a whole lot of guys on the bunch you can go to because this team is so banged up. No Mulvey, no Kuprakach, no Drew Thalwell, no Owen Freeman. I get it. Just thought it was interesting. One thing I also thought we were going to see, and this is another one I want to see more of, is Christagio. We know he is incredibly raw, but just the sheer athleticism, the power that he can play with, There's something there. And will it be untapped at the collegiate level? Who knows? But you can see certainly the upside is there. A guy that comes in, the athleticism, the physicality, because we've seen more how to say to you, Troy, we've

Starting point is 00:16:17 started to see maybe those signs that this guy can be an important piece going forward. Now, important piece, if it's a new coaching staff that they're going to have to keep around and that's a question that continues to be out there. So Chad Leistokow if you missed it and in fact we're going to talk about this more in-depth on tomorrow's program. If you missed the article though Chad really dug deep into the woes of Iowa basketball in terms of attendance and it's dreadful. Home attendance is as bad as it's ever been. In the turnaround I don't think is as simple as a lot of Hawkeye fans want to believe. This is going to take a lot of

Starting point is 00:16:57 work regardless of who the next coach is. And Fray McCaffrey departs and however that plays out. A firing, dismissal, retirement, however it proves to be. Because A, you're not going to get the who's who of college basketball is not beating down the doors to get to Iowa City. This is not when Dr. Tom took over for George Raveling. And remember, Dr. Tom, you look at his numbers, you look at his win totals, you look at his kind of resume. Wasn't that good? Old timers helped me out.

Starting point is 00:17:35 I mean, I vaguely remember it. I've told you my earliest memories are Raveling's final year on the sidelines. And the only reason I remember is because my grandpa was angry about him wearing a jumpsuit on the sideline and the only reason I remember is because my grandpa was angry about him wearing a jumpsuit on the sideline. But that aside, you go back to that time. That was a roster that was absolutely stacked. And then you get some blue blood coach to come in and take over the program. Iowa thought they hit a home run with Steve Alford.

Starting point is 00:18:07 Played in Indiana, coming off of Sweet 16 at Southwest Missouri State. It looked to be a home run and it wasn't. Tyler Glider, National Coach of the Year, disaster, awful. There's going to be ways whoever the next coach is, this year, five years from now, whatever it is, you're going to talk yourself into it. That's what we do for the most part as a fan. But to think that the Iowa job is coveted is laughable. Yes, finances are good in the Big Ten overall, but if I was not willing to invest in men's basketball, if the NIL funds are not there to pay the players, if you're just playing with a short deck, and that's what I was doing right now, then it's not going

Starting point is 00:18:52 to matter who the next coach is. Because in today's day and age, you got to spend to compete. You have to put up the money. We don't know if Beth Getz is willing to do that. We don't know what the future of college athletics looks like in the pay for play scheme. It's a different world. And in this different world is Iowa able to navigate it because you can't build a championship contender strictly on kids from Iowa. That's not going to happen. You can't even build an NCAA tournament team with guys strictly. You have to go outside your area. Proximity is number

Starting point is 00:19:25 one when it comes to recruiting. Money, proximity, things that Iowa doesn't have a real strength compared to many of their brethren in the Big Ten. Will an investment be made? I hope so. But you got to find a way to get people to show up. And they're not. They have checked out. The fan base has completely checked out on the frame get people to show up. And they're not. They have checked out. Fanbase has completely checked out on the Frey and McCaffrey era. And we can argue the merits, and if it's fair, and if it's right.

Starting point is 00:19:51 And I have thoughts on that. This guy has done a lot for McCaffrey for this program. He has done, when we look at them, compared to what the other schools do invest themselves, he's done a great job. Yes, he hasn't got to the second weekend. We all know. We've all lived it.

Starting point is 00:20:12 But when you look at it in its totality, this has been a successful run. Will the next coach be able to do more? Will the next coach be able to build on what he has put in place? Or, do you just have to hope to get lucky? Will the next coach be able to build on what he has put in place? Or do you just have to hope to get lucky? It's a different environment, it's a different world, but that's where we are with Iowa basketball.

Starting point is 00:20:34 The defense was bad again. Look, we've had this conversation so much though, right? We've talked about it through and through and through. Defense bad, offense good. Repeat, rinse, repeat, and away we go. I had this thought. I brought this up a couple weeks ago. Now, if you would be willing, as a fan base, we see next season, Brian McCaffrey wants to stay. Let's just play this game for a moment.

Starting point is 00:21:08 Fran wants to stay. Beth Getz looks at the finances of it, realizing with the house settlement, the 20 plus million dollars is going to be going to athletes. That the time is not right to make a move. That Fran McCaffrey, the all-time winningest coach in program history, he deserves one more year. It's been a trying season. They've had a ton of injuries this year. And in order for that to happen, you need to make a move in

Starting point is 00:21:38 the staff. We see this happen a ton, obviously, in football. A coordinator, maybe both coordinators get fired. You're going gonna give the head coach one more year but you gotta see if it happens with a couple of coordinators. Well, if it's put there. The finances don't work right now. We're going to keep for Fray McCaffrey. He deserves another year. Again, in this instance, not what I'm saying. We're just playing a little game here. In order to do that, you have to bring in a defensive coordinator or a a dedicated defensive coach. Do something that you haven't done. Personally, I don't

Starting point is 00:22:11 believe Fran would ever go for that, but again, just play that. Or here's another way to look at it. What if Fran says back-to-back disappointing years, missed the tournament and back-to-back seasons, that is not something that we can do. And Fran, guy in his 60s that has made a ton of money in his career, says, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to donate a portion of my salary to the NIL Fund. We've seen other coaches do this. I mean, it's shady as hell, but we've seen it happen. Or they're going to restructure the contract and it's going to go in. We've seen this happen, not in that shady side of things, but we have seen that happen where we're going to restructure your deal and that money that we are now saving is going back into the NIL fence. We're going to go out there and we're going to bring in

Starting point is 00:22:56 some dudes. Would that be enough? I don't believe it would, but it's a thought. I believe that Fray McCaffrey is going to be done. That we're coming to the end of days for Fray. It's disappointing. I rooted like hell for him to be able to get this done, to get this program over the hump, to get back to a Sweet 16, something that hadn't happened since my freshman year. Watch the game and what I jakes. Freshman year. Old-timers you know. Upstairs. That's where I watched the Sweet 16 game against UConn who goes on to win a national championship. And Iowa played well in that game. That was a long time ago. Tell you what, I know this hawk I get. Got a lot of gray hair. See a lot

Starting point is 00:23:40 of things in the 25 plus years since that happened. I'm ready for it. We all are. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen under Fran. Iowa on Wednesday will take on Oregon. Iowa on Wednesday, students get there early. Two dollar drafts. Outside of the box thinking, hey worth shot, right? Back to back home games coming up this week. Wednesday against Oregon, then Washington over the weekend on Saturday. How about a mid-afternoon Saturday game? That'll be fun. 3 o'clock with that one before three of the last four on the road for the Hawks as they finish up the season. That win against Rutgers went a long way. Need to get at least a win this week, maybe a couple of wins this week

Starting point is 00:24:27 to feel good about making the Big Ten tournament. Staying in the top 15, staying out of the bottom three as only 15 of the 18 teams will make it to the Big Ten tournament. Iowa though should be in good shape, at least with the win this week, in order to make that happen. Wrapping things up on the other side,

Starting point is 00:24:43 just a couple of football thoughts for you as we come back on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Try and come back with you one final time. Locked On Hawkeyes, thanks for being with us. Always appreciate all of you. Hit Subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube. Need more of those audio reviews if you listen on Apple five star reviews. Give us a review. Tell us what you think and we would really appreciate that helps the algorithm and gets us in front of more Hawkeye

Starting point is 00:25:14 fans. So as we go and talk a little football. The college football playoff the potential expansion. We're going to talk about that a little bit later on this week, but I I do want to Talk a little bit about something. I heard last week about Mark Gronowski and it came from somebody that played with Gronowski that knows him incredibly well and Well, they're teammates. I don't know if they're buddies or anything like that. But the way it was relayed to me is they said that this guy is going to be the absolute perfect gamer.

Starting point is 00:25:57 You know, I was here recently at the quarterback position. Spencer Petrus was a stand-up guy. Was I too hard at Spencer Petrus? Probably. But I just, at Spencer Petrus? Probably. But I just, his mannerisms, the frustration of knowing just how elite Iowa was defensively in special teams, and they couldn't get it done. And it wasn't just Spencer Petrus. And it wasn't just Brian Farrant. It was a culmination of so many different things. Spencer Petrus, though, was a stand-up dude. He'd sit there and he'd answer the questions after a pitiful performance.

Starting point is 00:26:24 He would stand up and do it. He would be that leader. He would be the guy in the locker room. But I think we all know this, right? If you played any level of sport, that guy, the try-hard guy, but it's just not happening because he has leadership qualities. He has those things that you want to lead, but he's just not doing it on the field. What was told to me about Grunowski is you're not going to have to worry about that because in the biggest moments, he doesn't get scared. In those instances where there may be a concern, you might be a little bit nervous. Your backs are against the wall. Mark Grunowski is not a guy that's gonna will. Not a guy that's gonna throw it away on fourth down. That's not what you're gonna get out of this guy.

Starting point is 00:27:10 He's gotta get healthy. He's gotta get right. Coming off the shoulder injury. You know all that. We'll see what the reps look like when they start up here. Little over a month from today with spring football. But it's just a little anecdote. Just one little nugget that was passed along to me I thought was a great thing to hear. It doesn't change anything and it's something I think we we all know about Mark Gronowski. This isn't breaking news, it's nothing like that. It's just another good feeling that is nice to have with this football team. The schedule is going to be difficult.

Starting point is 00:27:42 It's going to be an absolute bear for the Hawkeyes next year. For them to be 7-5, 8-4, where they've been, it's going to take a lot. That's how difficult that schedule is. Those toss-up games got to go to Iowa's way. They're going to have a ton of those. And then you throw in the fact that they got Oregon and Penn State on the schedule next season. It is gonna be tough. But the quarterback big moments, pressures on when the lights are the brightest. Mark Gronowski stepped up. Iowa hasn't seen a whole lot of that at the quarterback position here recently. Be good if he can be that kind of guy. It's gonna be a step up in competition. We

Starting point is 00:28:21 know that. Moving to the big ten. But I think they got the right guy. Thanks for being to be a step up in competition. We know that. Moving to the Big Ten. But I think they got the right guy. Thanks for being with us as always and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Again, hit subscribe if you're watching on YouTube or a five-star review on the audio side. Really do thank you all for all of that. Coming up tomorrow, we're going to talk about the college football playoff and how the potential new structure sits pretty well for. Well for the Iowa Hawkeyes we're gonna talk

Starting point is 00:28:48 about that we got basketball to get into as well in the big day at Carver's they're trying something a little bit different and trying to get those students a little liquored up before the ducks come to town we will get you covered on that front also got some football recruiting coming up with our recruiting analyst O'Brien's gonna be joining us a little bit later on in the week and taking a look at the class of 2026 in the state of Iowa and some of the prospects that we should be keeping an eye on here in the

Starting point is 00:29:14 state. We will have that with you. We're with you each and every day, your team every day. That's what we do on the Lockdown Network. Tough loss for the Iowa women here this afternoon and a tough second half for the men but basketball continues on wrestling goes on Iowa baseball we're going to get into that a little bit more losing two out of three against South Florida frustrating head leads in the games Friday and Sunday felt like Iowa should have been on the better side of that one one big storyline coming out though the starting rotation off to a really, really good start and that game that they were supposed to play at home this week against Laura CS, a surprise that one has been cancelled. Thanks for being with us. We'll talk to you again

Starting point is 00:29:53 tomorrow. Until then, go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - How Iowa Hawkeyes' Resilience Shines in Ohio State Comeback Loss, Iowa Men fall to Maryland

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