Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Instant Reaction - Hawkeyes land Auburn for March Madness

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

INSTANT REACTION Iowa Falls to LSU in National Championship  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, welcome into a special edition of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. I'm Trent Condon, and thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. Now, for the people that are viewing us on YouTube, yes, it's going to look a little bit different here. I don't have the home studio set up, not in a hotel room like I've been over the last four days. No, this one is coming to you from the road. So I could have a whole lot of eye contact.

In fact, I don't plan on having any eye contact, but we'll keep our eyes on the road and the conversation flowing here today on Locked On Hawkeyes. As always, thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. We're available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, make sure you hit that subscribe button. I promise we got things a little bit better for you going forward on the podcast side.

Big one as we react to what we saw in the national championship game. A frustrating one to note. And we'll talk about the way it went down. LSU is your national champion. Iowa, just an incredible season. So many positives, even with the frustrations here. Taking you home. Taking myself home here on a Sunday

night edition into Monday. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. You're locked on Hawkeyes. Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Trent Cotter with you on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Now, I'm not sure how the audio quality is going to be on this. It might be awful. Apologies if that is the case, but did want to get something out as we're looking at an arrival time, 4 a.m. back in West Des Moines, so still

a long drive in front of us here as we're making our way through Tulsa. Still a little over six hours to go before we make our way home. But I wanted to talk about this game. Don't have the stat sheet in front of me. Don't have the numbers. And you've been listening to us for a while. You understand that, yes, I am a numbers guy.

See if this helped out a little bit. Oh, yeah, you can see me there. We need to be driving, though, with that. Let's try not to do that instead. No, where was I? Oh, yeah, don't have numbers in front of me. We're really not going, though, with that. Let's try not to do that instead. Nope. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Don't have numbers in front of me.

I'm really not going to get into the numbers. I think some people will pop up. But overall, obviously, just what we saw here. I want to start, though, with this. And if you've heard the podcast the last couple of days, go back and listen. Re-remember, obviously, what we got to experience with that win against South Carolina. My daughter's in the back getting ready to go to sleep. She's got school in the morning. It's going to be a late one for her as well. But you know being able to have this experience with my seven-year-old daughter,

she's in second grade, and being able to do something just with the two of us and my son as well, my wife, they're back at home and holding down the homestead there. But to be able to experience this, my daughter's starting to get into sports a lot more she's played basketball the last couple of years seems to enjoy it i'm getting ready to do softball for the first time she's done soccer volleyball she's tried a bunch of different sports but you know something like this in the big time and having it be a women's event you know we've been to men's basketball games she's been to tons of football games hawkeye football games you know during her time with us but that was just different to to experience that to see the love and joy of this team and that's another part that needs to be talked about with

this team it's just the joy that this women's team played with, not just this season, but over the last few. They're a fun group to watch, and they like playing together. It's so disappointing the way that it ended. Don't worry, we're going to get into some of the negative aspects of here. But I want to start positive because what this team gave us over the last couple of seasons and what they gave us here during the month of March. It's something that we just haven't seen. I talk about 1987 probably too much, right? I know our listenership.

Now, there's plenty of older people that know what I'm talking about. There's plenty of people younger, though. 1987 could be 1887, and they don't know the difference. That was my time. That was my growth as an Iowa sports fan and becoming a Hawkeye fan and what it meant. It came during that point in time. So, yeah, do I go back in time a little bit too much? Maybe I do.

Well, that team didn't even make a Final Four. Iowa, 1993, women's basketball, I remember it. I remember bits and pieces. I remember they beat Tennessee. I forgot, though, until this week that that year Iowa hosted the Elite Eight. So they were the number two seed. They beat number one at sea in the Elite Eight game. That was played in Iowa City that year.

Maybe just a little bit of advantage, though. Iowa ran them out of the building. I remember it, but it wasn't the same. And it wasn't for me, certainly. And the way that we've been able to build with this team and having somebody that has captured the imagination

of basketball fans, not women's basketball fans, basketball fans, sport fans, and reading through Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and seeing stars of sport, all walks of sport, some of the biggest names in sport, some of the biggest names in media that are part of college basketball media, talking about Kaitlyn Clark and the superlatives. I run out of them. I run out of things to say. I think my vocabulary is okay, but you run out of those superlatives because she's incredible.

She is absolutely amazing at what we get to see. It was a wonderful season, and I know it stinks. And the frustration level, it was growing for me. I'm a person that prides myself in trying to stay away from complaining about officiating. Difficult to do after the way this game went. There is no doubt about it. It is incredibly difficult to do. To sit there, to look at it, say that whistles didn't matter in this game, because I believe they did. Now, that's not to take away from LSU. You can say both these things

can be true. You can say that the refs suck, and they suck for both teams, honestly. I mean, let's be honest here, right? They were terrible on both ways. That was a crew, that officiating crew of three was terrible. I don't know two ways about it. They were absolutely awful.

And because of that, your left it. They were absolutely awful. And because of that, you're left wondering, feeling, what if? That's what it's going to be, right? The what if. What if it wasn't fouls early on? What if they didn't crop up? What if the tee didn't happen? What if? There's so many of those things? LSU played great. When they came out and they shot the crap out of the ball and when they weren't hitting their shots in the

second half, then they were getting offensive rebounds. That's an incredibly talented team. Kim Mulkey is a great basketball coach. Terrible person, but great basketball coach. And her display today was an absolute embarrassment. We will get into that as well.

Sour grapes, maybe a little bit. We're going to have those sour grapes when we continue here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Trent Condon with you, coming to you from the road as we make our way back to Des Moines here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. road as we make our way back to Des Moines here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Now, as I'm driving, I can't read the copy here, but you know what to do. Go to fanduel.com slash locked on. It's your chance to get a no sweat first bet up to $1,000.

One more college basketball game to go. We're down to the final one on the men's side. And, of course, everything finished up with the women's side. We got NBA playoffs right around the corner. NHL, MLB, they got you covered with it all and a whole lot more at Fanduel.com slash lockdown. That's where you're looking. Fanduel.com slash lockdown. Your opportunity for a $1,000 no-sweat bonus.

Terms and conditions apply. Make every moment more with Fanduel, official sportsbook sponsor of the LockedOn Network. Trent Conner back with you again here from the road. This is the LockedOn Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making LockedOn Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. A little bit weird here. You're not seeing me. You're hearing me if you're on YouTube. If you're on the podcast side, I hope that this is at least sounding okay. That is the hope. No guarantees. But we needed to talk. We'll be back to a regular schedule when I

get back to town. Don't worry about that. We'll have you covered. There's a ton happening in Hawkeye sports. A recap of everything that we saw on the women's side. Men's team heavily involved in the portal for spring football happening. Iowa baseball salvaging the series finale against Maryland after dropping

the first two games. Gave up a big lead in the first game there. That game was played early on Friday. So a lot happening, a lot going on. And as always, we got you covered here on Locked on Hawkeyes. Alright, let's get our speed back up as we've made our way through some godforsaken town. Apologies to that town. And then we got a work zone. A lot of work zones making our way through Oklahoma. Let's get into it.

Kim Mulkey. That display by a coach was as embarrassing as I have maybe ever seen. I know this is Kim Mulkey in bunch of us. Leaving her as a person aside, and I made my thoughts very clearly on that front. And there's nobody that's going to be able to dissuade me

on how I think of her as a person. As a basketball coach, she is excellent. The scheme, the game plan, the recruiting, these are all things that matter, and she is excellent at that. Working officials is something that bothers me. I hate what the college men's game has turned into, where it's about the guys on the sidelines and how they work officials. The Tom Izzo's, the Bo Ryan's of the world,

those are the kind of guys that have ruined basketball. The ugly grabbing style of defense, coupled with working officials constantly nonstop. Yes, Bobby Knight, he did those kinds of things. So we've had those characters be a part of college basketball. I just think it's been taken to an even worse level. It's not good for the sport. And that display by Kim Mulkey was nothing short of embarrassing.

Crying, whining, bitching about every single call, grabbing at an official, being on the floor. In the first half of the game, she was on the floor. Steps, not head and toe over the line. No, no, no, no. Her full body, both feet over the line. She was two, three, four feet on the playing surface as Iowa had the basketball.

And this officiating crew was so overwhelmed and so intimidated by Kim Mulkey that they did nothing to stop it. Kim Mulkey grabs at an official, pushes them away,

and nothing is done. Fine. It's a national championship. Refs don't want to make that call. Okay. I hate it. I think it's garbage. And I think that refs, that recruit, they were absolutely intimidated and taken away from the game. They wanted a call by Kim Mulkey. But to allow that garbage to happen, that's what it was. That is garbage. For a coach to be on the floor like that during gameplay, continuously, is an embarrassment. It's an embarrassment to the sport.

It's an embarrassment to her, though she doesn't really get embarrassed. To allow that to happen. But then on top of it, to give Kaitlyn Clark her fourth foul, to allow that to happen. But then on top of it, to give Kaitlyn Clark her fourth foul as Iowa had finally battled back into the game, really could overcome the deficit. We don't know. But to do that,

when you're calling tiki-tac fouls all up and down the floor, yet you let Kim Mulkey do that. I would have already had a bench warrant. A bench warrant. For being on the floor after a made bucket. On some of the players at the end of the bench. And yet Kim Mulkey's allowed to do that.

Garbage. Hey, if you're going to be bad, at least be consistently bad. Be consistent both ways. And they were not. It was an awful crew. There are plenty of bad calls against LSU, too. They were overwhelmed by the moment. They weren't good enough. We can certainly all see that,

but to allow that to happen is an embarrassment, and then to call a technical for Kaitlyn Clark throwing the ball behind her back a little bit too hard, come on. A little bit too hard? Come on. It's sad. It's sad that this became a huge part. And it's sad when I see national media. I see national media that maybe for the first time, or for one of the few times, is excited about women's college basketball, and this is the garbage that they had to watch. The amount of people that have never seen the act of Kim Mulkey,

absolutely shocked at that display how they should be there's no, absolutely no way that a coach should be able to do those antics on the sideline it's an embarrassment for her program it's an embarrassment for her and she doesn't get embarrassed and for the sport that was awful.

Absolutely awful. Now, there's a reason it happened. They didn't call anything early. They let it go. They let it slide. They let it slide, and they were manipulated. That's the reality of the situation. Now, LSU played incredibly.

And they played the disrespect angle, and I thought it was one of the situation. Now, LSU played incredible. And they played the disrespect angle, and I thought it was one of the more idiotic things, but that's what Kim Mulkey does. She looks for that chip on the shoulder, and she's going to push and press, and she's going to take any little instance of somebody disrespecting her team, and she is going to take it to the nth degree. She did it beautifully. Another reason she's a great basketball coach is the way those things are. Laughable. That Iowa's game plan for South Carolina is somehow disrespectful to LSU. Yet LSU used that motivation. That's what they talked about. That's unthinkable. Think about that. Think about you scouting a team, seeing what they're doing against a different team, and you take that as some kind of victimhood. That's what LSU did. It worked. Those girls were ready to go. too open. They weren't quick enough to get out to the corner. They came in with the zone. It was not working. LSU carved

them up, and then they were getting shots. 7 of their first 9th downtown, they were on fire in the first half. A girl that hadn't scored in four tournament games, hadn't scored since the round of 32 game against Michigan, she's got 21 in the first half. 5 of 5

from 3. 7 of 7 from 4. Something happened. She wasn't easy. And even with Angel Reese on the sidelines, we'll get to her in a little bit. They played well. You have to give credit to that part. And if it was simple

as LSU played better than they did. LSU outplayed Iowa, they did. Some of the ticky-tack balls, the questionable things that were happening with Mulkey on the sideline, just makes it difficult to swallow. Sour grapes, probably. That's how I saw it from the 300 level at American Airlines Arena. So I mentioned Angel Reefs. And I know there was a lot of talk

after the game as the final seconds were winding down. We were getting ready to make our way as quickly as possible outside of the arena and get where we are right now on the road, hitting home. But as that was going on, I saw it. I didn't think much of it.

She did it a little bit earlier with about maybe a minute to go. She was pointing at her finger. Give me the ring, right? I want a championship ring. Congratulations. Here's my problem. Here's my problem with trying to make this out to be more than it is. Here's my problem with trying to make this out to be more than

it is. It's an exciting moment. She's never had that moment before. She's heard a ton about Caitlin Clark. You know there was motivation there. Same thing as we talked about with Leah Boston the round before. You hear those kind of things from a competitor.

You can get to you. Angel Reese is somebody that wears her emotions out, much like Kaitlyn Clark. And us as Hawkeye fans, we cannot enjoy Kaitlyn doing the John Cena, you can't see me. We can't enjoy Kaitlyn coming over and running into the crowd after hitting a shot against Indiana. We can't enjoy all the Kaitlyn things that she does, the means, the side faces, the gestures.

We can't all enjoy that. And they get all up in arms about Angel. I think absolutely. For something like this to happen, to get up in arms about it, what we have to do, not that. I know it's different.

I know it's deeper. But we can't have our cake and eat it too. And that's where we are. I am on's different. I know it's deeper. But we can't have our cake and eat it too. And that's where we are. I am on the situation. Now, I just saw this on the camera. I haven't done a full video, but I was surprised to hear that there was a lot of talk about that.

Listen to the post. There was a lot of conversation about it. It's surprising. People try to make a of conversation about it. It's surprising. People try to make a bigger nerd about it than it really was. Well, it looks like I'm having some connection issues here on the road. I don't know what this is going to be. I don't know how this is going to sound. But, hey, we gave it a shot, right?

We gave it a shot. We'll see what this turns out to be. We'll have a real podcast for you when we get home we will have you covered going into tuesday and getting ready to put a cap on things a little deeper dive and get ready for everything else going out in hawkeye land thanks everybody out there for listening in i'm trent condon we'll have a little better quality next time lockdown hawkeyes podcast thanks for hanging out with me on the drive home here through Oklahoma.