Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Instant Reaction - Iowa falls to Duke 74-62, latest in the transfer portal

Episode Date: December 7, 2022

Trent Condon returns for the latest Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast with an instant reaction Locked on Now after Iowa drops their 2nd game of the season to Duke 74-62.The shooting woes continue for the Hawkeyes. What hope to they have to get out of their slump? A look ahead to the quick turnaround match up with Iowa State coming on Thursday.Then a look at the Iowa women's team as they face ISU and a trip into the football transfer portal after Terry Roberts announces that he has entered the portal.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” 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!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnCollege to learn more.Omaha SteaksOmaha Steaks is a gift from the heart – a gift that will be remembered with every unforgettable bite. Order with complete confidence today knowing you’re ordering the very best. Visit OmahaSteaks.com use promo code LOCKEDON at checkout to get that EXTRA $30 OFF your order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Iowa basketball drops its second game of the year as they fall 75-62 to the Dukies at Madison Square Garden. We break it down, what went right and what went wrong. Well, certainly the Hawkeyes shooting woes, they continue, and that is something that went way wrong. A week of death continues. A quick turnaround with Iowa State coming up next on Thursday. We look forward to that one. And some football news. Terry Roberts has entered the transfer portal.

What does that mean for Iowa? The latest news and rumbling. Plus, we'll get ready for Iowa-Iowa State women's basketball. That comes up tonight. All today on Locked On Hawkeyes. Our Locked On Hawkeyes. Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. Available wherever you get podcasts. You can also see us on YouTube. Watch the show there. You can see us each and every day. While you're there, hit that subscribe button. And for the podcast listeners, give us a five-star review.

It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockdown college that's linkedin.com slash lockdown college to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Well, it was a rough night in New York City for the Hawkeye basketball team this evening as they fall to the Dukies, 74-62. Going to the halftime locker room, down 37-31.

There's hope. Iowa didn't play very well, didn't shoot it very well. Hey, you're still hanging around in this basketball game. Maybe, just maybe, you got a shot. And though there were plenty of opportunities throughout this one, Iowa could never get over the hump. Cut it to four a couple of times, had a couple of chances, but ultimately just too much Duke, too much inside from the Dukies in this one.

But you look at this as a whole, and the real scary part about this is Iowa falling in this fashion to a Duke team that has talent. They're going to be a lot better at the end of the season, I think, than the team that we see right now. But their inability to hit shots is something that was a bit of a concern coming into the year. And it's certainly especially expensive. Easy for me to say. It has grown. How about that? It has grown at a big time level here. Hey, it has grown. How about that? It has grown at a big-time level here.

Hey, it's late. Give me a break. So shooting the basketball. You go back to the loss against TCU. Very similar circumstances to this one. It was a tight game. A couple minutes into the second half, TCU went on a run. Iowa had some chances, just couldn't hit those shots.

And the same thing here against Duke. You look up and down the roster, just three three-pointers made on the team. One from Patrick McCaffrey, one from Tony Perkins, and one from Aaron Ulis. And Ulis certainly not a guy you'd normally anticipate. A couple games back after the loss, they moved Peyton Sanford to the bench, hoping maybe that would be something to help him ignite him coming off the bench. That has not been the case. He is really struggling with this shot.

Had a couple late in the game that looked good off the hand, ultimately didn't go down. Look, this Iowa team is going to be anything more than an above-average team, a team that's on the right side of the bubble, gets into the tournament, maybe wins a game. If they're going to be more than that, they're going to have to be able to shoot the basketball. Offense has always been the calling card of Fran McCaffrey,

year after year after year. That is something that is always really good. Hasn't looked that way at times this season, especially against the two good opponents that they played. And I don't think this is an elite level Duke team. Could they get there? Absolutely. A lot of talent on this team.

Very young team. The monsters that they have inside. Filikowski, that dude's going to be an absolute stud. So I think you can look at that and say that they are going to be a good team. Iowa right now still sixth in the country in offensive efficiency at Kempom. Surprised to see the numbers still as high as they were. But in this one, Iowa averages just 0.91 points per possession, one of their lowest of the season.

Duke at 1.09 points per possession. Got to shoot the basketball better. I mean, it's as simple as that. If I was going to have a chance this year, is the defense a little bit better than it's been in the past or have a chance to be better? I think so. Are there going to be matchups that are going to be incredibly difficult?

Absolutely. But did love the way that we saw Phillip Rabracha play. You know, Rabracha, who's in there, played against a bunch of seven-footers, and he's given up height. He's given up size. He is not backing down, though, against these guys. He would love to have a player that could go in there and help a little bit more.

We saw a couple minutes from Big Jelly, Joshua Gundelay. He gave seven minutes, hit a bucket in there, you know, pushed things around, did what it is. But he's such a limited player just because of physically, you know, where he is, the size that he a limited player just because of physically where he is, the size that he is, and just his inability to play long extended minutes. And that's kind of what you have out of him. He's going to give good minutes against Purdue, perhaps a couple other big teams that we'll see in the big 10, maybe go up and muscle a hundred Dickinson for a while and

give you a couple of minutes here and there, but you don't have a full-time center. And that's the, that's the nature of the way that this team is built. Phil Pabraccia, he'd be an excellent four. He has to play five for this team. And this is what it is. Another disappointing effort as well from Chris Murray. And it's one thing to put up monster performances against the non-conference teams that you should want. You know, the quadrant four teams that you play. It's great to put up big numbers against them, but we got to see it now from Chris Murray to do it against a good opponent. Yeah, he did it last year against Indiana.

He had those moments, but now for all intents and purposes, this is his team. And as yesterday before the game, talking with Matt Norlander from CBS Sports and asked him pretty simply, you know, is it as simple as for Iowa? As Chris Murray goes, that's how good this team has a chance to be. And it kind of feels that way. This is not a deep Iowa team. This is not what we normally expect out of a frame of Caffrey coach team where he not only expects, but he likes to go nine, 10, 11 deep.

That's not what this team is right now. Love the play out of a Bracha. Definitely a gold star for him in this one battling inside and at least trying out there. Now I got to hit those free throws. Yeah, that's also a part of it. Chris Murray, 0 for 3 from the three-point line. Three made field goals, just eight points in the game. Need more out of him.

He finishes the game also with seven rebounds. Did have three assists. Good to see filling up the stat sheet. Another conversation. Tony Perkins. Something's off. No, he's dealing with some kind of injury, lower leg, some kind of leg injury at this point in time.

We've heard hip, heard ankle, banged up. They need him. Again, because of the depth of this team. And if Chris Murray is not playing well, who else can really step up on this team? There's really one guy, and that's Tony Perkins. And they need Tony Perkins at his best. And if he's not, along with Chris Murray,

there's not going to be many more wins on this schedule. Outside of what they have after the next two games, Southeast Missouri State and Eastern Illinois, yes, they could have four games from both those guys and still win those basketball games. But the rest of the schedule, the Big Ten, it is going to be loaded once again, top to bottom. It's going to be difficult to find road victories.

Go in, and it doesn't matter if you're taking on a Penn State or Nebraska or a Minnesota. Road wins are always incredibly difficult to come by, coupled with what you're going to have at the top level. And you've got eight, nine, ten teams right now that feel like they're NCAA tournament teams. From, of course, Purdue and the great start that they're off to at this point in time. What we've seen out of Indiana in the early portions of the season. Hoosiers look ready to go again this year. How about Wisconsin? They're starting to pull themselves out.

They got a nice win against Maryland. Speaking of the Terrapins, what they did about Northwestern. They have a win now against Michigan State, even as ugly as some of their games have been this year. Just on and on and on. Ohio State's going to be there. Michigan's going to be there. Illinois, what they did beating number two, Texas. It just, it continues.

It's an incredibly difficult conference. And without Tony Perkins and Chris Murray, one of those two guys got to play well. If both of them play well, Iowa can beat pretty much everybody on their schedule. If they don't play well, well, then you have big time problems. We'll talk about some more Iowa basketball as we continue here on Lockdown Hawkeyes. We'll take a look at the next matchup. It is a quick turnaround and a little bit concerning now after the performance, and we have seen Iowa struggle

against a couple of good defensive teams in Duke and TCU. Well, the next team that they face, another good defensive team. It is the Cyclones. Quick turnaround, a lot maybe playing against them. We'll get into the transfer portal as well for football. Talk about that a little bit and also preview the Iowa women's game. That's all as we continue here on Locked on Hawkeyes. Thank you. that you have access to the best qualified candidates available. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team and does it faster.

Add your job, the purple hiring frame, to your LinkedIn profile when you're looking to find that right candidate for your job. Incredibly easy to post, easy to do at LinkedIn Jobs. They have simple tools like screening questions. It makes it easy for you to focus on the candidates with just the right skills and experience. So you can quickly prioritize who you'd like to interview and hire. That's why small businesses rate LinkedIn jobs. Number one in delivering quality hires versus leading competitors.

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all throughout the week. We got plenty of football, transfer portal conversation will continue as we continue here a big week still in front of iowa basketball though as they'll have the quick turnaround so the game wraps up what after midnight eastern time and it got started after 10 o'clock so what you figure a good hour hour and a half after the game you got post--game interviews. You go through that. You get showered. You hop on the bird. You get back to Iowa City, 4 a.m., 5 a.m., something like that,

when the Hawkeyes are going to get back to town. So you get a couple hours of sleep. Remember, yes, these guys are still student athletes. Yeah, we can scoff at that at times, especially what's happening with the transfer portal, and say, oh, really? Yeah, they still do have to go to class. At least some of them have some classes that they're probably going to have to get to on Wednesday. And then you go through a quick

run through and you get ready for Iowa State. So Iowa State's going to come in here and they're going to play bully ball. And I hate to say this. I am not a fan of blaming officials. Are there times that teams get bad whistles? Absolutely. Are there times it's certainly in basketball that referees and the way a game is called dictates the way the game plays out? There's no doubt about it, but I think it's just such a loser mentality. I hate game after game, play after play, looking at the officials and blaming them. It's something that I don't subscribe to. But for this one, the officiating crew,

who we're going to see out there, the way, the style of play that they're going to allow is going to dictate this game. Look, if you see it right away, of the officiating crew in the Iowa State game, if they're out there and they are blowing the whistle and they're keeping it tight and they're not allowing Iowa State to hand check,

to chuck and jive, to grab, to do their defensive mentality that they have, I always get a good chance of winning this game and not just winning it, but winning it comfortably. You're back at home. Maybe the shots start falling a little bit more. Remember, both these losses have come outside of Carver Hawkeye Arena. You're back at home, a place shots start falling a little bit more. Remember, both these losses have come outside of Carver Hawkeye Arena. Back at home, place that you know better, maybe that shooting

starts to light up a little bit more. But if the crew allows Iowa State to play their style, well, they're going to get up in you, and they're going to defend, and they're going to grind, and they're going to hold, and they're going to clutch, and they're going to grab, and they're going to do all these different things. And if that's allowed without a whistle, I was in trouble. I was in big trouble against this team. Now, the good news is Iowa State, certainly not a great offensive team either. This Cyclone team right now is 114th in the country in offensive efficiency, 13th in the country in defensive efficiency at Ken Palm.

So that tells you a lot right now. Three-point shooting, need to knock down those threes. Defensively, right now they're 16th in the country in defensive loud. Opponents are shooting just 26.3% against Iowa State. Going to have to be better from Iowa, have to get those open shots, and when they're there, you have to knock them down. Look, when you're relying on Connor McCaffrey to be your sharpshooter and you don't have anybody else that you're confident on Conor McCaffrey to be your sharpshooter,

and you don't have anybody else that you're confident with with the struggles right now of Peyton Sanford, you're in big trouble. Tony Perkins, not a shooter. A scorer, not a shooter. Yes, he can hit shots, but that's not his game. Uless, not even close. You hope Chris Murray, that's what it turns into. He's more confident out there. Patrick can hit shots, but I wouldn't call him exactly a shooter. And then Rabracha, yeah, has he knocked down a couple of threes in his career? Yeah, but that's not what he is. Off the bench is Conner. Yeah, we haven't seen a whole lot out of Josh Dix at this point in time. DeSante Bowen, guy that played well.

He's a guy that you look at and say, maybe he's got a chance, but right now in his career, that's not going to be the case. It sounds like a ready-made excuse, and that's not what I want this to be. Because, again, I don't like complaining about officiating. I don't like that blaming a loss or blaming a reason that you take an L coming down to the officials.

It's just not something that I agree with. It's not something that I like to do. But this one, this game, it is ultra important. The quick turnaround, how this team is going to be. And then on top of it, what you have then right on the heels of that conference matchup, your only conference matchup of the early portion of the season as they get Wisconsin coming to town. Now, Wisconsin's not great. Now, this is not a Badger team. I think that you worry about some of the past teams. It's not like the team that played for a national championship,

but they got a nice win themselves tonight against Maryland. They beat the Terrapins at home. They beat Marquette the game before that. Really, now, they played well this season. Their two losses this year came to Wake Forest by three points and to Kansas, and that was an overtime loss by a point against the defending national champions. Are they great offensively? No. But Tyler Wall, he's a monster inside.

Chucky Hedberg, on and on and on. We'll have a lot about this game as we'll get ready for the weekend on Friday, but I'm just here to tell you, not going to be an easy one. It never is. What if things go south? What if Iowa goes through this week of death? Duke, Iowa State, and Wisconsin, it goes 0-3. Now, season's not over, and you don't have to hit the panic button, but we're going to be hitting the panic button. I mean, at minimum now, you have to get a split these next two games, and if you get both of them, boy, you're feeling great, right?

You're feeling really good. You get that win. You get it back again in the Cyhawk game against Iowa State. You're 1-0 in the conference, something that has been a rarity for Iowa. Since they've gone, what, six, seven years back now to these early Big Ten conference games, so many times Iowa has dug themselves such a big hole in the season, a lot of times starting 0-2 when they played two games this year because of the schedule, just one for the Hawkeyes.

But still, you just don't want to dig yourself that hole, and there's a real possibility that can happen. Two teams that are tough to play, two teams that are going to guard you, two teams that are going to grab you. Got to be ready to go, got to be tough, and got to be more physical and play through contact better than we've seen. Get Chris going, knock down some shots, get those good vibes going. You know the environment's going to be great at Carver-Hawkeye. It's got its issues, but

as we saw Sunday in the duel against Iowa State on the wrestling side of things, that place, it can still have some buzz to it, and it still can for basketball. Just have to play well to make that happen. Well, the transfer portal continues to be one of the more baffling things that we talk about here. We talked yesterday a little bit about what happened in the transfer portal with the Alabama wide receiver, Treshawn Holden, what was happening there. Looked like he was all but signed, sealed, and delivered to Iowa. And then things hit the fan.

Well, we got more going on. Terry Roberts has entered the transfer portal, and people are freaking out about it. Do we need to? We'll talk about that as we continue here on Locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by BetOnline, your number one source for sports betting information, stats, news, and analysis.

Get the latest odds and trends for every professional and amateur league out there. Football, basketball, soccer, esports, you name it, they have it all at BetOnline. And if you love sports podcasts, you can find those also at BetOnline. Always the fastest and easiest way to get your sports betting fix. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more. BetOnline, where the game starts. So taking a look at a BetOnline number

for you coming up. This is just a projected number from Ken Palm. So normally you'll see the Vegas betting line be very similar to what you see with those numbers from Ken Pomeroy. And right now he has Iowa favored by six against Iowa State. So a bit of a baseline. I was going to be favored. I talked to my friends at Circa in Las Vegas. They're hoping to have a line out here later today, here on Wednesday for this game, a little bit earlier than what we normally get for matchups in college basketball. Usually come out kind of the evening before. They're hoping to get

at least a little bit of a jump start, and if that is happening, we do get that number. We'll pass it along to you here. You can follow me on Twitter, at Trent Condon. That is the place to go to follow along with me. You'll see when all of our episodes are uploaded uploaded and a whole lot more. So that's coming up.

Looking forward to that side of things and talking more about the Iowa-Iowa State matchup. We'll have another instant reaction to that one as we're having here this evening with the loss to Duke. Also coming up this evening, it is Iowa-Iowa State on the women's side. We talked a little women's hoop here. Of course, Kaitlin Clark had the monster performance against NC State. Ended up in a losing effort. And now that is something that we've seen throughout the career of Kaitlin Clark. When she has these monster performances, in fact, when she scores 40 points or more,

Iowa hasn't won a game. That's what it's about. This Iowa State team is playing incredibly well. Big girl inside their transfer, six foot six tall, and going to make it very difficult for Monica Zano in the matchup there. We saw what NC State did. They made one decision. We're going to slow her down. And to do that, well, they doubled inside, made it difficult. In fact, tried to deny her a lot of post touches. And because of that, Iowa offense offense never got going. It came down to Caitlin trying to do a lot on her own. And I will fell short in that game.

Now I was really impressed by NC state. They hit a lot of tough shots in that game. I would defense. Isn't great. Lisa Bluter called out her team afterwards on the defensive effort. They got the win over the weekend against Wisconsin, but again, fun environment there,

Bill family, Lisa Bluter. They'll play nice. They'll say the right things. But two coaches that I think respect each other, but don't exactly like each other. And that's okay. I mean, that's a good thing, right?

In a rivalry. There has been some back and forth. Of course, you had the transfer, leaving from Iowa State, coming over to Iowa. You have that component on top of it here. There's just a lot going on. Right now, from what we've seen in the early portions of the season,

Iowa State is playing better than Iowa on the women's side of things. They're playing better basketball at this point. Can Iowa bounce back? Can we see them give some kind of defensive effort? We saw it at times on Sunday against Wisconsin. Can we see it again against a good team? Look, Wisconsin women's basketball is not good. It hasn't been good for a really long time.

This Iowa State team is much different, and they're playing as a team. They are playing kind of complete basketball at this point in time. I think it's a tough matchup. It is in Carver, and we've seen home court advantage has been so important in this rivalry. Should be fun. Make it loud in there. Enjoy your time.

If you're making your way there Wednesday or Thursday for both the women's or the men's game or both of them make it loud have some fun in there let's get a couple of victories on top of it wrapping things up here with some football talk and the transfer portal that continues to baffle yeah it's a crazy time in that portal and a lot to get into here want to say once again thank for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen today. Also want to let you know about Locked On Sports Today. From the games that matter the most to the biggest stories in sports, you can go beyond the scoreboard and behind the scenes with local experts and insights that only Locked On can provide.

It's Locked On Sports Today, available on this app, YouTube, or wherever you get podcasts so the transfer portal continued with some more disappointing news we've talked about justin jacobs his decision to move on that one blows right i mean this is a guy was a starter played at a high level when he was healthy he's gonna go out there maybe make some money inIL. We'll see on that front where he ultimately ends up, but that is out there. Lose Arlen Bruce, lose Keegan Johnson. Possibility, could Keegan Johnson maybe come back? A weird thing that happened last night.

So Keegan Johnson, of course, makes his official announcement, and then he starts tweeting out some offers. Kansas State, Nebraska, Notre Dame. A lot of people believe that Notre Dame is a strong possibility for him. Of course, Nebraska, he is a Nebraska kid and grew up in the state. His dad played for Nebraska. A lot of people connecting dots there. On and on and on.

But then shortly after he was tweeting these out, he deletes them. He deletes them. He deletes the tweets. Now, he still has the tweet up that says that I'm entering the transfer portal. He is in the transfer portal. That has been reported by a wide array of Iowa reporters, so that is out there. But what's happening? We'll see.

Is there a lot of work to be done if he wants to come back to Iowa? There's no doubt about it. Are there fences that he needs to mend to make that happen? Absolutely. Is it a real possibility? I'm not so sure on that front. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but it was just that moment that made you say him.

So these are guys that are impactful. These are guys that you're disappointed to lose. Like Josh Volk, scholarship guy, hasn't been able to see the field. And look at that offensive line this year, and he still wasn't out there. Like, you get that, right? Find a spot, maybe he can play, maybe transfer down to an FCS level, whatever it is, okay.

But you're losing some impactful guys. And then Terry Roberts enters the transfer portal yesterday. And I see the same kind of consternation and frustration from Iowa fans. Look, I love Terry Roberts, like running down there as the gunner and making plays, catching those punts from Torrey Taylor. It was great. Good special teams player. But this guy's been injured the last two years. He walked on senior day. He's been in the program five years. I don't think many people anticipate he was going to be back. And if it's a case where he can go out, he can make a little

bit of money in the transfer game. He can go out there and be a starter, something that he would certainly not be coming back this season. Remember, you have one side Cooper DeGene on the other Jamari Harris. He was at best best health aside, going to be the third cornerback this year for Iowa. So maybe he's looking for that starting job and getting more tape on him to have a chance at the next level. We know he's a great special teams player. And we saw that before a special teams guy moved on and did a little bit more than what we saw with Charlie Jones, but the consternation, this was your number three cornerback. Yeah. You need more depth there.

Yes, we saw in the game against Nebraska cornerbacks, the backups to the backups to the backups not look very good. All the freshmen, of course, Jamison Hines, didn't look great. Give full Parker time with those guys. I mean, how many times in the past? Think back to the first time you saw Joshua Jackson try to play cornerback. It wasn't pretty. There's been plenty of those guys. Bradley Fletcher. Guys that have gone on and played in the league.

Early on in their careers, it doesn't look fine. Those guys are going to be fine. Hall's going to be fine, ultimately, because I believe in Phil Parker, and you should, too. Do they need more depth? No doubt about it. They need to find some more guys to help out cornerback, but let's slow our roll a little bit.

Just calm down a little bit when we see somebody like Terry Roberts, a fifth-year senior that hasn't been healthy in two years, enter the transfer portal. Let's save the freakouts for ones that we really should be freaking out about. This was not one of them. Some things to pass along as well in the rumors for the transfer portal. So we talked yesterday about Eric Hall, the tight end from Michigan, injured most of this season, had a big year the year before, though, in 2021,

possibly joining his former teammate Cade McNamara, of course, going to be the Iowa quarterback next season. Well, there's another name continuing to gain steam, and that is A.J. Heading, another Michigan guy. This, a wide receiver guy that can move around kind of more of a slot type of guy we've talked a lot about Iowa seems like they're pretty enamored with some big receivers looking at the big frame kind of guy we've talked about a few of those different options that have been out there and some of the guys that Iowa has been

chasing they've lost some guys to the portal now you got to fill in those gaps I think you still need help and the offensive line. Even if Caden Proctor ultimately signs here, coming up with signing day right around the corner. You feel good there. Mason Richmond on the other side of tackle. I think you need help inside. I don't know if Logan Jones is ultimately the answer at center.

A lot of the things we saw at the beginning of the year, slow with the snap, bad decisions, bad line calls. Those things continued all throughout the season. slow with the snap, bad decisions, bad line calls, those things continued all throughout the season. And because of that, I certainly would be happy to see Iowa go out there and find a transfer center, somebody in the interior, somebody to help out. You got a slew of guards. You feel like you're pretty well set at the tackle possessions. Again, if Caden Proctor is able to come in along with Mason Richmond,. You're okay there, but that help inside. And very well could be Logan Jones could turn out to be a great guard.

I know they still believe in him at center. That is a place certainly I would like to see them continue to attack. You need wide receivers. You need an interior offense alignment. I think a center at minimum. And then you continue to look around. More depth at linebacker? Absolutely.

With Justin Jacobs departing, Jack Campbell graduating, Seth Benson the same, yes, you need depth there. Jay Higgins, he came on in a big-time way. You're excited about him. But what else at the linebacker spot? There's some big questions. Defensive backfield, they're going to be fine. They always are.

Phil Parker, he is going to have that unit in good shape along with what you're going to have up front. Defensively, I think this is more of a depth building exercise. That's where we are in the portal. It is a slow process on top of it. I know that's another thing where there's a lot of people disappointed, thought this was going to be hit the ground running. We're going to get six, seven new guys in a way they go. That's not the reality. Look, these guys, for the most part, have not even taken visits. That is a part of the process. And think of this.

You're a college kid. You've got an opportunity again to be recruited. Just think of the road trips he took. Look, I bussed around the Big Ten, went to different places, visited friends in different areas. It was great, right? Now think about doing that on a university dime. Yeah, take your time.

These guys are going to take their time. This is not something that's going to happen ultra quickly. This is not going to be something that is going to be something that's going to be all wrapped up by next weekend. This is a process. This is going to be a process that's going to take time. This is going to be a process that's going to go into January. Remember that part of it as well. Yes, there are over a thousand names now in the transfer portal.

That happens. Absolutely, positively, there is over 1,000 names now in the transfer portal. That happens. Absolutely, positively, there is a lot more still to come. There's going to be highs. There's going to be lows. Enjoy the ride, and we'll see how they come out the backside of this. There's a bowl game coming up. We'll talk about that more, a matchup with Kentucky. Oh, hum, right?

They've just taken on the Wildcats for the second straight year. And saw the ticket sales are not exactly brisk here. Early Iowa has sold just 20 percent of their allotment for Nashville. I think Hawkeye fans and fans of college football in general were getting a little bit smarter, understanding that there are some better avenues for securing tickets. Will that change in the future? The bowl structure? Maybe a summer conversation with us here on Locked On Hawkeyes. Again, thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day.

Always enjoy having you. And hit me up with some comments as well on YouTube. I read all of those and always enjoy hearing from you out there. For your next listen, check out Locked On Sports Today, the biggest stories of the day, plus instant reaction, big game recaps, and the take of the day. It's available on the Odyssey app, YouTube, or wherever you get podcasts. We will continue Cy Hawk Week and the difficult nature of things.

Iowa, Iowa State on the women's side coming up this evening. That game will be on television as well. That is an ESPN 2 game for that one on Wednesday evening. Then on Thursday night, it'll be the men's 7 o'clock on FS1 for that one. Big couple of days in Hawkeye athletics. Let's be little brother and let's get a couple of wins in the win column and some positive feelings for both the women's and the men's basketball teams. We'll be back with you again tomorrow.

We'll talk to you then. Go Hawks.