Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - INSTANT REACTION - Iowa Women to the Final 4!

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

The Iowa women's basketball team moves on to the Final Four for the first time since 1993 after they beat Louisville 97-83.A breakdown of the performance and another incredible performance from Caitlin Clark as she goes off for 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds to have the first 30+ point triple double in the NCAA Tournament history.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 “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the first time in 30 years, the Iowa women are off to the Final Four. We break down the victory against Louisville and look forward to Friday night when Iowa will be playing in the Final Four in Dallas. All today on 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. Hey, 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 get podcasts. You can find us on Spotify, on Stitcher, Google, Apple. We got you covered there and you can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, hit that subscribe button. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Big shout out to everybody that's been jumping on aboard here with us recently. Let's see, over the last week we got Adam Horning that has jumped in with hitting that subscribe button. Under

X1, Michael Goldman, Ashley Conger. Hello to all of you and hello to everybody out there making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Greatly appreciate you being out there and getting excited already for what should be an incredible build-up until Friday night when Iowa will get the winner of Maryland and South Carolina of course South Carolina they are a big favorite in that game but the anticipation the build-up it's going to be incredible Iowa's going to go right from Seattle make their way down to Dallas and get ready to play on Friday evening.

No announcement yet of what time it would be. I anticipate it will be the late tip time. That'll be the 8.30 tip time. If it is, certainly South Carolina, you'd think that'll be the second game of the Final Four doubleheader. That'll come up on Friday evening. But what an achievement. What a game. Let's break things down here, as only we do on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

Of course, it kicks off. And when you talk about this team, you have to talk about Kaitlyn Clark and another just virtuoso performance out of Kaitlyn. 41 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds. Where did that 10 rebound come from? That's open to interpretation. Who gives a crap, right? That was a performance for the ages in the elite eight

against the Louisville team. It's got defenders. They got stoppers. There was a time they had a 6-2, 6-3 girl on her and they were going all over the place. And it was Van Lith for a while. And it was on and on and on. And whoever they threw on her, Caitlin had a response.

So Iowa gets down right away, 8-0. Like, oh boy, here we go. I knew this Louisville team was going to be tough. And Iowa just shot the ball better. And Kaitlin Clark was just better. And this team was just better. I mean, there's no two ways about it. After that 8-0 start, they come roaring right back, get back into it.

It's 8-7, a little back and forth. And then they gain control. And it was never a cruise, right? I mean, it was just you always were waiting. But in the third quarter, they started to pull away more. In the first half of the game, of course, Caitlin was doing her thing, and she was really hot shooting the basketball. I mean, just on fire from the outside, hitting shots, pulling to her left,

and hitting those pull-up Js. She was so good at that, showed the depth. How about the corner three, something that we don't see very often. And the out-of-bounds play. Just absolutely wonderful performance out of her in the first half of the game. Gabby Marshall had four looks from the three-point line. I think all four of those things rattled out. I mean, halfway down and popping out with the stupid basketball that they're using here. And we've heard about not just, you know, that it's slick and it's difficult to handle, but also that maybe it's overinflated. We've seen plenty of those balls pounced out.

And that was Gabby. But in the second half, she goes off. 14 points for her overall in the game. She was great in the second half. You could tell right away, the game plan for Louisville in this game is they were going to shut down Monica Zanano. That was their game plan.

Kaitlyn Clark's going to get hers. The other players are going to do their thing. What we're going to do more than anything is we're going to work to stop inside. Anytime that the ball went into the post to Zanano, every single time, double teams were coming. They were anticipating those throws in there. So Iowa had to change. Iowa had to evolve. And when you have a point guard like Clayton Clark, well, you can do that pretty, pretty well. Some great defense as well. Gabby Marshall was outstanding all throughout the game, made things really difficult in the first half.

Haley Van Litt, she had a good performance herself in the second half, not so much. She was chirping. She was doing her thing, and Kaitlyn had a little something for her waiting in the second half as Iowa opened up. Got up over 20 at one point. waiting in the second half as Iowa opened up. Got up over 20 at one point. The Louisville chipped away and got it down, what, within nine, eight, I think it was at one point in the fourth quarter of the game.

Iowa hit their free throws, hit a bucket, had a throw ahead, and a lay-in, and Iowa is off to the Final Four for the first time since 1993. 30 years ago. Where were you 30 years ago? Well, for some of you who weren't with us, for me, I was 12. I remember the run to the Final Four. I remember the victory against Tennessee. I think I maybe went over to my grandma's place to watch that game because I don't think we had ESPN at the time. Anytime there was an ESPN game back then, I had to make my way over to Grandma Karen's place.

And that's where I watched a lot of basketball games growing up with her, a lot of sporting events. And here she is still doing the same thing. I'll watch in the team, but that one tonight, just so much fun. And now we look forward to what this team has, what they're going to be. Now you look at the path that they went through.

Yes. The number one seed got knocked off. The three seed Duke went down. The number four seed Texas went down yet the matchups. And certainly over the last three games, Georgia, Colorado, and Louisville, all teams that play a physical style, they're going to grind you. Good defensive teams. And yet Iowa, every single time they had a response.

So they put up 97 points against this team. Remember they had that stretch of the fourth quarter. They didn't have a field goal for seven minutes, and they still put 97 up on the board. They scored 87 against that Colorado team. And the one, I guess, low watermark was against Georgia, and they still scored 74. This team offensively is so good. It feels great for Coach Bluter, obviously, being with this program for the last 23 years and built it, obviously, to a level that has been very successful.

But getting over that final hump if you're a video game player right beating that last boss whoever it may be it can be incredibly difficult and that's what it was for iowa basketball made another elite eight a couple years back with meg augustus and and just weren't in the same caliber as those top level teams well i was there now and more than likely yes it's it's going to be South Carolina in that game Friday night, but the way this team is playing offensively, the chip under the shoulder, I think that they're going to have to. Now, South Carolina, they've been talking a lot and they've been talking about team. Well, did you hear after the game, Kaitlyn Clark, she was talking about those same things. She was talking about team and can't do it without her

teammates. And there's been plenty of shade that has gone the way of this Iowa basketball team and Kaitlyn Clark, and they have responded every single time. Here we are getting ready for it. How cool that's going to be. We're going to talk about that. And your boy's making his way down there. That's right. TC, I'm going to be on the road here with Lockdown Hawkeyes. We're going to be making our way down to Dallas for the final four. We'll talk about that a little bit more as we continue here. The Hawkeyes in the Final Four for the first time in 30 years. A little salve of the wounds, right? And there's a lot of great things going on. We just touched on it after the win against Colorado on Friday night. Brody Brecht hanging

up his cleats on the football field. He's going to be dedicating himself completely to baseball. We'll talk about that. The Iowa baseball team off to their best start ever. How about the Iowa softball team? Had a very difficult matchup against Penn State to begin Big Ten play. They take two out of three after losing in nine innings in game one.

Bounce back and win both the games over the weekend. Huge for them and a real opportunity in an incredibly difficult Big Ten to keep moving up the rung and some big opportunities in front of them we have that going on spring football is happening tons happening but of course the big story Iowa women to the final four we'll continue to talk about that as we roll through here this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast today's episode of Locked On Hawkeyes is brought to you by built bar.

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You can vote every day through the month of March, so hop in and support your pick. Trent Cotter back with you once again on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. So as the Iowa women punch their ticket into the Final Four, the performance that we talked about from Kaitlyn Clark, but she was not alone. Yes, Sonata was not her

normal self out there. That was a lot to do with what Louisville was doing defensively. Warnock in the first half, she was outstanding. Marshall in the second half was doing her thing. Kate Martin just being the traffic cop out there doing the defense assignment things, doing those little things that you need.

How about off the bench? We saw a falter. She came in, helped out with a couple of buckets. And after Friday night, we see Hannah Stolke coming off the ankle injury, didn't play in the game against Georgia in the round of 32. And you wondered, well, is she healthy after the game? Coach Bluter said, yes, she was healthy. It was more of a matchup thing. We saw that was certainly the case here as she went out there,

really played well against those bigs of Louisville and really helped out in a day where Sonata was battling foul trouble. She was able to help out in a big time way. I mean, the future is so, so bright for Hannah Stolke and what she still can be. It just feels like she's just scratching the surface, right? Of what she is ultimately going to be at this level

as she makes her way through her career, just a freshman, and what she has already did and the accolades that are there. How cool it was to continue watching afterwards and seeing the Nets being cut down by this Iowa women's team. You had that Lisa Bluter at the end. Just such an easy person to root for.

If you know anybody that knows Coach Bluter, you're not going to hear many negative things. You're just not. And in fact, the first time I hear something negative will be one of the first times. It's just, she's that kind of person. Not only is she a great basketball coach, and what they do X's and O's wise,

you talk about the offense and some of the things that they set up and building their offense around Kaitlin Clark, but then getting that ability. What Jan Jensen does with the post players and inside and just on and on and on. And Coach Jensen losing her father today, heavy heart, this program trying to take that final step to get to a final four and for it all to culminate here. Caitlin talked a little bit with that and with Holly Rowe after the game. And he could tell what Jan Jensen means to this program. Yeah, Lisa Bluter is the one that gets announced every single time, but Jan's such a big part.

Fitz, what she has meant as now the special assistant to Coach Bluter and on and on and on. It's just, it is such a great thing to see for a great person to be able to have this happen and get that breakthrough moment and get to the final four. And I'm telling you, I think there's going to be a ton of Hawkeye fans. So I was taking a look at tickets.

So came up with this idea and was texting with a couple of guys in my, my tailgating group. And they said, yeah, we're going to try to make it down. If they make the final four. Now, what are these guys? Well, you know, I'm a stat boy here on the program. He fills us in with a lot of statistical information. A lot of times when Biz and I get together,

he likes to give us some different numbers and some different stats that we chew on. So Stat Boy said, yeah, we're going. I said, okay. I thought about it. I can get a press pass. But I have a daughter myself. A seven-year-old daughter that's been playing basketball

the last couple of years, enjoys it. We've been to a couple of Hawkeye games before. She loves Caitlin Clark, as I think every girl here across the state of Iowa does at this point in time. So you got that component to it too. And I said, you know what? And I talked to my wife.

I said, yeah, we're going to miss school on Friday, but let's head down there. So going to make the drive down. Got some other friends, Biz, who joins us on the podcast. Hopefully we can get him maybe on Wednesday and we can talk a little bit more about this team and making the trip down there. But look at the tickets. I will tell you, it's getting pricey. The get in price right now on StubHub, I think it was something like $175,

something like that, just to get in the door. That's talking about being at the 300 level. So you're going to be up there a ways. then uh you want to be in the lower bowl well you're talking 400 bucks a piece it's gonna be a pricey one gonna be a pricey one but that shows you now i have not heard anything yet as it pertains to what the university of iowa what the athletic department is going to get if season ticket holders are going to have an opportunity to purchase tickets I will tell you though after seeing what Seattle was there is going to be a lot of people making their way down and a lot of people like me just going to hop in the car you'll hear from central Iowa from the Des Moines area it's about a 10-hour drive over in

eastern Iowa well you're talking about Iowa City Cedar Rapids a little under 12 to get over there so something that you can knock out in the day we're gonna leave thursday after school hop in the car my dad lives in oklahoma so i'm gonna stop off and see my dad and stay overnight there and then continue the trek down on friday and get ready for the game like i said earlier i anticipate it will be the late game but i'll be counting those pennies because it's gonna cost you some bucks to get in there and after tomorrow night well two more teams will officially know that they're going to be there. So we've got the South Carolina-Maryland game. That will be happening. That is the early game. That's a six o'clock game tomorrow. And then Ohio State-Virginia

Tech after that. So a lot of people are going to want to watch Caitlin Clark. A lot of people want to see South Carolina if they get there. We'll see. We'll see what tickets are. Hey, if you got a heads up for me, you can hook us up a little bit. Willing to pay. Not looking for any freebies at all out there. Would never do that. Well, I shouldn't say never. Not looking to do that in this circumstance.

Willing to pay, but hey, looking for some good tickets. And of course, my daughter, she's going to be working on her signs. That's going to be really exciting too. Going to tell her that we're making it down there. Watch the first half of the game. She had to go to bed. We're going to get her up on Monday morning and before school. We'll watch the end of the game a little bit with her and

got to figure out exactly how I'm going to break the news that we're going to the Final Four and should be a lot of fun. Well, as I mentioned, there's a lot more going on in Hawkeye land than just this. We got this great story of this Iowa women's team, the performances that we saw out of this group, just the answers, the responses. Big players and big moments, right? And that's Kaitlyn Clark. How cool

it is to see all the national media. You're talking about it. I retweeted on the Lockdown Iowa account over on Twitter. Isaiah Thomas was talking about her and Dickie V is talking about her. Just all these national people, basketball people that are so invested in the sport and to see what they say about Caitlin Clark, something that we all know, right? As Hawkeye fans. And we, we watched her the last three years for me, I've been watching her since she was in high school and calling a bunch of

her games. And I love women's basketball. I really do. I enjoy the sport. I call a ton of it at the high school level throughout the course of the year. I've had an opportunity I call a ton of it at the high school level throughout the course of the year. I've had an opportunity to call the girls state basketball tournament, both on radio and on the stream for a number of years. And it's a sport that I incredibly enjoy. I love it. And watching Caitlin and some of the things that she was doing as a youngster and seeing

what she has continued to build upon it and what she is just what a cool one. Some of the faces that she was doing. How about as she was getting the crowd back into it towards the end of the game and put her hand up to her ear. Just not too bad. You know, just she has such fun that the flair that she has, it's so entertaining to watch.

This team is fun to watch. The style is fun to watch it. It's got, it's got it all. And we will continue to break things down here on lockdown. Hawkeyes wrapping things up on the other side so many more things to get into with this Iowa squad and Iowa athletics in general we'll talk a little bit about Brody Brecht his decision to hang up football and he

is going completely to baseball what does that mean for Iowa we'll do that as we continue here on Lockdown Hawkeyes. Today's episode on Locked On Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. The tournament is heating up. We're down to four on one side, six on the women's side, with two more Elite Eight games to be played. There's no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook.

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Thanks to everybody that's been hitting that subscribe button on YouTube. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. We're talking women's basketball. We're talking softball. We're talking baseball. We got everything. How about the baseball team? Off to their best start.

They just go out there, take care of business against Western Michigan. Not a great Western Michigan team by any means, but a win as a win. So impressed by what I saw from Iowa softball over the weekend. They lose game one to Penn State, come back, win the final two games to take the series. Really, really nice start to the season for this Iowa softball team. Of course, a program under Gail Blevins that had so much success. College World Series. They had some outstanding teams back in the day and seeing them build back up and hopefully get to a level. Big Ten softball is very good. We know the power, much like baseball, is in the South, but there's

been a lot of good softball play throughout the years at the Big Ten level. Michigan, Northwestern, a couple of programs that have had a ton of success throughout the years, and good to see Iowa. Looks like they're maybe trending back to that level once again and doing some good things. And as we get deeper into spring, we'll talk more about that. But the biggest story from over the weekend outside of Iowa women's basketball was Brody Brecht, and making the decision as the release came out on Friday evening, right after he finished up his start against Western Michigan at 10 strikeouts in the game, something that frankly I've been hitting at for a long time,

something that I believe maybe even should have happened a year ago, but here we are where he decides enough with football. I need to concentrate on baseball. And, you know, I think he, in his release, put it incredibly well, right? Where he said, yes, he loves football. It's his first love. But it's just that reality of where things are going to be. And I think you'll have this opportunity, right? And it doesn't matter if we're talking about work life, family life, whatever it is, where you have to make some difficult choices and you don't always want to have to do it as a 20 year old make for him at this point, certainly the most difficult,

I'm going to guess decision that he's ever had to make, but this is the best thing. But there are people that are talking about Brody Breck being the number one pick in the 2024 draft. There are people that say he is not just a first rounder. He is higher than that. And when you have that kind of thing, you just can't mess with it. Now, that's not to say you can't get hurt playing baseball. Of course you can.

And when you throw 100 miles an hour like Brody Breck does and you have a breaking pitch like he does that just absolutely frisbees out of the zone and one of the best off-speed pitches in the game, when you have that combination, anything can happen. But why put the undue stress of going out there and having guys from all walks going out there and hitting you as a wide receiver, right? It's just, it's reality. Now, when we look at it from an Iowa football perspective, this is a blow.

And with this now officially on the books, and we talked about this a little bit earlier in the week, and we took a look at the press at the too deep of the iowa football team now seth anderson was not on that too deep the transfer from charleston southern he will be there he'll be a point but part but he is right now dealing with the soft tissue injury with that happening i will come may 1st they need to hit the portal again it's incredibly important for them they have to get more talent offensive line I think they can't be worse than what they've been the last two years. I don't think they have a chance to be at minimum solid this year. McNamara is a huge upgrade over Petras. Running back is in incredibly good hands. The

tight end room with the one-two punch of Lachey and all, I mean, that's as good as anybody has in college football. You have everything right now, at least at least position wise short of the wide receivers now we can get into the offensive coordinator and and that problem that continues to be there with brian ferentz and that'll be conversations that we'll still have but in terms of pieces i feel like they have a really good shot here to take a step forward we need more help and i think not just one maybe two wide receivers is something that they need to be shopping for. And they need to be selling when portal season comes back open on May 1st. We got a lot of spring football, so many different storylines to continue to track. The spring sports have continued and winter sports goes on for at least, well, one more game.

And let's hope two more games with the Iowa women in the final four for the first time in 30 years. It is always great to be a Hawkeye, and it's always great to have you here with us. Thanks for making Locked On, Hawkeyes, your first listen today. For your second listen, check out our new podcast, Locked On College Basketball. Our experts, Isaac Schottie, along with Andy Patton, bringing you everything you need to know on and off the court.

Plus, you can hear from the big-name experts, coaches, and players all throughout the college basketball landscape with Locked On College Basketball available on YouTube and wherever you get podcasts. We'll talk to you again soon. Go Hawks!