Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa basketball dominates second half in win vs Minnesota plus Caitlin Clark has another career day

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

The men's Iowa basketball team finished strong yesterday in a home victory over Minnesota. With Fran McCaffery at home due to Covid, Billy Taylor took the reigns of the Iowa Hawkeye squad and got the job done with impressive performances from Keagan Murray and Patrick McCaffery along with a fantastic defensive effort by the Hawks in the second half.On the women's side, despite falling short on the road to a top-10 ranked Michigan team, the Iowa women's basketball team showed a lot of courage and heart clawing their way back from 25 points down at one point. Star guard Caitlin Clark put together an unbelievable performance as well in this game. Should she be National Player of the Year? Yes.Finally, we wrap up with a breakdown of what we learned from Kirk Ferentz's news conference last week discussing the Iowa football team.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to a Monday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. Excited to be back for another show today. And on today's episode, we have a lot to cover. We got the men's basketball team getting a W versus Minnesota yesterday.

We had the women's basketball team fighting very hard until the end versus Michigan, ultimately falling short. But Kaitlin Clark putting up another very impressive performance. And we also heard from Kirk Ferentz last week. We want to talk about that press conference and what he had to say on today's show. Before we get to all of that, though, I want to thank you all for making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day.

You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. And today's episode is brought to you by BetOnline. BetOnline has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. BetOnline, where the game starts. Before we get into our show, I want to quickly apologize for not getting a show out on Friday. I was at a bachelor party, and I thought I would have time, and I didn't, to be completely fair. So I do apologize on that, but nevertheless, we are here, and we have five episodes coming at you this week.

And pretty special, and we have a – I'm not going to reveal the guest until we actually do the interview, but we have a pretty special guest that has lined up to come on the show. So I'm really excited about that interview coming up here later this week. Let's get into it though. Before we start talking about men's basketball, I do think it's important to mention the Iowa men's wrestling team did get a 29-6 win over Wisconsin this weekend in their final home match at Carver. The last time we're going to see, you know, an Alex Marinelli or Michael Kramer in Carver Hawkeye Arena wrestling for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

So a great way to end the home matches for Iowa. Again, no Drake Ayala in that match, which is kind of concerning. It'll be interesting to see when do we get to see Drake Ayala again. Definitely a better opportunity for Iowa to get wins at that 125-pound weight class. And on the women's side, three big-time commitments over the last couple of days. We're going to get some more information on all that and be dropping that here on the show, but wanted to let you all know that. The men's basketball team, though, let's turn our attention to that.

Yesterday against Minnesota gets a win against Minnesota, but it wasn't as pretty as the score might have made it look. They won 71-59, but after the first half, Iowa fans were generally pretty pissed off, and rightfully so. Minnesota is not a great basketball team. They are not a quality basketball team, and yet Iowa, again, was down 38-34 at half. What's important to note is that Iowa came out slow again as they have been doing the last couple

of weeks now Fran McCaffrey mentioned that he was possibly going to tinker the lineup we saw them do that in this game Jordan Bohannon getting the start at the one Tony Perkins getting the start of the two so no Joe Toussaint in that starting lineup, yet here we are. We start slow again. In that game, Billy Taylor coaching for the Iowa Hawkeyes as Fran McCaffrey is out with COVID, so wish him the best. Connor McCaffrey also did not play in this game. So as far as how the game went, again, slow start for Iowa, down 38-34. They beat Minnesota in the second half, 37-21.

Keegan Murray putting together another very impressive day. 24 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 steal. Patrick McCaffrey having a very nice game as well. 18.7 rebounds, 2 of 3 from 3, which we'll get to that here in a second. Peyton

Sanford finally got a little bit more of a sighting of Peyton. 5 points in 10 minutes of play. You can see the confidence in his shooting as well. Iowa did a good job. They shot 39% from three. They have been the worst three-point shooting team in the Big Ten, so nice to see them get a little bit more on track against Minnesota.

They won the turnover battle, and they barely lost the rebounding battle, which is saying something considering how bad it was after the first half. It's also worth noting that although Iowa started slow, Minnesota was also hitting literally everything in the first half. In the second half, their offense got completely bottled up. Some of that was self-inflicting wounds of them really not moving the ball around the perimeter a lot, not really running an offense, playing a lot of one-on-one ball. Iowa did a great job defensively, though, of holding Minnesota in that.

Let's turn our attention to the storylines of this game, some overreactions. You could say, I saw people actually tweet out, should Billy Taylor be the head coach? Should Fran McCaffrey leave? No. To answer that quickly, absolutely not. Billy Taylor did a great job in coaching for Fran McCaffrey, no doubt about it.

It is not easy to do. We've seen in other games where Fran McCaffrey was not the coach. He was unable to be on the bench because he was suspended. We've seen Iowa get absolutely slaughtered. So good on Billy Taylor to be able to come out and make some adjustments for Iowa to motivate the team to play significantly better defense. I would argue one of the best defensive performances we've seen from Iowa this season in that second half,

everyone was right on top of the Minnesota defenders. I thought the half court traps were doing pretty solid, but Iowa does a great job of closing out on defenders and sticking with their guys. But that doesn't mean Billy Taylor should be the head coach. I still have a lot of respect for Fran McCaffrey. I still appreciate what he does as the head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes, and I believe this team is better with him at the helm, but Billy Taylor showing what he can do in one game for the Iowa Hawkeyes. I'm going to again wish Fran McCaffrey a quick recovery. game for the Iowa Hawkeyes. I'm going to again wish Fran McCaffrey a quick recovery. Joe Toussaint only gets six minutes in this game. Now Iowa's offense has been struggling. Would I say it's

entirely Joe Toussaint's fault? I wouldn't, but it is interesting that that is clearly kind of the indication that Iowa is giving at this point. Joe Toussaint having the ninth most minutes on the team with only six. Peyton Sanford, again, a true freshman, getting 10. Chris Murray getting 15. Aaron Ulis getting 21. Tony Perkins getting 18. So Joe Toussaint really finding himself dropped down in that guard rotation.

And it'll be interesting to see, does he play much in the upcoming games for Iowa? Does he play a lot on Thursday night against Maryland? If not, I would be very worried about what his place in the side would look like going forward, and we could see Joe Toussaint potentially lead the program after this year. I don't want to get all deep on that, but if he's not playing at this point in his career, you have to wonder, is he going to put together

and should he maybe transfer out to another program? That's something we could be seeing him do going forward. Very interesting stuff, though, with Joe Toussaint not getting very much playing time. As far as Jordan Bohannon, a lot of people were on Twitter saying Jordan Bohannon should be benched. He's been terrible. He's not that bad.

The reason why he was playing point is because he needed to direct the offense. He did a better job than Joe Toussaint. I thought defensively, Jordan Bohannon did a phenomenal job in yesterday's game. Really, really engaged. Yeah, he's not going to be the best defender ever, but he is at least going to be engaged and did a really good job in this game. Better than I've seen him do for quite some time. And Patrick McCaffrey is really stepping up. We're starting to see him really break out over these last four or five games, putting up some of the best offensive ratings for the Iowa Hawkeye offense in the last four or five games.

He's shooting 38% in conference play from three-point, which has been absolutely phenomenal. A really nice development from Patrick McCaffrey. Again, I like how he is able to get to the rim. I think he needs to convert a bit more at the rim, but having him develop that outside shot will only help his game so he can actually get guys coming out. He can go inside on them, so that'll be really interesting to see, but Patrick McCaffrey stepping up is huge for the Iowa Hawkeyes. So what's next for Iowa? Well, first and foremost, they need to start off quicker. This has been an issue for a lot of the

season, and they need to do a better job of starting off hot and not putting themselves in holes, especially against bad teams. We saw that happen against Penn State. They also need to play defense for the entire game. I don't understand why this is such a difficult concept. They need to play more aggressive defense throughout the game, not just in the second half when it gets down to crunch time. Three-point shooting, we saw them do better against Minnesota. It needs to continue to improve. I would like to see Peyton Sanford get some playing time when they are struggling shooting because he's a guy who's going to be very confident in shooting the ball from anywhere on the court.

Jordan Bohannon still struggling from three. So it would be interesting to see, can he get better in that aspect? Is he going to turn it on at any point? We haven't seen it yet, but we're getting kind of late into the season. We kind of need to see it at some point. Iowa takes on Maryland on Thursday night, so be on the lookout for that. Another game that Iowa has to win. Maryland, not a very good team in the conference this year.

Currently 94th, according to Kempom. They are 11-12. They've lost five of their last seven. If you want to expand it out, they've actually lost eight of their last nine. That math might have been off a little bit there. Let me check that. Eight of their last eleven. Excuse me.

With a loss to Ohio State, 82-67 yesterday. Just not a very good team, this Maryland team, but Iowa is going on the road, and anytime you go on the road in the Big Ten, you have to be a little bit worried about what could happen. Coming up, we're going to talk about the women's basketball team. They had a very interesting

game against Michigan, got down by as much as 25, was able to come back, but we're going to talk about that and Kaitlyn Clark and what she is doing, but first, BetOnline has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before as football continues its march through the playoffs right into the big game in a couple of weeks. BetOnline.net remains the best spot for all the sports scores, podcasts, and news this season.

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The money line went up quite a bit. I placed a bet at betonline.net, and I was able to make up a lot of the money I lost from drinking all weekend at the bachelor party. So you can do that as well at BetOnline.net. BetOnline.net, where the game starts. All right, y'all. It is Super Week brought to you by GetUpside, and there is no better place to get coverage of the big game than the Locked On NFL podcast. Locked On Bengals and Locked On Rams are also in LA all week covering the big

game. So stay tuned for all the up-to-date notices from the Locked On NFL podcast, Locked On Bengals and Locked On Rams covering you and the Super Bowl this week in LA. Let's get into it. The women's basketball team had a game against number six Michigan on the road. I think we start with that. That is a very difficult thing to do, right?

Going on the road in Big Ten play, men's or women's, especially against a top 10 ranked team with the returning Big Ten player of the year in Nas Hillman. Number six Michigan is a very good team. Now what made that more difficult is that Iowa was also losing two starters, McKenna Warnock and Gabby Marshall. That means Iowa had only seven healthy players to play against No. 6 Michigan on the road.

And yet, I would call this a moral victory. Iowa has had some interesting games this season. They dropped a few games early on. They've really been hitting their stride, though, as of late. But I would actually consider even the loss of number six michigan a really good building block we saw some pretty impressive things mostly out of caitlin clark but it was just a bad matchup all around for iowa versus michigan michigan having some very good front court play uh doing a great job without mckenna warmack without gabby marshall

monica shinano basically couldn't do a lot against this Michigan frontcourt. In this game, she put up 13 points and one rebound. Let me make sure I have that correct. Yeah, 13 points and one rebound with five fouls. Monica Shinano not doing as well as you would like to see, but mostly because there was not a lot of help for her. Iowa had to start four guards with McKenna Warnock being out, and we saw Kayla and Clark put together arguably one of the most impressive performances we've ever seen. Before we get to that, I want to quickly make note that Naz Hillman,

the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year, did put up 26 points, 10 rebounds, and two assists. So again, Iowa was in a very big disadvantage. Had a lot of disadvantages in this game in the frontcourt. Sorry, excuse me. I cannot talk apparently. And it showed. But Kaitlin Clark kept them in this game. Had just an absolutely insane game going 14-29 from the field. 6-13 from three, 46 points total, 12-14 from the free throw line, four rebounds and 10 assists plus three steals. Kaitlyn Clark, let me just run down the list of things.

She's the first person to do, right? First D1 player in 20 years with 45 points and 10 assists. Most points ever scored at the Chrysler Center by a woman. In the last 15 years, there's only one other player in the NBA, WNBA, or D1 men's or women's basketball to have 45-plus points and 10-plus assists while playing an entire game. That was Kevin Durant in the 2021 playoffs. They were literally triple-teaming here all game as well. She was hitting shots from the logo.

Seven, eight feet deep, she was hitting three-point shots. Kaitlyn Clark just putting together one of the most impressive performances ever. And if she's not the Big Ten Player of the Year and the National Player of the Year, I don't know what they're doing out there, right? Kaitlyn Clark has absolutely cemented herself as the frontrunner for National Player of the Year. She's putting together such impressive numbers. I think she could be the number one pick in the WNBA draft this year. That's how impressive Kaitlyn Clark has been.

Now, Iowa gets a rematch versus Michigan February 27th at Carver. Hopefully, they are in a better spot from a health perspective, right? Iowa struggling mightily with health. And when you only have seven healthy players, only two front court players total, that is not exactly the best position to be in. As far as that goes, McKenna Warnock does not have an appointment to get received by the doctor for another week,

so expect her to not be in this upcoming week as Iowa takes on Minnesota on February 9th. Iowa does have a tough game against Maryland on February 14th at Carver, followed by Indiana at Indiana February 20th, so we need Iowa to get healthy quick. Makona Warnock, we need her back soon. Gabby Marshall does seem like she might be able to play in this upcoming game. She did dress for this past game, but unable to play. Hopefully she can go as well, but nevertheless, we still need some more front court players.

You need McKenna Warnock to be back. Hopefully Iowa can get McKenna Warnock back for that Maryland game, February 14th. Kaelin Clark can do as much as she wants, but it's going to be very tough when you are playing with seven people and no front court. But nevertheless, Kaelin Clark showing just how amazing she absolutely has been throughout this season.

Truly, truly impressive. Nonetheless, from Caitlin Clark coming up, we're going to talk a little bit about that Kirk Ferentz press conference, some interesting things from some of the media members there. We're going to be talking about all that here in a few short moments, but just a reminder that this is the time of the year that pretty much people normally give up on their New Year's resolutions, but not this year.

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That's L-O-C-K-E-D-1-5. And you'll get 15% off your next order. Use that promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at built.com. All right, y'all. We want to get into that Kirk F Ferens press conference took place on Thursday. Want to make sure we are breaking all that down for you right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. So first, there's some interesting stuff that kind of came out of this. One of the media members really started digging on the David Porter piece, and I thought it was a bit ridiculous.

I just wanted to run through it real quick. It was, what's your reaction to David's recommendation that after 18 months that he felt like it was best if you stepped down? That's heavy. Kirk said, well, it's not heavy. It's an opinion. And obviously, everybody's entitled to their opinions. I'm not thinking in those terms.

That's what you're asking, not even remotely. He followed it up with, how do you react to something like that? Kirk said, I didn't have much of a reaction. I read it, and that's his opinion. There's not much to react to other than I have a different opinion. My attention is like long-term and big picture, not short-term. Everyone is allowed to have an opinion. The reporter again asked, it's not alarming that he feels that way. Kirk says, no, it's his opinion. Reporter asks again, or why he feels that way. Kirk, no, it's his opinion.

Reporter again asked, he also said he considers you still a friend and a mentor. Kirk said, but he thinks I should retire apparently, right? So we have a difference of opinion. I'm not thinking about that right now, but I respect that. I've got no problem with that. It is really frustrating and it's taken me a while to get on this train. Okay. I don't want to dislike members of the media i don't want to believe that members of the media would be intentionally trying to dig at people when there's nothing to dig at but at this point i think it's fair to say there are several media members and i apologize for being so like, that truly do have some weird vendetta against Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa

Hawkeye football program. Both at the Gazette and not at the Gazette. And it's a bit ridiculous that those media members are able to do whatever they want and get away with it. That's just ridiculous. I don't know what else, what else can be done other than like revoking media privileges. But some of that stuff is just absolutely ridiculous. I,

I, I can appreciate asking hard questions and asking questions that are currently happening, but why do you continue to try to dig at something that was clearly dispelled? I just don't get it. Let's move on, though, to something a little bit happier or just more stuff from Kirk.

A couple things. Scholarships. Turner Palisade, Matt Fagan, and Mike Tim all put on scholarships. Congratulations to them. Super exciting there. On Matt Fagan being possibly the starting center, Kirk said never say never, but we're going to have competition there. We'll see what that looks like.

To me, it kind of means we're looking at Michael Mazlinsky as the guy Iowa would like for him to be that starting center. But Matt Fagan, a guy who really showed up during spring practice and in the fall practice, playing a lot of different positions, being very versatile. But I think Iowa, what they really want to see is Michael Mazelinsky. That's why they brought him in as a center to come in and replace Tyler Linderbaum. He also had some interesting things to say at kicker.

I think a lot of us, including myself, have really just expected Drew Stevens to come in and be the guy. Kirk said Aaron Bloom has really been impressive for two years. This guy is a serious, it's a heart attack. He makes Caleb Shudock look like he's loose. It's pretty good. I think he's got a really good potential, but we're going to let him compete. We've got Drew Stevens coming in here and we think he's a good prospect. So we're going to let the guys compete. I would say at this point, it is truly 50, 50. Drew Stevens, a five-star kicker, but Aaron Bloom has been there for two years. Iowa doesn't care about how much height you have,

but Drew Stevens is not coming in to not start. So it'll be really interesting to see who absolutely wins that kicker battle. We've seen things like Keith Duncan win one year, lose the next two, come back and be a Lou Groza award candidate. So a lot of things could happen there. On the offense, Kirk said, in regards to potentially rebooting the offense, he said, I guess my answer would be we've been third in wins since 2015. I mentioned 2015. Last four years, we were second in wins in the conference.

That's the ultimate goal. It's not all about winning, but obviously when we line up and play on Saturdays, that's what we're trying to do no matter who we're playing or where it is. He also went on to say that as far as the coaching staff, I'm betting on us. If that's how you want to put it, which I typically do, I'm betting on us. I think we've got a good staff, certainly a capable staff, and I've got total confidence in the guys. I think we've got a good staff here.

I don't think we need any coaching changes. I actually don't think Brian Ferentz is entirely the problem for offense. I think it is a lot of the Kirk Ferentz methodology and how he looks at what the offense should be doing. It is concerning to me that Kirk feels like things are okay. Now, maybe he doesn't, maybe he's just, that's media speak, but I would argue the offense definitely does need some retailing, retailing, retooling, right? It needs to be better next season. We cannot rely on a good running game to be the only opportunity for success for Iowa. We need to have a way of having a decent offense when things that normally we can stand by, right?

A good offensive line, a good running game, a solid quarterback with accuracy not being an issue. We need to have an offense that can operate within its limitations of one of those three being a limitation. Now, when all three of those are the limitations, we see what we had this past year, just an absolutely atrocious offense. I would need to have an offense that can withstand those limitations on a

given basis. On the quarterback position, Kirk did go on to say, I do mean everyone has a right to compete. I'm anxious to see Joe compete too. He was kind of getting spoon fed in December because he was the only guy out there for a while. Again, this is something that I do think is actually important. In the past couple of years, there's always competition, but really there hasn't been competition for Spencer Petras' job. This year we're truly going to see a three-quarterback battle.

For those of you out there who are writing off Alex Padilla, please don't. Those same people were pissed off about Spencer Petras after 20 games and maybe saying, well, he hasn't had a ton of time to develop, yet Alex Padilla goes out for three games. People want to say he's done, he's not a good quarterback. The guy played three games at quarterback. Three and a half, I guess. Really, honestly, around three if you just take the half games.

This is a guy who does have a very good skill set. He could be really good. We saw some really great potential from him. Do not count out Alex Padilla in this quarterback battle. The final thing I'll say, I thought this was really interesting about guys enrolling early. And it kind of alludes to, you know, Xavier getting more playing time this year. He said, yeah, I'm not big on stats, but I can throw one at you real quickly. Three of the

guys that were here last year at this time ended up starting for us on offense. One on the inside, which is really tough to do, pretty safe and saying Connor for sure would not have been playing. I don't think if he hadn't been here in the spring. And you could probably say that about both Keegan and Arlen. It just gives them a jump. In recruiting, we just tell guys, I don't encourage it, but we don't discourage it. If it's what the player wants to do and he's doing it for the right reasons, then I think it's great.

Iowa has had issues in the past of guys coming into school, enrolling early, and it not being a good fit for them, them not being ready to be at that collegiate level yet. However, when we've seen guys come in, it has really worked. Connor Colby, a true freshman starting on the offensive line, is huge. Iowa having two freshman wide receivers to plant guys who have been multi-year starters. You love to see that for the Iowa Hawkeyes. It bodes well for Xavier

potentially getting an opportunity to get more playing time this season. There's some running backs that are up there early. We've got some defensive linemen. So lots of guys who are enrolling early could have an opportunity to play this next season, something we haven't seen as much in the past from the Iowa Hawkeyes, so really interesting stuff there. That does do it for our show today. We will be back tomorrow giving you more coverage of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Again, thank you all for tuning in to today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. If you want some more games to bet on at betonline.net, check out the Lockdown Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q, a handicapping expert at least early in the Paramount Sports. They do a great job of breaking down three to four games every single week, every single day, excuse me, so you can bet on it at betonline.net and put some money in your pocket. That will do it for our show today, though. Thank you all for tuning in. Have a fantastic Monday,

and as always, Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks.