Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa basketball gets first B1G win of season vs Maryland plus Jack Koerner declares for NFL Draft

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

The Iowa basketball team secured their first Big Ten conference win of the season last night after beating Maryland to move to 1-2 in conference play. Iowa Hawkeye sophomore Keagan Murray had another phenomenal day as did Joe Toussaint and Filip Rebraca. We give you a breakdown of that game before diving into the Iowa football team and the news that safety Jack Koerner has declared for the NFL Draft. What does this mean for the Iowa secondary and who could be next to declare? We discuss that before giving you a brief preview of how many starters could be returning in 2022.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.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.NetSuiteOver twenty-seven thousand businesses already use NetSuite and RIGHT NOW through the end of the year NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind financing program to those ready to upgrade at NetSuite.com/LOCKEDONNCAA. 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 Tuesday 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, and we have another great episode coming at you today. We're going to be reviewing the Iowa win over Maryland. What did we learn from that game? What are some of the shocks from that game?

And wow, is Keegan Murray good or what? We're also going to be talking about a few declarations for the NFL draft from the Iowa Hawkeye football team and a transfer portal target who could be a reinforcement on the offensive line has named Iowa in his top five. We're going to be talking about that. And if we have time, we will get to what next year's team will potentially look like. That's all coming up on today's show. But first, 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

podcast at and also on YouTube by searching Locked on Hawkeyes. And today's episode is brought to you by Sonos. Experience the game like never before with Sonos Arc, the premium smart soundbar for TV, movies, music, gaming, and more. Visit Sonos.com to learn more. And yesterday, or last night, I should say, Iowa took down Maryland 80-75. Some of you might be looking at Maryland and thinking, wow, why was Iowa so close in that game? Here's what I would say.

First and foremost, the Big Ten is incredibly tough. The Big Ten, top to bottom, has very good teams that can beat you on any given night. Look at the fact that Wisconsin took down Purdue last night as well. Wisconsin was not expected to be a Purdue-caliber team, or even able to beat a Purdue-caliber team. But here we are. Maryland has talent. Coming into this season, they were looked at as beat a Purdue caliber team. But here we are. Maryland has talent. Coming into this season, they were looked at as a top 25 team. They have struggled in different parts of their game. They've struggled with consistency. They struggled with rebounding

and they struggled with their shot. They have not been able to connect very much on deep shots to this point in this season. Now in this game against Iowa, though, they made it close. 36% shooting on three, 45.9% shooting from the field. Not great, but not bad. Their free throw shooting really hurt them, though, 58.8%. Iowa wasn't much better at 63.2%. Rebounding was interesting, though, and this is really where the game started to switch. Iowa got off to a nice run early in the game, up to a 12-point

lead at one point. Maryland changes up their defense a little bit. They do a half-court trap. They get the ball. They score quickly. All of a sudden, it's tied. And rebounding started to become a problem for Iowa again. We've seen rebounding be an issue for Iowa in the past, and it kind of resurfaced in the first half, the end of the first half in this game. Maryland was crashing the glass. They were getting a lot of offensive rebounds, and they were really capitalizing on those second and third chance opportunities, which is what we've seen Iowa struggle with in their losses this season. Even if not in their losses, they've struggled with that a lot. Thankfully, Iowa coming out in the second half switched to more of a man defense. They did a great job of getting the glass. Several guys had good games from a rebounding perspective. Phillip Abracha finished with eight rebounds.

Patrick McCaffrey had five. When we heard from Frank McCaffrey, he really wanted Patrick to be in that five, six, seven range. And considering Patrick only played 21 minutes, really didn't seem like he had his game going in this game. Two of eight shooting, missed a couple of easy shots. Not exactly Patrick's best game. Joe Toussaint got four boards. Keegan Murray, of course, had eight boards. Iowa only losing the rebounding battle by four total boards. So overall, Iowa figured it out in this game. A couple of things I want to cover about this game. Connor McCaffrey, I thought, played an exceptional game despite having a very limited stat sheet. A lot of people I saw on Twitter were wondering, why is Connor in this game? And Frank McCaffrey actually answered

this question in his post-game press conference, really alluding to the fact that when Iowa was playing their zone defense, Connor McCaffrey was basically the captain back there on the block basically saying where every guy should be going at every given time. Connor McCaffrey is basically a coach on the court for Iowa. You also look at the inbounding play where they put Connor McCaffrey in at the end, at the end of the first half. They did that because of his arm.

So Connor McCaffrey brings things to this team that don't really show up in the box score. I've never been a big Connor McCaffrey fan from a talent perspective, but he is a fantastic, very mentally savvy, high IQ player who can get this team kind of rolling in the right direction. Joe Toussaint, I thought, played a very, very solid game as well in 25 minutes, four of eight shooting finished with nine points, third leading scorer on the team, and nine assists. He had a few out-of-control plays, but overall, Jotusant, I thought, did a phenomenal job, especially the early part of the second half

of the game tied. Jotusant drove the entire court after a quick bucket by Maryland and made a bucket. What he was able to do, breaking guys down off the dribbles, what we were expecting to see from Joe Toussaint, what we have been seeing in glimpses from Joe Toussaint over the course of his Iowa career, but really liked seeing him be aggressive and attacking and collapsing the defense in this game. Again, not a very, not a, not a, there were some issues with Iowa. I shouldn't say a great shooting game.

Iowa did shoot the ball pretty well, 40% from three, 49% from the field. They had some issues late in that first half, middle parts of the second half shooting the ball. But overall, Iowa did shoot the ball pretty well from three, mostly coming from Keegan Murray, who hit five of six threes. Jordan Mohannon struggled in this game, one of five, one of four from three. Patrick McCaffrey, again, two of eight, one of two from three. Joe Toussaint hit a three. Tony Perkins, O of two. Chris Murray, O of two. So not the best game for most people other than Keegan Murray. Phillip Abracha had a nice game, a very aggressive game

playing down low. He hasn't really been that number two guy or even that number three guy that we thought he would be coming into the season. He's been kind of more of a fourth or fifth option in this offense, but still buying his time in this game. Second on the team in minutes of 29 minutes, finished with 13 points on six of eight, shooting eight rebounds. A good game against a above average height team in Maryland, a team that has some good post players. I thought Phillip Abracha played pretty well in this game. I think the biggest thing, again, to take away is the fact that Iowa got a win.

That is the most important piece about this. Yes, it is not a high quality win according to the net rankings. Iowa getting a Q3 win to this point, considering it was at home. But the biggest thing coming into the season, especially in conference play, was Iowa had to win the games they were supposed to win.

They found a way to get it done, despite blowing a lead. They found a way to get that W. They found a way to close out the game. And it was close all the way up until the end, with Keegan Murray getting that last-second rebound and getting that shot up. That was a huge shot. Iowa struggled with free throws down the stretch as well,

which gave Maryland a little bit more opportunities, but Keegan Murray finishing the game up the way he has been doing throughout the season. Keegan Murray finishing with 35 points. This guy, enjoy it, Iowa fans, because Keegan Murray isn't going to be around very long. This is a guy who could win National Player of the Year. He is going to be an All-American type player. He is going to be All-Big Ten. This is a guy who we don't get to see come around very often, and the fact that we have Luka Garza, Luka Garza, and then Keegan Murray is pretty darn impressive. Iowa up next gets Wisconsin later in this week. We'll be making sure to break down that game coming up later in this week, probably on Thursday's episode, so stay tuned for that. We have a lot of football talk to get to, though, as well.

We have LaShawn Daniels joining us again for tomorrow's episode. So if you watch this on YouTube, then you already listened to that part of it. But if you're just following along on the podcast front, we have the second half of our conversation with LaShawn Daniels dropping tomorrow as we talk about the Iowa football team and where do they go from here, especially at the quarterback position. But first, Hawkeye fans, this is Andrew Wade, your host of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

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Let's get into it, though. From a football perspective, lots of news kind of popping off over the last couple of days. Want to make sure we're covering that and then getting into kind of a look ahead to next season. So a lot of question marks around who is returning and who is going. We officially got the declaration from Jack Kerner. He is declaring for the NFL draft. We kind of expected this. I did not think Jack Kerner was returning. Two reasons why. He went out for senior day. He started for three

years. I did not feel like he had anything else he had to prove this week or this season, excuse me, or next season. Wow, I'm really drawn right there. Jack Kerner did not have anything else he needed to improve upon or show going into next season. There was not a lot more the NFL teams would need to evaluate him on. He wants to get his career started now. So Jack Kerner officially declaring. People have been asking about Xavier Williams. I don't believe he actually has any eligibility left.

Plus, Xavier Williams has already said he's going to try his hand at the NFL. He's going to get into a bowl game and work out at pro day and try to make a name for himself at the NFL level. This is a guy who had NFL aspirations and was getting looks from NFL teams while he was at UNI. Couldn't crack the two deeps for a long time. Couldn't get on the field for Iowa. I also, again, don't think he has eligibility.

Now, the only other domino that we need to work or two dominoes to fall in the secondary is Dane Belton and Riley Moss. I'm pretty sure Riley Moss is gone. If his knee is 100% healthy, he's probably probably going to leave and go to the NFL. He has been projected anywhere from second to fifth round. Now Dane Belton is an interesting case. I don't see Dane Belton leaving. He's a true junior playing as a freshman, was able to get three years of

starting experience. Maybe he looks at it and says, you know what? I have nothing else to prove here and I want to leave and try my hand, kind of like Geno Stone did. Or he's going to look at it and say, I could be the leader of this secondary. I'm going to be the guy called upon to do a variety of different things. Maybe I show what I can do at the safety position and allow someone like a Cooper to Jean to slide into that cash roll. Maybe there's some, some talks about that. And he can kind of show some of his versatility, even though he's already shown a lot of that versatility. But when you look at how a money hooker is playing, you look at the fact that Gino stone has cracked the Ravens lineup. There are some chances that Dane Belton looks at that

and says, I do want to go. I want to leave. But I personally think Dane Belton will return. So that leaves Iowa with two starters returning in that secondary, Kayvon Merriweather and Dane Belton. Now, we've talked a little bit about this, but it is concerning, obviously, losing a Riley Moss. It is concerning losing a Matt Hankins. We saw the secondary play drop off a little bit without those guys. But anytime you have a coach like Phil Parker there, you are going to have a solid secondary. What I think is also important to note is that the guys behind them have gotten starter

level experience. Jamari Harris has started several games. Terry Roberts has started several games. Terry Roberts, also a veteran in that secondary as well, and has played very well in the special teams unit. For the safety position, Kayvon Merriweather has had a lot of experience there. Kayvon Merriweather actually was starting before Jack Herter. Jack Herter kind of took his spot, and then Kayvon Merriweather finished up on the other side of the safety spot with Jack this past season and last season too. Quinn Schulte has gotten some playing time. We've seen Cooper DeJean crack that two deeps as a true freshman.

So there's a lot of guys behind these guys who can step up and play. There's going to be some struggles early on. Don't get me wrong. There will be struggles. But I think when you also add in Xavier into that mix, a five-star recruit who is going to be, I expect to be getting some playing time early on in his career. You have to feel good about where the secondary could be at by the end of next season. Again,

this is not going to be the best secondary in the league next year. We are not probably going to be creating turnovers at the pace we were last year, this past season, but the secondary still has all the makings to be very solid. And don't forget about guys like Reggie Bracey, still has all the makings to be very solid. And don't forget about guys like Reggie Bracey, AJ Lawson, Brendan Dees-Fernandez, and some of the true freshmen that are going to be coming in alongside X in this class.

Sebastian Castro's also got to watch out for. He got some playing time against Kentucky. So the secondary is very deep. Now, granted, Iowa was looking for some secondary reinforcements, but I don't think that that is as much about the fact they don't believe in their guys being able to step up at some point, but rather it's always good to have that depth, just like they did with Xavier Williams, putting him on scholarship, bringing him over. That was a strategic move in case Iowa

was to suffer injuries. As we saw this year, they were playing with their fourth string cornerback or the number four cornerback, actually, were playing with their fourth-string cornerback, or the number four cornerback, actually, not fourth-string, but number four cornerback, because of injuries. Matt Hankins goes down. Riley Moss was dealing with some stuff. Terry Roberts gets injured. The only one who didn't get injured in that secondary was Jermari Harris from a cornerback perspective.

Iowa wants to ensure that they have depth in this secondary. Iowa wants to ensure that they have depth in this secondary. Again, we talked about the fact they were going for a few guys on the secondary market. One guy, one domino just fell. Justin Clark, Toledo defensive back, just committed to Wisconsin. So no chance. He is obviously coming to Iowa. I also want to talk a little bit about the fact that Iowa is in the running for Cornell's Hunter Norzad, who currently is limiting himself down to his top five of Virginia Tech, Auburn, Illinois, and Penn State alongside Iowa.

He's a tackle, played primarily right tackle, a little bit of left tackle. Last year at a 72.7 grade, according to PFF, and has two years of eligibility left. It's also worth noting he can play center as well. So Iowa has been hot on his trail. I think that speaks volumes to what they feel about this offensive line. I think they expect Tyler Linderbaum to leave. They know they have a lot of youth, but they can't be that excited about the lack of progression they saw from the right tackle spot in this season. Mason Richmond basically has locked down that left tackle spot, but at right tackle, you have Jack Plum and Nick DeYoung,

and neither really gave you a lot of confidence that they can go into next season and solidify that right side. Iowa clearly understands that. That's why they're looking at Hunter Norzad, hopefully being able to secure his services. Again, two years of eligibility is huge. The fact that he has the versatility to play both tackle spots and that center spot is also huge.

And it would be a big win for Iowa to land a guy like Hunter Norzad in the transfer portal cycle, giving them a bit more depth. Now it's also worth noting, what are we expecting to see with Tyler Linderbaum potentially gone? There's a couple of guys who could replace him. You could see a Hunter Norzad if they feel confident in that right tackle spot. They also are working Tyler Ellsbury out at the center spot, a former four-star tackle as well. Michael Maslinski was brought in in last year's class as kind of the future replacement,

being groomed to take over that center spot for Tyler Linderbaum. And Matt Fagan as well has been on the two deeps as a former walk-on over that center spot for Tyler Linderbaum. And Matt Fagan as well has been on the two deeps as a former walk-on at that center spot. So I can see any of those four guys kind of taking over that spot. Ideally, we see Tyler Ellsbury kind of take that step and win the tackle spot. And we see Michael Maslinski take that center spot and run with it. And I'm okay if Matt Fagan takes it as well, but I think Michael Maslinski has a lot of upside, has a very high upside, especially considering his pedigree coming from a father who has an NFL background as well. There's a lot to like about Michael Maslinski, and it's also just nice to see some of our top recruits kind of perform the way we would expect them to.

Coming up on segment three, we're going to get a bit more into who could potentially leave. We haven't talked about the offense side as much with Sam Laporta, Kyler Lindenbaum, Charlie Jones, Kyler Schott. We're going to be talking about those guys and also be giving you a brief preview of this football team, all coming up in a few short moments. Before that, though, this is it. The putt to win the tournament. If you sink it, the championship is yours, but on your backswing, your hat falls over your eyes. Is this how you're running your business?

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And for the new year, NetSuite has a new financing program for those ready to upgrade at netsuite.com slash locked. That's right. Head over to netsuite.com slash locked for the special one-of-a-kind financing offer on the number one financial system for growing businesses. That's netsuite.com slash locked. All right, y'all, before we take a break, we talked a little bit about the defensive side of the ball. Jack Kerner, Xavier Williams, not coming back. What about on the offensive side of the football? Sam Laporta, I expect him to be back.

I have not seen him mocked in any three-round mock drafts. To me right now, unless he tests outstanding, and unless he gets a bump for being an Iowa Hawkeye tight end, I expect him to be between a fourth and sixth-round draft pick. Now when you look at what George Kittle has done in the NFL after being a day three pick, you have to wonder, does that factor into a decision that he can say, maybe I go in there, maybe I learn a few things, maybe I improve and take that step the way George Kittle did.

Sam Laporta also had a big game against Kentucky. Now, granted, that was without their star linebacker on the field. I expect Sam Laporta to return, but it is worth noting that he is going to be exploring that option. He's going to be looking at what the feedback is, but I do expect Sam Laporta to leave. Or, sorry, to return, excuse me. If he does leave, expect Luke Blichet to jump up, Elijah Yelverton. We've heard a lot about Elijah. He was a big-time recruit, had over, I think, 25 or 30 offers coming out of high school,

and he hasn't really taken that next step. He's dealt with injuries, but I expect Elijah Yelverton to jump in to that number two role. But if Sam Laporta does return, that will be huge for the tight end position, as I was bringing in Cale Vanderbush and Addison Ostringa, both three-star recruits, giving them a bit more time to develop before they get thrusted into a more high-visibility role with a lot more snaps. Tyler Linderbaum, gone. I would be so shocked if he returns. I know he loves Iowa, but there's just no way Tyler Linderbaum is coming back

after being projected to be a top-15 pick, especially if you saw kind of an injury scare in that Kentucky game. You just can't afford to do that. You can't afford to get hurt like that, even with the insurance policies they have. I just can't expect Tyler Lindenbaum to come back. And Kyler Schott, I have not heard a lot on Kyler Schott. He has eligibility to come back, but we haven't heard anything on him, and it really feels like it's trending in the direction of Kyler Schott's gone.

So as we get more information on that, I'll make sure to break that down for you as well. Also on the wide receiver front, Iowa was in the running for Isaiah Nair, a six foot three stud redshirt freshman out of Wyoming who had a fantastic year, really could fill in for that X role. Iowa seemingly no longer talking to Isaiah Nair about transferring to the Hawks, which basically is Iowa without an X right now. We could see Brody Breck step into that. That's where he kind of makes the most sense at. But Dallas injuries didn't get into the Iowa program until late.

So can he take that next jump and maybe fill that X role a little bit better? As we saw in the Kentucky game when we threw that Hail Mary, we need a guy who can go up and get the football. And we don't have one of those guys with snaps on the team right now. So it'll be interesting to see, can Brody Breck take that next step and jump up? Now, just doing this quickly, when we look at how this team performed this year, there's a lot to really like. The defensive line did improve throughout the year. We finally have a year where we're not losing three or four defensive linemen, only losing one defensive lineman, and that's in Zach and Volkheimer, which is a big loss. We are likely returning all of our linebackers. We're losing quite a bit in the secondary,

but if there's one position where I feel confident that Iowa can plug and play and reload, it is the secondary. Offensively, we return all of our wide receivers that have gotten a lot of snaps. Hopefully, Charlie Jones returns as well. I think it's leaning that way. I don't know what the upside is necessarily, though, unless he's expecting to get more snaps, which could be the case. But nevertheless, if Charlie Jones returns,

that wide receiver room is in a very good spot. Tight end, if Sam reporter returns tight ends, we're good to go. Offensive line. Losing Tyler Linderbaum is going to be a huge loss, but you hope that the rest of the offensive line can use this year. Take a step and mature and grow. Connor Colby is a true freshman.

Mason Richmond's a redshirt freshman. These guys are young guys. Can they take that next step? Spring ball is going to be a great opportunity for them to do so. But you look at this offense and you're returning nine starters. You lose Tyler Linderbaum and Tyler Goodson. And I would argue, although Tyler Goodson is a phenomenal running back and does have a good opportunity to have a good NFL career,

we're not losing. We have replacements for Tyler Goodson that I feel confident in, and that's in Gavin Williams and LaShawn Williams. So really you're losing one guy who is irreplaceable, and that is Tyler Linderbaum. Looking at the defensive side of the football, again, I don't want to – there's nothing against Tyler Goodson. Tyler Goodson is a phenomenal running back, and I would love to have him back.

But you have to be happy with the guys you have behind Tyler Goodson as well. Defensively, potentially returning six of 11 starters, plus a lot of guys who've got a lot of snaps this past season, three defensive linemen, two linebackers, two defensive backs, if you count the cash position, or three linebackers, if you want to count Justin Jacobs. Again, we haven't heard anything on Justin Jacobs. There are some rumors that he could be entering the transfer portal,

but all things look good so far. So as we get more information on that, we'll make sure to cover that. And then you're bringing in more reinforcements, like an X to the secondary. Aaron Graves, a four-star recruit. Caden Crawford is going to be enrolling early. Brian Allen's a four-star recruit. So even the defensive line is getting some high-level,

very talented reinforcements. So you have to like where Iowa comes into this next season, that they have a tough schedule, but they have a lot of guys returning. Can they take that next step from a 10 win season and win a big 10 title remains to be seen, but we're going to be covering a lot of that throughout this off season. So make sure to tune in right here at the locked on Hawkeyes podcast. And we didn't talk about any betting things today, but if you want to know how to bet on three to four games every single day, you have to check out the Locked On Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports.

They do a great job of breaking down three to four games and giving you the bets you need to make at betonline.ag. That does do it for our show today, though. Thank you all for tuning in to today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic Tuesday, y'all. We'll be back tomorrow, and as always, let's go Hawks.