Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa basketball has a pair of Sweet-16 contenders in 2022 NCAA Tournament

Episode Date: March 7, 2022

It was a big weekend in Iowa basketball with the women's team taking care of business in the Big Ten Tournament by beating Northwestern, Nebraska, and Indiana for the third time each to take home the championship. This sets Lisa Bluder's Iowa Hawkeye squad up nicely for the 2022 NCAA Tournament.Meanwhile, on the men's side, Fran McCaffery's Iowa basketball team fell short of victory on the road vs Illinois, but there was a lot to love in defeat. And if we are being honest, this team looks like a team that could make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. We break down both teams' performances and what it means for March Madness before turning our attention to a disappointing but understandable showing in Lincoln for the Iowa men's wrestling program. What went wrong and why it was all necessary for a title run?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.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.RunYourPoolIf you want to play against us for a shot at a cash prize join us at RunYourPool.com/LockedOn. And while you’re there, create your own pool for your friends and family. Enter ‘PUREMADNESS’ at checkout for $10 off your custom pool.StatHeroStatHero is reshaping the way the way you play fantasy sports. Dozens of house based games to play daily. No sharks, no funky props, just your skill vs the lineups you choose. Sign-up today at StatHero.com/LockedOn 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, and there was a lot of Iowa Hawkeye action this weekend. We had women's basketball winning the Big Ten title. We had men's basketball wrapping up the regular season, and the Iowa wrestling team competing in the Big Ten tournament.

We're going to be breaking all that down on today's show. So be on the lookout for that throughout the next 25 minutes. 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 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.net, where the game starts. So let's get into it.

Let's kick it off with the main headliner here. The Iowa women's basketball team won won a Big Ten tournament championship. Monica Sinano and Kaitlyn Clark both being named the all-tournament team, putting together phenomenal performances throughout the weekend. And this team is a team that not a lot of people want to deal with. Because despite having a pretty bad game against Indiana, Iowa was able to take care of business for the championship after playing three games in three days.

Now, they head into the NCAA tournament time. I would argue they're on the verge of getting a two seed. They definitely locked up that three seed, but I think they're on the verge of getting them a two seed. And the two seed would be huge for them because it would be putting them on the opposite side of the bracket of that three seed, but I think they're on the verge of getting them a two seed. And the two seed would be huge for them because it would be putting them on the opposite side of the bracket of the one seed, which sets them up nicely for at least an Elite Eight run. The most important thing coming out of this, though,

is that Iowa is going to have two more games at Carver-Hawkeye Arena because the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament is hosted a bit different than the men's. Top four seeds get to host the first two games at home. Which means, barring a collapse, barring a very, very poor performance by the women's team, this Iowa Hawkeye squad, Lisa Bluter's squad, is going to have them in the Sweet 16 for another year in a row so very

very impressive from them especially considering where they came from at the beginning of the season this is a team that had a lot of high expectations after making it to the sweet 16 and taking on UConn last year very high expectations from last year's team this This team started off pretty slow. They had some issues with COVID. They lost some of their ranked games. It was not an ideal start to the season. Nevertheless, they figured out a way to make it work.

They figured out a way to come back when they needed to. They figured out a way to find the wheel to win. And it has been really impressive to watch them this year, especially these last two weeks where they have absolutely dominated the competition. Truly have done an amazing job as they've taken down several teams, ranked Indiana three times, right? Michigan at home, that was a big, big game. So they have done just a really great job the last couple of weeks.

And in this game against Indiana, it is not easy to take on Indiana three times. Not easy at all. Deficiting was terrible. Letting a lot of things go, letting Indiana be incredibly physical. The Hawks, Caitlin Clark struggled 18 points, seven rebounds and two assists.

Yet Iowa comes away with a win. They shot 14.3% from three and they lost the rebounding battle. And yet Iowa came away with a win. They shot 14.3% from three, and they lost the rebounding battle. And yet, Iowa came away with a win. The big player here was Monica with a truly amazing performance. My wife was watching this game with me, and she doesn't really understand basketball. And yet, she came away saying, wow, whoever that girl is, she's good. And she is. Her touch around the basket is second only megan gussison from what we've seen in recent history 30 points 10 rebounds two assists in

this game kate martin was an unsung unsung hero as well 14 points in this game eight assists four rebounds uh very physical willing to take on contact willing to do whatever it took to win this basketball game. And please, it is, please realize it is not easy to beat the same, same team three times. It is incredibly difficult to beat the same team three times. Yeah, Iowa did it by beating Indiana. And yes, it wasn't the hardest path by any means. It was not the hardest path to the Big Ten Championship. You're getting a fifth seed in Indiana.

You don't have to play a Michigan. You don't have to play some of those other top teams. But those are teams that Iowa has struggled with. Indiana, their defense has been assaulting on the Hawks all year long. All right. Nebraska is a tough matchup. They have played Iowa really well. Northwestern has played Iowa really well.

Now we have a week off for the women's basketball team. We're going to get selection Sunday next week as we figure out what the women's basketball tournament seating is going to be. Again, I think Iowa has positioned themselves really nicely for a number two seed. That is my personal opinion. I think they're definitely locked into a three seed, though. That's the biggest thing. They're locked into a three seed. I believe they should be able to get a two seed. I'm actually pulling it up right now.

Looks like as of today, Iowa is still a three seed according to ESPN. So Charlie Cream has Iowa still as a three seed, which is fine. I still think, though, there's a chance they could bump up into that two seed range. More to come on all that. Coming up on the show, though, we're going to talk about the men's basketball team and then following that up with some talk about the wrestling squad, a kind of a disappointing performance, but why it was necessary here this weekend. Men's basketball team took on Illinois, and what we learned from them

are why we think they are a Sweet 16 team. That's also coming up here in a few short moments. But first, football might be over this season, but basketball is in full steam for both pro and college hoops. From all the latest odds, totals, player performance props to where the next fired coach is going to land,

BetOnline.net is your number one spot for all of your sports betting needs. BetOnline remains the best spot for all of your sports scores, podcasts, and news this season. And it's a place that I trust to go to. So I wouldn't be telling you about it unless I trusted it. And I trust BetOnline.net, so make sure to check that out. And it's not just basketball.

BetOnline.net is your source for hockey, boxing, and UFC odds right down to the Olympic coverage. So head over to the website today or use your mobile device and learn more about the trends and action at BetOnline.net. BetOnline.net, it's where the game starts. And again, 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.

So let's turn our attention to the men's game. Last night was very interesting watching this game. It was filled with a lot of mixed emotions. I left that game upset, but not upset about the loss at a macro level. I came into this game expecting a loss. level. I came into this game expecting a loss. But what upset me was the things that Iowa did to lose this game. This was a very winnable game. It was within the reach of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

And it would have been a big win for the Hawks. They fell just short. But during this game, they had a lead as big as 15 points. They were taking care of business against Illinois. Despite Kofi Coburn being allowed to do

basically whatever the heck he wanted in the paint. Iowa struggled early. Kofi on Phillip. Phillip was not doing well against Kofi. They got up 6 to the 17-30 mark. They went on a big run, 13-0 scoring run at the 6-minute mark to go up 32-19. In the final two minutes of the half, Illinois closed that gap with a 9-0 scoring run

to bring it to 43-37. Not a bad game for the Hawks. Now in the second half, Illinois closed it up. Iowa only scored 29 points in the second half. Not going to get it done. Now defensively, I thought Iowa did a pretty good job, all things considered. They played pretty well defensively, and that's one of my big takeaways from this game. The other piece is the lineups they are putting out have made a world of difference. Phillip Abracha was struggling against a Kofi Kilburn. Phillip Abracha has been a solid player for the Hawks,

and some of you might be saying, why Phillip, right? But I truly think Phillip has been a very good player for the Iowa Hawkeyes this year. The problem is what he does is not going to be effective against a Kofi Kilburn or an 80 from, from Purdue, right? Some of those really big, bigs who do have some athleticism, Phillip Robacha is not going to be the guy. He does not have as big of a vertical as some of these six foot8 guys on our team, like a Keegan or a Chris Murray.

He doesn't have the athleticism of a Keegan or a Chris Murray. And unfortunately, he clearly doesn't have the range to shoot the three like we thought he might, or at least he doesn't have the confidence to do that. At North Dakota last year, he shot 37% from three, 15 of 41. Here at Iowa, he's only shot six three-pointers. Kofie was daring him to shoot the three-pointer. Kofie was sitting at the free throw line, and Phillip Abracha had the ball with no one around him,

and he decided not to shoot the ball. If Phillip is going to be effective against those kind of bigs, he's going to need to give them a reason to come out to the perimeter and guard him. So when you saw Phillip go out of the game, you saw Kofi have to guard Keegan at the perimeter and Chris at the perimeter. And to a degree, Kofi did pretty well. He had some success there. That also takes him out of the paint, though, which gives you a little bit more opportunities for guys to cut to the basket in those matchups it actually makes more sense to go smaller you bring in a

chris murray who i thought played really great defense on kofi coburn you bring in a chris murray who's going to utilize his athleticism or even a keegan to get in the way of passing lanes and to come up and block shots and the biggest thing is I talked about going into this game Iowa needed to collapse on Kofi anytime he got the ball unfortunately the officiating was subpar at best the fact that Kofi Coburn only had three personal fouls is absolutely ridiculous. And I've talked about officiating throughout the season. The Big Ten has a huge problem on their hands. They don't call a foul on anything.

Kofi Coburn was walking around in the paint with the ball and did not get a foul called, did not get a traveling call called. Now, some of you might be saying I'm blaming the officials. That is not the case. The officials were terrible, but it is important as a sports team, as a basketball team, to not allow officials to dictate the game. And unfortunately, what really dictated the game was Iowa was terrible from the free throw line. Absolutely terrible. They shot 10 of 22 from the free throw line. 10 of 22.

46%. Well below their season average. If they just shot 13 of 22, which is barely above 50%, they win this game. They missed 6 of 8 free throws down the stretch. And they had a great look for a three-pointer at the buzzer and missed it. This is a team that despite not being a great matchup with Illinois, despite playing at Illinois who was trying to play for a Big Ten title share. Despite atrocious officiating. Despite Jordan Bohannon being out of the entire first half, basically

with two fouls, and only getting two shots off. Despite not having Patrick McCaffrey, one of their starters, Iowa still almost beat Illinois on the road. And that's why I think this is a team that has a good shot to be a Sweet 16 team. If not, a team going even further in the NCAA tournament. They are a matchup nightmare. Again, they got not just Keegan, they got Chris as well. again, they got not just Keegan, they got Chris as well.

Keegan, Chris, and Patrick, 6'8", guys, who can jump, who can rebound, who can score. That is a dangerous problem. And then you have Tony Perkins coming on. And Tony Perkins is playing his best basketball we've seen since he's joined the Iowa Hawkeyes. He has really emerged over these last couple of weeks. In this game, played one of his best performances. 34 minutes, 17 points on 4-10 shooting, 2-3 from 3.

8 rebounds, 5 assists, only 1 turnover. Now he needs to clean some things up on the free throw line. But overall, Tony Perkins was showing the dynamic playmaking ability that Iowa needs in that backcourt. When you look at Iowa and how they've struggled in NCAA tournaments, they typically don't have a very athletic backcourt. They got that now. Sometimes it plays a little bit too out of control with Aaron Ulis

that we saw a little bit in this game. We saw Joe Toussaint play a little bit out of control as well. But overall, the athleticism is sky high for this Iowa Hawkeye team. One of the most athletic backcourts we've seen from Iowa and definitely the Frank McCaffrey are in probably the last 20 to 30 years. Then you add in matchup nightmares like Keegan Murray, Chris Murray, Patrick McCaffrey. This is a team that could go far in the NCAA tournament. Now it's a matter of playing a solid Big Ten tournament and getting a sixth seed, if not a fifth seed.

I think if they beat Nebraska or Northwestern, they get Rutgers. They beat Rutgers, they probably get Illinois. So you have an opportunity here to get some decent wins. You take care of business against Nebraska or Northwestern, whoever wins that game, and you play them on Thursday. You turn around, you play Rutgers. You get a win against Rutgers, you play Illinois hard. I think you're guaranteed a sixth seed.

You should probably be a fifth seed. If you beat Illinois, you're probably a fifth seed. Giving Iowa a better path towards an NCAA tournament run. Again, a sixth seed isn't going to kill us, right? A sixth seed going to have you on the same side of the bracket as a three seed. That's okay. That's fine. You're okay with that.

From a Hawkeye perspective, the other thing I want to call out is that this team is going to obviously lose Keegan Murray after this year. Jordan Bohannon is going to be gone as well. But you have to feel really good about Tony Perkins and Chris Murray. My somewhat hot take is Tony Perkins and Chris Murray will be first team all Big Ten players next year. Tony Perkins is going to leave as one of the best guards we've seen at Iowa. And Chris Murray is going to have a similar jump to what we've seen from Keegan. Chris Murray is just waiting. Just waiting. He has clearly made himself probably the second best player on the scene,

the number two option on this team, and doing a great job of coming off the bench and getting his when he needs to. But I'm excited to see what Chris Murray does when it's his team, and that will be the case next year alongside Tony Perkins. Again, some things to clean up. Iowa needs to work on the free throws, but overall you have to be really happy with how this team performed down the stretch. You have to be happy with how this team performed against Illinois,

especially with Andre Curbelo, who Illinois did not have in the last game they played against them, and without Patrick McCaffrey. This team showed me a lot of things last night. And yes, it was a loss. Sometimes you can take moral victories from loss, and I'm going to take a moral victory in this game. Coming up this week, we're going to have a lot of breakdowns of the Big Ten tournament. We might have some special guests, potentially some former Iowa basketball players joining the show as well. That'll all be coming up later on in the week though. Before we talk about Iowa wrestling and the disappointing performance that was necessary, I want to tell you about Biltmore because this is the time of the year where most people have pretty much given up on their New

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All right, y'all. We talked about the women's basketball team getting a Big Ten tournament title. We talked about the men's basketball team and how they close out the season and why I feel pretty good about them. Now it's time to turn our attention to the wrestling team. And we came into this weekend hoping for a third straight Big Ten title. We left with a third place finish. Kind of a sour taste in the mouth of Iowa fans who have come to really enjoy this wrestling team. Absolutely dominate the competition.

Especially considering the fact they returned at the beginning of the season. Every single person from the NCAA title winning team last year. It's important to note though. As most of you know at this point. Spencer Lee was not in this tournament. Spencer Lee out for the year. Couldn't do it without the two ACLs. Didn't want to, at least. He could do it, but didn't want to.

He was doing a lot of work and wanted to come back healthy. Chemdog was also struggling a bit. We saw injuries across the board from Iowa. They've had a lot of issues with injuries throughout the season, and we saw that play out in the Big Ten tournament. And that was really the big theme of the day. Drake Ayala, medical forfeited into eighth place. Jaden Ironman, medically forfeited into second place.

Michael Kimmerer, medically forfeited as well. And Tony Cassiope, medically forfeited against Gable Stevenson. That's four medical forfeits. Now, when talking to Brands, he's like, we had to make a decision. And the most important goal is being healthy at the NCAA tournament. Now, from everything I understand, had this been the NCAA tournament, all of those guys would have won. But in the Big Ten tournament, they already got their automatic spot.

They're already in the NCAA tournament based off where they placed in this tournament. They did not need to go further. Yes, some of it would have helped out your seeding, but some of it wouldn't really have done a whole lot. So why risk further injury? You don't. The goal is to win an NCAA tournament. And in a couple weeks, when Iowa goes there, if they're able to claim an NCAA tournament, no one's going to be talking about

medically forfeiting a few games or a few matches in the Big Ten tournament. So a couple interesting things here. Alex Marinelli, the only Iowa Hawkeye to get a Big Ten championship this year. Four straight for Marinelli. He's a guy to watch out for in the national tournament. Michael Kramer, going to have an interesting seed just because he's had some struggles this year with some losses, with some injuries. Can he come back healthy after hurting his shoulder against Ohio State's Ethan Smith?

Hopefully. This is his last run. He wants to get a national title. Jacob Warner struggled a little bit, lost to Pat Brookie twice. You expect a bit more from Jacob Warner. Tony Cassiopeia I thought wrestled a really nice match, a really nice day overall. He was going to lose to Stevenson, right? There was no chance he was going to beat him, but with this second place finish, it puts him on the opposite side of the bracket more than likely than Stevenson. So he has an opportunity to get second place, which at least is a big run for Tony, right? That's going to get some points for the Iowa Hawkeyes. I thought Max Murin wrestled really well at 149, getting third place. Caleb Young,

I thought Max Murin wrestled really well at 149, getting third place. Caleb Young, Brady Burge got the best of him twice, got fourth place. Austin DeSanto, man, it is, you just got to feel for the kid, right? Five straight losses to Roman Bravo Young. I don't like how RBY wrestles, but Austin DeSanto does whatever he can to win those matches. wrestles, but Austin DeSanto does whatever he can to win those matches. Now, it would be really great, sweet, sweet redemption for Austin DeSanto to win a national title against Roman Bravo Young. And it is very much looking like they are about to head for a rematch at 133 in the national championships.

They are likely going to be on the opposite side of the bracket, giving an opportunity for us to see Austin take on RBY in the national championship. At 125, this is where a lot of attention has been paid. Obviously, Drake Ayala has been injured throughout the season. We've seen him perform pretty well, though, in certain matches. On the weekend, he goes 2-2 and then medically forfeits. It's worth noting, if I remember correctly, Spencer Lee did not win his first Big Ten championship.

Spencer Lee lost. I think he got third place in his first Big Ten tournament and then went on to win the national title. Drake Ayala is not out of this. Drake Ayala has an opportunity to make a run. We've seen him wrestle really well against some of the elite wrestlers at 125. So as long as he's healthy, be on the lookout for him. Again, the big takeaway here, the NCAA tournament is more important than the Big Ten tournament.

It was a disappointing weekend for the Hawkeyes, for all of us, for the wrestlers, for the coaches. It was a disappointing weekend. You expected more. You lose to Michigan and Penn State. You wrestled great, great tournaments. Iowa's goal, though, is to get healthy and to win a national title. So we're going to be covering all that coming up on the next couple of weeks of the show.

So be on the lookout for that. Again, thank you all for tuning in to today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. And I appreciate you making us your first listen every single day. Now make your second listen, the Locked On NFL Draft podcast hosted by Ryan Tracy and former NFL cornerback Eric Crocker. They bring the NFL draft to life every single day with insight and analysis on college football prospects and NFL front offices. And it's free and available wherever you get podcasts out.

Again, thank you all for tuning in Hawkeye Nation. I hope you had a, I hope you're safe out there. I hope everything is okay with the big storms that hit. Have a, I hope you have a great Monday and as always, Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks.