Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa basketball is trending up after blowout win over Nebraska | Iowa Hawkeyes podcast

Episode Date: February 14, 2022

The men's Iowa basketball team had another big win yesterday as they took down the Nebraska Cornhuskers with ease on the heels of Keagan Murray's 37-point game. The defense was swarming and the offense was on fire, and this late into the season, is it safe to say that the Iowa Hawkeyes are peaking at the right time? Or is it a product of a nice stretch of bad opponents?We discuss that before dissecting the tough week Fran McCaffery's squad has coming up this next week and what we need to see from Iowa during that period. We wrap up with quick tidbits on the Iowa wrestling team, the Iowa football team's pursuit of legacy recruit Kyler Kasper, and tonight's Iowa women's game vs Maryland. 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. 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 another 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. I hope you enjoyed the Super Bowl last night. Definitely a fun Super Bowl.

Two Iowa Hawkeyes winning at Super Bowl, Jake Gervais and Aleric Jackson. So congratulations to both of those guys. On today's show, though, we are giving you a recap of the Iowa-Nebraska game, that big rout over Nebraska. What does it mean for Iowa? Does it mean their upward trajectory? Are they figuring it out? We're going to be talking about that on today's show.

Also, that Ohio State game was rescheduled. What does that schedule look like now? And then getting through some of the news and notes from this past weekend, some recruiting news. Iowa women's basketball plays Maryland tonight. And the wrestling team taking care of business. That's all 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 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. On today's show, again, we talked about the basketball game and what a game it was. The first couple minutes, not ideal, obviously.

Nebraska was doing basically anything they wanted to in the paint. They were getting the ball down there pretty easily, converting on most of their opportunities. And they jumped out to a 15-11 lead, which doesn't seem like a big lead. But Nebraska is one of the worst teams in all of college basketball. They are the worst team in the Big Ten. And allowing them to get up at all can be concerning at any given point, especially with Iowa struggling to start games quickly. So Nebraska started off 15 to 11. Again, getting into the

paint was not a concern for them. After that though, it was all Iowa. Iowa went on a 42 to 10 run in the final 14 minutes of the game. The defense, I way they were swarming the basketball, here's the analogy I'm going to make. It was as if you were playing NCAA basketball on your Xbox, right? And you were the number one ranked team because you're 15 years into your dynasty and you have all five star recruits, all amazing players. And you are playing the JV squad, essentially, of the worst team in college basketball. You're playing northeastern New Mexico state or whatever it might be, and you are just absolutely annihilating them. You are stealing the ball every single time.

That's what Iowa was doing to Nebraska in the middle part of that first half, and it was a ton of fun to watch. Keegan Murray also put the team on his back and said, you know what, guys, this is ridiculous. Scoring 10 straight points to get Iowa that lead. And they didn't let off the gas for another 20 minutes. Between the 14-minute mark of the first half and the 14-minute mark of the second half,

it was 59-20 for what Iowa was scoring compared to Nebraska. A plus 39 over 20 minutes is absolutely ridiculous. They finally let off the gas a little bit. Nebraska was able to bring it to within 19. Fran McCaffrey not happy, though, with that effort from the Hawks. But nevertheless, Iowa wins 98-75. And we even got an Austin Ashe three-pointer, which was a ton of fun. You knew when he got the ball, he was going to shoot it.

You just knew it. He was five feet behind the perimeter, he just, he was going to shoot it. You just knew it. He was five feet behind the perimeter and he knew he was going to shoot that ball for the game. Nebraska, not a great three-point shooting team. Continued that in this game, shot 28% from three. Iowa shot 36%. Nebraska shot 44% from the field. Iowa shot 51%. Iowa did out-rebound Nebraska 39 to33, and they also put together 10 steals. So a great game to watch. Some of the takeaways from this game. First of all, Peyton Sanford. John Rossing, one of the top college basketball insiders,

has been saying this for a few weeks now. Buy stock on Peyton Sanford. What he does when he's in the lineup is truly impressive. In 17 minutes of play, 12 points, 8 rebounds on five of eight shooting, two of four from three. Honestly, he's like the taller, more athletic version of Jordan Bohannon. That guy has no fear. When he gets the ball, he's going to shoot almost every single time. He's long, he's lean, he's a pretty good defender. And honestly, I'd be, I would love to see him in a lineup with a Keegan and a Chris Murray, maybe in a Patrick McCaffrey, right? Go Keegan and Chris that four or five Patrick at that three Peyton at that two and Jordan Bohannon running point. That's an explosive offense and also a decent defense. Now they might not do great against a really small quick team,

but for the most part, I think that lineup could be pretty fun to watch. We're going to see Peyton Sanford get more minutes as the season progresses. He's starting to get a bit more continuity into that lineup, getting five to 10 minutes. When they take Jordan out, they're putting Peyton in. So it'll be interesting to see how it progresses, but I expect us to see more Peyton Sanford as the weeks come on, especially to help from a three-point shooting perspective. Also, I think we say this every game, but holy cow, Keegan Murray. I mean, can the guy do any more? It's truly impressive what he's doing. Fran McCaffrey called him a top-ten pick.

We've heard Trey Demps talk about Keegan Murray as well on last week's show about how amazing Keegan Murray is and the fact that he's shown he can be a role player. He's also shown that he can take over the game and be the guy. In this game, 37 points in 29 minutes, 6 rebounds, 15 of 21 shooting. Very impressive and incredibly efficient. 3 of 4 from 3, 2 blocks and 3 steals. Again, being that catalyst for Iowa's run, getting 10 consecutive points for the Hawkeyes. Also, Jordan Bohannon, not a heavy day.

He didn't score 30 points again. He didn't light it up with 10 three-pointers. But 10 points, three rebounds, three assists, three of seven from the field, and two of five from three. I would argue Jordan Bohannon is back. He's gotten his swag back. Peyton Sanford talked about it. Franz talked a little bit about it.

We heard Trey Demps talk about the noticeable difference in Jordan Bohannon after he took over that point guard role. You can tell he feels more comfortable in this spot. And against Nebraska, I saw him do some things that I haven't seen Jordan Bohannon do in quite some time. A lot of dribbling, but he was making some Nebraska defenders really screw up their ankles, especially early in that first half, using a screen to kind of mess around Nebraska before ultimately taking a shot.

Really liked what I saw from Jordan Bohannon again in this game. Defensively, the effort's there. You have to really like what you're seeing from Jordan Bohannon at this point. And I guess the final thing is, is this team hitting its stride? Or is this team just getting and taking advantage of some pretty bad basketball teams? I think you could argue it's both. They do have some pretty bad basketball teams. I think you could argue it's both. They do have some pretty bad basketball teams they've taken on the last couple games. Minnesota's 99th according to Kempom.

Maryland's 92nd according to Kempom. And Nebraska's 171st. However, you have to feel good about how they're beating those teams. Okay, Minnesota they struggled with a little early on, took over late. Maryland was never a close game. Nebraska was never a close game. And this is important that they continue this momentum. Okay?

They have Michigan up next on Thursday. They have Michigan State that following Tuesday. Oh, and Ohio State, it's not up yet. Ohio State on that Saturday. So Thursday to Michigan, Saturday Ohio State, Tuesday Michigan State. Back to back to back, tough games and a tough conference. So they need to continue that momentum if they want to make a run. If they're able to go 2-1 in that series, in that three games,

I'm pretty content with that. But we're going to talk about that here in a few moments. The biggest thing here, Iowa is above.500 in Big Ten conference play. It has been a while since they've said that. They are, again, hitting their stride. I feel like their offense is starting to find its groove with Jordan Bohannon at that one. We see Joe Toussaint playing some really nice defensive minutes. Peyton Sanford getting some minutes in there as well.

Keegan Murray is just being an animal. And you've got to like what you're seeing from Patrick McCaffrey from a shooting perspective as well, doing a great job of knocking down open threes. So coming up, we're going to talk a little bit about that schedule, what Iowa needs to do going forward. Before we get to all of that, though, it's important to remind you that BetOnline.net has you covered this entire season. Football's over, but basketball is in full steam for both pro and college hoops. From all the latest odds, totals, player performance props, and to where the next fired coach is going to land,

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So head over to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. 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.

And we have a fantastic episode dropping for you on Wednesday. Coach David Diani of the Iowa women's soccer team is joining the show. Really enjoyed our conversation there, and I think you all are as well. And if you're watching the YouTube show, I want to quickly call out my shirt here. It is a ode to Free Willy. I thought with the halftime performance last night, the 90s music, it was good to drop it back to some 90s movies as well. So Free Willy repping that on the show today.

So we talked about Iowa versus Nebraska. What's next though? Iowa had a nice little slate of games. They got the job done in these last three games. They needed to beat Penn State. They did it. However, they take care of business against Minnesota, Maryland, and Nebraska.

Coming up next though, they don't have a very easy schedule. They are currently at this point 17 and seven, okay? They need at least three wins. More than likely they need four though four to feel good about their type or their tournament resume uh right now at least from an analytical perspective they are definitely in the nclb tournament but you don't want to leave anything to chance so coming up they have michigan on thursday that is going to be a tough game michigan has been up and down all season long.

Michigan State, they get, or sorry, Ohio State, they get on Saturday. So that's a makeup game that was postponed. They then get Michigan State at home on Tuesday, followed by Nebraska on Friday. So in a stretch of a week, they are playing four games, three of them very difficult games against strong opponents. I don't overlook Michigan. Again, Michigan has struggled this year. Michigan is a very good basketball team. Michigan, at this point, you need to win. You have to win that game against Michigan. You need to get the Ws at Carver. So hopefully fans can show up. Hopefully it can be a big time matchup. Iowa getting that win versus Michigan. Michigan currently 13 and 10.

They are struggling. They just lost to Ohio State this weekend, 68-57. Before that, though, they beat Purdue. They barely beat Penn State. They lose to Purdue. They honestly barely beat Nebraska. They lose to Michigan State. This team has been all over the board. So you don't know what you're going to get for Michigan.

Now, they've struggled quite a bit on the road. Okay? They've beaten Penn State, Indiana, and Nebraska. what you're going to get for Michigan. Now they've struggled quite a bit on the road. Okay. They've beaten Penn state, Indiana and Nebraska on the road, but they've also lost to Purdue, Michigan state, Illinois, Rutgers,

UCF. They lost a neutral quarter game to Arizona, and they also lost an away game to North Carolina. So not the best team on the road and opportunity for Iowa to take advantage of Michigan and beat them in this game. Following that, they have Ohio State. Now going into that Ohio State game, I did not expect it to be a win. I also don't expect this Ohio State game to be a win. It's a very quick turnaround going from a tough Big Ten team at home to less than 48 hours away. You play Ohio State on the road. And I think if you're Iowa, you have to look at it and say,

going 3-0 in this three-game stretch, Michigan-Ohio State, Michigan State, is not a very feasible thing. If you go 2-1, you're pretty darn content. So if things do get out of hand against Ohio State, I don't think we should overreact here, right? Now, if Iowa goes out and they beat Michigan and they beat Ohio State in the road, now we're talking about a team that we can see, hey, maybe this team can make a run. Maybe this team can get a fourth seed or a top four seed in the Big Ten tournament. Maybe this team can go to a Sweet 16 this year or an Elite Eight.

We talked about it with Trey Demps. He thinks this is a team that could be peaking at the right time and has the talent and the potential to be a mismatch opportunity for several teams early on in the tournament. And when you get to the tournament, anything can happen. Look what Iowa did or didn't do. I guess you could say against Oregon last year, a lot of things can happen when you get in tournament time. But the biggest thing here is health. If you can go two in one and come out healthy, you're feeling pretty good about that stretch. Health is the biggest thing. Iowa, for as much talent as they have, there's a few players that are incredibly irreplaceable,

right? It's Keegan Murray. Keegan Murray is irreplaceable. I don't think you can lose a Jordan Bohannon shooting. For as up and down as Patrick McC I don't think you can lose a Jordan Bohannon shooting. Four is up and down as Patrick McCaffrey is. You cannot lose a Patrick McCaffrey. And I think losing Phillip Obracha would be very difficult. Now, he struggles at times against some of the bigger bigs, but we saw what Josh Obendale was able to do in that game. He doesn't work well in that running system, right? Iowa got beat in transition defense because Josh couldn't get down the court.

Nebraska's big man went down and scored very quickly. So there's still some learning and growth and development for Josh, especially from a conditioning perspective. And again, this is an interesting period of time for Iowa. You have three tough games. Michigan State's 3-3 in their last six games, the loss on the road to Rutgers. You need to get out of this three-game series, two and one. If you can go three and one with that Nebraska game on Friday as well, you're feeling pretty good about Iowa's chances to make an NCAA tournament.

And also, at that point, all they need to do is take care of business against Northwestern, and then you get Purdue in Illinois, or Michigan in Illinois, excuse me, maybe you sweep one of those games. Maybe you win one of those games, and now we're looking at a team that's a top four team. Lots of things can happen over the next couple of weeks, but you feel pretty good about where Iowa is, especially after the last three games. We'll see what happens on Thursday versus Michigan. We'll have you covered right here, breaking down that game. And probably on Thursday's episode, we'll be breaking down the Iowa versus Michigan game. So stay tuned for that.

Coming up, we're going to talk about some of the other news and notes around Iowa Hawkeye nation. But first, it's that time of year where most people just give up on their new year's resolutions. A lot of new year's resolutions are centered around fitness and eating healthy. Mine are, and it's tough for me sometimes to eat right, but with Built Bar, it's not that tough. It almost feels like it's not really a resolution because I love eating Built Bars. They're so freaking delicious. If you haven't tried the puffs yet, you have to as well. Marshmallow-y goodness, protein-infused marshmallows, it's something you've never had before, and it is so truly phenomenal, so you have to check those

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And you'll get 15% off your next order. Use that promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at Bilt.com. All right, y'all. we've talked a lot about basketball. Now we're going to talk a little bit about other sports across the Iowa Hawkeye landscape, and really starting with the Iowa Women's Basketball Squad. Having a big game tonight. Not giving you a full preview of the game tonight, but it's a huge game for Iowa, especially given the landscape of the Women's Big Ten.

We talked about it last week. Iowa needed some help to be able to be in the running for the Big Ten regular season title. They got some of that help. Michigan, number four Michigan, dropping two games in a row, an upset to Northwestern. They also lost to Michigan State. The only team that Iowa is truly behind is Indiana at this point, who only has one loss in Big Ten Conference play. Thankfully, Iowa gets back-to-back games versus Indiana after they take care of Maryland, hopefully tonight. Maryland currently sits right above Iowa in those

standings. This is a big game for Iowa. Maryland, not as powerful as you've seen in the past, so a good opportunity with Iowa at home at Carver, Caitlin Clark on the big stage to take advantage of Maryland, get a W here, take that momentum that they've had the last couple of weeks. And it's been some solid momentum and turn it into a nice game versus Indiana, especially hopefully getting healthy McKenna Warnock, I think is going to be back in tonight's game. That's what we've heard to this point.

So they get a game, they get Maryland. Then they have two games with Indiana. They win those three games. They are in the front runner or they're in the driver's seat to win the conference. These next three games. Again, beat Maryland, beat Indiana twice. And you are the conference leader in big town conference play. So it'll be a lot of very interesting.

We'll try to give you a breakdown of that game tomorrow. If not, it'll be on Thursday show, possibly depending on how late the game ends, when I'm able to record on the wrestling front, Iowa takes care of business in the bout at the ballpark versus Oklahoma state. Some unfortunate things.

We did not see Drake Ayala in this matchup. We saw Jesse Ibarra take on a tough, a tough matchup at Ohio State. Loses that again. He's getting a little better about wrestling aggressive, but still, you would like to see Iowa win that 125-pound weight, and it's something we're just not used to seeing. We're not used to seeing a lot of losses there. So hopefully Drake Ayala can get healthy soon.

He can step into that lineup and give Iowa a better chance, that 125-weight pound class. We're going to need him in tournament time. Austin DeSanto just cannot get over the hump. Loseston fix a close matchup again he's just not there it's he's just on the cusp just so close to taking care of roma bravo young and dalton fix but he's just not there yet uh clearly there's rby dalton fix and then just one step and it's it's it's awesome de santo so very close there and then abasad, and it's awesome to Santo. So very close there. And then Abasad, the other loser at 185, a big wild card for Iowa coming to tournament time.

What can they get out of that 184-pound weight class? It has not been the most consistent the last couple of years, so we'll see what happens there. They finish up the regular season with Nebraska next Sunday. 12th-ranked Nebraska should be an easy win for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Again, we'll see if we see Drake Ayala in that matchup because we're going to need him coming into Big Ten tournament time. We need him to be healthy because I don't know if he's going to get an at-large bid per se. We're going to need him to do well in that Big Ten tournament.

On the football front, you have to feel pretty good for Aleric Jackson and Jake Gervais, both undrafted free agents working their way onto the active roster, playing in that game and getting a Super Bowl trophy. Congratulations to both those former Iowa Hawkeyes and their pursuit of glory in the NFL. Saw Jake Gervais a lot of times on punt coverage. I did not see Aleric Jackson, but I'll go back and look at the snap counts. But nevertheless, congratulations to both those former Iowa Hawkeyes in the Super Bowl.

And then finally, Iowa Hawkeye legacy recruit Kyler Casper has limited his list to a top 10. Now, why do a top 10? I think there's two reasons. A, he has a lot of offers coming in. It's tough to handle that many offers, right? You don't want to waste anyone's time. B, I think he is probably narrowing it down at this point. I think he is truly at the point where he kind of knows and has a feeling for where he might want to go, at least a top five or top six, leaving the other

guys in there just in case. Right now, that top 10 is Ohio State, Notre Dame, Iowa, Tennessee, Georgia, USC, Oregon, ASU, UCLA, and Miami. Right now has 23 offers and accounting. If I'm a betting man and he doesn't go to Iowa, my guess is USC, Oregon, or probably Georgia. Now Georgia's an interesting one. Here's why I picked those. USC, in that offense with Lincoln Riley, you have to feel pretty good about what you can do.

Looking at what CeeDee Lamb did, you have to feel pretty good about the opportunity to potentially win titles. Also, that explosive offense. Oregon, just seems like it's working, right? Oregon just seems like it would fit for Kyle or Casper. They've been hot on his trails as well. And Georgia, I think, if you're going to go East Coast,

go to win a national title. Now, you're not going to get nearly as much production in the Georgia offense, but you have to feel pretty good about the opportunity to win a title. Now, Ohio State, you could kind of make the same argument for. They do a great job of developing wide receivers, but it would be tough for me to imagine him going in the Big Ten, not to Iowa. So that's just maybe my personal bias. I don't actually know. But as we get more information on Kyler Casper and what he's deciding to do,

we'll make sure to break all that down right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. That does do it for our show today. We will be back tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that. And I want to thank you all for making the Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. You can also check out the Locked On Bets podcast, dropping three to four bets in action you can make at betonline.net every single day with your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They do a great job of breaking it all down for you

in an easy-to-listen-to format, putting some money in your pocket when you go to betonline.net. Again, that does do it for our show today, though. Have a fantastic Monday, and as always, Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks.