Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa basketball recruit suffers devastating injury plus has the Iowa women's basketball team figured things out

Episode Date: January 25, 2022

Iowa basketball recruit Josh Dix suffered a gruesome leg injury last week leaving his freshman season for the Hawkeyes in jeopardy. What are the expectations for Josh next year and what are Fran McCaffery and the Iowa Hawkeyes going to do without a backup scholarship shooting guard given the impending departure of Jordan Bohannon? We discuss that and explain why Iowa is in quite an interesting position for lineups next season barring any unforeseen transfers.We also dive into the women's basketball team and how they have reeled off five straight wins with Caitlin Clark continuing to elevate her game to new heights. Will they be able to handle a rough three-week stretch?Finally, we give an update on an Iowa football transfer target on the offensive line and how Hunter Nourzad would fit with the Hawkeyes.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.GetUpsideJust download the FREE GetUpside App and use promo code SCORE to get 25 cents per gallon or more cash back on your first tank. 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. Excited to be back for another show today. And we have a lot to cover on today's show. As always, we want to talk about the Iowa recruit who just suffered a very serious injury

and what that means for the Iowa basketball team next year. We're also going to do a little bit of a preview for the Iowa women's basketball team. They are up for a very tough next couple of games. We're going to talk about that and what they could do to get better going forward. And then finally, some transfer portal talk. Hunter Norzad, the offensive line player, is set to make his decision in the next couple of weeks. Is Iowa still in the running?

We're going to be talking about all that on the show today. Before we get to all that, though, I want to thank you 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 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 again, thank you all for taking a little bit of time. I know we got this show out a bit late, so I do appreciate it. But I do want to talk about Josh Dix. Josh Dix was injured in his most recent game in high school. A gruesome injury late in the game. And with that, it's kind of a similar injury to what you might have seen for Paul George. If you remember that with the knee and the ankle and all that fun stuff.

It's a devastating blow for this men's basketball team. Josh Dix, a top 200 player. Considering the fact that Jordan Bohannon will be gone next year, he was probably going to get some playing time. Top player in Iowa, top 200 player, a shooting guard who has put up some really nice statistics. This was a guy who Iowa was going to probably need to lean on a little bit for five to 10 minutes next year as a true freshman. little bit for five to ten minutes next year as a true freshman a six at 480 pounds ideal size for that area fantastic defender great shooter fairly energetic defender is what I really should

have said now Iowa is not probably going to have Josh Dix at the beginning of next season gruesome injury takes a while to come back from I would be shocked if we saw him play next year more than likely he's going to be redshirting. So what does that leave Iowa now? Well, Jordan Bohannon is definitely out of eligibility. Jordan Bohannon will not be there, which means we expect Tony Perkins to step into that role. Now, what's going to be interesting is how does Iowa come up with a lineup combination

where you have a shooting guard to go into there? Joe Toussaint is not a shooting guard. All right? Not going to happen. DeSante Bowen, not really a shooting guard as well. More of a traditional point guard too. And DeSante Bowen, the other recruit in the class of 2022 for the Iowa Hawkeyes, a top 200 player as well.

DeSante Bowen, a four-star recruit. He's not going to probably play a shooting guard either. My best guess is that Iowa does one of two things. They are going to play Aaron Ulis in the background, or in the backcourt at that number two spot. So you have either a lineup combo of DeSante Bowen with Aaron Ulis, Joe Toussaint with Aaron Ulis. You could do Aaron Ulis and Tony Perkins at times,

giving you a little bit of a positional flexibility there. That backcourt, regardless, definitely going to be a very strong defensive unit. Or Iowa could go very long and lean. Now, Keegan Murray is almost definitely gone after this year. When you have the ability to be a top 15 pick in the NBA you have to take that opportunity when it arises which leaves Iowa with Patrick McCaffrey, Chris Murray, Peyton Sanford those are the main guys who come to mind when you think about this Iowa basketball team and what they have on this roster now when you look at that right, Iowa does play a little bit of small ball. You have a couple guys, including Phillip Abracha, 6'8 to 6'9, playing that 3 to 5 spot. Now, if you look

at it, you might have a bit bigger of a lineup with a 2 spot being taken over by a 6'5 to 6'8 rosterable player. So, Patrick McCaffrey, Chris Murray, Keegan Murray, six foot eight, Peyton Sanford, six foot seven. Now, you could probably see a Peyton Sanford slide into that spot. We may see at times Iowa go a little big and have Chris Murray slide to the two, Patrick McCaffrey go to the three, Phillip Abracha play that four, and Joshua Mendeley or Riley Mulvey play that five. That could also be an option for them as well.

So there's a lot of different things Iowa could do. Don't count out Luke Luchetta or Carter Kingsbury who have gotten a few minutes in some of those mop-up performances. But nevertheless, I think what we're going to see from a lineup perspective is a starting lineup of Joe Toussaint, Tony Perkins, Chris Murray, Patrick McCaffery, and a Phillip Abracha. Unless the development of Josh and Riley is heightened over the next year, that's what I would expect to see. Phillip Abracha said he wants to play two seasons for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

He would prefer to play two seasons for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Now, if we see Josh or Riley develop quicker or quickly to the point where they are demanding playing time we could see a little bit of a slide where we see Joe Toussaint at that one. We see Tony Perkins at the two. Patrick McCaffrey

at the three or Chris Murray at the three and Phillip Abracha or one of those three at the four and then Josh and Riley at or Josh or Riley at the five. It does give Iowa a bit of options there from a size perspective. It will make Iowa a pretty big team. Now against quicker, smaller guys, that might be a bit difficult, but I've been pretty impressed with what I've seen from Peyton Sanford

in his defensive energy. Chris Murray is a guy who can definitely play the two from a shooting perspective, and I would argue could also guard the two as well with pretty good ease. And Patrick McCaffrey also could slide over there too. So it hurts to have Josh Dix injured to the point where he's not going to probably play next year. But I think Iowa has some positional versatility and flexibility with the guys they have to play a little bit bigger and still be a solid defensive unit. Now if Keegan Murray returns, which I highly doubt is going to happen, that definitely

changes things even more. You could see a Keegan-Chris Patrick 2-3-4 combo, which would be pretty darn impressive from a size perspective. Coming up, we're going to get into some talk about the women's basketball team. Want to make sure we are giving them the love they deserve. Tonight, they are taking on Penn State. What does this women's basketball team need to do and are they actually playing better this year than they were at this point last year and why the expectations might have been too high initially we're going

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And again, thank you all for making the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. I appreciate you all tuning in. And again, you can find us wherever the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. I appreciate you all tuning in. And again, you can find us wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. And I promise you we will get tomorrow's episode out a bit quicker, but let's turn our attention to the Iowa women's basketball team as they take on Penn State tonight, 9-8 Penn State.

The Iowa women's basketball team needs to get this W, but one of the things I want to call out is the fact that while this team has looked potentially worse, or at least seems like they've looked worse this season, it's actually not all doom and gloom, and they have played a lot better these last couple of games, especially with Kaitlyn Clark putting together one of the more impressive stints we've ever seen for a college basketball player. Yes, that's correct. Not one of the most impressive stints we've seen for a Iowa Hawkeye, not one of the most impressive stints we've seen from a women's basketball player, one of the most impressive stints we've seen ever in college basketball. And Iowa has now won five in a row after a very rough patch of games for this Hawkeye squad.

So again, Iowa in a much better spot than where they would have been a couple of weeks ago when we saw them lose to Northwestern 69-77. Since that game, they rattled off a win against Nebraska, which has been getting votes in the AP poll 95-86. They rattled off a win against Purdue. Not a very good Purdue team, but nevertheless, a win, 79-66. They rattled off a win against Nebraska, another one, 93-83. They doubled the point total against Minnesota, 105-49, and they got a big W over Illinois, 82-56. Now they're at Penn State, followed up by a game at Northwestern,

followed up by a game versus a ranked Ohio State team, then at Wisconsin, then at Michigan. That is a gauntlet of a schedule to a degree. Penn State 9-8 coming into this game. Northwestern 11-7 and again has a W against the Hawks. Ohio State ranked 22nd and is 15-3. Wisconsin, the easiest game on the schedule, they are 5-13. But Michigan, 16-2 Michigan, they're ranked 7th, is not going to be easy. You look at that even more, and then you have Minnesota, which is 9-11, and then you have Maryland, which is also ranked 17th in the country at 13-6. So this is a really brutal stretch of games for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Seven games over the next couple of weeks. And over those next couple of weeks,

three teams that are ranked several of those games on the road. Can Kaitlyn Clark continue to do it? So far, so good. She earned her fourth consecutive Big Ten Player of the Week honor and was also named the Naismith Trophy Player of the Week. And as I alluded to earlier, Kaitlyn Clark putting together one of the best two-week performances we've ever seen for a college basketball player.

She's not doing as well shooting from behind the arc, only 25% from behind the arc, but nevertheless putting up a triple- and back-to-back games with 30 points the only ncaa player to do that in the last 22 years pretty darn impressive again she is doing it in a variety of different ways doing a much better job of getting to the rim and putting up points also being a better facilitator as she has decreased her turnover to assist ratio or assist to turnover ratio and Iowa is rolling at this point Kaitlyn Clark also again first in points in the nation second in assists so getting it done a myriad of ways and she is putting up a nice resume that should allow her to get the Naismith

player of the year award where she was wrongfully not even really considered for last year. So when you look at this Hawkeye squad, they are currently 11-4. Actually, I take that back. They are currently 12-4. I had those numbers wrong. When you look at this at the same point last year, they were 10-6. After starting 10-6, they went 8-3 over the next 11 games. 10-6. After starting 10-6, they went 8-3 over the next 11 games. There's no reason to doubt that Iowa can't reel off some pretty impressive wins over the next couple of weeks. You expect them to beat Penn State tonight. They should beat Northwestern, getting a little bit of revenge

there. With Ohio State coming to Carver, I expect a win there. Wisconsin should be a W. Michigan on the road will be a very tough game. If they win that game, you have to believe that this team is for real, and this team is very much in contention for winning the Big Ten title. If they don't beat Michigan, it's not a huge knock, but it means to me they're not exactly there yet. Currently third in the conference with a 6-1 record. They need to be able to win on the road. They need to be able to beat those tough teams.

Followed up by a game against Minnesota, which is 9 and 11 i expect them to win there as well and 13 and 6 maryland at home at carver that could be a big time game if iowa can go in that stretch six and one i'll be very impressed they go seven and oh you better be talking about iowa as a true final four contender after struggling a bit in the season even falling out of the rankings they are back and they are better than ever and imagine if if Kaitlyn Clark could get her shot back. Imagine if Kaitlyn Clark could start hitting threes at the rate that she was last year. Again, this Iowa basketball team is one to be paying attention to. Just a couple of weeks after us saying, is this basketball team legit? And were the expectations too high?

They have now won five straight games, hopefully six tonight after they take down Penn State. Coming up, we're going to talk about Hunter Norzad, the Iowa transfer target, and what he could bring to this team. And also, is he going to go to Iowa, and what does it mean for the Iowa Hawkeyes going forward? Before we get to that, though, I do want to tell you all, Hawkeye fans, this is your host Andrew Wade with an incredible app everyone who buys gas needs to know about. It's called

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every single time you go to the pump. Alright y'all, we talked a little bit about Josh Dix and the men's basketball team. We've also talked about the Iowa women's basketball team. Now it's time to turn our attention to the Iowa football team, and specifically transfer target Hunter Norzad, the Cornell tackle, who started for the better part of two years, was named All-Ivy League.

He's hot on Iowa's radar, and clearly Iowa realizes they need some help on the offensive line especially when they are targeting a guy like Hunter Norzad they are targeting him for the interior offensive line Hunter Norzad weighing just under 300 pounds he is a guy who projects better as an interior offensive lineman at the next level so he's looking to hopefully land in a program that can develop offensive linemen and can get him that experience at a big-time school on the interior. What a better opportunity than Iowa. Now, we have some stiff competition like a Penn State, like an Auburn. Those are the schools that are also competing for Hunter Norzab, but the good thing is Iowa has the last visit for this Cornell transfer.

They're also going down to talk to him this week as well. So there's an opportunity here for Iowa to land one of the stud transfers in the transfer portal this year. Now, when you look at Iowa's offensive line last year, it was not very good. Save for Tyler Linderbaum. There were a few bright spots, right? You had a true freshman in Connor Colby playing at times pretty good football. Mason Richmond got significantly better as the season progressed. Kyler Shaw, as he got healthier, definitely played better. We saw a good run blocking attack by Justin Britt. Cody Int had a very up and down season all around, and we did see some flashes from Jack Plum and Nick DeYoung. But when you lose a Tyler Linderbaum, when you lose an All-American center like Tyler Linderbaum,

the best center prospect to come out into the draft in decades, this offensive line is going to be in a little bit of hurt, especially when they also lose former walk-on Kyler Schott. So going to Hunter Norzad is a great opportunity for Iowa to shore up its offensive line, get a guy who can be there for a couple years, two years I believe in fact, and also allow younger guys to develop around them. Now you're losing the best offensive linemen in all of college football,

but there's an opportunity for Iowa to actually have a better offensive line than last year. You expect Mason Richmond to develop a bit more. The offensive linemen take huge jumps after the first year. You think James Daniels was a stud offensive lineman after his first year? Not at all. He got his butt whipped. Listen to any of his recordings he's done. Talk to LaShawn.

He got his butt whipped as a young player. Tristan Wirfs had his moment as well. These young guys who start off earlier in their career, they are going to have some struggles. Connor Colby had some struggles, but these guys also have the opportunity to take huge leaps from year one to year two, or even year two to year three. And I look at Connor Colby, an opportunity to continue to develop his body. The kid was 18 playing Big Ten college football, going up against huge mammoth defensive tackles

and doing a relatively decent job now the question really is does hunter norzad play guard or does he play center and who would he be pushing out if he goes to guard is this a sign that iowa wants to try connor colby out at the right tackle spot where he probably projects a bit better or do they feel comfortable with connor colby at the right one spot where he probably projects a bit better? Or do they feel comfortable with Connor Colby at one of the guard spots and they want to see Cody Ince and Justin Britt battle it out with Hunter Norzad? Or do you put him at the center spot and give Michael Maslinski a bit more time to develop? That's really the question here. If I had to venture to guess,

I think there's one of two things at play. Hunter Norzad coming in at the center spot. You have Cody Ince and Justin Britt at the one guard spot. You have Connor Colby at the other guard spot. And then you allow David Davikoff, Jack Plum, and Nick DeYoung to battle it out at the tackle spot. The other option I could see is Hunter Norzad come in. He plays one of the guard spots.

Connor Colby moves over to right tackle. And we see potentially someone slide in, like a Tyler Ellsbury. Or we see a Bo Stevens inside, battling for one of the other guard spots. And it's important to note that whoever is starting out at one of these offensive line spots in spring camp does not mean they're going to be starting throughout the season. Iowa more than likely going to plug and play and mix and match. Even guys 6th, 7th, and 8th offensive linemen are going to get some playing time regardless of what we see early on in camp. So it'll be really interesting to see if Hunter Norzad does ultimately commit to the Iowa Hawkeyes. There's a big chance for Iowa to land him.

They offer him everything he's looking for, a big-time school, the opportunity to play on the interior, and the opportunity to be coached up by some of the best offensive line coaches in the country. Whether or not he chooses Iowa remains to be seen, and as we get that information, we'll be breaking all that down right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. That does do it for our show today. A little bit quicker of an episode today. We will be back tomorrow and barring any crazy news, we're going to be giving you a 2022 schedule preview for the Iowa Hawkeye football team. It is never too early to start taking a look at that schedule and seeing

what could Iowa do and could Iowa make a run for a Big Ten championship game. We're going to be talking about all that on tomorrow's show. Before we close out the show, though, I want to remind you the Locked On Bets podcast is hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They do a phenomenal job of breaking down three to four games every single day, giving you who you should be betting on at betonline.ag.

So make sure to check them out. Again, thank you all for tuning in to today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic Tuesday, and as always, Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks!