Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa basketball suffers a devastating loss on the road; what's next for the Iowa Hawkeyes and what's going on with Jordan Bohannon

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

The Iowa basketball team fell last night to Penn State in double overtime, and the same issues that have been recurring throughout the season surfaced again on the road. Offensively, the Iowa Hawkeyes struggled and without the surprise shooting performance of Connor McCaffery, it would have been much worse. We break down what went wrong, how bad is Jordan Bohannon's recent shooting performances, and what's next for Fran McCaffery's squad.We then turn our attention to the Senior Bowl and which Iowa Hawkeyes are likely going to be playing in it next year before wrapping up with our analysis on the latest commitment in the class of 2022, Deshaun Lee.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.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, and we have another episode coming at you today. We're going to be talking about that men's basketball team game last night versus Penn State. What a disappointing loss, and what is going on with this Iowa Hawkeye basketball squad. We're going to be covering that.

Also, we've got to talk about the Senior Bowl. The Senior Bowl has a soft spot in my heart. There are zero Hawkeyes in this year's Senior Bowl, but who could be going there next year? We're going to be talking about that. And the Iowa Hawkeye football team lands a coveted three-star recruit out of Michigan. Could this be the next Desmond King? We're going to be talking about that all on today's show.

Before we get to that, though, I want to thank you all for making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. So let's get into it. Basketball. We're going to get to men's basketball in roughly 35 seconds. The women's basketball team also had a game last night versus Ohio State. Kaitlyn Clark was absolutely dominant in this performance, pulling up from wherever she felt like she wanted to pull up at and draining threes left and right. Iowa dominated that game from start to finish, but turnovers were the issue. They ultimately fell to a ranked Ohio State team

at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, But that was not the worst loss of the night. The worst loss of the night was the men's basketball team falling to Penn State, not a very good basketball team, on the road. And what a, honestly, ridiculous showing from the Iowa Hawkeyes. They started off terrible, 0-6 from the field. They were down 11-2 in the first five minutes until Phillip and Bracha got their first actual bucket at the 15-minute mark. If it wasn't for Connor McCaffrey, yes, Connor McCaffrey,

on fire from three, Iowa could have been in a pretty big deficit going into the second half. Fortunately for Connor McCaffrey, going four of six from three or four or seven, excuse me, four or six in the first half, Iowa would have been down in that first half. Despite their inadequacies rebounding the basketball, despite their inability to stop Penn State doing really anything, Iowa goes into the half up by two points. And the second half was really Penn State. Penn State did a phenomenal job on the boards. Iowa continued to be unable to muster anything on offense. Incredibly poor shot selection throughout the game. Keegan Murray struggled in the first half.

He came on in the second half, was able to put some things together. You like what he saw from Keegan Murray towards the end of the game, putting the team on his back and saying, you know what? I have struggled, but I'm going to go get us a win if I can. Ultimately finishes at 21 points on four of 11 shooting, two of seven from three, six rebounds, one really, really timely block block and four personal fouls. Just a rough game.

Penn State was hitting a bunch of ridiculous shots. There were some interesting no travel calls, but that was not the reason why Iowa lost this game. Iowa got out-rebounded. 15-14 on the offensive glass. 38-29 on the defensive glass. Just not the way to do it. They also only shot 35% from the field. When you hold Penn State to 22%

shooting from three, you think, not bad. But when you allow Penn State to shoot 58% from the field, you're going to lose a lot of those games. So what's next for this Iowa Hawkeye team? Well, they lost to Penn State. They needed to win that game. As I said yesterday, I wouldn't call that a must win. I call it a can't lose. And they couldn't lose that game against a poor Penn State team. They're in a very interesting stretch right now. They're 14-7. they're in a very interesting stretch right now. They're 14-7.

They have six losses in conference play. They now have a stretch of Ohio State, Minnesota, Maryland on the road, and Nebraska. If they beat Ohio State, you're feeling okay about this team. If they lose to Ohio State, it amplifies the intensity and the importance of every game going forward. Minnesota, Maryland, Nebraska, you absolutely cannot lose those games. Then you get Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Michigan, Illinois. That's not exactly an easy stretch for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Now they still very much have an opportunity to go to the tournament, but they cannot afford to continue to drop those games. Rutgers, you have to win a close game. Penn State,

you have to win that close game. How do you not foul them when you're up three and there's eight seconds left? Send them to the free throw line. Yet they let Penn State shoot a three. They drain it. Penn State wins in overtime or double overtime nevertheless. So here's some takeaways from that game. And it was not a very fun game to watch. Very upsetting and frustrating. Iowa still sucks at rebounding. They've had some decent performances, but overall it has been very poor across the board for Iowa rebounding the basketball. They are not going to win a lot of games against quality competition when you cannot rebound the ball, just like they can't. There were so many second chance opportunities for Penn state.

It was ridiculous. The offense continues to be a concern. Yes, they are eighth in Kempom according to Kempom's adjusted efficiency rankings. They do a good job of not turning the ball over, but their shot selection is so freaking bad. I am getting so frustrated by watching a point guard drive down the floor and settle for a crappy shot with 90% of the shot clock remaining. It is ridiculous.

And on top of that, we can't make those shots anyways. We are 169th in three-point shooting percentage. The bread and butter of Iowa. Our main three-point shooters can't hit the broad side of a barn. As we talked about yesterday, Chris Murray has been our main three-point shooter. Keegan Murray has been solid. Peyton Sanford has been solid. But outside of that, we haven't seen a lot.

Patrick McCaffrey had a nice game last night, thankfully. Again, so did Connor McCaffrey. Not exactly your expectations for how you're going to drain threes. Patrick and Connor. Patrick going 3-6 from the three-point line. Connor going 4-7. Outside of that, the rest of the team only hitting four three-pointers. Not exactly ideal.

Jordan Mohannon is really struggling. I would say he's in arguably the worst stretch shooting-wise of his career. At this point, let me pull up the stats I put together. In the last nine games, 15 of 58 from three, four of 16 from two. He's shooting 26% from three and 25% from two. And I think what's more concerning is his shots aren't even close. He wanted to be the hero last night against Penn State. He airballed the three and thankfully Keegan Murray was underneath the basket. Not mean to hit my little noise canceler. Thankfully Keegan Murray was under the basket

and able to tip it in to send Iowa to their first overtime. But Jordan Bohannon has been a liability the last nine games. I'm not saying Jordan Bohannon is a terrible basketball player. I like Jordan Bohannon. I think what he does, what he's done for the college basketball area, what he's done for NIL has been huge. What he's done for the Iowa Hawkeyes is incredibly underappreciated. But right now he's going through a really rough stretch. And you have to wonder, should other guys be getting a bit more playing time? You're not going to win a lot of games when your guards cannot score a lick. Jordan Bohannon and Joe Toussaint combined for two points in this game. Not ideal.

On 0 of 11 shooting. Not going to win a lot of games that way. Aaron Ulis, 0 of 7 shooting, got 7 points because of free throws. Tony Perkins, 2 of 4 shooting for 4 points. You're not winning a lot of games when your number 1s and number 2 guards cannot score at all. This offense is in a rough patch right now, and I don't know how to fix it.

And combine that with a terrible defense that continues to not be good. Despite a lot of opportunities, a lot of athleticism on that group. There were several times where Iowa wasn't closing out on three point shooters. They were just letting guys run around them in their zone. They weren't paying attention to that. It's getting ridiculous.

We saw last year, Fran McCaffrey had no problems going to his bench when he saw his first string unit struggling. We're not seeing that this year. Does he not trust them? Does he really think his first team can work out of some of those issues, especially starting so slow?

I don't know, but that was an incredibly frustrating game. As an Iowa fan, I'm worried. I'm worried about what this team can do. I have to reset my expectations. I thought, this is a team that could get to the tournament. They could get hot from three. They could play some defense.

They could maybe win one or two games. Now I'm thinking, can this team get to the tournament? Good question. It's one we're going to have to try to answer over the next couple of weeks as we see Iowa play more games, get into their schedule even more. Ohio State's going to be a really interesting test, and then a couple games followed by that they have to win. So we're going to be covering all that right here

on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. And last night, you could have bet on that Iowa basketball team game. You could have bet a live bet. You could have bet pre-game as well. I actually did the live bet at betonline.net. I was able to actually win some money despite the loss, which was kind of fun. So there might be less wool being played, but betonline.net has way more odds and info for this playoff season. From scores, totals, player performance props, to where the next fired coach is going to land,

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And again, 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. So we covered that horrendous Iowa basketball game or horrendous result of an Iowa basketball game. Now it's time to move over to Iowa football, talking about the Senior Bowl. And yeah, there are no Iowa Hawkeyes in the Senior Bowl this year after Riley Moss did

ultimately decide to come back to the Iowa football team. But that doesn't mean we can't talk about The Senior Bowl has a soft spot in my heart. It's a fantastic opportunity, an all-star game for top seniors across the country. And we've seen Iowa football players in the past really raise their play and raise their draft stock through this game. So how weird is it to not have an Iowa Hawkeye in the Senior Bowl? Well, let me break it down for you. It has been since 2013 that there has not been a single Iowa Hawkeye in the Senior Bowl.

Since 2001, there's only been one year, and that was 2013. Last year, we saw Larrick Jackson and Chauncey Golsan. In 2020, we saw Michael Ojemudia. 2019, Anthony Nelson. 2018, Akram Mawadli and Sean Welsh. 2017, CJ Beathard, Jaleel Johnson, and Desmond King. 2016, Henry Kruger-Cole. 2015, Carl Davis. 2014, CJ Fedorowicz, Christian Kirksey.

2013, there were no good Hawks able to go. 2012, Marvin McNutt. 2011, Ricky Stansley, Christian Ballard. We can go on and on. The point is, there's usually a lot of representation for the Iowa Hawkeyes and I really felt like there would be representation for the Iowa Hawkeyes going into the Senior Bowl. I thought Jack Kerner would have a shot. I thought Kyler Schott or Matt Hankins would have a shot or even Zach VanValkenburg. Now,

as we've talked about before, this year's draft class is going to be a bit tougher. It's a bit deeper. It has more quality people in there, more upperclassmen, senior players in this draft class, because last year they didn't have to go. One of the lowest amount of players in that draft class ever definitely impacts this draft class because you have a lot of guys who've now played

an extra year of college football. They are that senior level player. So it's going to increase the competition to get into some of these spots. So where Jack Kerner may have been able to get in before, he's not going to this year. Matt Hankins, I definitely think is a guy who could have gone in had he not gotten injured and struggled towards the end of his senior season. Zach Van Valkenburg was a second team All-Big Ten player last year. Defense men's kind of a tough spot to get into. You're typically going to have some day one, day two guys not really going to look at a Zach Van Valkenburg. And Kyler Schott, I feel like, is a guy who could have made it, but he struggled

this year after coming back from injury. The Senior Bowl is a great opportunity to get in front of coaches. It's a great opportunity to improve your draft stock. Last year, Chauncey Golsan improved his draft stock. O'Leary Jackson hurt his draft stock because he really struggled in one-on-one pass protection sets. In 2020, Michael Ojemudia had a fantastic Senior Bowl. A lot of one-on-one situations.

We have not seen Michael Ojemudia in man coverage quite a lot. And so getting a chance to see him there was a good opportunity to see just how well he could do and could he fit in a scheme that was more man-based. So what does this mean for next year? I think there's a lot of opportunities for Iowa to have some guys in the senior bowl, and I'm hoping to represent the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast down there. Sam Laporta is going to be a senior as one of the top tight ends. I undoubtedly expect him to be there. Jack Campbell is going to be one of the best seniors in the nation next year, an All-American candidate.

I expect him to be there as well. Riley Moss, coming off a year where he was already invited to the Senior Bowl, I expect him to be invited again. That'd be a huge gift for them, especially if he puts together another phenomenal season. Kayvon Merriweather is a guy we could be looking at too. Kind of flying under the radar right now, but has been a fantastic safety with going on three years of starting experience after this upcoming season. Other guys to keep a lookout on is John Wagner, Seth Benson,

and potentially even Terry Roberts if he does claim the other starting spot or if Riley Moss slides to the cash. Terry and Jamari are in those cornerback spots. We could see Terry have a fantastic season and potentially declare for the draft if he puts together one of those unprecedented 7, 8, 9 interception seasons we've seen from Iowa Hawkeye defensive backs in the past, like a la Josh Jackson.

So it'll be interesting to see. And the Senior Bowl, they're going to be obviously breaking down who they are looking at going into next season. There's going to be a nice little list of guys that they have on their watch list. And it kind of depends on really what happens. It's not just how these Iowa Hawkeyes perform. It's also how other guys across the country perform and what scouts are wanting to see. Do they want to see these Iowa Hawkeyes or do they not? And keep in mind, it's not just guys who are senior in class. It's guys who have

graduated. So you could be a redshirt junior. And if you've graduated, you could go there. Tyler Linderbaum is a guy who I'm sure they tried to get, but probably chose not to go. So it's really interesting how this year bowl all breaks down, but a huge event, a fantastic opportunity to see these guys against some of the premier competition across the country. And as we get closer to next year, we'll talk about that watch list. And as we get closer to next year's senior bowl, we'll be talking about the guys who are invited or should be invited to that. But nevertheless, I'll be watching this year's senior bowl, unfortunately, without a single Iowa Hawkeye there.

Coming up, we're going to talk about the recruit that Iowa landed out of Michigan. Could he be the next Desmond King? That's all coming up here in a few short moments. Before we get to that, though, this episode is brought to you by rockauto.com. With the ever-increasing numbers of makes and models, it is now impossible for your local chain auto parts store to stock all the parts you need. Why endure often pointless or seemingly intimidating questioning when wait while the person behind the counter just orders the parts on their computer, choosing the only brand their warehouse happens to carry? You have computers with access to rockauto.com at home and in your pocket.

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A little bit unexpected, you could say. When I saw that Iowa landed a recruit, I was like, who is this guy? We have not heard anything of him to this point. Well, we know it's Deshaun Lee, the 618th ranked player in the nation, a 5'11", 173-pound cornerback out of Michigan, out of the same high school as Kayvon Merriweather and Brandon Dees-Fernandez, both current Iowa football players. I like to call this the Phil Parker special. Phil Parker, every year, goes into Michigan, finds an unheralded recruit, gets him to sign with the Iowa Hawkeyes, and we typically see some pretty good things. Now that is not the right or realistic expectation to place on a current high school football player

who is not even with the Iowa Hawkeyes, but it is worth noting that every time Iowa does this, things usually turn out pretty well. Just look at Desmond King, an unheralded recruit out of Michigan who came and did some pretty darn good things for the Hawkeyes. Or you look at Geno Stone who came out of Pennsylvania, very limited offers, comes in, has a fantastic career for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Pretty darn amazing what Iowa was able to do. They have now landed five defensive backs in this

class. And you might be wondering, why so many defensive backs? Well, you look at it, they only have 11 defensive backs on the roster that fill potentially five spots. That's not a lot of depth after if a guy or two gets injured. Plus, you have to look at the fact that several guys could be gone over the next year or two. Riley Moss is definitely gone next year. Kayvon Merriweather is technically graduating next year or would be out of eligibility but has one year of COVID eligibility. Jamari Harris has two, possibly three years given COVID.

Terry Roberts has one, possibly two years. And Dallas Cradith has two, possibly three years. Now, just because you have that COVID here doesn't mean you need to take it, so you need to be very aware of that and understanding that things could change very quickly. Iowa still has a lot of good talent behind those guys, but you want to make sure you have classes coming in behind so you're not in a spot where you're starting a walk-on corner. Not that Iowa has had issues with that.

Look at how Riley Moss has turned out. Turning our attention back to Deshaun Lita, looking at his tape, what I see is he plays a lot bigger than what his size is. 5'11", 173 pounds. Gives you a little bit of cause for concern, but you look at how he plays, and this kid does not play that small. On offense, he is not afraid to lower the boom. He keeps his balance very low, or center of gravity very low, has very low contact balance, very strong contact balance,

I should say. He does a fantastic job of breaking tackles and driving his legs when guys are trying to wrap up. On the defensive side of the football, a very willing tackler, willing to get up in there, get up into the run game, and take down running backs. Has some fantastic ball skills. Saw several deep shots where he's able to track the ball and come up with a big play. And really nice straight line speed.

Several times you saw him break away from the competition and just continue to gain ground against them. So again, great contact balance as a runner. Really nice ball skills. Good straight line speed. Willing tackler. Plays bigger than what he looks like. But he is going to need to gain some weight to play at the next level.

The expectations? Obviously probably going to redshirt this year. But Iowa looks at him as possibly a cash. That's what he said, kind of talked about when he went to visit the Iowa Hawkeyes, looked at him as kind of a cash player. And again, you're going to need to add probably 25 to 30 more pounds if you want to play that cash position, playing that nickel slot, or nickel corner spot, that slot corner spot,

and also being willing to get into the run game. Coming into this Iowa offer, he previously had nine other offers, including Kentucky, Pitt, and Syracuse amongst a bunch of MAAC offers. Was a four-year starter and played again both ways, a very dynamic player. This moves Iowa's class up to 27th as of right now, and it's a great opportunity for Iowa to land another defensive back into this class. You have to be very impressed with how well the Iowa Hawkeyes have come down the stretch with recruiting. I remember back in August, I was going for a run. I was actually in

Alaska and I was thinking about Iowa's recruiting, thinking, why are we struggling so bad? What is going on? What is the issue here? Well, it turns out we just needed to give Iowa some time. We did not realize how much covet had impacted their recruiting process on one of my shows i said we just need to relax just wait a little bit things will be okay and things ultimately were iowa getting a phenomenal class getting a great defensive back class and i think iowa fans have to be pretty happy about the future of Iowa football going forward.

And congratulations to Deshaun Lee for being the latest commit in the class of 2022 for the Iowa Hawkeyes. That does do it for our show today. I want to remind you that you can place all your bets at betonline.net, and you can find out what bets to place by going to 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 every single day that you can bet on to put a little bit of money in your pocket when you go to BetOnline.net. So be checking out them on a daily basis. They are here Monday through Friday. As always, Hawkeye Nation, I appreciate you tuning in

to today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. We will be back tomorrow. We have a lot of transfer portal talk, some interesting stuff. Where are these former transfer guys at today? Some very interesting stories we're going to be covering on tomorrow's show. So stay tuned for that. Have a fantastic Tuesday, y'all. And as always, Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks.