Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Basketball suffers the biggest upset in 30 years, Iowa Football signing day still brings home a nice class minus 1

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Iowa basketball falls at the hands of Eastern Illinoisa 92-83. It is the biggest upset in college basketball in at least 30 years.How bad is the loss and what does it mean for the rest of the season? Can this team bounce back or are we looking at a lost season for Fran McCaffery's group?Then some thoughts on the Iowa football team on signing day. Though Kadyn Proctor ended up at Alabama, the Hawkeyes brought in a very good offensive line class. A few thoughts on the new quarterback Marco Lainez.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” 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!NHTSADrive high, get a DUI. Click HERE to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team suffers the biggest loss on an upset in 30 years of college basketball, a devastating loss for this Iowa team. What does it mean going forward? Can the Hawkeyes even still be an NCAA tournament team? They got a lot of work to do. We'll talk about that. The injury, what's happening with Connor McCaffrey and when Chris will Chris Murray return to the lineup.

But that coming up here on the show today. It's also National Signing Day. We'll get into what Iowa football did, including the official signing of Cade McNamara of Michigan along with his tight end, Eric Gall. Plus, we'll break down the high schoolers that signed today. No Caden Proctor. All today on Locked on Hawkeyes. Our Locked on Hawkeyes. Your daily on Locked On Hawkeyes.

Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. Available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube as we talk Hawkeyes sports with you. If you're on YouTube, hit that subscribe button. If you're on the podcast side, give us a five-star review. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans as we bring you

signing day coverage here today on the football front. We got to kick things off though. What happened this afternoon in a just absolutely brutal loss for Iowa. They jump out 18 to four against an Eastern Illinois team. That was brutal. One of the worst teams in college basketball. They came in in the Ken Pomeroy rankings at 356 and the net rankings, 350. There are 362 Division I college basketball teams. This was one of the worst. In fact, only one win all season long against a D1 team.

They had a loss to a D3 team. You're up 18-4. This is going to be a domination as Fran's teams over the last decade. Since Fran has got this Iowa basketball program back on an equal level, right? Got them back competitive. It took a couple of years to dig out of the hole of the godforsaken Todd Licklider era. He was able to do that. And since then, they haven't had games like this.

In fact, I was talking about this earlier today on my radio show. Not only do they play these games, as everybody plays by games, but they throttle these teams. Now, in the old environment of the RPI, a huge problem that I had with the scheduling that Fran did when you play these dregs of college basketball is it would drag your RPI down because you'd play four, five, six of these teams and your strength of schedule would be hurt. That's what the RPI system was. It was a strength of schedule measure.

And that's all that it was in the new NCAA net rating system. It's completely different. Again, by games, it doesn't matter how bad it is. As long as you take care of business and not just win. Remember, you were capped at a 10 point victory in that, but efficiency numbers are also baked into it. So if you win a game by 40 points, it's going to help out. And this looked to be a game that Iowa was going to win by 40 points.

They were favored by over 30. 31 and a half was the closing line at Circa. I saw some 33s out there. They were a huge, huge favorite. The opening line from BetOnline was 30 and a half. I saw that quickly moved to 33 offshore the other day. It's just absolutely incredible. Yes, Connor McCaffrey didn't play.

Chris Murray didn't play. It doesn't matter. This is an embarrassment. This is a stain on the program. This is a stain on the program, not just for this season. I mean, when you're going to ESPN Chalk, if you're like me in gambling Twitter and you're following people, I mean, this is one of the most talked about gambling stories of the day.

We've got NFL football going on. We got bowl games. We got stuff happening here. And what people are talking about in the gambling space is Iowa losing this game. That's going to be a quad four loss. Eastern Illinois is not going to dig themselves out from that. This is going to be a brutal loss on their resume. It's going to be a stain that is going to linger all season long.

Can they dig out of it? Absolutely. Remember, this is an Iowa basketball team that still doesn't have a quad one victory. Now the Iowa state win. Remember that was at home. That's not a quad one victory. So you put all this together. I was got a lot of work.

And now you look back at the Wisconsin loss and it stung. You know, he said after that game biggest takeaway Wisconsin made plays every time that Iowa had a response they came right back at him I gave a lot of credit to Wisconsin but from an Iowa perspective it stings so bad not only are you 0-1 and he got that 0-1 sit next to your name until we get back into Big Ten play here coming up in just over a week but then you go on the road for your first two games and Chris Chris Murray, you know, Fran said in the press conference the other day, they hope to have him back maybe for that Nebraska game. It's still a road game in the Big Ten.

And then it's Penn State, the most veteran team in all of college basketball, a team that themselves has got some nice wins already this season. I mean, it's not a stretch to see this team looking at 0-3. And now with this loss on your resume, I mean, at minimum, you have to have a winning record in the Big Ten, at minimum. And I don't know if that'll be enough at 11-9, because that is how much this hurts them. They drop, they go into the game ranked at 21 in the numbers from Ken Pomeroy.

They dropped 18 spots. I mean, that's a precipitous fall in that kind of measure, in that kind of ranking system, to fall that much with one game? For most teams, 12, 13, 14 games into the season, to fall that much with one loss? It's devastating. Absolutely devastating. And how did it happen?

They got out-toughed. They got out-physicaled. Eastern Illinois, a team that had one d1 win to this point in the season was the better team what does that say about this group even minus two good players your best player chris murray and one of your top six or seven connor i know connor does other things and we love him for that we talk about that a lot here because he is a special guy but to lose in this fashion to be out-toughed, to be out-physical, to be out-manned with the weakness of this group right before Christmas to get punked by Eastern Illinois, it's an

embarrassment. There are no two ways about it. This is a loss that is going to, I think for a lot of people, very well could be the difference between them being a tournament team and having to go to the NIT. That's how big this is. And people, well, it's only December 21st, so slow down, Condon. You're going too crazy here. Absolutely not.

You have to look at this big picture. This is something that is going to be sitting there, is going to be talked about. Rabracha, he was doing his thing. Missed opportunities at the free throw line, but they couldn't shoot. Again, couldn't buy a bucket. Sanford got going a little bit early in the game as they jumped out to that big lead.

They were up 12, looked like they were going to cruise, maybe open things up to 15 to 20, and then just goes the other way. You see him struggling a little bit with a little bit of a throat issue here today. Let me get a quick swig. So you have all this going on. And a game where two of their starters, one played nine minutes, the other played four. It was guys off the bench from Eastern Illinois.

22 from Hodges. 13 from Thomas. Lewers with 10. 350th in the country. Patrick McCaffrey, 3 of 15 from the field. 0 of 7 from 3. What more can you say? 3 of 15. Aaron Ulis, 2 of 10 from the field. OS7 from three.

Those two combined for 0 for 14. There is not a game where Aaron Ulis should ever shoot seven three-pointers. Just not. He's not a good enough shooter to be shooting seven three-pointers in a game. Sanford, three of 10. That's 30%. Oh, he hit three. Three of 10. That's 30%. Oh, he hit three. 3-10.

It's not good enough. DeSante Polo was the only guy that was hitting shots. I mean, just... And then the defense. 55 points in the second half. 92 to Eastern Illinois. An Eastern Illinois team that was one of the worst offenses in all of college basketball.

What's going on? I mean, they're cherry picking and getting dunks on you time in a time. There were three straight possessions as Eastern Illinois, the Panthers of Eastern Illinois. They went out there and they are just cherry picking and dunking on you and punking you. And I would didn't have a response.

I thought this Iowa team was going to be different. I thought they had a chance to be different and be tougher. That toughness was not there today. That was embarrassing. We'll take a quick timeout here on Lockdown Hawkeyes. Continue on the other side. Football signing day. Also look forward for Iowa hoops.

What is coming up next? Can they get back on the right track? Hey, the women's team, though, they got it done. We'll talk about that as we continue here on Locked on Hawkeyes. Bet online, your number one source for sports betting information, stats, news, and analysis. Get the latest odds and trends for every professional and amateur league out there football pro football we got the cool college bowl season going on basketball nba college

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We'll be making our BetOnline picks coming up here a little bit later on in the week. Trent Conner back with you once again on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Again, thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Our instant reaction to just a brutal loss from Iowa as they fall to Eastern Illinois. What is it going to mean going forward, boy? But we got to change the tenor. And it's been a difficult couple of days in Hawkeye fandom world after the departure of Caden Proctor.

Now, people out there that say, well, you never really had him. It was just a verbal commitment. There's nothing binding there. He never played it down for you. How much can it hurt? But, you know, it hurts for a couple of things. First of all, the easiest, I thought you had a starter. You thought a guy that was going to walk in day one, he was going to start for Iowa,

and he was going to hopefully cure some of the ills of this offensive line that has been nothing short but bad the last two seasons. That's number one. It's also an Iowan. It's also a guy from our state. And that matters. In this state, any connection that we can have, we glab onto it, right? Remember Michael Wacca, the pitcher,

he came up with the Cardinals his rookie year, or rookie of the year, maybe that season. He's gone on, had a very nice career. He was born in Iowa City. He's an Iowan. He moved away when he was two, but still, he's an Iowan. Troy Merritt, he's a golfer on the PGA Tour. He was born in my hometown, Osage.

I moved out when he was a little kid, but he's still an Iowan. I mean, that's what we do. And this is one of ours. This is Caden Proctor. He's an Iowa kid. Grew up in Central Iowa. Been to Iowa City.

Loved Tristan Wirfs. Wore 74 because of Tristan Wirfs. And we don't have five stars that come through very often. This is not Ohio, florida texas california it's a rarity we got him we had him at least a commitment from him and then it goes away and it stinks it absolutely stinks but as i said yesterday look this is what the coaches that's what they're there for that's what the money's for go out and figure the coaches, that's what they're there for. That's what the money's for. Go out and figure it out. And that's what they have to do on the fly. They need another

tackle, maybe even two new tackles. I don't know. I like Mason Richmond. I think he's got a bright future, but you also need to add a depth piece to that. I think that's something that you definitely have to look at and have to think about if you're Iowa. I got apologies on the voice. So you have that component of it, but you move on, you know, and one big thing. And one of my biggest takeaways here is even if you take away. Kaden Proctor, and obviously we do because he's not coming. He's going to Alabama. Even with that, this offensive line class is really good this year.

I mean, even if Kaden Proctor was never around or is never a possibility or he grew up in Kansas City instead and he was never going to be an Iowa Hawkeye, even taking that away. If Iowa would have just put together this offensive line class, I think we would have been incredibly excited. Just the loss of him, starting with Trevor Lauck. He's an Indianapolis kid, had offers from Ohio State, from Michigan, Tennessee. I mean, some of the who's who of college football was after him. Four-star kid, highly regarded, and he's big. This is not one of those guys, well, yeah, he plays tackle in high school,

but he's 235 pounds. This is a ready-made dude. He's apparently up to 295 already. That's when you get excited about it. And maybe, just maybe, he's a guy that can come in and can, at minimum, be a depth piece. You think back to some of the great tackles that I was had. Riley Reif, Brian Balaga, guys like that.

Early in their career, even played inside before they moved or started at right tackle before going to left tackle. Those kind of things could be a possibility. We'll see with Lauk and how quickly he's going to be able to go. Another guy, a lot of people like another Indiana kid is Layton Jones, kind of that road grader, the physicality that he's plays with just the toughness factor that he brings in and that offensive line could use a little more toughness. And we didn't see a whole lot of that. Yeah, he had the Michigan game with Logan Jones and the asinine penalty that was called against him for blocking. Just absolutely ridiculous.

I ended up scoring on that drive anyway. But you have that one. But just not those moments. We love Linderbaum because he played through the echo of the whistle, right? I mean, he just kept going. And we didn't see that certainly this season. Outside of Linderbaum, the last couple of seasons seasons we haven't seen that really from anybody else it sounds like leighton jones might be one of those guys and another intriguing prospect is a big dude six

foot nine 265 pounds he's gonna have to add weight no doubt about it but with that frame and that's ken leonard kid from a small small school in Illinois another one more of a developmental piece I mean that's not a guy that you can expect to come in and and probably even get snaps right away but he can develop and he could be a guy by his redshirt sophomore year something like that possibly they need tackles we've seen that tackle play has not been good after we saw Larrick Jackson move on after Tristan Wirfs has moved on, tackle play has been bad. Need to get better on that front.

One other offensive lineman there, another kind of more of a developmental guy who was committed to North Dakota State, and that is Cade Pieper from Norfolk, Nebraska. So that's kind of the mix of the offensive line. Excited about that. People wonder about the quarterback position. Marco Lyoness comes in. Now, Lyoness is not going

to be a guy that is, you talk about arm strength, velocity, not a real wow factor with him in comparison to some of the quarterbacks out there. And that's why a lot of the recruiting services kind of dropped his rating down a little bit is because of that arm strength and some of the things that were seen in some of the camps that he was in. Played at the Hunts school. Remember, Iowa had an offensive lineman, what, about 10, 10 12 15 years back now uh that came out of there don't play the toughest competition in that prep school ranks uh but he put up some monster numbers completed what 76 percent of his passes just ridiculous numbers out of him now his quarterback coach is also the quarterback coach for spencer petrus it could cause some concerns but he's also the

quarterback coach for kenny pickett who turned cause some concerns, but he's also the quarterback coach for Kenny Pickett, who turned out to be a pretty good college quarterback. So you just can't play that game. You hope that it clicks with him. And 6'3", 225, he can move around. He's got some athleticism to his game. He's not just strictly a pocket quarterback. That is the quarterback spot.

Another guy I want to talk about here out of this group is their latest addition. And that is from Texas, a running back that was committed to Purdue. And I got intrigued by Terrell Washington Jr. Now, the reason I think that I was most intrigued by him is his ability to be not just a running back, but kind of a slot guy. Something that I's been missing. They've tried different guys.

Of course, we saw Tyrone Tracy have a good start to his career, and then it completely fell apart in 2021. Arlen Bruce, same kind of thing. Intrigued. Don't know exactly what their idea is, what they're going to do, but we've talked here. Scott Dockerman had a great article in The Athletic. I want to say, oh, about halfway through the season, just about Iowa's ability and how much better the offense was and how much better the rush game was

when they're using the jet sweep motion. Well, you get a guy like this that kind of has that dual threat capability, if you will, both as a receiver and a running back. I think Washington's a guy that you get excited about. You're set at running back, at least as a starter. Caleb Johnson, dude's got star potential written all over him, but a possibility, maybe a young guy that could come in. Also seeing Jazz Patterson this year, got some snaps, what they could do with him, kind of that quicker type of back, though he was much bigger than I anticipated coming into the season.

Just different things because this offense has to evolve. It has to change. It has to change. It has to get better. There's no doubt about that. You have to see more. It's going to be more of an offense that is directed around the tight ends with Luke Lachey coming back, another budding star. I think Lachey has big time upside,

and he's just going to continue to get better and better, coupled with Eric Gall coming in from Michigan. Remember, he was an all-Big Ten guy two years ago before injuries hit him. One other thing from the press conference, we're going to talk a little bit more about that and Kirk's comments coming up here in just a moment, but was that Kate McNamara and Eric Hall look like, at least according to Kirk, they get a real chance to play.

That leads to at least a little bit of excitement. So that's just a run-through of some of the guys. Excuse me here, once again, as we battle a little bit of excitement. So that's just a run through some of the guys. Excuse me here once again as we battle a little bit of a cold. And some of the guys on the class, we'll dive a little bit deeper here in the coming days into the class, talk about some more of the positions. But hit quarterback, hit offensive line. We await that.

And, of course, still the transfer portal still open. So we'll get into that a little bit more here in the coming days, taking up until Christmas. Hope everybody's ready. I gotta get my shopping done. Probably need to do that tomorrow. What is 21st today? Yeah,

we, we, we gotta get going on that front. We'll take a quick time out when we come back on the other side of the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, we'll dig in to Kirk Ferris. We get to hear from him for the first time. Well, since the bowl announcement.

A lot has changed in Iowa football. And Kirk, I threw some comments out there that weren't exactly head scratching. That wouldn't be the right term, but left me contemplating. How about that? As we continue here on Lockdown Hawkeyes. Trey, kind of back with you one final time here on Lockdown Hawkeyes. Again, thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. Battling something, you know, last night, getting ready for bed.

You just feel it coming on. Took a couple of meds. Woke up this morning just feeling absolutely brutal. Big day, signing day. Iowa basketball game had the doubleheader. Doesn't turn out well. Didn't help me at all. But we're battling through here, and we got plenty coming up for you on Lockdown

Hawkeyes. So as we wrap up, Kirk Ferentz, as he does each and every year, he's out there obviously talking with the assembled media. Also got to hear from Tyler Barnes. We'll talk about that a little bit more on tomorrow's show. So starting things off, first of all, we're 10 days away from the Music City Bowl.

I mean, isn't it crazy? Look, I've been watching Iowa football since I was a little kid. You know, I was in kindergarten. That was my first faint memories. Rose Bowl year of 1985. Chuck Long being ranked number one. I remember watching the Iowa-Michigan game, at least vague memories of it as a youngster. That game was on even as my parents were not big sports fans,

and it was teams like that that made me become a Hawkeye fan. And there's different, obviously, levels of excitement for different bowl games and what they mean, but this one, boy, a rematch against Kentucky,ucky team that's limited their best players are opting out i was had opt outs i was gonna be without a bunch of dudes transfer portal madness that's going on it's just who cares and i don't think i'm alone for a lot of people as you feel that now i know when the 31st comes around i'm gonna be excited i'm gonna put on my black and gold and i'm gonna be sitting there and i'm gonna be excited i'm going to put on my black and gold and i'm going to be sitting there and i'm going to be cheering i'm

going to be yelling at my tv and i'm going to be doing what i think most all of us do but and here now the build-up and just that excitement i don't know if it's going to get there and i'm really interested to see just how many hawkeye fans make the trek down there we saw ticket sales at least initially were very slow i think a reason with that is people and consumers have gotten much more intelligent about buying tickets. A lot of times the tickets that you get from the athletic department just aren't good. You can get better going through a ticket agency, going through a website, those kind of things,

going to those different places, and you just find better deals. And instead of, yeah, we'll help in the allotment of the university, but get crappy seats. It's not exactly the best deal. But back to Kirk and a couple of comments from him. And it's been an absolute world win, right? I mean, it's just been such a wild time.

The season comes to a close. All you got to do is beat Nebraska. You're playing in the Big Ten Championship game again. And you get down 24-0 and try to battle back. And you lose that game. So that's off the table. And then transfer portal opens and Cade McNamara very quickly commits

and all this excitement. And boy, this is going to be easy. I was going to be able to get whatever they want. It's been a crazy time. But as college football continues to evolve and continues to change, how long is Kirk Ferentz for this? We had somebody pose this question. But as college football continues to evolve and continues to change, how long is Kirk Ferentz for this?

We had somebody pose this question. What would you like to see? Would you like to see Kirk just ride off into the sunset, say the hell with it? You know, this is not college football as I know it. This is not what I signed up for. This is not the reality of how this game was. And I'm over it. I mean, are you willing to accept that

and then go into the great unknown? And when that was posed to me, I thought back to Dr. Tom. You know, the program had hit a level. I'd taken a mini step back from where they were, but early on, Dr. Tom obviously had the great teams that were recruited by George Raveling. And they had, well, as you see now over the shoulder, BJ Armstrong, Roy Marble, Ed Horton, or my real love of Iowa basketball began with those guys and Raveling's final season before Dr. Tom take over and took over. And we hit a level that was the Iowa level,

and France got Iowa back to that level again. Good program, top 30-ish program, never going to win a national championship, but also not going to embarrass you. What's the old term? Apologies, I'm not feeling the best. Water finds its level. Is that what it is? know, water finds its level. Is that what it is?

Regardless. Well, water finds its level. And this is probably Iowa football too. This is the level. Disappointing years are seven and five. And the good years, you can be 10 and two. And you're going to kind of be floating at that level, in between it every once in a while.

And you get a couple of breaks. Or like last year, when you forced so many turnovers and made so many plays defensively that way, that's when every once in a while. And you get a couple of breaks, or like last year, when you forced so many turnovers and made so many plays defensively that way, that's when you're going to win the 10 games. And then when it doesn't go that way, you're going to come back the other. Yeah, we want more. Everybody wants more.

I get that. You want more out of the program. But ultimately, there's a certain level for everybody. You know, with Iowa football and the great unknown, I'm 42. I've known two coaches my whole life With Iowa football and the great unknown, I'm 42. I've known two coaches my whole life for Iowa football. And the excitement of a new coach,

an evolution, a scheme, but boy, we've had it really good. I'm still not ready to see what's behind door number two. But it's something that's still out there with Kirk. At this point, if his hand is forced if he is told you need to get rid of your son you need to make a change at offensive

you need to do these things coupled with the transfer portal and the recruiting world and NIL and the money that is now involved in this sport at that level. I don't know. It was just a thought that popped into my mind. We'll talk more about it, though, in the coming certainly weeks here leading up into the bowl game. I am not anticipating that this is going to be it for Kirk. I don't see that. I don't see him walking away after a disappointing seven and five year. I think he wants to go out on a high note.

Next year, of course, will be the feels like the final year of the East-West divide. At the minimum, it'll be the last year of a 14-team Big Ten before the additions for 2024 of USC and UCLA. Something to think about. Something to ponder. That'll do it for today here on Locked On, Hawkeyes. Again, thanks for making Locked On, Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. Be back with you.

Hopefully that voice is feeling a little bit better. And the sting of the to Eastern Illinois will wash away. The sun will come up tomorrow. Beautiful singing here for you late in the program. I do that for you. Hey, make Locked On Sports Today your second listen. Peter brings you the biggest stories from around the sports world in 20 program. I do that for you. Hey, make Locked On Sports Today your second listen. Peter brings you the biggest stories from around the sports world in 20 minutes. Get the analysis and opinions before anyone else with our local and national experts and

insiders. Locked On Sports Today, available on YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. We'll be back with you tomorrow, leading up into the weekend, Christmas, holiday. What's on our wish list for Christmas we'll talk about that as well coming up here later in the week we'll also dive a little bit deeper into recruiting class always something to talk about here on Lockdown Hawkeyes with you each and every day throughout the week your team every day with Lockdown Hawkeyes we'll talk to you again soon go Hawks