Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football culture & Tim Lester as Offensive Coordinator, Hoops takes with Biz

Episode Date: February 1, 2024

Trent Condon is joined by Biz on today's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast.Opening with some more thoughts on the hiring of Tim Lester as the new offensive coordinator for Iowa football, what kind of level can he get this offense to and what the football culture is like and why it is important to keep that culture intact.Biz gives his thoughts on the hiring of Beth Goetz as the new athletic director for the Hawkeyes and then a look at women's basketball after the big win over Northwestern and with Maryland on tap next and the men's team as they prepare for Ohio State.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's official, Tim Lester is the new offensive coordinator. You've heard my take. Time to bring in Biz. We break things down. Beth Getz is the new AD, and we talk some Hawkeye hoops. Both women's and men's all today. Locked on Hawkeyes. You are locked on Hawkeyes.

Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team, every day. Once again, I'm Trent Condon. That's my buddy Biz. And this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. We're available wherever you find podcasts and you can also find us on YouTube.

While you're there, make sure you hit the subscribe button. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Make every moment more. New customers join today. You'll get $200 in bonus bets if your first bet of $5 or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com slash Lock on to get started biz good to see you again it's been a lot of conversations over text and back at it once again you were in carver

hawkeye a week ago for the disappointing loss against maryland you and what 6500 of your closest friends in there for that one since that's being generous being generous, Trent. There were not 6,500 people at that game. Really? Oh boy. It was... Well, that's where we are. And Friday night, it's Ohio State. We're going to talk basketball here today, but good to see you again. And we've got a lot to talk about. Yeah. The good thing about being an Iowa fan is rarely do you go more than a week or two without some sort of drama. Things have been too easy in Hawkeye land and too positive in Hawkeye land.

When you talk about all the, you know, all the people coming back, plus the addition of Proctor, all those things, people, things were too rosy. So people needed something to complain about.

So enter Tim Lester, people, people for whatever reason are very, that that's their new thing to be angry about. So, you know, it would be Iowa fans if they weren't angry about something. Oh, absolutely.

And it's great for a person like me in the content business, because there's always something to talk about in the world of the Hawkeyes. One thing that I've landed on, I want to get your perspective of this because you are very thoughtful on this. And I thought you put it well, you know, people. Thoughtful is a good way to describe me, Trent, thanks. Some people would use other terms but that's not I've never been that maybe the first time I've been described as thoughtful thank you opinionated too um that's more accurate yes I landed on this so all right we know that Paul Crist was the guy I mean that's who Kirk wanted

that's who he targeted who knows the reason that it didn't happen, but it did. So I had to go back to the drawing board and it's, I don't know if baffling is the right term, but it's just, it's interesting to me that these are the two finalists. And I just, with the new power structure of college football, with two power leagues in the SEC and the big Ten, Iowa willing to pay in the millions of dollars, that these are their two finalists. And is it just Kirk that is looking for a very specific type? Because it feels like there was an opportunity to go out and at least get a bigger name. When Kevin Johns, a guy that's still out of work right now, Tim Lester, who is targeted to go to Troy, Those are your two

finalists. I would feel at a program like Iowa with an opportunity with what they do, if you're given the ability to do whatever you want offensively, or at least have to stay inside the lines, I get a little bit, but have that ability to turn around the worst offense that there would have been more suitors. see where i'm going here and is that something where it's more of a kirk not problem but just the way that kirk is or am i maybe overstating the amount of people that should have been interested in this job so i i don't think you're overstating i think you're i think you're assuming that there wasn't one interest i think you're wrong i think there probably was but i mean I mean, we heard, I mean, it sounds like Chip Kelly wanted the job.

Yeah. I mean, legitimately wanted the job. But, I mean, and I'm sure there was other people. There were other bigger names. I'm 100% confident. I mean, not that I have insider info or anything, but I'm sure there was other bigger names that had a desire for the job. I'm guessing if we had a list of everybody that reached out,

I bet you'd blow your mind. I'm sure there were some very, very interesting names. But like you said, Kirk had a very – I mean, it has to be somebody that fits what Kirk wants. And anybody that thinks that that's not the case is just fooling themselves. I mean, Chip Kelly wasn't going to fit what Kirk Ferentz wants, and probably many of the other big names weren't going to. So my view on it, Trent, is two things.

One, I'm totally fine with the hire. Do I love it? No. But do I hate it? No. But I think it's ridiculous that people jumped up and down and thought Johns was amazing and Lester was terrible. Because to me, that's just absurd. Here's the thing. There's three things I wanted out of this offensive coordinator hire,

and I knew it wasn't going to be a big splashy hire because that's not how Kirk operates. I wanted three things. One, somebody that had prior offensive coordinator or head coach experience, somebody that just wasn't their first go-around as an offensive coordinator, and he has that. Second, can help with quarterbacks. And he absolutely can help that.

I mean, he is a phenomenal quarterback. He threw for, what, 11,000 yards in college. He knows quarterbacks. And three, he's outside the Ferentz coaching tree. I didn't want Joe Philbin. I didn't want somebody who was going to come in and just regurgitate the crap we've seen the last couple years. He's going to be different.

There's going to be different things done. Is he going to have to do it within the Ferentz system? Absolutely. But he's, I mean, he's creative. I'm sure you've watched some of the same videos where he's doing these instructional videos. He's doing a lot of different stuff. He's doing RPO type stuff.

He's, I mean, I don't have any problem with it. Do I think he's a home run hire? No, but this was never going to be a home run hire. Paul Crist, I mean, people were all in on Paul Crist. Paul Crist is a boring hire also. It's not like Paul Crist is the world's most exciting human, but he would have been a great hire. People were sold on him being the home run hire.

I have no problem with Tim Lester. Do I think he's going to get a job? I have no clue, no clue whatsoever. But he fits the three boxes I wanted, which was prior experience can help with the quarterbacks and last name's not ference basically so uh but that's the one thing the other thing trent like at this point in time i am maybe this is over so far but i am ready to just give this coaching staff the benefit of the doubt because what you're seeing right now

in the college football landscape is chaos. Yesterday, the Boston College coach left to be a defensive coordinator in the NFL because that's what you're dealing with right now. And for whatever reason, somehow, some way, this coaching staff has avoided the chaos coming to this team. In fact, it's been boring. We didn't even mess with the transfer portal this year. And the reason we didn't mess with the transfer portal is we were so confident that because of our culture, everybody wanted to come back. And they were right. Everybody wanted

to come back. Every single one of them. The only one that didn't come back was Cooper. But from everything we heard, Cooper really, really wanted to come back, but just made a business decision. I mean, it was kind of like Hawkinson three or four years ago. He really, really wanted to come back, but he had to make a business decision. I mean, to me, our culture right now, it's not a stretch to say we might have the best culture in college football right now. I mean, everything around our culture is wonderful and it shouldn't. It honestly shouldn't. I mean, you look at a team that was dead last in offense, there should be a lot of fractures there. There should probably be a lot of infighting and arguing, and there isn't. And that's a huge credit to our coaching staff because our players

and our team has bought into what they are selling. And for whatever, 90 days, we didn't have an offensive coordinator, and nobody left. I mean, they trust the coaches. So who the hell am I or you to say, no, the coaches are nuts here when the players trust them. I mean, the players are all in. And that to me is amazing because you just don't see that right now in college football. There are very few places where you have a buy-in across the board and we have it. So I'm really, really excited about this team in general and excited for Tim Lester.

I think I, you can, Kurt Ferentz has a lot of flaws, but his ability to build a culture and determine what he wants to keep that culture the way it is, is phenomenal. It's he's, there are certain things that have passed him by, but they have hit a home run, in my opinion, when it comes to the transfer portal and how they handled it this year, because they just didn't mess with it. They decided, we're going to spend our NIL money to bring back known commodities. And it worked. I mean, we have about six-year seniors coming back, and it's amazing that it worked but it did so

that's my long rant of saying a i don't i'm fine with tim lester but i'm also i'm really fine with the the status of this program right now i just i think it's amazing what we've been able to do the last couple months i'm really impressed talk about tim lester when we continue here on lockdown hawkeyes we'll get some thoughts about what can change what can evolve and what it's going to look like, at least some possibilities there. And, of course, Beth Goetz, we haven't talked to Biz since her official hiring as the AD will do that as well. We will continue here. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

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Make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Trenton Biz back with you again on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Biz, you talked about Tim Lester, some of the RPO stuff. Talked about that earlier in the week. I think there's some people out there that equate that with read option. Those are two different things. I equated it to Tanner Morgan, what he did at Minnesota, what five years back when they were really rolling and those plays

were at times undefendable. Now they had great wide receivers to go along with it with what Bateman and Notman Bell, and they had some good dudes out wide, but it was a really difficult offense to stop, and they were very successful. But it was still based on a running game, and with the depth of the running back position, Caden Proctor coming in and solidifying that offensive line, I think you're going to see a big step forward. A starting point, at least a wide receiver, obviously with Caleb Brown, and then a two tight end system with Luke Lachey and Addison Estrenga.

If he can get this thing and hit the ground running, I feel like there's a real opportunity for this offense, not just to improve and become even OK, maybe even more than that. Now, it is a new system and we've seen growing pains in the past, but I'm excited about that on the surface of some new ideas and definitely opening up what they do in the passing game offensively. Well, most importantly, I think it fits with Cade McNamara's strengths also because I think in order to run that system, you have to have, A, a smart quarterback, and B, a quarterback who's accurate in the short passing game. And I think those are two strengths he has.

I think he's capable of making the right reads and getting it to the right people in those situations. I think the Tanner Morgan comparison is a perfect one because, you know, obviously Lester's got a Western Michigan, and I'm sad to say this, but I'm sure he's probably connected to Fleck in some way. But obviously he must be very different than Fleck because, as we all know, Kirk despises Fleck with every, you know, as much as he can despise a person but uh you know yeah no i i i i think there's a like you said there's gonna be some growing pains it's gonna be ugly at times but i i'm excited it's gonna be different and that's that's all we can ask for at this point

um the other you know we talked a lot about tim lester hire trying to get your take on the uh the other hire that that because the other hire is the one that worries me more. John Budmeier as wide receiver coach makes no sense to me. I don't understand it. I'm not necessarily mad about it or anything. Obviously, John Budmeier is probably a good coach, but to me, a wide receiver coach needs to be so much more than just a wide receiver coach. They have to be a recruiter. I think that probably was Copeland's downfall is they didn't bring in enough recruits or didn't keep a recruiter. And I think that probably was Copeland's downfall is they didn't bring in enough recruits or didn't keep enough recruits here.

It's pure speculation, but that's my guess is that they wanted him to be more of a recruiter down south and he had connections in Florida and things like that and it didn't really happen. And I'm just questioning, what are John Budmeier's – where is he connected at? What's he going to do on the recruiting side? And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he's a great recruiter. I don't know, but I just, I'm confused by that hire, I guess.

I'm right there with you. It's something that talked about weeks ago here as somebody inside the program. I got a little information on that one, that that was happening. And at least one of these scholarship receivers was not real pleased about that. When the word was coming down that Bud Meyer was going to become the wide receiver coach. It's on the surface doesn't make sense. He's never coached wide receivers before. We know you don't have to play a position to be a great coach. You don't have to have a background. Guys bounce around all the time and continue to be successful. There's a part of it almost feels like you need a wellness check on Kirk Ferentz

here as he's approaching 70, because what does Budmeier have? That he is just the apple of the eye of Kirk Behrens, putting him in the role as the analyst two years ago with the quarterback coach. We didn't see improvements there. Then becoming, what, a special assistant after that. There just wasn't a whole lot there. And I'm fine with him staying in those positions. He wants to be an analyst?

Sure. I don't get it. It's? Sure. I don't get it. It's confusing to me. I don't get it. Yeah. I'm right there with you. It's a very difficult one on the surface level to kind of get to if Bud Meyer is the guy. And all signs point to that.

I told you I heard that. And the relay of information was definitely interesting. I did think it was interesting. He did not get announced yesterday. I thought they'd announced them kind of together. So maybe there's a little more pushback and maybe it's not a done deal. I don't know.

I've heard it. I've heard the same things you have. There's been a done deal for weeks, but it's not yet. So maybe it's not. I don't know. And maybe this is Tim Lester saying that he would like to have somebody,

you know, that has a background of what he wants to do. And he's not teaching, not just, you know, that has a background of what he wants to do. And he's not teaching not just, you know, all the players, but also all the coaches, kind of some of the evolution that we're going to see offensively. And maybe that's still a conversation that's happening there. Yeah, that's an interesting one, though, and very difficult. So, you know, when we talk about the RPO, we talked about, you know, the way Minnesota's run it and tons of programs run these kind of systems. Now, you talked about McNam Minnesota's run it and tons of programs run these kind of systems now. He talked about McNamara. Absolutely. Really good.

Marrying that, though, with what Iowa wants to do still running the football is we saw how difficult it was evolving from what Ken O'Keefe did into Greg Davis and bringing in an outsider. And that first year was awful. James Vandenberg went from a pretty good college quarterback to just brutal, just absolutely awful. I'm hopeful that we're not going to see the same kind of issues there, but Kurt talked about it. I remember at the end of that season, Chad Leistekow talked about this the other day is he talked about at the end of the year and said, it took a while for Greg to understand the way that we want to do things here. And I don't think we're going to have the same kind of issues,

but anytime you're changing systems, there can be growing pains. I guess the good news is you can't be worse than you were a year ago. Yeah. Well, and that's why I just keep going back to Kate McNamara. I mean, he's so unbelievably important for this team just because of his experience and his, I guess you call it moxie. I mean, he's got an arrogance to him. I mean, he wasn't great during the four games he played,

but, man, he commands the huddle. He's got a leadership quality about him that, I mean, I think he will, whatever system, I mean, he's had to go through what, this will be his fourth different coordinator in six years. This is not new to him. I mean, he had to jump around different coordinators at Michigan, different coordinators here. I mean, if anybody is able to adjust to a new system,

it should be K. McNamara because he's had to do it a couple times. So, I mean, the fact of the matter is, I mean, if he gets hurt, we're probably in deep trouble again. But if he's healthy, there's no reason this can't be a top 15 team next year. And spring going to be very important for Marco Lyon as with back to America, working his way back from the injury, getting him a lot of reps. Excuse me. We know that Deacon is not the guy, right? Deacon. We saw it this year. He's not the guy.

We'll save that for another podcast. Well, let's, let's get into another hire that happened here recently. Since the last time we talked, Beth gets is the new athletic director for the University of Iowa. Comes as no surprise there. You were as ardent of a detractor of the Garibar era as anybody out there. So got a new one. And certainly on the surface, this one seems like very good.

A very good background. A lot of respect. Did a difficult thing in getting rid of Brian in season, yet still maintain, I think, a really good relationship inside the fan base. And we'll see in the walls of Fort Kinnick if that remains there too. But your thoughts on Beth Getz? Oh, I can't say enough good things about Beth Getz. She is, as you know, anybody that was not Gary Varda I was going to be happy with,

but she is the anti-Gary Varda in so many ways. You just hear her talk and you just see her at events. Like my biggest hatred for Gary Varda is I just thought he was completely fake. I don't think anything that came out of his mouth was ever genuine. I think he was just a businessman in a suit who happened to be our athletic director. And that's fine, but he was full of shit. And because of that, he made business decisions,

and it cost us in many different ways. And I could go on a 30-minute rant about how much I dislike Gary Varda. But that's neither here nor there. Beth Goetz is the opposite. I mean, you listen to her talk. She gives thoughtful thoughtful reasoned responses. She actually thinks before she talks, like she doesn't talk like a robot. She's actually like, and when she says, this is my dream job and I want to be here for life. I believe her. I mean, I really think this is something that she has, she's put in the time, the effort, everything to get to this point. And she, I mean, she had to work her butt off to get here.

And she's going to work her butt off to be the best she can be. So I'm extremely excited for Beth Goetz. I think she checks every single box. I don't have a single issue with her. I'm sure down the road, I'm sure I'll find issues down the road. But as of now, I don't know how any Iowa fan could not be excited for. Kirk will be 69 when football season starts. Fran turns 65 in May.

Lisa Bluter, 63 in April. Rick Huller is going to be turning 60 soon. There's a lot there. Tom Brands has been around for a long time. This ultimately is going to come down to her hires. And missteps are one thing, mistakes that are probably going to happen because it just kind of part of the role as an athletic director. But all it's about eventually is getting these hires right.

When they come getting those hires, right. That's, I guess the one question, but we don't know. I mean, it's just, you don't know how this is going to play out until we get there. How confident are you that she's going to have the connections, making the right decisions, and ultimately hiring the right people to continue some very successful programs? Yeah, I would say there's a lot of luck with that also. You've got to find the right person, and then things have got to fall our way. When you're at Iowa, we talk about it all the time,

the margin of error in every sport is thin. And so, you know, but what I am confident of is that there'll be plenty of people out there that will want to work with her. I just think she's respected across the industry. And I think people will have a desire to want to be here. And I think she will make Iowa a desirable spot. I mean, we're in a good position right now with the whole expanding Big Ten, and we've got plenty of money, and we've got,

I think our NIL group is good. It's not amazing, but it's good enough. All those things, I mean, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I mean, until we see who the hire is, like I said, who knows? But I'm, I don't have a single issue with her whatsoever.

So, yes, the answer is I'm confident she will hopefully make the right hires. We will continue here, Lockdown Hawkeyes, and get into a little basketball talk. An easy victory last night. Iowa favored by 35 against Northwestern. They win by 36. How does Vegas know everything? I got that one right, at least right by the number in Iowa.

You bet on a 35-point at Northwestern spread last night. That might be a sign you have an issue. Well, there's been plenty of signs before that. And I had the wrong side. I had the Wildcats plus 35 and was feeling good through most of the first half. Somebody hit a last three. Who was that? Was it the girl from Johnston?

Yeah, I was putting the kids to sleep and I looked at the final score and just shook my head. I believe it was the Jada Gamf. You never Jada 3. I called plenty of her games in high school. You got hosed by the hometown girl, Trent. I did. I did. It was a rough one. We'll talk a little more about the women's hoops team and of course the men.

Quick turnaround now with Ohio State coming up and what's the attendance going to look like in Carver for that one as we continue Locked on Hawkeyes. Trenton Biz back with you one final time. This is the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Hoops, let's start with the women. And they go out to Maryland coming up this weekend. Easy win against Northwestern.

Ticket prices were ridiculous at Northwestern last night. But Maryland, this is not the Maryland team that we're used to with Brenda Freeze and the Cedar Rapids native, what she has built out there. They got blown out by Indiana yesterday, a game where they came back and it got, I think, to single digits. But they were down 25 at one point in that game. This is not standard Maryland, but you know what they're going to do? They're going to be physical. They're going to be tough. They're going to have some athletes. This one always feels like a matchup where things can go a little bit different for the women's program

when they take on the Terps. Yeah, but I think we're catching them certainly at the right time. I mean, they're a mess right now. And so, I i mean the fact of the matter is if we're the team we think we we are we should be able to go to maryland and win by double digits and that's i mean not saying it's going to happen for sure but i don't know this team i'll give this team credit they've done a nice job of repeatedly taking care of business and i think they will again i mean i you know they've i been impressed. There's been multiple girls. I think that have taken some steps in the right direction last month that lead me to believe this team has a chance to get back to the final four. A month ago, I wasn't very confident we were going to get there, but you know,

Molly Davis has been great the last month. She's really turned the corner, but then just, I mean, her ability to do so many little things outside of scoring. She's a good rebounder for whatever, five, five, wherever she is. Good rebounder. She's very, incredibly high basketball IQ, you know, great pass or great everything. I mean, she's been great the last month. And then Stolke last night played the best game she's had in a month. I mean, I just think this team, this team's clicking right now. I don't think they'll stub their toe, but that could be the ultimate jinx there, too.

I'm with you. The evolution of this team. And one thing we do have to say, it's been great to see, yeah, Hannah Stolke, you know Kate Martin's going to do those little things. Gabby, hopefully she finds her shot again and all those different kind of little things. Kaitlyn Clark's elevated even more this year. I mean, the consistency that she plays with, the confidence that she plays with, confidence has never been an issue for Kaitlyn Clark's elevated even more this year. I mean, the consistency that she plays with, the confidence that she plays with, confidence has never been an issue for Kaitlyn Clark,

but her game has grown even more this year with a different kind of supporting cast. Yet every single time you can anticipate she's going to have 30 points and eight rebounds and eight assists and just the ability to play at that kind of level game in and game out. I think we take it for granted, but we just shouldn't. And we're coming down. We only got, what, a handful of games left here in the regular season. We shouldn't be taking it for granted,

but I know I fall victim to that sometimes too. And then you just look and you look at a game log and you're like, good God, to do this every single time is amazing. Yeah. For purely selfish reasons, I hope she doesn't score all that much the next few games because I want her to break the record at home. I'm going to be there on the Michigan game on the 15th, but I think she's, what, 100?

If she averages 35 points a game, she'll break it at Nebraska. So she needs to average, what, 32 points a game the next 30 so she can break it at home. Selfish. That's all right. That's all right. I completely understand that one, and it'll be another great moment as we're running low I was taking a look and seeing the calendar Seeing if I could find some tickets for One of the remaining games in Carver I saw a senior game, senior day against Ohio State

I think the get in price to have a pair Was $495 Up in the upper corner at Carver That's what we're talking about right now I'll sell you mine for $4.50 a piece right now. Oh, man. You're not a surprise coming from Biz on that one.

Just to be clear, I've never sold any of my tickets for one penny. I've given them to about 50 different people. Well, Biz, the other side of the equation is the men's team. And there was an opportunity here to at least get a little bit of hope going into February.

Weren't able to do it. Indiana game, you get down 17, you come roaring back. I thought they were winning the game. I really did. And Sam Ferb was his foot on the line. We never had a great angle to see if he did or not. Late game situation, leaving wide open shooters. It's kind of more of the same.

Some of the things defensively certainly we're used to with Fran, but the frustrations, I think we're both Fran guys definitely, and we've talked about that in the past. But this fan base, they're not on the Fran train anymore. No, and I know it's popular to bash the team. I know, but I'll take the other route. I like this team. I've enjoyed watching this team. They're not a good basketball team necessarily.

I mean, they're probably somewhere between the seventh and 12th best team in the Big Ten right now. I mean, they're not a great basketball team, but they played really hard basketball. I mean, we talked about this a month ago. At 0-3, they could have packed it in and, you know, just had a debacle of a season. They could have been 4-16, the Big Ten.

Instead, since then, they've went 4-3, and the three losses are two games that they let slip away in the last two minutes and a loss to Purdue where they battled their butts off. So, I don't know. I've enjoyed the last month. Are they going to make the tournament? Probably not. But, you know, you look at the schedule, they win the schedule they win the next three which very very very winnable games you got ohio state you got at

penn state you got home versus minnesota you win those three two weeks from now you're you're at least in the you're in the picture i mean do you have any hope i think they have to win the two home games against illinois and wisconsin because you got to get some some resume builders on there we have none right now. Well, they're going to make sure they're probably not. But I've enjoyed this team. Like I said, they're limited talent-wise, but they play hard night in, night out. At times, they've been defensively adequate.

I mean, I don't know. It's fun to bash this team. It's fun to talk about the terrible attendance, but I'm going to take the other route. I've enjoyed this team. They are what they are. Coming into this year year we knew they weren't going to be great and they're not great but they play hard so going to carver friday i'm a basketball nerd so i i like watching you know i still i still marvel at you can bash for him for all you want but the man is a

offensive basketball genius we play beautiful offensive basketball I mean you watch across the nation there aren't many teams that play a better prettier brand of offensive basketball there's teams that are 10 times more talented there's teams that are you know you know we can't keep up with athleticism wise and other than that but man you watch us play I mean the man is a offensive genius I mean it's it's fun basketball I mean it's It can be infuriating on the other end when you can't guard anybody. I'm going to take the positive route on this team. I've enjoyed watching them.

I think Fran's done a good job of keeping this team together. There's been a lot of stuff going on this year. They've stuck together. They keep playing hard. I'm not giving up on them yet. I think they've got a chance to make a run still in the last month. Yeah, I mean, the schedule's still there.

Now they just got to pile them up. And the wiggle room, that was there, and the hope is gone. And with the end of season schedule, twice with Illinois, going to Michigan State, going to Northwestern, those are going to be incredibly difficult games. It's going to be a tough stretch, but got to win these games now and get a little bit of a winning streak. Well,

biz good to catch up with you again. We will do it again soon here and continue talking a lot of Hawks, Tim Lester. We'll see. And next week we'll get the press conference. It sounds like early in the week and hear a little bit more from him as the offensive coordinator. Thanks biz.

We'll talk to you again soon. All right, go Hawks.