Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hawkeye basketball transfer portal news plus what the latest Iowa football transfer means for the o-line

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

The Iowa Hawkeyes basketball squad lost out of on a coveted big man but received news of early classification from a 2022 big men, What does this mean for their transfer portal efforts? We break it all down here. On segment three we talk through the departure of an Iowa football offensive lineman after a few spring practices.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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to a Tuesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. Excited to be back after a short kind of delay, short little stint where I wasn't recording an episode, didn't record an episode yesterday. Getting this episode out a bit later to you today.

Spent four days in Mexico with my wife as we celebrated her 31st birthday. Not trying to get political here, but I thought Mexico did a fantastic job of handling everything kind of going on with the pandemic, and it was a safe and a lot of fun, so really enjoyed that. But happy to be back here covering Iowa Hawkeye news today, and there is a lot of news. We heard on one big-time transfer target that Iowa was actively recruiting. He is not going to Iowa. We're going to talk about that here in a second. We're going to talk about what are the next steps for Iowa?

What can they do in the transfer portal? And one of their 2022 targets slash the only commit in the class of 2022 has officially reclassified. What does that mean for the Iowa Hawkeyes? We had another Iowa football player transfer out of the program and one Iowa football player got arrested. I'm going to talk a little bit about that. And then Jack Nunji has found a home,

and the recruiting dead period ended on June 1st, or is going to be ending on June 1st. So what does that all mean for the Iowa Hawkeyes? We're covering all that on the show today. Let's get into it, though, with some Transfer Portal talk. Liam Robbins has officially decided to go to Vanderbilt. And I have a couple thoughts on that. First and foremost, you cannot hate on that if you want to play for your uncle.

That being said, I find it very interesting that he is so devoted to playing for his uncle when his uncle did not recruit him coming out of high school, and he ended up going to Drake. That, to me, I just find a little bit ironic, but good for Liam. I do not believe the Vanderbilt basketball situation is nearly as good as the Iowa situation. If I were Liam Robbins, right? He said he wanted to go play against big time, you know, big time, big talent, you know, big talent like a Kofi Coburn and a Luka Garza and a Travian Williams. Stay in the Big Ten and do that because there are still some very good big man talent there. And I just personally don't believe Vanderbilt is the best decision

from an outsider's perspective on his potential career, on his potential growth, and what he's ultimately trying to accomplish. But if his connection with his uncle is that important to him, if his ability to play for his uncle is that important to him, I cannot fault him at all for that. Now, I do believe, again, Iowa was a better spot. And what I'm seeing on Twitter is people are pissed off that Fran could not land Liam.

Here's the thing. If Liam Robbins would have went to Iowa State or Wisconsin or anywhere else but Vanderbilt, especially within the Big Ten, I understand people getting a little bit pissed off. Because now you're looking at it and you're saying, wow, you're a seven-foot-tall big man who has a developing three-point shot. We just developed the national player of the year and we have a focal spot on our offense for a guy like you. How can we not land you? That would be concerning.

However, I think ultimately when you look at what Vanderbilt offered and the fact that it was his uncle going there that was the biggest thing so to me not much we can do about that again I would be more concerned had Fran not been able to land Liam and there was not an uncle situation involved especially considering I think what you know Iowa has to offer from a big man perspective. But what does that mean for Iowa going forward? It does change things up a bit. As we know, Jack Nungi transferred. Luka Garza is going to the NBA.

That leaves Iowa with one true big man, and that's Josh Ogundale. Now, we got some interesting news. Riley Mulvey, a commitment in the class of 2022, a 6'11", 240-pound center, has decided to graduate early and join the program a year early. And people are starting to look at that as, you know, Fran wants to go young. Fran wants to bring in this kid and not go to the transfer portal. I don't think this changes anything with the transfer portal. First and foremost, this kid is going to be a year behind.

And what I mean by that is he still has a year of development to get into college basketball. And the Big Ten is tough. It is physical. Patrick McCaffrey was a four-star recruit. And granted, he had some other issues kind of going on. but he was not built or ready to play Big Ten basketball. Fran even said so himself. Riley is putting some weight on, again, 6'11", 240 pounds, but it is not every day that Senators have a dominant freshman campaign,

even when they don't join the program early. So I think that's very important to temper expectations on what you're expecting from him. I think this move is less about being able to play for the Iowa Hawkeyes today or this upcoming year and more about being able to play for the Iowa Hawkeyes in two and three years. If you look at what Luka Garza did

as a true freshman, played 21.7 minutes per game. He started 26 games out of 33. He averaged 12.1 points per game and 6.4 minutes per game he started 26 games out of 33 he averaged 12.1 points per game and 6.4 boards per game all right luca garza was a top 100 recruit not saying riley's not on that level but luca garza again had an extra year of development before going to iowa so please please please temper expectations on what riley is to provide. I think, personally, what Riley is going to provide is simply having some depth. And excuse me on Luka Garza, not top 100, top 105, 118 if you look at 24-7 sports composite rankings.

But to me, what really is important for Riley is the fact that he is going to be able to develop under the Iowa Hawkeye watch. Now, when you're playing up against high school competition, that is not nearly at the level of college competition, even if it's just in practice, right? So being able to get into the weight room early gives him an extra year of better development so he can be a big-time player in two to three years. Again, I expect at this point, I do think Iowa is still looking for one or two big men in the transfer portal. They cannot go into the season relying on a true freshman and a redshirt freshman who needed some development even coming into the program and then came in a little bit out

of shape because he had some issues getting over to Iowa due to the pandemic. But I don't expect a ton from Riley this year. I'm really excited to see what he can do in the program. But I would expect probably five to eight minutes from Riley as he develops his body and gets ready for Big Ten competition. But this is a guy who I'm really excited about, really excited about what he brings on film. Fits Iowa's offense very, very well. So it is exciting that

he's coming. It's just not in the way I think people are expecting it to be exciting about. This is not giving Iowa a legitimate starting big man right away. Now, I would love to be shocked. I would love to be surprised. I would love to be wrong on that, but I just cannot see that happening. Coming up on segment number two, we're going to talk about one guy who Iowa is actively recruiting right now to see if they could get him to be one of their big men in their offense. And we're going to talk a little bit more about Jack Nunji and what is happening on the Iowa basketball team. That's all coming up on segment number two. Before we get into that though, you know I have to tell you about rockauto.com because rockauto.com has saved me a though, you know I have to tell you about rockauto.com

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So go to rockauto.com right now and see all the parts available for your car or truck and write LOCKEDON in their How Did You Hear About Us box so they know we sent you. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need, rockauto.com. Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the locked on today podcast host peter bakowski updates you on the latest news in every major sport with the help of our local experts follow the locked on today podcast on the odyssey app spelled a-u-d-a-c-y or wherever you get your podcast at now before we took a quick break we were talking about iowa basketball we're going to continue that discussion right now as well. Jack Nunji has officially transferred to Xavier

University. And personally, I'm just really happy for the young guy. He has had such a tumultuous career at Iowa, so much potential and so much heartbreak. And when he decided to transfer out of the program no one should have been upset about that i 100 understand why he lost his father he wants to be closer to his family he struggled through so much adversity sometimes a change of scenery is just what you need and people are shocked thinking this was his opportunity to be the focal point of the iowa offense yes but again life is too short to do something just because you were supposed to do it. You need to do something that's best for you as a player.

And I think Jack Nunji going to Xavier is a great opportunity for him to be closer to his family. What was interesting about this is the moment that that came out, saying Jack Nunji is going to Xavier, there were literally people saying, wow, I thought he said he wanted to be closer to home. That isn't closer to home. What a joke. First of all, Xavier is actually half the distance that Iowa is from home.

So Xavier is significantly closer to home than Iowa is. Also, yes, you want to be closer to home, but you also want to find the right fit. And personally, I appreciate it. I don't know if he did this intentionally, but I appreciate Jack not going somewhere find the right fit. And personally, I appreciate, I don't know if he did this intentionally, but I appreciate Jack not going somewhere in the Big Ten. No matter where Jack went, I was going to root for him. I was going to be a big supporter of him and his success,

and ultimately his team's success as long as it didn't impact Iowa. Him going to the Big Ten makes that a little bit more difficult. You want Iowa to beat them every Big Ten game, and if they they're competitive you want Iowa to be ahead of them in the standings but I'm happy as Xavier I think I can get fully behind that Xavier is not playing Iowa at all this makes it just easier for Iowa fans to support him and anyone talking crap to Jack Nugget about that or pissed off that Jack decided to leave and Fran McCaffrey wasn't able to be aware of that is ridiculous. I saw someone on Twitter say, so this kid, you know, his dad passes away and he tears his ACLs twice and is out for two years and Fran didn't see him transferring.

That's a conversation that is between Fran and Jack and it sounds like it was a very emotional conversation and something that Jack decided more towards the end of the season. You cannot expect Fran to know anything about that. I have been vocally critical of Fran at times, but this is not the reason to be critical of Fran. Fran is trying to build this basketball team the way he wants to, the way he knows how to, and I trust what he is doing. I would like to see him be a little bit more active,

talking to more transfer targets, specifically some of the big men. But nevertheless, the fact that he was on Liam, he's going for Felipe Robraco, which we're going to talk about in a second, that's good to me. That's exciting. He also trusts the development of his players as well. It's going to be a different team next year. He also doesn't know if That's good to me. That's exciting. He also trusts the development of his players as well. It's going to be a different team next year. He also doesn't know if Joe Wieskamp is returning. He doesn't know if Jordan Bohannon is returning. That changes the dynamic

of this team substantially. But I think we have to trust in Fran McCaffrey coming into this year. And there's no reason in heck he could have understood that Jack Nunji was going to be leaving. He maybe could have thought about Jack Nunji was going to be leaving. He maybe could have thought about it, but that wasn't a conversation that you should be approaching with Jack. You let Jack bring that conversation to you to make sure Jack is okay. Now, I did mention this name, Philippe Rabraca, UND target. Iowa has been hot and heavy on his trail. It sounds like the decision of Riley Mulvey to reclassify does not impact Philippe's decision to join or not join Iowa I think he wants to pick a program out soon and he has another

zoom set up as far as I'm aware for Iowa this is the guy who is a big man down low not as big as what you know not not a 6'11 not a seven footer like Liam or you know Luka Garza but six foot nine can shoot the three provides a spark offensively. This is a guy that Iowa can really have a focus point around in their offense and still maintain some of that shooting prowess that they've had in previous seasons while giving them another athletic big man that they have down there. Again, I do believe they're going to want to pick up at least one more big man just to continually provide some of that depth.

You want to be able to have a versatile lineup that can handle a lot of different teams. Now, what's interesting is we've now seen Liam leave. Luka Garza's gone. We do have Indiana having some solid bigs. Travian Williams is testing the NBA draft process. Travian Williams is testing the NBA draft process. So to me, the big men in the Big Ten have gone away a little bit. As far as I'm aware, I haven't heard anything on Kofi.

I'm going to look that up real quick just to make sure. But we haven't heard a lot about any other big men coming. So to me, oh wait, yeah, no, I haven't, yeah, nothing as far as I'm aware unless I missed. Yep, yeah, Kofi has not officially entered the NBA draft process. So outside of Kofi and Hunter Dickinson, Travion Williams, if he returns, I mean, these are all guys that could still technically leave. Travion Williams is actually in the draft process already. To me, the big men in the Big Ten might not be as strong

as what we have seen this past year. So it's not as big of a concern when you look at it from losing a Luka Garza standpoint. Iowa could play a little bit more small ball. That's what they just got beat by against Oregon. They had the best player on the losing a Luka Garza standpoint. Iowa could play a little bit more small ball, and that's what they just got beat by against Oregon. They had the best player on the court in Luka Garza and still got smoked by Oregon, so maybe that's also something they're looking at as well

for this upcoming season. You just flipped the script a little bit and changed the way you play defense. Keegan Murray has shown that he can guard some of the stronger guys in the Big Ten. EJ Liddell, he was able to handle him. Patrick McCaffrey is still getting weight on him, but he's athletic. Long-leaning athletic.

We did see Josh against Kofi handle him defensively. I thought he played really well defensively against him in a few minutes of time. Again, this could be a new look Iowa team next year as we get more information on what is actually happening with some of their transfer targets. We'll let you know and keep you posted right here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

Coming up on segment number three, though, we're going to get into some football talk. There was a rest that happened. We also have a transfer, and then the recruiting dead period has ended, and that impacts Iowa significantly. So we're going to talk about all that on segment number three of the show. I do want to tell you about betonline.ag, the fastest and the easiest way to bet on all of your sports action. Football might be over and college basketball, but the NBA and NHL are in full swing. You also got MLB as well.

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That's right, use the promo code LOCKEDON, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N, at betonline.ag. Get a free account and a 50% welcome bonus, betonline.ag, your online sportsbook experts. April 19th through the 26th, listen to the Ultimate Mock Draft 2021, featuring analysis from our NFL experts, Michael Irvin, Jason LaConfora, and Michael Lombardi, our local experts for every team making trades and picking the next star as their team.

Subscribe to the Ultimate Mock Draft 2021 presented by Locked On and Odyssey on the new Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast at. Odyssey is your audio home for all the sports, podcasts, music, and news that matter to you. That's A-U-D-A-C-Y. Now, let's get into some college football talk. I know when we left last week before I took a quick vacation, we were doing our spring positional previews. We will wrap that up tomorrow with the specialist and the defensive line,

but we had some additional news that popped up. Noah Fenske is transferring, and we don't know the reasons behind why he was transferring, but he was listed on the two deeps heading into spring practice at center. And so I can only reasonably make the conclusion when people leave after that spring practice, they are starting to see the writing on the wall of where they're playing time and what it's going to look like. And I can only assume, and again, these are all assumptions. I don't actually know why Noah's leaving.

I can only assume that he was quickly getting passed up by other guys or the fact that he was on the two deeps was more of a formality and Iowa has a clear rotation of who they want to play and where. For example, they have several guys along that offensive line who can play several positions. So just because Noah was the number two center does not mean that a Tyler Linderbaum had to go out. Noah Fenske was going to get snaps. It could have been Cody or Justin Britt.

There's several guys who can play that position. Cody, especially a guy who Kirk Ferentz has specifically said can play all five positions on that line. And I believe Justin Britt was listed as the backup center at times as well. He can play that center spot as well. With a lot of young talent, the positions are very much in flux. It sounds like Mason Richmond is doing a phenomenal job in practice as well. So at that tackle spot, which again kind of moves some guys around.

If Mason does well and Jack Plum do well, maybe Cody slides inside. Maybe that slides Justin Britt over even more. So what I want you to realize is that the offensive line, Iowa wants to create versatile offensive linemen who can play several positions on any given notice. That helps them out long term. It helps the players out long term. And it helps them out in the short term as well, providing them that flexibility with experienced guys along that offensive line.

And to me, again, Noah transferring out means to me that he likely was not as high up on the depth chart as we truly think he was based off of the initial two deeps. Now, again, a lot can change during spring practice. I don't know what's happened over the last week and a half, two weeks, but him transferring out this time is a very peculiar time to do so, especially with other teams in their spring practice as well, likely having most of their scholarship allotments already locked up.

But wish him the best nonetheless. An Iowa guy, wish him the best wherever he ultimately goes. We hope he can find a home as quickly and as soon as possible and get the playing time or whatever he is looking for. Hopefully he can get that wherever he wants to go. On a more disappointing note, backup tight end Josiah Mineman was arrested. And that is kind of a big deal. Iowa has basically a no-t no tolerance policy with some of that stuff and they people do get punished for having that happen and it's not a good look for the Hawks

it's not a good look for Josiah um you know it's not something that happens every single day last year we saw with Amir Smith-Marset uh suspended one game. That's kind of what I expect to happen for Josiah, to probably be suspended for one game, in my opinion. So we will see there. Actually, let me, now I'm drawing a blank on if Amir actually was suspended. So let me pull that. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I thought he was suspended.

So suspended for one game um this past year i would expect about the same for josiah to be suspended for as well um but let me just kind of read it off to you sounds like he was uh he was charged with arrested on sunday morning charged with public intoxication disorderly conduct and criminal trespass at 12 29 a.m the criminal trespass is really concerning to me i know you know public intox is a big deal and you need to be smarter about it when you're on the iowa football team especially when you're six foot four 240 pounds and you're a football player people see that people recognize you very easily. But the criminal trespass is really concerning to me, whether that is truly the case or what actually went down there. But again, I expect him to be suspended for one game. That is going to, from a depth chart perspective, hurt him and his chances to

build up his ability to get on the field. He is a guy who I was looking at as kind of getting into that third tight end spot, behind Sam, behind Luke, and possibly in front of Elijah. But this gives Elijah an opportunity now to really seal a deal at that third spot, which hurts Josiah Maimon entering his third year in the program, wanting to make an impact on the field, wanting to be on the field as a tight end. I don't think this is a good look for him. So we'll see how this all transpires out and what happens from an Iowa perspective, what they decide to ultimately do for Josiah.

But the last thing I just want to say is if this is a problem with him, I hope he can get the help he needs. I don't want to be too serious about that or look too much into it. But if it is a concern, I hope he does ultimately get the help he needs. I don't want to be too serious about that or look too much into it. But if it is a concern, I hope he does ultimately get the help he needs and Iowa can help him get that help that he needs. The last thing I want to cover before we wrap up the show, the recruiting dead period ends on June 1st. Now that's huge.

Iowa has not had as many commitments to this point as we are used to, but that makes a lot of sense because they have not had the ability to bring players on for official visits. Now they have that chance, and that makes a lot of sense because they have not had the ability to bring players on for official visits now they have that chance and there's a lot of high profile guys coming to campus over the next or in June in July so I'm really excited to see what that looks like we're going to be breaking down that list here probably this week so I'll make sure to dive into that and we'll dive into it more as we get closer to those days as well but a lot of big-time prospects that Iowa has their eyes on, and getting them on campus is not only good for the player to see what Iowa offers, but also for Iowa to see what the player offers in person. And again, I think the reason

why we're not seeing as many commits at this point is simply because Iowa hasn't had the ability to get these guys on campus, and they typically prefer, if not require, a player to see the campus before they commit. they want the commitment to be mutual they want it to be strong they don't want you to be going back and forth and back and forth like we saw last year with one of the cornerback targets that they had that ultimately went to Sanford so this is huge for Iowa and we're going to dive a lot more into this on upcoming shows but fantastic for the NCAA to finally lift that dead period area because that was really tough for recruits to find the right home when they can't actually visit their

future home. I know personally, without even having played football, just visiting college campuses when I was in that position, you get a feel for a certain campus and it just feels right. When I went to Drake University, it just felt right. It felt better than every campus I had been to, and that really helped me to seal the deal and go to that college. We talked from Deuce Hogan about it as well. When he was getting recruited, when he stepped foot on Iowa, he just knew that it was the place he wanted to be at. So definitely makes sense. I'm glad that Iowa is able to begin bringing some of these guys on campus, And I expect our commitments to significantly increase over the summer months.

That does do it for our show today, though. Hope you all appreciated the show. Again, apologies for getting this out a bit later. Got back really late last night from vacation and wanted to make sure I got an episode out today. We'll be dropping episodes tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday, and then back on our Monday through Friday schedule next week as we prepare for the NFL draft. Again, if you love the show,

make sure to follow us wherever you found this episode at whatever podcast, you know, a medium you have just follow us there. So you can get every episode downloaded directly to your smart device. We have awesome content coming up every single day, the rest of this week and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Have a fantastic Tuesday Hawkeye nation and let's go Hawks.