Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hawkeye women are going to the Sweet 16 plus Iowa Pro Day results and is there truth to this men's basketball transfer rumor

Episode Date: March 24, 2021

The Iowa Hawkeye women's basketball squad is heading to the Sweet 16 after a dominant performance over Kentucky led by true freshman Caitlin Clark. After breaking down that game, we discuss the recent transfer rumor that has spread about Iowa guard CJ Fredrick. We tell you whether or not it has any merit before breaking down Pro Day results for the Iowa football team.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.BlueChewTry BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code LOCKEDON at bluechew.com at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. 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 Wednesday 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, and we have a ton of stuff to cover today, starting with the Iowa women's basketball team absolutely dominating Kentucky en route to a Sweet 16 invite. So they're going to be taking on UConn.

We're going to be talking about that and Kaitlyn Clark's incredible performance. We also have Iowa Pro Day. We didn't get a chance to talk about it yesterday because it was just a lot of sadness talking about the men's basketball team. So we're going to talk about the Pro Day, who who won who lost um what we gleaned from that and there's also some weird rumors going around with cj frederick what does that mean how legitimate are they we're going to talk all about that as well that's all coming up on the show today just a reminder that on tomorrow's show we have kate and crawford joining the show should be a lot of fun

uh you know commit in the class of 2022. Great kid to talk to, and you're going to love hearing from him. He'll be joining the show tomorrow to talk about his recruiting experience and what he loves about being a Hawkeye. That's all coming up on the show tomorrow. If you do like the show, make sure to give us that five-star review and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. And as always, Hawkeye Nation, I hope you know how much I appreciate you tuning in.

Now let's get into the women's basketball team because that performance was absolutely dominant and they had people talking all over the country. Kaitlyn Clark had an absolutely, truly amazing performance showing why it is a travesty that she is not a first-team All-American. I actually had Big Ten Ben Stevens text me during the game and say, how could she not be first-team All-American. I actually had Big Ten Ben Stevens text me during the game and say, how could she not be first-team All-American? I have not seen someone dominate a game so handily like Kaitlyn Clark. And I said, yeah, she's a true freaking freshman.

That's how insane this is. Iowa, though, went 86-72, and the score was honestly a lot further away than that. Kentucky gets a 10 point advantage on Iowa in that fourth quarter when Iowa not really you know doing a lot they're trying to slow slow the game down but again we go back to what Kaitlyn Clark did and there is honestly a big team performance look at McKenna Warnock she hit two very key three-pointers finishes with 10 points and eight rebounds Gabby Marshall had a you 8 points on 2 of 3 shooting from 3. Kaitlyn Clark, though, 13 of 21, 6 of 12 from 3, 7 boards, 6 assists, 35 points.

Monica Sinano, 14 points on 7 of 12 shooting and 8 rebounds. So, I mean, you could just see across the board, this Iowa team absolutely crushed it. You love to see that team performance, and that's going to be huge going up against UConn. They're going to need the other folks to hit some of those knockdown shots. McKenna and Gabby coming in clutch with just those couple threes. Kaitlin Clark's going to find you if you've got to hit those, and that'll be the key difference for Iowa to potentially take on UConn and possibly win that game. A couple thoughts on that game, though.

Iowa got out to a huge, hot first quarter start. I believe they were up 11-2 or something along those lines in that first quarter, and they just kept rolling. A couple things coming into this game, really. They were talking a lot about Kentucky and how they were going to handle Kaitlyn Clark. And Kentucky has uh you know SEC uh defensive player of the year Chastity Patterson and she did nothing clearly she couldn't stop Kaitlyn Clark she said I want to be so close on Kaitlyn Clark that I can smell what she had for

breakfast well that started changing pretty quickly when Kaitlyn Clark was going in transition and did a quick step back three to separate her and Patterson by at least five feet. Patterson struggled in this game, one of 13 from the field. And that was the other thing. Kentucky, I felt like Iowa played better defense than they typically have. They were swarming the ball. They were very aggressive on the boards. They were being smart, too.

They weren't just going up and getting sloppy fouls. They were just going straight up and forcing Kentucky to take contested shots. They weren't trying to block the shots, just take contested shots. And Kentucky was struggling. They couldn't do much in the paint for a while. And honestly, they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn for a bit either. Just missing shots all over the place. So big game nonetheless for Iowa.

And again, for that true freshman, Kaitlin Clark. Her 35 points, the most in an NCAA tournament game by a Hawkeye. Her 6-3 points, most in the NCAA game by an Iowa Hawkeye. And this sets up a very interesting matchup, March 27th against UConn. And the one freshman who is seemingly outshining Kaitlin Clark, according to some national media pundits, and that is Paige Beckers. They are close friends. They are former teammates, and this should be a ton of fun. The key for Iowa going into this game is continuing their offensive explosiveness,

not really letting down and not getting sloppy. In that third quarter for the first five-ish minutes, they were a bit sloppy against Kentucky, and they can't have that against UConn. They need to play almost a perfect game. We need to see at least four Iowa Hawkeyes in double digits. It can't just be Kaitlin Clark. And I don't think it'll just be Kaitlin Clark. So it'll be

huge to see what some of the other Hawks can do in that game. And I think if Iowa can get four folks in the double digits and play defense like they did against Kentucky for the first half, they are putting themselves in a position to upset number one seeded UConn. So we're going to hopefully get some good folks on the phone or on the call in the podcast to talk a little bit more about the game

and break that down with me. We'll be doing that on Friday because it is such a big game. Wanted to devote a whole show to talking about Iowa women's basketball and what they can do against UConn and a huge matchup. Two other things I want to quickly cover before we get into segment number two. I'm surprised that this was on ESPNU. I think it's a bit ridiculous that a lot of people probably aren't able to even watch that game. Fortunately, one of my buddies has YouTube TV and I have his login, so I was able to watch it, but a lot of people unable to see that game, which is unfortunate. And again, Caitlin Clark,

watch it but a lot of people unable to see that game which is unfortunate and again Caitlin Clark just you know lighting it up and the world is starting to notice what she can do she was getting praise all over the place Jay Bialy Sue Bird Kevin Durant even said she belongs in the league right now be you know be appreciative of what we're watching because I don't think this team makes the NCAA tournament without Caitlin Clark and right now they're in the Sweet 16. Coming into this season, again, we thought maybe Iowa makes the NCAA tournament. Possibly. There's a chance they could make it. But to be a five-seeded now being in the Sweet 16,

that has surpassed any and every expectation I think anyone had of this women's basketball team. And that's a credit to Lisa Bluter, her staff, Kaitlin Clark, and the rest of the players just doing such an amazing job. Coming up on segment number two, we're going to continue basketball talk, talk a little bit about who's leaving, who's not, and the transfer rumors. That's all coming up on segment number two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Before we get into that, though, you know I've got to tell you about some of our sponsors of the show today because Blue Chew is sponsoring this episode. Blue Chew is making waves and bringing more confidence to the bedroom blue chew is a unique online service that delivers

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Follow the Locked On Today podcast wherever you get your podcasts at. Now let's get back into the show. I want to talk about Iowa basketball. Luka Garza officially leaving. And we knew that was going to happen. But it just sucks. It sucks that he had to end that way. And now we're waiting to see what happens with Jordan Bohannon and Joe Weiskamp.

Now the reason why I say what happened with Jordan Bohannon, it's been a foregone conclusion that he's leaving. He even said as much. But the standpoint, his podcast, and granted it wasn't Jordan, it was Zach who posted, did say, let me read it. I thought it was a very cryptic tweet. I don't know if it's about figuring out his professional options or what, but it basically said,

Hi guys, we'll be taking the next couple weeks off recording as Jordan has some life decisions to make. We will be back, but just bear with us during the time. We appreciate all of you, and we'll be working on improving the podcast. In the meantime, thank you guys again. Yeah, that's a little bit cryptic. My guess is trying to figure out what he wants to do professionally, not necessarily staying. And then Joe Wieskamp is the really interesting one.

Again, I've talked a lot about it. I know some people don't agree, but I see no reason why Joe Wieskamp stays. I think his stock is about as high as it's going to be. He dealt with two kind of mild injuries this year, and I think you want to go and get your money. His fiancee has graduated. She no longer is at the University of Iowa. I mean, this is, I don't, I'm pretty sure she's not and you gotta go get your money when you can i think joe has a spot in the nba he's been recently projected in the mid to late second round um but what what does he gain by staying another year again he could be the guy but does being the guy get you an nba look not necessarily. Luka Garza was the guy last year

and he was getting looks, but there still was no guarantee really. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Joby's camp does have a place in professional basketball. Will it be the NBA? I think it should be. But will it? Who actually knows? So will he stay?

Not sure yet, but we'll be keeping you posted on that. I don't think he stays. That's my personal opinion. Now, another person that I thought was interesting, there were some transfer rumors yesterday about CJ Frederick. And I want to talk about this. A couple things here. Let's start with who is transferred out of Iowa and the idea of the transfer portal. First off, it's a fact of life.

It's a way of life. It's what we're going to have year in and year out. We've seen Penn State have a massacre of, or heading out of the program. Iowa is not a program that has that. I think a lot of it has to do with Brian McCaffrey and how amazing of a player's coach he is, how much they love him as a coach. But when you look at who's transferred out recently, Isaiah Moss wasn't really the focal point of the offense. Got lost in a couple games. Really was the third, fourth option and wanted to win, wanted to be a part of a contender,

and wanted to be a guy who could get the ball a little bit more. He is the Kansas. That's probably the outlier of this whole situation. Macy Daly wasn't going to be playing. There wasn't room for him, so he transfers Akron. Riley Till transfers over into California. He was a scholarship player for a year, but

really wasn't going to get a lot of playing time if any this year. Brady Ellenson transfers to Drake. He was a three-point shooter who couldn't do basically anything else. I remember seeing him at Drake. Cordell Pemzel, again, kind of going to get lost in the shuffle. Just wanted to change the pace. Not a huge

deal. Now, C.J. Frederick transferring would be a very big deal because if Joey's camp leaves, as expected, C.J. Frederick becomes quite possibly the guy. He's the guy who can knock down shots. He is one of the only big-time perimeter shooters Iowa has on this roster if Joey's camp leaves, if Jordan Bohannon leaves, if Luka Garza leaves. That becomes a big time loss to the Hawks.

But I want to cover why that rumor has even started. From everything I can see, it was a Kentucky Wildcat blog that was just speculating on who maybe wants to come to Kentucky. These people weren't even in the transfer portal. They were literally just saying, it'd be great if we could get this person. It'd be great if we could get this person. And oh, CJ Frederick's from Kentucky.

We should be able to get him. I mean, I guess that's a really, really arrogant way. And maybe I'll be eating crow here in a bit. But I think that's a really arrogant way of looking at it. Just because Kentucky has been historically a better program and CJ Frederick is from Kentucky doesn't mean he's going to want to transfer to Kentucky, even though there is a free year. Now, the only reason why I'm even slightly entertaining this concept is the fact that CJ was benched in the Round of 32 game.

Now, he's been dealing with injuries, but as a player, can you come past that? Can you get past that? Are you pissed off that you're benched in a very important game? I think that's something you've got to look at. I don't think it's going to be a huge factor, but I think the big thing here is there are rumors. There's always people that transfer out of the program, but typically it's not going to be someone who's about to be the guy. C.J. Frederick is going to be, I would say, the number one or two option on the team next year, depending on how Jack Nunji returns. I guess theoretically he could be three behind Nunji and Keegan,

but I would say, in my opinion, C.J. Frederick will be at least number two due to his ability to shoot the three, and he'll be very important for spacing for Iowa. So when you're about to be that guy, do you really leave? I mean, this is a guy who came onto the program with not a lot of fanfare. He chose to walk on Iowa over opportunities at smaller schools, and from everything we hear, he loves the Iowa Hawkeye program. He loves playing for Fran McCaffrey. So this would be a very interesting decision if he ultimately decides to transfer,

but I'm here to say I would like to officially squash the transfer portal rumors simply because they didn't come from a place of intelligence. They came from a place of speculation by an opposing team who has the arrogance to think that he will automatically go to Kentucky just because he's from Kentucky, despite the fact that Kentucky never actually recruited him in the first place. So interesting stuff there. Coming up on segment number three, though, we're going to get into some football talk, talk a little bit about the pro day and then wrap up the show. Before we do that, though, we you know, we got to tell you about betonline.ag because betonline.ag is the fastest and the easiest way to bet on all of your sports action. Football might be over, but the NBA, college basketball, and the NHL are in full swing. BetOnline.ag even covers awards, TV shows, and reality television.

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your online sportsbook experts. Are you ready for the NFL draft? Join lockdown NFL draft host Trevor Sikama and Benjamin Solak as they give you their latest positional rankings and analysis on 2021 draft prospects with team centric guest mocks right around the corner. Follow the lockdown NFL draft podcast on the radio.com app or wherever you get your podcast app. Now that's a perfect segue into football and the draft talk because Iowa's Pro Day was this week,

and we didn't get a chance to cover it because of all the basketball talk, but wanted to go through a few key things. First and foremost, I want to make sure that you all know it is very difficult to get every time or every thing or every drill that the Iowa players did. It's up to them to really talk about it, up to Iowa to share it if they want to. So we don't have every piece of information. It's kind of pieced together from a lot of different sources,

a lot of different pieces, especially the Iowa Hawkeye football Instagram account. But I do want to talk about the players that we did see. Nick Neiman. A 4-4-5-4-D-R dash, would have been the second fastest linebacker time at the Combine last year, only behind Isaiah Simmons, who went in the first round. His 6-6-7-3 cone drill, the fastest linebacker of last year, and the second fastest overall. Nick Neiman is a guy who was going to be a UDFA,

but with that kind of speed and quickness, and we've seen him be able to cover people in space, I think you've got to give him a chance. I mean, he's got decent size as well. He's got that pedigree. His brother has played for the Chiefs for the last couple of years. His dad's a coach. Nick Neiman might have made himself some money

and might have gotten himself drafted. And I'm not kidding about that. When you can run a 4-4-5-40 and a 6-6-7-3 cone drill as a linebacker who also doesn't check in as a light linebacker, mind you. I believe he was around 242 pounds. I can actually confirm that here in a second as I'm looking it up. Let me see here. 234 pounds.

Maybe not as big as I thought. Not the 242, but that's still good. That's still a good size. People can find a way to get you in that offense, or in that defense. Another linebacker, Barrington Wade, not as great of a showing. 4'6", 40-yard dash, would have been 11th at the Combine last year. 6'9", 4 shuttle, would have been 4th.

Kind of a lower broad jump. Checking in at 6'1", 232 pounds. So similar size as Nick Neiman. Not as much tape, not as much playing time, and not as good of stats, unfortunately. Over the receiver group, though, Amir Smith-Marset ran a 4-4-3-40, ninth fastest time for a wide receiver if it was last year, and a 4-2 shuttle, the third fastest shuttle time, the 19th fastest time overall.

His 10-4 broad jump a little bit middle of the pack. Now, when I talked to Amir on the show, and if you want to go back and listen to that, would have been about two weeks ago, the impression he was giving me was that he could run a sub 4-4-40. Now, I'm talking milliseconds here, right? There's such a small, small difference between a 4-4-3 and a 4-3-9. But I will say I was expecting a 4-3. Now, how well he has healed from his ankle injury seems like he's good to go. And the 4-4-3 is not going to hurt his draft stock.

Anything below a 4-4 would have elevated his draft stock, though. Nonetheless, a good performance by Amir. Would have been better to see him maybe drop that to a 4-3-8, 4-3-9. Brandon Smith, not a great 4-D-R dash time, but that's not what he's known for. He continued his dominant performance after that HOA combine and did a 39.5 inch vertical, which would have been the seventh best at the combine, a 10-10 broad jump, which would have been the sixth best at the combine, and 21 reps on the bench would have been third best

for his position. Brandon Smith trying to show he can be a physical dominant receiver who can catch the ball at the point and really out-jump a lot of corners because that separation isn't going to always be there, especially when you have that kind of speed. So that's a concern the scouts have to look at. Do they want a guy who runs a slower 40 time, a 4-6-40 time? But can they handle that with that separation? Can he be able to get up and attack the ball at the highest point?

Can he out-jump cornerbacks? Can he out-muscle cornerbacks? That's something you have to look at. I think you have to turn on the tape, but again, he didn't have the best season this past year. Struggled a bit with drops, so it would have been great to see him run in the 4.5s at the Iowa Pro Day, but nevertheless, Brandon Smith going to get a shot at the NFL team. My guess is it's going to be late draft, maybe 6th, 7th round, if not as a UDFA. Davion Nixon just crushed it again. At 313 pounds, ran a 4.7 shuttle and a 4.9 40-yard dash time,

which would have been the fifth fastest 40-yard dash time for anyone over 300 pounds. At 4.7, would have been the 11th best for anyone over 300. His numbers are almost identical to Tristan Wirth's, which is absurd, Tristan Wirth's being just an athletic freak, but something to keep a watch on. Davion Nixon, the guy who I think should go in the first round, but more than likely will end up in the middle of the second. Chauncey Golsan

continues a great performance at 269 pounds, ran a 4.79 40-yard dash, which was 7th best for defensive linemen. 36-inch vertical jump, which would have been 1st among defensive linemen. A 9.11 broad jump, which would have been 8th. His bench of 22, not exactly the best, but not terrible. Chauncey Golsan has been showing that he's been able to play inside and outside. And out of all

the people out of the Iowa Hawkeye football community that is in the draft this year, I feel like he has really elevated his draft stock the most. Going from a guy who Matt Miller said should be on the radars as a late seventh round pick or maybe a UDFA, I think Chauncey Golsan could be a fourth or fifth round pick at this point given what he's been doing from an athletic testing perspective and how his interviews seemingly have gone. I had a chance to listen to him on Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pod with Matt Miller, his brother Mello, and Paige. Very good interview,, very, very, very good interview, I guess I'd say. And you can tell that he's just excited to be a part of this opportunity.

Some other guys who went through the draft process, obviously Keith Duncan, Sean Beyer. A couple guys from last year as well, Devontae Young, Michael Sleep Dalton, Armani Jones, Jackson Subert, and Wes Dorvick. So, overall, a great day for Iowa Hawkeyes in general. It would have been better to see what those official times were. Would have loved to see that. But that's a little bit more information on what they brought to the table in their pro day. Also, along those lines, forgot to also mention that Geno Stone has officially signed with the Ravens on a one-year deal. So congratulations to Geno.

Hopefully he can stick around. I know he's kind of bounced around a little bit this past season. But if he can stick around, that would be absolutely amazing. That will do it for our show, though, today. That's it for the show. Apologize for getting this out a bit later. Again, there's just been a lot of things going on personally. Mostly good, not a lot bad.

So that's been awesome. But it's definitely been keeping me busy. And my time has been a little bit off for getting these shows out to you. So I apologize there. But we'll have our interview with Caden Crawford dropping first thing in the morning. So you can check that out tomorrow. And on Friday, we'll be doing a preview of women's basketball. So make sure to check that out as well.

As always, make sure to tune in wherever you downloaded this podcast at and subscribe. And make sure to give us that five-star review if you did love the show or at least just tell a friend about it. If they love the Hawkeyes and they haven't listened to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, please let them know to give me a chance. I would absolutely appreciate and love that. Again, Hawkeye Nation, thank you for allowing me to do this every single day. Have a fantastic Wednesday and let's

go Hawks!