Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hoops adds another player from the portal, Hawkeye Swarm CEO Brad Heinrichs joins

Starting point is 00:00:00 Iowa basketball has hit the transfer portal, and they've come up with an intriguing prospect. Sadio Traor has joined the Hawkeyes, plus we hear from the CEO of the Swarm Collective, Brad Heinrichs. All today, Locked on Hawkeyes. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Starting point is 00:00:25 Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find podcasts, and you can also find us on YouTube. While you're there. 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. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 with any winning $5 bet. Visit FanDuel.com slash LockedOn to get started.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Well, a busy one here today as we got a lot going on. A little bit later on, Brad Heinrichs from the Swarm Collective had a conversation with him talking a lot about some of the instances that has changed over the last two years of the Swarm. Name, image, and likeness. What's going to happen in the

Starting point is 00:01:22 future? A lot of different topics with Brad Heinrichs and really excited to bring that one to all our great Hawkeye fans out there. But we kick things off today. Speaking of the Swarm Collective, well, hand in hand, bringing in a new recruit. The collective usually has a part of that. And Iowa has landed Manhattan transfer,

Starting point is 00:01:39 Seydou Traore. Now, pronunciation, we'll see. Search, didn't see anything. The Manhattan website, didn't see anything on the manhattan website didn't see anything uh people talking exactly what it is they'll help us out though i'm sure we'll be able to exactly get what the pronunciation is very intriguing prospect so he played for a manhattan team this past season that was not very good listed at six7", 215 pounds. As a whole, though, Manhattan went 7-23 overall last season, including going 4-16 in the Metro Athletic Conference. So we're not talking about high-level stuff here.

Starting point is 00:02:15 We're not talking about a guy coming in that's played at a major conference, but I think a very intriguing player. Playing for a bad team, potential some bad habits start to show. But you look at some of the underlying numbers here that come from Traore, and I think they're incredibly exciting. One of the first ones that jump off the page. We saw a season ago,

Starting point is 00:02:35 they went out and got Ben Kricke. And Ben Kricke was a very talented offensive player. On the defensive end, it was a struggle. And as bad as it was defensively, he might have been a worse rebounder for a big guy. Not the case here for Triori. 43rd, 93rd, excuse me, in the country in defensive rebounding rate,

Starting point is 00:02:53 meaning of the available defensive rebounds out there when he's on the floor, he got those rebounds at the 93rd best mark in all of college basketball. We're talking about thousands of players and he was in the top 100. That's good. Good defensive rates as well. Both block percentage and steal percentage very high. We know Iowa, under Fran McCaffrey, what it is, right? Short of a couple of years, having a couple of good defenders on the perimeter with Mike Gassell

Starting point is 00:03:19 and Zap Clemens, what they had on the back end with Adam Woodbury. More years than not, this is going to be a bad defensive team. But you add a guy that has some defensive upside, at the minimum, this is intriguing. Not only that, he also has three seasons to play. We're not talking about a one and done player. We're not talking about a guy coming in. This is a chance for some development. And you're looking now what Fran McCaffrey is building, what Iowa looks like next season. This is a team that is getting more athletic. We know what we saw at times from some of the guys a year ago. I think there's a real chance that we're going to see that athleticism take a big step forward. And here's a surprise for you. As we await the decision, what's going to happen with Peyton Sanford. Right now at this point in time, Iowa is 48th in the country at Bart Torvik. Bart Torvik, one of the analytical

Starting point is 00:04:11 sites out there that measure what teams are going to look like next season. He has the incoming freshman in there. He's got Traore in there. He's got the point guard Drew Thelwell who committed here about a month back. All those guys are in there. And you're talking about, at that point, really a fringe NCAA tournament team. Now, also, you put into consideration with that, Peyton Sanford is also a part of the mix. That is a big one that obviously leads this team to another level. I think if Sanford comes back, that Iowa, yes, is going to be an NCAA tournament team.

Starting point is 00:04:45 I believe at minimum, that's what they're going to do. But you take Sanford out of the mix. I think this is a completely different squad. I think they're on the outside looking in. In fact, if you take him out of his analytical profile, they go from the 49th team in the country down to 68th in the country. And you're well beaten at that point of being an NCAA tournament team. So that's where we are at this point in time. I think an intriguing one, excitement. When you talk about the roster, athleticism, you have it obviously with Traore, Dembale, Lajay Dembale. We saw a lot of him. Owen Freeman, definitely a plus guy. Josh Dix doesn't back down from anybody. And in terms of athleticism, I think he's at a really high rate. Now, what can you get out of a Brock Harding? What are we going to see from the freshmen this year in Cooper Koch and Chris

Starting point is 00:05:28 Taj. Oh, this is a team starting to be built a little bit different. Are they a guard short? Perhaps. Are they going to play a little bit bigger this season? Either be it Freeman at the power forward position, either Dembale or trail or, or even one of the freshmen at the power forward spot. Do you go another direction? Do you have Sanford play the three, Dix at the two, and then figure out between Thelwell and Harding, who's your point guard going to be? It's an

Starting point is 00:05:54 intriguing mix at minimum. I understand the way that this season ended this past year. It was frustrating, right? I think we were all, at the end of the season, the way it went, with the opportunities that the Hawkeyes had at the end of the season. Potential, punch their ticket to the NCAA tournament. You have the opportunity against Illinois.

Starting point is 00:06:12 You don't show up. You get blown off your home floor and weren't in the game from really the opening jump ball. Then you come back in the Big Ten tournament. You get shot out of the gym by Ohio State. The way that it ended left a really sour taste, I know, in a lot of Hawkeye fans' mouths. But also remember what Fran McCaffrey has done with this program. In the

Starting point is 00:06:31 previous five seasons, they were an NCAA tournament team. Yes, no sweet 16s. Yes, only two victories in the NCAA tournament. One of those has a two seed one year. One has a 10 seed. I get it. There's been upsets, the frustration that comes with that. Frank, a coach, we can argue about the defense and what needs to improve and what needs to happen. But if Sanford comes back, they got a chance. And that is what we continue to see at this point in time. The workouts have not gone well for Peyton Sanford and the two scrimmage games that he has played didn't get a lot of opportunities. And when he did, he wasn't able to knock down shots.

Starting point is 00:07:06 That's a concern. You couple that with the measurables. We're not at a high level for him. You're left where we are. Sanford comes back. This is a tournament team. If not, I don't know what else is in the portal.

Starting point is 00:07:19 I need to do a little bit more shocking. We get a shopping. We continue here. Lockdown Hawkeyes. Time to hear from the Swarm CEO. He is Brad Heinrichs, who joins us as we will talk a little bit about what's happening in the Swarm

Starting point is 00:07:31 Collective, what you can do to help Iowa athletics and these student-athletes, and a whole lot more. We'll get into that as we continue Lockdown Hawkeyes. It's winner-take-all time in the NBA and NH NHL and FanDuel is giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet that's 150 bucks to bet on spreads money lines player futures, and a whole lot more. Just visit FanDuel.com slash LockedOn for your chance right now to get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet.

Starting point is 00:08:14 That's FanDuel.com slash LockedOn. And make every playoff shot count. FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. as number one sportsbook. Let's get Brad Heinrich in here from the Hawkeye Swarm. He's the face of it. Brad, my name's Ken Miller. My partner, Trent Condon.

Starting point is 00:08:36 Good to meet you, Brad. How are you? I'm doing great, guys. I'm actually doing some work for my real job down here in the Bahamas. And so it's nice to come into the air conditioning and talk to you guys. So let me start there. How do you get to do a real job in the Bahamas? That's a pretty sweet gig.

Starting point is 00:09:02 Yeah, we're doing a little bit of consulting surrounding the country's pension plan. I'm a pension actuary. Are you? Okay, nice. Well done. Well, it's good to have your background certainly going to come in handy with the swarm. I guess where I want to start with you is just, how much has it changed in its,

Starting point is 00:09:15 I mean, it's still relatively new, seemingly. How much has it changed? I mean, it seems like the dollar figures keep going up and up and up. Is that the biggest change? Or I guess from when you started to where we're at now, what's been the biggest change? I'd say, well, obviously the dollar figures going up has been a change. That was probably more of an expected change.

Starting point is 00:09:35 The other changes that have happened that have been significant are that, you know, it seemed as if we had a few rules when we started. But the rules that we did have were absolutely ridiculous. Like, for example, the rule was, okay, Brad, you're not allowed to incent a student athlete to come to the University of Iowa with NIL money. And furthermore, you're not allowed to incent a student athlete to stay at the university of Iowa with NIL money. And you think about how stupid that is. I try to get you guys to change jobs and I have to tell you, well, here's the deal. Um, I can't tell you how much I'm

Starting point is 00:10:21 going to pay until you tell you. Who does that, right? And so that was a rule that I scratched my head at, and most people, most collectives completely ignored. But it's difficult, right, when I've got Iowa compliance telling me here are the rules, and then... Gary Barta hanging over your head? Everybody else is breaking these rules, so that caused me a big sweat.

Starting point is 00:10:44 But since there have been some lawsuits against the NCAA, and in particular, I think the Tennessee case, there was an injunction that has basically wiped out some of these ridiculous rules. So now there really aren't any rules. What rules that we had are now gone um you know now it is it is truly the wild wild west but i i have a i have a i have some intel that the whole world may be changing in the next you know 30 days in terms of what the rules are so we'll see what happens but uh yeah it's uh it's a different kind of different kind of atmosphere of atmosphere than it was two years ago and certainly different than it was three, four, five years ago. Brad, is the endgame going to eventually become this is all handled in-house?

Starting point is 00:11:35 The athletic department will have their NIL and all these collectives across the country will go, I guess, in-houses. Is that the most likely scenario of how this eventually plays out? Or is there still going to be a spot for you guys with the swarm and being at a separate entity, if you will? I think the answer is both. I think that you're right in that this will be taken in-house to an extent. And I think that there'll be revenue sharing with the student-athletes. And each institution is going to get whatever revenue they get, whether it's from TV or donors or whatever else. And they're gonna decide how they want to, you know, they want to, uh, split it up and there'll be a, a salary cap, if you will, um, for, for each player or actually maybe not for each player, but for each program.

Starting point is 00:12:27 And so I see it going that way. However, there's still going to be a need for collectives or organizations that are out trying to help the student-athletes get deals on the side. I mean, you know, for the Caitlin Clarks of the world, for sure, right? I mean, she was the poster child for what NIL was supposed to be. I mean, she had every right to get paid by State Farm last year and Gatorade or Powerade or whichever one she picked and then Hy-Vee and Bose and Farmers, all these other organizations that use their name, image,

Starting point is 00:13:06 and likeness on commercials to market their products. So there's going to be a need for organizations like ours to help create opportunities for student athletes. But I also agree and believe that this will go in house probably in the next couple of years would be my best guess. Well, Caitlin Clark was the poster child for all things good. Caden Proctor would have been the poster child for what this is supposed to be. So how, how much did, did he hurt you perception wise?

Starting point is 00:13:40 Cause you know, there's people that gosh, darn it. I don't want to do this. My hard earned money, blah, blah, blah. Now I got to do, I paid darn it i don't want to do this my hard-earned money blah blah blah now i gotta do i paid the season tickets i gotta do this how much did proctor hurt you brad or not just you maybe collectives across the country well i i think that it it sort of gave some fuel to the fire that some people had that were the naysayers and believe that this whole nil thing is is ridiculous and these kids don't have any business making money, right? And, you know, so, you know, a guy gets paid to do a quick commercial, gets paid a bunch of money and then leaves. And obviously the organization that paid him, you know, didn't get any value out of the fact that they probably suffered as much as anybody, you know? Um, you know, but you're

Starting point is 00:14:32 right. I mean, there, there's, there are some people though that are looking for a reason not to give. Um, and that was a pretty good one for some, you know, to say, I am not giving any money. You got, you got these kinds of people that are just going to take my money and run. Turns out that there weren't any individuals that donated money that he got. He didn't get any Hawkeye fans money. He just got some corporate money. But, you know, if he just stuck around a little bit longer, he absolutely would have gotten some of that, you know. And so, yeah, he certainly gave the whole transfer portal and all that really a bad name.

Starting point is 00:15:14 And I think a lot of Iowans got pretty frustrated and disappointed in one of their fellow statesmen, I guess, that he would do what he did. Brad, the perception that I see out there, football going very good with the Swarm Collective, what they did, you guys worked to do in the portal a year ago and then this year keeping all those fifth and sixth year guys around, women's basketball, Lucy Olsen coming aboard, but it's the men's basketball that maybe is struggling the most

Starting point is 00:15:44 out of the most visible sports out there. Is that a fair characterization? And is it bad as times, I guess maybe social media makes it sound for men's basketball and what they can do in the portal? I don't think it's necessarily bad. I think that your characterization of football is right in that we've been very successful. In fact, I think if you ask Kirk Ference, he would tell you. In fact, I was with Kirk yesterday, and I asked him about his impressions

Starting point is 00:16:12 of our work in the transfer portal over the last couple years, and he says it's been a huge net positive for the program. So I know he believes that. I think that Lisa Bluter and now Jan Jensen would agree that it's been a positive for us as well, especially with the addition of Lucy coming. And by the way, I think she's still coming, just so you know. But with men's basketball, we got Kriki. Last year he was a good player.

Starting point is 00:16:42 And we've got a couple of guys coming in from the portal this year. You know, the, the, the hard part, the hard part that we have is that we've got works at our university that garner support. And we're not just a football school. We're not just a basketball school. You know, like there's some schools out there, like I'll give you, I'll give you an example. You know, in basketball, in the transfer portal,

Starting point is 00:17:09 we might be competing against Creighton for a player. And, you know, five years ago, you might say, you might say Creighton versus the Big Ten. Right. We got to have something over those guys, right? I mean, we're a bigger, badder organization, so to speak. But now with NIL, Creight organization, so to speak. But now, with NIL, Creighton

Starting point is 00:17:27 doesn't have football. So every dime that goes into the NIL program for Creighton is stockpiled to help them get to attract and retain basketball players. So you're going to see over the next few years, and you've already started to see it,

Starting point is 00:17:44 schools like Creighton, you know, looking pretty strong, Gonzaga, Xavier, Providence, St. John, all these Georgetown, these schools that don't have football, they're going to have a competitive advantage in the basketball landscape. Excellent point. So it's not that we're doing poorly with basketball. It's not that there's a crisis. Do I think, do I wish we were doing better?

Starting point is 00:18:11 Of course. I wish we were doing better with all of them. I mean, I've got, I want to compete against Ohio State. You know, I want to beat the big boys. I want to be a big boy. And so I've got very high expectations. But, you know, with, with, with basketball, there's just some, there's some sort of embedded challenges that, that exist that make it tougher

Starting point is 00:18:32 sledding for us than it does for some other schools. You mentioned Ohio state saw the report last week about the, you know, much is just coming out of the car or money's being invested in the quarterback room. Yeah. How about that? It's absolutely incredible. So who are the, the halves in the big 10 conference? I got to imagine Michigan and Penn state and Ohio state. Is there one that would surprise us that their collective is, is their, their war chest, if you will, is completely full, like competes with Ohio state.

Starting point is 00:19:04 Yeah. Our, our, our friends to the West. Oh, sure. Yeah. That makes sense. That's all they have. That's all they have. Nebraska has a war chest. Um, you know, they've got, they feel it seems like they've got money to burn over there. Um, and, and so, so they they i don't expect that that sleeping giant to be down for very long i hate to say that i hope that they i hope we continue to drop them in football and and and that never changes i just hope for that but i will tell

Starting point is 00:19:38 you that that is you know um if you're looking at dollars and cents, they're going to be difficult to ignore over the long term. They're one. Penn State is actually probably not as strong as you might think from an IL perspective. In fact, I think they lost a basketball coach to Notre Dame because their NIL program wasn't very strong. Ohio State, for sure. Michigan.

Starting point is 00:20:03 They do a good job. They're a little bit, I don't think their NIL program is as strong as their, their team seems to be at least with football, but it's, it's, you know, they've had a, they've had a really good run. So that, that helps. Right. So, you know, but there's schools like Indiana that, that for football really aren't that strong from an IL perspective, but gosh, for basketball, they, you know, they're, they're trying, they're a lot of their fans, um, want their resources to go towards basketball.

Starting point is 00:20:36 You know, there are traditional blue blood in basketball. Um, and you, and you're starting to see, you see that across the country. I mean, Kansas and basketball, not football. Indiana basketball. You know what I mean? And so you may see, as this continues to evolve, there's only so much money out there from fan bases. You may start to see schools really start to specialize in a particular sport.

Starting point is 00:21:01 That's just a guess. That's not necessarily a fact. But I'm starting to see that a little bit. All right, Brad, we have this perception of the way things are done, but it could be completely wrong. Take us, show us how the sausage is made here. Kirk wants a, a player out of the portal. There's a guy in the portal. There is mutual interest, but you guys get involved kind of how just take us through the steps of how this all goes when you're setting up like somebody from

Starting point is 00:21:30 the portal you're talking about a portal kid um you know it's it think of it like if one of you guys decided you think you may want to switch jobs. Okay. Um, you may have a recruiter help you, right? You may have a, I don't know if they've got recruiters for your line of work, but most, most places do have some sort of, you know, people that call them all the time and ask how happy you are. Right. Um, I like to call them headhunters, which is really sort of an ugly term, but, um, which is really sort of an ugly term. But in this case, these guys have agents and these agents will say, how happy are you? And they may say, well, I think I should be playing more. They need to throw me the ball more, whatever else. And how much are they paying? Obviously the agent knows. obviously the agent knows.

Starting point is 00:22:28 If the agent thinks that their player may be swayed, they'll start sending out feelers, right? And sometimes they'll call me. I'll be like, well, it's not even the portal. It's not worth talking about. But a lot of them are wondering. But then when the kid hits the portal, the agent may call me. The kid will find out, get my number. It's easy to find out, the agent may call me, the kid will find out, you know, get my number.

Starting point is 00:22:52 He's easy to find out. And so they'll call me usually not the kid. It's usually an agent that, that calls me. Um, you know, if there's, if, if both sides are singing Kumbaya together, um, meaning the player and the, and the, and the program, um, then, then it's really kind of up for me to make sure that both parties get what they want and that we can have equity in our roster because what I will tell you, which is somewhat unfortunate, unlike maybe the professional world where I may not know how much the person in the cube makes across from me or next to me these kids all talk so you know uh you got to be careful that you don't want to pay some kid more than the other kid who's who's clearly producing higher um because then they're then one kid becomes disgruntled you got to make sure sure that you do a really good job with your roster and making it equitable. And so I don't know if that gives you any insight,

Starting point is 00:23:50 but that's a lot of how it works. I mean, I do get involved in portal stuff usually towards the end. Now, there's also portal kids that where NIL doesn't matter or he or she knows that they're really not good. They're just a roster spot, so to speak. And they're not gonna, um, probably be able to demand a lot of money. They may not contact me at all, um, to find out what their opportunities are. And so you can get both,

Starting point is 00:24:19 both kinds, depending upon what type of kid we're talking about. Uh, Brad Heinrich, CEO of the Swarm Collective. My last thing for you, how has your life changed with Beth's guests now in charge of the athletic department? Oh, she's a breath of fresh air. I love Beth's guests. She is progressive, and that maybe sounds like it's bending upon who you are. That may scare some people off by saying that she's progressive. I would consider her to be very self-aware, not just of her actions, but also just what the college sports landscape is.

Starting point is 00:25:03 She knows how important NIL is. She knows that for us to be successful, football, basketball, or maybe even other sports, we've got to have a successful NIL program. And we only have one at Iowa, which is the Swarm. So she has gone to great lengths. She's come down to my house to meet with me in Florida. And not when it's cold in Iowa. She comes down when it's nice in Iowa. Humidity? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:25:35 To meet with me to see what she can do to help us. That's awesome. And that means a lot. I think she's going to be incredibly successful. We're very lucky to have her. And I'm very excited for what the future holds with her at the helm. Brad Heinrichs, the CEO of the Hawkeye Swarm, joining us here as we talk a little bit more about it.

Starting point is 00:25:57 You can find out more information about the Iowa Swarm, how you can get involved in every different direction. IowaSwarm.com is the website for that. And big thank you to Brad Heinrichs for joining us. We continue Iowa baseball here in Des Moines. We'll talk about what they need to do in the three-game set against Florida International from Principal Park and who's going to get the ball in game one.

Starting point is 00:26:18 Coming up this evening, down at the big ball field, we'll do that as we continue Locked on Hawkeyes. out at the big ball field. We'll do that as we continue Locked on Hawkeyes. Trent Conner back with you one final time on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked on Hawkeyes

Starting point is 00:26:34 your first listen every day. Hey, are you watching FS1 or ESPN all day long? You have to turn down the volume because all that shouting back and forth. Well, it's time for you to make the switch

Starting point is 00:26:44 to Locked On Sports Today. It's a free 24-7 sports streaming channel programmed for you every day. It's going to bring you the biggest stories without all that screaming. Locked On Sports Today brings you can't miss analysis, opinions, and news streaming 24-7 on YouTube or on the free Amazon Fire TV channels app. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Your team is the Hawkeyes, and we continue to break things down. Now, the series this weekend against Florida International in baseball

Starting point is 00:27:14 doesn't mean anything. Iowa is locked in with their record in the Big Ten. The RPI cannot improve enough for them to be an at-large team in the NCAA tournament. It's about getting your pitching rotation set, getting everything right, and you go from there. Brody Brecht gets the ball in game one. It'll be Cade Obermuller in game two, and then we'll see about Marcus Morgan and what has been, in many different ways, a very difficult season for him

Starting point is 00:27:38 and what that's going to mean. But with Brody Brecht, I don't anticipate you're going to see him up there, you know, approaching 100 pitches, anything like that. Get that pitch count pretty low, 60, 70. Try to rein it in. You go from there, and then get those bullpen arms a little bit of work. No midweek game this week. Their game against UIC was

Starting point is 00:27:56 canceled, so not a whole lot here. Hey, it's fun to have the Hawkeyes in Des Moines. I'm sure there's going to be a good crowd on hand, but it's all about next week in the Big Ten tournament and having this team peak at the right time. You're not going to kick the games away. You're not just going to say, yeah, we'll go out there and

Starting point is 00:28:11 put in a bunch of the bench guys. No, you want to have these guys sharp because the only way in a preseason top 20 team, the only way they're making the big dance is to win the Big Ten tournament. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We got one more coming your way this week. We got more on the portal,

Starting point is 00:28:28 the hiring of Jan Jensen. Her press conference ran out of time today. We will get into that tomorrow and a whole lot more get you set for the weekend. Maybe got a little mowing on the agenda. You can have me in your ears. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:28:41 We'll talk to you again tomorrow. And go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hoops adds another player from the portal, Hawkeye Swarm CEO Brad Heinrichs joins

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