Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hoops: Why the UConn matchup is personal for Caitlin Clark, Payton Sandfort Declares for NBA

Starting point is 00:00:00 it's the Iowa Hawkeyes and Yukon in the women's final four coming up on Friday evening. And for this one, it's personal for Caitlin Clark. We explain today, locked on Hawkeyes. You are locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Starting point is 00:00:19 Part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Hey, 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. You can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, make sure you hit that subscribe button.

Starting point is 00:00:51 Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Well, the stage is set for the Final Four. Iowa back for the second consecutive year in third season all time. And what awaits? The behemoth that has been women's college basketball and the gold standard for the last three decades plus? It is the Connecticut Huskies. UConn comes in to this one. A win in the Elite Eight, punching their ticket in as a number three seed, beating USC.

Starting point is 00:01:17 Though top seeded, UConn was favored in that game. And we're going to talk more throughout this week about the matchup. But today, a conversation about Kaitlyn Clark and this matchup. And we know the greats, right? They're looking for that edge. They're looking for any little piece of motivation that they can find. And it's what separates the elite, the uber elite athletes from everybody else. One of many things, the athletic ability is a component there, but also the drive, the

Starting point is 00:01:43 passion, the things that go much deeper than just the surface level that they have. And it's very difficult to equate. It's very difficult to understand why, but they are just wired in a different way than normal people like you and I. And yes, we're talking about somebody that is abnormal in a good way in Kaitlyn Clark. And now it's Connecticut. So before we get deep into the story, Gino Auriemma, the UConn program, her opponent on the floor coming up on Friday night in Page Becker's, I want to relay a story I heard years and years ago. This is when Kaitlyn was still a high schooler. I was calling one of her games on radio and before the game was talking to a Dowling family member. And they had mentioned that Gina Wariema had seen her play,

Starting point is 00:02:29 but didn't stay for the whole game. Now, I'd never heard if this was an actual high school game or if this was an AAU event, but Gina saw her play. And at halftime, in a game that Kaitlyn was struggling in, Kaitlyn was turning the ball over, was becoming demonstrative and frustrated with her teammates, something that we've seen plenty of times before. And I saw a whole bunch at the high school level when I was calling her games. You'd see that, which isn't a surprise. And if you saw her, you saw that happen quite often. But

Starting point is 00:03:00 the way the story went to me and the way it was relayed to me was Gino got up, walked out of the gym, and said, I'm not watching this blank anymore. Now, again, this is just a story. This is a story I heard. I don't know the validity behind it. I don't know the truthfulness of it. It's a hell of a story, though, isn't it?

Starting point is 00:03:21 And if it is true, that kind of motivation. Look, if somebody relayed it to me and it is true, that kind of motivation. Look, if somebody relayed it to me and it is real, you definitely knew it got to Kaitlyn Clark. Now we're talking about something that happened now six, seven years ago. This is before Kaitlyn's even senior year and before she was awaiting the decision. But it's been fun to watch the backtracking from Gino Auriemma and how suddenly he goes from just a week ago talking about Paige Becker being the best player in the country to suddenly now knowing what is in front of him, backtracking those comments. So a couple of things here.

Starting point is 00:03:58 Now, Caitlin Clark in the ESPN article by Wright Thompson. If you haven't read it yet, it's an incredible piece. She talks a little bit about her recruitment in high school. And it came down to Iowa and Notre Dame. Those were her two finalists. Heard the story many times before that she was going to go to Notre Dame. Most everybody believed she was going to Notre Dame.

Starting point is 00:04:22 The story details that and goes in. But ultimately, Kaitlyn made the choice to go to Iowa. Now, were the reasons behind that? The reasons, at least the way they're laid out in the article, were she wanted to pave her own path. I mean, you look at Notre Dame at that time. We talk about Connecticut and how great they were. But Buffett McGraw had that Notre

Starting point is 00:04:45 Dame program running. They played in the national championship game five out of eight years. They were in the championship game. Think of that. So this is the run that they were coming on during her formative years. NCAA runner-up, NCAA runner-up, NCAA runner-up, Sweet 16, Elite Eight, NCAA champions, NCAA runner-up. That's going into Kaitlyn's senior year. That is what Notre Dame was. And she said, no, not only that, if you are from me, like me in Central Iowa, you know the power of Dowling Catholic

Starting point is 00:05:20 and the pull of Notre Dame. Something, growing up Irish Catholic up in North Iowa, I understood the allure of Notre Dame. Look, I'm Irish Catholic and I of Notre Dame. Something, growing up Irish Catholic up in North Iowa, I understood the allure of Notre Dame. Look, I'm Irish Catholic and I hate Notre Dame. All right. And my uncle gets mad at me for it, but I just do. Different, different conversations. But the allure is strong. And living here in West Des Moines, I know that, knowing families in the Dowling community, that pull is real. As Caitlin talked about in the article, the pull of Notre Dame was real. But I think more, the pull was UConn. She's talked about Maya Moore. You talk about Diana Taurasi. You talk about the greatness and another great loaded

Starting point is 00:05:59 roster here. And you can understand that. So she says no to Notre Dame. She decides to go to Iowa, but the motivation is still there about Connecticut. Gino saying no thanks. Speaking of some comments that are odd, right? Just a little bit different from Gino Auriemma. He said this, quote, Caitlin is obviously a tremendous player, a generational player, but if Caitlin really wanted to come to UConn, she would have called me and said, coach, I really want to come to UConn. Neither of us lost out. She made the best decision for her and it's worked out great. We made the decision we thought we needed to make. Come on, coach, that's garbage. Look, if every girl that wants to play at Connecticut is going to give you a call,

Starting point is 00:06:44 guess what? You're never going to give you a call, guess what? You're never going to be off the phone. That's not how this works. You're the adult. We're talking about a 14, 15, 16 year old girl. And she's just going to pick up the phone, call Gino Auriemma and say, coach, I want to come here. And that is absolutely not how this works. Gino's been around way too long. He is being absolutely no doubt about it. way too long. He is being absolutely no doubt about it, untruthful about this. That's not how this works. If she really wanted to come to UConn, pick up the phone. Are you in the phone book, Jano? Come on. It's garbage. I mean, it's got to be better than that. Your story's got to be better than that. And that's not alone. We got more here. We got more ammunition and more fuel for the fire and most importantly, fuel for Caitlin Clark. And these, these are the moments,

Starting point is 00:07:30 as Michael Jordan said, I took that personal. We got more of those stories, more coming up here, more from Gina walking things back as we get ready for Iowa Yukon coming up on Friday evening. It'll be the late game after NC State, South Carolina, the women's Final Four. We are just a couple of days away and so fired up for it. We got more for you. Breaking things down and the motivation for Kaitlin Clark against Yukon as we come back. This is Locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by Fire TV.

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Starting point is 00:09:16 That's Amazon.com slash LockedOnFireTV. Trent Conner back with you once again on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We continue with the motivation and the matchup against UConn. Another angle about this, Gino Auriemma talking about his decision not to recruit Kaitlyn Clark. And at the time, UConn is riding high, as we talked about the Notre Dame program that were one of our finalists and the allure of that one. Would this have been different? Possibly. But you get into the other point guard on the roster and the guard coming out of that time at Paige Beckers. Paige Beckers was clearly most everybody's

Starting point is 00:10:02 number one player in the country. There was no doubt at the high school level, and talking to a lot of people in the grassroots basketball environment that I've got to know over the years, that it was never a concern about talent with Kaitlyn Clark. And when you're talking about raw talent, there might have been even a tick higher than Paige Beckers. Paige Beckers, a more well-rounded player than Kaitlyn Clark at that time. But ultimately, Gino, with what he's built, what he has, a roster this year with seven

Starting point is 00:10:29 McDonald's All-Americans and pretty much yearly on that same kind of front, that he could pick and choose in a different way. But another thing that he said, talking about the decision to not go and to not recruit Kaitlyn Clark. Because he had a Paige Beckers. And because of that, he didn't want to, I guess, in a way, rock the boat, right? You could play those two players together. That's laughable. Defensively, Paige Beckers can guard one through four.

Starting point is 00:11:00 She's a great facilitator, a great playmaker. She can do so many different things. And to think that those two can't play in the same backcourt is silly. I mean, it's just another one of those things that it just feels like we're blurring the truth here for whatever reason. The reason is simple. He's scared of Kaitlyn Clark, and he should be. Now, there's not a doubt in my mind that G Gina Auriemma is going to come up with a great game plan,

Starting point is 00:11:28 that he is going to do things that make it incredibly difficult. We know Kaitlyn Clark. He watched her throughout her career. What is she at her best? Well, it's jumping and coming off screens, not to her right, not to her dominant hand. It's going to her left. I anticipate they're going to do some things, hedging out hard on the left side and try to take that away. Take away her ability to move left off the shot, off the bounce, off the pass. That's what she wants to do. And in fact, you see, I would say 75, 80% of the time she's moving left with her shot, not right, which is different than most any college

Starting point is 00:11:59 basketball player at the women's level. The other part is obviously her ability to go right then if you do try to cover up that left side. They're going to do a lot. I think this is going to be a game much like the Colorado game for Iowa, that it's going to be that facilitator role. That's going to be a big piece of this. Iowa's going to want to dictate pace. They're going to want to do that at that level. And I think Geno's going to try to slow this game down. He's going to do it because you have a team that is not deep. They're basically going six deep, maybe seven, if you want to stretch things a little bit, but that's all it is at this point in time. So he's going to come up with a game plan to slow things down, take away some of the strengths that

Starting point is 00:12:37 she has. And he has a player defensively in Beckers that is able to do that and got a number of other players that they can throw out. Again, we're going to break this game down a little bit later, but there are just some nuggets in here that I find very interesting. Caitlin Clark, number four player in the country in the 2020 class and a lot of conversation about that. Clark said this about UConn also in that ESPN article. I loved UConn. I think they're the coolest place on earth and I wanted to say I got recruited by them. They called my AU coach a few times, but they never talked to my family, never talked to me, unquote.

Starting point is 00:13:13 Continuing on with this one. So after he called Paige Beckers, the best player in the country a week ago, at least he was honest with this part, right? Gina Auriemma said, I don't need to be seeing her drop 50 on us next weekend. I love her. I think she's the best player. Forget what I ever said. Paige was the best player in the country. I think she's the best player of all time. Oh boy. I mean, right. We've all been there, right? You've all been caught. You say something,

Starting point is 00:13:41 maybe it's outlandish. Maybe it's to prop up you, a family member, something like that in the sporting world, a teammate, a player of yours, whatever it may be. You fall into that and then all of a sudden you look. Oh, boy, this is going to be different. It absolutely is. And we see that from Gito Auriemma. And I took it personally. MJ said it in the last dance doc. We'll see if Caitlin's got that one. A little bit more to the story. And that is the numbers that are out now from the women's

Starting point is 00:14:11 final four. We got that coming up for you as we continue here, lockdown Hawkeyes. The numbers are through the roof and it should come as absolutely no surprise. I thought the number was going to be big, but when you're talking about a television record, a TV record in an Elite Eight game, it was Monday night, a place where you get good numbers, like the Football National Championship, Football Men's Basketball Championship. They play those games on Monday nights for a reason.

Starting point is 00:14:40 Monday night football became a thing over the last five decades for a reason. Monday night's a good viewing night. But this, absolutely incredible. After getting 9.9 million viewers for the National Championship game on ABC, now you're looking at numbers over 12 million for an Elite Eight contest. How high can the star go? What are we going to see on Friday night? What would we see if we do get South Carolina-Iowa part two in the national championship game? We know it's coming to an end. At best, we only get to see Kaitlyn Clark play two more times. At worst, it'll end up Friday evening. It's not just about us Hawkeye fans.

Starting point is 00:15:29 She is transcendent. She is generational. She is unlike anything that we have ever seen before. And with that, people are tuning in. It's great for the sport. And the sport has seen huge increases in the numbers as well. Some of the most amazing numbers. The Elite Eight, up 127% from a year ago,

Starting point is 00:15:50 when it was ascending from what it was. The Elite Eight alone averaged 6.2 million viewers, up 184% year over year, according to ESPN. More and more of those numbers that continue to go up. A 12.3 million people watching the Elite Eight matchup with Iowa and LSU. More viewership than four of the five NBA Finals games, more than the World Series garnered throughout its season. It peaked at over 16 million people, making it ESPN's second highest audience ever for a basketball game in the last dozen years.

Starting point is 00:16:26 It's amazing. And we get to see it. We are witnesses and we are enjoying it. There's much more going on in the world of Hawkeyes, but we will continue to break this thing down in all different angles. We will get deeper into the game coming up. And of course, a full preview for you leading into the game on Friday,

Starting point is 00:16:44 right here on Locked On Hawkeyes. As we continue Locked On Hawkeyes, a few news and notes from the men's side of things. Also, a potential nugget and the future of Iowa women's basketball and what it would look like. We'll talk about that as we continue. This is Locked On Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. The sports calendar, it is absolutely loaded right now. And FanDuel is making it even more exciting to get in on the action. Because right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet.

Starting point is 00:17:20 That's $200 you can use to bet the tourney, MLB, NBA, NHL, and a whole lot more. Simple as that. Hit that bet. $5 bet. That's $200 you can use to bet the tourney, MLB, NBA, NHL, and a whole lot more. Simple as that. Hit that bet, $5 bet, turn it into $200 at FanDuel. Just visit FanDuel.com slash locked on and make your first bet a big win. That's FanDuel.com slash locked on. FanDuel, America's number one sports book. Try kind of back with you one final time today on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. All right. Yeah, there's other things going on in the world of Hawkeye athletics, and it's crazy. I mean, spring football.

Starting point is 00:18:01 We're in April, right? April's normally the time basketball's over. We have moved on. We're talking about next season. We're getting into portal season, transfers, all those things. And we're doing that, just not at the same level. Spring football is here. We know that football generates so much interest.

Starting point is 00:18:21 And Hawkeye football, it sells. We talk Hawkeye football all year long. We do it because we love it. We love it because you love it. And absolutely we do that throughout the course of the year, but it is, it has been pushed back so far this season. We have the intrigue of new offensive coordinator. Is it actually going to look different? The health of Cade McNamara coming back with the craziness that happened with Caden Proctor being around for two months and then going back and making his way likely to Alabama. We have all of those things going on, yet Kaitlin Clark and this Iowa Hawkeye basketball team has completely changed what we've talked about and what we have done. We saw the rise here on the podcast feed a year ago. More and more people were checking in more

Starting point is 00:19:02 and more as we talked about women's basketball, and it was great to be able to do that because I've been a champion of women's basketball and girls basketball at the high school level for a very long time I've had a close connection to the Iowa women's basketball program for a number of years and because of that I have always watched the sport always enjoyed the sport and watching a lot more I know than a lot of people out there I'm not at the top of the level I'm not a first percenter by any means, but I've always enjoyed the sport and just love to see what it's morphed into and what it's turned into, which has been so good to see. But because of that, we have forgot about a few of the other things out there, including Iowa football. One thing on the Iowa football front, we're going to talk a little recruiting.

Starting point is 00:19:42 We got Brian coming in tomorrow. We'll do a little bit more about that. What I was kind of looking at as they get ready spring practice, this is welcoming in a lot of players. They'll have their big camp coming up and with it, their big recruiting day coming up in June. That's going to be a big one for them as they try to get the class of 2025 set up. And we're going to talk one final time about the incoming freshman class a little bit with Brian coming up on tomorrow's podcast. But I got one little nugget, and it's just that. It is a very small one about the implementation of the offense. The Perks love it. They absolutely do. I mean, everybody has bought in, which isn't difficult after the struggles the last couple of years. Look, those offensive players were as frustrated as anybody.

Starting point is 00:20:27 I mean, going through that, you have to be. You know your defense is picking you up. For the most part, the special teams is picking you up, and you're not able to help out at that level. You can definitely see and definitely own what we've been seeing on this front. It has been absolutely incredible, though the buy-in factor that I've heard from a number of the players, the guys that you want, they're excited. They believe that they can make

Starting point is 00:20:49 a big jump this season, that they're going to make a big leap forward, and this is going to be improvement. There have been some rough patches. There's been some things along the line, and with that, I'm going to anticipate probably the practice piece of that is a piece, but that is a component certainly of this. So that's what's happening on that front. And as we get more football information, we'll definitely start to pile it in and continue to talk about it here. Let's go over to men's basketball.

Starting point is 00:21:15 So yesterday, the announcement that Peyton Sanford has declared for the NBA draft. Now he will maintain his college eligibility. This is something that shouldn't come as a surprise. If you're a daily listener, thank you to our everydayers out there for listening to Locked On Hawkeyes. We've talked about this. We've anticipated this, much like we anticipated Tony Perkins entering the transfer portal, Patrick McCaffrey entering the transfer portal.

Starting point is 00:21:38 Really, none of this should come as a surprise. That's why you need to be a listener every day. Hit subscribe right now. Five stars on your YouTube. And that's what we're looking for on the podcast side of things as well. But there you go. Gave you the moment. Do it. Thank you. So with Sanford. Now, here's the concerning angle because we've seen this before. And the guys that do this maintain their college eligibility, going to come back. And it feels like he is going to come back, right? That Sanford still has work to do.

Starting point is 00:22:08 A great shooter when he's hot, little inconsistent, more inconsistent than you'd hope for a guy that is as elite as he is. Does he hunt shots a little bit? He does, but that's fine. I mean, absolutely. He's got a quick trigger. You know, the difference for me between him and a guy that we just seen recently,

Starting point is 00:22:26 like Joe Wieskamp, who hasn't played at all this year in the NBA. I played nine games a season before, played about 20 games in his rookie campaign with the Spurs, was with the Raptors last season. Now, I believe he's in the Celtics organization in their G League affiliate. But with all that,

Starting point is 00:22:43 you most definitely are left with looking at the comparison between the two guys. The biggest difference, Wieskamp was a better athlete. I mean, speed, athleticism, side-to-side movement, even jumping ability. Wieskamp had the Sanford beat. But Joe Wieskamp isn't going to play in the league because of his athleticism. It gives him a shot. The way that he's going to carve out a role is shooting. And he hasn't shot it real well when the opportunities have presented themselves at the NBA level.

Starting point is 00:23:16 The other part of it, he doesn't have a quick shot. And that's one thing that Peyton Sanford absolutely has. One of the quickest releases that you're going to find in basketball. And that gives him an opportunity. That gives him a shot. I believe there's going to be teams that will be enamored by that, believing that they can do things. He was a leading rebounder for this team. And even with his lack of elite level athleticism, he is a guy that can rebound well.

Starting point is 00:23:41 He can try hard, bad defensively, but you can improve on that. We've seen guys definitely do that at the level. He's never going to be, even I don't think, a good defender because of foot speed, but he can be adequate. He busts his ass. He tries really hard. And here's the most concerning part to me

Starting point is 00:23:58 about the potential that he decides to stay in the draft. This is a brutal draft. There are people out there in NBA circles. This is going to be one of the worst drafts in the last 25 years. And because of that, suddenly you're looking for maybe a specific type. And it could be somebody as simple as saying,

Starting point is 00:24:14 yeah, let's take a second rounder on this kid that's an elite shooter, that has a quick release that we believe at minimum is going to be able to get his shot off in the NBA and we'll take a shot. And we'll see if we can do some work of improving the defense and improving the athleticism and put in the work there and make it happen. You know Sanford's going to bust his butt to make it happen.

Starting point is 00:24:33 I could see it happening. And what is it going to take for him to keep his name in the draft? Likely a two-way contract. Likely you're going to see him sitting there and saying, all right, if we're going to make this work, if we're actually going to do this, I need to have some guarantees on my end. That is the concern. Ultimately, I don't believe it'll happen. I think he'll come back. He'll get the evaluation from the NBA circles and then come back for his final season in a Hawkeye uniform. And one more opportunity to play with his brother. One more chance. I think Price is going to be

Starting point is 00:25:01 an even bigger part of the rotation next season. And we will see him one more year. I think Price is going to be an even bigger part of the rotation next season. And we will see him one more year. But just remember, it can happen. And it just takes one, right? It just takes one team to say, we love it. We want it. We're going to do it. One other note on the transfer portal and what's happening.

Starting point is 00:25:24 There's some talk about the portal. We see some names that Iowa's been involved with or at least contacting. If you follow along on social media, you've seen some of those, but not a ton at this point in time. However, one aspect on the women's front, had David Eichel from HawkeyeInsider.com 24-7 Sports, and he mentioned to me on the radio show, would have been Tuesday of this week, that Iowa has their sights set on the women's side of things on a point guard likely is going to come in and be the starter for next season.

Starting point is 00:25:52 Didn't get a name. If I knew a name, as you know, I would definitely pass along, but just something to keep an eye on. Now there's bigger fish to fry right now for the Iowa women's basketball team and what they have in front of them. But at minimum on that one, pretty intriguing.

Starting point is 00:26:07 We got an intriguing game coming up here on Friday evening. Looking forward to it, Iowa and UConn. Hey, also want to let you know, watch an FS1, Fox Sports, ESPN all day on your TV. Do you have to turn down the volume because of all the shouting? Make the switch to Locked On Sports today. It's a free 24-7 sports streaming channel programmed to you every single day, bringing you the biggest stories

Starting point is 00:26:29 without all that screaming. Locked On Sports Today brings you can't-miss analysis, opinions, and news, all streaming 24-7 on YouTube, or you can find it on the free Amazon Fire TV channels app. Part of Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. That's what we do here on the network. We got you covered on the Hawkeye side of things. More football, more women's basketball coming up in the next couple of days.

Starting point is 00:26:53 Boy, it's been just three days in between games from Monday to Friday this week, but it almost feels like they're dragging on. I am ready for it. I know you are as well. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hoops: Why the UConn matchup is personal for Caitlin Clark, Payton Sandfort Declares for NBA

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