Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa is in the Elite Eight! | Did Jordan Bohannon really steal a rug? | Reactions to Baylor's Kim Mulkey's terrible press conference

Episode Date: April 1, 2019

The women's Iowa basketball team has advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1993, and they have a game tonight against the top seeded Baylor Bears for an opportunity to head to the Final Four. We give a quick breakdown of each of these teams and what they bring to tonight's game before giving our weekly Hawkeye sports roundup in segment number two. To wrap up we give our reactions to the Iowa and Baylor press conferences before discussing Jordan Bohannon's twitter controversy this week when he posted a picture of a stolen March Madness rug and "threatened" the NCAA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Locked On Sports Network, hosted by Andrew Wade, editor at dearoldgold.com. Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, and we are excited to be back for another exciting episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. If you didn't get a chance to check out a lot of our episodes from last week, we had some guests come on the show, talk a little bit about the men's basketball team,

what to expect from this team next year. We also had Bryce Gaggs, a runner-up at the 160 weight class and Class 3A of Iowa High School Wrestling. He came on to talk to us about the Iowa's wrestling team and kind of what their performance this season meant to the team and kind of how that impacts them overall. What does it mean for next year? Because this team has a lot of talent.

They can really do a lot of damage next year with how much talent they are returning. So we had him come on the show for Thursday. Didn't get a show out to you Friday. Dealing with a little bit of a sickness still. Trying to get over that as much as I can. But we are back this week. And today we have a lot of stuff to cover. Specifically, we want to talk about the women's basketball team. They had an incredible performance against NC State on Saturday, kicking the crap out of them.

That brought them into the Elite Eight for the first time since 1993. So pretty awesome stuff all around. Super excited to watch the women tonight play against Baylor. We're going to be talking about that on the show today. On segment number two, we're going to be doing a Hawkeye Sports Roundup, giving you the coverage of all the other sports that are kind of going on, some of the sports we don't talk about as much, right? So gymnastics, baseball, softball, track.

We'll talk a little bit about those on segment number two. And segment number three is going to be sort of a hodgepodge. We're going to be talking a little bit about the press conference between Iowa and Baylor. We're going to be talking about the bit about the press conference between Iowa and Baylor. We're going to be talking about the Jordan Bohannon rug situation. So those are some of the things that we're going to be talking about on segment number three. So stay tuned for all those. Also this week, we have a special guest coming on the show on Thursday, I believe.

We'll actually have it posted on Friday morning. We have a guest coming on the show talking a little bit about traveling to these games, how to get to some of these games cheap. It's a little bit different than what we typically post for the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, but thought it'd be kind of fun kind of getting the spirit of, you know, how do we get to these big games? How do we get to Florida for the annual Hawkeye Bowl game? You know, how do we do these kind of things? What can you do as a Hawkeye fan to make it a much more realistic possibility the next time there's a big opportunity to travel to an awesome away game. We also have an exciting recruit from the class of 2020 coming on the show. I'm trying to lock down a time to schedule that with him,

but looking to get him on the show either later this week or early next week. So we'll be teasing a little bit more of that information as we get closer to the time. Obviously want to make sure that you all get a chance to see that. So anyways, we are going to jump right into it though. Just a quick reminder, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And if you have a smart speaker home, give this a whirl. Try listening to the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast by just saying, Give this a whirl. Try listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast by just saying, Hey, Google, Siri, Alexa, play podcast Locked On Hawkeyes.

It's that easy to listen to the latest episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast at any moment's notice. I used my Amazon show the other day while I was cooking to listen to my favorite Locked On podcast, the Locked On NFL Draft, and also the Locked On Broncos with Cordy Rourke and Cameron Parker. Super easy. All I said was, hey, Alexa, play podcast Locked On Broncos. And they popped right up with the most recent episode. So make sure you're tuning in to that as well. Let's jump into it, though, with segment number one.

The women are taking on Baylor this week. And by this week, I mean tonight. The game is happening tonight on ESPN at 6 p.m. Central Time. And it is arguably the biggest game in women's basketball history, or at least the biggest game in my lifetime, having watched the Iowa women's basketball team. So super excited for tonight. It's going to be an incredibly tough game. I think people need to realize just how good Baylor is. They deserve respect for how good of a team they are because they are the best team in the nation for a reason. They have one loss this season and that was against Stanford, another top team. There's a reason why Baylor is the number one overall seed

in the NCAA tournament. That being said though, what I saw from the women against NC State really got me excited and made me think there is a really good chance they could take on Baylor. What Baylor possesses is obviously, you know, an elite offense. They have a very tall team, all right? Very tall. So Megan Gustafson is going to be giving up four to five inches against, you know, the center she's going to be playing against, which is kind of absurd to be completely honest. That's Kalani Brown. She's another Lisa Leslie award finalist. So another very strong center. This past weekend, Megan Gustafson was taking on NC State's freshman center, who is going

to be rising throughout the ranks over the next couple of years. But she did a really good job of dominating her throughout the game, despite being a little bit undersized against her. And that's kind of been the story for Megan Gustafson throughout the season. I mean, she's only 6'3 as a center. That's still pretty tall, but usually she's giving up an inch or two. But she's incredibly quick and great at shooting the ball at all sorts of angles. But against NC State, what I really liked was how engaged the women were defensively.

Their hands were always up. They were always out. They were always contesting every single shot. And they did a fantastic job of not getting in foul trouble. Whenever a player would go up, they were so technically sound. I've watched a lot of women's basketball games this year, but I didn't really notice it until the NC State game, where it was just absolutely incredible.

I mean, every time NC State would drive, Iowa wasn't trying to block the shot. They just got in their way and wouldn't move. incredible. I mean, every time NC State would drive, Iowa wasn't trying to block the shot. They just got in their way and wouldn't move. And I thought that was just such technically sound defense against a team like Baylor, who has such a strong offensive presence. That'll be huge. They're going to get in their face. They're going to get in their way. And hopefully, they can slow down that Baylor Bears offense. And the Baylor Bears have really made quick work of their opponents in the NCAA tournament so far. I mean, Iowa, outside of the

Mercer game, they've done a pretty good job beating NC State and beating Missouri by double digits both games. Baylor has kicked the crap out of their team. So they beat Abilene Christian 95-38 in their round of 64 matchup. They outscored them 26-3 in the first quarter.

And pretty ridiculous. Baylor was just kind of going off. I mean, they didn't really shoot many threes. They went 9-13. They shot just under 50% from the field, led by Kalani Brown, 17 points, 11 boards, and 2 blocks. And then we also had Juicy Landrum with 14 points and six boards followed up by nalisa smith with 14 points and 10 rebounds so this seems very strong obviously kicked the crap out of abilene christian they then went on to beat the crap out of cal in the round of 32 games a strong cal team they beat them 102 to 63 and and the first quarter looked like it was gonna be solid game and then baylor just turned on the jets beating them beating them 27-11 and 33-13 in the second and third quarters.

This game, you know, led again, or not really led again, but led by Juicy Landrum, 20 points. Chloe Jackson, 18 points. Kalani Brown didn't have as good of a game. She only shot 3 of 7, had 8 points and 8 boards. So, again, very strong team performance from Baylor there. And then finally, in the

Sweet 16, they kicked the crap out of 4-seeded South Carolina, 93 to 68, getting out to a 24 to 11 head start, and then beating them 25 to 12 in the second quarter. That was a pretty easy way to get that win, and South Carolina's not a bad team. I mean, you could tell a difference, though, between those two teams.

Obviously, Baylor just destroying them. And this game again, D.D. Richards, 11 of 14, 25 points. Kalani Brown, 9 of 20 for 18 points. Lauren Cox, 4 of 9 for 17 points. Brown had 10 rebounds. Cox had 14. What I think is most impressive about this, though, is the fact that I've listed off three games in the NCAA tournament

and you've heard six different names of leading scorers. And that's what Baylor can do. They're a very strong team. They can score from anywhere on the court. They have the size to be able to create huge mismatches against teams. Kalani Brown is 6'7", senior.

Lauren Cox is 6'4". For context, Megan Gustafson is 6'3", and she's the tallest player there. Then you follow by Hannah Stewart, I believe, at 6'. So, definitely going to be giving up some size, but I do like the ability that Iowa potentially has in terms of athleticism here.

Megan Gustafson is a hard worker, a tireless worker, and she could possibly get some of these players in foul trouble because she's really able to manipulate her shot and get those good shots off. Also, what she does and what Iowa does really well is that inside-out game, getting it into Gustafson and letting her pop it back to one of her lethal three-point shooters. Baylor's defense, though, is something that also isn't to be messed with. I mean, their defense is one of the tops of the nation. They

haven't allowed a team to shoot over 50% this entire season. So again, it's not going to be messed with. I mean, their defense is one of the tops in the nation. They haven't allowed a team to shoot over 50% this entire season. So, again, it's not going to be an easy matchup. It's going to be the toughest game Iowa has had their entire season. They are going to need to play an A to an A-plus game to make it to the Final Four. But that's what you need to do when you get to the NCAA tournament. You need to put on your best performances, and Iowa has been doing that.

Can they keep this run up? I think they can. I mean, I'm not going to go out on a limb and say they're favored in this game by any means. It would be an upset just because of how good Baylor is. But there is an opportunity here. Iowa's playing some of their best basketball. They're playing great team basketball. It's not just going through Gustafson.

Yes, the offense is driven through her. But at the same time, her success is not always guaranteed to have Iowa success. That team has done a great job of kind of supporting her as well. And that's something that, you know, we'll talk a little more about this in segment number three, but a lot of people are pretty riled up about Baylor's press conference and what they were saying about Iowa and stuff. But one thing I did know from that press conference is they give a lot of respect to the entire team. You know, they didn't really touch on megan gossett's in a lot and i think you know for whatever reason they might be a little bit frustrated by the attention she's getting in this tournament but at the same

time they did compliment the entire team a lot so they don't they are not taking this team for granted they are they are ready for this game and that'll make for a really good matchup tonight on espn at 6 p.m central time we're going to talk a little bit more about the press conference on segment number three. We're going to jump into segment number two, though, here in a few seconds, where we're going to be talking about all the other Hawkeye sports. So stay tuned for that after a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back with segment number two. Wanted to give you a full rundown of Hawkeye Athletics.

Obviously, haven't been able to do this the last two weeks with NCAA basketball going on, wrestling going on. Wanted to cover all those sports a little bit more in depth. But now we have some opportunity, we have some time on the shows to go back into this and get you some of that coverage that you may be missing from other areas. So to begin, baseball got a huge sweep this week beating Indiana. Sorry, yeah, got a huge sweep this week beating Indiana. Sorry, yeah, got a huge sweep this week beating Illinois.

Last week they got swept by Indiana. So good for them to get back on that winning streak. They beat Bradley on Tuesday. They had three games where they beat Illinois. A ranked Illinois team to move to 15-10. Connor McCaffrey right back in that lineup. Started all three games of the three-game sweep. Went 3-10 with two walks.

Again, this is something to track. Let's be honest here. He's a very, very good baseball player. He's starting for a pretty good Iowa baseball team, and he's the cleanup hitter. So this kid is killing it right now. His success on the diamond could potentially cause him to maybe not come back to basketball. So it's something to be tracking and that we're going to be monitoring over the coming months as well. I'm sure he's had conversations with his dad about this as well.

But baseball team has a chance to take on Grandview tomorrow. They take on Illinois State on Wednesday. And then they host a three-game series against Rutgers over the weekend. So maybe an opportunity to move to 20-10 by the end of this week, which would be fantastic. Men's gymnastics, big 10 championships are this weekend in Iowa city. If you're in the area, make sure to check that out.

We have a very strong gymnastics program, men's swimming and diving. Their season has concluded. They sent two divers to the NCAA championships, Anton Horitz and Will Brenner. Horitz finished 40th with a score of 250.40, and Brenner finished 44th with a score of 227.05. That actually concludes Brenner's career. He is a senior, so that was his last meet as an Iowa Hawkeye. Men's tennis, they dropped two over the weekend, one to Northwestern losing 1-6,

and two, number 14, Illinois, going 1-5. They are now 12-6, and they're getting ready to take on Penn State Friday and Ohio State on Sunday. Both of those matchups are on the road. Men's track team and the women's track team are heading to Tempe, Arizona for the Sun Angel Invite this week, so wish them luck there. And women's gymnastics finished 6th at the Big Ten Championships. They now have the NCAA Regionals coming up this weekend

that will obviously not be in Iowa City. And then softball had a pretty rough week. They lost four games, including a three-game sweep by Northwestern. They take on UNI this week before a three-game series in Madison against the Wisconsin Badgers. They are now currently riding that line at.500. They are sitting at.15 and.15, so hopefully get a little bit over.500 at the conclusion of this week. And then finally, women's tennis, they snapped a losing streak this weekend. They've been losing quite a few matches

as of late. They got a big win against Purdue and Indiana, both in Iowa City this weekend. So good for them to get back on that winning track. And that'll do it though for our Hawkeye Sports Roundup. That is our conclusion of segment number two. After a few messages from our sponsors, we're going to be back on segment number three, talking about some of the press conference type of stuff and talking about Jordan Bohannon's rung. So make sure to tune into that in just a few moments

after a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back with segment number three, our final segment of today's Monday morning show. Again, sorry I'm getting this out a little bit late. Had a busy weekend trying to deal with sickness, had some friends in town, all of that fun stuff. So trying to get this out so you can listen to this before tonight's huge game as Iowa takes on Baylor.

And I want to talk about the press conference because I've seen a lot of negative reactions from Iowa fans about Baylor's kind of lack of concern for Iowa. It seems like I saw someone say something about how basically they compared Iowa to a high school team. I don't believe that's true. I actually just read through the entire transcript and I never saw anything of the sort. In fact, it's a little bit easier to, it's a little bit harder to get some of the context behind words when you're reading it from a transcript. But at the same time, the words themselves, when I read those words, I felt like Baylor the whole time was basically giving some kudos to Iowa and saying the whole team is very strong.

And I know a lot of people were pretty upset they wouldn't give a lot of credit to Megan Gustafson. I don't know if that's just them being kind of annoying or obnoxious or if they really, truly just didn't want to do it. I felt like they were just trying to shed light on the fact that all of Iowa's team is good. It's not just Megan Gustafson. So, I mean, even in some of the other conversations with some of the Baylor players,

they did note that Megan's a great player. When Kalani Brown was asked about Megan, and that's going to be a huge matchup, she just said, I think it's going to be a little bit both, to be honest. It's just going to be two great post players playing a game. And it was talking about whether or not that matchup is overhyped or underhyped, and I really feel like it shouldn't be underhyped. They're two great players. It's going to be really fun watching them. Kalani Brown's very tall, 6'7".

Is she going to be agile enough to handle Megan Gustafson? That's kind of where Gustafson has a really big asset or an advantage in that situation. I mean, she's giving up four inches. That's not good. But she's also incredibly great with her footwork and able to create off-balance shots that go in. I think a couple other people, too. I mean, people are pretty pissed off about Kim Mulkey, and I don't disagree with that. Some of the stuff she said was kind of annoying. I thought it was a little bit freaking ridiculous how she berated one of the ESPN

reporters for almost no reason. A little bit ridiculous. She said, identify yourself. I mean, come on now. So I mean, if you get a chance to listen to the press conference, take a look. I'm not a big fan of Kim Mulkey, never really have been. I think a lot of people can also agree with that. I didn't think she handled some of her questions very well. I think as a coach, you should try to be a little bit less antagonistic and more encouraging and supportive of both teams. I mean, you listen to Lisa Bluter's conference, and it was significantly better than Kim Mulkey.

So hopefully that just adds a little bit of fuel to the fire. I thought it was interesting,, you know, when David Newton of ESPN.com, he actually asked Kim Mulkey, Kalani seems, you know, tongue in cheek when she talks about her lack of mobility. How has she improved in that over the years? First, obviously Mulkey got a little bit defensive. And then finally she answered and said, well, David, you wrote that she plays small at times, I think. So she hasn't shrunk. She's still six foot seven. I don't know what you mean by mobility. She's not a perimeter player. Gustafson is not a perimeter player.

Kalani had to guard Anjoui, who averaged a double-double for Cal, who was on pace to have tons of doubles. That kid's pretty athletic. Kalani guarded her. So I'm not sure where this mobility problem keeps coming from. I don't know if she just pissed off trying to defend her player or if she's trying to take some stabs at Megan Gustafson. I'm not really sure, but a little

bit ridiculous in that. And then just some otherson. I'm not really sure, but a little bit ridiculous in that. And then just some other stuff. I thought the Iowa players handled their press conference extremely well. They talked up how great Baylor's team is. They talked about how great their perimeter players is. And Lisa Bluter made a very good comment in that they don't want to give way to some of the other players.

So as we saw, based on the scores that we talked about in segment number one, Baylor's basketball game in the NCAA tournament, they've had six different people be number one and number two of the scores. So from an Iowa standpoint, yes, it's huge to stop Kalani Brown. It's huge to contain her. Megan Gustafson's a defensive player of the year candidate for a reason. But, or she was a defensive player of the year candidate, excuse me. She was all Big Ten defensive team. There's a reason why she was that.

Because she's strong at defense. The whole Iowa team is very strong at defense though too, but it's important that they don't let some of these wings and guards kill them. And as we know, Iowa's going to be extremely mismatched size-wise. I mean, even on the perimeter, Tania Davis is 5'3".

She's going to be giving up a ton of size to Baylor, so that'll be really interesting to see. But if you do want to check out the full press conference, go to asapsports.com. You can search by basketball, and then you'll be able to see the press conferences by Iowa and Baylor. I don't want to go through all of it today,

but make sure to check that out. I think it's important to get some of the words behind some of the context. It's easy to react to things you didn't see. But I do encourage you to take a look and actually read through the press conference. Really great stuff. I really thought it was more just focused on how good both teams were as opposed to ripping on Megan Gustafson. But that's just my personal take on the situation. I also did want to talk about Jordan Bohannon's

rug. So if you didn't see on Twitter, Nicholas Bayard posted a Snapchat of the March Madness rug, and then Jordan Bohannon tweeted out basically saying, pay the players or we're not giving you the rug back, which I thought was kind of a ballsy approach by Jordan Bohannon, especially considering he's still a current player. So a little bit aggressive considering, again, he's on scholarship. He he is you know getting technically paid to play he's you know getting a free ride at school and i i have a lot of thoughts on this um i was never an ncaa player i did have the opportunity to play you know smaller naia type stuff and

personally i the scholarship was huge i mean i thought getting a scholarship is a great opportunity that would have saved me a ton of debt now I understand it's not easier in college to not have, you know, not getting paid as much because you're, you know, working out all the time. But at the same time, four years from now, you have the opportunity to have no loans. And that's something that I'm still dealing with. So I have a lot of thoughts on that. Maybe we can talk about that on another show. Let me know if you would love to, you know, have a conversation about that.

I'd love for me to go into some of my details on that. I think I could swing on both sides of the fences when it comes to the paying the players. But anyways, to get back to the tweet, Jordan Mohannon then tweeted and said, after much deliberation, the NCAA has agreed with the University of Iowa. The rug can stay in Iowa City

as long as I issue a mea culpa. With that, I'm sorry for my actions. No one is denying the incredible opportunities the NCAA provides for athletes like myself. I am forever grateful. I thought that was interesting. I feel like he probably got a stern talking to, like, what the hell are you doing, dude? Don't cause anything.

As we've seen, Bohannon has tons of confidence. He's not afraid to shake the boat or rock the boat at all. So, I mean, I do enjoy seeing some of that stuff from him, but kind of a ballsy play considering he has another season of eligibility left. You don't want to mess with the NCAA. That's not an organization that you want to screw with because they will screw right back with you. So that will conclude it for our show today.

Wanted to cover that. It's kind of the last topic. Thought it was kind of funny and interesting. But that will do it for our Monday morning episode. Make sure you're tuning in to the game tonight, 6 p.m. Central Time on ESPN. Arguably the biggest matchup the biggest game for iowa in the last 25 30 years it'll be the opportunity for them to go to the final four for the first time since 1993 so be cheering them all i'll be rocking my iowa hawkeye gear all night

also for those of you who are playing our march madness bracket um for the men's tournament we'll be giving some updates on that later this week. Want to make sure we're getting the prizes out to you all once that championship game happens, but I have a pretty good feeling of who's going to win that. There's only a few guys who really actually have a chance at this point. So we'll be talking about that as well. And thank you for playing if you did decide to play

our first annual March Madness bracket where we're going to be giving away an Iowa Hawkeye t-shirt. Love the support there. So again, make sure to tune into our podcast by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify. Make sure to leave a review if you love the show, or if you don't, if you want something to improve, let us know as well. You can also find us on Twitter at Lockdown Iowa. You can find me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew, and you can follow us on Facebook

at Lockdown Hawkeyes. And then finally, we have a Gmail account, LockdownHawkeyes at gmail.com. That'll do it though for our Monday morning episode. We'll be back tomorrow with some recaps and analysis of tonight's matchup versus Baylor. Also giving you some more information on spring football practice. Lots of things have been going on there. Want to make sure we're giving you the full

coverage of the football team as well. So make sure to tune into that. And that'll do it for our Monday morning episode. Have a great day, Hawkeye Nation, and go Hawks! We'll see you next time.