Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa players set to resume voluntary workouts | Who could MBB play in Gavitt Games? | Volleyball receives NCAA punishment

Episode Date: May 27, 2020

We are back with some regularly scheduled Iowa Hawkeye content as we break down the news that the Iowa football and basketball programs are set to resume voluntary workouts in a few weeks. We also discuss who Iowa could play in the Gavitt Games and the punishment handed down to the women's volleyball squad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes. Welcome back to a Wednesday morning edition of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast,

your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. Excited to be back for another episode covering all Iowa Hawkeye content I can cover. I hope you did enjoy the TBT Tuesday episode we had yesterday with Josh Young. And we have a special interview with Josh Ogundeli coming up later this week as well. So make sure to tune into that. But on today's episode, we're covering a few things that happened late last week. And I've had a bit more development over the last couple days. We're going to be talking about the Gavit Games, the Big East, Big Ten crossover series

that happens each year. Iowa was announced as one of the teams that's going to be playing in that crossover, so I want to talk about what matchup I would like to see there. We're also going to be talking about the volleyball scandal, I should say. More or less kind of flew under the radar for most people, but we had a decision come down late last week about what to do on the volleyball issue where Bon Shemansky

actually gave improper benefits to one of his players and was since let go. And then finally on segment number three, we're going to be talking about the fact that the NCAA cleared teams to return to voluntary workouts starting June 1st. Iowa is returning June 8th for the football team and June 15th for the men's and women's team.

We're going to be talking about what that means going forward and how Iowa is actually probably in a better position than most programs going into these voluntary workouts. If you do like what you hear today, make sure to give us that five-star review and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. And as a quick reminder that today's episode is brought to you by the great folks at Built Bar. They deliver the best tasting protein bar on the market today. High in protein, low in calories.

It's my go-to for every workout. And right now we have a special promo code for you to use to get $10 off your first box of Built Bars. Go to BuiltBar.com and use the promo code LOCKEDON. And if you order between now and May 31st, you get an additional $5 off that bar or that box, excuse me, or any other box that you do decide to order. Like I said, fantastic flavor, high in protein, low in calories, BuiltBar.com.

Use the promo code LOCKEDON. And finally, before we jump into the meat of our episode, make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. All right, let's get to it then. Let's get to this Iowa Hawkeye content. I'm going to kick it off with talking about the Gavit Games. Recently, we actually had a report by Adam Zagoria. He is verified on Twitter.

Seems like a pretty reputable source. Wasn't able to necessarily verify per se that the teams have been specifically released outside of hearing it from him. However, it is exciting. He has told us who and what teams are going to be playing in the 2020 Gavit games this year. And one of those teams is the Iowa Hawkeyes. So fun stuff. And actually, as I'm recording this, I just realized there are, yeah, there are some

more announcements. So it does look like it is, it is official. But Iowa is going to be playing in the Gavit games this year, which means they have a crossover game against the Big East team. And while that might not seem like a big deal to anyone on the show right now, it actually could be very exciting if they decide to do the crossover. I hope they do. But first, let me jump into what teams are going to be playing. Right now, it is confirmed that Iowa, Michigan State, Purdue, Rutgers, Indiana, Wisconsin, Maryland, and one other TBD team is playing for the Big Ten.

On the Big East side, we got Butler, Creighton, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Villanova, and Xavier. Again, this was reported by Adam Zagoria, and if you aren't familiar with the Gavit games, just remind yourself of the dismal showing that happened last year when Iowa got absolutely smote by DePaul. 93-78.

Pretty embarrassing showing. It was a showing that really had Iowa fans wondering, is this season going to be hell or is it going to you know is this season kind of a rebuilding year and fans were all over the Hawks after that in this in the total series though so each team is supposed to play four times must participate at least four times excuse me Iowa is one and two and if you aren't familiar again this is an annual crossover tournament between eight teams from each conference. It's going until 2022. And it started back in 19, or sorry, 2015. Excuse me. But again, why this is important is when you look at some of these teams,

there is one that particularly stands out to me that I would love to see Iowa play. And that is our neighbors to the west, Creighton. They are a team that is really putting together a nice roster, again, under Greg McDermott. This is a team that is getting a lot of love for the polls of next year. If they do have most of their guys returning, this is a team that could be a top 10 team going into the season next year. And that means if Luka Garza returns, that could also be a top 10 team for Iowa. That could be a top 10 matchup real early in the season for the Hawks, a great opportunity

for them to not only beat a great team, but beat a team that's close to them in proximity, a team that theoretically they could be competing for recruits for not, not too often usually, but, um, going against Creighton would be a huge, huge game. And that would be a great opportunity from a travel perspective to get either Creighton fans and, you know, in Carver or Iowa fans, um, over in Creighton and Omaha, just about a, you know, three, three and a half hour drive for those fans. They almost had the opportunity to match up last year in Las Vegas in that invitational over Thanksgiving. Unfortunately,

Creighton lost the first game and then Iowa won. Iowa played San Diego state Creighton played Texas tech, but I was very impressed by Creighton. I was very impressed throughout the year. I have a really close friend who's a huge Creighton Creighton fan. He's from Omaha, loves the team. Obviously when you're,

when you grew up in Nebraska fan, as he did, and their basketball team is perpetually bad, you typically move towards a team that is good in the Nebraska area, and that is Creighton. Iowa hasn't played Creighton, though, since 2011. I believe the first year of Fran McCaffrey there, and they are 7-8 total all-time against Creighton. So I think this would be really huge, a cool storyline to watch. And if I'm the Big East and the Big Ten, I'm figuring out every way possible to make that happen. What a fantastic matchup. If they can get two top ten teams playing each other early in the season,

get a little bit more notoriety for the Gavit games. I mean, no one really gave a flying hell about Iowa playing DePaul last year, except for Iowa fans who were pretty pissed, and DePaul fans were pretty happy they won. But outside of that, no one really cared. Iowa-Crayton, though, brings a lot of noise to the Gavit games, to this crossover series, puts them right in the national spotlight. That is a game that could have pretty big implications down the line,

a huge win for the Hawks or a huge win for Crayton, depending on who obviously wins that game when it comes to NCAA tournament time. So that's why I wanted to cover it on the show today. Obviously, once we get those schedules announced, once we get the schedule announced for Iowa in general, there's going to be quite a few things I want to break down on that, like the fact that Iowa is holding a home tournament at Carver as opposed to going anywhere, whether that's because of COVID, whether that's because they didn't get invited anywhere or didn't get invited anywhere or didn't feel like they had a good invitation,

I want to break that down as well. And then obviously how their schedule shakes out from a home and away standpoint and a back-to-back-to-back February, March type of standpoint, what games they're playing right after another could also have a big impact on their season. So we're going to be breaking all that down once we get that schedule out. But that'll be it for today, talking about the Iowa men's basketball schedule and the Gavit games.

Coming up on segment number two, we're going to be talking about the volleyball team and the wins that were vacated for two seasons and how that impacts the Hawks going forward from a volleyball perspective. Before we do that, though, I want to give you a quick message from our sponsors of the show today at Built Bar. They deliver the best tasting protein bar on the market today. High in protein, low in calories, low in sugars. It's exactly what you need before a workout, during a workout, after a workout,

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I mean, we kind of expected this to happen, but we got the final announcement at this point, and that is the fact that the women's volleyball team has had to vacate all of their wins from 2017 to 2018. In those seasons, they went 15-16 in 2018 and 18-15 in 2017 under Bond Shemansky, a former Iowa grad, a native of the area. He was the coach, and it sounds like what happened was he actually gave some impermissible benefits

to one of his players to help pay rent. I read somewhere that he gave $2,000 the first time and gave $500 another time to help them out in a tough situation. Sounds like they were expecting to be on scholarship, were not able to be put on full scholarship, and he wanted to help them out. Definitely not the worst violation we've seen from a sporting perspective, but it is interesting seeing that come from Iowa, not a school that typically is embroiled in controversy or NCAA scandals.

And the fact that he paid, let's say, $2,500 to one player, we don't know the extent of that if that extended out to other players as well. But we can seemingly say that it did not help the team do a whole lot better. This volleyball program has been one of the, I would say, least successful programs in Iowa Hawkeyes history. That's not saying the volleyball team is terrible. That's saying that a lot of the other programs in Iowa are very strong and have a strong history. But nevertheless, a big decision made.

They basically got fined $5,000. They had to vacate all wins for two years. It was considered a level two violation. There's also some recruiting, you know, restrictions that go along with that, that will have not been named at this point. And I want to make sure I get out this, what Gary Barta said about this. He said the immediate and devoted attention and cooperation from the first day we were notified of possible infractions played a vital role in the prompt and accepted resolution. And it sounds like, you know, once this came to

light, Bonchamansky was, you know, Bon Chomansky was a very cooperative person, you know, basically told exactly what happened, wasn't trying to necessarily hide anything. So again, to me, $2,500 is not a lot. It clearly did not help the Hawks a ton as they finished with a losing record in one year and a winning record another year, but barely, and also finished 7-13 in the conference, both seasons. So they were not lighting the world on fire. They were not putting together the best season ever from an Iowa Hawkeye standpoint. Um, one argue is one of the, you know,

just a middle of the road season. Um, but I think this goes back to the fact that it, you know, obviously it's not okay. Um, sounds like he understands that it was not okay. Uh, it sucks to have that kind of black mark on the volleyball program. And it'll be interesting to see where new head coach Vicki Brown takes the program from here. Obviously, she's getting punished from a recruiting standpoint because of the stuff that happened by her predecessor. But can this program build on something?

Can they create something special in the midst of this controversy? That'll be something that we continue to watch over the next couple of seasons. If she's able to develop a consistent winner with the Bible team, a team that we haven't seen win incredibly consistently going forward. But why this is something I think is interesting is the fact that right now there's a lot of talk about paying, paying players, or at least allowing players to benefit off their likeness. And I wonder, you know, could that have helped? Could, you know, we don't know which player this is, if it was the best player on the team. Could she have made some money by sponsoring volleyball products in Iowa City? Who knows

that that is a possibility. So maybe this all could have been avoided, had players been able to make money off their likeness. But that is a lot less likely than a football player being able to do that. And that actually jumps into one of the biggest arguments about the, you know, pay to play type of thing. If, if college athletes were to be paid, are they getting paid based on the money they're bringing into the institution? Or are they getting paid? No, equally, right, like a football player is going to make more money than a backup volleyball player, because they're probably not bringing in nearly as much money. They aren't bringing in even a fraction of the money the football team is. That goes with the likeness,

though, I know it's a step in the right direction, allowing players to potentially benefit from their likeness. But a person who's playing volleyball isn't really going to go anywhere after that from a professional perspective, and likely doesn't have the ability to make a lot of money from their likeness unless they've become this national phenomenon, which is incredibly unlikely for a middling program in the Midwest and Iowa City. So that to me is very interesting to see why that happened, how that happened. And the fact that it did happen in Iowa just goes to show you that it happens everywhere. And sometimes it is intentionally deceitful. It is intentionally wrong.

I'm not saying that it wasn't either of these with Bond. But $2,500 is chump change compared to a Range Rover or buying someone's mom a house that we've seen in other institutions and other programs. So just interesting to see that happen in Iowa City. Obviously, we'll be covering the volleyball team and how they do in this upcoming season to see if they can turn it around under Vicky Brown. Clearly, they were not able to do as much under Bonchmanski. He had the program in the right direction a little bit, but still not ideal and not great for this program. Having 33 wins vacated for two years and being put on probation for another

year. If Vicki Brown can win a big 10 championship though, that would make all of this kind of quiet down and go away. Considering the volleyball team has never won a big 10 championship. So we'll keep all that going right here on the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast on future episodes. But we're going to turn our attention to the NCAA clearing football players to return to voluntary workouts starting June 1st and how Iowa is going to move on from here.

But we'll be covering that in just a few short seconds after a few messages from our sponsors. We are back for our third and final segment of the show today on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. And as I said before, we took a quick break. I want to talk about the NCAA clearing the return of college athletes to voluntary workouts beginning June 1st. Iowa did not say they were going to do that. They actually pushed it back a bit as they worked in cooperation with the University of Iowa Hospital to determine what the appropriate program

would be to get players back on campus and ultimately to get students back on campus. And this will be a huge test. This will mean, I know Iowa, there's reports Iowa has announced that they are going to be returning to face-to-face classes beginning this year. But this will play a huge role. If this goes well, that could see us speed this up. If this goes poorly, if half the team gets infected by COVID,

that could really delay this whole thing. So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. And like I said, the Iowa Hawkeyes plan, the University of Iowa plans to resume in-person schooling in the fall of 2020, and they'll be watching this very closely. This is phase one, though, of the reintroduction of student athletes into the real world, basically. It sounds like football is going to start their voluntary workouts June 8th,

and the men's and women's basketball teams will resume their workouts June 15th. Before they are able to go into these workouts, they must go through and pass a formal clearance process that does follow NCAA, Big Ten, and the campus expectations and best practices. I think the one thing to note, as we've talked about a while, is that this doesn't really impact Iowa as much as it does other teams. The more time away from some of these other teams, the better it actually helps Iowa. I know each team is trying to figure out a way to make do in these uncertain situations and find ways to work with each other. But teams like Michigan State that are breaking in a new coach, they need all the time they can get to do the evaluations, to learn the scheme, to understand the coaching style of the coach,

for the coach to understand the playing style of his players. So for Iowa to have so many returning starters, this is absolutely huge. And there was a conference called Done With Some Iowa Athletes, and it sounds like they're already doing a lot of this. They're already getting the work in that they should be getting in, which is what I love to see. Spencer Petras, for example, has been working out with the wide receivers, with Amir Smith-Marset, Brandon Smith, Nico Reganey.

He's taking snaps from Tyler Linderbaum. He's getting in the reps that he needs to get in to be prepared for football this year. And I don't think that we're going to have full stadiums come around this fall, but if we can at least just get college football in general, that'll be a huge boost to these athletic programs, balance sheets. This will be a huge boost to the morale of a lot of folks who are just looking forward to seeing some live sporting events that they love and appreciate. And obviously football time is a huge time for that.

Outside of the offense, I mean, Chauncey Golsan, Davian Nixon, they live together with three other football players. They're getting their work in. A lot of these guys are finding ways to stay in shape. Chris Doyle is having to modify his workouts to whatever is available for these players. Doyle is having to modify his workouts to whatever is available for these players. You know, if it's something that they have, if they're at home, how can he modify that workout to make sure they're getting in as much work as they possibly can, given the interesting situations? I mean, I'm not an Iowa football player, but I do like to work out.

And for example, you know, I'm doing squats with a kitty litter bag that's 45 pounds. Obviously, it's a little bit more advanced with Chris Doyle's program, but that's the kind of stuff that he has to figure out in these uncertain times is how can he continue to get these Iowa Hawkeye football players in better condition and better shape than other college football programs around the country with limited resources, with limited weights, with limited racks, with no spotter, all those kind of things. So that is interesting to me. But like I said, it'll be interesting to see once they resume workouts June 8th,

how they can keep players safe, how they can demonstrate that this can be a – they can do this in a thoughtful way that would allow football to resume full blast, allow basketball to resume full blast. And I think, again, this is something that we're going to be watching very closely. If this goes well, I'm very confident that football and basketball will be resuming this fall. If this goes poorly, who knows what kind of setback this is going to be. So this will be something that over the next couple weeks, as Iowa continues to release more information about their program to reintroduce football and basketball players into this. And this will be something worth watching.

We'll be covering right here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. That'll do it, though, for our show today. A little bit shorter of an episode on the show. Wanted to make sure I touched on those three main items, though, that kind of popped up late last week. Wanted to make sure we got that on the show since we did not have a Memorial Day episode this week. I was camping, wasn't able to knock that out.

But like I said, great episodes all around this week with our TBT Tuesday episode with Josh Young yesterday. We have this episode today and we have our Josh Ogundeli interview later on this week, still deciding on what day to release that on. It'll either be tomorrow or Friday. Again, if you did like the content of the show today, please make sure to give us that five star review definitely helps us out helps people find our show as well. And make sure to subscribe so you can get all these episodes downloaded directly to your smart device without having to prompt it just happens for you. And again, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I'm a lot of

times we are actually covering these stories on those social media mechanisms prior to talking about it on the show want to at least get my initial thoughts out usually before I'm able to talk about it on the show since these shows to at least get my initial thoughts out usually before I'm able to talk about it on the show since these shows are happening typically three times a week right now until a lot more sporting activity does resume. So that being said, thank you all for tuning in. Have a fantastic day out there, Hawkeye Nation. And as always, let's go Hawks. We'll see you next time.