Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa snaps a 4-game losing streak | Can Iowa beat Michigan again? | Position by position matchup analysis vs Michigan

Episode Date: March 15, 2019

The Hawk's offense was rolling last night when they took on Illinois, and their defense stepped up the plate. Lots of positives from the game, and the biggest one of all is that the Hawks got the monkey off their back snapping a four-game losing streak and getting a victory in the Big Ten Men's Conference Tournament, which hasn't exactly come easy to them. What can they do for an encore performance against #3 seeded Michigan? Iowa matches up well against the Wolverines, and with Michigan's limited 3-point shooting abilities, it eases some of the pressure on Iowa's struggling defense.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning, Hawkeye Nation. We are back with another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at DearOldGold.com, and I'm here to talk to you a lot about basketball today. It's going to be a little bit shorter of an episode. I apologize that I wasn't able to get one uploaded and ready for first thing in the morning on your morning commute. But obviously, with Iowa beating Illinois late last night, it was going to take me a little while. I had to get some things knocked out first in the morning, so my apologies for getting this to you later in the morning than you're typically used to getting the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

However, I'm here. It's here. It'll be posted. You'll get it before noon. That's fantastic, in my opinion. You'll have an opportunity to kind of recap the Iowa versus Illinois game, and then also we're going to be going through the Michigan game. So with March Madness in full effect,

obviously I want to give as much coverage to all the sports as possible, but at least over this weekend, I'm going to be trying to focus mostly on Iowa basketball. You may get a few shorter podcasts depending on how the Hawks do tonight. You know, if they continue to advance, which I think is very possible, we'll be kind be giving you some shorter tidbit episodes, maybe 10-15 minutes discussing the previous game and the upcoming game for all you folks that want to listen to the podcast on the weekend. If you haven't subscribed

already, if you are listening to this podcast for the first time, you got amped up over the first Big Ten win for the Hawks of the season in the conference tournament. If you're getting amped up over that win, you decided to look on iTunes and you found the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And just know that if you have a smart speaker at home, you can actually listen to us without going to your phone. Just tell Siri, Google, or Alexa to play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes.

That will give you the latest episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. That means, you know, if tomorrow morning you're making bacon and eggs and you have, you know, an Amazon show in your kitchen, just say, you know, hey, Alexa, play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. That will give you the episode that we're going to be recording tomorrow morning about this Michigan game. That'll be giving you the episode while you're making your bacon and eggs for, you know, your wife or your husband or whoever it may be.

Great opportunity to listen to the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. So with that being said, though, let's jump right into it again. We're not going to be doing the typical segments at least the next couple of days. And honestly, next week, either as we jump into March Madness time, one of the best times of the year, especially if you're a college basketball fan, even if you're not a college basketball fan, watching March Madness is exhilarating. It's a ton of fun.

Anything can really happen. And we saw that over the course of the Big Ten tournament. If you listen to our Big Ten preview podcast with the locked on Badgers that we recorded and put up on the air Wednesday morning, you will know that we are not doing so hot in our predictions. Penn State lost to Minnesota. Nebraska decided to actually be a real freaking basketball team and beat Rutgers.

Thankfully, the only freaking game we got right was Illinois versus Northwestern. And then obviously we got the Iowa game correct too, which is fantastic. We missed on Nebraska versus Maryland. Definitely thought Maryland could handle either Nebraska or Rutgers, but obviously it was wrong there. So a lot of crazy things can happen in March. Nebraska's hot right now. I mean, they're coming off that exhilarating win over Iowa,

coming back down nine with 50 seconds left in the regulation and then beating them in overtime. So fantastic job overall. I'm impressed by Nebraska. They're doing it with such a limited team. I don't understand kind of what's going on. Obviously, I think it's pretty evident that Johnny Trueblood probably should have been playing a little bit more throughout the season as well.

But nice to see them kind of get back going. And as if you've probably listened to our podcast with the Locked On Badgers, I love to give him a lot of crap. Tanner Nessel's a great guy, but love to give him a lot of crap about Wisconsin. Not a big fan of Wisconsin. I know this is maybe a little bit controversial, but I would say they're one of my top two least favorite teams in the Big Ten. Simply saying, I lived there for four years.

And to be honest, it can be a little difficult living in Wisconsin where all you hear about is how great the Badgers are. So obviously I'm a little bit biased towards them and actually kind of funny stuff. If you love the show, please give us a review on iTunes or Stitcher or Spotify or wherever you get your podcast at. Give us a review. Let us know what you think of the show. On the Locked on Badgers comments, there actually was a comment from a guy saying,

I don't think you should have the Locked On Iowa guy on anymore. He really doesn't like the Badgers. So funny stuff there. Make sure to show us some love on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify. Like I said, we'll jump into that. We want to talk about the Iowa versus Illinois game. Obviously, a lot of great things to take away from that. Iowa won.

Iowa is advancing past the second round for the first time since 2006, and that can be taken a couple different ways. The conference has expanded a little bit, so the idea of the second round has shifted a little bit, but regardless, Iowa has advanced past the second round for the first time since 2006 into the quarterfinals. They have been to the quarterfinals before in the last decade, but technically, there was also the second round of the tournament with the expansion. So great to see them get on the, you know, snap that four game losing streak. Not exactly fun. They did it in such a good way. I thought the offense was really free flowing pretty well. You know, I think it was five guys had over seven points. Let me actually check that math real quick, but I believe it was five guys had over seven points. Nicholas Bayer was scorer which was kind of a shock he had set you know had 17 points and was really hot

from deep from downtown and actually okay so we have four five six seven Hawks had over seven points no more so than Nicholas Bear who had 17 the next closest was 13 with Joe Wieskamp so really just a fantastic performance overall from the Hawks. I thought they did a good job of spreading the ball around. Great job of getting assist in. They had 25 assists on the night. Connor McCaffrey at eight, which is a career high for him. Heather Cook had six, which is a season high for him. And then just overall, like I said, I thought that was really impressive. How well the offense was kind of well-rounded, getting some of that production from the bench. Nicholas Bayer, Ryan Creener had fantastic days, four guys in double digits. The only thing I'll say about this, though, is that Illinois' defense

isn't very good. I wrote an article on Daryl Gold a few days ago about Iowa's defense kind of being, you know, a big weak spot. As we already know, Iowa's defense, it sucks, let's be honest. It's not very good. It's one of the worst in the Big Ten. But the team that's close to Iowa in terms of weakness in defense is Illinois. And it showed in that game. Illinois gave Iowa a lot of open looks. And you can't give a team like Iowa such great looks. What really works against the Hawks is that defensive intensity, that defensive pressure, getting a hand in their face.

That will get them out of the rhythm. Everyone except for Jordan Bohannon, I mean, he'll get pushed around a bit, but that guy has no fear when it comes to popping a three from six, seven feet deep. But the other guys can get a little bit kicked around if you start pushing them around, and Illinois wasn't doing any of that. They weren't closing on the shooters. They were getting destroyed by the consistent ball movement from the Hawks, making that one extra pass that really got that open look.

I mean, they had a couple guys who passed up somewhat open opportunities to a guy who had a wide open shot with no one within five to six feet of them. So fantastic job there. They also did a really good job on Georgie Benhachivli. I'm not saying that name right. I know that. He only played 26 minutes. He did score 12 points on six of seven shooting, but he was relatively ineffective because he got into foul trouble.

And that's one of the things the Hawks do really well is, is bang it down low and, and put those big guys in foul trouble. And that'll be something to watch for against Michigan that we'll cover here in a few minutes. Also, one of the things I thought was interesting is, is how well Iowa's man defense was working against Illinois.

I'm personally shocked. I don't understand why I honestly can't, I personally shocked. I don't understand why. I honestly can't, I can't, I don't understand why. I think Illinois has more athletic wing players, but they were just doing a better job of, Iowa's doing a better job of playing that man defense against them. Zone defense also was working pretty well. Illinois wasn't shooting very well from three shot, just 33%. Obviously you have a couple of those volume shooters like, you know, Ayo Dasuma and,Suma and Terry Frazier, but great job defensively from the Hawks. Again, I think Iowa matches up well against Illinois. We saw that earlier in the season. They beat them by double digits as well, but just a great win for

the Hawks to get back on the board, get to 22 wins, stop that winning, that losing streak as they get ready to face off against Michigan. So we're going to be talking about the Michigan game, though, in just a few seconds. We're going to let a few messages from our sponsors air before we jump into Iowa versus Michigan. All right, we are back with kind of a segment number two, more of just another segment where we cover Iowa basketball. They are taking on Michigan tonight. That'll be a fantastic game. Michigan is ranked 10th in the nation,

but I really don't think Michigan is that good. If you listen to our Big Ten preview with Tanner Nessel of Locked On Badgers, then you know that we both don't really agree with how good Michigan is. They haven't really won any games. I didn't even realize that until Tanner pointed it out, but Michigan doesn't have a ton of really key wins on the season. They had a couple of early season wins against ranked teams, Villanova and UNC. Those games don't look nearly as good.

They beat a Purdue team that wasn't really in its element yet early in December. And then since then, I mean, they beat a ranked Indiana team, which is obviously not ranked anymore. They beat Wisconsin. Solid win. I'll give them that. They beat Maryland. Solid win.

I'll give them that. They got, you know, they got beat by Michigan State pretty handedly, and they beat Maryland again. So they've been kind of up and down against ranked teams. I don't think their 10th ranking is as warranted as maybe it seems like it should be based off of their early season wins. But against Iowa, the Hawks really match up pretty well against Michigan. So it's kind of interesting with Iowa. The bigger teams, the bigger physical teams can push Iowa around. The smaller teams can beat Iowa with their quickness because Iowa's

defense isn't exactly the best and they're not able to get by on their athleticism, especially at the top of the key with Jordan Bohan at the point. I mean, he's a great shooter, but not defensively that inclined there. And also not the most athletic point guard when it comes to defense. He's kind of interesting, kind of a weak, poor man, James Harden in that sense, not as engaged on the defensive end. So from a Michigan standpoint, though, they match up pretty darn well size for size. And one of the nice things is John Teske at center, he's 7'1", 260 pounds, right?

So Luka Garza, when teams go small, it kind of eliminates the effectiveness of Luka Garza because they need to push Tyler Clark, sorry, Tyler Cook, excuse me, out on a wing potentially or a smaller guy. You have Luka Garza matching up against a smaller, quicker power forward or center type. That's 6'7", 6'8". a wing, potentially, or a smaller guy. You have Luka Garza matching up against a smaller, quicker, power forward or center type.

That's 6'7", 6'8". Against Michigan, though, he's matching up against a guy who's around his size. But John Teske is a little bit more lumbering. I mean, he's pretty solid on the defensive side of the ball. He pulls in, you know, 6.7 rebounds per game. He leads the team in that. I believe he is number one in the Big Ten Conference in blocks. I mean, that's what happens when you're 7'1".

But he doesn't really present that challenge offensively that really makes Luka Garza struggle. He's not exactly a defensive stalwart against strong offensive guys. So John Teske doesn't present that matchup that hurts Luka Garza. Offensively, I think Luka Garza is actually a little bit quicker than Teske, which gives him an advantage there. I mean, he's good at maneuvering around big guys. He can get his shot off even when there's taller guys matched up against him, especially like a Teske who leads the big 10 in blocks. So I think that's an advantage that Iowa has. At power forward, Michigan has a 6'7".

I'm going to butcher this name as well. Ignace Brzezinski. Six foot seven, I'm going to butcher this name as well. Ignace Brzezinski, they also have Isaiah Livers, who plays a lot of time as well, at that power forward position when Michigan goes a little bit bigger. And I think Tyler Cook matched up well both these situations. He's a little bit taller, and he's just as athletic. So that gives him the opportunity to beat them in the paint. He's not as good defensively against some of those smaller guys,

but he'll be able to back them down pretty easily, especially Ign brzezinski you know he's six foot seven 215 pounds tyler cook is six foot eight 250 or 60 pounds let me let me confirm that while i'm on the air right now let me pull it up once my internet so six foot nine 250 he has that that advantage down low and that really gives the hawks an advantage as As we saw against Illinois, Iowa did a really good job of pushing it, pushing it, pushing it down low, and letting the defense collapse on Cook and Garza. And they were finding those outlet passes, finding those guys sitting on the edge of the arc, ready for those open threes. I thought that was really fantastic. Cook also looks like a man possessed.

After having two games that were kind of pretty disappointing. He was just a dunk show against Illinois, just slamming at home, kicking butt. I really love seeing that. If we can see that against Michigan, getting that crowd pumped, I think that'll be pretty fun to watch in this game. And that'll be a, those are kind of momentum changing dunks. When you see dunks like that, the kind of dunks that Tyler Cook can throw down, that stuff can really change the momentum of a game. It does have an impact. You're basically slapping the other team in the face.

So we'd love to see that. At the wing positions, I think this isn't really an advantage, but I don't think Iowa is as disadvantaged as they are against other teams. And the reason being is what really hurts the Hawks is when you have perimeter guys who can shoot the three. Michigan doesn't have that across the board with their guys. All right. So excuse me for if you hear those, those barks in the background, I have, I have dogs in the house, my apologies, but I'm not going to edit that out just because of two barks. So we're going to keep

moving on. But one of the things with Michigan is they don't have those perimeter guys who I think really cause fits Burt's, you know, versus Iowa. They have a couple, you know, so let's actually just kind of go through their roster as far as those, you know, three-point shooters and their wings. So Michigan typically starts with four guards, one forward. So they have Ignace Brzezinski as their starting forward or really their center. And they play four guards pretty consistently unless they bring in Isaiah Livers as that forward or John Teske, who's going to be also playing a significant amount of minutes as well. So they kind of bounce around a little bit, but John Teske will be at that center position. Ignis Brzezinski will be at forward. And sorry,

excuse me, they play three guards, but Brzezinski can kind of be a small forward type. So at the guard position though, they have Jordan Poole, Charles Matthews, Xavier Simpson, all right? So Xavier Simpson is a point guard, do-it-all kind of guy, gets in on the boards, crashes the boards a decent amount, has 5.1 boards per game, also dishes out 6.3 assists, and has 1.5 steals per game. So he can be kind of sneaky there, and that can be hard for Jordan Bohannon

because he likes to dribble the ball a lot. He gets a little bit loose and careless with the ball at times when he can't find a pass or someone wide open. But the nice thing is on the defensive side of the ball, Simpson is only shooting 28% from behind the arc, and Bohannon isn't exactly a great defender, but if Simpson can't shoot the ball very well, that allows Bohannon to slack off a little bit

and be a little bit smarter with that. Make Simpson take that shot. Make him force up those threes that he can't make. Jordan Poole, however, is a pretty darn good shooter. He's shooting 44% from the field and 38% from three. However, Isaiah Moss is going to be matched up against him. And personally, I think Isaiah Moss' defense is underrated. He's a good athlete.

When he's going, he's fantastic offensively and defensively. It's just a matter of whether or not Iowa's playing that zone or that man. If they're playing man, I think he matches up pretty well against Jordan Poole. Both are 6'5". I think Isaiah Moss can take him. So can Macy Daly. I know the opinion on Daly is not always the best, but he's a pretty solid defender, and that's why they have men a decent amount of games. That's why he's playing 12 to 15 minutes a game is because of his presence on the defensive side of the ball. He may not be able to knock down a ton of shots, but defensively, he's fantastic. So that'll be interesting there.

And then Charles Matthew, the other guard who's playing 32 minutes a game, actually the third most, sorry, fourth most on the team, excuse me, third most on the team. He's only shooting 32% from three. So again, not exactly the team that's going to scare you from behind the arc. And that's what we saw in the first game, Iowa versus Michigan. Iowa did a good job defensively of closing out on those shooters and making even the good three-point shooters miss. So if you can close out and just play solid defense on those guys, as opposed to sometimes you see Iowa in their zone defense. They don't close out well.

They have a few passes that get to a guy in the corner, and there's no one there, and they have wide-open threes for their opponents, which allows them to make those easy three-pointers. If they can just close out and play with some good defensive energy against Michigan, I think they can have similar success at the top of the perimeter. And then down low, like I said, I think Tyler Cook holds the advantage there. And Luka Garza has the opportunity to, you know, draw, you know, draw John Teske into foul trouble in their first game. And I want to check on this before I give that, you know, that the the information on that.

I believe in the first game, John Teske got into foul trouble pretty early and actually fouled out of the game there. So I'm going to check on that. But, you know, that kind of stuff can really make a difference. It allows Luka Garza to go off. And that's exactly what happened in that first matchup first, Iowa. So I'm pulling up the box score right now. Yes. John Teske played just 13 minutes, had five personal fouls. Luka Garza had a team high 19 points on eight or 12 shooting, and he only played 21 minutes. And that's because of, you know, when, when, when you see Michigan move to a smaller lineup, obviously Luka Garza isn't going to be as effective. That's when you're going to get the Ryan Creeners and Nicholas Bayers in there. Also at Connor McCaffrey is pretty lengthy as well, but when they're going at that tall lineup,

Luka Garza has an athleticism advantage against Teske. He can move around. He's a really solid offensive type of guy, more European style offensive type of guy, more European-style offensive type of guy, which doesn't bode well for Teske, like I said, a little bit more lumbering at 7'1", 260 pounds. So I really do think the advantage here is the Hawks. I know, according to Ken Palm, when you look at advanced analytics, Ken Palm is giving the Hawks a 24% chance of winning. ESPN is giving the Hawks 22% chance of winning. As we've seen in the past, that stuff, you know, it does help.

I mean, it's easier to predict some of those games, but things can change. And when you get to March, a lot of things can change. So I think big thing here is if Iowa can play solid defense, right? And then on the offensive side of the ball, they can hit some of their shots. They can get the guys involved that they were getting involved against Illinois.

If Isaiah Moss gets going too, wow, watch out for this team. So I think Iowa could win this game. I think they're going to have to bring a game. I mean, it's not a game where they can slack off against. It's not a game where they can bring a D minus defensive performance. They need to be there defensively and then offensively, they need to be hitting their shots. So if they can bring a solid game, we could see Iowa advancing to the semifinals of the Big Ten Men's Conference Tournament for the first time since 2006. So like I said, we'll be back for the next couple days

as long as Iowa's advancing, or at least, you know, even if Iowa isn't advancing, we'll be giving you 10 to 15 minute shows, maybe even do some live periscopes on the Twitter account, giving you some recaps of the Big Ten performances. So we will be doing that on the next couple days of shows. So my apologies for not getting you a show on Tuesday or Thursday, but that's kind of why we have a lot of stuff coming out the next couple of days.

And with March Madness hitting, I want to be giving you as much content as you can possibly take in for the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Thank you, though, for joining us on this awesome episode on this Friday morning. I do appreciate you listening in and tuning into the show. Make sure you are subscribing to our show on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And make sure if you want to know what the latest happenings are of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, if you have a Twitter account, just follow us at Locked on Iowa. If you have a Facebook account, look for us, Locked on Hawkeyes. We'll be giving you plenty of updates, letting you know when we have shows

posting, what our new shows are, that kind of of thing so you can stay up to date and know when the shows are going to be coming out so you're not disappointed or surprised when you don't see something in the morning when you wake up like i said thank you for joining us on the locked on hawkeyes podcast have a fantastic day hawkeye nation and go hawks