Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa State Cyclone legend Marcus Fizer joins the show to talk about the Iowa United, his current endeavors, and what led him to being a Cyclone

Episode Date: May 14, 2019

We are joined by former Big 12 Player of the Year and number 4 overall draft pick in the 2000 NBA Draft Marcus Fizer as he comes on the show to talk about playing for the Iowa United in this year's TBT. He also dives into what led him to Iowa State, what his favorite stop in European Professional Basketball was, and what he is currently working on now. 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 our Tuesday morning edition of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, part of the Locked On Sports Network. I am your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at DearOldGold.com, where you can get all of your daily news briefings of the Iowa Hawkeyes. And on today's episode, we're actually going to change it up a little bit. Instead of calling it the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, today's episode is going to be the

Locked on Iowa podcast. And that is because we have a very special guest joining us on the show today. As you are aware of, the past couple of weeks, we've been doing some of these player previews with the Iowa United players, the team that is going to be comprised of Iowa State Cyclones, Iowa Hawkeyes, Drake Bulldogs, and UNI Panthers. And they are going to be competing in the $2 million winner-take-all tournament. And on today's show, we are interviewing Marcus Fizer, former Big 12 Player of the Year, former

Louisiana Mr. Basketball, first-team All-American, and the fourth overall draft pick of the 2000 NBA Draft of the Chicago Bulls. Marcus Fizer is a former Iowa State Cyclone, and he's going to be playing on the Iowa United this summer. So we have him on the show for today's episode and I'm really excited to give you this conversation. He was fantastic to talk to. You can tell he's really excited about the opportunity to play

with the Iowa United. He's really excited about the opportunity to mentor some of these younger players and provide some of the guidance and feedback that comes with having played 15 years of professional basketball. So really excited for you to get an opportunity to listen to that episode. Before we jump into that, though, I do have a few housekeeping items to share with you. If you are joining the show for the very first time, make sure to check out some of our great

past interviews that we've done. We've had Matt Tybee of UW Milwaukee, another guy who's going to be playing on the Iowa United. He is an Urbandale, Iowa native. We had him on the show last week. We had Nicholas Bayer on the show two weeks ago. So for all of you big Iowa Hawkeye fans, you do not want to miss that interview. We also had Deuce Hogan, you know, the four-star recruit out of the class of 2020.

He's going to be playing for the Iowa Hawkeyes in two years. He's a quarterback down in Dallas, Texas. He was on the show and talked to us about his recruitment and kind of what his role in getting additional recruits to the class of 2020 has been. That was a great interview. And we have some really fun stuff coming up. We have Elijah Yelverton, you know, a three-star tight end recruit out of Dallas, Texas. He's going to be joining the Iowa Hawkeyes in the class of 2020. We have a conversation with him coming up airing on Thursday of this week. And we also have some interviews airing with Drew Tate and Ricky Stanzi. That's right.

We're bringing two of the best Iowa Hawkeye quarterbacks ever to play in the black and gold. They're going to be joining the show over the coming weeks. So lots of really fantastic interviews coming at you right here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Also, if you have been paying attention, you know that we've been kind of working with the Iowa United, you know, distributing some of these podcasts, some of these player interviews and talking to Matt Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United. But what we can use from you is some help. If you please go to the tournament.com and like, and follow the Iowa United that helps them get into the tournament. So we need your support. You need to go do that. And when I say

we, I mean the Iowa United. I'm not technically affiliated with them. So make sure to go follow thetournament.com, follow Iowa United, and get them into the tournament by going and liking them on thetournament.com. Also, you can find us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa. You can follow us on Facebook at

LockedOnHawkeyes. And you can follow me at Wade underscore Andrew. You can do all that and get all the recent updates of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. And if you are downloading this from either iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, wherever you got it from, make sure to like and subscribe. That way you can get these episodes downloaded automatically to your phone every single morning that we are giving you a brand new podcast episode. That being said, though, we're going to jump into the interview with Marcus Fizer.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I am honored to be joined by former McDonald's All-American Big 12 Player of the Year and the 2000 NBA Draft's number four overall draft pick by the Chicago Bulls, Marcus Fizer. Marcus, I truly am honored to have you on the show. I grew up, I'm an Iowa Hawkeye fan, but loved all Iowa sports in general. I mean, coming from the state, you kind of root for everyone. And so to see you get drafted by the Chicago Bulls was pretty awesome, especially, you know, being a young kid, you know, 6, 7, 8 years old and watching Michael Jordan play in the Bulls, that was really cool to see someone from the state of Iowa go there.

So how are you doing today, man? I'm doing great. Loving this 93, 94 degree weather out here in Las Vegas. Going to enjoy that as much as we can because in about a month or so it's going to probably double that Or what it seems but We're out here loving living in this land and raising the kids and trying to you know keep our head above water Absolutely so what brought you out to Las Vegas? I mean that wasn't uh doesn't seem like that's kind of a spot where you've lived previously. So what brought you to Las Vegas?

Well, I came out here a few years ago when I retired. You know, we love the weather and everything, and it's been going on six years now. And my wife is from Chicago, so she's been staying there forever. now. And my wife is from Chicago, so she's playing on stand-in forever. Correct. of people are really excited to watch you play for the Iowa United, especially Cyclone fans all over the place. You know, what are you excited about with playing with the Iowa United? I'm just being able to, you know, be a part of anything Iowa. You know, Iowa is definitely home. I still have family, you know, that I frequently come back and see and, you know, visit with and spend time with. You know, my host family that I, you know, visit with and spend time with, you know, my host family that I, you know, pretty much helped raise me in my last three years of college. We live in Storrs City, Iowa.

And I, you know, got to extend the family from them out in Jefferson City. And, you know, just loving the farmland, loving, you know, everything that, you know, they taught me and loving, you know, just being a part of the family. Like I said, anything Iowa did, I can be a part of. I'm definitely going to tell them I have my hand in it. We're going to see what these old bones do, see if they hold up. Absolutely, man. I think that's a big question on a lot of people's minds.

What has the training been like for you? Obviously getting back in shape. Last year you were a coach. How has the training been to get you back in shape for Iowa United? Brutal. Brutal. It's definitely not like my 21-year-old or my 15-year-old. They can definitely just rebound and bounce back like it's nothing. They stay up until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning playing for a night,

and when it's time for us to get up in the morning to go train and stuff, they're ready to go. And I'm just thinking, man, I remember those days. But it's been brutal, especially with everything that's going on with my four-year-old with her being sick the last couple weeks. It has really set me back because I't had really that much time to get in as much as possible. But she'll be coming home tomorrow morning, and hopefully I can get back into the swing of things with the Mr. CF at home.

Definitely. I mean, I definitely understand the family concerns, and that obviously comes first. So when you get back into the gym after that, kind of take me through kind of a general day of training for you. What does it look like, you know, obviously trying to get back in shape? Well, me and my wife just recently joined the gym out here membership. It's a place called Orange Theory.

I don't know if they have them. Yeah. I live in the Midwest. Yep, my wife and I go to that too. Oh, that place is insane. Man, I probably should have done that about 10, 15 years ago, but I don't know if they were around that long ago, but jeez. That place is insane.

I mean, we get in there at least three times, four times a week. You know, it has really helped, you know, get my legs moving and the muscles and stuff acclimated back to practice. And then I'm an assistant coach on my 15-year-old son's club team, the AAU basketball team. So Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, we have practice from 6 to 9. So I get in and do some coaching with them.

And then my 21-year-old, who's a student athlete at Fresno Pacific University, he's back home for the summer. So I put him through a hard workout and get on the court with them and let them know that I'm still the king of the court. But I definitely pay for it at the end of the day. So we got the Norma Tech. We got the game-ready machine, which is the ice compression machine. And we fight about who's going to have it first. We got the Norma Tech, we got the Game Ready machine, which is the ice compression machine.

We fight about who's going to have it first, and I'm the one that pays for it, so they get the second. The Norma Tech machine works wonders, man. I've used that before, and it is truly fantastic. So the Game Ready is similar. It doesn't have as much compression, but it has the ice therapy. So you put the ice in it and the water, and it's like a cold compression. So we got the best of both, and we're fortunate enough to have that. Absolutely. I mean, it's crazy.

The older you get, the more you need to focus on the recovery aspect just as much as you do the training and the getting ready aspect, I feel like. I feel like the switch begins happening as you get older. It's 50-50 recovery versus actually training. Absolutely, absolutely. But, you know, it feels good, you know, to be able to attempt to do something like this again. I was going to, you know, look to do the big three this year.

But, you know, with everything that happened with the kids and everything the last couple months and a half, with the combine, with the Big 3 just passing, I didn't have time to meet that deadline. So I've got a little bit more time for the TBT and have a whole entire year to care for the Big 3 next year. So hopefully we'll see what happens. Man, you took the words right out of one of my questions. I was actually going to ask you if you had any aspirations to play in the Big 3 next year. So hopefully, we'll see what happens. Man, you took the words right out of one of my questions.

I was actually going to ask you if you had any aspirations to play in the Big 3. I mean, I just saw that Royce White is now playing in it. I think it'd be a very good fit for you. So that'll be exciting to watch you play in that next year. And obviously, the TBT will help you get kind of in that basketball shape, give you a little bit more game-time experience before you jump back into professional basketball?

Yeah, because it's been a good three and a half, four years since the last time I played professionally. I could have maybe scratched and clawed to another two and a half, three years, but my oldest son, I wanted to coach him his last two years in high school. So he graduated in 16, and so I just went ahead and retired and put forth the effort to help him be able to possibly follow in my footsteps.

You know, now he's playing collegiate basketball and doing well. That's awesome. I mean, it sounds, just in our very short time talking, obviously you're a big family man. You obviously retired a couple years ago. So what have you been up to now outside of coaching your son? What are some of the other business ventures you've been kind of working on? Me and my wife just bought a business.

The name of it is Slip Guardians, which is a business that we bought from Slip Doctors, which is a floor safety company, you know, to protect businesses' homes against slip and fall accidents. You know, it's nearly $10 billion a year. If you want to call it a market, I don't like calling it a market because you don't want to think about people getting hurt and it's costing them $10 billion and, you know, injuries and doctor bills and things like that.

But, you know, different businesses, hospitals, nursing homes, universities, YMCA, swimming pools, things like that, anywhere that you have a slippery surface, anywhere we see someone put a wet floor sign there, you know, that doesn't excuse the business from being liable. That's actually telling someone, you know, that they're particularly negligent for having an issue and a problem. And then you have a lot of people that actually, you know, identify places like that to try to sue businesses for, you know, being negligent and going to the areas looking to fall.

So with our company, we definitely protect any kind of foreign that you have. We take the liability or limit the liability that a company would have. Everything is documented. It is a two-year guarantee that the product will work the way that it's supposed to. We keep up the maintenance and everything going on, and it's just a great company. I wanted to do something to help create jobs, family members and stuff like that. The ABA checks aren't coming in anymore. We've got to plan for the future.

My wife has four children that will probably eat more than any kids I've ever seen before in my life. So we've got to think about the future. It's just one of the three businesses, a family business, that we can all work and make a great living with. Makes sense. And so did you kind of vet out the industry and the business itself, or did you guys kind of just start this? I mean, I guess how did you come into the business is really kind of what I'm curious about. Well, I was just online speaking with my wife, thinking about is there a franchise that we could possibly look to buy into

or a business that we could possibly look to buy into or a business that we could possibly look to buy into and I just Googled, you know, franchises or businesses available for purchase for, I think we were initially thinking about 50 grand and this is one of the ones that came up. You know, I read more into it and this has been over like a three-year thing. You know, my wife is one of the hardest people in the world to convince about something.

So anything that I'm planning on doing monetarily, you know, I got to make sure that all my P's and Q's are in line. So I did research on the company. The headquarters of the company is out of Carrollton, Texas, you know, which is close to home in Louisiana. And I just constantly, constantly did research of the company. I called in and spoke with the CEO of the company, and we've had a relationship for the last two and a half years. And every two or three months, he called back to see where we were in the process. And I told him that we were eventually going to, just needed to do more research.

And we kept that relationship together. And back in this past March, we went forward with everything and bought the business. And now we're just looking to get clients and protect. Everybody needs to be protected. One of the first businesses that I'm looking to reach out to is hopefully Iowa State University. You know, so like the practice facilities, the concourses of the Hill Coliseum, the bathrooms, you know, all that area, the swimming pool for the swim team. You know, it's just a great product to have.

It creates more traction when my product is applied to the floor. When the floor is wet, then it actually would be untreated when it's dry. So it's just a great business that we're looking to, you know, profit off of. That's exciting, man. And one of the other things I saw about, you know, kind of, you know, doing some research is that you were, or you are listed as a managing consultant at Aspire Sports Management. Are you still working on that as well? A little bit, like here and there.

It's just helping you guys looking to get into the pro race. There's a lot of guys that not necessarily, if they went to a smaller school or went through some things with some agents that probably wasn't a good fit. Just being a managing consultant, just to help them with advice and, you know, possible teams is reaching out and looking for players. You know, I'm still contacted from a lot of the connections and people that I have made relationships with, you know, in Europe and around, you know, the NBA G League and

stuff like that, just looking for players. I'm always getting contacted on LinkedIn or on Facebook or something like that for people just looking for players. If I can help someone start their career or help advance their career, that's something I'm looking to do. That's really cool, man. One of the things you mentioned a few minutes ago was that, obviously you're from Louisiana.

I believe you have some roots in michigan as well but how did how did tim floyd convince you to come all the way up to iowa i mean i feel like that's a pretty big pretty big jump from louisiana especially temperature wise i am that's the thing so i initially i grew up in with raised in detroit born and raised in detroit my have family in Louisiana and Detroit. And so once I got to high school and things were, you know, not the best situation growing up in Detroit. Definitely wanted to survive. So I had an older brother that lived in Louisiana, and I asked my mom for permission to move to Louisiana to be able to live with him. Basketball was going to arise for me.

It was my freshman year in high school. And so by transferring from Detroit to Louisiana, Arcadia, Louisiana, without my parents coming with me, I had to sit out my freshman year so I could play. I could only practice. And I was, you know, a small town. I had my driver's license at the age of 14, 15. So when my dad was at work, I had to take my mom or my guardian mom,

my guardian parents in Louisiana, I had to take her lunch to her job. And she was a registered nurse at the nursing home or the retirement center. And so at the time, when I was taking her out lunch, Beverly Floyd was there. Her mother was a resident in the nursing home. And so I took my mom to lunch and Beverly saw that at the time I was, I think, maybe 6'5", 6'6". And, you know, she began speaking to me and everything. And she said, you know, that her husband was the president of a university. And I said, oh, yeah. We started talking for a minute. She just happened to have, and this is true story,

she just happened to have a media guy in the car. So she went and got the media guy. And me as a freshman, you know, I was looking at the media guy. And I remember Dedrick being in there and Kel Makedo, Sean Bankhead, Justin Holloway, all those guys. And I just started reading up on Iowa State. And so as a kid, you know, not knowing where basketball was going to take me, I ultimately fell in love with Iowa State. So that's where my heart was and desire and everything was. I just happened to become a basketball star.

So just because, you know, I became a basketball star, but not all Americans, wasn't going to change my views about, you know, going to a different school or anything like that. So Iowa State always had a leg up on any other university that was recruiting. So once the process came and Junior was here and recruiting started picking up, Coach Floyd was still the coach there and he ultimately had an upper hand on that than anyone else. I had already made the decision that that's where I was going to go in the rest of this year. That is probably one of the most interesting, I mean I've been talking to a lot of

recruits of the Iowa Hawkeyes and stuff and that is one of the most interesting. I mean, I've been talking to a lot of recruits of the Iowa Hawkeyes and stuff, and that is one of the more, I would say the most interesting story I've heard so far about how you kind of became an Iowa State Cyclone. I think Cyclone Nation is obviously incredibly happy that that obviously worked out the way it did, that she had a media guide in there and you kind of fell in love with the school. So that is a really cool story. That's a true story. There was a lot.

There were some things that were kind of, you know, from feathers that were being ruffled about trying to see if there was a recruiting violation. And I told them, I said, listen, this is the honest, the God-truth story. Like, it just happened by chance. Like, she wasn't recruiting me. I was a freshman in high school.

Like, she knew I was a freshman, and she didn't know if she was ever going to see me for the next four years or ever again. I just had to meet you guys, and that's the school I chose to go to. That's so cool. You ultimately ended up playing for Tim Floyd for a year in Iowa State, and then you ended up playing with him in Chicago as well. What was that like playing with him in college versus playing with him in the pros? What was that

transition like for you going from college basketball to the NBA? It probably was definitely better in college. Once you get to the pro range, it's so much different. I tell people,

in all honesty, the last time I really had fun playing basketball was when I was in college. It wasn't oppression. It wasn't about money. It was just about your brothers and the grind and the blood, sweat, and tears that you were doing just to compete and have a respect and have a name in the college ranks.

But once we got to the pros, you know, things definitely changed. I never assumed or thought I was going to be drafted by the Bulls. You know, the consistence was I was either going the third pick to the Orlando Magic. I mean, third pick to the Los Angeles Clippers or the fifth pick to the Orlando Magic. You know, I didn't even work out for the Chicago Bulls because, you know, they had just drafted and held

the brand the year before. So I never assumed that that was going to be taking place, but ultimately it did. Worked out pretty well, at least getting a chance to play with, having that familiarity with an old friend from Iowa State, obviously. And after Chicago, you kind of spent some time overseas. What was your favorite place overseas to play at? Tel Aviv, Israel. Started out Tel Aviv, Israel. Been raised as a Christian my entire life.

But being in the Holy Land was amazing. You know, I think being over there, they kind of was dumbfounded by, that was the highlight for me, but for me that was. Being able to drive down the street and it's like you see a Des Moines, Iowa sign, you see a sign that says Nazareth or Bethlehem. That's just a different feeling for me. I remember the first time that I saw the sign that said Nazareth, I literally had to pull over to the side of the road just to catch my bearing,

you know, just hyperventilate. It was like this is real life, you know, that I'm here. You know, and on my days off, that's what I would do. I would go to different places and just sightsee and walk around Jerusalem. It was all kind of different stuff that was going on around me that I wasn't aware of and not paying attention to, but I'm thankful that I was protected from it and was able to experience that at the time. To this day, I look forward to even taking my family back there one day.

That's really cool. I think, you know, personally, being from obviously the States and whatnot, you're right, there's not a lot of history in the United States, especially when you go overseas and you start seeing places that you've read about in books or you've heard stories about or you've heard historical things in the early, you know, 10th century, that kind of stuff. So I think I can only imagine the coolness and the surrealness about that experience, seeing those biblical places, and you're right there.

Right, absolutely. And that's, you know, surreal. You know, the dynamic of it all is so surreal to even, you know, try to put into words. And, you know, to be able to go over there and play a high-level basketball for a team like Maccabi Tel Aviv, the Nokia Arena is where we played, and it was bigger than the United Center. It's big-time basketball there.

It makes a great living. To be able to see different things was a lot of fun. Absolutely. As far as you talked about the Nokia Center there, bigger than the United Center, which is crazy to me. What was your favorite arena to play in? And I think I'm teeing this up for you, but definitely give me whatever the right answer is for you.

Was it Hilton? Was it the United Center? Was it the Nokia Center? What was your favorite kind of experience fan experience and kind of crowd energy there's no question the the biggest fan experience is always and always forever everyone you'll come no question about that you know um that that's a that's a feeling in the end and an atmosphere you would chase for you know the rest of your entire life. Because being in the middle of Iowa, there's no post sports like that around there. So whether it's at Iowa State or University of Iowa, even Drake for that matter, or Northern Iowa,

the fan base is always amazing. They're always going to come out and support you for what you're saying. There's nothing like that. I remember the year, my last year when we beat Iowa, I've told the story before, like to actually hear, I don't know, sound barrier broken. It was almost something like that where it was so loud that it was deafening and I could just feel it, you know, just reverberating on my skull and my ears. And everything went silent. And then all of a sudden, everything just rushed back up.

I could see the fans and the crowds moving, but nothing was being said. Nothing was being heard. Then all of a sudden, within two or three seconds, everything just rushed back up. And it actually scared me because it stopped me in the middle of my celebration, because I'm like, whoa, what is going on? Have I gone deaf, or what's going on? But it happened so fast, and like, I mean, to this day, I still get chills from thinking about that moment.

And, you know, for someone to experience that, it's ridiculous to even see them in silence. As far as the Iowa-Iowa State rivalry, obviously in the era of social media, I feel like it's getting a little bit chippier, it feels like. But what was it like back when you were playing almost 20 years ago? What was that rivalry like in terms of basketball-wise? I don't think it was as chippy as it is now because you have social media and news and everything travels so fast. But for us, it was as chippy as it is now because you have social media and news and everything travels so fast. But, you know, for us it was huge. I remember playing at Iowa in the pink locker room. Before we went into the locker room, Coach Stacey had to put newspaper

over all of the pink walls and stuff like that. So it was, you know, they were trying to gain an advantage, and we were trying to, you know, even the playing field, you know, back to our side and things like that. It's the one game that, or it's the one rival or the one team that played against each other that everyone from their respective colleges, you know, geared for. And, you know, once you graduate or you're done playing there,

your time there is done, you know, we always root for each other. Here, during the basketball season, when Drake University won the tournament that was out here in Vegas, you know, I sat with my boys and watched all of the games that were going on here. And, you know, to be there and cheer for them. My 15-year-old Marcus Fyder Jr., he was asking me, why are you going for great? And I said, they're from Des Moines.

He's like, oh. He's like, did you ever play them? I said, yeah. I won one and lost two against them. So I'm not too happy about that part. But, you know, once you're done, you can always cheer for an Iowa native team. You've got to do that. I think you phrased that so well. I like

the fact that you talked about such a big rivalry while you're playing, but as soon as you're done, let's root for the entire state. Let's go all the teams. I'm the same way. I root for Iowa and state let's go all the teams I mean I'm the same way I root for you know Iowa and Drake but and when we're playing you know Iowa State I obviously root against Iowa State but everything else let's go Iowa State let's let's let's you know represent the state of Iowa well and so I think that's what I love the most about this Iowa United team is that it's bringing together all the schools so from that perspective though have you done any I mean have you had a chance to watch a lot of those guys play? And if so,

who are you looking most forward to playing with from the Iowa United? And I think I'm going to take away Tyrus McGee from that, that option, the answer options is because you've coached him last year on the, or on the Hilton Magic Legends. So out of all the other guys, who are you most excited to play with? Probably, probably Peter Jock. I, you know, I love his game, except when he played against Iowa State. You know, I really definitely thought he was going to be a spring throw, and he's still young, so he definitely has his time to move forward with it.

So I love his toughness. You know, he was the one player on the team that, you know, I feared every time we played him. But he's probably definitely the main one that I'm looking forward to meeting and being able to be on the court with and, you know, watch him in action in person. Yeah, man, I mean, he's a great shooter. He's crushing it in the G League right now. He was shooting over 40% from the three-point line, which is – That's big time. Yeah, that's a great shooter. He's crushing it in the G League right now. He was shooting over 40% from the three-point line, which is –

That's big time. Yeah, that's a big deal. So I'm excited to watch you guys play with him as well. As far as, you know, you're bringing sort of a veteran presence to that team, and there's a couple of young, you know, forwards. You have Nick McGlynn. You got, you know, Tybee. You have Nicholas Bayer.

So what are you kind of envisioning as far as your role on that team, you know, as a veteran leader? Are you looking forward to kind of coaching some of those guys up and giving them some of those pointers that you've learned from your professional experience? Absolutely. They got to understand that the 40-year-old Marcus Fires is going after the 21, 22-year-old. So just being able to watch the guys have success, being able to watch the guys enjoy themselves, that's ultimately what our initial goal for Hill Magic and Legends, to be able to come in and help those guys progress on and help them in their professional careers. Because even if it's not the NBA, people think the only way you can make a supreme living

is in the NBA, and that's not the truth. Full disclaimer, my last couple years even playing, probably the least amount of money I've ever made was $50,000 to $60,000 a month. Over an eight or nine month season.

Come on, you want to tell me that's not good money? That's pretty darn good money, man. Exactly. Exactly. To be able to give these guys some pointers, Come on, now, you want to tell me that's not good money? Yeah, that's pretty darn good money, man. Exactly, exactly. So, you know, to be able to, you know, give these guys some pointers, you know, some guys end up in Israel. It may not be on the top of each other, where you can make millions of dollars plus a year like I would.

It may be on the smaller ball clubs that you could be making $8,000 to $9,000 a year, I mean, $8,000 to $10,000 a month or a little bit more. And while you're working your way up, you're working your way up. And even $8,000 to $10,000 a month is a great living. When you're, you know, doing something that you absolutely love to do, you don't have to pay for your living, you don't have to pay for your car. You know, in some of those places, if you spend $500 a month, you know, on living, food

and stuff like that, that's absolutely expensive. So you're gone eight to nine, ten months out of the year. You come back home for the time of the summer to be able to see family and train and build for the next year. Then you look forward to doing this again to possibly advance on. To mention someone like Tyrus. You know, Tyrus is doing great.

He started on some of the lower ball clubs before. Now he's moving up and he's winning championships. And I guarantee you see him on one of the, you know, bigger, higher level EuroLeague teams real soon. Yeah, and not to mention the fact that you get to travel the world. Like you talked about with your experience in Israel, you got to see some things that hardly anyone in America has ever been able to see.

So just overall, just a really cool experience. And like you said, you're doing something you love and you're making pretty good money doing it. So I love you. I mean, a lot of those guys are currently overseas. And I know talking to Nick McGlynn, his plan is to play overseas. And so is Nicholas Bayer.

So I'm sure you have a lot of words of wisdom for them. So I have one final question for you, Marcus. I know I didn't want to keep you too long, so I really appreciate your time. But my final question for you is, what does success look like with the Iowa United and with you playing with the Iowa United? If you were able to finish the summer and say, man, I had a blast, that was successful, what does that look like for you? to finish the summer and say, man, I had a blast.

I was successful. What does that look like for you? Just to be able to advance. Ultimately, we definitely would love to win it all. Everyone wants to win it all. You know, but being able to get in with the guys, you know, get some running in, win some games, you know, pick their brains, see what they're thinking, see if there's any kind of ups and downs that they're currently going through.

Some guys may be looking to become pro or break into the pro rankings, maybe not have the right representation or didn't know how to go to this place or that place or maybe looking for some connections out here in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is pretty much the unofficial new mecca of basketball. During the summertime, from the NBA all the way out to European leagues are going on out here where people are recruiting and looking to sign players.

So if I'm able to give them some advice, some pointers, some of the post players looking for different ideas and stuff like that, anyway, they're not going to absolutely help. That's why initially I wanted to get in with the coaching. The way things have set up this time is we're going to be able to get in a little bit

earlier, get some practice in and be a little bit more organized than we've been for the last couple years. Not to take anything away from the guys that put everything together with the Ole Miss and Legends. We had a blast, you know, but to be able to possibly get back out there

this year to get these old bones moving and, you know, gear up for, you know, next summer of doing this again or possibly the big three, you know, is ultimately a success and, you know, we'll see what happens. I love it, man up for, you know, next summer of doing this again or possibly the big three, you know, is ultimately a success and, you know,

we'll see what happens. I love it, man. Well, I'm really excited to watch you guys play. I'm going to try to make it out to a few games. So,

I'm excited to watch you all play. I think you have a very talented team together, some good post players, some great three-point shooters. So, I'm excited to watch that. Any last parting words

of wisdom or anything else you would like to say on the podcast for today? Uh, no, just, i appreciate the opportunity i'm looking forward to you know the excitement having a lot of fun um let's do a whole lot of praying that this body keeps up and uh go cyclone i got that's a pretty good closing well thank you marcus for joining the show today i absolutely appreciate it and i I hope your daughter gets better. I'll be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers, man.

Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Yep. Talk to you later, Marcus. Thank you. Bye. All right. And that concludes our interview with Marcus Fizer.

Again, a big shout out to him. I know he's going through some, some personal family stuff, and I really appreciate him taking the time to hop on the show with us and talk to us about what it means to be playing for the Iowa United. What kind of his training has looked like as he gets back into shape to play for the Iowa United. And also talking about some of his career highlights. You can tell he's very passionate about the Iowa State Cyclones. And also just passionate about the state of Iowa in general.

Which I think is really cool to have guys like that to be playing on the Iowa United. I'm really excited to see kind of the presence he brings for that team. So fantastic stuff today. Obviously, I hope you enjoyed it. If you did enjoy it, make sure to like and subscribe wherever you download this podcast at. And if you follow us on Twitter at Locked on Iowa, you can get all the recent updates about when we're going to be airing certain episodes, what's going to be playing on those

episodes, what interviews are coming up, all the news you need to know to make sure you are finding the right episodes for your listening pleasure. Also, make sure to go follow the Iowa United on Twitter as well. I believe it's under Iowa TBT. That's how you're going to get all the updates as to any player development, and also they do the player previews every single week, so make sure to follow that. You get lots of great information about the players that are going to be playing on the Iowa United. So again, thank you for tuning You get lots of great information about the players that are going to be playing on the Iowa United.

So again, thank you for tuning in on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Obviously today we're going to be calling it the Lockdown Iowa podcast, but again, thank you for tuning in on this podcast. Absolutely appreciate all of your love and support. I hope you have a great day, Hawkeye,

Cyclone, Bulldog, and Panda Nation. And just have to do this for y'all, but go Hawks. I'm out.