Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa struggles but gets the W versus Michigan State plus a Senior Bowl and Hula Bowl recap

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

The Hawkeyes got the win versus Michigan State but they didn't come out of there without a few concerns. Perimeter defense is still a concern and the lack of energy early in the game is a concern, but we break all of that down and what went right for the Hawks last night. Plus, we give a quick recap of the performances by four Iowa Hawkeyes at the Senior Bowl and Hula Bowl.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!KeepsIf you’re ready to take action and prevent hair loss, go to Keeps.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE to receive your first month of treatment for free.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Wednesday morning episode 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 show today. And on today's show, we're going to be giving you a bit of a review of the Senior Bowl and the Hula Bowl. Wasn't able to see the film and able to get as much from the Hula Bowl, but at least cover it a little bit because Mekhi Sargent did win an award down there and proved what he has been proving to

people all along, that he is a fantastic, patient running back who could make a difference on an NFL roster. So we're going to be talking about that. And then we're going to be wrapping up the show with segment two and segment number three, talking about Iowa basketball. What went right? What went wrong in that win over Michigan State? And there was definitely some wrong, but really, really enjoyed watching Fran McCaffrey kind of tinker with the lineups to get one that was going to work for this game.

He pushed the right buttons. Iowa gets the W, which is really all that matters. Even if they didn't cover, even if I lost money on betting on Iowa to cover. Nevertheless, we're going to cover all that on the show today. So let's get into it. First and foremost, the Senior Bowl and Hula Bowl. Those are big-time events, especially this year with the Combine being a bit unique and different. Those are opportunities for Iowa players to show what they can do.

And I would say for the most part, they did that. In the Hula Bowl, McKay Sargent was the MVP, had six carries for 61 yards, one reception at 18 yards. He displayed a lot of patience on his runs as he did at Iowa. I mean, that is one of the things he was so phenomenal at, was displaying patience, letting his blocks be set up, and then always falling forward, always turning those legs, getting those extra yards. Mekhi Sargent, most likely not going to be a draft pick, but undoubtedly going to be a UDFA guy who's going to make a roster because of the little things that he can do. Probably able to play a bit on special teams as well.

Jack Heflin, also not the Hula Bowl again. Tough to get as much film on there, so I wasn't able to see him play. The Senior Bowl, though, was a little bit interesting. Alaric Jackson went into that with high expectations and came out of it with low expectations. Chauncey Golsan went in there with some hype and came out of there with even more hype. Alaric Jackson, let's touch on that, though,

because one of the things I noticed in watching the film was they had him lined up on the right side a bit and at guard quite a bit. And I think it's important to note that this is not Madden. You cannot just switch people from left to right and you're good. The footwork is entirely different. Everything is in reverse. There's a reason why Larrick Jackson played left tackle for four years and never once took a snap at right tackle for Iowa.

It's because he struggled at the right tackle slot. So when you're down at the senior bowl, that's a tough time to be learning a brand new position, basically doing everything in reverse. And then also you have to factor in that the senior bowl does not highlight offensive tackles very well. You're getting a lot of one-on-one drills, which is not conducive to the tackle being able to block those guys. And as we've seen in the past, Alarary Jackson struggles a little bit with speed rushers, and that happened at the Senior Bowl. So really, the Senior Bowl is not...

If you can come out of that and dominate pass rushers, you're going to elevate your stock quite a bit. But it's a lot harder to do so, which is why your stock can elevate so much if you do a great job. But again, O'Leary Jackson playing multiple positions he has not played really struggled with that. I truly do think there is a spot for him, but potentially at a tackle spot, obviously

with a little bit of help as a developmental tackle, but I really feel like he's most likely going to slide inside. We saw his arm length really kind of at that cutoff, that threshold for NFL teams, so it'll be interesting to see what happens from here with his draft stock. I still think he's going to be a day three pick. Probably fifth, sixth round day three pick in my personal opinion. I'll obviously try to get some more information. Talk to Matt Miller. Seems like that's kind of where he

has a lyric Jackson at as well. Chauncey Golston, this is the guy who came in and did a phenomenal job during the week. High praise from a number of people, including former Locked On NFL draft host John Ledger. Chauncey Golston, what I thought was interesting was they had him lined up inside quite a bit, playing that three tech, just lining up outside of the guard.

And he did a great job, despite not a big guy, right? Not that 290, 300 pound type of guy inside. 268 is what he weighed at. And he did a great job of showing some fantastic pass rush moves, also showing the power that he displayed at Iowa. I mean, he's a pure power rusher. He's not a speed guy, and he did a really great job throughout the week, and it cultivated into a great Senior Bowl game where he was actually the fourth highest graded defensive player at the Senior Bowl, checking in with a grade of 85.6, also listed

again as a defensive tackle. Finished that day with six tackles and one pass defended. I did see some amateur NFL draft scouts say this guy is elevated into the top of the second round talk. I'm sorry, that's not true. I would put a lot of money on Chauncey Golsan not going in the top of the second round. There is still testing that needs to happen, but Chauncey Golsan to me is probably an early day three pick, early to mid-day three pick in my personal opinion, especially after this strong performance.

Obviously testing is going to be a big deal as well, seeing how he tests. We saw A.J. Paneza struggle in the 4-D-R dash, and that did drop him a little bit. We talked to some guys from the Lockdown NFL Draft podcast last year, and they said exactly that. The fact that there are teams that are going to remove him from their draft boards because they just don't like what he's bringing to the table from a speed perspective.

That was straight from the words of Benjamin Solak, one of the hosts of Lockdown NFL Draft with Trevor Sikama. Now, that doesn't mean he's taken away from every team. It doesn't mean he's not going to be an effective pass rusher. Just some teams have thresholds, and he didn't make that threshold. So it'll be very interesting to see what Chauncey Golsan does and if he can meet some of those thresholds that are required from a testing perspective. But clearly, it looks like teams are also looking at him as a possible pass rusher from the inside,

maybe bulk him up a little bit and have him do some more interior pass rushing, which could be an interesting spot as we saw the power there from Chauncey Golsan. Lots of great clips of him dominating guards in the Senior Bowl practice week. So great job to Chauncey Golsan, great job to Mekhi Sargent. Obviously more to be seen from Jack Heflin and Aleric Jackson, but that does do it for segment number one of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Coming up on segment number two, we're going to get into the basketball game, and

we're going to be doing that for two segments on today's show, because there's a lot to talk about with that Iowa winning, but not in the way you would expect them to. Before we get into that, though, today was a long day for me. I had a very long work day, and I didn't have time to make lunch, so I grabbed myself another Bilt Bar. I had a Bilt Bar for breakfast and built bar for lunch. And that's the reason why is because built

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Peter Bukowski hosts Locked On Today. A daily podcast breaking down the biggest stories with analysis from our local experts. Start your day with all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes. Subscribe to Locked On Today wherever you get your podcast app. Now let's turn our attention to the basketball game because coming into this game, if you listen to our crossover episode with Matt Sheehan of Locked On Spartans yesterday, Will is his co-host, you would have known that we thought this was going to be a blowout. And what was tough about that is you have an Iowa team that should come in that game

quite motivated, right? They fell to Indiana. They shouldn't have lost that game. They had a terrible shooting performance. They lost Illinois in a bad fashion. Not Iowa playing necessarily terrible, but the officiating was bad. They came in motivated. You thought they would want to prove a point.

Now, Michigan State is not a bad team, although their record states otherwise. They still have talent on this team. This is a team that was ranked as high as fourth in the nation earlier this year. But you expect a little bit more from the Iowa Hawkeyes, and we didn't get that throughout this game. They were down big early on in the first half. They cut the lead, ultimately ended up getting back to a good spot, up five points going into the half. And then the second half,

they were doing all right, almost got to a nine-point lead and then let that slip away. What I thought was interesting was the fact that Fran had to pull a lot of different triggers in this game to get Iowa moving. And when you look at the minute of this team, you can see that he was trying to do a lot of different things to get this team going. Iowa was terrible from the perimeter, 5 of 17 from 3. That didn't help that Connor McCaffrey shot four three-pointers in this game. that Connor McCaffrey shot four three-pointers in this game. I know last game I was praising Connor McCaffrey for his aggressiveness on offense.

Excuse me, wow, talking is hard today, right, y'all? Aggressiveness on offense. But sometimes you just need to maybe wait a little bit longer in the possession. A few of his three-point shots were taken early on in the possession. I felt like, yes, he might have had an okay look, but maybe look for a better look to a better player, a better shooter, I should say. Connor McCaffrey, a fantastic passer, but just didn't, you know, a couple of his entry passes weren't that great today either. Had two turnovers in the game, missed four three-pointers. Not his best game. Only played 19 minutes. C.J. Frederick,

it was great that he was back, but also did not play that well. Didn't look like himself. In 12 minutes of action, two points, one rebound, one assist. Luki Garza had a pretty good game. Not the best game from the free throw line, 8 of 14, 9 of 18 from the field, but he was getting hacked a little bit. He did a great job of almost fouling out the entire Spartans front court. When you look at that, I mean, He did a great job of almost fouling out the entire Spartans front court. When you look at that, I mean, Bingham Jr. had five fouls. Joey Hauser had four. Aaron Henry had four.

I mean, he was close to fouling out most of that Michigan State Spartans squad. So that was great to see. But Luka Garza not having as great of a game as we're used to. Again, the game he had would be great compared to almost any other college basketball player. But by Luka Garza's standards, maybe not as good as you would expect. 27 points on 9 of 18 shooting, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, a plus minus 3. But the difference in this game was when Fran McCaffrey basically said, you know what? I'm not getting what I need out of these starters. I'm putting in our backups, and we're going to get the minutes we need from those guys.

Jack Nunji and Joe Toussaint played huge minutes, 23 minutes from Jack Nunji, more than Jordan Bohannon, more than Connor McCaffrey, and more than CJ Frederick. Finished with 12 rebounds, 8 boards, or sorry, 12 points, 8 boards, 1 assist, 4 or 5 shooting, 2 of 2 from 3, and 1 steal. He had a plus-minus of 15, a game-high plus-minus 15. Last week, after the Illinois game we got a call in you know a listener who called in and said Jack Nunji should never play another minute I said that's not true at all Jack Nunji brings a lot on the defensive side of the ball I do think offensively

passing wise that's not a strength of his and maybe he's just trying to stay away from providing entry passes but outside of that Jack Nunji put in amazing minutes and there that that shows you why he is such a crucial player to this team. He's able to come off the bench and provide huge minutes. The third most minutes on the entire team. Joe Toussaint, another guy. People have been kind of wanting to get in the game more. He played more minutes than Jordan Bohannon in this game.

Finished with 10 points, 1 rebound, 6 assists, 3 of 5 shooting, 1 steal, and a plus minus of 11. Again, a fantastic performance by Joe Toussaint. A lot of people out there have been really wanting Joe Toussaint to get minutes. Well, he did. It proved to work pretty darn well. And Patrick McCaffrey as well. He's struggled a little bit when he drives the basket, hasn't been able to convert on some of those shots. Well, that was not the case today.

Slamming it home for a dunk, also getting an alley-oop. Finished with 4 points, four rebounds. What was most impressive was Patrick McCaffrey's defensive energy, though, and he finished with a plus-minus of 13, which is the second best on the team. Patrick McCaffrey really impressed me defensively, though. One of the more impressive plays that didn't actually work for Iowa, he blocked a three-point shot, got the rebound as it's going out of bounds, and chucked it back in, unfortunately, to a Michigan State player. But the fact that Fran McCaffrey can turn to his bench for almost the entire second part of the second half and close out a game against a Michigan State Spartan squad,

that's huge to me. To me, that is a big-time thing to be able to do, and it also sends a message to his starters. But what frustrates me about that is the fact that he had to send a message to his starters. Defensively, it's just not there all the time. You have a veteran squad. You expect them to be able to come into these games motivated. I'm not saying they're not motivated. I know they're motivated. I know they want to win the game, but the energy wasn't there. The hustle wasn't there. They let Michigan State pop off from three. Michigan State was up by 10 or 11 points because they were

shooting 100% from the three-point mark. I actually took a screenshot of it. Let me see. Michigan State up 26-17 with 11 minutes and 44 seconds in the first, And the Spartans were six of six from three. Lankford, one of one. Hauser, one of one. Aaron Henry, two of two. Lawyer, one of one. Wockett-Watts, one of one. They couldn't miss. Now, obviously they regressed a little bit, but they were getting way too many wide open looks. You can't allow that. And we've talked about that. We have Kenya Murray on the show a couple days ago. He talked about the rotations and getting those in order. And the rotations are still not there all the way. You want to see better defense.

That allows a team, I mean, there's no reason why every single team that plays Iowa should have a career night shooting three-pointers. Now, to be fair, Iowa won the game, and that's what's important. But I do think it's important to call out some of these things. Iowa needs to get better defending the three-point line. It's going to be their kryptonite. If they can't shoot the ball, and they struggled shooting the ball yesterday. Don't think about that.

They struggled shooting the ball today, 29% from 3, 5 of 17. From the field, a lot better, 50%. But still, they struggled a little bit today shooting the ball. From the free throw line, only 66%. They need to do a better job of defending the perimeter. They have to do it. There's no excuse for every single team coming in and shooting well from three. That's just unacceptable to me.

The fact that Michigan State finished today, or yesterday, shooting 41% from three on 29 attempts, that's what kept them in this game. Coming into this game, they were a 32.7% shooting team. This should not have happened. Langford, 3 of 6. Henry, 4 of 5. Hauser, 2 of 4.

Thank God for Lawyer, who went 1 of 6. Or Rocket Watts, who went 2 of 7, who's been atrocious offensively lately. Without those two, holy heck, we don't know what Michigan State could have done shooting the ball-wise. But Iowa did get the win, 84-78. We're going to continue our discussion on that on segment number 3, breaking down a few other things that I noticed. I'm also talking about some key minutes we got from a couple of true freshmen. That's all coming up on segment number 3 of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast.

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2020 is mercifully over. It's time for a fresh start and a few more wins. If you're betting this year and want more wins, listen to Locked On Bets with your boy Q and Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They are picking college basketball, football, and NBA locks all winter long. Subscribe to Locked On Bets wherever you get your podcast at. Now let's finish up with additional discussion on Iowa's win over the Michigan State Spartans. Now again, the biggest takeaway here, Iowa won the game.

That's huge. Iowa needed that win. They get Ohio State now in two nights from now, and we're going to actually be doing a crossover episode with Jay Stevens of Locked On Buckeyes to talk about that game. Ohio State is not a team to sleep on. They are a very talented team, and they're coming together and gelling at the right time. And right now you can't say the same about Iowa. Fran needed to do everything he could to get this team in the game today. And that basically meant relying on his bench players to get the lead. The couple of good

things here about that. First and foremost, the fact that Fran McCaffrey can go to his bench is huge. The fact that you can trust your bench to get a lead for you against a Michigan State Spartan squad that was ranked fourth in the nation earlier in the year, that's incredible. Now again, I expect more from the starters. They need to play better in these games. I thought they said they had a fantastic couple days of practice. You would expect to see a little bit more from them coming into this game.

But nevertheless, hopefully this is the motivation they need. Because again, Luka Garza, 35 minutes. Joe Wieskamp, 24. After that, it was Jack Nunji with 23 and Joe Toussaint with 21 minutes because they were the most effective on the court. Patrick McCaffrey, 15. Keegan Murray also played a solid 15 minutes, seven points, four rebounds, two of four shooting,

and one block. Tony Perkins, though, is the guy I want to focus on, as well as Aaron Ulis, who got three minutes of playing time. And Fran McCaffrey alluded to this. With CJ Frederick out, we were likely going to see Tony Perkins and Aaron Ulis play a little bit more in this game. Tony Perkins looked really great.

What I loved about his game was the defensive energy and the fact that he was willing to drive to the lane, get his shot up. 13 minutes, 4 points, 1 rebound, 2 of 2 shooting, 3 personal fouls, which is not great, but a plus-minus of 7, which is better than everyone on Iowa's starting lineup. All right, and Aaron Ulis, in 3 minutes of time, had a plus minus a seven. That says a lot about these players. And honestly, this gives me a lot of hope for the future as well.

Losing a Luka Garza is not going to be easy. You can never replace a Luka Garza. You cannot replace the clutch gene of Jordan Bohannon. And Joe Wieskamp is phenomenal. So is Connor McCaffrey as a passer and CJ Frederick. But the fact that we were playing a true freshman in Tony Perkins, a true freshman in Aaron Lewis, a true freshman in Keegan Murray, a redshirt freshman in Patrick McCaffrey, and Joe Toussaint and Jack Nunji,

both backups, that is, to me, amazing and shows you how great this team can be, not just this year, but going forward as well. So to me, that would be a storyline as well. I also thought what was really tough to watch was the rebounding performance from Iowa. Definitely some bad breaks going in Michigan State's favor. But Michigan State did a great job of giving themselves multiple opportunities from the field. They had 70 shots from the field. Iowa had 56.

That's 14 more shots. Now, you cannot allow 14 more shots. That's a lot of second chance opportunities. They beat Iowa on the offensive glass, 19 rebounds to 13. And again, Iowa just couldn't get it done on the glass. Although they won the rebounding battle 38-37, a lot of that has to do with the fact that Michigan State also popped up 70 shots and only shot 40%. So, huge stuff. They need to get better on the glass if they want to win these games. You cannot allow teams to have those second chance opportunities. You start making some of your shots. You start getting a little bit confident. You start beating an Iowa Hawkeye

squad that shouldn't be losing to a Michigan State squad. So that was tough to watch. Again, there's a lot to improve from this game. We know that. They know that. But the takeaway is that Iowa won this game 84-78. They've got to turn around quick. They have to have a quick memory. And they are going to be going up against Ohio State very, very soon in two days. So that is the takeaway from today. Obviously a frustrating game to watch.

I understand that. Frustrating from my perspective as a fan. I'm sure it's frustrating for the players. They wanted to get a big win here. But nevertheless, they got a win with Jordan Bohannon sealing it with four clutch free throws late in the game. That does it for our show. Actually, note one more thing. Jordan already also came out with his bracketology for this week.

He had Iowa as a three seed in the same bracket as Baylor and Texas, which is actually a pretty good bracket for Iowa, not having to go up against, or a pretty good region for Iowa, not having to go up against Gonzaga for, or until possibly the championship game. So that's awesome to see there as well. But we'll keep you posted on all that stuff. What happened with Iowa basketball squad and, you know, rankings and all that stuff as they pop up right here in the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

Just a reminder, we'll be back tomorrow with, yeah, tomorrow with Jay Stevens giving you a crossover episode of Iowa versus Ohio State. It is a little bit past my bedtime. I'm tired. It was a long day. Iowa got the win. I'm mentally exhausted, emotionally exhausted. But it was great to see Iowa get back on the winning track after a tough loss to Indiana and Illinois.

Thank you all for tuning in, though. Hope you have a fantastic Wednesday. As always, Hawkeye Nation, I appreciate the love and support and the listenership. If you like the show, give us that five-star review and subscribe wherever you download this podcast at. And as always, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and let's go Hawks.