Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa United forward Matt Tiby joins the show to discuss life, basketball, and rescue animals Pt 1

Episode Date: May 6, 2019

Former UW-Milwaukee forward and Urbandale, Iowa native Matt Tiby joins the show to talk about his life, career in basketball, and what excites him about playing for the Iowa United. This is a three-part series airing today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. This is part one! 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 a beautiful Monday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor at dearoldgold.com, and I hope you had a fantastic weekend this weekend. It was Cinco de Mayo. It was the first full weekend of May, so I hope the weather is beautiful wherever you are listening to this at, and I hope you had a great weekend heading into this fantastic first full week of May. So I hope the weather is beautiful wherever you are listening to this at, and I hope you

had a great weekend heading into this fantastic first full week of May. We have some great content coming on the show this week on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. If you've been tuning in the last few weeks, you know we've had Matthew Crawford from the Iowa United on the show. He's putting together a team that is going to go play in the basketball tournament, a $2 million winner-take-all tournament, and it is comprised of the four large schools in the state of Iowa. So Drake, Iowa, Iowa State, and UNI.

But there's also one other player who's going to be on that team who didn't play for either of those schools, and that's Matt Tybee, an Urbandale, Iowa native who played at Kirkwood Community College before going to UW-Milwaukee and becoming an All-Horizon League player. He currently plays overseas in Europe, and we have him on the show today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. So, lots of great stuff coming at you the next couple days as we do sort of a player introduction to Matt Teibe from the Iowa United. I know this is the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast show, but when you are a state of Iowa like

we are, you have a lot of pride in the state in general, and I'm really excited about this Iowa United team. And so we're going to be doing some of these player interviews. As you saw last week, we did one with Nicholas Bayer. We're doing one with Matt Tybee this week. We're going to have a few other interviews coming up as well in advance of the Iowa United playing in the basketball tournament. And you're not going to want to miss the next three days as we talk to Matt Tybee.

It was a fantastic conversation. Enjoyed talking to him very much. He called me all the way from Turkey. So we kind of had to figure out that time zone difference. But it's a conversation you're not going to want to miss. He's a very, very interesting guy who has a lot to say. And it was very enjoyable talking to him. Before we jump into that conversation, though, I do have a few housekeeping items to take care of.

First of all, wherever you found this podcast at, make sure to like and subscribe, and please give us a review. That obviously helps us out with our business, so please do that if you have the opportunity to. If you are on Twitter, make sure to follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa. You can follow me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew, and you can follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa. You can follow me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew. And you can follow us on Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes. Also, if for whatever reason you feel the need or urge to email me, you can email me at LockedOnHawkeyes at gmail.com.

All right. So we're going to jump into it. Just a quick reminder, we're not going to be doing some of our traditional segments over the next couple days. Again, the conversation with Matt was fantastic. Really enjoyed it. A lot of awesome stuff to say. Talking about his time overseas in Europe. Talking about his career with UW-Milwaukee.

Talking about his journey to even being a collegiate basketball player. All that stuff was incredible. And I guarantee, I guarantee you, after you listen to these next three shows, you're going to be rooting for Matt Tybee so much when the Iowa United take the court. And you're going to be following his career in Europe. That's the kind of guy he is. Awesome guy to talk to, and you're going to love him. So, let's jump right into it right now.

All right. Matt, it is an honor to have you on. We have a special guest, Matt Tybee, on the show today. Former Urbandale, Iowa native. Played Juco basketball at Kirkwood Community College before transferring to UW-Milwaukee, where he was a first-team All-Horizon League basketball player. Now Tybee is currently playing professionally overseas in Turkey, and he will be joining the Iowa United this summer when they play in the basketball tournament.

Matt, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing great. How about yourself? Doing well, man. What time is it there? It's actually, what is it, 7.30 right now. I? It's actually what is it? Seven thirty right now. I think it's like a seven hour time difference. Is that tough to adjust to as far as like communicating with people back home? Communicating definitely, you know, reaching out to parents and family and even friends. It's you know, it's tough to see what they're doing because I'll be done with my day,

but sometimes you'll be texting early in the morning when people are just rising up and getting their day going. Yeah, it can be a little difficult. Do they ever get a chance to make it out to see you play overseas at all? Yeah, my family has actually been every year that I've been out here. So it's my third year professionally, and they've gone to Hungary, Belgium, and this year in Turkey. So I'm fortunate that my family has come out

and supported me throughout the years. Absolutely. And so just, you know, being from Iowa as well, have you ever been overseas prior to playing professionally overseas? No, never. My wife actually has been overseas before with her grandma going to France.

But for me personally, no, it was never, you know, a thought in my head to be going to Europe or anything. Yeah, I completely understand that. I had no idea I would ever travel overseas. And then my wife actually kind of convinced me to start doing it. Now I go over there a decent amount. So it's I think it's an interesting thing coming from Iowa. I feel like people don't typically go overseas. It's more of like you go to Florida or Mexico or Arizona. Those are kind of your three big trips. Yeah.

My family always went to Arizona for spring training for Cubs baseball. My dad's a big fan and so is my whole family. So we were fortunate to go every spring break to go out there because he was a teacher. So his spring break aligned with mine. So it was a good time always. Awesome. And did he coach you at all at Urbandale or is he not a coach there? Yeah, he actually is in the National Basketball Hall of Fame coaching and he's in the Iowa Basketball Coaching Hall of Fame.

He coached my sister in women's basketball at Urbandale, and he also was at Des Moines East in Earlham before that. So just gaining knowledge from him, and my mom was a state runner up at Des Moines East when she played. So, you know, basketball just runs in the family. And my sister is a coach now. You know, she's trying to give back to, you know,

what my dad instilled in us. Yeah, so basketball is basically in your blood, man. You probably grew up always playing the game, watching the game, that kind of thing. Yeah, my earliest moments of like you know basketball uh you know my parents would be like yeah you're on the bench like you know two three weeks after you're born and everything like that but uh the biggest thing is i got like a arizona wildcats lou olsen signed little mini basketball and like you know that stuck with me

you know throughout the whole years it's just uh you know, stuck with me, you know, throughout the whole years. It's just, you know, basketball through and through for me. Were you a Wildcats fan growing up then? You know, it's like, you know, when you start playing the sport and you like start understanding it more, you kind of figure like, okay, these teams are good. This team's not. And it's just more of the mutual respect.

Like I would go to Arizona with my family and I'd stay in the hotel room watch NCAA games the whole time we're there rather than you know going outside and enjoying the warm weather like you know my my family thought I was weird in the fact that but you know a basketball nut just wanted to any way possible to learn the game a little bit more. It was, you know, what I wanted to do. I love it, man. Yeah, I definitely get that.

For me, at least, it's college football and NFL football. Whenever there's a game on Saturdays and Sundays, my wife understands that there are no other plans we have. We are watching football the entire time. And now it's kind of spread out to Iowa basketball as well. I mean, she understands now there's nothing else going on those days and there are no plans we can make it's gonna happen I'm gonna watch those and that's it yeah I understand that my dad my dad and my family are big Iowa Hawkeye fans so Saturdays are you know for the the Hawkeyes just you know

just all sitting together just watching and my mom even gets animated for it you know, just all sitting together, just watching. And my mom even gets animated for it, you know, yelling to our pack long to make sure that, you know, they're not giving up any big plays. So, you know, it gets rowdy in our house. That's hilarious. So your family is Iowa Hawkeye fans. Were you an Iowa Hawkeye fan growing up then, or did you want to play at Iowa?

Or kind of what were your thoughts, I guess, is a broader question. What were your thoughts when you were kind of growing up and playing at Urbandale? Where did you want to go? What was kind of what were your thoughts, I guess, is a broader question. What were your thoughts when you were kind of growing up and playing at Urbandale? Where did you want to go? What was kind of your dream school for basketball? Honestly, I didn't even want to play basketball in college until my sophomore year. I wanted to play baseball, honestly, and I wanted to go play baseball at Creighton.

So like that was my favorite sport growing up and all my friends were playing it, so it was just more enjoyable. My teams were winning more than I was in basketball when I was younger, so I was just focused on doing that, and I wanted to play baseball. And then sophomore year, I just got a lot better at basketball than I and uh i had a conversation with my baseball coach at the time and you know he just kind of he just kind of pushed me to you know focus on basketball grind it out and uh go get a scholarship that way because you know he saw the talent that i had off off the field so he just you know really gave me the help to, you know, push from there. And honestly, from that, I just kind of didn't even care if I went to, you know, any of the state schools. I just wanted to play basketball after that, no matter.

But all I knew is I wanted to play D1 to get that chance to, you know, have that one shining moment, as I always watch when you're younger. So for the NCAA tournament. So I, that was my grind is just, you know, whatever way possible to get there, I'm going to get there. I love Manning. I'm assuming your Urbandale coach was Barton, right? Coach Barton?

Yeah, for baseball it was. I wasn't playing varsity at the time, so I had Coach Heinen, who's actually the varsity coach, and they just won a state title not too long ago. They're crazy good. Yeah, shout out to them. I mean, Urbandale's always been good at baseball. You know, what made me want to play and further my career in baseball

is because, you know, we had Jared Norris growing up, and he went to Oregon State. And I was just like, man, if he's going to Oregon State and playing like that, you know, for any young kid at Urbandale, you know, to go out and pursue that, I thought it was like, you know, anything's possible with, you know, kids going from Urbandale and making it big. little league world series a couple times i've had some pretty good teams i know i played with jackson barton coach you know barton's son so uh yeah i mean urbandale's a hotbed i think people don't realize iowa's actually a decent baseball state um i know we play in the summer and stuff so you don't get as much notoriety but iowa has some solid baseball talent there's been some guys um drafted pretty pretty early so yeah i've uh i actually graduated in the class of uh jake yasinich and i followed his

career when uh you know at iowa and when he stole home uh that was a big play and uh for him to get drafted by the angels and you know live out his dream doing that uh you know it was you know great to see you know iowa kids that you know were in my class to uh be doing big was, you know, great to see, you know, Iowa kids that, you know, were in my class to be doing big things. And, you know, baseball is, you know, kind of, you know, you see Beaverdale made it to the Little League World Series. So everyone is kind of just in that realm of wanting to get better and make sure that, you know, they can put Iowa on the map. get better and make sure that, you know, they can put Iowa on the map. And I feel like that's, as Iowans, they kind of, it was just like, everyone's like, yeah, we got to put Iowa on the map. Like, you know,

but in the good way, not in a negative light, you know, it's for us, it's, you know, for Iowans, it's like, if you see someone overseas and you're like, Oh, I'm from Iowa. You're like, yes, I love that you're here. Like, you know, being, it's like a tight knit group of being Iowa. And so. Dude, it's a prideful thing. I don't think I live in Colorado now. And I don't think people realize, I mean, do I think Iowa was the best state to grow up in? No, there wasn't a ton of fun things to do,

but I have a ton of pride for the state itself. And I don't care if it's Iowa State Cyclones. I don't care what team it is. I'm always rooting for everyone from Iowa. Obviously, I'm very partial to the Iowa Hawkeyes, but I think people don't realize how much pride people have in our state. And I think that's what's really cool about the Iowa United is the fact that we're bringing together four schools. And people that are from that state, I think can really come together and appreciate. You're going to see some great talented players from all four of the schools. Plus, you know, another Urbandale guy that played at UW Milwaukee.

So I think that's pretty exciting. Is that something that you were really drawn to when Matt reached out to you? Yeah, I was just like in shock and awe that, you know, they wanted to include me on this Iowa team just because, you know, I just thought it would just stick to the four in-state schools. And, you know, for me to be even, you know, to get a text and to be on the team, it was like a huge thing for me because it's like, you know, down the line line there's a bunch of great talent that has played in Iowa and uh to slim it down to about you know eight eight guys or whatever right now it's you know to be one of those eight to represent the state in the schools and everything

that goes all along the line like you know it was it was amazing absolutely and kind of touching on the iowa united you know team who was your who are you most excited to play with from that team out of all the guys in the roster who who are you most excited to play with i uh i really like peter jock i ever since playing in high school against one another i never really got the chance to play with him. Yeah. This, you know, in the past summers, we went to the same AAU program. So, you know, I still go work out there with Curtis Stinson. And for, you know, I always see him in the gym shooting or whatever, you know, coming in and, you know, playing pickup against him. Never on the same team then, so it's going to be fun to play with him

and see his growth throughout the years because keeping tabs on these guys, you don't really get to catch up on some games, but you get to see highlights of big moments, big plays, and stuff like that from him. So I'm really excited to play with him yeah he's lighting it up in the g league well he was lighting it up in the g league before obviously the season ended so he was having a great great season there in his sophomore year in the g or the w or sorry the nba excuse me as far as you know playing with peter did you guys

actually ever match up when you're when he because he went to valley you went to urbandale but he was more of a guard but also there's not a lot of height, I feel like, in a lot of Iowa high school basketball teams. So did you guys end up matching up together when you were playing defense? When we played together, he was still at Roosevelt for his junior year or something like that. And I was his senior at the time. And obviously, I can't remember if you play once or twice against the other conferences.

But we played against him the first time at Roosevelt. And he didn't guard me. It was – I can't remember his name. It was like Norman or something like that. His sister was really good at Roosevelt. But, you know, he actually guarded me in the sub-state, like, what is it, quarterfinal game? Yeah.

That was, like, the first time we really matched up against one another. Like, I wasn't quick enough to guard him on defense. But, you know, for him to be quick and lanky, he could match up with me. But he made it tough. But I'm just glad that my team pulled through at the end of the day. Absolutely, and so you mentioned that you're not as quick as Peter Jock, and I think that's a fair assessment. I mean, he's also a shooting guard. You play more of like a power forward, a four-roll typically. However, when I watch your tapes, man, you are quick. I mean, you're pretty quick for a power forward, and you play pretty solid defense.

Is that something that you feel like is something that you can add to your game or kind of a big benefactor of your game is that you might not be able to match up with a one or a two, but you're quicker than most fours? Or do you feel like that's an asset to your game? Yeah, that – you know, I kind of pride myself on defense, and especially playing with junior college basketball, the up and downs of the game is, you know, has done wonders for myself and to keep guards in front of me is a big key of,

you know, making it in staying over here overseas, because, you know, you're always going to put in a, in a switch situation and you always want to make it difficult and, you know, alter their shots. So, you know, you're always going to put in a switch situation and you always want to make it difficult and, you know, alter their shots. So, you know, any way possible for myself to be a presence on the court, no matter defensively, offensively, hustle, you know, that's what I really pride myself on. And, you know, I can still hear my parents yelling at me in the crowd to like, you know, just keep on going hard and stuff like that. So, you know, it's more of a

it's a pride thing for myself. I love it, man. Yeah. And I noticed when I was looking up some of your stats in the EuroLeague, you're averaging nearly a steal a game, which is pretty decent for a power forward spot. Yeah, it's just, you you know reading the game uh just making sure that uh i i'm a big helper so like you know obviously if you help a lot as a four man five man it don't even matter what position you you're gonna get caught sometimes so you know i've been uh blessed to be put in opera in positions to make plays for my team. And so I'm just ready to carry that over into the summer and, you know, to carry it on for years on to come.

Absolutely, man. So just kind of jumping back, we briefly touched on your time at Kirkwood coming out of high school. I have two questions about that. You know, you went to Kirkwood, was there a lot of interest from other places and kind of what was that decision-making process to go to Kirkwood? Obviously it worked out. You were able to go play D1 basketball, but were you getting D1 offers prior to that or kind of what was your thought

process? If you don't want to, if you don't mind taking me through that. Honestly, I didn't have this. So I only played one summer of AAU basketball. Like I said, I was trying to make it in baseball.

And then, you know, for after I moved away from baseball, it was, you know, now I'm trying to get myself into an AAU program. And that took some time. And I went to Kingdom Hoops, which Jake Sullivan, the coach, you know, was just like, you know what? uh you know it was just like you know what we have a spot on the second team for you for you to come in and uh get valuable minutes uh just because you're not on the first team doesn't mean that you know they're not going to get looks and whatnot and you know for me I was like I don't care I just want to go out and play like yeah just want to make sure that you know I can get school paid for and not having to worry about anything other than that.

So I just went in, worked hard, worked myself to the first team. I had some D1 interest, but most of it just fell through. And then a lot of D2 interest. And I just, at the end of the day, I was getting a lot of junior colleges calling for me. And it was like between Kirkwood and DMACC where I wanted to go. And Kirkwood just kind of stuck with me. They were just winning. And, you know, they have a historical program for boys for making it to D1 and everything like that.

So I kind of just was like sold on Kirkwood at that point when it came down to it. I just, you know, for myself, I just didn't want to play D2. I know that kind of sounds selfish because anybody would, you know. You got to go and you got to work for it, man. Yeah, exactly. So I just, for myself, I just knew I wanted to go to Kirkwood. I knew it was going to take a year of eligibility,

but I just kind of wanted to just prove to myself and prove to others that maybe it was a mistake that I didn't get as many D1 offers as I wanted. Shoot, I just needed one, and I got it, and I ran with it. All it takes is one chance, man. Exactly. And I'm just thankful that Milwaukee, I even told them no. And I went back for a second year and I went to, I think it's Mullen Showcase Camp. And it's like top 150, top 200 junior college prospects.

And you just go and play with pickup and you know i ran into the uh chad boudreaux who's also an iowa guy uh who's actually coaching out in illinois right now to junior college he uh you my my mom and i ran into him and he was just like oh you're recruiting matt again he's just like it's like i'm here to here for him to say yes. So, you know, I just love that they had so much faith in me. And, you know, even though that I turned them down the first time, that they still wanted me to come back. And, you know, that just kind of really stuck with me. Absolutely, man. It worked out pretty well. You started 98 games for UW-Milwaukee. You were a first-team All-Horizon player, second-team All-Horizon player your junior season. I believe you were All-Horizon tournament team in your sophomore season. And as we talked about a little bit earlier, you always wanted to have that big moment in the NCAA tournament. You did make one NCAA tournament, I believe, back in 2014. So what was your experience? And there's a couple of questions I have on this. I think you

probably know where I'm going with this eventually, but as far as your basketball career, what was your experience at UW Milwaukee? How do you think that helped you develop your game? And I, one thing I want to touch on as well is you definitely developed a three-point shot while you were there. You moved from 32% to 37% your senior season. So that was a very broad question, but feel free to answer that however you feel like it. You know, going to Milwaukee, it was, it was like a blessing in disguise because it's like, you know, I'm finally here, but the work's not done, you know? So I, I was always, I got a, I transferred in and I had a half year to sit out because of the transfer rule and I kept eligibility by not playing at Kirkwood my second year so I was just working out that whole second year and to go in to make an impact for my redshirt sophomore year it was you know amazing and the run that we had late in the

season with all the ups and downs suspensions that that we had, man, we, you know, we just really pulled it together. And I was really happy for the group of guys because they the year before when I transferred in, we went like eight and twenty four or something like that and just had a rough year. And, you know, next year, everyone's just like, you know, we had all our transfers. rough year and you know next year everyone's just like you know we had all our transfers we had steve mcorder who sat out from uh indiana state and everyone was just like you know this is you know a special group of guys and uh you know always working together always working hard just just some gym rats really and it came together at the end of the year and it was you know it was beautiful and to be on uh the all. And it was, you know, it was beautiful. And to be on the all-tournament team, it was, you know, it's just something special. It's just, you know, all that hard work that, you know, sitting out.

And for me personally, it's just like, you know, do I really want to go through this? Do I want to sit out a year? Do I want to do this? Do I even want to play basketball anymore? Because, you know, it's always something when, you know, you're sitting now is, you know, you question yourself. And I'm sure glad I didn't question myself. And I found some answers by looking in the mirror. And, you know, it was really fun that first year. And then second year, it's like, OK, how do we how to repeat? Second year, it's like, okay, how do we – how to repeat?

And, you know, we came in with the news that we had a – what is it? We got suspended by the NCAA for the transfer rule and, like, it said academics, but that wasn't even far from the truth. Like, we had, like, a 3.0 team GPA. It was just past players that, you know, were trying to make a stand at the coach and just not good. It was just, wasn't a good look on them. And then it carried on to the team and unfortunate, you know, but the seniors that they had the chance to move away and they didn't.

And, you know, for me, it's just like, man, I'm sticking with these guys. Like my senior year, like, you know, it's our last ride together. And, you know, putting me in position to, you know, be in the gym and shoot well and raising those percentages. Like you said, it was, you know, everything that you could imagine for. They gave me the you know, it was, you know, everything that you could imagine for, they gave me the, you know, it's like, you got your driver's license, you got the keys to the car, like, you know, let's learn as we go. And I learned as I went, I really didn't care if I, you know,

had any like bumps in the road, you know, scratches, crashes, man, you go, you name it. I had it up as ups and downs like anybody, anybody has, but. All right. And that'll do it for our Monday morning episode. Again, a big shout out to Matt Tybee for jumping on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. It was a great conversation with him. It took, you know, almost an hour and 15 minutes. And I wanted to make sure that we gave you the full breadth of that discussion.

And after this conversation, we're definitely going to have him back on the show to talk about basketball, talk about Iowa Hawkeyes, whatever you name it. We're going to have him back on the show because it was that fun kind of talking to him. Obviously, he's a very busy guy being over in Turkey with his wife playing professional basketball. So again, a big thank you to him for jumping on the show as we kind of do our unveiling of Matt Tybee and the Iowa United. If you are not following the Iowa United on Twitter, and you are on Twitter, make sure

you do that, though. You can find them at Iowa TBT. So make sure to do that. Make sure to follow them. They're doing a full week special of kind of Matt Tybee doing some get to know you type stuff that goes along in addition to this podcast. Also, if you have not voted for the Iowa United to be a part of the basketball tournament, make sure you do that today. It helps them get into the tournament, right? So they have

been accepted, but they are not officially in the tournament and they need your help. So go to Iowa TBT on Twitter. If you don't know how to do it, there's full instructions about how to get this team into the tournament. All you need to do is go in there and vote for them. It takes two minutes. It took me two minutes to do that. And it's an easy thing to do. And if you do it and they win, which I think they have a pretty good chance, they have a very good team, right? So if you do it and they win, you actually get a portion of that prize money from that $2 million winner take all jackpot. So again, a big shout out to Matt Tybee. If you are tuning into the show for the very first

time and you loved what you heard, please make sure to tune in again tomorrow and Wednesday as Tybee is joining us for those two shows as well. Make sure to like and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at because we have some other great special guests coming on the show. Some former Iowa football players, some Iowa football recruits, some Iowa basketball players, you name it. We've got some people coming on the show so it's going to be a really fun time here at the Locked On

Hawkeyes podcast again thank you for tuning in on this Monday morning I appreciate you I appreciate you listening to the show have a great day

Hawkeye Nation and Go Hawks! We'll see you next time. you