Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa United GM Matt Crawford joins the show to discuss the TBT bracket, Megan Gustafson being resigned by the Wings, and their upcoming meet and greet

Episode Date: June 26, 2019

We've got Iowa United GM Matt Crawford back on the show today to discuss the United's seeding in TBT as they were given the 7 seed and are set to face off against the Wichita State alumni team on ESPN. We also discuss Megan Gustafson's departure for the WNBA and Matt gives the details of the United's upcoming meet and greet! 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 the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I am your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at DearOldGold.com. We have a great show coming at you today. We have Matthew Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United, joining us on the show today. And today's show is brought to you in part by Hotels.com.

Don't hate like your friend's trip. Book your own with Hotels.com and get rewarded basically everywhere. Hotels.com. Be there. Do that. Get rewarded. All right, so we were a little bit delayed. Obviously, we did not have any shows last week.

We had a great show that came out yesterday talking a lot about the Iowa recruiting weekend. Had some great recruits that signed for the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Iowa recruiting weekend. I've had some great recruits that signed for the Iowa Hawkeyes in the class of 2020. Also had a recruit that signed in the class of 2021. So lots of fantastic stuff coming out of Iowa City this weekend from a great recruiting weekend. Make sure to check out the podcast tomorrow as we also have former Iowa Hawkeye wide receiver Matt Vandenberg joining the show as well. You're going to love that interview. Had a great time and fantastic time talking to him. But today's show is all about the Iowa United.

And if you haven't heard some of our other interviews with Matt in the past, you'll definitely enjoy those. Check those out from our previous episodes. We've also interviewed most of the Iowa United team, including Nicholas Bayer, Marcus Fizer, Reed Timmer, and Jeff Horner. So lots of great content that we've had in the past on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast covering Iowa United. If you are tuning into the show for the very first time today, I do appreciate you listening.

Make sure to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or the Himalaya Podcast app. And you can follow us on Twitter at Locked Iowa and Facebook at Lockdown Hawkeyes. That's where you're going to get the most recent update about what's going on with the show. That's where we're going to let you know when there's brand new episodes. We're going to let you know when we're going to have a few delays or maybe no episodes for that day, and also just general content about the Iowa Hawkeyes and most things in

the state of Iowa. So make sure to follow us there as well so you can stay up to date on what is going on on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. All right, today's show is going to be great. Like I said, we have Matthew Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United, joining the show today. And we're going to talk a lot about their draw in TBT, you know, what their seat is, kind of what their plan is as they get down to Wichita.

We're also going to talk a little bit about Megan Gustafson and what that meant. Obviously, she was going to be playing on the Iowa United. Now she's back on the Dallas Wings. We're also going to discuss the fantastic meet and greet that they have set up for the Iowa United and the for the veterans. So they're going to have the guys from the for the veterans on July 23rd available to fans and the state to meet everyone in addition to having all the guys on the Iowa United roster. So a lot of fun things that they have coming up to kind of give back to the fan base on July 23rd before they head down to Wichita to play some basketball. So let's jump into our conversation with Matthew Crawford right now. I am joined here again by Matt Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United.

The Iowa United are officially playing in TBT, the basketball tournament, the two million dollar winner take all tournament. We have some exciting announcements to talk about on today's show and in general talk about the draw that the Iowa United got in TBT in the Wichita region. So Matt, how are you doing tonight, man? I'm doing great. How are you? Doing well, man. It's Tuesday night and I'm in New Orleans, so I guess I could be in worse places. I suppose so. That doesn't sound too bad. Yeah, no, not at all. Matt, you've been obviously pretty busy. Is it kind of a breath of fresh air to know that you're officially in the tournament?

Yeah, yeah, it is. I mean, this tournament really has evolved even in the last year or two where it's much more difficult to get in. It's kind of moved past, hey, we're going to put together a team of rec league guys and we're going to go see what we can do to where you know the tournament's really got difficult and that you got you know now every team's got overseas professionals or you know g league guys so the talent level just even from you know two years ago or last year has just skyrocketed so it is a kind of a semi breath of fresh air to take a deep breath a little bit

that we got in because it is so difficult. But, you know, we still got a lot of work to do. And, you know, we still even we're still not done calling guys. So, you know, just in case kind of add to our roster for certain guys to pulse through that sort of thing.

So, yeah, there's it's nice, but we're still working. Absolutely. I want to get to the calling guys thing in just a few seconds, but you touched on the fact that it is so difficult to get into the tournament. And more importantly, it's actually your region is incredibly tough. I would say maybe the toughest region in the entire tournament. So we talked about it on previous shows, you know, there's a reason why you wanted to do that. You wanted to get the exposure. And I think you definitely did that.

The Iowa United are going to be playing primetime 8 p.m. Thursday night against the Wichita State team, the home team for the region. So were you expecting that draw? I don't know if I was expecting that to get Wichita State. That's fine. We talk about the level of player that's now in this. The difference between a one seed and an eight seed or seven seed is almost nothing. It really is.

I would expect to see a lot of upsets this year because of that. You know, and you got to take, you know, you got to take a little bit of a grain of salt with some of the seeding. You know, you can look up and down, you know, I'm going to use this in our own region. Kansas is a three seeder in our region. No way Kansas should be a three seeder. I mean, they are a really, really good team. There's a lot of NBA guys on that team, former NBA guys. They're just loaded up. So, you know, the margin between 1 and 7, 1 and 8 is not very much.

So, no, we're excited, though. You know, and this is kind of a weird tournament. Not weird per se. It's really cool. But, you know, all of the all of us talk so you know i've talked to the wichita state folks and just said hey you know we're excited to be coming down and we've got a chit chatted about you know i gave the guy grief i was like are you guys gonna add dan leap somehow you're already good team and they got a kick out of that

but uh you know so you know it's a it's a little bit of a kind of a tight fraternity of guys that kind of do this. But, no, we're excited to get Wichita State. You know, like I've talked about on our other podcast, this is what we wanted. So, you know, we get to go to a hostile environment and get a play on primetime ESPN. And I'm not sure what else you could want if you're a competitor. It's going to be fun. Yeah, I mean, I feel like a lot of projections had Iowa United coming in as maybe a fifth seed.

And I think getting Wichita State, getting that primetime game, it seems like you said, there's a little bit more that goes into the seeding than just the talent, right? You know, you put Kansas against Sideline Cancer. You have Iowa United as a 7-C going against Wichita State on an 8 p.m. Thursday night game. I mean, there's a little bit more that goes into that.

So, have you done any scouting, though, on the aftershocks? Yeah, we started that kind of, you know, about as soon as we found out who we got. So, yeah, we're pretty familiar with their roster, and some of our guys have, you know, been in the Missouri Valley, yeah, we're, you know, we're pretty familiar with their roster and some of our guys have, you know, been in the Missouri Valley

and played against some of these guys. And just as a basketball fan, you know, I've seen these guys play. Our staff has seen them play. You know, the bad part about playing a team like Wichita State is, you know, that they are very talented. But, you know, that also means there's a lot of film on them too. So we'll have a good idea. They are very talented, but that also means there's a lot of film on them too. So we'll have a good idea.

We've got a pretty good idea of what they like to do with that roster. They have sets they like to get into. But yeah, they've got some guys for sure. Frank Camp, Connor Frank Camp was a Kansas guy. He transferred just an elite shooter, a real good shooter. You know, Shaq Morris is going to be a handful inside. And, you know, they've even got, you know, lesser guys, Trey Murray, who's one of their, you know, all-time leader in points.

You know, he did some time with the Knicks and Jazz. Hannah as well. And, you know, they just grabbed Clay Anthony Early, who I'm personally a big fan of. I really liked that guy when they made their kind of run a number of years ago. You know, but, you know, he's an all-timer at Wichita State. But, you know, so we've kind of started looking at those guys and seeing what they like to do and things like that.

So, you know, we'll be ready. I mean, you know, nobody flinched when we saw our seed or our opponent come up. So, you know, we've got a lot of respect for those guys and who they have and, you know, how passionate their fan base are. But, you know, we like our guys. So, you know, we wouldn't be in this if we didn't. And it'd be quite a fun time to see you guys upset them or, you know, quote-unquote upset them in Wichita in

front of that predominantly Wichita fan base that'll be a lot of fun to see that happen yeah I mean you know there's no pressure on us at all um you know they're they're the home team they're expected to win they've got the high seat um you know so um all the pressure's on them to get in there and and do their thing. So that kind of takes a little bit of an edge off for us that we can just go play. Nobody expects anything from us. So, but we'll be ready. We'll be fired up.

And like I said, none of these guys batted an eye at who we got and where it was at. And that's, you know, those are the kind of guys we wanted in the first place. So we'll be ready. Yeah, you want confident guys who they don't care who it is or what people say about them. They know they can play to their abilities and win any game. And have you done any scouting on the other teams that you could potentially be playing?

I know it's tough, especially in a tournament like this. You're kind of moving really quickly to the next game, to the next game. Have you done any, or are you going to do any advanced scouting at some of the other teams as well? Not as much. I mean, we'll have some time, you know, after that first game. We don't play the following day. You know, so we'll get a chance to watch, you know,

Kansas and sideline cancer play and, you know, Kansas being in the Big 12. You know, there's some familiarity there with our Iowa State guys, you know, seeing some of those guys. being in the Big 12, there's some familiarity there with our Iowa State guys, seeing some of those guys. And they're all Bill Self guys. So, again, they're running all the same. They're going to probably run all the same sets Bill coached down there ran. So you're not going to know everything, but you'll see some tendencies,

I guess is the best way to put it. But you you know, you're not going to see a ton of, you know, scouting per se. Makes sense. You know, it's just going to be feel and, you know, guys that can play, they can play. So I wouldn't say we're doing a ton of scouting past Wichita State, no. Yeah, makes sense to me. As far as, you know, as far as the tournament goes, do you have anything else that you'd like to add about it, specifically with the Iowa United? Anything that we're kind of not seeing from the outsider's perspective,

or is it at this point just ready to go, and you guys just getting your team ready? Yeah, for the most part, we're just getting everything ready. We're just, you know, we're lining up logistics stuff, you know, getting the guys their flights into Des Moines. You know, just little things, you know, travel stuff, you know, where are we getting into, what are we scrimmaging against when we're here, you know, just things like that.

So, you know, like we talked about before, after you get in, it turns for me, you know, I don't know the best way to put this, kind of a body of work to get in, it turns into logistics issues. So those are the things we're handling now, and we're pretty much tightened up on all that stuff. I've got a couple other things to finish off, but we're in good shape. We're pretty well ahead of schedule, and we're only, as of recording tonight, we're only three days out, so it'll come quick. Yeah, that month's going to fly by, and the NBA draft just happened last week.

I know you're a big fan of NBA, and you're watching the draft and whatnot, and a couple of Iowa State guys got selected, a couple of Iowa guys obviously did not get selected, but have you been looking at adding any other players um has anyone from the NBA draft where you're looking at adding I know you said you were calling a few players just to keep some guys kind of on a on retainer I guess is the best way to put it just in case but um are you looking to add any additional players or more just you know making sure you have some backups in case someone gets injured? Yeah, I think we're all in batting somebody just for a little bit of post-step. And some of that has to do with Wichita State, too.

They've got some good posts that we'll want to match up with, we'll want to have plenty of guys for. So that's kind of one way we've approached it. You know, you'll still team to have'll see teams have already 11, 12 guys. We kind of kept it where we wanted to just so we could kind of, with a little bit if we wanted to, to add somebody at the end here where maybe if we played a really, really hard, heavy team that first round, we might have gone out and got another guard at some position.

But I think against a team like Wichita State, or heavy team that first round. We might have gone out and got another guard at some position. But I think against a team like Wichita State, I think we've got the guards to compete. They're going to be very good as well. But I think we'll probably have someone in that front line to kind of bolster that roster a little bit. So as far as the guys at the NBA, yeah, we reached out to all of them. We'd be proud not to. And those guys are in different spots in their careers where they did get picked up by teams, but they absolutely, we made those calls and went after them. They

understand that we have other engagements. So it's great for them. That's awesome. Definitely. And, you know, talked about people kind of getting picked up. Megan Gustafson got picked up again by the Dallas Wings. Yeah. I think in the matter of a couple days,

the state of Iowa went from hating Dallas to loving Dallas. So probably good for that Iowa fan base. But I know you are one of her biggest fans now knowing her and whatnot, and we talked about that on the last show. But how excited were you for her to get that call? Obviously a lot further in advance. Yeah, that was great. Yeah, I was so excited for her when she stepped at Tech.

You know, just, hey, Dallas picked me up, so TBT is kind of, you know, two beats church. And I was like, no, that's awesome. That's exactly what we all wanted. So, you know, it's been great. And like I said, I told you, you know, a couple times in our first conversation, is that, you know, I was thrilled she was going to join us, but I really didn't want to see her in Wichita because she was playing professionally.

And like I said, we're so happy for her. I've definitely been trying to watch some of those games when I can or at least checking the box scores. And she's played better just about everything that she's gotten, you know. But she's a rookie. And, you know, these are her own women. And it's just like anything else but she's a rookie. She's growing women, and it's just like anything else. It's a process, but nobody doubts she's right where she needs to be in a nice long career in the WNBA.

We're happy for her, but she's absolutely where she needs to be. So we're sure nothing but the best. Yeah, I mean, as far as her pro career goes, I feel like she has kind of a unique transition. She's a little bit undersized for that center position, need to develop a little bit more of an outside shot. But personally, I hope Dallas continues to keep giving her shots. I think as they give her more time, they're going to see a lot of growth from her.

And as we saw when she was at Iowa, I mean, she's going to be the hardest working person there no matter what. So she definitely will be. She just needs her time and her chance. Well, and it was an interesting release, too, because of the way that team is. I mean, they're kind of a rebuilding team as it is. You might as well take a chance on the college player of the year, give her a little extended time and see what you have there.

So, you know, and she's just like anybody any other player she's going to go through ups and downs especially that first year um and you know this you know in the off season she's going to realize this is what i've got to work on and she's going to add a piece to her game just like you know the pro men play uh pro men do the good ones do they add another piece um she's going to be no different. She's a hard worker. But no, it's fantastic where she's at. Absolutely. So she's obviously not going to be joining you for the meet and greet anymore.

But let's actually talk about this meet and greet. You just announced that we're recording on a Tuesday night. Hopefully this will be airing tomorrow morning when everyone hears this on Wednesday morning. But you announced it today at noon about this meet and greet so give me some of these details man how did this all come down yeah we've been working on this for a little bit with uh you know something we kind of uh wanted to do especially if we we ended up coming to Des Moines you know initially we were going to go to the site uh our game site and you know find a practice facility there uh but some of these guys were already in Iowa or could be in Iowa.

Well, let's just do something here. Let's just stay here and we'll, you know, do all of our workouts, walkthroughs and practices and do here. And so, you know, we thought this would be a great way to kind of give back to our fans that have supported us and, you us and gotten us, helped get us into the tournament with all their support on the TBT website, social media-wise, retweeting stuff, and really just helping us out.

So we thought this would be a great way to have a free event for families. You can bring your kids and you come see all these guys and just hide them for a couple hours, take pictures, autographs, whatever you want to do. We thought this would be an excellent way to kind of give back to all those fans. So July 23rd is the date, and it's going to be at the brand-new Uptown Garage Brewing Company in Ankeny. Uptown Garage Brewing Company in Ankeny. Just the address, 305 Southwest Walnut Street, and that'll be from 6 to 8 p.m.

So Coach Warner will be there, Assistant from Recycle in Austin, Beth, will be there, and all the guys will be there. Just come say hi to them. We think that'll be a great event. Just get through the doors, see the brand new uh brewery and in ankeny it's going to be fantastic you know i know these guys a little bit um they run for you guys here in iowa des moines the uh they run reek rails up in mondoran which is just a great little brewery there um so they're expanding out and open up this uptown brewing in Ankeny.

So we're excited to go there and hang out with those guys and just see everybody. That'll be great. And especially the guys that are local that play here, the German guys, the Iowa State guys especially. We're pretty close to here. Or maybe Matt Tybee went to high school in Middale. So all the people they know can come see him for a couple hours

while they're back home. So it should be a great event for them. That'll be a lot of fun. So then that's on Tuesday night. Your game is on Thursday. Are you driving down Wednesday or Thursday then for the game in Wichita? Yep, because it'll be a travel day. So we'll have a nice easy just drive

down that day. We'll find a jam. I'm sure Tyrus will probably want to go shoot. He never want to shoot somewhere. So I'm sure all those guys will want to get their legs under him a little bit. So we'll go find somewhere

and just get some shots up, walk through if the coach wants one, and, you know, then we'll be ready to play Thursday. I love it. And so in advance of that meet and greet, it sounds like everyone's going to be in that area. So you're probably getting a few practices in, I'm assuming? Yeah, we're going to practice.

We're going to walk throughs in the morning with Bent Valley High School. You know, Jay Wendhorst, one of the guys that's been great about just giving advice to us and you know, that sort of thing is going to help us out there. And then in the afternoon, we're either going to go to Iowa State and

scrimmage against their guys, but more likely we're going to probably stay in town and scrimmage maybe the Drake guys. So we'll get a couple days of walk-throughs and practices in and things like that before we head down. And so, you know, it can be different. Some teams will practice literally a week up until their game. Some teams don't even practice at all.

There's really no right way or wrong way there hasn't been real difference in outcomes um you know it really just comes down if you've got guys that can play and they know how to play together um and so that's the biggest thing we'll do walkthroughs we'll put in some steps and stuff like that just to just have something to go to uh they really don't know if if you can play or not in a tournament like this. But yeah, that's what we'll end up doing. I think it makes sense, though, for your team as well. You maybe don't even need as much time.

You have a lot of cerebral players who are smart, know how to get open, know how to play team basketball. Having some of that European experience will obviously really help them out as well. So I think it's the perfect combination of being able to get ready within a short amount of time for a tournament like this without having experience actually playing with each other. Yeah, and again, it kind of goes to the makeup of our team.

You know, what we tried to put together was just that, you know, we don't, and you'll see this in the tournament too. You'll see guys, they've got to have the ball. They, you know, this is their, you know, this is their grand showcase. And, you know, those teams usually don't last too long. So, you know, we've surrounded this group with, you know, unselfish guys, smart guys, kind of what we talk about. I mean, and they're smart off the floor, they're smart off the floor.

So we don't have guys that are going to need the ball necessarily. So that was a key component. And that's really what you need in a tournament like this. I mean, you have a pharmacy major on your team, which is not something you're typically going to see for any college basketball team, let alone a team like Iowa United. So yeah, your team is definitely an intelligent group of players who I'm really excited to watch.

This is kind of a random question, but I just have to know now that we're talking about it. What are your jersey colors going to be? What's the outfit going to look like? I don't know. I don't know. So that's a great question. So when you enter the tournament, they basically just give you a logo.

And so the logo you're going to see for our uniforms is not the logo you'll see on our Twitter account, that sort of thing. That's a whole other thing of words. It's out of my hands. I really don't know. So I think in the next week or so, they're kind of releasing all the stuff on their website because they can sell gear and things like that. They wanted exclusive rights to whatever this logo is, and they've got some professional and it does it. I, I'm not crazy, but I don't care. I don't really care what that logo looks like or what our uniforms look like. You know, we're, we're there to go play. So, uh, yeah, I don't know when you guys see it.

This is about the first time I'm going to see it too. So no, most of the times they look great, so it'll be fine. That's funny. I know it kind of surprised me with that question, but I really wasn't expecting that for the inter, which is even better. When I look on the tournament.com and I look at the Iowa United, though, they do look like they have a different logo up than what you all have on your Twitter account has a little bit of a uh I don't know what a bald eagle maybe it's like a bird with a sword in its hand yeah oh yeah I see that it's not a sword it's not a sword

but it kind of looks like that so um yeah that's fine I mean, you know, just to kind of, I guess, you know, peel back the curtain a little bit. So the logo we have is derived from the guys we're working with, the cause we're working with for the veterans. So if you look at for the veterans, it looks a lot like our logo. We got permission to use it. Okay. Understandably, the tournament wants their own logo it can't be derived from something else so they wanted their own logo which is fine you know and I told Michael you use a little whatever logo you want I go that's fine people

actually like our logo you could probably you know sell some shirts with that logo you know and that's fine if you want to use it because now we have the rights to this logo and if we wanted to down the road, we could sell shirts. So, yeah, it's fine. Like I said, it doesn't really matter. But, yeah, that's kind of the reasoning why you've got two different logos is that, you know, they couldn't use a logo

that was derived from an actual, you know, created logo from another place. Yeah, I honestly didn't notice. I'm looking at it right now, and obviously you're right. You're the one who helped design it, but I didn't realize they were so similar between the Iowa United and the For the Veterans. Now it's almost kind of like the FedEx thing where you see the arrow.

It feels like that when it comes to the For the Veterans presence inside the Iowa United logo for you all. So pretty cool stuff. i appreciate that appreciate that context well um hopefully when they come out with some gear i can uh i can get something as we talked about before the show i'm not really sure what to wear uh have one drake shirt and a lot of iowa stuff so um would love would love to be able to show support for the other guys too oh sure no that's actually it's a great question because I'm sure people are going to see the logo and go, wait, wait, wait a minute.

That's not, okay. That's not the same logo. So that's kind of the reasoning why. Like I said, it's not huge on my concern list of what logo we have, so. Yeah, I mean, you have plenty of other things

to deal with. Worrying about the logo that something else is going to do. Who cares at this point? Exactly, exactly. I love it, man. Well, anything else you want to cover on, you know this point? Exactly. I love it, man. Anything else you want to cover on today's show? I think we've had some really

great conversations the last couple months. I'm really appreciative of your time. Obviously, getting a chance to talk through what the process is of getting the Iowa United together. We've talked through a lot of the team and the team building. I've had a lot of your guys on the podcast, and they've been excellent. I still think my favorite interview is, is a hundred percent Matt Tybee. Um,

but, uh, anything else you want to add about the Iowa United on today's show? Um, yeah, you know, we just want to thank everybody, you know, kind of like, uh, you know, we've talked about on the show, you's you know it's this has been an interesting kind of journey you know we you know what kind of went into this we had a really had you know a few different three different goals so that you know us from winning the term everybody wants to win the turn right you know s that's what we're here for so you know we know, we wanted to come up with a few things, and one of them was to, like I said, get into the tournament,

which is incredibly hard to get into. You know, and for us, it's building something from absolutely nothing. And that's, you know, if anybody's ever done a small business, you know how difficult it is. So get in this first year when there's a lot of teams, you know, even teams that have made it So get in this first year when there's a lot of teams, you know, even teams that have made it before historically in this tournament that have gotten in, they've got left out. You know, for us, that's hard to see.

There's a team, Utah Valor was a team, Utah alumni team. These guys work just as hard as we do. So to not get that call, I think, is a little bit tough on us, as well as kind of a staff. You know, so, you know, we're excited to get in and we're grateful, you know, we kind of checked that box and we did it. You know, another thing, like we talked about before, is we wanted to get on ESPN, which was kind of a little bit of a pipe dream a little bit that we would get that. But you made it.

Yeah. So, you know, but we thought, you know, getting that exposure, which brings in a whole new environment with ESPN, obviously, was really important to get us on the map. Being one of only two running round games in the whole tournament that's going to be featured on ESPN primetime was big for us. And I think that says a lot about kind of the work we've done.

I mean, no other team is marketing our guys, our Bears, the way we do. Nobody's having, you know, the fan interaction, you know, who they are on the floor, off the floor, videos videos that sort of thing you know i think it says a lot about our series of teams so when you talk about the seating it's hard to look at the seating necessarily always as talent level because it's hard to judge all that talent level because you don't play a season so a lot of it is stories and it says storylines and so we have a unique one that, you know, not only are we doing all this stuff for our guys, which has been great.

Again, I thank all the guys, all the folks up at Iowa State, you know, that have been helping us all year. But it's that story that we're bringing all four schools together, putting aside kind of the rivalry a little bit, the rivalries a little bit. And for, you know, one tournament all the schools joining up and the fan bases pulling for a team. So that was big for us. And the last thing is, you know, it's probably the most important is that,

you know, these guys have a good experience. You know, we're not, you know, some of these guys I'll text to see how they're doing. You know, and some of these guys I'll say, hey, if you need anything, just give me a mail. You know, genuinely as a staff, care about these guys and we'll help them any way we can. And Megan's a great example. It's not about us. You know, we all love watching these guys play, want to do anything we can

to help them with careers. And all of the other things that go into the basketball program, making their losses easier logistically, covering their expenses, and like I say over and over, getting these guys that exposure hopefully to hang their career.

But yeah, there's a one-year deal where we just kind of, you know, decided to slap a team together and, you know, hey, here we go. You know, we kind of have plans on how we want to do this, build this, and it starts by doing the three things I talked about. And I think that's kind of how you build a culture with something like this. So we like what we've done, and now we get an opportunity to go to Wichita and kind of spoil the party, and, you know, we kind of look forward to it. But, you know, I want to thank everybody, you know, the fans from all four schools,

and especially the Northern Iowa folks that have supported us. Like, you know, we talked about it. It was a weird kind of putting this together that, you know, it's just unfortunate we didn't get a Northern Iowa guy this year. You know, I don't think that's going to be a problem next year. We've got guys that are interested in, you know, for next year already. So, but no, I just want to thank everybody that supported us and, you know, come out to the meet and greet, come out, you know,

support the local business, the Ankeny, the Uptown Garage Brewing. Say hi to the guys and interact, take pictures, whatever you want to do. But, no, I want to thank everybody. It's been great. And hopefully we represent the state well and we'll do our best. Yeah, I'm super pumped, and we've talked about this a lot. I'm really excited to watch you guys up down there in Wichita. And I want to just kind of reiterate one of the things you said is you know

you want to give these guys exposure and you truly care about them and knowing you i know you're really involved with some you know charities and whatnot taking bats and balls down you know south of the caribbeans and whatnot like that i just want to say i've been super impressed with i can see it i can hear it in your voice and your inflection about how much you truly care about these guys. Not just for getting a team together, but everything else outside of that. And it almost seems like the tournament itself is almost secondary to the ultimate goal of getting these guys more exposure and getting these guys an opportunity to showcase their skill set, which I think is really cool and a very unselfish approach. their skill set, which I think is really cool and a very unselfish approach. So even people that aren't fans of this team should be fans of this team,

the way that it's built and the reason why it's been built, which is awesome. Well, yeah, I mean, we certainly appreciate that. Yeah, and I think that's kind of been one of the bigger surprises doing this. You know, when we started, you know, now over a year ago was, you know, it was the best, absolute best team we could put together to try to win this. And it's really morphed into, you know, kind of more of the personal aspects of it. You know what I mean? So we're going to go to Wichita.

We're going to have fun. There's no pressure on us. You know, a lot of the things that we wanted to do are already done. We've accomplished a lot of those things. Now we can go compete. It's just going to be fun and we'll go from there. All these guys are just great guys. It's been great communicating with them and getting to know them personally. Back and forth with them, chatting and stuff like that.

Hearing about their families and things like that. So, yeah, you kind of touched on a good point, that it really kind of was different than what I even kind of anticipated, I guess, in that there were certain things we wanted to accomplish that had nothing to do with this tournament. And we've done a lot of those, so that's been a lot of fun. You're going to hate me for what i'm about to say but it's kind of like if you go on the bachelor or the bachelorette for ulterior motives and then you actually fall in love with hannah so i so let me

hold on let me tell your listeners here that don't follow you on Twitter, that he will, not live, but play-by-play DVR Bachelor through his Twitter account. I'm not even kidding. I don't... I gotta let the people know. I have strong opinions, man. Oh, my Lord. Well, he do have strong opinions.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's That's a great way to End this podcast Matt I really appreciate you jumping on again And talking to us That's the only way to end a Hawkeye Cyclone, Bulldog, Panther

Iowa United podcast. I thought we might have some more Newton talk. I mean, I can make it happen if you want to, but I've been torturing everyone who's not from Newton with that stuff for a long time. Well, you know what? I did appreciate the Jeff Horner interview where you worked Dan Sibula into that.

The great Jeff Horner remembered Dan Sibula from Newton, Iowa. So Jeff went on to a nice career. And if I'm not mistaken, Dan, I think, won one, if not two, local dodgeball tournaments. So you really parlayed that into a nice career there in Newton. Poor Dan, just getting thrown under the bus. I love Dan. I love Dan. I know Dan well, so he's a great guy. He was a key. He's a great athlete.

So, yeah a there's our new talk we worked it in you managed to do it i mean dan is now a famous person he is probably the second most mentioned um recurring person on this podcast outside of nick easily so you're gonna have like seven people that know who we're talking about in your whole pocket ten people to listen to the bachelor seven people about newton but uh i think I think that's probably a good way to end it, Matt. I appreciate it again. Thank you so much for jumping on the show, and have a great night, man.

Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it. All right. Talk to you later. All right, and that concludes our interview with Matthew Crawford. After TBT, we'll try to have him back on the show, talk a lot about what happened for the Iowa United. Hopefully, we're on the show talking about all the good things that happened you know them winning the tournament and whatnot but either way it's been a really fun ride just getting to this point I'm personally really excited to watch them down in Wichita have my tickets have my have my hotel room and I'm ready

to go support all four of the schools in the state of Iowa gonna be a lot of fun watching them down there and I'll also hopefully see you all at the meet and greet on July 23rd. Excited to be there to see the guys in person and get some great craft beer from a brand new brewery. So if you did like what you hear, we have a lot of great guests that come on the show quite often, especially this summer as the Iowa sports world is a little bit slower. We're going to have a lot more guests coming up as well.

So stay tuned for that. Some, you know, former football players, some former basketball players, some, you know, some of your standard Iowa media guys are going to be on the show as well. So you're going to love the content we have coming up this summer. Make sure to follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and the Himalaya Podcast app. That's where you're going to get, again, you download this episode, you like, review, rate it, all that stuff. That not only helps us out, but now you're getting the show downloaded directly to your phone every single time we have a brand new episode out.

That way you're not missing anything from the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Also, again, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We do have a couple of giveaways coming up. We've had some great giveaways in the past, handing out some autographed Kevontae Martin Manley pictures. So make sure to tune in there on social media,

Twitter at LockedOnIowa, Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes. We're going to be posting a lot of different giveaways and stuff like that on there as well. So if you're interested in, you know, earning some some great Iowa Hawkeyes swag,

you want to check that out. You want to make sure you're following us there so you can stay in the loop on everything that is going on. And just a quick reminder that we do have Matt Vandenberg coming on the show tomorrow, and you're going to really enjoy that interview. Had a great time talking to him about his career for the Iowa Hawkeyes

and what he's up to today. So thank you for tuning in on this Wednesday morning episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic day, Iowa, and go Hawks. We'll see you next time.