Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa United GM Matt Crawford joins the show to talk about their recently released TBT roster and expectations for this years tournament

Episode Date: April 21, 2020

We've got special recurring guest Matt Crawford, the GM of the Iowa United, the team comprised of Iowa Hawkeyes, Iowa State Cyclones, Drake Bulldogs, and a few grad transfers playing in the $2M winner-take-all tournament, on the show today! He talks about some of the new faces to the team, what regional we will likely see the United play in, and what TBT is doing in light of the Coronavirus pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes. Welcome to a very special Tuesday morning episode of the Locked On Iowa podcast. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and you might have noticed the fact that I did not say Locked On Hawkeyes.

And that is because every single Tuesday, we're going to be having a special TBT Tuesday. And that means we are going to be covering the Iowa United, the TBT team, comprised of Drake players, Iowa players, Iowa State players, and a few graduate transfers. Which means every single Tuesday, we are going to be bringing you an interview from one of those players that is going to be playing on that team. That means you're going to get the general manager, Matthew Crawford, who's going to be talking today a bit about the Iowa United team, how they constructed the roster, and how coronavirus is impacting the basketball tournament, the $2 million winner-take-all tournament, and their preparations to get their team ready for that tournament.

We also have special guests. Like I said, every single player on the roster will be on the show at some point over the course of the next three months as we do our very special TBT Tuesday. So if you are a fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes or the Cyclones or the Bulldogs every single Tuesday, make sure you're tuning in to this show. We're going to be giving you that very special episode. And on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we'll be getting back to our normally scheduled content covering all things Iowa Hawkeyes. So thank you all for tuning in today. If you do like what you hear today, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at, whether that is Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, or the brand new Himalaya Podcast app,

and make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And like I said, if you are here to listen to news on the Iowa United, make sure to follow them as well. If you have a Facebook or a Twitter, you can follow them on Twitter at Iowa TBT. Matt does a great job of posting content there. They're doing a lot of really fantastic giveaways and some fan appreciation type of things. And they're really going to be doing over the course of the next couple months, doing some things to let you kind of get to know the players that are going to be playing for the Iowa United this summer in the basketball tournament.

So lots of awesome stuff coming up on that. So let's jump into it, though. I do have Matthew Crawford, who's going to be joining the show today. Again, talking about all things Iowa United and the construction of the roster and the coronavirus pandemic. So let's jump into that right now. I am joined here by Matthew Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United, Joined here by Matthew Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United, the team comprised of the major schools in Iowa playing in the TBT tournament this upcoming season. The tournament roster or the roster of the Iowa United was just announced, so I thought it'd be a great opportunity to have Matt on, talk a bit about the roster, talk a bit about the roster construction, and talk a little bit more about what TBT kind of expects to happen over the next couple months, especially

with all the craziness going on with coronavirus. So Matt, how are you doing today, man? I'm doing great. How are you? Good to be with you. Yeah, man. Great to have you on. When you sent me the text about having a show, I thought that was a fantastic opportunity, especially with the roster being announced. And obviously there's not a lot of sports going on, so it's always fun to talk about things that are pretty relevant to right now. there's not a lot of sports going on so it's it's always fun to talk about things that are pretty relevant to right now yeah yeah we're uh we're excited about the team and uh kind of the group that we put together that uh you know as we've kind of talked before we you know we work on this

you know pretty much the day the last tournament gets over um touching base with guys reaching out um so yeah it's been uh it's been a long road to get to this point, but we're, we're happy to get our roster in early. Absolutely. Do you feel a sense of relief at this point? Yes. Yes, absolutely. Uh, you know, and it was a lot easier, uh, obviously this year because, you know, we knew, uh, we had a pretty good idea that the core of the the team was going to come back um and so that makes it makes our job a little bit easier that we don't have to fill an entire team um that you know we just gotta kind of fill gaps where where we where we thought we needed but yes it is it is kind of a relief day after after you post your team um so but yeah yes

after you post your team. So, yeah, yes. I can only imagine. So how excited are you about this roster? I'm assuming, based on our conversations, I think you're pretty amped up about the roster and the ability to kind of add a few, as you call it, grad transfers. Obviously returning their core is pretty awesome. Are you pretty excited about this roster,

and do you feel like this team can go far? Yeah. I mean, I think one of the things I did when I got back was, you know, you kind of look at, you know, I've told you this kind of off record, but I watched the game one time and erased it off my television from last year. So, but I think, you know, one of the things I did was I kind of went back and said, okay, going forward, where are some areas that we needed to be better? And I think one of those, and I wrote down three areas. One, I thought we needed a little bit more size. I thought we were a little bit undersized at guard,

and I thought we were a little bit undersized at our post area. The other thing was our bench. Now, some of that had to do with the roster restrictions, and we had a couple injuries late, and we were adding some guys that, while it was great that they came to help us out, we probably needed to find – it was hard to find late guys that were going to be really effective. So kind of bolstering that bench was another one. And then the third, the big one for me, was just adding a rim protector.

Somebody that can alter shots, deter guys, just kind of cause havoc underneath. And those are kind of the three areas we looked at. And we feel like kind of along with our core guys, we kind of addressed all three of those. And that's, you know, that's really all you can do is just look at those gaps. Where do you need to fill them? And then go get those guys. And I think we did a great job of doing that. Yeah.

I mean, obviously adding Peter Jock and Deontay Garrett are huge additions from a wing perspective. And then Liam McMorrow and Mike Dahm, I mean, that's huge. Having those guys, that's a big deal, especially from a size perspective and the rim protector perspective. You no longer have Tybee and Nick McGlynn being the main enforcers down low who I think are a little bit more of kind of stretch players. McGlynn's kind of more of a smaller center anyway, so it's kind of good having those two big guys down there. Yeah, that helps.

And Justin Carter's a player. He can play two or three different positions well. He's a veteran guy, puts up really good numbers overseas. I know a couple of these guys are people that are not going to be household names here in Iowa, but they are guys that can really play, and they came recommended, and they played on good teams even in this tournament so all three of them will be major contributors for sure that's exciting so have you talked at all with jeff horner about i mean i know you kind of stay a little bit out of you know how he decides to manage the starting lineup but do you have an idea for what that starting lineup would look like at this point uh i mean we have some ideas, but not really.

We haven't quite gotten that far yet. I mean, we've played around with some ideas of, you know, who would bring good bench energy and, you know, kind of what we want kind of that five to be about, I guess. So, but not really. We haven't really touched on it. I mean, I think we have a, I think we both individually have a good idea. We just haven't really touched on it I think we both individually have a good idea we just haven't talked about it

how's that? makes sense so real quick not kind of off the topic of TBT is Jeff, you had the issue with cancer, is he doing okay and ready to hop onto this team? yeah

we chat every now and then. I kind of check in on him, and, you know, I think he's doing as well as he can be, but I think for the most part he's doing well. And, you know, one of the things we're going to try to do is we're working with, you know, this whole tournament, you know, you're playing against guys, but, you know, you really work together on a lot of things.

Like you're bouncing ideas off of other gms and and uh just chatting with them it's not not this vicious rivalry like you have when it's you know iowa and iowa state or something like that but uh one of the things we're we want to do is we're going to try to work with the sideline cancer folks um and i don't know if it's going to be i don't know if we wear you know a pair of their socks or they they you know a cancer, or something like that. But we wanted to kind of pair up with them this year for the tournament and kind of acknowledge them and their work with cancer.

And it makes sense kind of what Jeff is going through too. And so that will be something we do. But as far as Jeff, I think he's doing well. Him and Austin will both be back um and we may even uh we're still kind of looking at but we may even add another uh add another assistant coach uh to the mix as well so uh but yeah coaching staff's back and uh we're excited to have all those guys they do a great job awesome and um based off the experience from last year was it pretty easy to get the core guys back i, it sounds like they were pretty excited to play again.

I think so. I mean, it didn't take a lot of arm twisting, I don't think. You know, I told them that at the end of last year that I was like, hey, I'd love to have you guys back. You know, you guys all were great. And, you know, we've talked about this a lot but uh you know it goes back to just giving these guys a good experience and being organized and and you know like i said giving them a good experience even though we lost it was still a good experience for them there wasn't headaches it was um they could just come and play and i told all these guys that and the new guys that

you know i view my job is to make make you being able to come play and just have a good experience is my job that's what i'm supposed to do you know everything leading up to the tournament after that it's coach horner he's gonna run the show at that point so i i think that helps in that um yeah it was easier to get those guys and it was easier to talk to guys this year, new guys, about playing. Yeah, it sounds like you had the experience, you had the exposure, and it also sounds like you had a little bit of help from a few Iowa State guys. It sounds like Marcus Fizer and Tyrus McGee had a hand in recruiting a few guys as well.

Did that make it a bit easier for you? Yeah, yeah yeah that was big um so all three of these new guys would come from um guys either coach warner or um you know marcus or tyrus um and that's that's big because it's it's a lot uh it's a lot better for them to ask than it is me i mean they don't know me for anything um so yeah tyrus uh tyrus played with justin carter um uh overseas um and he's a good player man he he can go uh he's veteran he's smart just makes the right play play three positions he's six four um you know he's a fifa euro cup uh champion um so he's gonna be a good addition to this group. Kind of a bulky guy.

Like we talked about, we wanted to get a little bit bigger on the outside. I think he really handles that for us. Along with Deontay. Deontay Garrett is 6'5". As a point guard. If people remember, a couple years ago

he put up 25 points and 30 points in our two games with the Iowa State group. That gives us some great depth, that point guard spot with Josh, Deontay, and Justin. Those guys are a little bit interchangeable at points. That certainly helps a lot. So Liam, Liam, so I'm not going to say who, but we missed out on another over-seven-footer that is going to play for his alumni team. But we almost had him.

He almost came to us anyway. And so, you know, and part of that, too, is just kind of like we talked about. We almost got a guy from an alumni team that's going to be in the tournament. He almost came and played for us instead of the guys he played college with just because of kind of what we do with our marketing and things like that. So kind of as a joke, I messaged Marcus, and I go, man, we really need a rim protector. I go, you don't have any seven-footers in your back pocket anywhere, do you?

And he goes, well, maybe I do. So he messaged and said, he goes, hey, I know this guy. We've got the same agent, Liam McMorrow. And I was like, well, I don't know him, but let me take a look at him. And me and Horner kind of watched some video on him. We're like, that's perfect. That fits exactly what we're looking for. Seven-foot-two, 275, 270, 275.

Guy can run. You know, he was on Eberlein Drive, who plays in the tournament, who made a final a couple years ago. And, you know, again, I messaged the Eberlein Drive guys. I go, hey, you know, Liam may come play for us. I was like what i go what he told me a little bit about him and they just raved about him just great guy uh just an awesome competitor um but yeah we're we're lucky to have him but yeah he's he's gonna be a deterrent

that's for sure yeah he's got a pretty interesting career playing on the iowa energy played a bit on the oklahoma city blue so bounce around the g League a bit also played it sounds like Durham College and Tennessee Tech as well I've had a few gaps there I think people are probably don't realize who this guy is and they're gonna be pretty excited to watch him play once he gets on the court yeah and I asked him I go where do you where do you like to play what do you like to do he goes he goes you know what he goes I I'm an offensive rebounder he goes I will just move people out of the way he's a little bit nasty uh which is awesome uh but yeah he he's uh he like you watch his film and you have to remind yourself that he's 72 doing that stuff i mean it's just unbelievable so um just a really great athlete and you know he's 72-75 and he's cut i mean he is he is a he's a big boy so

uh we're lucky to kind of get it get all uh get our hands on him and we're lucky to have him so um and then mike dom is obviously the the big one uh horner uh recruited him and uh you know a lot of this really is recruiting i mean there's no difference between what we're doing and, you know, what some of these college teams do. You know, you're on these guys, you're calling them, you're messaging them, you know, and things like that. And, you know, we stayed after him and, you know, just kept sharing how we do things over here. And, you know, a lot of teams were after him.

So there were some very prominent teams in the tournament that were after him. And so he's another guy that we're extremely excited about. The tournament posed the question if he was the best big man in the tournament. And, you know, statistic-wise, I'd have to say yes, he probably is. So, again, three great additions. And, again, they all answer kind of the questions that, you know, in areas that we needed people. And that's all we can do.

Absolutely. So we're pumped. We're ready to go. That's exciting. And I think one of the things that, you know, in looking at the construction of this team, the goal is to keep it, you know, within Iowa for the most part, right? You talked about bringing in grad transfers.

But I think the one thing to kind of point out is the fact that these grad transfers do have some connections to iowa still um liam playing for the iowa energy uh deontay garrett not a grad transfer he actually played for iowa state justin carter played for creighton i mean that's across just literally across the river and then mike don playing for south dakota state that's not that far from iowa either um so it sounds like you at least kept it pretty much in the Midwest and kept it to schools that do have some pretty closeness with the state of Iowa. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, especially with Mike being the South Dakota State,

I don't know this for sure, but I'm hoping that I would think that some of that is proximity that probably helped a little bit that we aren't close to South Dakota State so you know as we kind of get going we'll start kind of you know letting the South Dakota State folks know that hey you know Mike's gonna come play with us and you know hey we'd love all your support and everything like that so yeah we try to keep in the Midwest and then again we just you know I'll touch on this for a second because these are all great guys it doesn't matter what school we deal with they're all great people but you know i'll touch on this for a second because these are all great guys it doesn't matter what school we deal with they're all great people but you know right now we don't have another northern iowa guy it certainly again was not from a lack of effort um but with the kind of the roster

restrictions we have we got to know that every guy we talk to and wants in really wants in. And, you know, we ask for just a couple simple things as far as getting them on the team. And 99 times out of 100, guys get that stuff. They don't always do it. And so then we've got to kind of make decisions on, okay, we can't really risk having somebody drop out. Okay. And sometimes you've got to make a hard decision, and this was one of them. We had a couple guys. We just couldn't get them quite on board for whatever reason.

And we try to be patient with all the coronavirus stuff, but at some point we've got to make a decision, and this is kind of what we went with. We're excited about the guys that are committed and are ready to go yeah that's actually what's going to be my next question so i appreciate you taking taking care of that um you touched a bit on coronavirus we are in a very interesting state of sports where there are no sports i mean um the ncaa tournament being canceled baseball being suspended basketball being um on the verge of cancellation right there's a really they haven't canceled bachelor have they that's still on believe me i'm still upset they kind of have

they stopped recording so there's no like just just to get into it so they this year was going to be one of the best years for bachelor bachelor nation because they had the bachelor they had um bachelor sing your heart i don't know some stupid music. I'm not a big fan of that one. And then they were going to do The Bachelorette, which was going to be great because the person who was going to be The Bachelorette was going to be awesome. And then they were going to have Bachelor Summer Games. And then they were going to have Bachelor in Paradise. So there was going to be five different Bachelor franchises.

And now I think we might be lucky to have Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise. So don't get me started. I'm frustrated. This is the last podcast I do with you. This is, you know, well, I'm glad. I'm happy for you. I know that's important to you. It's very important.

Trashy reality television is a very big deal to me. But outside of coronavirus kind of messing with my Monday nights, obviously there's a lot of uncertainty going on. And I know we talked a bit about this, but TBT, I think they're in a really unique position to potentially be the first live sport. So I want to get some of your thoughts on that. Yeah, they're kind of in a unique position um you know with things kind of in a way starting to look like they may start ramping up you know um you know

they they're kind of in a unique position where they don't need a lot of ramp up time where to uh you know like baseball needs you know 30 days or i don't know how many the NBA said they needed like a month well I mean these guys really don't we're kind of our own entity if you will so yeah they they could legitimately be the first live event and I think that's what they're still aiming for is that you know when things get rolling that they can go now it may look like other events where they just don't have fans. I don't know. But they're going to be able to be a lot more flexible than your pro leagues. That's for sure.

So, you know, we had a conference call with them last week. I'm sure we'll have one with them this week. But they sounded confident that they've got some contingency plans in place. And, you know, we're still three months away. So a lot can happen. But I feel pretty good right now where things are at that we should be able to go. Yeah, I mean, you talk about three months doesn't seem like a long time. But I remember back in January going places and people talking about this virus happening in China and not a big deal.

And then all of a sudden, you know, three months later and everything shut down. So, like I said, a lot can change in that time. I think it's important for people to note as well that maybe haven't listened to the podcast before, but you talked about the ramp up time being minimal. I mean, last year, I believe you only had a couple practices the week before. Is that correct? Yeah. And, you know, every team does that differently.

Some teams don't practice at all. Other teams practice for a full week. Um, you know, it just really depends on the team. We went, uh, we went to, uh, we used to not have them. And then we went to a couple of days practice. And I think that that does help, um, just getting familiar with guys, being able to run through offensive sets that you want to run, um, things like that. So, uh So we plan on doing that again. We'll have a couple-day mini-camp and bring the guys in,

and then we anticipate we'll probably go back down to Wichita again. But, yeah, we'll certainly do practice again. But, yeah, the tournament itself doesn't need a big ramp-up time, no. That's awesome. And you mentioned Wichita, so it sounds like that is the preferred location at this point. Would that be accurate? Yeah, it's the closest.

And Josh and Tyrus are down from that area. So we've got to try to do it where it's somewhat convenient for everybody and we're not going down to Vegas as know, Vegas is an option as well. I know they're going to have a site out there. But for right now, I think we're probably going back to Wichita. They put on a great event last year. So, you know, that was key for us. Yeah, it was a ton of fun to be down there.

But that leads me to my next question about Drake. So I know we'd initially talked about the opportunity or the potential to have Drake be a host for the tournament. I know there's been some back and forth on that. It sounds like that's not happening this year. Could be something that happens in the future still. What's the latest on the situation about hosting this at the Knapp Center? Yeah, we're kind of in a weird spot. They haven't come out and told us,

but we really get a good vibe from the tournament that they want to come to Des Moines. We have a team, and we want to have them here. We just can't. We don't have a venue. So Drake was going to do renovations, and so I don't know where those are at. We haven't really checked back in,

but they were not going to be able to host this year. Next year, I don't know if they will be able to next year. I haven't heard. Last time I knew anything about it, they were, I think Drake was even maybe pushing the renovations back. But that could be updated for all I know. We even checked in with Iowa State. Iowa State's also doing renovations, but they were interested. We sent over kind of a proposal over to them, kind of what we did with Drake.

So, you know, we've got a couple schools interested. They're just both doing renovations. But I like where things are at with that, you know, down the road. You know, we're pretty organized, and, you know, we've got a tournament that wants to come the road uh you know we have a we're pretty organized and the you know we got a tournament that wants to come here we just have to have a venue and well and wells fargo is not really an option just from a cost perspective um it just wasn't that wasn't really feasible so uh but we'll still keep working out we'll still stay in touch with them and uh hopefully here uh fairly soon we we can bring a pretty good group here back to

Iowa. And, you know, and it kind of goes back to keep it, you know, getting somebody like Mike Dahman and Justin Liam, where there is a little bit of that local connection, or they're at least played or from the area, is that, you know, if we can take care of them here in a couple of years or a year or two, where we can get a region that will have a nice following for everybody to come and really enjoy that experience of having a tournament here in Des Moines.

Absolutely. So then what's kind of the next step for you and Iowa United and the TBT? What are some of the major milestones that need to be hit over the next couple months? I know there's kind of a finalization of teams. There's the seedings and stuff. What's the next big milestone for you? You know, for right now, we're just going to, we're kind of getting our marketing pieces organized.

We'll probably start that, not this Monday, but the next Monday. I think that's the 27th. I apologize. I don't know. But we'll kind of get that started next Monday. We've got a lot of exciting things planned kind of for fans this

year. A lot of giveaways. We're working with Reclaimed Rails in Uptown Garage Brewing up in Ankeny. We're going to do something where we give away a $20 gift card every week for 10 weeks to fans. We're going to do something where we give away a $20 gift card every week for 10 weeks to fans.

We're going to do contests. So the folks over at Newton Apparel do a great job. They're going to donate practice jerseys for us this year. But we're also going to have some that the players are going to sign, and then we're going to give those away. Just things like that throughout the next 10 weeks or so where we can really get the fans involved, get to know our players a little bit,

and give them a good experience too kind of leading up to the tournament. So we're thrilled to work with all three of those businesses, good Iowa local businesses. And again, with all three of those businesses, good Iowa local businesses. And again, with everything kind of going on, I really hope people get out and support those guys. Uptown Garage, Reclaimed Rails, and Newt Apparel, who just do a great job. Even with everything going on, it's like, hey, do you still want to help? Or you got things going on? And all three of them are like, no, we're good.

Let's go. So just great companies that are willing to help or you got things going on and all three of them are like no we're good let's go you know so just great companies that are willing to help out um and so if you know anything we can do for them anybody out there that can do it for them uh keep keep your business with them they're doing a great job that's awesome and it sounds like the wichita regional i just looked it up is going to be um the last weekend of july so if anyone is sounds like interested in making a trip down to wichita um there's some good breweries down there as well, and the arena is a lot of fun. It is. It is. They put on a really good show last year.

We would like to hung around and gotten a crack at a couple of those teams. But I like where we're at, and we're excited where things are at with the team. And kind of going back to addressing one of the issues, we talked about the bench a little bit. You know, now we're in kind of a unique position where, you know, last year if we had something that came up, we were really going, oh, my gosh, who are we going to find? Where this year, you know,

I feel like we've got probably five or six guys that we're being coached or comfortable going, okay, such and such, you know, pulled his hands, or I don't know, make it up. We're going to need a guy. Okay, well, we've got like such you know pulled his hand i don't know make it up um we're gonna need a guy okay well we got like you know we got five or six guys that we don't feel comfortable we can call that would still be effective and help us out so you know that's kind of a big change i think this year was last year it was kind of tough to get guys to take a call where this year you know we're legitimately having to say no to a couple guys that just don't fit who we've got, if that makes sense.

And so that's a good position at the end where you don't feel like you're scrambling. Absolutely, yeah. I remember last year, I felt like every other day there was a new player being added or a new player that couldn't play anymore and trying to figure out who was going on and the roster kept changing. So nice to see kind of, you know, get that figured out this year. And let me kind of, let me go, I'll probably explain it once.

Let me explain this again to your listeners. But so the tournament, the way it works is you can roster nine guys. Every guy you roster after that costs you $1,000. So right off the bat, we're going to have to pay the tournament $1,000 to have a 10th guy, and that's fine. Well, you have to have your roster in by June 15th. So anything happens after that. So we roster 10 guys.

Let's say, I don't know, two of them get hurt for, you know, six weeks between July or June 15th to the end of July is, you know, it's a good five or six weeks. So let's say you have what happened last year, two guys get hurt. So we'll get that one guy, um, that you wouldn't have to pay for. But if we got down to eight guys and we added a ninth, we'd have to pay them another thousand dollars. So there's such a small margin of error on your roster so it kind of goes back to you know you got to make sure the guys that are coming are the guys you would say yes are committed they get their stuff in they're they're in but you just don't have a lot of wiggle room if something happens so that's why we're really

careful on who we add but that's what ends up happening is you know if you get down to it and you get you know you have to make some roster additions you have to kind of weigh okay well how many thousands of dollars do I want to spend yeah that unfortunately got hurt so that that's just kind of the way it's set up. I don't necessarily agree with it, but it's not my tournament. So we'll play by the rules that we have, and we'll field the best team we have, and we think we've got a really good team this year.

I'm excited. Obviously, from a listener perspective, the big thing is support some of those local places that are helping out the team, support the team as well. I know last year there was some voting on the teams, and you could register as a fan and do some different things to earn fan points. Is that still going to be happening this year? Yeah, we just submitted all of our stuff, so it may not quite be up yet. It should be up in a couple days.

But, yeah, if you go to the tournament and look for Iowa United, you should be able to follow them right there. Get your vote in for us. And then if we win, you share in a piece of the winnings from the tournament, which is fantastic. It's a great idea they've got. But certainly follow us at Iowa TPT because we'll have content every day, whether it's giveaways, things like that like that uh contests uh you know and just

getting to know these guys a little bit better because they're all they're all great guys um and then we are going to try to uh we're going to try to plan some sort of community event uh that that last week in july were you know kind of a meet and greet like we did last year um and we're working with uh working with uh reclaimed Rails and Uptown Garage to try to bring something really cool for the fans, you know, maybe a contest or two with these guys, but just, you know, a really cool thing we're trying to work on. So we'll have more on that later, but, yeah, Iowa TBT, and you can follow us there,

and you can win some really cool giveaways that we're going to do this summer. Awesome, man. Well, Matt, thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate it. Obviously, I hope you're continuing to stay safe out there. I know Iowa's kind of one of the more interesting states in the country right now from a quarantine perspective,

but I hope you're staying safe out there. Any last parting words? Talk about the TBT tournament or Iowa United. No, I just thank everybody. I mean, announcing the team was great and all their support. And, you know, Justin over at Lightsmith Media doing our videos for us again. Anybody that saw our first video came out.

I kept telling him, I was like, man, you will not believe how many views this has. He's just amazed. But he does unbelievable work with all these hype videos. And, you know, the guys are all excited about him. I had a couple messages like, are they going to do the individual ones for us again? I was like, yeah, I think so. He's like, awesome.

The players all love him too. But yeah, go to Iowa TPT. Again, we thank everybody for all their support. They're just positive messages and everything like that. We're excited. Awesome, man. Well, thank you so much for joining the show and I'm sure we'll be talking to you in the coming months as well. All right.

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. No problem. Talk to you later, Matt. And that'll do it for our special Tuesday morning episode. As I said, all things Iowa United every single Tuesday. We're calling it TBT Tuesdays right here on the Locked On Iowa podcast, basically rebranding every single Tuesday to make sure we're covering the entire state,

just as the Iowa United does as well. And like I said, we're going to have a few Hawkeyes on here as part of the Iowa United promotional stuff. But we're also going to be having some Iowa State Cyclones, some Drake Bulldogs, some Creighton players, one specifically a South Dakota State player, and another guy that you're going to be really excited to hear about as well. Some fantastic content coming your way from the Iowa United team. So big shout out to Matt for joining. A big kind of pre-shout out to all the guys who are going to be jumping on the show as well to give us kind of their thoughts, their impressions of the TBT of Iowa United and talk a little bit about their career and how excited they are to play for this team. So I hope you all

tune in for those every single Tuesday. And again, make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And make sure to follow the Iowa United on Twitter as well, at IowaTBT. And follow along for all great content updates on TBT right here. So thank you all for tuning in. Have a fantastic day, Iowa. Stay safe and let's go United. you