Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa United GM Matt Crawford joins us post-TBT to talk about the future of the team

Episode Date: August 2, 2019

Iowa United GM Matt Crawford joins the show to answer fan's questions and talk about the future state of the team. We also discuss whether or not Des Moines could host TBT next year and a few players the team is looking at to play on next year's squad. 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. Thank God it's Friday, y'all. Welcome to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. It is a beautiful Friday morning, and I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at DearOldGold.com. And we have a great episode coming at you today. As we've been teasing over the past couple of days, we have the interview with Matthew Cropper, the general manager of the Iowa United.

And as Matt has graciously done over the past couple of months, he gives us an inside perspective, an inside look to how this team, you know, is kind of formulated, kind of what went on behind the scenes the last few weeks leading up to the TBT tournament, the $2 million winner take all tournament

and what the expectations are going forward. What are some guys they're interested in grabbing for the Iowa United team next year? Is there a possibility of having the tournament in Des Moines, maybe at the Knapp Center for Drake? We're going to talk all about that kind of stuff on today's episode of the show. If you have tuned in before and you've liked what you hear, or you like what you hear today, make sure to like, subscribe, and review wherever you downloaded this podcast at, whether that is Google Podcasts, Apple

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bombas.com slash locked again. That's bombas.com slash locked B O M B A S.com slash locked. All right, let's jump into our interview with Matthew Crawford. You're not going to be disappointed. He has a really great job of kind of painting the picture of how, you know, creating this team, um, was great and a great experience, and also what the difficulty was of trying to get players on this team as injuries arose and whatnot over the last couple weeks, and then ultimately what it meant to be in the tournament, what it meant to play that game against Wichita State, and kind of where they go from here. You're going to absolutely love it.

If you aren't a fan of the tournament, I highly recommend you check it out. Once you get in it, you're absolutely hooked. That's how I was. I am already excited for next year when the Iowa United take the court for the second straight year. So let's jump into that interview right now with Matthew Crawford. All right, I am joined here by Matthew Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United. The Iowa United competed in the basketball tournament, the $2 million winner take all tournament last weekend in Wichita, Kansas against the Wichita State alumni team, the Aftershocks. Unfortunately fell in the latter minutes of the game, but wanted to have Matt on the show today to talk about this team, you know, kind of what it meant to bring this team together, what were some of the positives from this matchup this past weekend, and also talk about the future

of this team and kind of what that beholds. So Matt I appreciate you for jumping on the show really enjoy having you on so many times how are you doing today good always uh always good being back with you awesome man well let's jump right into it with you know some of the key topics of the game you know what was that atmosphere like in Wichita it was great it. And, you know, that's kind of what we kind of saw happening as we saw the ticket sales kind of going up and up in Wichita. But, you know, I think it caught all of us a little bit. And, you know, you know, all of us have been to big arenas and been on the floor and everything like that. But, you know, you kind of come in kind of tunnels, the entrances are kind of on the behind the baskets there. And I think it's still kind of come in uh kind of tunnels the entrances are kind of on the behind

the baskets there and i think it's still kind of caught us all that we walked in and we're like it was a full gym and it was you know the kansas game was before us and they were rocking before so um you know it didn't it didn't bother us it didn't intimidate us it was more of a like wow this is awesome this is a big-time environment for something like this. So, you know, our hats off to Wichita. They really put on a great performance just organizing it and getting people involved and just getting their fans out there. They were unbelievable and kind and just great hosts last week.

Yeah, I mean, I remember sitting there thinking, wow, this feels like a late February, early March type of environment and thinking that was absolutely insane. I mean, I got there at 4 p.m. and I think the gates opened at 4.30 and it was only Wichita State people piling in. There were a few Kansas folks trickling in, not anyone really that looked like they were supporting sideline cancer, but it was mostly Wichita fans coming in at 4.30, 5 o'clock,

which is pretty insane. Yeah, yeah. We'd seen pictures where people were lining up and things like that early, and that's great. That's what this whole thing's about. Yeah, man. So obviously the Iowa United fell, but wanted to talk about some of the positives about the game.

What were the big takeaways from you? This is kind of a tough experience to get this whole team together. Lots of things kind of going on in the last few weeks, but what did it mean to be in that game, to watch that game, and ultimately when you fell out of Wichita State, what were some of the positives you took away from that game? Well, I think big scope- i think it was it worked out um you know and it's hard because you you know you're trying to build a program and a lot of people don't even didn't even know

what this tournament was uh so um you know big picture wise you're just trying to get on the map um and so you know even in a loss to wichita and i i've talked to a couple people about this that this going to wichita and losing that game uh the way we did and battling and having leads and it was just a great game a fun game to watch it was it did more for us than if we would have gone to memphis and won two games um because on ESPN3 no one would have known what this tournament was any better um so I think just having that you know I keep talking exposure with the guys and us and the team I think just getting on ESPN in prime time and having such a fun game fun atmosphere um probably did more for us than just about anything we could have done this year, in this first year like this.

So, you know, smaller scope-wise, I think, you know, just for the guys individually, it was great. You know, getting Tyrus McGee out there again. Nick McGlynn, getting his name out there a lot. So there was a lot of good positives in there. Just getting those guys, like I said, that ESPN exposure of Fran Fraschilla and Mike Kennedy who did a great job. Just talking about them. Yeah, and I think for me personally, seeing Nick McGlynn out there

hold his own against Wichita State. He had a tough battle against Shaq Morris, but still managed to put up a double-double, was really bringing the energy, especially late. I think we talked about this, but getting that pick-and-roll game going, I thought Nick McGlynn really showed out pretty well in his first TBT appearance. Yeah, yeah, he did. And he was great, and they even talked about he's a guy that, you know, Fran said that he's somebody that should get a look in summer league,

you know, one of these years. And, you know, that's perfect. That's exactly what we're looking for when we get these guys out there is to have people talking about him. Yeah, you want to get that exposure. And one of the things, you know, being an Iowa Hawkeye fan, being a former Drake Bulldog, I hadn't seen a lot of Tyrus McGee. And in watching that game, I hadn't seen a lot of Tyrus McGee. And in watching

that game, I came away so incredibly impressed. I mean, from the minute tip-off happened, he was ready to play and he was in the zone. And to be honest, he sounded like, or didn't sound like, it seemed like he was the only guy who really kept the Iowa United in the game for the first five to six minutes. I mean, no one was really hitting any shots except for Tyrus. He was the one who kept the game within, you know, 10 points the entire time until the rest of the team could get hot. But I wanted to get your thoughts on Tyrus. I know we've talked a lot about him, but is, you know,

is he as impressive to you as he is to me when I watched him play? You really, you start to run out of adjectives. He's so great, just on the floor and off the floor. And maybe even as good as he is on the floor, he might so great just on the floor and off the floor um and maybe even as good as he is on the floor he he might be even better off the floor so uh yeah tyrus is a warrior man he he just loves the ball loves basketball um great shooter obviously but um there there's no off button with him he is basketball all day all night uh 100 and when i say off the floor so you know we we drove down from des moines uh you know six hours and tyrus and and uh nicholas bear

were uh in the vehicle with me and i bet four of those hours at least tyrus is talking to nicholas about everything he needs to know overseas i i don't there's no way Bear absorbed all this how to how to do your cell phone and your sim cards with it and you know how to get your mail uh you know just you know your contract how to work things into your contract because they you know pay overseas is a little bit funky sometimes with ownership. So, you know, that's just who he is. You know, and it's like we've talked about before. It didn't matter if they were Iowa and Iowa State. You forget about all that stuff.

And really, I think watching it on the floor, I didn't, for me personally, I didn't think one time, okay, this guy was from Iowa, so this is a Drake guy. It was like, these guys are, these guys all played in Iowa that's all that's it um and so you know as good as he is on the floor he might be even better off the floor just how generous he is how what a personality he is and uh he's just he's just a great guy yeah and I believe I saw on Twitter that he actually visited at high school or some sort of local kids camp going on the day after the TBT tournament. So just really incredible guy, like you said, off the court, talking to him. And when I saw him after the game, you know, he was, again, just talking all about basketball.

He was giving Timmer a ton of advice on what to do as well, which I thought was really interesting. Yeah. And that's kind of what these guys do is they just talk shop about, you know, places they've played, where's a good place to play, you know, what places maybe to avoid because, you know, the management maybe isn't as good, that sort of thing. This is their job, and they talk shop constantly about it. So it was pretty entertaining. Absolutely. And one of the things, you know, we looked at this from an Iowa perspective,

but a connection I don't think a lot of people realize is that Tyrus McGee and Peter Jock, or not Peter Jock, excuse me, but Josh Young are both from Oklahoma, and it really felt like both of those guys are really the leaders of the team. What did, you know, Tyrus and maybe a little bit more Josh Young since we haven't talked about him, what did they bring to the team from a leadership perspective? Yeah, I mean, they're just steady. You know, you didn't see a lot. You know, Josh isn't going to turn the ball over.

He's smart. You know, he just sees things from a coach's view. He would be an excellent coach if he ever gets out of basketball, but he's going to play for 30 years, I think. But, yeah, I mean, they're just steady. And Tyrus being involved in this tournament before just kind of knows the ropes. And that's really what we were looking for, especially his first year. We wanted a little bit of steadiness in the backcourt,

and Josh and Tyrus were great. But, yeah, Tyrus is a – or Josh is just a great leader. It's just like having like an extra coach out there at all times. That's awesome. Yeah, I think he wasn't always the quickest or the fastest or the guy who could jump the highest, but he's definitely one of the hardest workers, and like you said, one of the most cerebral players on the court at all times.

Right, and it's little things. It's just Coach Horner would run some sets and some offense, and it might be something simple where he might say, let me run this three feet over to the right to to pull this guy over a little bit you know it's just little things like that that uh and he doesn't miss any of them and it's just constant um so i mean they're just and that's the thing about all these guys you know when we went to uh put coach morris putting in offenses when we were at valley high school during the week i mean these guys just within five minutes we're just getting all these things,

like just their concepts. They're just such smart guys. And so, yeah, they're just – and Josh is kind of the ringleader of that, just a very, very bright player. I love it. Good representation for Drake. And so you had a week kind of to work with these guys. I think you picked them up on Saturday or Sunday, had a few practices with them,

and then obviously went down to Wichita and played the game. Who was the most surprising? Who was kind of the best surprise out of all those players that you saw finally on Thursday night? I think Tybee and McGlynn did much better than I thought they would. Not that I didn't think they would do well, but they weren't scared of the moment. They weren't intimidated. They played well, and especially McGilland.

He's fresh out of college playing against overseas professional grown men. He didn't back down, and he was great to watch play out there, that's for sure. But I would say those two guys were pleasant surprises, that's for sure. Yeah, I think those two guys are also who I would pinpoint as the guys who really brought the energy. I mean, there's the energy that Tyrus McGee brings from hitting three-point shots or kind of dribbling past defenders.

There's the calming energy that Josh Young brings. But I feel like Tybee and McGlynn, maybe to sometimes the determent of them, but they brought some passionate energy into the game. I mean, before, you know, during the announcements, before, you know, during the lineup announcements, McGlynn slapped the bench a couple times, and I heard some people behind me say, who the hell is that guy? I was like, oh, that's Nick McGlynn. But just that, he was pumped. Yeah, we were actually surprised he did it. We had a team dinner Wednesday night,

and I think it was Matt Gaines asked him if he was going to slap the bench. He just kind of laughed it off, and so we didn't think he was going to do it. Yeah, he got it in there. We just kind of shook our heads. And so we didn't think he was going to do it. Yeah, he got it in there. We just kind of shook our hands like, jeez, Nick. Yeah, he seemed – he was ready. He was ready.

He's so great. So he actually had a pretty tough matchup against Shaq Morris. And then you also had, you know, I don't think people realize this, but you had Klee Anthony early on the other side of Wichita State. And we'll get to him in more details in a few other conversations or a few other questions but and then Connor Frankamp those are kind of the three guys that would pinpoint as the real big difference makers from a Wichita State perspective did you realize or kind of game plan around those guys at all going into Thursday night yeah I mean we wanted to take clean Anthony out

and we did a really good job I think he 15. And if you watched him in the following game, he really had a good game. He's an exceptional player. So that was kind of the idea is we really wanted to get kind of Clay Anthony out there. Now, what we didn't realize was Clay Anthony and a lot of other guys took a lot of bad shots. And Cle Anthony and a lot of their guys took a lot of bad shots. And so, you know, the one guy that took a lot of smart shots was Fran Camp.

So, I mean, you know, tonight's 2020, but I think if we would, you know, Coach and I and Austin would have gone back, we would have said, you know what, let's not let Fran Camp at home get going with three-pointers. Yeah. It's easy to say no, isn't it? Because the next game, Fran Camp didn't make hard of any of them. He was wide open. You know, I think that's what the different sideline cancer did a much better job of, is they didn't let them get on that big run with three-pointers from Connor.

And we just kind of missed him on a few assignments. And he got loose, and he didn't miss any of them, it felt like. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to miss the guy who looks like he's 40 years old on the court, but, man, that guy can really drain some shots. Yeah, he's such a good player, and I think a lot of people remember him in Kansas, and then he transferred over. Yep. Yeah, you know, they just have so many weapons, and they were so tough anyway.

But, yeah, you know, our plan was to kind of get Cle Anthony out of there a little bit. And we held him 15. That's about as good as you can do on a guy like that. Yeah, and it seemed like you kind of got into Cle Anthony's head a little bit, or maybe that might have been some of the source of frustration when there was a big-time play later in the second half where the ball was stripped by reed timmer a real good play by timmer you know getting that that strip but then as that play was kind of unfolding clinton the early appeared to have cocked back his arm and attempted to punch timmer wanted to get your

thoughts on that and what was explained maybe by the referees as to why that wasn't an ejection or some sort of technical yeah we never really got an explanation nobody nobody came over um so yeah we don't know a common five i don't know i the only yeah the only thing i had heard was that you know when he went in for the strip of it, he got his arm tangled with Clay Anthony's. And since his arm was, so Reed had his arm a little bit, him trying to get free, there was no definitive punch. I don't know. We couldn't see it anyway. So Reed just barely nicked him and clipped him. He said he should have gone down.

And then he probably, he would have probably been ejected. That's what he was saying. That's what Timber was saying. He wished he would have pretended like he got hit. He thinks he could have got the call there. Yeah, and I think he would have. It is what it is. I'm not big on

blaming officials. I always say nine times out of ten, you've done something to put yourself in a position where a call dings you. And it wasn't even a call. It was a non-call. So he might have thrown a punch.

In the end, we're all out there playing. And in the end, they got it done and we didn't. And that's basketball. That happens. Yeah, so I just have to ask the question one more time because I know you said you don't want to blame it on officiating, but I'm just curious, in your opinion, what was the officiating like being on home court for Wichita State?

It felt like calls were not always going in Iowa's direction. Is that the same sense that you got? I don't know. I I'm sure you know the officials with being being there and getting a little worked up with home crowd and uh you know I they probably miss some um you know that's gonna that's gonna happen but I didn't feel like that was the reason we lost the game by any means uh you know I I think we just kind of, we ran out of gas a little bit. And, you know, we let the wrong guy loose a few too many times. And that's what gets you.

You know what I mean? So, no, I'm not a blame and officials guy. You know, if we would have won, I wasn't going to credit the officials. So, I'm not going to blame them that we lost. So, it is what it is. Yeah, and you talked about people kind of tiring down towards the end. The starters played some big-time minutes. The lowest amount of minutes any of the starters played was 25 minutes.

Josh Young and Tyrus McGee each played, I believe, 33 or 34 minutes. Was that the game plan going in? I believe Nicholas Bayer was sixth most minutes with 13 or 14. Was that kind of what you talked about going in, or is it just as the game was kind of flowing, try to get certain guys the ball? How did that work out? Yeah, I mean, some of it's a necessity. I mean, we just, you know, we'll go over this a little bit.

But, yeah, I mean, we probably should have gotten there some more time, to be honest with you. That was probably an error on our part. You know, again, hindsight's 20-20. But, you know, that's probably something we should have done. But, yeah, I mean, yeah, we want to get those guys minutes. And, you know, offensively I felt like, you know, we were in pretty good rhythm for most of the game.

So we wanted to kind of keep it going. We got it to just kind of to a point where it was like, okay, let's just – we got to try to outscore them at this point. And, you know, that's something that, you that Cyrus isn't going to provide a ton of offense. Matt, kind of where he was at, wasn't going to provide a ton of offense. Bell, again, he was going to provide some, but not as much as some of those other guys we felt like. Peter Jock did not end up playing the game.

Kind of a late announcement. What kind of went into that? And then, yeah, after that, let's kind of jump into what was going into this team making, right? There's a lot of additions late in the process. The TBT has some interesting stipulations on how rosters are formed. So let's touch on Peter Jock first, and then let's jump into what that looks like from a team-building perspective. Yeah, so with Peter, it was kind of funny. I watched his last summer league game,

and he went 0 for 6 and 0 for 4 from 3 in a game he started. You just tell something wasn't quite right. And I got a text from him even that night, and he said, you know my my foot's bothering me um i don't know about doing tbt and i you know we just told him i go well you got hey we we totally get it you gotta uh do what you gotta do um but he was gonna try to rehab and take a week off see how it fell before uh the tournament started well then he gets uh signed overseas i think it is in france i think he gets signed overseas. I think he's in France. I think he gets signed overseas.

It's kind of interesting the way that works. If you're an American and you go overseas, the teams can only have so many Americans on them. That affects what their contract is. Pete, with his background, needs a Sudanese passport. If he gets a Sudanese passport, he makes more money in his contract. Well, he's kind of under a time crunch because he's got to get over to France and take care of that.

So we kind of knew about Pete, his last summer league game, so probably a couple weeks ago. We just didn't announce it because we didn't think there's no advantage for us to let Wichita State know that he's not coming um so we kind of held on to that and uh pfizer pretty much as long as as long as we could that uh they weren't going to be available um even to the tournament we didn't tell until we absolutely had to um so that was kind of the reason behind that peter's under a time crunch he didn't uh He had to get this passport. He just literally did not have time to do this.

He had to travel and go take care of that. Makes sense. And then as far as the team building goes, like we talked about, there was a lot of kind of late additions to the roster. I know some people who tuned in were kind of confused as to why there wasn't a UNI representative, and I think they might have missed the part where Wes Washburn was on the team but suffered an injury, unfortunately. So kind of walk me through that maybe kind of what that process was like to try to form a team for TBT especially when there's some weird roster

stipulations and you have people that are getting injured late in the tournament and are late into the tournament process and how tough it is to try to find replacement guys. Oh, my gosh. So, that's a lot. So, you know, the way I compare it is like it's almost like you're going to throw a party and the cool kids kind of want to know who's coming, if that makes sense. So, you really can't just – you've got to start off with a couple guys. And like I said, Pete and Tyrus were the first two right out of the gate. And that really gave it some legitimacy. Not only those two, because they're big-time guys here in the state,

but just it was Iowa and Iowa State. So then it kind of just went from there. So the way that the tournament sets it up is you can have as many on your roster as you want. If you have more than nine, each guy costs you $1,000. So if you have 12 guys and you've got to send in your roster June 1st. Now keep in mind, we didn't play until the end of July. So a lot can happen in two months. Guys get hurt, things go on, whatever.

A lot can happen. you know guys get hurt there's things go on you know whatever a lot can happen so you know if you have uh if you have a roster of 10 guys and you put this in june 1st and july july 1st two guys get hurt and you're down to eight guys well now you've got to replace them it cost you a thousand dollars well we ended up having a couple of those um Marcus and Pete. So we had to replace them. And, you know, it just gets expensive to add guys, to be honest with you. So we tried to roll with nine. And Pete being so late, let me just tell you, Jeff Horner and I made, we had to make 75 phone calls to the guys.

We went back and called all the guys we initially called. of phone calls to the guys we we went back and called all the guys we initially called we went back and called um you know guys that that had played for you know the hilton team um we were down to so not only let me just tell you this is how to explain how far down or not far down because i want to be respectful of the player not only had we were we going to reach back out to curtis stinson we were going to reach out to Curtis Stinson's nephew, who didn't even play in the state and is from New York. So that's all. But you've got to understand, it's like last minute,

and you're asking guys to commit a full week to this. They've already got commitments. They're out of state. It's hard. But Horner and I were on the phone. I mean, we were literally to the point where we contacted every Iowa, It's hard. But, yeah, Horner and I were on the phone. I mean, we were literally to the point where, you know, we contacted every Iowa, Iowa State, Northern Iowa,

and Drake guy that we thought could fit. And then we were literally on two guys that, hey, if you've driven through the state of Iowa, we might be close enough. Yeah. So, I mean, there was one day where we, I'm not joking, we had five guys, five of us, calling people. And, you know, it got to a string to where we had,

it was like a scout for the Memphis Grizzlies was even calling guys for us that somebody knew that somebody knew. And finally one of the guys called back, Lindrick Rogers, and he goes, I have exhausted every contact I have. So at that point we're like, okay, we've done as good as we can. And then Orner called up and he said, Gaten said he'd like to do it. And so we're like, well, geez, if Gaten's will play, yeah, we'd love to have him. So he had a 1,600-point score. And for Matt, I told him, I go, just have fun with this. I go, I'm so happy you're doing it because and you know and for Matt you know I told him I go just have fun with this I go

you know I'm so happy you're doing it because you know uh you know once you get to a certain age you don't have these opportunities you don't you know these they're none there's no opportunity so you know once you're done playing there's no opportunities like this that come up really and so I just told him you know what have fun with this you know just just enjoy being around the team be enjoy you know being a part of this kind of environment and and he did i and i'm so glad he came along uh for the ride with us so uh but yeah so um and just to kind of go back to the northern iowa thing um i was on their radio show last week and i i apologized up and down to the that fan, and I'll do it again. Trust me when I tell you, we tried every single reasonable Northern Iowa guy

you could think of that would have fit, and it just didn't work out. But going forward, I think we'll be fine. I think Wes is interested in playing. Seth Tuttle is interested in playing. And we've got kind of a nice little database of guys now that we can call on. But I do apologize to the Northern Iowa fans, but we tried everything we could to get a guy, and it just unfortunately didn't work out.

Yeah, and I think a lot goes into the – I think there's a lot that can be put into the fact that now that the team has been created, like you said, the name's out there. People know what it is. So there's an opportunity to maybe get a few other guys on that squad also i just want to quickly say nice work on answering my incredibly loaded 17 part question i thought you did a great job of answering that in general um no problem and to kind of go and to kind of go back to you know like what we were talking about just uh you know with kind of this database or i'm just getting this you know kind of go back to, you know, like what we were talking about, just, you know, with kind of this database of just getting this, you know,

kind of roster and getting it out there, you know, most of these guys want to come back. And that's the big deal. And, you know, that was kind of the goal with this whole Wichita thing and really taking care of the guys. Something we've kind of talked about on this podcast quite a bit is just taking care of these guys, giving them a good experience, even in a loss.

I mean, these guys win games, they lose games. Give them a good experience so they want to come back. And, you know, I think we're already at six of these guys want to come back next year. So that puts us in a real nice position to go, okay, well, now if we want to go get four, five more guys to fill out the roster, we're in good shape and we can be we can be a little more selective um so puts us in a real nice spot for next year that most definitely yeah and there's

a lot of uh interesting news coming out about next year as well i think um happened a little bit quicker than maybe you were uh thinking it would but uh the news about trying to get the tournament in des moines has been catching on fire as of late it sounds like some of the Des Moines you know tourism people have been working on it already so um do you want to kind of elaborate on that yeah that's been crazy so this was kind of you know one of the things I wanted to do in the first like three years was you know I wanted to get us on the map and then I'd like you know for us to host a region because I think this is something where if it caught on with all

four schools, all four fan bases, we'd pack a place like Wichita State, no problem. And so that was something we kind of reached out to the tournament to go, hey, what information do we need, that sort of thing. And, you know, we kind of kicked it out there. It kind of got out there a little bit earlier than what I anticipated what I anticipated. I don't, I'm not even sure if we were home yet, uh, from the weekend. Um, you know, and, and, uh, you know, uh, Brian Harden, their athletic director, Dre kind of had a nice tweet about it and catch Des Moines saw it. So, you know, I'm sitting there going, okay, well let's, let's maybe give, you know, the, the tourism bureau. So if you're

not aware of how this works, so you, you kind of give this information to your city's uh tourism bureau and then they will put together a kind of a proposal and then um they pitch it to the tournament to see if they'd be interested in doing it and so my thought process was, well, okay, we're going to have to call these guys and explain to them what this even is and that sort of thing. So I call them up at 9 o'clock on Monday morning and get a hold of them. And I was like, hey, this is Matt with the Iowa United and we'd like to talk to you about maybe getting a region. And he's like, oh, yeah, no, yeah, we watched the game. I was like, okay, great, well, that's awesome.

And I was like, well, we'd like to pitch the tournament to do this. And he's like, oh, yeah, we're already emailing them. So Monday morning they're already all over. That's awesome. That was great to see. So we'll see. I think we've got a little bit of an uphill battle just because Wichita State did a really nice job. Columbus, Ohio does a really nice job.

So it's going to be a little bit of a battle to see if they want three regions that close together or not. But I think we've got some really good selling points being in Des Moines having your host school is not one school but four schools I think that'll be a big selling point for us so yeah like I said that's kind of our off-season plan is we're gonna work like crazy to to make that happen and we can fill up the NAP center with a bunch of fans and we'll make that thing a party all week i'm telling you that right now it'll be it'll be a blast that'd be a lot of fun and i think one of the things that could really help and i know we've talked about this before is it'd be pretty cool to have some iowa united gear um especially if we're going to bring those fan

bases together um i what one thing i love about wichita state you walked in there and it was all yellow um unfortunately with four fan bases it can be a little bit tough to be uh color coordinated so what is the chances we're going to get some Iowa United gear well they do it kind of the tournament has done it a little bit different each year I don't think they typically sold a lot of gear um from teams other than the host team so I mean if you go on their website now there, they sell stuff from the host team and some old clearance stuff. So I don't know if that's kind of the angle they're going to go at, is let's just sell stuff to the host team,

so let's get a host team here in Des Moines. But other than that, I don't think there's a way to get that, because I don't think we can manufacture without them, uh, consenting that and making the money off it. That's the whole reason they're doing it. So, um,

but yeah, no, I mean, the logos look great. Um, the uniforms look great. They're, they're pretty cool.

I thought so. Yeah. I looked a lot better than I thought it would just from seeing the release. Like when I saw them like on the players, like, Oh, this actually looks pretty darn good. But then I will admit when I saw it on Twitter, I didn't think the best of it.

Yeah, I am right there with you. But, yeah, then in person you're like, oh, yeah, that was pretty sharp. Yeah, we're happy with them. The guys like them. Awesome. And one of my last questions for you is just you talked about offseason kind of planning, trying to get that tournament in Des Moines. What does the offseason look like for you I know I believe I reached out to you last September or October about some other

things and you brought up that you were working on this so what does the off-season look like for you and when are you going to really start ratcheting down and trying to get a few other guys um we've already started so you know we kind of know, I kind of reached back out to a couple of those guys that said they were interested just to go, hey, you know, we had some, we had some nice, we've got some nice momentum going. You know, I know it's a long ways off. Are you still interested? And, you know, we've got kind of a – I've kind of put it into like an Excel sheet, and I've gotten that off to Coach Horner and Coach McBeth. And we'll just kind of at some point take a look at, you know, if we've got five roster spots left to fill, assuming all those guys come back like they want to, you know, how do we want to fill that?

Is it a – you know, do we – you know, some guys that were – like a Marcus Page. Marcus Page would be great in something like this. De marcus page would be great in something like this devin marble uh would be great in something like this so um i think those are kind of the needs you know we'd like to get another get a little bit bigger guard um maybe the two guard um you know somewhere a devin or a pete uh coming back would would be good and and really one thing i noticed too too was the ability to get into the paint a little bit better, you know, where something like Marcus Page would be good at.

So I think that's kind of the biggest thing is we're just going to kind of be a little bit – we can be because we can be – be a little bit more selective in these last, you know, four or five roster spots to really make this a good roster. Even if we're in Des Moines or somewhere else, five roster spots to really make this a good roster. Even if we're in Des Moines or somewhere else, that we can put forth a good effort. Absolutely.

So apparently there is no offseason. The job that never quits, man. Well, I'm really glad that you started the team and had the idea and started working on it. I had a blast in Wichita. I think a lot of the state had a blast watching an Iowa team compete. I know Twitter was blowing up over it. Facebook seemed to be really enjoying it as well. Obviously, we've gotten a lot of good response from in Des Moines.

The city is working on trying to get the tournament here now that they are aware of this awesome compilation of the four schools. So, Matt, are there any last things you want to bring up before we close the call out? of the four schools. So, Matt, are there any last things you want to bring up before we close the call out? No, I just, you know, again, thank you for doing all the podcasts and talking to the guys and things like that, and just to the fans that support us and the people that drove down,

which was crazy to see. We appreciate it so much. And, you know, still follow us on Twitter at IowaTVT. You know, I told all the guys, you know, hey, whatever you do overseas, kick it out there and we'll retweet it just so fans can kind of stay up with you. Because I think a lot of people really appreciated that, that they didn't know where some of these guys even were. But other than that, just stay tuned.

We're going to keep working at it. And hopefully we'll be in Des Moines next year and we can pack that place. I love it, man. Well, thank you again, Matt. Really enjoyed talking to you. Appreciate all the time you spent talking to us as well and obviously connecting us with a lot of the guys from Iowa United and getting them on the show so we can, again,

reach out to bigger audiences for them. So thank you again. Looking forward to talking to you and looking forward to seeing what you put on the court next year. All right, thanks. Yep, thanks, Matt. All right, and that concludes our Friday morning episode and our interview with Matthew Crawford. Again, a big shout out to Matt.

He's been joining the show quite a bit over the last couple of months as we've kind of given the details about the Iowa United. He's also graciously allowed us to interview a lot of his players on his team to kind of get that exposure to some of the guys you may not be familiar with from a Drake University or UW MilwaukeeMilwaukee. Obviously, we had Iowa favorite Nicholas Bayer on the phone as well. Really enjoyed all those podcast interviews. Again, we're going to be having him on in the future as well as Iowa United begins to take off for a year or two in the basketball tournament.

Especially when there's big announcements, try to get him on the phone to talk about those announcements. Hopefully, one of those announcements is coming to Des Moines for the tournament. That would be absolutely fantastic, and I think the state of Iowa would really love that, so I'm really looking forward to hopefully making that work. Outside of that, though, if you did like what you hear today, make sure to like, subscribe, and review wherever you download this podcast at. Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Himalaya Podcast app, you name it. If you can find a podcast there, we're likely on there as well.

Make sure to download that podcast and subscribe so you get all future downloads as well. Also, follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa and Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes. I hope you have a fantastic Friday morning, Hawkeye Nation, Cyclone Nation, Bulldog Nation, and Panda Nation. And let's go Hawks. I'm out.