Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa's defense can take them far | Why a win over MSU would be huge for Fran | Is Iowa entering their toughest four-game stretch?

Episode Date: January 22, 2019

We continue our recap of the Iowa vs Illinois game by giving you our three big takeaways including how vital Iowa's newfound defensive energy is to their success, why it's important they can win without Tyler Cook, and how freshman Joe Wieskamp will be a star. On segment number two, we dive into why a win over Michigan State would be huge for not just the Hawks but Fran McCaffery and finally we wrap it up by giving our analysis on whether or not the Hawks next four games (vs #6 Michigan State, @ Minnesota, vs #5 Michigan, and @ Indiana) is their toughest stretch of the season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast featuring all the information you want to know about the Iowa Hawkeyes. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at DearOldGold.com, where you can find analysis pieces on all things black and yellow. And we have another exciting episode for you today. We're going to be focusing entirely on the men's basketball team. That's right, one full show dedicated entirely to the men's basketball team. That's right, one full show dedicated entirely to the men's basketball team. I figured with the Michigan State game coming up, we'll be focusing a little bit more on Iowa versus Michigan State, but we're also going to be talking a lot about the NFL draft. This week is the 2019 Senior Bowl week. Anthony Nelson is down there in Mobile playing football and trying to impress the Scouts. We're also going to have Nick Kendall, an NFL draft analyst,

come on the show over the next couple days and talk to us about some of the potential prospects for the Iowa Hawkeyes. So I want to make sure that we're spending a little bit more time earlier in the week on the basketball team. For segment number one, we're going to be going back to the Iowa vs. Illinois game and giving our three big takeaways. Yesterday we gave kind of an overview, a recap of the game, touched on a few points. We want to go a little bit deeper into a few of the takeaways

I thought were really impressive from that game. On segment number two, we're going to be talking about the big win over Michigan State, or sorry, what a big win over Michigan State would be, how huge that would be for the program. And then finally on segment number three, we're going to be talking about the stretch of games that Iowa is entering and how tough that is in terms of the overall season. Before we jump in though, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And if you have a smart speaker at home, it's really easy to listen to the Locked On Hawkeyes

podcast. All you need to do is tell Siri, Google, or Alexa to play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. It's literally that easy. There's no excuse to not listen to our most recent episodes of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. So let's jump right into it. For segment number one, we're touching on the key takeaways from the game against Illinois. And there are a lot of really awesome things to see about that game. One thing we're not going to touch on a lot is just the general shooting by the Iowa Hawkeyes. Last year, you know, they were a very good

offensive team. This year, they've been really outstanding as well, but not as efficient from three point as we've come to expect from this team. But they really put on a clinic against Illinois, just draining three points left and right. But that's not really one of our big takeaways. The biggest takeaway, I think, was Iowa's defensive energy. And it's something that we've talked a lot about on the show. It's something that the Iowa basketball team has really harped on coming into the season. Frank McCaffrey even talked about it in his preseason press conference, that defense was

something that they've had to focus on a lot especially with that you know the large amount of returning players they knew they could do it offensively but could they do it defensively and I think ultimately what you're finding is they have the ability to show that they can play good defense any given night the thing is it's a matter of consistency and we haven't seen the consistency yet but we're starting to see really good stretches of play I mean the last five games, the defensive energy has been really great for most of the time. Then again, you see against Illinois

where they played fantastic for 35 minutes, but there was a five-minute stretch there where Illinois was getting easy transition buckets. Iowa's defense was relatively lackadaisical and it forced Fran McCaffrey to call a timeout up 17 points because he was so frustrated with the lack of defense from the Hawks. Regardless, though, I think for most of the game, what really impressed me was the communication,

the switches that were being made when players were handing the ball off, that kind of thing. Iowa was doing a really good job of just being engaged, and I think that's half the battle when it comes to defense. You can be the most athletic person in the world. You can be James Harden. But are you engaged on the defensive side of the ball? And it's more the mental side than it really is about the athleticism.

Are you in the right spots at the right time? Are you switching at the right time? Are you communicating with your team? And those are things that I'm starting to see from Iowa that really impresses me. And that'll be huge because when Iowa's shot isn't falling, before, previously, they couldn't turn to their defense and hope to help them win the game, but now they can use that as kind of a crutch if needed until they can get their shot back.

The other big thing, kind of a takeaway, and I know it's kind of a weird takeaway, but without Tyler Cook, Iowa's still finding ways to win, and yes, I know Tyler Cook played a lot of minutes against Illinois. He wasn't the presence, though, you typically would expect. In 29 minutes of play, he shot the ball just twice. He had four free throw attempts. He ended up putting in seven points. And he hauled in seven rebounds against a pretty small Illinois frontcourt.

So not exactly a huge performance. But what impressed me most was that there's other players that are stepping up in his absence, in his offensive absence. You had Joe Weiskamp went 8-for-8. Isaiah Moss couldn't miss from three. I think he only missed one three-pointer. And Luka Garza has continued his really strong play as of late. He's really dominated the last few games and showed that he can be that interior presence.

So, you know, it's kind of nice to see the emergence of other Iowa Hawkeyes. Obviously, do I want Tyler Cook in the lineup? Absolutely. But to know that if he goes down, that Iowa still has a fighting chance is refreshing. And even if Tyler Cook decides to go to the NBA, I mean, last year he flirted with it a little bit. If he gets glowing reviews from the NBA scouts and he's gone after this year, then Iowa isn't rebuilding again.

It's not like the 2016 team where four seniors are gone and they have to rebuild. They would just be losing Tyler Cook, but returning Jordan Bohannon, Luka Garza, Joe Weiskamp, Connor McCaffrey. So really exciting stuff to see that they have the emergence of some of these players that could really make a big difference for them down the stretch. And then finally, takeaway number three, Joe Weiskamp. This kid is outstanding. And I think if you've listened to me talk on the podcast, we've been really high on him.

It's pretty easy to beat. I mean, he was outstanding in high school. He was a four-star prospect, top 100 recruit. We knew he was probably going to be good, but did we realize he was going to be this good and this good that fast? Against Illinois, he hit every single one of his shots, going eight for eight, including 6 of 6 from behind the arc. He had a team leading 24 points. He also brought in 5 rebounds and dished out 3 assists. So pretty all-around great performance.

And this really makes you appreciate what Iowa can do going forward. I mean, the future is very bright when you have a player like Joe Weiskamp who can take over a game. Think of it kind of like a Jared Uthoff. I mean, similar in size, about 6'6", 6'7", that athletic type wing. You know, you saw what Jared Uthoff was able to do for the Iowa basketball program, getting them to as high as ranked third in the nation. So, and Uthoff's now kind of bouncing around. I think he's over in the European League, but he was playing in the NBA for a little bit with the Dallas Mavericks. So pretty fantastic stuff right there for Joe Weiskamp. And then just another thing, he was able to win Big Ten Freshman Player of the Year,

which is fantastic for any Iowa basketball player to get some of that recognition, some of those awards. That'll do it for segment number one. Those were our takeaways from the Illinois game. Obviously, we'll be coming through with additional takeaways after the Michigan State game. You can also expect to have us giving you a preview of the Iowa-Michigan State game on tomorrow's morning show. That way you're prepared for Thursday evening's big matchup versus Michigan State. Before we jump into segment number two, where we're going to be talking about what a win over Michigan State could mean, though, I do have a message for you the listener. Because if you're like me, you hate to miss your

favorite team play, regardless of who they are playing. And that's where Sling TV comes in. Now I never have to miss a football or a basketball game. And the best part is, I no longer have to pay for a bunch of channels I don't even watch with a typical cable package. For just $30 a month, you get access to ESPN, the Big Ten Network, and more without the hassle of a long-term contract. What's even more exciting is that we have a fantastic offer for you. Locked On listeners can get a free 7-day trial by going to sling.com slash locked on. That's S-L-I-N-G dot com slash locked on.

Never miss a game again with Sling TV. Slinging.com slash locked on. Never miss a game again with Sling TV. All right, we are back for segment number two. Just a reminder that on segment number three, we're going to be talking about the tough stretch of games that Iowa is about to enter into. They have a really tough four-game stretch that could really make or break

what kind of season this is for the Iowa Hawkeyes. But before we do that, we have to talk about how important this Michigan State game is. And I think it's easy, if you've been watching college basketball at all, you know that Michigan State is one of the best teams in the nation. They're the sixth ranked team in the nation. They're not unbeatable by any means, but they're a very strong, outstanding basketball team led by dynamic guard duo and Nick Ward in the post.

And as we saw, you know, against Iowa the first time, Nick Ward was really the X factor. You know, he was the third leading scorer coming into the game and he really made the difference against the Hawks. So it's really important that they can stop him and make him not have those easy shots that he was getting against Iowa in the paint. But that's neither here nor there. making him not have those easy shots that he was getting against Iowa in the paint. But that's neither here nor there. We'll be talking about that tomorrow morning show, so make sure you tune in for our Wednesday morning episode where we give you a preview of the Iowa-Michigan State game.

We're also going to be giving you a brief tidbit of our interview and discussion with Nick Kendall, the NFL draft analyst on the Iowa Hawkeye football prospects. So make sure you tune into tomorrow's episode. But what would a win mean for Iowa? I mean, it'd be huge. So when you look at it from a large scale, Iowa has played 249 opponents in their history. The Spartans are the 217th team out of those 249 teams in terms of winning percentage. All right. That being said, for teams that have played Iowa more than 8 times, the Spartans are the second worst winning percentage for Iowa.

Their winning percentage, or Iowa's winning percentage against Michigan State is 42%. So, not exactly ideal. The only team that has beaten Iowa more in more than 8 games is Michigan. So, not a very good record for the Hawks in terms of the state of

Michigan. That being said, beating Michigan State would just be a really big game for Iowa. They've really slapped Iowa around a lot in the last few seasons. In fact, in the last 20 years, or last 20 games of the last decade, the Spartans have a 17-3 record against the Hawks. Fran McCaffrey got a win against the Spartans in his very first game against them, and he also got two wins in that 2016 season that saw the Hawks climb to third in the nation after beating a number one ranked Michigan State team and then a number four ranked Michigan State team. So it's been a long time, a lot of time where the Hawks have not become victorious in that

game. And if you saw the earlier game this season, Iowa got beat down by Michigan State. They lost 90-68, and honestly, it could have even been worse than that. They couldn't do anything against the Spartans. It'll be fun to see what happens coming into this game. With Iowa having 16 wins, they're four wins away from really hitting that 20-game threshold that's needed to make the NCAA tournament. But having a marquee win against a Michigan State team would be huge for what their rankings

are, what their seeding is, that kind of thing. It also can help them get on a really big ride, a good winning streak. I mean, let's look back at that 2016 team. They won nine straight games, got as high as third in the nation, and they did that by beating Michigan State in the third of that nine game streak and the seventh of that nine or the sixth of that nine game streak so beating Michigan State here would be huge they have Michigan in a couple weeks those would be huge wins that could really elevate this season to new heights and unlike the 2016 team they are returning a lot of these players back for next year. So it's not just about beating Michigan State this year.

It's about securing that dominance over the next couple seasons as Fran McCaffrey is building this program to be very, very strong over the next couple seasons. The future is very bright with Joe Weiskamp, Connor McCaffrey, Patrick McCaffrey coming in, Joseph Toussaint. There's a lot of good players coming into the Iowa basketball program that could keep them beating Michigan State over and over and over again but that will do it for segment number two just a reminder that on segment number three

we're going to be talking about the tough stretch of games that Iowa is about to enter it is not going to be easy and we want to make sure that you're in the loop as to what it means for the Hawkeyes going forward. All right, we are back with segment number three after a few messages from our sponsors. As we talked about on segment number one,

the three takeaways from the Illinois game, obviously defense was huge, Joe Weiskamp's emergence has been fantastic. And Tyler Cook's injury, although not good timing, has shown that Iowa can win without him, which is fantastic as well. On segment number two, we covered what a win over Michigan State would mean. And then finally, we're here on segment number three to talk to you about the toughest stretch of the season for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Sitting at 16-3, like I said, they have a very good chance of making the NCAA tournament. But the next four games are going to give you a very clear indication of whether this team can go far in the NCAA tournament

or they're going to be a one-game hit and they're going to be out after the first game of March Madness. And no one likes that, right? There's been too many seasons where I've seen Iowa kind of get knocked out. out i mean the 2016 team had a very strong team and then you know won the playing game lost their first game really so not exactly an ideal situation for the hawks though the next four games are going to be huge in the span of two weeks i was taking on number six michigan state and number five mich. And then they're going to be traveling to Bloomington, Indiana to take on the Hoosers in one of the toughest atmospheres in the country. And they have to go away in Minnesota. When you look at advanced

analytics, the only game Iowa is actually going to be favored in over this four game stretch is Minnesota. That's not to say they can't win. That's just to say when you look at it, the odds are not in Iowa's favor. Being realistic though, what would be huge here is if they could just get two wins. I'm saying a win against Michigan or Michigan State and beating Minnesota. That would be a success in my opinion. You get two wins in that four-game stretch. That's not a bad outcome at all.

You still come out pretty solid, have some solid hopes there. Obviously, you want to have a tough game in the other two games. You don't want to have a blowout contest. That can usually decrease morale and it just makes you feel bad about where this team is going. But best case scenario, if Iowa can steal Michigan State and Michigan wins over those two teams at Carver Hawkeye Arena, that's the key here. They're playing both teams at Carver, which is a huge benefit to Iowa. They struggle in East Lansing. They struggle at Michigan in general. So getting two wins at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, taking care of business against Minnesota,

and finding a way to win against Indiana, a team that looked strong at the beginning of the season, just dropped out of the top 25, as we expected with any Big Ten team. A lot of these teams are going to be going in and out and in and out of the top 25 because the conference is so strong, it's just cannibalizing each other's wins. But we don't really know exactly what type of team Indiana is this year. They've had some good wins, but they are currently sitting at 12 and 6. Again though, Bloomington is a tough place to play, never an easy place to play in the Big Ten. So if Iowa can somehow manage to get the four wins out of that,

place to play in the Big Ten. So if Iowa can somehow manage to get the four wins out of that, you could be looking at Iowa in the top 10, maybe even the top five, and staring down a potential two or three seed. That being said, we've seen this saga play out before. Back in 2016, the Hawks were 16-3, coming off a nine-game winning streak before they fall and lost a few more games. And they end up finishing 21-9. So they went 5-6 in their next 11 games to finish 21-9. So it would be huge for Iowa to get some big wins here, help them kind of finish the season strong, go into the rest of Big Ten play, looking like a true contender for the NCAA tournament

in terms of making it far, advancing to maybe even the Sweet 16, that kind of thing. So I think this team has the talent. It's just a matter of putting it all together. So can they do that? Can they rise to the occasion as they're playing a top-ranked Michigan, a top-ranked Michigan State, going on the road against a very difficult Indiana team and playing Minnesota. Minnesota's obviously the weakest team here and their home court advantage is not as strong

as it used to be, but still a very tough matchup regardless. So it'll be fun to watch this kind of play out. As a reminder, we're going to be giving you full coverage on the Iowa-Michigan State game on tomorrow morning's show, giving you a preview of what to expect for this game. And then on Friday morning's show, we're going to be giving you a full recap and kind of our thoughts and experiences from the Iowa-Michigan State game. Hopefully, they're happy thoughts, and we're excited, and Iowa won. But you never know.

Show's got to go on regardless, and we'll be covering that game. Win or lose, we still cover it. That'll do it, though, for our Tuesday morning episode. Just a reminder, we have some really awesome stuff coming up. We have Nick Kendall, NFL draft analyst, coming on the show to talk to us about all the NFL prospects on the Iowa Hawkeye roster. It's going to be a long conversation with him. There's a lot of stuff to cover.

So we're going to be breaking that up into a couple different parts, probably giving you a few parts tomorrow's show, a few parts maybe on Thursday, and a few parts on Friday. So you'll be listening to that the rest of the week. We'll also be covering Iowa versus Michigan State and the other Iowa Hawkeye sports that are taking place currently. Lots of fun stuff. The women's basketball team is doing outstanding.

The wrestling team is top four in the nation. Track and field is starting to break some PRs and really get involved in their season. And the swimming and diving team is still making ways through their Big Ten play. I'm your host, though, Andrew Wade. You can find me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew. You can also follow all the exciting happenings of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast on Twitter

at Locked on Iowa. Also, make sure you're subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify, or really wherever you get your podcast at. That's the easiest way. If you're subscribed to our podcast, it automatically downloads to your phone every time we have a new episode, which is almost every single day of the business week.

And sometimes if you're lucky, we give you an episode on Saturday. That's how generous of people we are. Lastly though, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions, whatever it may be, you can also reach out via email at lockedonhawkeyes at gmail.com. Again, thank you for joining us on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and we'll be back tomorrow.