Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Is Iowa's 10 seed a good thing? | Women's bracket is released! | Iowa Hawkeye sport roundup

Episode Date: March 19, 2019

We break down each of the men's Big Ten Conference seedings with a special emphasis on Iowa's 10 seed. Not getting an 8 or 9 seed actually should be considered a huge win for the Hawks heading into tournament play. The women on the other hand got matched up with the #1 overall seed in the tournament, but before they take on Baylor they get two home games at Carver where they are undefeated. To finish up the show we do our weekly Hawkeye roundup segment where we cover all of the other sports in Hawkeye nation including the wrestling team which is heading to Nationals this weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to another fantastic episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, part of the Locked On Sports Network's Growing Line of College podcast. This is your daily podcast covering your University of Iowa Hawkeyes every single day. And I'm your host, Andrew Wade, site expert over at dearoldbold.com, fansite of the Iowa Hawkeye website devoted to everything black and gold. And like I said, it is an awesome episode coming at you today. It is March Madness time. We have lots of stuff to cover. And so I want to get right into it. On segment number one, we're going to be talking about the men's basketball tournament. The seedings came out on Selection Sunday.

So just, you know, a little over a day ago, we found out what the fate of the Iowa basketball team was. Where would they be playing? Who would they be playing? What seed would they be? And just to give you a little bit of a spoiler alert, I'm glad they got a 10 seed. A little bit better than getting an 8 or a 9 seed. They get a little bit easier matchup in the second round if they make it that far. But we'll talk about that on segment number one. On segment number two, we're going to be covering the women's basketball tournament.

The women's tournament just came out with the seeding yesterday, a little bit earlier than we thought it was because ESPN kind of messed up some graphics, but neither here nor there. The women's tournament, you know, the bracket came out yesterday, and we want to talk a little bit about that and what it means for the women's basketball team getting that number two seed. And then finally on segment number three, we're going to be covering all the happenings in Iowa athletics outside of the basketball realm for segment number three, we're going to be covering all the happenings in Iowa athletics outside of the basketball realm for segment number three. So we're going to be covering

that on segment number three. And then just a heads up that, you know, over the next couple of days, we're going to really be focusing on basketball. So if you're not a big fan of a basketball or March Madness, I do apologize, but that's going to be kind of going on over the next couple of days and possibly into next week, depending on how far the men and the women go. So just keep that in mind. Also, if you love doing March Madness Brackets and if you love getting free prizes, check out the Twitter account Locked on Iowa. That is our Locked on Hawkeyes Twitter account.

We are hosting an extremely fun contest. All you need to do is follow our Twitter account at LockedOnIowa or follow our Facebook account, LockedOnHawkeyes. You do that and then send me a direct message to LockedOnIowa or LockedOnHawkeyes on Facebook. Send me a direct message giving me your email address and I will send you a link to the contest where you will be filling out a March Madness bracket.

The winner will get a prize from Fanatics.com, an Iowa Hawkeye basketball t-shirt valued at $25. It's not that hard to do. It's a lot of fun. You'll be competing against tons of former, or not former, but tons of Iowa Hawkeye fans all around. So check that out on Twitter or Facebook. Fun stuff coming at you. Like I said, I just want to give you an opportunity to compete against other Iowa Hawkeye fans all around. So check that out on Twitter or Facebook. Fun stuff coming at you.

Like I said, I just want to give you an opportunity to compete against other Iowa Hawkeye fans and kind of spicing things up a little bit here at the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Before we jump into segment number one, 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. So if you're struggling to find time, if you're struggling to listen to it in the car on the way to work or whatever it may be,

just tell Siri, Google, or Alexa to play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. It's easier if you just download the thing, if you just subscribe to our podcast. But if you don't, you can use a smart speaker at home just to play the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast or any podcast on the Locked On Sports Network. So let's jump right into it. Segment number one, talking about the men's basketball tournament

and the seedings that came out. A lot of interesting things that kind of came from that. I think the biggest one is, at least from an Iowa perspective, is the fact that the Hawks got a 10 seed. And so coming into into this a lot of people have projected them as an eight or a nine seed obviously their their late season slide played a big role into it their you know net ranking played a little bit of a role into it and their Kempom ranking played a little bit of role to it and I think from what we kind of notice is the expectations of Iowa were a little bit higher than what reality was, I think, from the NCAA Tournament Committee. We look at the Hawks' record.

They have 21 wins. Let me actually confirm that. That sounds wrong. They have 22 wins and 11 losses. To me, that kind of screams an eight seed, and I think there's a few teams that are probably seated ahead of them that I wouldn't necessarily agree with. Most notably, I would say Oklahoma is a big one.

I wouldn't put Oklahoma ahead of Iowa. They got a nine seed there. I thought that was kind of interesting. But, you know, I digress a little bit. The fact that Iowa got a 10 seed, though, is huge. Getting an 8 or a 9 seed would put them against a number one seed in the second round. So, you know, you might be able to win that first game, but you're facing a very tough team in the second round.

And the way Iowa's strengths and weaknesses, you know, kind of play out, playing a number one seed would not really have been ideal, especially had it been Duke so Iowa struggles with length and size especially length size and athleticism and playing a team like Duke would have just destroyed them however they get Cincinnati in the first round and possibly Tennessee and fortunately despite the geographical preferences and how kind of that all played out Cincinnati being in Ohio Tennessee just being a state away, the Hawks really got a pretty favorable draw in terms of matchups. Tennessee is not exactly a three-point shooting team, neither is Cincinnati. Iowa really gets dominated from teams that are offensively strong,

especially from three. They're not able to close out on defenders quickly. And a strong ball movement team can you know pass the ball around the perimeter and get real open looks kind of like we saw you know against Michigan so that'll be huge for the Hawks being able to get Cincinnati in round one and then Tennessee in round two they possibly if they're able to survive both those things in advance of the sweet 16 for the first time in you know 20 years they would then get Purdue possibly,

although I think Purdue is probably going to fall a little bit earlier than many think just because of the struggles they've been showing as of late. But favorable draw for the Hawks, very excited about that. Another couple favorable draws, I think Michigan got a huge gain considering they lose to Michigan State three times including the Big Ten men's conference tournament game and yet somehow they really get a better seed than Michigan State. So Michigan State as the number two seed gets matched up with Duke as the number one overall seed which I think is kind of garbage kind of sucks for Michigan State. I don't think this

you know Michigan State has a very strong team And if anyone could really go up against Duke from the big time, I think it is Michigan State. But that's not exactly a great matchup. Meanwhile, Michigan gets Gonzaga. Gonzaga always is a pretty strong team, but a team that is very beatable in my personal opinion. So a favorable draw by the Michigan Wolverines getting a two seed in that you know in that south or the west bracket another team I think Purdue got a pretty favorable seed not like I said I think Purdue is probably going to lose a little bit earlier than we think just because of the struggles they have internally but being in the south region they get arguably one of the weakest two seeds playing you know

Tennessee so if they do make it to you know that sweet 16 playing a tennessee team i think it's a little bit easier of a matchup for them than what it would be if they're going to be taking on a kentucky or a michigan again or a michigan state so nice to see you know the the big 10 teams get some representation at the top again those are the three teams i think are going to be kind of in at least a favorable stance in terms of seeding obviously a lot of things can change March Madness kind of tears everything apart whether you know takes logic out of the equation and all of a sudden here we go we have Florida Gulf Coast playing in the sweet 16 so a few teams that have some unfavorable seeds a few teams I think kind of got screwed a little bit personally I believe Maryland they get the play-in game of the 11 seed so Belmont and Temple but I think Belmont and

Temple are both pretty strong teams and Belmont is not a team to sleep on according to Ken Palm they're the 55th best team not too much below Maryland but they have a really strong offense 20th and adjusted efficiency margin so that's a team that if I'm Maryland I'd be on upset watch just because of you know Maryland struggles similar to Iowa I mean outside of their win against Iowa they haven't won in a few weeks lost to a Nebraska team that has a ton of injuries so that is something that I don't think they I don't believe they have a very good matchup playing a potential Belmont or Temple team and I think that could be a very possible first-round exit for the Terps. As we talked about, I think Michigan State also got screwed.

How in the heck does the top number two seed get paired with the top number one seed? I think that's pretty garbage and just really poor planning from the NCAA tournament committee. You need to be able to look at that and notice that that is a bad thing. I don't understand. If you're ranking them out 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, why would you put 1 and 5 together? That just makes no sense. I mean, that's not how you set up a freaking bracket.

So I'm a little bit stupid. And, yes, I'm a little bit upset. I know I'm an Iowa Hawkeye fan, obviously hosting this podcast. But as a Big Ten fan, when you're getting into the NCAA tournament, you root for the Big Ten teams. You want them to do well. You want them to go far. It looks good on the conference the further the Big Ten teams can go,

and I think it's crap that Michigan State has an Elite Eight matchup with Duke possibly. Another team that got kind of screwed was Indiana. I think Indiana, because they didn't make it into the tournament, and I don't think that they had a lot of opportunities to show they're a better team than what they were. And obviously losing 12 or 13 straight did not help. But this team had a lot of injuries earlier in the season. They also knocked off Michigan State twice. That's the number two seed, all right, in the tournament. And they knocked them off twice. They also finished 19 and 15. So their record is relatively comparable to a few other

teams that made the tournament and their net ranking is even better. Teams like Arizona State had a 63 ranking in net compared to Indiana's 54th. So I think it's kind of crap that Indiana is not in the tournament. Obviously, the biggest thing is if you want to get in the tournament, do better, right? That's ultimately the thing. You got to do better. But still, when you're looking at it from that perspective, Indiana got screwed. And then to wrap it up, a few teams that kind of just somewhere in the middle in terms of where their kind of ranking fell or where their seating fell. I think Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ohio State can't really complain too much. Wisconsin, I personally think is an interesting one. If you follow Tanner Nessel and the Lockdown Badgers,

I was talking to him a little bit before writing and posting some information or content on this and then obviously sharing it with you on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. But Wisconsin to me, I don't like the matchup against Oregon. This is a team that has a ton of talent. As I talked about a lot earlier in the season when Iowa was taking on Oregon, Oregon has a ton of talent. Yes, they don't have their star center bull there playing with them, but there's a ton of talent outside of that. They had a couple of four and five star recruits coming in. The fact that they're clicking right now is scary to me because the talent was always there. It's a matter of getting

them to play together as a team. They just won the Pac-12 tournament and they're a little bit more athletic than Wisconsin. So that matchup scares me a little bit out of all the 5-12 seeds. Minnesota, I think, got pretty lucky on this one. They have a lot of size, and I think that plays very well against Louisville. But I think Louisville is a better team. So in terms of strengths and weaknesses, Minnesota does a pretty good job of stopping the three-pointer. Louisville is pretty good team. So in terms of strengths and weaknesses, Minnesota does a pretty good job of stopping the three-pointer. Louisville's pretty good at shooting the three-pointer.

So it's really just a matchup of strengths, which isn't a good or a bad thing. It just depends on which strength prevails. And then finally, Ohio State, the fact that they got in the NCAA tournament I think should be considered a win. But their first game is against Iowa State. This is an interesting matchup. I think obviously being a state of Iowa fan in general, Iowa State's had a rough season. They've been inconsistent at times. I think Iowa State fans

have felt the same experiences that the Iowa fans have, except for the part where Iowa State went on a tear in the Big 12 tournament and ended up winning the Big 12 tournament. So are you more concerned about the inconsistencies of Iowa State or more happy about the late-season surge that the Iowa State Cyclone team made? From an Ohio State perspective, I think I'd be more worried about the surge. But like I said, there's just some inconsistencies in this team. They're still gelling. So I think there's an opportunity for Ohio State to potentially steal a win against a sixth seed there. But that'll do it for our initial coverage of the men's basketball tournament. Just talking

about the seedings and whatnot. We're going to be covering the men's basketball tournament significantly in depth over the next couple of days. So stay tuned for that on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Before we jump into segment number two, where we're going to be talking about the women's basketball tournament and covering kind of what their schedule looks like, we're going to be giving you a few messages from our sponsors. So stay tuned here in just a few seconds. We are back with segment number two,

and we're going to be covering the women's basketball tournament in more depth as well, but wanted to quickly give you some breakdowns of what to expect. Obviously, the Hawks were going to get a number two seed going into the Big Ten women's tournament. They were projected to have a number two seed, but they really needed to beat Maryland or at least get to the Big Ten championship game against Maryland, possibly. And they did that. They beat Maryland in very strong fashion. That gave them a number two seed. I think it's interesting, though, that the number one seed in their bracket is Baylor, which is the number one overall seed. So again, kind of like Michigan State, I think the Iowa women's basketball team kind of got screwed in that situation. But overall, their path to the Elite Eight is not incredibly difficult. They are undefeated at home

this season, and they do get two games at home this weekend. They first play Mercer at 2 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday. Mercer is 25-7. They've been on a 15-game winning streak, so not a team to sleep on. This is a good team. The only common team that these two teams have actually played, though, is Florida State, where both teams did lose. Mercer lost to Florida State 57-56, as Iowa lost to Florida State as well. But obviously, I think this should be a pretty easy matchup. Two or 15 seed. Mercer coming all the way to Iowa. They're from Georgia. and then Iowa would actually get the winner of the Missouri and Drake game which personally I think is kind of crappy to put Drake on the same side of the bracket and in the same

micro region of as Iowa that would be a fun matchup though to see Drake versus Iowa in the NCAA tournament at Carver obviously get a big turnout I think. I mean you're going to get a lot of fans going to see the Iowa women's basketball team but also potentially some Drake fans as well. So some fun stuff there to watch out for. After that Iowa would most likely get an NC State team that did take the number three seed there or a Kentucky team as well. And like I said that would put them in a matchup with the number one overall seed Baylor which has just one loss this season but as we've seen with the women you know if you have Megan Gustafson on your side you have the best

player in the nation so no matter what you already have a competitive advantage just having the number one player in the entire nation and she's been dominating lately so be a lot of fun to watch the women's basketball tournament you know iowa the men's basketball team will be playing early in the morning on friday morning turn around and get to watch the women's basketball tournament that afternoon and then both games will be taking place that sunday as well so when the iowa women when they play on march 24th as as do the men. So really fun weekend for basketball fans out there. If you're an Iowa Hawkeye basketball fan, you have a lot to look forward to over the next couple days. And like I said, we'll be covering a lot of this over the

next couple of days as well. Want to spread out some of the content. Do not want to overwhelm you with a ton of March Madness stuff and working on putting together some really fantastic pieces, giving you some great in-depth analysis of what to expect for the women and the men in the NCAA tournament. Obviously, would love to see them both make a run. I think personally, if the women made it to the Final Four, that would be incredible. Even the Elite Eight would be pretty exciting. From a men's perspective, if they were able to win their first round game I would be happy but if they made it to the sweet 16 I think that'd be a huge morale boosting win or you know

kind of run for the men a lot of a lot has been said about Fran McCaffrey and this team I personally am not ready to give up on Fran McCaffrey I think this team has some weaknesses next year they're going to be returning back a ton of really good players though maybe Tyler Cook's gone Nicholas Bayer is definitely gone to be returning back a ton of really good players, though. Maybe Tyler Cook's gone. Nicholas Bayer is definitely gone. But there's still a ton of returning talent. So I think this team has the potential, if they make a decent run in this year's tournament, to kind of show that they could be a player or contender in the Big Ten next year for a regular season title.

That'll do it, though, for segment number two. On segment number three, we're going to be giving you an overview or kind of a recap of what's happened in Iowa athletics over the last couple of days and what to expect going forward. Lots of fun stuff. Like I said, the men and women's basketball tournament kind of dominates the conversation right now, but I want to make sure we're focusing on some of the other teams as well

because lots of great things have been going on. So stay tuned for that after a few messages from our sponsors on segment number three. All right, we are back with segment number three. On segment number one and segment number two, we covered the basketball tournament, and we're going to be covering that all week this week. And just a reminder, if you forgot about it already or you just didn't get a chance to do it, make sure you follow us on Twitter at Lockdown Iowa and Facebook at Lockdown Hawkeyes. That will give you an opportunity to participate in our fun March Madness contest. I don't know why you wouldn't want to do it. If you're listening to the show, do it right now. Follow us on Twitter

or Facebook and send a direct message to those accounts. It doesn't have to be both, just one of those accounts. That will give you access to participate in our March Madness bracket. The winner of that bracket will win an Iowa Hawkeye t-shirt valued at $25 from Fanatics. It is a nice t-shirt. It is a Nike t-shirt. I don't believe in giving you guys crap, so we're giving you a Nike t-shirt from Fanatics.com about the Iowa Hawkeyes. You can pick your size, send me your address, and I'll send all that stuff, cover it all

for you. All you need to do is like our Facebook page or our Twitter page and send me a direct message and you will be entered to participate in our March Madness bracket. Fill out that bracket, win that bracket, win that shirt. That's all you need to do. But let's jump right into segment number three, wanting to cover all the other sports going on and lots of great stuff has been taking place from a track and field perspective they're getting ready for the kind of their outdoor season they are ranked 25th so we'll be keeping you posted on how they're doing over the next couple weeks

in their track and field season the men's gymnastics team just came off a win over Ohio State, beating them 399.65 to 396.4. They faced Minnesota and Penn State this weekend to wrap up their regular season before heading into some of their tournaments. And the men's wrestling team, this is going to be huge. So they begin their quest for an NCAA championship, a lot of individual championships, I should say, this weekend, beginning on Thursday. And we have quite a few Hawks in the NCAA tournament. To be exact, we have nine. So fantastic stuff. We have Spencer Lee seated at number three, Austin DeSanto seated at number seven, Max Mirren got in at number 22, Pat Lugo 10 Caleb Young at 6 Alex Marinelli fresh off of winning the Big Ten title is the number one overall seat at 165 and then number 12 is Cash Wilk number 5 is Jacob Warner and number 29 is Sam Stoll huge for him to get in despite kind of a lackluster

performance at the Big Ten championships obviously he struggled a little bit this season so kind of fun to see him get in there. A few other guys coming in from Iowa State and from Northern Iowa. Iowa State has roughly, let me see, nine players or nine wrestlers as well, so it'll be fun to kind of watch the differences between all those guys and see how those teams

match up and compare. As you can imagine, the way seeding obviously works, the higher seed you are, the easier opponent you're going to have. So Spencer Lee is taking on number 30 Christian Moody of Oklahoma, who is 13-9. Number seven, Austin DeSanto, I think is a little bit of a lower seed than what probably should have been, but he struggled in the Big Ten Championships. He's taking on number 26, Cody Russell of Appalachian State, 20-10. Max Mirren gets a little bit tougher draw, taking on number

11 Tristan Morin of Wisconsin, who is 23-9. Pat Lugo takes on Joshua Maruca from Arizona State, who is 16-12. Caleb Young is facing Dan Reed of Columbia. Alex Marinelli is taking on Tyler Moreland of Northwestern or Joe Smith of Oklahoma State, whoever wins that matchup. Cash Wilk has Nick Gravina from Rutgers, so some familiarity there. Jacob Warner gets number 28, Drew Phipps of Bucknell, 24-10. And then Sam Stoll gets a tough draw, obviously being a number 29 seed, gets number four, Jordan Wood from Lehigh, who is 21-3. So that'll do it.

We'll be making sure to keep you posted on how the men are doing, giving you some kind of recaps each morning while we're posting our podcast. We're going to be trying to do something every single day, this upcoming week. Even if it's a 10 to 15 minute show, just quickly giving you our reactions to the men's and the women's games. And then maybe giving you some late breaking news on the wrestling team.

I'll be in Vegas this weekend. So I won't promise you, but I'm my, my goal is to get it out every every single day just so you can devour some content and some instant feedback and analysis on how these teams did. Outside of wrestling, the baseball team, they did have a pretty solid weekend. They went two and three this weekend against Cal State Northridge after their first game was canceled on Friday. They lost five to eight, won five to four, and then won 3-1. Connor McCaffrey actually participated in this series,

which I think is freaking impressive. If you've ever played two sports, you realize that it can be difficult, even in high school, to sometimes balance it if you're trying to get ready for one sport while you're playing the other sport. I think it's incredibly important that you play multiple sports, but in college that just seems absolutely ridiculously difficult. I know we talked a little bit about this earlier in the season with the podcast but fran actually made a really good point though that connor doesn't need to do conditioning at both he just needs to focus

on some of the skill stuff but still as a college athlete you're spending how many hours playing basketball then going to spend another couple hours hitting some baseballs you know getting some work in on the field and then you still have to do school as well. Connor McCaffrey isn't the kind of guy who I think is going to go pro necessarily. So school is also very important for him, or at least maybe potentially a coaching career, something along those lines. But either way, you still need to finish school. Be able to balance all that is just absolutely impressive. In the midst of Iowa's tournament run, he is playing baseball. So fun

to see that they are taking on Simpson College today in Iowa City before they take on Chicago State tomorrow. And they have a big three game series in Indiana this weekend playing Indiana. So that'll be fun to watch as well. We'll keep you posted on that. They're beginning Big Ten play with that matchup. The men's tennis team, they fell number 29 arizona last night one to six they are ranked 47 so some talent there as well they are now 10 and four they are taking on minnesota this friday in minnesota before heading back to iowa city to face wisconsin so that'll be fun as well hopefully a big win for them getting some two big 10 wins would be fantastic in softball the women did pretty well this past couple weekends ago

in the Saluki Invitational. And then because of that performance, Allison Ducey was actually named Big 10 Pitcher of the Week. She earned three wins at the Saluki Invitational during two complete games, striking out 19 and giving up just two runs and 18 innings of work. So fantastic job. The women are now 14-9 after kind of struggling to begin the season.

They have a game tomorrow versus Illinois State and a three-game series versus Purdue this weekend in Lafayette. So another opportunity for them to get a few more wins under their belt. And then finally to wrap it up, the women's tennis team dropped a match number 14 Michigan 0-7 this weekend after losing to Michigan State 3-4, not doing so hot. They've dropped quite a few matches over the last couple weeks. They are taking on Ohio State and Columbus this weekend, so hopefully an opportunity for them to get back on the winning track. I hope so. Obviously, rooting for all Iowa sports here, but hope they can get back on the winning track. That'd be fantastic. That'll do it though for our segment number three. So like I said, we covered a lot of stuff today, a lot of fantastic updates in Iowa Hawkeye sports all around.

And over the next couple of days, we're going to be focusing heavily on March Madness. Men's and women's teams giving you tons of information that you want to devour on Iowa versus Cincinnati and Iowa versus Mercer. So make sure to tune into that on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, possibly Saturday and Sunday's episodes. Like I said, lots of stuff coming your way on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. And again, if you haven't already, make sure you're signing up for our contest playing in our March Madness bracket. It'll be a lot of fun to see who can win that. Would love to get a lot of participation from our loyal listeners here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. And again, before I close out the show, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on

iTunes, Stitcher or Spotify. And if you have a smart speaker at home, just give it a whirl. See if you can do it. Say Google, Siri, Alexa, play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. See how it works. I tried it the other day on my Alexa show, and it was it was really awesome to have it pop right up. So do that for the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast

or any of your favorite podcasts on the Locked on Sports Network. We'd love to hear. We'd love to have you be listening to our shows on your smart speaker at home. That'll do it, though. Make sure you are following us on Twitter and Facebook. You can also email me at LockedOnHawkeyes at gmail.com if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. We'd love to hear from you.

Thank you for tuning in on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Wade. You can find me at Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew. And again, follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa. That's where you're going to be getting all the information you need to know about participating in our March Madness Bracket. Have a fantastic Tuesday, Hawkeye Nation. And we'll be back tomorrow, Thursday, Friday, and hopefully Saturday and Sunday.

Thank you. Have a great day. And bye.