Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Kathleen Doyle is drafted by the Indiana Fever | Top-10 moments of 2019 | Hawkeye grad transfers find homes

Episode Date: April 20, 2020

We kick off a new theme this week doing a countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2019 Iowa Hawkeye athletic season before covering WNBA Draft and the selection of former Hawkeye Kathleen Doyle by the Indiana Fever. We wrap up by discussing two Iowa grad transfers landing spots for their final year of collegiate eligibility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to another episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast,

your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked on Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and I'm excited to be back on this Monday morning talking to you about all things Iowa Hawkeyes. Some great stuff kind of happened over this weekend that we want to break down on the show today. We're going to be talking about Kathleen Doyle's selection in the WNBA draft. We're also going to be talking about two longtime Hawkeyes who decided to transfer after the conclusion of the basketball season, Riley Till and Cordell Pemzel, where they have decided to land at and what those fits look like and kind of what we expect from them in their grad transfer year.

And then as we've kind of been doing over the last couple of weeks, we have another theme this week across the network. We are going to be breaking down the top moments of the 2019 calendar year. So I expanded it a bit. I'm going to be doing the top 10 moments in the 2019 calendar year. So today's episode, we're going to be doing the top 10 moments in the 2019 calendar year. So today's episode, we're going to be breaking down number 10, number nine, number eight. And on Wednesday, we're going to be doing seven, six, five, four. And then finally on Friday, we will be doing three,

two and one. And I'm very excited about this week because the NFL draft is this week. So a couple Iowa Hawkeyes are going to be realizing their professional futures. We're expecting to see Tristan Wurst being drafted early in the first round, A. Gepineza later in the first round, and obviously a slew of other guys who are going to find their NFL homes at the conclusion of the three-day draft event that is going to be virtual this year for the first time ever. So excited to be covering that as well.

We'll be breaking some of that stuff down on the show later on in this week. Like I said, I have a lot of stuff to cover on today's show. Before we jump into that, though, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. And if you are working from home like I am, feel free to just tell your Alexa to play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. That will give you the most recent podcast, the most recent podcast episodes. You can listen to it right from your Alexa device, your Amazon device, whatever smart device you have in your home. You can listen to the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast from there.

Also, if you are not following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, I highly recommend you doing so. Sharing lots of great content on there as well in between episodes since we are moving to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday format. But on that note, we're actually changing our schedule slightly. We'll continue our Monday and Wednesday and Friday episodes. But if you are a longtime listener, you know we have a nice partnership with the Iowa United, the team comprised of the major schools in Iowa playing in the $2 million winner-take-all

basketball tournament, appropriately dubbed the basketball tournament. Last year was their first year in play. This year will be their second season. And we are going to be doing TBT Tuesdays, where we are going to be interviewing each of the members of this Iowa United roster. We're going to be releasing those interviews on Tuesday. So be on the lookout for that. We have Matthew Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United, coming up on tomorrow's

episode, talking about the construction of the team and talking about really why Iowa fans should be excited about this team and what to expect from TBT this upcoming year. So that does it for our housekeeping items. One other thing I want to mention before we jump into really the core and the crux of our discussion today, into really the core and the crux of our discussion today. The NCAA decided to name the All-American teams, despite obviously not having the tournament. So kind of good for the players,

good for the wrestlers to at least be able to get those honors despite not being able to actually compete in the NCAA tournament. Spencer Lee, Austin DeSanto, Max Mirren, Pat Lugo, Caleb Young, Alex Marinelli, Michael Kermer, Jacob Warner,anto, Max Mirren, Pat Lugo, Caleb Young, Alex Marinelli, Michael Kermer, Jacob Warner, Antonio Cassiopeia all earned first team honors, first team All-American honors for the top ranked Hawks. And freshman Abe Asad was second team All-American. So congratulations to those guys. Obviously not the way you wanted your season to end, but still nonetheless, very fantastic

finish. And I have no doubt that the Iowa Hawkeyes wrestling team would have won a national title this year had it not been for the coronavirus pandemic. So that being said, there's a very long, long winded housekeeping item list. Let's jump into our content today, starting with our top 10 moments in the 2019 calendar year. Starting with our top 10 moments in the 2019 calendar year. And like I said, we're going to be going through 10, 9, and 8 this week or this day, this episode. On Wednesday, we'll be doing 7, 6, 5, and 4. And then finally on Friday, breaking down 3, 2, 1.

And this really covers all of Iowa Hawkeye athletics. So you're going to see some things that you probably weren't even aware of on this list. And that starts with number 10, the top 10 moment, the number 10 moment of the 2019 calendar year was the Iowa field hockey team advancing to the elite eight. After taking down number eight, Duke three to two, they ultimately fell to the university of Northern Carolina or North Carolina, excuse me, two to one in the elite eight matchup. UNC had a late goal in the fourth quarter. And the big thing here is Iowa actually outshot them 7-2.

They were right in that game the entire time. North Carolina also went on to win the NCAA tournament. So Iowa was right down to the wire with the best team in the NCAA. They also won the Big Ten tournament. So for me, I think that's a huge, huge honor. Awesome, awesome season for the women's field hockey team. And to me, that is the number 10 moment of the 2019 calendar year. Number nine is the fact that two tight ends went in the first round. Noah Fant and TJ Hawkinson. Hawkinson to the Lions, Noah Fant to the Denver Broncos. The first time that

has ever happened where a school had two tight ends drafted in the first round. And I think for me, not only is that really special because the NFL draft is undoubtedly probably the biggest draft event of all the major sports, but to see Iowa have two first rounders and two first rounders in the top 20 and then have two first rounds at the exact same position. That to me is, that's huge. And I think that really put Iowa on the map as tight end university.

People have been trying to claim that honor for some time. Everyone wants to claim the honor of whatever position they have a well-known history of producing quality players at. Iowa has done a fantastic job of producing very quality tight ends that have played at the next level. has done a fantastic job of producing very quality tight ends that have played at the next level. But they haven't had the tradition of having such highly ranked tight ends. And so having TJ Hawkinson and Noah Fant going in the first round was huge.

And we've seen that in recruiting as well. That's helped Iowa pick up a few of the top tight end recruits in the nation last season. And I think we're well on our way to continuing to see the history grow for the Iowa Hawkeyes at that tight end position with Sam Laporta there, Luke Leitchie, Elijah Yelverton, and even right now recruiting Thomas Fedone from Council Bluffs. There's a lot of history now that's kind of building for the Iowa Hawkeyes. And I think one of the key moments, one of the catalysts for that, was the number nine moment from the 2019 calendar year when Iowa had tight ends go in the first round together.

So love that. And our final thing on the top 10 moments of the Iowa Hawkeye athletic calendar year of 2019 is all the Iowa comebacks from the men's basketball team. I know I'm cheating a little bit, but it becomes a little bit difficult to rank all these different things. And what I mean by that is over the span of a week, Iowa took down Indiana 77-72 when Jordan Bohannon went off in the final few minutes. Just a few days later, Jordan Bohannon hit a game-winning three-pointer with.6 seconds left on the clock against Northwestern to win 80-79. And then finally, six days after that, Joe Wieskamp hit a game-winning three-pointer to beat Rutgers 71-69 on a full-court pass from Connor McCaffrey.

And then also, let's go to the Cincinnati game and the Tennessee game in the NCAA tournament. In the round of 64 game, Iowa was down four with seven minutes and 30 seconds left. They went on a 25 to 13 tear to win 79 to 72 as the 10th seed. The next game in the round of 32 against Tennessee, they were down big time against the second seeded Tennessee volunteers and managed to push it into overtime after staging what would have been the biggest comeback victory ever in NCAA tournament history. So just to me, those were some incredible games. I remember watching the Northwestern game and, you know, didn't think it was going to happen, screaming when it happened, and then watching the Rutgers game thinking,

there's no way this can happen again. Not a chance in hell that we can do this again, especially given the odds of having to throw the ball all the way down the court. But then Joe Wieskamp got it, hit the three-pointer, and I about lost my mind on that. So to me, that was one of the most special moments from the 2019 calendar year. And that's why it is number eight on our list of memories and moments from the 2019 Iowa Hawkeye athletic season. That'll do it, though, for segment number one. I hope you enjoyed kind of the flashback to the past, the 2019 year.

Like I said, on Wednesday, we'll be breaking down moment number seven, six, five, and four. Before we jump into segment number two, we're going to be talking about Kathleen Doyle and her fit with her new WNBA home, the Indiana Fever. Make sure to check out the mock draft series on the Locked On NFL podcast. They did a fantastic six-part series starting a week and a half ago, actually, and going through every single pick of the first round and doing the second round picks for teams who don't have first round picks, inviting the guests from each of the network's team

specific shows to come on and make their pick for their teams and then talk a bit about that. I think they did a really fantastic job. You can hear my voice on it when you listen to the segment where Tristan Wirfs is drafted. So make sure to check that out, especially as we ramp up for the NFL draft coming up in just a few short days. That being said, coming up, like I said, we'll talk about where Kathleen Doyle fits with the Indiana Fever.

We are back with segment number two of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, the show that you can find anywhere you get your podcast at. So make sure to like, review, and subscribe. And like I said before we took a quick break, let's talk a bit about Kathleen Doyle. Kathleen Doyle, the Big Ten Player of the Year, a fantastic successor to Megan Gustafson, who put on arguably the best season in Iowa basketball history. Kathleen Doyle carried that Iowa basketball team and for what she did that season, earned her the ability and the opportunity to be selected in this year's WNBA draft that took place Friday evening.

She was selected by the Indiana Fever with the 14th pick, the highest in a few years. I think it's the second highest overall ever for an Iowa basketball player. The second pick of the second round. That pick was originally with the Minnesota Lynx, but the Indiana Fever did make a trade with the Lynx to get that pick. And it sounds like they were kind of eyeballing Kathleen Doyle the entire time. And I think when I looked at some of the mock drafts coming into the WNBA draft, Kathleen Doyle was kind of projected to be a late second round, early third round pick. And some sources like The Athletic actually didn't have Kathleen Doyle in their top three rounds.

And there's only three rounds in the WNBA draft, so they were basically expecting Kathleen Doyle to be undrafted. However, it sounds like the Indiana Fever had their eyes on Kathleen Doyle at all times. They were incredibly excited to have her there. And maybe even, I'm wondering if the WNBA teams actually had a higher value on Doyle than maybe some of the draft analysts coming into the draft. Because some of the words that came out of Marion Stanley's mouth, the head coach of the Indiana Fever, make it seem like they did not expect her necessarily to be there. And here's what she said. Here's what was said. We were ecstatic that Kathleen was there at number 14, and she's going to be a part of the Fever family moving forward. The ball doesn't stick in her hands. The ball moves and

she gets people into their spots. And why that's important is I took a look at their current roster and I don't really see a lot of players that fit the same kind of mold of Kathleen Doyle. Doyle had a fantastic season where she was the leading scorer. She was putting up 5-6 rebounds a game, 5-6 assists a game, and a little over a steal a game. She gets involved in every aspect of the game as a guard, and that's really what was missing from this Indiana Fever roster that has struggled over the last three seasons. Prior to the last three seasons, they were one of the top franchises in the WNBA with three conference championships and one WNBA championship.

But the last three years, they finished 9-25 in 2017, 6-28 in 2018, and 13-21 last season. From the guard perspective on the roster, though, not a lot of versatility, I guess you can say. Just not a lot of versatility, I guess you can say. Kelsey Mitchell, 25.1 minutes per game. She averages 13.6 points per game last season, which was first on the team. She also had 2.6 assists per game and shot just 38.7% from the field. Tiffany Mitchell, right on line with Kelsey with the same amount of minutes. 10 points per game, 2.8 rebounds per game, 2.2 assists per game,

a 38.1% field goal percentage, and 29% from three, so not very good there. Erica Wheeler, split minutes as well. All four of these guards I'm about to mention kind of split minutes roughly around that 25-minute mark. Erica Wheeler, though, had 10.1 points per game, three rebounds per game, five assists per game, which led the team, and 1.2 steals per game. She is arguably probably the closest match to what Kathleen Doyle can do on a team. Then we have Benija Laney, who had 25.8 minutes per game, averaged 5.6 points per game,

4.2 rebounds per game, 1.7 assists per game, and 1.4 steals per game, while only shooting 37% from the field. So what the Indiana Fever are getting in Kathleen Doyle, as I said, is a guard who can not only shoot the ball, but can get involved in every aspect of the game. And I feel like they look at Kathleen Doyle as a chess piece. She's not going to be the leading scorer. She's not going to be the leading rebounder. But she's going to be someone who's going to be involved in every aspect of the game

and really give this team an opportunity to get back to their winning roots. And I feel like oftentimes second round picks in the WNBA and in the NBA are not guaranteed roster spots. Megan Gustafson got cut last year after being a second round pick. But I feel like considering where they wanted her, how excited they were to get her, and given the current talent on the roster, Kathleen Doyle has a pretty good opportunity to stick with this team and make an impact in year one. Along with her, two other draft picks,

the Fever took Lauren Cox, the Baylor forward, with their third pick. You might all remember Lauren Cox as the person who absolutely dominated the Hawks last year in the Elite Eight. She was a stud. She put up 22 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks against Iowa. She now is going from foe to teammate with Kathleen Doyle. And then the Fever also took James Madison guard Kamish Smalls with a 28th pick as well to team up with those. So really excited to see how Kathleen Doyle fares in the WNBA in season, in year one. Sounds like she is

a big part of their plans and they're really excited to get her. And I think based on what I'm seeing from their roster, I expect her to be able to compete for a spot and actually get some quality minutes in year one. And as we continue to do, we always want to cover every Iowa Hawkeye on the show, anyone doing some great pro stuff. We want to make sure we're covering that as well.

So we'll be breaking down some of Kathleen Doyle's performances in the WNBA once that gets started back up. And we'll also be talking about Megan Gustafson as well for the Dallas Wings. So fantastic to see two Iowa Hawkeye women's players on WNBA rosters. And I'm really excited to watch some more WNBA games this season and break that down right here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. That'll do it, though, for segment number two.

Like I said, on segment number three, we're going to be breaking down where Riley Till and Cordell Pemzel decided to play out their final season of college eligibility at and how that fit works for them before closing out the show. We are back with segment number three of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. And as I teased before we took a quick break, I'm going to talk to you about where Cordero Pemzel and Riley Till decided to commit to. Both of those decisions came in the last couple of days.

Great. I'm really happy for them. As I tweeted out on our Locked on Hawkeye Twitter account, once a Hawk, always a Hawk. And I'm really excited to see both these guys do well. Even Isaiah Moss last year, I was rooting for him to do well. Macy Daly wanted him to do well. Akron, obviously the Isaiah Moss situation was a little bit weirder. I felt like it was a little bit, what's the word I'm looking

for? Not combative, but just didn't seem like it was, it didn't seem like we all left on good terms, right? But these guys, Cordell Pemzel, Riley Till, both leaving on great terms. Pemzel had a kind of up-and-down season, a rough season, I would say, with some of the off-court issues. But nonetheless, he's always been a guy who came off the bench and brought a lot of energy and was always the first guy to protect his teammates. I've told this story a couple times. Watching him against Iowa State last year, when Connor McCaffrey was getting into it, he stepped right in front of that

and wasn't going to let that happen. He was going to be the guy taking guys down. And Pemzel decided to commit to Virginia Tech. Tech is coming off a 16-16 season. They went 7-13 in the ACC, and they were one of the weakest teams offensively in the nation at 255th, ranked out of 350-ish teams in NCAA basketball. For me, this is a fantastic fit for Cordell Pemzel. He's going to get starter minutes. He should be starting. Right now, they're a pretty young team. Last season, five freshmen were among their top six scorers. Their

fifth and seventh leading scorers were both juniors, and they really have zero size. One of their forwards is 6'5". One of their guards is 6'7". I believe he might have been the tallest player in their starting lineup. Cordell Pemzel automatically steps in and brings a little bit more size for that team. He's going to be going up against some really great competition, which will be good for him as well. But back to that size thing, Virginia Tech was ranked the 344th tallest team in the nation. There was literally like 11 teams that were shorter than them. So Pemzel, again, brings that size.

From an offensive perspective, I don't think he's going to really help a ton to improve that one of the weaker offenses in the nation. But if he can continue to work on his game towards the end of last season with the Hawks, I thought his game was coming on a little bit stronger. But he still doesn't like to go to both hands when trying to drive to the rim, so it's a bit easier to defend him. Nevertheless, like I said, I think he's going to be a great fit for Virginia Tech. Sounds like he's really excited to go out there, excited about the opportunities on the court and off the court. Sounds like they have the programs, the academic programs that he's interested in. And in addition to what Virginia Tech is bringing in from the current roster, they're only bringing in two guards and one power forward.

And that power forward is a 6'8", 195-pound three-star recruit who probably needs a little bit of growing into his frame. So Cordell Pemzoe is going to go from being from being a seventh, eighth guy on the Iowa Hawkeyes to being a starter for the Virginia Tech Hokies. So excited to see him in Blacksburg. We're going to obviously be paying attention to that and try to give you updates right here on the show. And then his former Dubuque teammate Riley Till signed with Cal Poly. Cal Poly was very excited to get Riley in this class. And unlike Virginia Tech, where Virginia Tech has had some pretty good teams in the past, Cal Poly has been pretty bad for quite a few years.

Last season they went 7-23, 4-12 in the conference, 9th in the Big West. And they're losing 4th and 5th leading scorers. They don't have a lot of size of their guys. They have a little bit of size. They've got a sophomore forward, sophomore forward Tuka Jakola, who's 6'10", 240 pounds. Kyle Colvin, 6'6", 200 pounds. And Alamamey Koroma, 6'8", 220 pounds. Riley Till is 6'7", 200 pounds. And I think based on what I'm looking at from this team offensively and defensively, the fact they're one of the lowest ranked teams in the country,

I think Riley Till could actually be starting for this team. I think he's going to bring some great energy. And we're finally going to get to see what an offense looks like with Riley Till being built into it. When he came on the court for Iowa, a lot of the times it was really just to give some of the starters a little bit of rest while bringing that defensive energy. And if he can continue to bring that and improve his offensive game, Riley Till could be one of the top players on this Cal Poly team next year, which is still Division I basketball. So really excited to see that. What the head basketball coach from Cal Poly, John Smith, said, I think speaks a lot to why they wanted Riley here.

They said, Riley is an athletic, versatile post that brings leadership, toughness, and a winning mentality coming from the University of Iowa. John Smith, I believe, is in his first year as the head basketball coach from Cal Poly. Like I said, kind of on a pretty bad losing streak in the last couple seasons, so no shock that they have a new coach. And it sounds like they want to improve the culture of the program. Half of being a good program, not half, some of being a good program is just believing you can be a good program and knowing how to win.

You know, some teams just perpetually lose because they don't know what it takes to be a winner. Riley's been around winners. He was around Luka Garza the last couple years, the runner-up for National Player of the Year. He's been on teams that went to the NCAA tournament. He's been next to NBA draft picks. That's something that none of these guys on Cal Poly can say. In addition to that experience and guidance, Riley Till has the athleticism to play D1 basketball.

I wouldn't say he has the best skill set, but he has the athleticism, and that's what they really wanted with him, it sounds like. Brings a little bit of size. He can defend the 3, the 4, and even the 5, depending on how big that 5 position is and how well his offense develops will actually be really the key indicator to whether or not Riley is the top player on this team or just one of the starters.

But nonetheless, I think this is a great fit for him. I really thought Drake might have been a good fit for him, but he's looking for the best opportunity for him. Going to go out to Cali. He's going to be closer to his brother-in-law, George Kittle. I know his sister, Claire, is also married to George Kittle and is out in San Francisco quite a bit. So opportunity to be a little bit closer to some family out there, which will be pretty cool when he's able to see some of those families,

see some of those family members when they're out there watching George play for the 49ers. So that might have been a part of his decision as well. Like I said, once a Hawk, always a Hawk. his decision as well. Like I said, once a Hawk, always a Hawk. We'll make sure to be rooting for them and checking out how their seasons are doing once those seasons pick back up in October and November of next year. Barring anything crazy, obviously with this crazy coronavirus pandemic that is going around. But that'll do it for our third and final segment of the show today.

Appreciate you all tuning in to today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. As I said when we started the show, we're going to be giving you episodes Wednesday and Friday as well. And every Tuesday for the next three, four months, we're going to be doing TBT Tuesdays, giving you player interviews, talking a bit about the team, kind of doing some special segments on our Tuesday episodes. So make sure to check out tomorrow's episode with the general manager of the Iowa United, Matthew Crawford. Had a fantastic time talking to him, as I always do. I hope you definitely enjoy it as well.

And if you are loving this talk about Iowa Hawkeye basketball and football and what have you, and you love just listening to Big Ten talk, make sure to check out the Locked On Big Ten podcast. Guests appeared on there a few times. Really great show. Fantastic host. I think you'll love it if you like just Big Ten podcast. Guests appeared on there a few times. Really great show. Fantastic host. I think you'll love it if you like just Big Ten stuff in general. So make sure to check that out if you're looking for additional podcasts to listen to with all the free time you have right now with the coronavirus pandemic going on.

So make sure to check out the Locked On Big Ten podcast for a more wider, broader spectrum of Big Ten news. And again, thank you all for tuning in. Make sure to give us that five-star review wherever you downloaded this podcast at and subscribe so you can get every single episode downloaded directly to your smart device whenever it airs. And as always, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend, Hawkeye Nation.

Stay safe out there, and let's go Hawks.