Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Kris Murray is in store for a big season plus Jordan Bohannon thoughts and the Iowa football team gets a 2022 commit

Episode Date: June 4, 2021

Fran McCaffery spoke to the media about the Iowa basketball team and had high praises for Kris Murray. We break down the press conference, the Jordan Bohannon incident, and the news that the Iowa football team added a third commit to the class of 2022.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Made InGo to MadeInCookware.com/LockedON, and use promo code LockedON for 15% offyour first order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Friday morning 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 after you get done listening to today's show, go check out the Locked On Big Ten podcast. There is simply no better place to get all the news on the Big Ten Conference than with Big Ten, Ben Stevens, and the Locked On Big Ten podcast.

Follow the Locked On Big Ten podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast app. And on today's show, we do have a press conference. Fran McCaffery chatted with the media. We're going to talk a little bit about that. The Iowa football team got another commitment in the class of 2022, and we are going to touch on the Jordan Bohannon incident as well. I know that's been talked about quite a bit, but I do want to give my opinion on that. We'll talk a little bit about

the NBA draft. So let's just get right into it. Actually, before we do that, thank you all for listening. I do appreciate that. Nevertheless, I know I was on a break a little bit, but happy to be back. And again, we'll be recording episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So we'll be back on Monday as well. I'm hoping to have some pretty big time guests coming up. So let's get into it though. Fran McCaffrey did speak to the media. One of the big things he mentioned was Jordan Bohannon has made a full recovery and was at practice. And he wasn't going to speak on the situation any more than that, which is obviously him being respectful to the process. I know there's a lot of information that hasn't been out yet.

And the standpoint has taken a break until, I believe, the end of June, so July. And at that point, hoping to discuss the incident with Jordan Bohannon and obviously between his co-host Zach Cohen. I want to touch on that a little bit. Obviously last week there was quite a bit of controversy in regards to the Jordan Bohannon incident. There was one podcast in particular, I mean the Washed Up Walk-Ons, it is what it is. I'm a very big supporter of all the Iowa podcasts.

I think they all offer something unique in their own right. Um, that is valuable for Iowa fans. Um, I have at times listened to the washed up walk-ons, um, to be fair, before I say the next thing, I have not listened to their second episode, uh, covering the Jordan Bohannon incident again, but I will say this. I think the way they went about it was relatively irresponsible. We don't know the full story of what happened to Jordan Bohannon. No one deserves to be blindside assaulted like that. There are some optics to the situation that are definitely worth discussing after we hear the full details of the story. But anything in regards to the speculation of why he got hit, whether or not he deserved to be hit, I think is incredibly irresponsible journalism, is irresponsible reporting, and

is just not the right way to speculate, especially for an Iowa Hawkeye that has done so much for the university as Jordan, not saying that being an Iowa Hawkeye that's done a lot, you know, basically makes you exempt from criticism. But I think there's an extra sense of caution when you're talking about those situations and trying to make sure that you know the full details. And just as any story that talking about something like assault, you need to know the full details before you're going to be speculating on it. So I think the biggest thing is whatever happened,

there's clearly two sides of the story. There was a video posted on Twitter that didn't really give a lot, to be completely honest. Not really sure where the punch came from. Ultimately, we are wishing Jordan the best. It sounds like he has made a full recovery and was at practice. I'm excited to excited. Maybe it's not the right word, but I'm looking forward to hearing his side of the story.

And obviously, if any of you have been following the podcast for a long time, you know, I'm pretty close to the standpoint in the sense of we've had Jordan on the show and Jordan's co-host Zach Cohen used to be my co-host as well before we ultimately took a break to figure out what is the best way to go forward with the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. So Zach went off to do some amazing stuff at the standpoint with Jordan and obviously they have my support and I'm looking forward to hearing that side of things. So yeah, that's kind of my thoughts on that. I think the big thing again is we should not be speculating on if or if he did, if not

deserved it. And I think anyone who is, and especially anyone who's saying he deserved it is such garbage. If you're upset that Jordan Bohannon speaks his mind about things that are important for college athletes, you need to reevaluate your priorities and what is important to you. If you're that upset about a college athlete, trying to speak up for college athlete rights that have been clearly neglected for every,

you know, ever since Dan sale has been, you know, come about, you need to really rethink your priorities. And those Iowa state fans that are chirping Ryan Scrivers, wherever the hell his name is, screw him. I mean, those, those people suck. That's the rivalry between Iowa and Iowa state is a ton of fun. And I think it's even more fun. Now the football team

for Iowa state is actually good. I think it's good when both teams are great. It makes that rivalry even that much more intense and that much more important, and there's so much more at stake than just we want to beat our rival. I hate when people have to go and ruin it because you get a little upset about Jordan Bohannon kind of adding fuel to the fire. Yeah, Jordan Bohannon is fun on Twitter if you're an Iowa fan, right? He doesn't back down from people, but most of the time it's Iowa State fans coming at him or people who don't like him coming at him and talking crap.

And I think he has every right to stick up for himself. And some of those Iowa State fans, not all of them, there's a lot of really, really good ones, but some of those people who were saying he deserved it, that isn't right and that's not appropriate. And I think it's not appropriate for anyone to really be speculating that Jordan Bohannon deserved that. So I'm excited to hear Jordan Bohannon's side of the story.

That's my thoughts on that. I didn't want to go into too much. I know it's been talked about a lot. So I didn't want to go into too much detail or really give too much of a platform for it. But other than saying Jordan Bohannon, I hope he is doing well. It sounds like he is. I'm looking forward to hearing that side of the story. Speculating or assuming that he did something wrong is inappropriate. Not just because it's Jordan. If it was anyone, it's inappropriate to be assuming that. So we need

to get better as people to be able to see that this is a human who got hit and could have been in danger from getting blindsided and then kicked in the head. So anyways, as we get more details on that, we'll definitely be talking about that. We are going to talk about the Fran McCaffrey press conference, though I did promise you that. That is coming up on segment two. Fran said a lot about the team, and we have gleaned a lot. We're going to talk about that and what it means for this upcoming season

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And as I said before we took a break, one, talk about the Fran McCaffrey press conference, we're going to kind of go through some of the key quotes he said and what it means for the lineup and what I'm looking forward to for this team next year. A couple of things. I didn't realize just how injured this team really was last season. Fran McCaffrey alluded to Joe Toussaint and Aaron Uless both getting surgeries this offseason. Joe on his ankle, Aaron on his wrist, and obviously Connor had the double hip surgery. He'll be back in September. So when you're looking at this from a long-term perspective, you assume they'll be coming back

healthy. That is the goal, right? But when you're looking at the fact that Jordan Bohannon has had issues with injuries over the past couple years. Joe has this issue. Aaron's getting surgery. And Connor also has the double hip surgery. And to me, has probably a better career in baseball possibly. And speaking of that, if you want to hear more about Connor and the Iowa baseball team, check out our Wednesday episode we did with Kyle Huseman from the Hawkeye Report.

He did a phenomenal job breaking down the team. But those are your four guys you expect to be your ball handlers, and they are having issues with injuries. You want them to be healthy, especially coming into this season. I think each one of those guys adds a unique element to the game or to the offense. Jordan Bohannon not expected to be really much of a ball handler this year, as Fran McCaffrey alluded to. He wants Jordan Bohannon to be a shooter.

He wants to get the ball in his hands a lot. But definitely concerning when most of your ball handlers, your primary ball handlers, are banged up a little bit heading into the offseason. Hopefully they can get healthy and be ready for the start of next season. He also mentioned that Patrick McCaffrey, Keegan Murray, and Chris Murray are all going to be joining some East Coast All-Star teams heading over to Switzerland. A great opportunity for them to get some valuable experience, especially given the coaches that they will be possibly playing for. That just speaks volumes to what collegiate coaches and All-Star teams are thinking about some of the guys on Iowa's squad.

When we look at this Iowa basketball team, there are concerns. You know, right now they don't have really any starters on the court from last year. You're losing Luka Garza, the best player in Iowa basketball history. You are possibly losing Joe Wieskamp, which we'll get to here in a second. You are, you know, you're losing C.J. Frederick, who, call him a traitor, blindside, whatever you want to say. He's at Kentucky now. Jack Nunji is also gone. I mean, there are a lot of losses from this team heading into next season. But when you look at what they're bringing back, you have to be a bit inspired by the talent they have and the potential.

The floor is undoubtedly lower right but the ceiling to meet in my opinion is much higher Patrick McCaffrey Keegan Murray and Chris Murray all big time forwards right so they're all above six foot eight they're athletic enough to play the two through the five spot they have some size and they have the ability to shoot. That's exciting. And the fact they're going to have an opportunity to play on some all-star teams with some other players is going to be really huge. And speaking of Chris Murray, some really high praise on Chris Murray. This is something that David Eichel of 24-7 Sports posted.

I want to make sure I'm giving him the credit where credit is due for his tweet that I thought was really, really valuable. Let me try to pull it up, actually, while I say that. All right. Yeah, so he said, he is also, Fran has also mentioned that Chris has been practicing at the center position and has held his own. Don't be surprised to see some lineups this year with Chris at the five. McCaffrey also mentioned that Chris has been one of the team's best shooters from distance. So a couple of things to take down from that.

And even Kenyon, I've talked to Kenyon Murray about this. We've had him on the show before. And he's mentioned Chris's game is a little bit different than Keegan's. Chris is more of a slasher. Keegan is more of a shooter. We haven't seen that as much from Keegan. But both can shoot the lights out of the ball when they have the opportunity. And people often ask, like, why isn't Chris getting in the game?

And is Chris as good as his brother? Obviously, Keegan is a little bit ahead of Chris. There's a reason why he played over Chris, right? But at the end of the day, I think it was more of a numbers game that Chris didn't have an opportunity to get in the lineup. But he is expected to be a huge contributor coming into this season. And the fact that he is practicing at the five to me means Fran McCaffrey is looking at exploring a couple of different lineups. You have Phillip Rabracha, who was expected to beat at five. You have Riley Mulvey, who Fran talked

about saying he's something that we can count on this year. You got Josh Ogundale as well. But the fact that you can be a little bit more versatile with your lineups, that allows you to match up with a lot of different teams. Now think about the way that Iowa matched up with Oregon. Oregon was faster and more athletic than the Iowa Hawkeyes and they shot the light out of the gym. But imagine if you can put a lineup on the floor that is Joe Toussaint, Jordan Bohannon, Patrick McCaffrey, Keegan Murray, and Chris Murray. Or if you want to get real crazy, what if you put Joe Toussaint, Patrick McCaffrey, Higa Murray, and Chris Murray? Or if you want to get real crazy, what if you put Joe Toussaint, Chris Murray, Patrick McCaffrey, Higa Murray, and Phillip Rabracha? You have five guys who are athletic, who can defend, who can shoot, and can play small

if they need to. That is going to be a tough line to battle. And I know Iowa is going to come into the season with a lot lower expectations than last season which is makes sense right but I truly think this team has the potential they could go farther than last year's team they can make a sweet 16 I wouldn't honestly surprise me this is a team that has a chip on their shoulder they are not getting talked about a lot they got bounced in the tournament early and they are looking forward to having an opportunity to play a bit better in the postseason this upcoming season. I think what they bring to the table could possibly get them farther.

Keegan Murray is getting NBA draft looks after a true freshman season that no one was anticipating. Chris Murray, similar size and has the ability to play several positions. Patrick McCaffrey, I truly think this is the year where Patrick McCaffrey has a breakout season. That's what I think about Patrick McCaffrey, I truly think this is the year where Patrick McCaffrey has a breakout season. That's what I think about Patrick McCaffrey. I mean, we talked with him on the show. He's been working a lot in his game

and finishing at the rim. I think he can also be a better shooter than he is. And I've even talked about it on shows before. He does a great job of getting to the rim. He does need to finish. And he even mentioned that as well, like I just said. I think defensively, he has an opportunity to get better, but the skill set is there, and I think the fact that he's going to be even more well-conditioned

is going to be a huge advantage for Patrick McCaffrey coming into the season. And again, you add the fact that you have so much length and athleticism between Patrick, Keegan, and Chris, that's going to be hard for teams to deal with. Rutgers two years ago, I thought, was a really difficult team to play against defensively. They were long and lean, and they got their hands in the lanes, in the passing lanes. And that is going to be tough to deal with, especially in a zone defense. If Iowa can really commit to that zone defense and play it well. The other thing, Iowa did mention they are not going to be playing in a Thanksgiving

tournament. They will be hosting something at Carver. You know what? To each their own. I think from a cost perspective, it makes sense to host a multi-team tournament at your home arena if possible. It gives you more money because you are selling tickets at Carver and you're not traveling anywhere.

You're not going to get money from going to a tournament. The downside of that is you don't have some of that strong non-conference play that you like to see. For example, two years ago, Iowa plays San Diego State. They play Texas Tech. Those were big non-conference games for Iowa, and that was a big tournament to really put Iowa on the map. The year prior, being in New York, that was a huge opportunity for Iowa to put themselves on the map. So I think you're losing some of that upside, but then you've got to factor in the fact that the Big Ten is such a tough conference that they don't have to worry about that as much. They also get the Gavit games. There's going to be some crossovers.

They're going to get some tough opponents next season, but I do love the Thanksgiving tournament. It would be great to go see them in another place. Going to the Vegas tournament was so much fun watching them there, but nevertheless, watching them beat up on some easier teams in a tournament at home is also going to be fun as well. Coming up on segment three, we're going to talk a little bit about the NBA draft, and then we got to talk about the fact the Iowa football team extended an offer and got a commitment from a three-star offensive lineman out of Wisconsin, and what does that mean for Iowa recruiting going forward? That is all coming up on segment three of the show. Before we get into that though, you know I got to tell you about Bilt Bars because Bilt Bar

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But for the most part, we are going to be here Monday, Wednesday, Friday during the offseason until we get to football season. On segment three, though, I want to talk a little bit about the NBA draft. I did look. So the Athletic just came out with their most recent NBA draft big board. I incorrectly assessed it. I did not see anything about Joe Weiskamp. But thank you to Ballhawk at KPIBOHR.

I missed this, but Joe Weiskamp was listed at 53 on the big board from Sam Vicente and Luca Garza was listed at 56. That is the highest I have seen Joe Weiskamp listed. And you know, I've talked about it several times. I don't think Joe Weiskamp is going to come back. You know, I've talked about it several times. I don't think Joey's camp is going to come back. And the fact that I'm seeing him now listed on big boards in that top 60 range is big for Joe.

What we're going to find out is if he gets a combine invite, I don't think Joe comes back. If he doesn't get a combine invite, I think Joe has an opportunity to come back. But I've said this several times. I've talked about it with people in my Twitter DMs. Joe doesn't have a lot to gain from coming back. What is he going to do to come back? Is he going to be all conference? Maybe.

Is he going to lead the Iowa Hawkeyes in scoring? Probably. Could Iowa go far in the tournament? Yeah, with Joe coming back, I think they could. But does that make Joe a first-round pick? I don't know. I think you see what you get with Joe. You know what you're going to get with Joe. You've got a three and D kind of guy. He has a little bit of athleticism and he's going to be active on the boards that can get you a spot in the NBA that can get you

a spot in the NBA now. But does that change your value from year to year? I don't think so. And the fact that he is starting to get some more notoriety and if he goes to combine i think joe is not coming back to iowa hawkeyes luca guards at 56 luca has been really an interesting prospect the range on luca is all over the place anywhere from 25 to 60 is what i've seen luca garza i do think he gets drafted at the end of the first round someone's gonna look at a guy like luca garza i, you know what? We're going to get a very reliable guy. I know people want to say they have concerns about Luka's athleticism.

I would rather buy into what we've seen Luka do and the fact that he has proven every doubt or wrong every step of the way in his career and buy into that at the end of the first round than someone who has a high potential of busting. into that at the end of the first round than someone who has a high potential of busting. Not saying Luka Garza is Nikola Djokic. I cannot say Nikola's name, but the Denver Nuggets, I'm a Nuggets fan. I went to the Nuggets game on Tuesday, which is a lot of fun. You look at what he does from a basketball perspective. He's not the most athletic guy, but he hustles. He can shoot the ball well, and he's crafty down low. He's not the best defender, but I think Luka, that is the ceiling for him. That is the potential that he could get up to.

Now, is he going to get there? I don't know, but I never want to doubt in Luka Garza. Now, that's enough basketball talk, though. I want to talk a little bit about the Iowa football team. They got their third commitment in the class of 2022. I know it's been a bit concerning. At this time last year, or two years ago, we had a lot of recruits committing to the Hawkeyes. Even last year, I think we had a really big splurge of Iowa Hawkeye recruits committing to the Hawks.

At this point, we only have three commitments, and we've had two for a long time. Caden Crawford and Aaron Graves, both defensive linemen. Now we finally signed an offensive lineman, Jack Dotsler, a three-star offensive lineman out of Wanakee, Wisconsin. Currently 6'7", 265 pounds, so a lot of room to grow on that frame. A lot of frame to put some weight on. Again, he is the third commit. 886th ranked player, 85th overall tackle according to the composite 24-7 sports. When you look at his offers, though, clearly teams were very excited about him.

Held 14 offers offers including offers from Indiana Iowa State Penn State Purdue and Arizona State Iowa clearly had the upper hand here sounds like he has been and grew up an Iowa Hawkeye fan the big thing here though is the fact this is just the start of it I truly believe now the fact the recruiting dead period has officially ended and there are so many big name recruits coming to Iowa on official and unofficial visits over the next month I think what we can expect is 10 to 12 commitments over the next one to two months I expect a surge happening by the end of this month especially after all these official visits happen team you know players are going to want to get their commitments in

they're going to want to make a decision and enjoy their senior year of football, especially after so much uncertainty the past year and a half. I expect by the end of June, we could be at, I'm going to go nine commitments by the end of June. That is truly what I believe. I think by the end of summer, we could be at 14 to 16 commitments. So this is just the start. Iowa is gearing up, and we're going to talk more about what Iowa can do from a recruiting perspective on future episodes. If you've listened to the show for a while, you know I've talked about this,

but they're obviously going to grab a quarterback. They want to get two tight ends. They're probably going to grab one to two more defensive linemen and probably two to three more offensive linemen. They always want to grab a running back in these classes, possibly two. They're pretty set at wide receivers, so I expect them to get maybe one. Defensive back is a big area. I think they could probably get two to three. And linebacker, I would say one to two. Those are rough estimates. I know if you added that up, that's not going to add the equal number that they have scholarships for.

Then you got to factor in the fact that these players have an extra year of eligibility due to COVID. So there's a little bit, some intricacies they don't typically have to deal with that they might have to deal with from a scholarship perspective and just having overall players on the roster. But we'll get on all that on future episodes of the show. Again, I appreciate you tuning in to today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. And if you are looking for more Locked On content to devour,

you can get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Locked On Today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski updates you on the latest news in every major sport with the help of our local experts. Follow the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts at. And again, Hawkeye Nation, I appreciate you being patient with me as I took a break, as I did NBA, got a new home, started a new job,

all that fun stuff. I'm back though every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So if you liked the episode and you have not done this already, please make sure to follow us wherever you downloaded this episode app. Give us that five-star review and subscribe again and follow us on Facebook, Twitter,

and Instagram. So you can get the updates of when we are taking breaks and what episodes we do have coming out. Again, thank you all for tuning in. Have a fantastic Friday and even better weekend. And as always, let's go Hawks.