Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Luka Garza talks about his Skills Academy camp, life in the NBA & his time as an Iowa Hawkeye

Episode Date: August 11, 2022

Luka Garza stops by to talk with Trent Condon in the latest edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast.You can find more information on the Luka Garza Skills Camp, the evening with Luka, his father Frank Garza & Jess Settles here: https://lukagarzaacademy.com/They talk about his time in the NBA last season and what is next for him, his days at the University of Iowa, what brought him to Iowa, his relationship with Fran McCaffery, painful losses and much more.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.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.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We continue on here and it is time to hear from the all American Luca Garza, of course, very accomplished player for the university of Iowa and the Iowa Hawkeyes a year into his NBA career. And he joins us here today. Luca, as always good to catch up with you again. It's been a little while since I know you and I have spoke, but it's been fun watching your development, watching you your first year in the NBA. Welcome aboard today. How are things going with you? Thank you. Everything's great. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. I'll tell you, Luca, looking back at your first year in the NBA, we'll talk about that. I want to talk to you about your career at the University of Iowa. But before we get to all of that, just want to talk about a little bit what's happening here

this summer. Had an opportunity, I know, to play in the NBA Summer League, played with Portland, and now getting ready for the Luka Garza Academy and the Skills Camp. It's going to be happening here across the state of Iowa. A couple of spots next week in eastern Iowa, and then a week from Friday, it'll be in Urbandale right here in central Iowa. Tell us a little bit more about the Luka Garza Academy and the Skills Camp that'll be happening next week. Oh, it's something I'm really, really

excited about. You know, coming back to the state of Iowa, kind of giving back some of what I've learned over the course of my career is basically the goal of the whole thing. So, I'm really excited. It's going to be me, my father, Connor McCaffrey, Patrick McCaffrey, Austin Ash, and

Sam Elgin from Formula Basketball. We'll be doing this together. Like you said, there'll be three different places. August 16th, we'll be doing it in Cedar Rapids. There'll be a third through eighth grade session in the morning, and then a ninth through twelfth session in the afternoon. And then on the 17th, it's going to be in Davenport. It's going to be the same setup in terms of grades. And then 19th, like you said, it's going to be in Urbandale. We've actually capped the amount of registrations in the morning session. But if you still want to go in Urbandale, you can sign up for the afternoon session,

even if you are not in 9th through 12th grade. If you are younger grade, you can sign up for the afternoon session even if you are not in 19th to 12th grade if you are younger grade you can still go to that later session um and we can still have a ton of fun so you know just keeping that out there for everyone i'm so excited to come back and see everybody and spend some time and work out and have a lot of fun and just be in the gym with everybody and kind of teach a little bit um of some of what I've learned through my experience playing basketball. Oh, Luke, I know people are excited to get you back here in Central Iowa and across the state. And we've got to see you, of course, a couple of different times in some different ways this summer and going back to last season, your first with the Detroit Pistons. So

before we look back upon that, again, you can find more information on the skills camp. If you've got a youngster that wants to get involved, or if you're just a youngster that happens to be listening right now, you can go to Luca Garza academy.com. You'll see the link for the skills camp up there and a whole lot of information about Luca. I want to go back to the recent history and what we saw, what you've gone through here this summer. After a year in Detroit, that ended. You jump on with the Portland team. What that experience was like, having to find a new team very quickly like you did,

and what's next? Some of the teams that you're talking to as you prepare for next season, what's going on in your world as you get ready for another run at the professional level? Yeah, absolutely. I'd like to say one last thing about the camp, if I could, before I get into all that.

In addition to the camps in the morning, we also will have an evening event in Irvingdale on August 19th, and it'll be me, my dad, and Jess Settles. So it'll be an evening event at the same spot, and it's going to be a lot of fun. So you can register for that at lucasarza.academy.com as well it's going to be hosted by just settles it's going to be a conversation kind of for fathers and sons about our relationships and and what it was um you know to get to this point so that's a lot of fun autographs and pictures as well at that um but now getting into summer league and everything like that,

you know, summer league was a lot of fun. You know, I originally anticipated playing for Detroit, regardless of the outcome of my team option. But, you know, they drafted another center, and so I knew, you know, it wasn't best for me to kind of stay in there with two centers that they were going to want to play in summer league. So I had to make a decision fairly quickly, probably a matter of hours, to kind of figure out where I was going to play summer league.

And, you know, I landed in Portland, and, you know, honestly it was an amazing experience. You know, they had eight of their guys from their roster playing, so, you know, it was a little bit different to try to fit in with those guys who have been playing with each other and everything like that but it went really well you know we won the summer league and that was a unique experience in itself and um you know i'm still in the process of figuring out where my next spot is that i have a couple really really good options on the table and i'm just kind of down to the wire and figuring out that so

you know within the next couple weeks i'll know 100 and i'm really kind of down to the wire and figuring out that. So, you know, within the next couple of weeks, I'll know 100%. And I'm really excited about it because I do have some, you know, really good opportunities and I think I'll be able to land on my feet. You know, Luca, the business of the NBA, it's something that, boy, feels a whole lot different. You got the two-way contracts. You have so many different ways, you know, to go out there and get that contract. And for you,

I know there's plenty of opportunities overseas. And if it doesn't play out, and if you don't get that offer you're looking for at the NBA, what is that for you? An opportunity to play overseas, to go over there. What does that say to you? If it doesn't work out in the NBA, how willing are you to make that jump across the pond? Jump across the pond. You know, I'm, you know, half Bosnian. My family's from Europe. And, you know, I've always been interested in traveling to different parts of the world.

So, you know, that wouldn't, you know, that would be an amazing opportunity in itself. People dream of playing in some of those leagues over there. They are, you know, some of the talent in some of those leagues are, you know, just as good as the guys in the NBA. When you talk about the EuroLeague and other leagues around the world. But for me right now, I feel like, you know, I'm an NBA player. And I think I can prove that and show that and be an NBA guy. And, you know, it's not really, you know, a backup option for me. Playing basketball professionally was the goal my whole life. So either way, it's just a different opportunity and a different place to play the game I love.

But right now, my focus is just getting better every single day and figuring out what the best opportunity for my career is this season. Luca, with that, we jump into it. I want to go back a little bit and talk about it. Certainly your great career at the University of Iowa. Before you got to Iowa, though, talking to coach McCaffrey and talking to the coaching staff what was it ultimately about Iowa that brought you here and brought us to brought you to the Midwest and leaving Washington D.C. had offers out east he certainly could have stayed a lot closer to home what was it about Iowa

what was it about Iowa basketball that brought you here to the Midwest? I think it was a combination of a lot of different things. I think number one, you know, it was Coach Fran's support of me through my whole high school career. You know, he started recruiting me after my sophomore season. And at that point, there weren't many high majors that were recruiting me. It was mostly mid-majors in really good schools. But, you know, I always wanted to be a guy who was playing in the biggest stage of college basketball. So he was one of the first, and towards the end of my AU season, my 17-year year, I kind of blew up and was able to receive offers from a number of really big-time schools and was receiving interest from the top of the top schools. receiving interest from the top of the top schools. But for me, I think the rewarding loyalty that Coach Fran showed by being there early,

being at all my games, being in constant communication with my family and with me, I think that was so important, his recruiting on me. By the time those other schools came around, me and Coach Fran were very, very close, and it almost made it unfair to every other team. And also, you know, with being recruited by Fran, you know, I got to know Connor very, very well on the circuit. You know, he was actually the reason I got recruited to Iowa was because I played against Connor in an AAU game. And no other coaches could be there but Coach Fran could

because he was watching his son play during a dead period. So, you know, that was getting close to Connor, you know, getting close to Coach McCaffrey. And then when I visited Iowa, I absolutely loved it. You know, I came on a couple of different visits, but my first one, you know, I was able to see a basketball game, a football game, a wrestling match in Kinnick in all in two days. You know, they beat Minnesota, they beat some, They beat some team early in the year in the basketball. And so I got to experience all that, be around the community, be around all the fans, and see how much of a diehard university it is

and how the fans just support their players endlessly. So that was an important factor for me as well. And it was nerve-wracking coming to the Midwest for the first time being a city kid, my whole life. Um, but I was become, you know, my second home and it's a place that, you know, I see myself maybe living someday in the future just to be there because I'm so connected to it. Luca Garza joining us. We're talking some Iowa hoops to look back at his career. And again, the Luca Garza Academy skills camp will're talking some Iowa hoops to look back at his career. And again, the Luka Garza Academy Skills Camp will be happening next week here in Central Iowa in Des Moines.

You can find out more information. Go online to lukagarzacademy.com. And also a week from Friday, an evening with Luka. Him, his dad, Frank, will be there. Jess Settles will be the moderator. All the information, lukagarzacademy.com. So you make your way to Iowa and the first year was not very good. I had big expectations for that season. I thought you guys were going to

be a tournament team. It did not turn out that way. We see it's a little bit easier than even when you began your career not too long ago for guys to transfer, to move on. Was there ever that thought about leaving Iowa after that freshman campaign and maybe coming close to home, looking for another program? Did that thought ever go through after that first season? Absolutely not. You know, I think that experience was very valuable to our teams for years to come. And for me personally, you know, I think individually I was able to have, you know, pretty solid freshman year in terms of individually, statistic-wise, but that wasn't important to me.

Winning was the most important thing, and I remember that feeling of losing to Michigan in overtime in the Big Ten tournament, and it just didn't really sit well with me that I was on the team that had a losing record for the first time in my life. We didn't make the tournament. We didn't make the NIT. It felt like every time we got close to making a big statement, which would have been beating Michigan in that game, we let it slip away.

So it was something that was very important for our team because we had a lot of guys returning. So we all banded together that summer. And I think it taught me a lot about leadership, and it taught me a lot about being a great teammate and everything like that because what we did that summer to get ourselves ready to make it to shoot whatever you know three straight tournaments if COVID hadn't been a thing and obviously now a fourth with the team there I think we really changed you know how we did things and I think that that started from everyone you know our guys on the team Jordan Bohan me Tyler Cook

Everybody kind of came together. We made sure that you know that a season like that wasn't gonna happen again And it did, you know, we were you know overtime away from the sweet 16 the next year. I think we were going into The tournament with a lot of them, the COVID year, and I think that would have been a really good year for me, for us going into that tournament. Then my senior year, obviously we were a number two seed,

and now we're the team that just won the Big Ten Championship. I think what came of that was that first season. The way that it came to an end, that loss to Oregon in the round of 32, it was a bad matchup for you guys. I mean, it's their athleticism.

The way they shot the ball that day and you saw the next round, they certainly didn't shoot it like that. It was a different team than what you guys had to see on that Monday afternoon, and they just ran you out of the building. Those kind of things happen in basketball. But when you look back upon it, you mentioned the Tennessee game, your sophomore year, you guys were close. You made that great comeback and had the Vols on the ropes.

Which one stings more? When you look back at your career and the way that those seasons ended, is it the loss to Oregon, your last in a Hawkeye uniform, or was it how close you guys were your sophomore year against the Vols? I think they sting equally as much, you know, especially my senior year was tough, you know, because my, something that drove me, you know, really what drove me the whole summer coming back was to make a run in the tournament and to, you know, make it past the Sweet 16, make it to the Final Four, to win a national championship. That was, you know, what was burning my brain in terms of making a decision to come back to school. And so we weren't able to do that.

Obviously, we faced a really good Oregon team, like you mentioned. They didn't have to play a first-round game. So I think that was probably the first time in NCAA history there was a bye in the first round for one team and not for the other. So I think there was a lot of combination of factors that went into us losing that game. And that's what March is about. It's not only about team versus team.

March has a lot to do with luck. And that's what's fun about it. That's why it's fun to watch. That's why it's fun to be a part of and play. But luck does have something to do with it, and you obviously have to play well and prepare as best as you can. That day we weren't our best version of ourselves, and that's our fault. But luck is always a thing in the tournament,

and I think it didn't go our fault. But, you know, luck is always a thing in the tournament. And I think we just didn't go our way, you know, that year for many reasons. And I think luck was one of them. But, you know, I think everything, you know, I everything I experienced in Iowa, everything I learned was so valuable. When I look back, you know, it's not, you know, like I'm sitting here kicking myself. It's more like I was just really thankful for the time that I had with those guys. I'm sitting here kicking myself. It's more like I was just really thankful for the time that I had with those guys. You know, I think the only thing I kick myself about is not getting a chance to go to the postseason my junior year. I thought that was a really good team.

I thought we had a chance to make a run. And it felt like that was one of our better teams that I had at Iowa. So, you know, I think that's what stings the most out of it. You know, it's not what happened. It's what, you know, what could have been because that hurts more than, you know, going out there fighting your hardest and not getting it done. Luca, one final thing. We're talking with Luca Garza as he gets ready for his second year in the league and getting ready for the Luca Garza skills camp coming up next week

in Urbandale at Beyond Ball and John Liam's gym up there. I want to ask you about your relationship with Freya McCaffrey. And coach McCaffrey is a guy that has been much maligned in his career at Iowa. I think there's a big portion of people that don't understand. First of all, the difficult nature of the Iowa job when he took over a guy that is doing it the right way. It's the big one. And that is getting to that second weekend, something we just talked about with the Sweet 16. He broke down one of those doors with the Big Ten Championship a year ago. But what do people not know about Coach McCaffrey? When you look at your relationship and you look at him as a guy, what do us in the media, what are the fan base, what do they not know about Coach McCaffrey? I think there's a lot of things.

You know, I think, first of all, I think he wants to win as bad or more than all of our players everybody you know he's a competitor at heart you know he's a philly guy a tough guy competitor and um you know so he wants it so bad for us and uh you know that's why i was so so happy to see us win a big 10 championship because that was more than just breaking down the door that was a big accomplishment for the school for this university in a big 10 in a year the big 10 has had in these last couple years to to be able to say you won a big 10 championship is it's no no small feat so that was a really important step i think and and i was really happy that they were able to get that done but also i think you know off the floor you know i think

when you look at him on the court and you know know, you see him, you know, his reactions, you see how he, you know, is yelling and screaming and all of that. And I think, well, first of all, I think 99% of that is directed mostly at the refs and not the players, which is one thing. And I think also when you get to off the court, you know, he is he's just a laid back family man that is, you know, hilarious to be around and, and just, he's so much fun, you know, being able to hang around with him, be around him, you know, hear his stories of everything he's been through while playing basketball and coaching basketball. It just, he's you know, he's one of those guys you always want to have at the dinner table.

You want to talk to him, you want to be around him. And you know, he, he changed my life for sure and i'm always going to be forever indebted to him and his family for what they did for me because i wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the mccaffreys well we're getting a lot more of those guys into the league that have ties to the university of iowa of course you and joe weiss camp a year ago there and we've seen some of the others in the past and now it'll be keegan making his way to the league as he was a lottery pick with the Sacramento Kings. You, of course, got to play with him a year ago.

What are the Kings going to be getting, and what do you anticipate? What kind of NBA career is Keegan going to have? I think, you know, first of all, I think he's going to be a rookie of the year. I think he was the best player in his draft class. I think he showed going to be a rookie of the year. I think he was the best player in his draft class. I think he showed that in summer league. I think a lot of the drafts has done off potential and what guys could be, but not really what they are right now. If you look at it, who was the most ready, who was the most dominant in college,

it was an easy answer. I think that's what the Kings are getting. They're getting the best player in the draft. And so, you know, I'm really, really excited to watch him and support him this year because, you know, he's going to be incredible. And I think, you know, the sky's the limit for him. He works so hard and he's so good at doing so many different things on the court. He impacts the game in a various amount of ways.

And those are the toughest guys to deal with because, you know, if he has a night where he's shot at them falling, he can score the ball in so many different ways. And even if he's not scoring, his impact, you know, on the defensive end and just with his energy is going to help any team he plays for. So I'm really excited for him and his career. And, you know, no one deserves it more. No, no, no better family, you know, than his family his family to have this opportunity.

And I'm so really, really, really excited to watch him play, and I'm always going to be a fan of his. And hopefully at some point in our careers we can play again together. Yeah, and maybe, well, if it happens this year, if you're not in Sacramento, you can beat up on the little guy a little bit, right? I mean, you've got a year in the league now. You know all the tricks, right?

Yeah, for sure. You know, it's good to have some experience, for sure. No, I'm always looking forward to that matchup. And, you know, we had a lot of battles in practice, and I think, you know, he learned a learned a lot from those battles as did I. And I think that was really good and beneficial for both of us to, to be, you know, practicing against each other. And I think that's another thing that was underrated about, you know,

my development at Iowa was the guys I had to go against in practice. You talk about Keegan Murray, you know, Ryan Creener, Jack Nunji, Cordell, Tyler Cook, you know, I was going against,. I was going against studs every day in practice, and I think that's what helped me develop into a player I became and am now. Luka Garza. Luka, hey, great conversation with you today. Really appreciate you giving us some time here. And with that, we'll get you out on this.

One more look back at the Luka Garza Skills Academy, the camp coming up. Lukagarzaacademy.com is where you can go. The Skills Camp up there three days next week, Tuesday, August 16th. That'll be in Davenport, Cedar Rapids. Then the next day on Wednesday, August 17th, and then a week from Friday, August 19th here in Central Iowa at Handel University up in Urbandale. All the information, lukagarzaacza academy.com for the skills camp and then an evening with you your dad and jess settles i mean that's a crew right there you guys are

going to be having some fun oh that's going to be a lot of fun i think it's going to be a who's going to get the most words and it's going to be impressive i think i'm i'm going to get some words in with with jess and my dad there yeah there's no doubt there's no doubt but it's going to be a great time. Again, lukagarzaacademy.com. All the details there. Lucas, thank you so much for your time today. It's been so much fun catching up with you.

I appreciate that. Thank you so much for having me. There he is, Luka Garza. Thank you again to Luka for hopping on with us. A lot of great information and a lot of great conversation with him there. We need a timeout. We'll come back on the other side. Plenty more to get into here today

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Trent Conant back with you here one more time as we put a cap on things. And what a fun conversation that was here today with Luca Garza. We will be back with you tomorrow for the Friday edition. We'll get LaShawn Daniels in here. Plenty of Hawkeye football talk with him. We will talk a lot about tomorrow for the Friday edition. We'll get LaShawn Daniels in here. Plenty of Hawkeye football talk with him. We will talk a lot about everything that has been happening in that world, and that is coming your way in tomorrow's show. A little bit different structure here, but so much time with Luka

and didn't want to waste a moment with him. A lot of football tomorrow. We'll get ready for it, and I will be in Las Vegas. That's right. I will be at Circa, so you can stop on out and watch the program tomorrow. You'll see me from the biggest sports book in the world. I'll be there. And LaShawn will hop on with us and that'll be coming your way on the show.

That is tomorrow. Back with you each and every day. That is what we do here on the Lockdown Network. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first stop each and every day. That'll do it for today. Back with you tomorrow from Las Vegas. This has been the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Go Hawks.