Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Men's bball gets tough Big Ten slate of games | Baseball wins series vs #30 Nebraska | Who could replace departed assistant coach Andrew Francis?

Episode Date: April 22, 2019

Segment one has us covering our weekly Hawkeye roundup. The men's teams did outstanding while the women's teams ran into a few weather related issues over this past week. We then jump over to basketball where we cover the recently announced Big Ten schedule matchups and discuss which former Hawks would make great fits as assistant coaches with the Iowa Hawkeyes after Andrew Francis' departure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Locked On Sports Network, hosted by Andrew Wade, editor at DearOldGold.com. Good morning and welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at DearOldGold.com. We are bringing you another fantastic show here on this Monday morning. I don't know about you, it's a little gloomy here out in Denver, Colorado, but that's not going to stop us from giving a fantastic show for you today. As you may have known by already listening to this show before, we are going to be having some great NFL draft content coming up here this week.

Today's actually going to be a little bit different, but for the rest of the week, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we have Sarah Bettinger and Nick Kendall, both draft analysts who cover the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Denver Broncos. Nick Kendall, both draft analysts who cover the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Denver Broncos. They're going to be on the show talking to us about where most of the Hawks who are in the NFL draft this year are going to be going, kind of what their projections are, and kind of how their combine times impacted their draft stock. So make sure to tune into that. It's a great three-episode series, a trilogy, if you will, that you're going to really love to enjoy, especially if you are an NFL draft fan. We're also going to be giving a short episode on Friday morning, kind of recapping the first round of the NFL draft and likely on Saturday morning as well, depending on who is drafted

in that second day of the NFL draft. So lots of great stuff coming on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast here. My voice is also going to sound a little bit raspy. I do apologize for that as well. I spent the entire weekend in Las Vegas, and so it's not exactly up to speed with how my voice typically is, but the show must go on. And on today's show, we are going to be doing our weekly Hawkeye roundup

on segment number one. On segment number two, we're going to be talking about the Iowa Hawkeyes basketball schedule and the Big Ten Conference schedule just got released. I want to talk a little bit about that. Some of the games I think are going to be a little bit difficult and whether or not that's a very conducive schedule for Iowa doing well this season. And then finally on segment number three, we're going to be talking about Andrew Francis,

who's going to be replacing him on the Iowa Hawkeyes coaching staff. So lots of great stuff coming here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Also, if you are tuning in for the first time, I hope you enjoy the show. If you do, make sure to like and subscribe wherever you download this podcast at. And if you're on Twitter, you can follow us at Locked on Iowa. And if you are on Facebook, you can follow us at LockedOnIowa. And if you are on Facebook, you can follow us at LockedOnHawkeyes. That will give you the latest updates about what to expect on the LockedOnHawkeyes podcast if we're having shows, if we're not having shows.

And then just in general, we like to do some questions of the day occasionally. So feel free to interact and participate on that as well. Love to get that fan interaction. Let's jump right into it, though, with our weekly Hawkeye Roundup today. Great weekend for sports in Iowa Hawkeye Athletics. The baseball team closed out another conference series by beating Nebraska two out of three games. That puts them at a 23-15 record on the year, a 9-6 conference record. Nebraska is ranked 30th, so very big win for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and it's always fun to beat Nebraska, because who actually likes

Nebraska? Not me. Their first game, though, was interesting. It required a game-winning single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth from Zeb Adrian to take home that game, so a very exciting game. Sometimes that's a little bit tough to come back from the following day, once you have that elation of winning on that

walk-off hit, but Iowa managed to do that and win again on Saturday before falling on Sunday 3-2. This week, the Hawks have UW-Milwaukee on Tuesday at home, and they get a three-game away series at Ohio State, so another opportunity for them to continue to build their lead in the Big Ten Conference. Men's golf had a great weekend as well. They crushed their very own Invitational, taking first out of 13 teams. And it was a dominant performance. They set a new school record in the tournament by 24 strokes with a negative 43. It was their first tournament victory since 2015 and their first Hawkeye Invitational victory since 2014.

They also managed to beat No. 30 Illinois by 6 strokes and No. 31 Kansas by 30 strokes. So again, a very dominant performance by the men's golf team. So great job, y'all. Gymnastics-wise, their season is now officially over and three Hawks claimed All-American honors. Jake Berdarsen got fifth place in the parallel bars. He's a senior, and he took home All-American honors. Freshman Stuart Brown took seventh place in the parallel bars,

also had All-American honors. And then sophomore Bennett Hung had a ninth-place finish in the all-around competition. So fantastic season, guys. Fantastic season to those three who took home the All-American honors. We'll be back, obviously, next year with a little bit more information on the men's gymnastics team. Tennis also had a great weekend. You're kind of sensing the theme here.

The teams really did well this weekend. The tennis team is 17-9 after this fantastic weekend. They beat Michigan State. They also beat No. 19 Michigan 4-1, and they beat Illinois State 6-1. That wrapped up their regular season matches. They now have the Big Ten Championships this week in Ann Arbor. Their first matchup is going to be against Nebraska,

so we'll keep you posted on how the tennis team does this weekend. Track and field-wise, Drake Relays is coming up for both the men's and the women's team. If you have never been to the Drake Relays, make sure you do go. It is a fantastic environment, a fantastic experience, lots of fun there, and lots of good food in the surrounding area. So if you do like track and field, make sure to try to attend the Drake Relays. A great time for all. On a little bit more of a downer note, the women's golf team finished their season out.

They placed 12th out of 14 teams on Friday's Big Ten Championships and 14th out of 14 on Sundays. Saturday's meet was canceled. Rowing-wise, the women's double duel against Harvard and Brown was also canceled. They now have the Longhorn Invitational coming up this weekend. The softball team dropped a game to Drake and then dropped two more on the road to Rutgers. They are now 17-24. They get a doubleheader against Nebraska this Wednesday in a three-game series against Minnesota this weekend.

And women's tennis lost to Wisconsin and Minnesota this weekend to bring their overall record to 12-11. They are now preparing for the Big Ten Championships this weekend. And that'll do it with our weekly Hawkeye Roundup. Again, pretty great weekend overall, especially for the men's teams. Women's teams had a little bit of issues with the weather, obviously, but they persevered. Lots of great stuff coming up, a lot of seasons wrapping up,

so we'll be keeping you posted right here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. And that'll do it for segment number one. We're going to come back after a few minutes once we give you a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back with segment number two, and we're going to be talking a little bit about the basketball schedule review, mostly because the Big Ten came out with their conference pairings, and I want to talk to you about what I thought about those matchups. We don't know exactly when the matchups are going to be.

We don't know when they're going to be, so there's a lot of things that could change based off the scheduling. You don't want to get Michigan State, Michigan, and Wisconsin back-to-back-to-back. That's a little bit tougher of a gauntlet. But for right now, we do know who the home-away and home-and-away pairings are going to be. And I would say it's kind of a mixed bag. I'm not overly happy with kind of how it broke down,

but just to give you kind of an outline of what actually happened, Iowa has a home-only series against Ohio State, Rutgers, and Wisconsin. They get away-only games against Indiana, Michigan State, and Northwestern. And they have a home-and-away doubleheader against Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Penn State, and Purdue. If I had my pick of who Iowa only had to play at home, I would say Michigan State, Michigan, and probably Wisconsin. Michigan State, Michigan, and probably Wisconsin. All right, so I think those are going to be three of the better teams in the Big Ten next year, especially depending on how some of the graduations shake out this year and who's actually going to be going to the NBA draft as well after who's declared early.

A lot of players have. A couple guys from Maryland. So a couple guys from Minnesota. Yeah, Minnesota, Michigan State, and Michigan as well. Indiana's losing Romeo Langford. Ohio State's losing Caleb Wesson, so a lot of guys leaving, but I would say if I had to pick my best home series,

it'd be Michigan State, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Those teams are very good and very good at home, so you want to get them at your home court. As far as away games go, Iowa has Indiana, Michigan State, and Northwestern. I would say that's pretty darn brutal. Indiana's Assembly Hall is one of the toughest places to play in the country. Indiana is not exactly going to be a great team next year, but still, Assembly Hall is not an easy place to play. Michigan State is never easy. Iowa, to be honest,

sucks there, so that's not an ideal spot either. In their career, or sorry, in the last 20 years, Iowa is 1-14 against Michigan State at Michigan State. And then Northwestern as well, not exactly an easy game for Iowa. They are just 5-10 at Northwestern this century. So not exactly your ideal matchups going on the road. And then home and away, obviously getting Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Penn State, and Purdue. Not much we can do about there. Obviously, I'd rather not see Michigan on there twice. Nebraska might be a little better now with Fred Hoiberg back.

Penn State's probably not going to be as good with Lamar Stevens declaring for the NBA draft. Maryland, it kind of depends. They still have five-star freshman Jalen Smith. Illinois is a young, talented team that could do some damage. And Michigan always reloads. Minnesota's team will be interesting, but you really can't count out a Patino. And then Purdue, as we saw this year, they weren't expected to be anything special.

Carson Edwards really led them. It'll depend on how well he does and if he actually comes back from the NBA draft, whether or not that team will be good this year. So, it'll be interesting to see. Obviously, Fran McCaffrey said their schedule's going to be a lot tougher this season, and it appears that

the conference schedule's going to be tough as well. I mean, not exactly the easiest slate of games. As you can expect, though, the Big Ten is tough in general, so it doesn't really matter. You're going to get a tough game night in and night out. I think in an ideal world, the Hawks could go maybe 13-7, 14-6. I mean, that would be outstanding for them in the conference this year just with how tough those games are.

Anything above 14 wins I think is just huge for them. In their non-conference schedule, they have another tough slate of games as well. Playing in the Las Vegas Invitational, they are getting Creighton first and likely Texas Tech, which is another top favorite for the NCAA title next year. So great game there. They also get an away game or a neutral court game against Cincinnati, which will be fun in Chicago. The Hawks are definitely putting together a tougher schedule.

I think they learned from this past season. The Big Ten schedule they don't really have any control over, but still, there's going to be some tough games, not exactly the best slate of home away and one-on-one games that they have. So that'll do it for segment number two. We're going to be talking about this schedule a lot more coming up, especially once we get the full kind of release schedule of what days they're playing and all that type of stuff

because that does impact those things as well. So stay tuned for segment number three. We're going to be talking about possible replacements for Andrew Francis within the Iowa basketball program, but we do have a few meshes from our sponsors. So we'll be back in just a few minutes. So we'll be back in just a few minutes. All right, we are back with segment number three.

And if you haven't been paying attention, assistant coach Andrew Francis has departed the program to go to Cal, I believe. So he is gone. I mean, that does suck for the Hawks, to put it bluntly. He was a big part of that program. He did a really great job of helping with game planning, especially recruiting as well, and kind of being that voice of reason on the bench.

He's been with Fran McCaffrey for 12 years. He started with him at Siena. He's been with him at Iowa. To make a lateral move to Cal is kind of an interesting situation. I would love to hear a little bit more about it. We obviously haven't heard a ton though. But that being said, it means that the Hawks have four spots on the coach, or sorry, one spot on the coaching staff. And there are four possible replacements that are former Iowa Hawkeyes who could make a lot of sense for that replacement, you know, player, replacement

coach, excuse me, just struggling all day today. But let's jump right into who we think could possibly be it, especially replace Andrew Francis. The first guy makes the most sense, and on Twitter this came up a lot. As soon as Andrew Francis announced that he was leaving, Dean Oliver became a name to watch. And Dean Oliver is currently the assistant coach at Wisconsin. So this is a huge thing for Iowa. He was a former Iowa Hawkeye, three-time

All-Big Ten honors, played in 126 games. As a senior, he carried the Hawks to the Sweet 16. He averaged 14.9 points and 4.8 assists. He also played NBA ball for a few years, and he's kind of been working his way up the coaching ranks. This would be an ideal opportunity for the Hawks to grab a guy who not only is recognized in the state of Iowa, has a budding coaching career, and he's a guard. Are you kidding me? He'd be a great asset for C.J. Frederick and Joe Toussaint as they come into this Iowa program.

C.J.'s in his second year. Toussaint will be in his first year. That's a great opportunity for them to learn from one of the better guards in Iowa Hawkeye history. So I think that has probably got to be the number one option right now for the Iowa Hawkeyes. If they cannot get Dean Oliver, another guy that should be on the list is Ryan Bowen. And the reason why is he was a great player at Iowa. He also played 11 years professional basketball. Right now, he is working in the NBA as an assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets. So it would technically be a step down going from the NBA to college basketball,

but he is an Iowa native. It would bring him closer to home. You know, he's originally from Fort Madison. He's also had some experience with Fran McCaffery. He actually served as Fran's video coordinator and administrative assistant for one year before landing an assistant coaching gig with the Denver Nuggets. So it could be an opportunity for them to bring Bowen back home. The interesting thing here is he is a power forward.

He'd be kind of one of those guys who could obviously work with a Jack Nunn, DeLuca Garza, maybe a Patrick McCaffrey. But we wouldn't get as much of that guard play that I think Iowa really needs some help with, which is kind of the big thing there. Obviously, this isn't going to be able to work out for a little bit because Bowen's in the middle of a playoff run with the Denver Nuggets, but that is an opportunity or an option that we should be looking at from an Iowa Hawkeye assistant coach searching. And finally, we have two other guys left.

These guys are both guards. You'll kind of see a theme here, obviously, but Jeff Horner is currently the head coach over at Truman State University, a D2 school in Missouri. But they're kind of struggling. They're fresh off a 14-15 campaign. I don't know much about that. I don't watch D2 basketball a ton. But Horner's over there as a head coach.

Maybe he makes a jump up to D1 to be an assistant coach on Fran McCaffrey's staff if Iowa does well next year. If the guard plays great, that could parlay him into a D1 coaching gig pretty quickly as opposed to kind of bouncing around that D2 mindset and kind of playing in Missouri. He does have some experience in Iowa. He is originally from Mason City. He played four years with the Hawks and had an impressive resume. He was third team All-Big Ten twice. Took the Hawks to two NCAA tournament

appearances. And he also coached former Hawkeye Peter Jock, who is now in the G League and playing for the Iowa United this summer. So a lot of good advice he's probably given Jock over the years. He has that guards play mentality that will be also huge for again, Frederick and Toussaint as they're coming in new to the program. The last guy who could possibly be an option is Iowa City great Matt Gatins, who is now working with the Drake Bulldogs.

He's their director of basketball operations, and Drake had one of their best seasons in the last decade this past year with Gatins helping out there. The 6'5 shooting guard did play five years of professional basketball. He also helped out the Auburn Tigers and did a pretty good job with some of their guards. So that would be a really good opportunity. Although Gatins doesn't have a ton of coaching experience, as an assistant coach, he would have the opportunity to learn from Fran McCaffrey. And again, like all these guys, possibly be a successor to Fran McCaffrey whenever he decides to depart or retire at some point.

Those guys could be kind of building up their careers to take over as the next head coach of the Iowa Hawks. And again, all these guys are from Iowa. These would be huge recruiting ploys for the Hawks to be able to bring these guys in and be that kind of voice of reason for people who are from the state of Iowa. Iowa does have some great high school basketball. They're recruiting a few guys, especially Xavier Foster, who's over in Oskaloosa. So a lot of good opportunities there for them to kind of connect with other Iowa Hawkeye alums as Iowa recruits. So what are your

thoughts on that? I'd love to hear what you think, who could be a possible replacement for Andrew Francis. I think oftentimes people don't give the assistant coach enough credit or spend as much time worrying about it, but it is a huge role in, obviously, collegiate basketball, great recruiting tool, great opportunity to bring in people who have that experience in other places that the head coach does not. And especially here, if we can bring in one of those guards, that'd be huge for our incoming guards right now.

But that'll do it, though, for segment number three. Again, I appreciate you sticking with us on the show today. I was struggling through my voice, so I apologize on that. But the next three episodes are going to be even better because we have Nick Kendall, we have Sarah Bettinger, both draft analysts, coming on the show to talk about our Iowa Hawkeyes and who we can expect to be drafted where on this weekend's NFL Draft Thursday through Saturday. And we have some special episodes coming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, giving you some quick

recaps of the NFL Draft. So lots of content coming out this week. I appreciate you jumping on our show today on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, part of the Locked on Sports Network. Again, if you do like the show, make sure to like and subscribe wherever you download this podcast at. You can also follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa. You can follow me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew.

And you can follow our Facebook on obviously Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes. So again, thank you for jumping on the show today. Absolutely appreciate you tuning in with us on the LockedOnHawkeyes podcast. Have a great Monday, Hawkeye Nation, and we'll be back tomorrow. We'll see you next time.