Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Men's season gets a B+ | How warm is Fran's seat | What to expect next year
Episode Date: March 27, 2019We are joined by very special guest Ryne Nietert to recap this year's men's basketball season and discuss what the future holds for the team including these topics:- Where will all the minutes go next... year?- Who could transfer or leave- Will Patrick McCaffery play next season- How warm is Fran's seat next season- What would make next year successful? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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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.
Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.
I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at dearoldgold.com.
And as I promised you, we have a very special guest with us, Ryan Neidert, a former college
buddy, a guy who I very much respect in terms of sports opinions.
He's not going to hear that very often. I like to give him a lot of crap, but Ryan is joining us on the show to talk to us
about college basketball, specifically the Iowa Hawkeyes men's team as the season is over now.
Lots of things to look forward to in the coming season. I think there's a lot of talent returning,
a lot of opinions, I think, though, from this past season as well. Kind of an up and down year,
one with a lot of emotional investment, I think, into it, especially this past weekend.
So I want to have Ryan on to talk about Iowa basketball.
Ryan, how are you doing today, buddy?
I'm doing great.
As always, it's great to be a Hawkeye.
And I honestly kind of feel relieved after last weekend's games.
after last weekend's games, I feel like even though we didn't take the path as expected,
we kind of got to the place we expected to end up, even though it kind of ended in a heartbreaking loss. But that's kind of an improvement for some of the second round games we've seen in the
tournament. Absolutely. I think it's tough for fans, right? Because you get your expectations
so high and you want to see them do well. And I know I always root with my heart, right? And I
want them to go further and I want them to do better. But if you take this season compared to
last season, it was a huge improvement, right? Eight or nine win improvement. They went from
14 to 19, making the tournament this year, winning their first round game. And then as you said,
the second round game, the last couple of second round games under the Fran McCaffrey era
have ended in pretty bad losses.
I mean, double digit losses every single time.
And to make it such a close game and obviously not the result we wanted to.
And it sucks that we have to rely on moral victories.
But this is one step closer.
And I'm really happy they at least made it a game.
Well, one thing everyone always says this sports debate and ask the question
would you rather lose a heartbreaking game or get blown out i'm all for losing the heartbreaking
game oh yeah in my opinion when you get blown out that's just telling you and your team that
you didn't belong on this level today so when we saw them down big down by 25 in the first half
it's like oh here we go again you know it the team we thought. Then they came back, fought really hard,
tied it up, completing the greatest comeback in tournament history.
Even though they didn't win, they still made the comeback happen.
That just goes to show the fans, the players,
everybody around the nation watching the game that this Hawkeye team belongs
with a Tennessee team.
That could have been a one seed.
I personally have them in my championship game versus Duke.
I think Grant Williams and Adderall Schofield are the real deal.
Jordan Bone, he's really good at point guard.
So it was great to see the Hawks come back, fight, almost pull it out.
And hopefully they can just build off that.
Absolutely. I think something interesting you said.
So you actually picked Tennessee to beat Iowa. You did.
I picked Tennessee to beat Cincinnati.
Wow. Wow. I shouldn't have had you on this podcast. You are, you are banned.
I appreciate the honesty, but wow. That's too, I, at least I, I definitely, I picked the highway, but wow. At least I definitely picked Iowa to beat Cincinnati.
And then I was like, well, if they get this far,
I think they could beat Tennessee.
So I actually picked them to go to the Sweet 16.
But again, like we talked about before the show,
I actually root with my heart, and I never actually root
with my brain. And that's why
I usually lose in Las Vegas. So that was fun.
Yeah, it's just way more fun
to root with your heart but you know
when when it comes to those brackets and there's a little bit of you know money in the lines then
it's nicer to go with your head I called it hedging my happiness and if since if Cincinnati
won the game great 20 more points if Iowa won the game even better I can get those 20 points
somewhere else oh man that's smart.
See, I don't go that route.
I usually hedge my happiness in the sense of bet on Iowa.
If they win, I'm super happy.
And if they lose, I'm super pissed.
And that's how it's been for Vegas for me, man.
Iowa versus Michigan State, the football game, I bet on Iowa to win the game.
My wife bet on Iowa to cover.
I lost $100.
My wife won $50.
It just doesn't really work out for me.
Gambling, I have placed very few bets,
but I definitely do pay attention to the lines.
I make mental notes, and it usually comes out 50-50.
It's like, why bother?
I ended up making, basically basically it broke even this this weekend I put placed about 45 bets and I broke
even on 45 bets so wow that's yeah that sounds cool yeah super fun but we'll need to we'll need
to schedule a trip out maybe go to Vegas next year for March Madness it was a blast as long as
if I had not been sick it'd have been great but what i want to talk to you about man is
is this iowa basketball team and i mean i think you talked a lot about it on twitter and stuff
as you said before the show you're very active on twitter you listen to a lot of people's opinions i
think you also voice your opinion very much as well you know if you had to grade this season
what would you give a grade as far as a letter grade oh man well i guess you know if
you're taking it the school route we got a lot of the answers right even even if the work we shown
was just a terrible mess and it might have taken us twice as long to complete the test as some of
the other kids in the class i'm sure you're familiar with that.
But I think you still get a B, B+, but there's no way they're getting an A
because I think some of the things that they did this season
were a little unforgivable with some of the losses,
but they also did some miraculous things, and it's kind of a give or take.
It all kind of balanced out.
I was really hoping, I think probably back in January,
that I saw the path for that double buy in the Big Ten tournament
to get that win over Maryland and then beat the team you're supposed to beat.
And then you kind of play Wisconsin for the four seed.
And if you can get the top four in the Big Ten tournament,
then you have a real good shot of winning it.
If you don't get the top four, it's really difficult to win.
It's difficult to string that many games together.
Yeah, and I think we noticed it specifically in the Michigan game
when they went 0 for 14 from three.
I mean, if you're going to play back-to-back nights,
you just got to make sure that your legs aren't tired.
And the first thing you notice when your legs aren't tired
is you're missing jump shots.
And everybody's missing jump shots.
And it wasn't like they normally miss them.
It was just Weisskamp was long, which if he misses them,
it's usually shorter off to the side.
He's never really long.
But he probably was long in that game because he was just trying too hard because he could felt that he was tired
Bohannon just didn't seem quick on his trigger and then it just spiraled out of control
absolutely yeah I think that was probably the best analogy ever I'll give him a B plus because
they got the answer it just took a lot of work took a lot of time and I think that was probably
the best summary of the season.
So, I mean, I don't disagree with you at all.
I would say probably a B is a pretty solid pick for them this season.
I mean, they absolutely improved over last year.
I think an A season would be getting to the Sweet 16.
I think for a team like this to get to the Sweet 16 would always be that A season.
And to not get to the Sweet 16 is always going to be that B season,
a very average team that people love but also get very frustrated by. A team that, you know,
you get those moral victories by almost beating a Tennessee. So the one nice thing though, I think
that came out of that game is a lot of promise. This team has a lot of returners coming back.
It's kind of hit or miss whether Tyler Cook's going to come back. I think personally, I think he will come back.
The big thing he needed to improve going to the NBA that they said is his jump shot.
And I would say his consistency.
And I don't think he improved on either of those.
His jump shot was relatively atrocious throughout the year.
I think he showed he was not as clutch as we would like to have seen from your star forward.
He has moments where he takes over the game.
I mean, Tennessee for that whole second half, he was really a catalyst for that.
But then I don't want to harp on him.
Obviously, I'm sure he's the one who's hurting the most here.
But then he misses three free throws in a row and a very key time in the overtime.
So I think he's back.
And that means you're returning every single player besides Nicholas Bayer.
And Bayer's a very, very huge instrumental piece of this team.
But let's face it, the guy is not the most athletic guy on the court.
I mean, you can watch the guy run, and I honestly wonder if I would question whether or not I could beat him in a game of one-on-one.
Just from looking at him run, I can't for the record.
But you're losing Nicholas Bayer, and I don't want to take away anything from what he's doing
because fantastic leader on the team,
but they return a ton of players.
I think this team has good potential next year
to finally break that 20-year drought
and make it to the Sweet 16.
What are your thoughts?
Well, let me just start with Nicholas Barron
and just what he's been.
He's been something almost unbelievable and just been he's i think
he's definitely like i'm trying to think of like jeff horner greg bruner adam haleska reggie evans
just all-time dean oliver all-time hawkeyes that i've adored i don't think there's a player that
i've loved more than nicholas bear you just a lot of hustle, a lot of heart, um,
typically makes the right decisions. Um, doesn't look athletic, but you know,
sneaky athletic. If you want to use that phrase, I know try not to, but,
um, let me ask you this and see if you know the answer,
who had a better three point percentage this year, Bohannon or bear bear. I think that, I think it ended up know the answer. Who had a better three-point percentage this year, Bohannon or Baer?
Baer.
I think it ended up being the same.
Yeah, I mean, Bohannon struggled.
The thing with Bohannon is he had those big shots,
and he got hot and very streaky.
But Baer was a much more consistent option from downtown.
I mean, Bohannon would have nights where he just kept popping them
and would go one for nine, whereas Baer was pretty consistent.
I'm actually going to look it up right now just to yeah and why you look it up like and
he shot he improved his shot every single year because he knew that in order to stay on the
floor he had to add something else to his game and he just continued to get better to get more
confident like he would grab and shoot like he was just one of the guys really and except for
i think he made very good decisions except for he did take like a step back jumper at the top of
the key inside the arc against tennessee and i was like come on man like i love you but that is
have you ever taken that shot all season that was not the time to start taking shots you have never taken.
But man, he's going to be missed
for a lot of reasons.
I think the intangibles are huge.
The value he adds, I think, is less
in terms of his physical
presence in the game and more of
what he brings at the top
of the head with his leadership, with his
charisma, with his pride
in the game, with his work effort, that kind of thing.
So what kind of price tag do you put on that in terms of a season?
And real quick, Bayer actually finished three points below Bohannon.
He did shoot for whatever it's worth about 88 less three-pointers
than Bohannon did.
So Bohannon was popping them a lot more.
But Bohannon also shot 37 from the field
so not exact i mean overall so not exactly a great shooting performance whereas bear shot 54
so sorry back to uh back to the initial question though you know how what kind of price tag do you
put on his presence in the locker room i mean you hear the guys crying after the game and they took
the time to talk specifically about him and what he meant to that team and i think it's tough for people who haven't played a sport to understand kind of what a guy
like him means to the team but what kind of price tag do you put on that do you think how big of a
regression does that make for a team where they're you know returning three seniors or three sorry
three starting seniors well if i've been trying since since this senior class had arrived
at Iowa, I've been trying to get inside that locker room and get a feel for
what's been going on for a long time because sometimes it just
doesn't make sense. I really can't answer your question. I have no idea.
I know they're going to miss him.
He's a nice guy to have in the locker room,
and there's going to be a hole there, but I think they're going to be fine.
There's going to be a lot of other things that they're going to have to worry about
when practice starts next year.
Absolutely.
Personally, I wanted to get your thoughts on this.
I think Gordon Pemsel is kind of the guy who replaces the same level of energy
that Bayer brings on the court.
Maybe not as much of a three-point shooting prowess,
but maybe a little bit more of an athletic forward down low
who's going to bring that hustle, that energy.
I mean, we saw it in the Iowa State game.
Pemps went to one of his only games he played this season.
He was absolutely fantastic, really lit a fire under the Iowa Hawkeyes
in a similar way to what Bayer does.
So I think from my perspective, that's kind of the guy to watch out for next season kind of one of the the sleeper picks for a very key role player down the stretch
yeah so so I made a list out here and I have down 13 players that could play next year
six of them being seniors so I I don't know what's going to happen.
If an energy guy to replace
him, Pemsel absolutely is. He was fired up
for the Iowa State game.
I don't think he probably should have played, but honestly, just to play
one game, one meaningful game the entire season and have it be that one and to win, that might be worth it.
I know he's an Iowa guy from Dubuque, so he probably thinks the same, but there's so many questions with 13 possible players to play next year.
If, you know, I think, well, I think Patrick McCaffrey is going to play.
No question.
Joe Toussaint, the point guard from New York.
He's supposed to be a freaking beast, man.
He's supposed to be a freaking beast.
I don't know if he's going to be a beast or if he's got a red shirt.
Fran gave a shout out to another red shirt point guard, CJ Frederick.
Kentucky, Mr. Basketball in the state of Kentucky. It sounds like he's
shifting away from point guard and into shooting guard.
If he shifts out of that, then he may not see time next year because
there'll be other guys in the way. Isaiah Moss,
potential grad transfer, potential draft guy.
I don't know. I'd love to see him stick around so
i think he truly has some talent it's just it just really hasn't clicked for him in the iowa
program so i don't know if he goes somewhere else maybe somewhere smaller where he can probably put
up 20 a night and be that guy the guy yeah that could be attractive for him um yeah could connor could he just stick to
baseball could he say you know i did i did you a service dad i was a mercenary i was a mercenary
for you but i'm not all that good so let let patrick come in and take over i'm a big ryan
kareener fan he's gonna get tons of minutes next year. Let's see what Nunji
can do. I hear he's 250 pounds.
He plays some real good basketball. 6'11", man, that's a perfect compliment to Luca Garza.
Yeah, so you got them going on Garza. Maybe he gets
draft interest. You talk about Cook potentially going or potentially staying.
I think he should stay.
And then, yeah, Pemzel and Daly rounded out.
I can see Daly being the odd man out because he's a terrific defender,
maybe one of Iowa's best defenders.
But when he's on the floor, there's not much else he's bringing
except for the occasional three.
Maybe he can drive to the rim but it it's you know it's not all there
and let's be honest there's a reason why he got called out this year earlier in the early
hot mic i mean there's a reason why he doesn't play a ton and there's a reason why he only comes
in in defensive situations you can't have a that guy is going to lose his spot in the rotation i
honestly think daily is probably a possible option for transferring yeah he could he could but i don't know if he wants to do because he's he's a true
senior so do you have to do like this set up a year and then play oh yeah that would sell he
might not unless he gets his school finished up and he can do that grad transfer thing which i
don't fully understand but how it always works out where they get a play right away yeah if if i were him and i saw the potential of this team i really believed in it i would
ride it out see where the team could take me and then of course of course he's going to get
minutes at some point in this season see what he can do it's it's tough man i mean there's so many
minutes to go around as you talked about I think a very interesting question is whether
or not Patrick McCaffrey redshirts.
I think he has too much talent to not redshirt.
But at the same time, if you're Fran and your son needs to bulk up a little bit,
do you – I mean, do you play him at a wing position like Joe Wieskamp?
I mean, because he can handle the ball too.
Do you let him be a big point or a big shooting guard, and he can then match up with those guys a little bit easier or do you let
him red shirt and then you're building the program for years to come, which I think is a big knock on
Fran typically is that, you know, he had that great class that came in. He had a couple of four
stars. He wrote it out. And then we thought, you know, we've dealt with the last two years of
mediocrity and he's trying to space out those classes now.
I mean, that's why Jack redshirted,
because there wasn't going to be a lot of minutes for him.
Let's hopefully get him some time to bulk up and play again next year.
So what do they do that with Patrick McCaffrey or even Joe Toussaint?
I mean, he looks like an athletic beast.
You know, talking to – not talking to, listening to some of the the reports on him I mean he's
supposed to be an absolute stud I believe he's now a four-star point guard he's gotten moved up in
the rankings I mean he could be an athletic nightmare for teams and you know what happens
like you said with Connor McCaffrey there's a lot of swirling I think going around in those wing
spots just because there's a lot of opportunity Isaiah Moss is a fantastic shooting guard if he's in the right head space,
but is he going to be in the right head space?
And you're absolutely right.
Does he want to be the guy on another team?
On this team, he just doesn't get enough touches, I think,
to get the confidence level up unless they're really gunning for him
a couple times every single year.
Yeah, and I was looking at the recruiting class earlier today,
and they had two St. Edits, an 88, and they had Patrick McCaffrey as a 97.
And I know DeWeese Camp was a high-rated recruit,
but I don't think he was a 97.
And I don't know the last time Iowa had a 97 for a recruit.
That just seems crazy to me.
And shame on me for being around Iowa City and
being around Des Moines these past four years and never seen Patrick McCaffrey play no that's
that is that's all on me so I'm just hoping to be very pleasantly surprised when he shows up next
year I mean I watched him in the state tournament he was actually Iowa City West was playing my
former or my old high
school Newton senior high and I mean kudos Newton they actually did a pretty good job of keeping up
with them but Patrick was a stud and so was Connor I mean those two guys were just dominating that
entire game and you just couldn't get around them I mean Patrick has a ton of size Connors I think
Connor is interesting person for me in terms of basketball because I think he has a ton of size. Connors, I think Connors is an interesting person for me in terms of basketball
because I think he has a lot of talent,
but I think he realizes what he needs to do on the team.
And it's not be that shoot-first guy,
but I think he got in such a headspace where he didn't believe in shooting at all
that actually hurt him throughout the season.
Teams were, when Connors got the ball,
they weren't worried about him shooting it at all.
They were just focusing on where he was going to pass it at i think he needs
to be in the right headspace as well but i think it'll also be interesting to see whether or not
he stays on this team i mean he did get rewarded a scholarship finally so he very well could stay
i i find it difficult to think he would actually leave the program though yeah i don't i don't see
it happening i see him sticking around.
I think it'd be cool to play with your brother,
play with your dad, but I would understand
if he didn't. I totally get it because
he's a baseball
diamond dude. Yeah, I think
right after they lost to Michigan,
he went out to the diamond and went
three for three.
Two doubles.
Doing all that and apparently he was sick during the NCAA tournament.
So he didn't get a lot of minutes that way,
which I didn't think that they needed him in the,
in the spot.
So I was okay with that,
but I,
I would expect to see him back and just to see what happens.
And,
but you were right.
Teams were absolutely leaving him open because they couldn't trust a shot and i hear people complain like why are you shooting you
can't shoot like he has to yeah if teams can't respect him wide open the top of the key or on
the corner i was screwed when he's in the game yep it's just like macy daily and it's the reason
why luca garza being able to shoot the three, albeit not overly effective, about 28%, 29%.
But the reason why him and Ryan Crean are being able to shoot the three-pointer,
at least at some relative successful level, is so important for the Hawks.
Because when you get those big guys working you inside out,
and then you get the big guys coming out,
then it leaves the middle of the floor open for the guards to drive.
We just need those guards to actually drive.
And I think Bohannon could be that guy,
but I thought he was really hesitant this year and not willing to do some
of that and also teams were very aggressive on him throughout the season i mean he was getting
pushed around the top of the perimeter at all times this year and and you would see the importance of
that and give frank credit i think him and his coaching staff draw up some of the best out of
bounds plays in the entire country.
I don't know if there's anyone better.
But they drew up an out-of-bounds play for Luka Garza against Cincinnati.
And I heard Fran on the post game talk about it.
I was like, yeah, that's a typical set we run.
We usually run it for like Bohannon and Moss.
And we just changed it a little because in that second half against Cincinnati cincinnati garza was the hot hand he was tearing it and cincinnati had did not expect garza to
step out like that and he was so open he just knocked it down yet it's another wrinkle especially
seeing in the basketball game of today in the nba if you're seven foot there's no reason why
you shouldn't be able to shoot a three yeah i mean I mean, he's, I think he's such a huge mismatch.
I would like to see him bulk up a little bit.
And I only say that simply because I think he is pushed around down in the
paint a little bit too much.
You see big aggressive guys out low and he can't defend them as well.
I mean, he's obviously a good enforcer for people driving into the paint,
but big guys are going to push them around.
I mean, there's when you're six foot 11, you should not be getting just four rebounds a game i know
he's playing limited minutes but you should be a little bit more of an enforcer on the boards when
you're that tall that's the one thing i would like to see him improve in his game so that that just
goes into a lot of the iowa's problems is like they have very nice pieces. They really don't have any complete pieces. And Luka Garza, he's a patient, touch shooter type of guy on offense.
We've seen it.
We praise him so much for it.
But he does that because that's what he has to do.
He doesn't have very much explosiveness on offense,
so he's not going to have explosiveness on defense.
He's not going to have explosiveness on the rebound. I really thought he actually rebounded fairly
well against Tennessee. That was a pleasant surprise, but
when you had Schofield and Williams out of the game, the rebounding becomes just a little bit easier.
Absolutely. And, you know, they were playing for their lives at that point,
so every little jump up in the air just seemed like
it was a little, little like a half inch bigger
because, you know, this was it.
This was the season.
Absolutely.
I think for me, I get frustrated with the lack of rebounding presence from him and from
the rest of the Hawks.
They consistently get out-rebounded when it felt like it mattered.
Not necessarily in the Tennessee and Cincinnati game, but beginning in both those games, especially
Cincinnati.
Cincinnati was getting two or three chances every single offensive set or everything every single offensive
possession because they were just getting the rebounds every single time and I would to me
rebounding is part athleticism and part positioning and mindset are you gonna box that guy out are you
gonna get in the right position are you gonna push that guy around are you putting yourself
in a position where you understand where that ball is going to go
and i would like to see them get better at that next year i think that'd be huge so there's a
there's a couple things that i've kind of noticed about this rebounding has become quite the problem
um so because you mentioned that iowa tends to get pushed around to the post a little bit
they front they front the the postman so they play in front of him on defense
to deny any entry pass so they don't have to deal with it.
So when a shot goes up, they're already out of position.
The offensive guy already has the inside track,
and they just need to box him out.
And we talked a little bit about explosiveness,
and there's some lack of explosiveness from you know kreiner and garza
and i have my thoughts on tyler cook and his explosiveness it's called it's called the uh
it's called the second hop i don't know if you've ever heard of it i know like so like you jump
you jump up the first time and everybody jumps up really high and you know they tip the
ball back in the air the key is the guy who can jump up the quickest on the second time
and it just seems to me that cook gets beat on that second hop every time it does seem like they
all go up and we never come down with it after a little bit of scramble at the top yeah and you
kind of wonder why a guy like nick Baird gets so many rebounds
because he's either timing his jumps differently
or he's taking the balls away when they bring it down below their shoulders,
and he's just trying to do something differently because he has to.
I mean, he's adapting to the game,
and I would like to see that from some of the other guys.
Like, for example, Tyler Cook, all too often I feel like this season
we saw him try to be the point guard and take it from one end to the other
or try to drive into the lane.
That is not your game.
Do not try to be something you're not.
But also, what can you improve?
I mean, it's just like the general facet of life.
Like, what are some of your weaknesses that you can improve on
and what are some of your strengths that you can improve on?
And let's not exploit some of your worst weaknesses.
I feel like Tyler Cook needs a a little bit of lesson in that yeah we saw we saw from the very
beginning of the season the story of tyler cook you know we heard he was going to test his draft
waters um then we heard that the report came back that he should work on his jump shooting
so then the first five games we saw him taking all these jumpers and it was not good. He kind of cut that out and then we saw
struggles from the free throw line. We've seen him
be very talented as the point guard
or whatever you want to call it, but most of the time we see it end up in disaster.
I think Tyler Cook is
a good basketball player. i think he is very good
at you know catching the ball on the post and scoring off the post i think he has good moves
i think he has decent touch um even if he doesn't shoot over if he doesn't shoot 70 from the free
throw line he still does a great job of of getting fouled and getting to the line if you average one point per possession that's a quality possession in my opinion so if
you can go one for two that's that's a really good possession that's better than someone taking a 15
footer and bricking it absolutely so and then you also get you know 13 and foul trouble so he is
very good at some things on the court but like you you said, he's trying to do all of it.
And sometimes it works for him.
And it seems like it's working just enough for him that he believes in himself.
And Fran believes in him.
And his teammate believes that he can do those things.
So it's, you know, you got to take the good with the bad with Tyler Cook.
I don't think he's going to stop doing it.
So he's got to live with it. Just got to deal with it. Well, I don't think he's going to stop doing it. So he's got to live with it.
Just got to deal with it.
Well, I don't disagree with you on that.
Real quick, I know we're kind of running on time here,
but as far as next season,
what would make next season a successful season for you?
As an Iowa Hawkeye fan, what would you say?
Is it winning a Big Ten title?
Is it getting a double, you know, a double bye?
Is it getting a top five seed? Is it making it as a sweet 16?
What would classify a good season, an A
season in your book for you?
I've been thinking a little bit about the Big Ten landscape.
I think there are some key players on Michigan and Michigan State
leaving, but I think you look at other teams and there's a lot of younger talent coming up.
And I think there are also a lot of seniors along with Iowa's six.
Other teams have a lot of seniors.
So I think it's going to be pretty competitive again.
It just might come from different places than the typical places.
But then maybe Michigan.
Yeah, Illinois.
Maybe Michigan State and Michigan reload as they typically can do.
Maybe Purdue reloads.
But I'm just kind of fixated on that top four, on that double bye.
If you finish Big Ten in the top four four you know you're going to the tournament
you know you have a chance to win the tournament even if you don't finish in first place and win
the conference championship i'm okay with that and even if you don't win the tournament in
chicago or india or whatever it is i'll be okay with that. Their non-conference is going to be a lot tougher, more challenging,
and that's by design for their senior class.
So there could be some cool games going on in November,
some signature games like in Las Vegas, in Chicago.
So cool experiences for fans, cool experiences for players,
and winning those games would be just so much more rewarding than beating Campbell or Bryant
or whoever. And if you lose, it's not going to
get counted against you that much because you're going to have a tough conference schedule.
And then you go to the dance, and I would really
like to see them get to the
Elite Eight, and I think they really want that and they know
they're good enough for that um so if and they're gonna have to help themselves out though by getting
a six seed or higher yeah can't be messing around with seven ten you know because if you get a 60
you can get or it's you know three six, you can play teams that also have weaknesses.
You can maybe get some help from an upset down the road,
and then you can just advance a little bit further.
I'm not expecting the world from these guys because, you know,
they have their juniors, you know, they have pretty much matured to their highest level.
But they still have a little bit more to go.
And hopefully they're just hungrier for it.
That's really the only thing that they can change would be just a different mental mindset that we saw in the second half against Tennessee.
Where Bohannon just started shoving the Tennessee defender
because he just wasn't ready to take it yet.
Yeah, I mean, I would love to see them play at the intensity they did.
And I know it's tough to sustain,
but I'd like to see them play at that same intensity
that they did in the second half throughout the entire season.
Keep it up. Play hard.
I mean, that's what I think was frustrating
because it almost just felt like the –
I know they're trying hard, but sometimes it just didn't feel like the effort
was always there, or it just felt like they were just kind of coasting
in times and games, and that's where they were getting blown out,
which was incredibly frustrating to watch.
But I absolutely agree.
I think for you to have an A-plus season or an A season,
Iowa has to make the Elite Eight.
I think that's 100% fair.
For me, I would like to see them at least make the Sweet 16.
That, I think, would be a huge monkey off their back. I don't disagree. The fact that
they got a taste of it this year is huge. The fact they finally got the NCAA tournament,
they got some monkeys off their back, they won some road games, right? They finally made the
tournament. They did a few good things. They beat some solid teams. They won that first game,
the NCAA tournament, and they showed they could play against Tennessee if they played their game.
I think you're right. That is huge if they can come in with that same mindset. I think
that's why I feel like Cook may return. I think that would be a kind of an unfinished business
type of thing. We got closer, but we're not all the way there, and we have more room to grow.
As far as one last thing I wanted to cover, and this is kind of an interesting question.
I think it's been a hot topic in Iowa basketball history and especially the
last couple of years.
And I've seen some reports.
I don't know if you read the athletic,
but Scott Dutterman does a great job.
And he talked a little bit about the history of, you know,
Tom Davis and the firing or basically the letting letting go of tom davis what are your
thoughts on fran mcafree do you think next season is a hot seat season for fran i think a lot of a
lot of folks were pretty pissed off from this year upset over the last two years um i want to get
your thoughts and i'll give my thoughts and then we'll close out the show. Okay. Yeah. So I, I have notes on this.
Absolutely.
You knew this was coming.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's,
it is interesting.
I have gone so back and forth in this season,
particularly.
And then when it,
it was rumored that,
you know, the whole Gary Dol dolphin suspension and it it just seemed like
it could be personal between him and fran that didn't help fran's case but after you know like
calmed down and really thought about it and it's like you know it all seems to be true but it might
not be and it probably doesn't matter i mean i adore I adore Gary Dolphin very much, but he is just the radio guy.
And without the coach and the team, there's nothing for Gary to call.
And he'll always have – Kirk Ferentz will always have his back,
so Gary's not going anywhere.
But, you know, with Fran, there is things that I really like about Fran.
I think he is a program builder.
I really love the type of I think he is a program builder. I really love the type of
athletes that he's bringing in. I love that, you know, I feel like the Iowa basketball players he
is bringing in compared to past years are way more athletic. They're taller, they play at a quicker
pace. They're not afraid to shoot. I love all that. I know we are missing some type of recruits like the point guards from Pittsburgh, as was
mentioned, but I think he has brought Iowa
recruiting to a much better level and
just a much better reputation around the nation
for what the program brings. I do like his culture,
even though he gets a little hot-headed sometimes
and he called a ref a bleep and bleep or whatever.
You don't hear any of his players
ever say anything bad about Fran.
They have nothing good.
They love playing for her.
They have nothing good to say about Fran.
Nothing bad?
Nothing bad to say about Fran.
All good things.
Nothing good is not good.
Yeah, all good things about fran
and i think yeah after his son patrick who's not playing with them went through um the cancer thing
i think he has really changed his outlook and the team has felt it and the players he brings in it
has felt it and just the unique community that the university brings with their cancer research and cancer hospitals.
So I think there's a lot of good things about Fran.
And then, of course, I just want to see what Patrick can do.
And if you fight a Fran, Patrick goes with him.
So let's see what that brings.
And the other reason why he's not going anywhere is that contract.
It's a little bit bulletproof.
It's too soon for Iowa to act on that contract right now.
The one complaint about Fran is his in-game coaching.
I know he does a lot of things that are unique that I enjoy.
He doesn't mind if players kind of shoot whenever they want. I enjoy that. If someone's hot, let them shoot it. Let them figure
it out. I like that he plays
multiple types of defenses. I think that's something good
to mix it up. It's just this particular team isn't
good, isn't good,
isn't great at any of them that he tries to pick out.
But I kind of would like to see him use some timeouts more. I know he doesn't like doing that. He likes saving his timeouts
for the game. He likes players working through him. I'd like to see him cut
down on his rotations, just play only eight guys.
But if he wants to play 13, then he better put a press on the entire game
and wear the other team out because he has 13 bodies that throw at you.
But it reminds me of another Hawkeye coach that we used to complain about
not being able to adjust or adapt.
And then he finally, after 15 years, adjusted and adapted,
and he got a nice nickname called Newkirk.
So maybe if we stick with Fran long enough,
he will change his opinion on a few things
and become a little bit better of an in-game coach.
And those are my thoughts on Fran.
I think we're stuck with him. We're stuck with him.
His players love him, so we should give him the benefit of the doubt.
Yeah, that was a hell of an answer, man.
I want to second what you're saying.
Personally, just to pick out a few things, I love the passion he shows.
I love the fact that his players go to bat for him.
They love the kind of coach he is.
I think as well, I think he's done a great job of,
I do like the fact that he runs multiple sets on defense.
As we saw in the Jared Uthoff years,
when you have players who are defensively abled,
that defense can work very well.
But when you have a not to pick on Jordan Bohannon,
guys like Jordan Bohannon and Tyler Cook,
they're not as defensive minded
and they're not as strong defensively.
Bohannon, I think, is a little bit of lack of athleticism in size.
Cook is a little bit of, I'm not going to go there.
I just think that sometimes he can be a little bit lazy defensively.
He's athletic enough to do that.
He just doesn't put as much effort, I feel like, into that piece of it.
But when you have guys like that, it's going to be tough to run those defenses.
But I do think that the defensive scheme can work with the right players.
Some of the guys he's bringing in, Joe Toussaint is supposed to be a pretty solid perimeter defender.
Patrick McCaffrey is an athletic freak for 6'8", Barry Jared Uthoff-esque, in my opinion.
I mean, it's easy to look at a skinny, tall guy who played in eastern Iowa and think that.
But I truly do think that's a similar
type of player you mean you mean like jared utah yeah weird right tall skinny guy from eastern
iowa yeah so i mean it just kind of makes it makes too much sense so i i don't disagree with
you i think if the team underperforms at a point next year we're going to be hearing people yelling
louder and louder and i think it's unfortunate the i Iowa fan base can be very impatient. And I don't disagree. I
understand it's tough when you see these teams like Iowa State reload after a terrible couple
of years with Fred Hoiberg. They reloaded Fred Hoiberg, a bunch of transfers, and they all of
a sudden are back on the national radar. It tough to see i would not necessarily do all those things but i
was doing it the right way and i can always respect that just like they do with you know
with kirk so that's kind of my thoughts on that ryan any other last thoughts you have on this
basketball team before we close out the show man it was it honestly was a fun season it was a fun season. It was wildly unexpected.
It caused a lot of chatter, you know, at home with the family, at work, on Twitter.
People had opinions.
People wanted to share what they saw from the night before.
Because you never knew what you were going to see.
You were, at times, amazed, impressed.
Like, wow, this team is really cool.
We haven't seen something like that
and the other times you're like what the heck like that was absolutely embarrassing borderline
unacceptable like what are these guys doing is it like over it was just wild and that's you know
bad for the head bad for the heart but also you the head, bad for the heart,
but also, you know, kind of good for the heart at the same time.
It was a fun season, man.
I mean, I think about I was literally sitting in my living room watching Iowa vs. Rutgers and seeing Joe Weiskamp hit that three.
I started screaming and running around my living room.
That's excitement you can't really match in a season typically.
You don't get stuff like that, and we got it multiple times.
Yeah, so we were out in downtown Iowa City at the Chop House eating.
And, you know, we're kind of watching the TV.
I was kind of looking around.
And it's like, oh, this is tight.
Like, come on.
Like, you know, we made plans not knowing that we had a game.
And then, you know, it's like, oh, it's the Rutgers game.
It's okay.
And then you're not sure who else in the restaurants watching either.
But then when we skip hits that shot, the whole restaurant goes nuts.
Like, Oh yeah, everybody, the whole restaurant.
I love it. Well, Ryan, I really appreciate you jumping on the show, man.
We'll have to have you back. The Twitter followers out there.
If you do like great content and unbiased opinions and lots of those opinions and you want to follow Ryan, I believe it's Ryan underscore O underscore might.
That's R-Y-N-E underscore O underscore M-I-T.
Is that correct?
Yeah, honestly, I have no idea what my Twitter handle is.
You never type it, but that sounds right.
All right.
Well, he'll be tagged in our Twitter handle when we post this show in the morning.
We're recording this Tuesday evening for our Wednesday morning podcast show.
Thank you again for tuning in on another episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast.
Make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify,
wherever you get that at.
And, again, follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa.
Follow Ryan on Twitter at Ryan underscore O underscore might.
And you can follow me, Andrew Wade, at – wow, Wade underscore Andrew,
I think now?
Man, you got me all confused.
So make sure to follow us all on Twitter if you want awesome Hawkeye opinions.
We'll be back tomorrow with another fantastic episode.
We have the Iowa State runner-up at pound weight for three, a 2008, a lot of words
there, but basically a really good wrestler from the state of Iowa. He's going to be joining us to
talk about Iowa wrestling. We also have a Hawkeye recruit, one of the highly touted recruits in the
class of 2020 coming on the show next week as well. So make sure you're tuning into that. We're
gonna have some great content coming your way. And again, thank you for joining us on the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.
Have a fantastic day.
Hawkeye.
And we'll be back tomorrow. Outro Music