Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - O-line loses two major pieces in two days | Where do Hawkeyes project in the upcoming draft | Men's basketball gets an important win over Rutgers

Episode Date: February 11, 2021

The Iowa offensive line loses a starting tackle and their coach in back to back days. We analyze who could step in to replace the missing cog in the offensive line at tackle before diving into Matt Miller's most recent mock draft and where he has three Iowa Hawkeyes projected. We wrap up with a review of Iowa's statement win over Rutgers.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Thursday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and today's episode is brought to you by RockAuto.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. And on today's show, we're going to get to the review of the Iowa Rutgers game.

I am pre-recording these first two segments, so clearly I don't have an opinion on how that game went yet, because I do have some plans after the game, so I'm not going to get a chance to record until a little bit later, but I am going to give you my reactions to that game on segment number three. Coming up, though, on segment number one, we are going to be talking about the departure of Mark Kallenberger. The Iowa Hawkeye offensive line got a big blow when Mark Kallenberger decided to retire

from football and is not returning for his senior season. On segment number two, we're going to break down Matt Miller's first seven-round mock draft since he left Bleacher Report. We're going to talk about the Hawkeyes that were there. There's a few, I would say, surprises, mostly surprising omissions, really. So we're going to get to all that on segment number two as well. If you like the show, though, please make sure to give us that five-star review. Let us know what you think about it.

Let us know what you love. Let us know what you want us to change or fix. All that good stuff we want to know. And as always, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And I just got to tell you all, if you don't follow me on Twitter, you didn't know, but I did just get into the University of Iowa MBA program, so I'm excited to be a Hawkeye officially. I'm from the great state of Iowa. I went to Drake instead of Iowa MBA program, so I'm excited to be a Hawkeye officially. I'm from the great state of Iowa.

I went to Drake instead of Iowa, but now I'm going to be officially a Hawkeye. So y'all might be seeing me around Iowa City a lot more next year, obviously for a lot more football games and all that stuff, which is going to be fantastic. Really, really excited to be joining the University of Iowa as a MBA candidate. So that being said, enough about me. Let's get into the show today. And like I said, we're going to be talking about the offensive line because Mark Kallenberger has officially retired.

We also saw Tim Polasek officially accept that offer. He's going to be the offensive coordinator for the University of Wyoming. Again, I don't feel like that's a huge upgrade for him. I'm not sure why he wants to go be the offensive coordinator of Wyoming. However, I don't think that's a huge downgrade for Iowa at the offensive line position. Iowa should have offensive line coaches lining up to be able to learn from Kirk Ferentz and Brian Ferentz. And obviously Kirk, his background is the offensive line. So I have no doubts in my mind the offensive line is going to continue chugging along like it always has.

Tim Polasek was just a cog in the machine. I wish he would have stayed, but good for him. Wish him the best at University of Wyoming. However, the Iowa offensive line was dealt a big blow when Mark Kallenberger decided to surprisingly retire. Mark Kallenberger was projected to be the starting right tackle, if not the starting left tackle, this upcoming season. Nine starts for Mark Kallenberger, four at right tackle this past season. And honestly, I thought he played pretty well. Coming into this season, we thought that it was going to be Coy Cronk. We thought Coy Cronk was going to be getting a lot of playing time

and performing admirably in replacement of Tristan Wirfs. He did not. He struggled. He clearly wasn't super healthy after his big ankle injury last year, a couple of years ago. So Mark Kallenberger stepped in the former four-star recruit, six foot six, 250 pound top 400 player out of Bettendorf, Iowa. We thought Mark Kallenberger was going to be the future offensive line for the Hawks. He unfortunately is not going to be anymore. And again, this is a big time recruit that Iowa got stole from the state, you know, stole right to be anymore. And again, this is a big-time recruit that Iowa got. Stole right out of the state of Iowa.

Not stole. They got him out of the state of Iowa, obviously, with those connections and whatnot, the family connections. It made a lot of sense. But again, a four-star recruit. Compository rankings were 330th in the nation. 24-7 sports had him at 242nd in the nation. So a big-time talent. Didn't get as much playing time early on, but was clearly in line to start next year, especially after performing, like I said,

pretty darn well right tackle this season. That leaves two holes for the Iowa Hawkeyes at the offensive tackle position. Larrick Jackson on the left, Mark Kallenberger on the right. They are both gone. And what that means is there could be some learning curves for the Iowa Hawkeye offensive line early in the season. Spencer Petras is going to need to be able to get the ball out quickly because there are going to be some young guys stepping in. There's a small group of guys I could see taking over that specific spot. Right now on the depth chart, it's Nick DeJong and Jack Plum. And Nick is a former walk-on, saw some action as a true freshman,

got several games of playing time this past year. Coming out of high school, had several FCS school offers, but chose to walk on to Iowa. Another great candidate for the Iowa Hawkeyes, obviously showing what walk-ons can do. We typically don't see as many walk-ons at that tackle spot, though, which I always find to be a little bit interesting. But nevertheless, clearly the coaching staff does like what they see in Nick. Jack Plum is the other guy. He started at

right tackle for two games this season, saw action in six games. And I'll be interested to see what he can do with another year of development. But I'll be completely honest here. I was not impressed by Jack Plum and his performance this past season. He was undoubtedly the biggest weak spot for the Hawks in the games he started. He was the lowest graded offensive lineman according to PFF. And it wasn't just us seeing that, right? It wasn't just PFF saying that. It's what I physically saw. He just wasn't that good at playing that tackle spot.

Now granted, he came in as a tight end, a 6'8", 240-pound tight end. He clearly is athletic, but there needs to be more development there. He wasn't able to contain edge rushers, and that is a big concern to me. So personally, I think this is an opportunity where we might see some very young guys get some opportunities quite early on, and the Iowa Hawkeyes have done a phenomenal job at recruiting the offensive line position. I'm going to talk to you about literally four four-star recruits Iowa has, four four-star recruits Iowa has that had the opportunity to get some playing time this year. Tyler Endres, David Davidoff, Tyler Ellsbury, and Connor Colby. Connor Colby and David Davidoff, both true freshmen. Connor is a top 225 player.

As a true freshman, 6'5", 305 pounds. David Davidoff, a top 150 player, 6'6", 295 pounds. This guy is built like a brick house, man. I mean, he is ready to go. He's going to be an interesting candidate to watch to see if he can get playing time early on. We saw this happen a couple years ago. Alaric Jackson getting action as a redshirt freshman. Tristan Wirfs getting action as a true freshman.

So that is not something that's unlikely. Sorry, it's not something that's unheard of, I would say. It is something that is relatively new for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Not typically going to be relying on true freshmen to play key moments for that staff. Typically, they are a developmental program. That's just what they do. However, as we saw with Tristan Wirfs, that turned out pretty well. He didn't start initially, then eventually started all the rest of his games, basically, for the next three years and led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Super Bowl, or at least helped Tom Brady lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Super Bowl, or at least helped Tom Brady lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Super Bowl, allowing just one sack last year. So there is a precedent,

although it's not exactly likely. Keep an eye out for David Davikoff or even Connor Colby, both true freshmen. It'll be interesting to see how the development happens. Tyler Endres and Tyler Ellsbury, though, are also two guys to watch out for. Both came in in the exact same class. Both are big-time guys, four-star recruits, and what I think is interesting is Tyler Enders came in with a little bit more hype, in my personal opinion, being a big-time guy. I'm going to look up his rankings right now, but he hasn't played at all. He has not gotten a single ounce of playing time after being a top 400 recruit out of Norwalk, Iowa. So is that a factor in his

development? Is he just not progressing as quickly as we would or Iowa would like to have seen? Is this a Mark Kallenberger situation, a four-star recruit who isn't ready to go right away? That could very well be the case, but when you have a four-star tackle recruit, you expect to have a little bit more production kind of early on, and that might be an opportunity for him to take that over. So I think the big thing to know here is we're not sure who's going to be starting at tackle. It is going to be a wide-open battle. We do not have any starters locked in at this point, and there's a very good chance we're seeing a very young player

take snaps at that tackle position and potentially lock it down for the next two to three years. Again, it paid off with Tyler Linderbaum, it paid off with Tristan Wirfs, and it paid off with the Laird Jackson. Can the Iowa Hawkeyes do it again? That's the answer we're all going to be wanting to find out coming into this upcoming season at that tackle spot. Obviously going to be a lot of tension on who is going to be protecting Spencer Petras. That'll be something we continue to watch. Coming up though on segment number two, we're going to get into some NFL draft talk. Matt Miller is starting a new website that launches actually today,

and he released a seven-round mock draft. We're going to get into that, though, and what that mock draft looks like and where some Iowa Hawkeyes were slated. That is all coming up on segment number two. Before we get into that, though, I got to tell you a little bit more about our title sponsor today, and that is rockauto.com, but I'm going to start with a story. I went to the auto dealership to get some repairs done on my car. They said I also needed to replace my cabin air filter and my engine air filter and it was going to cost a couple hundred bucks. I said I can probably do this myself. So I go to the brick and mortar store. They tell me it's going to cost me $70 for those two parts. I decided to go to rockauto.com. I used their unique and remarkably

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February is Black History Month and the Locked On Podcast Network is honoring the challenges and success of black men and women in sports with a new series called Locked On Presents More Than the Game. Don't miss this week's episode featuring Candace Cooper of Locked On Tar Heels and Eric Ayala of Locked On Women's Basketball discussing the opportunities and challenges that come with being a black woman in sports. There is a new episode coming next week, so go ahead and subscribe to the Locked On Presents podcast feed on the radio.com app or wherever you get your podcast at.

Now, let's turn our attention to the NFL draft. Matt Miller, again, we had him on the show a couple weeks ago. He did a phenomenal job breaking down Iowa Hawkeyes. That is his job, though. We expected that. Now, he is launching a new venture. He left Bleacher Report. He is launching TheDraftScout.com, and it is going to

be hyped. He launched it today. He's been kind of teasing it. He's been getting it ready. He has a Discord of all of his subscribers. If you like NFL Draft Talk, and if you haven't heard of Matt Miller, I highly recommend you check him out. He's a phenomenal, phenomenal scout. He does a great job writing. I really like his insight. Just to be clear, I like to do my own mock drafts every year, but I use a lot of the information that I get from Matt Miller to kind of break up those mock drafts, and I have done a great job of picking those mock drafts over the last couple of years since listening to Matt Miller.

You can also find him on Two Guys, A Girl, and a podcast breaking down draft information with Mello, his brother, and Paige Kuhn from the Bleacher Report. Now, that being said, he launched a seven-round mock draft, and there were only three Iowa Hawkeyes in that mock draft. And honestly, you might be a little surprised. I'm not super surprised. I thought Chauncey Golston would have made it into that six- to seventh-round conversation.

Now, that being said, I also have talked about the draft before. I've seen, I don't want to say uneducated writers. I want to say people who are maybe not as involved in the draft process, listening to the talk about the NFL draft and seeing how certain players are evaluated. I saw some people put Chauncey Golsan as a early, they said if he has a good senior bowl performance, he can move himself into that early day two conversation. That's complete garbage in my personal opinion.

But what I thought was interesting was the fact that Chauncey Golsan isn't even on Matt Miller's seven-round mock draft despite having a good senior bowl. Now, Laird Jackson, on the other hand, opted out of the senior bowl itself, did not have a great week of practice, and finds himself slotted into the seventh round for the Washington football team, pick to 11 at this point. Now, granted, trades have not happened. He's not factoring in trades, and we don't have compensatory picks figured out yet, so a lot can change.

There's going to be more picks added to the slate. Maybe we see Chauncey Golsan in that next seven-round mock draft. But right now, Larrick Jackson, the final pick from the University of Iowa at pick to 11 for the Washington football team. Now, let's get to the big stuff. Davian Nixon, I've seen this projected quite a few times actually. I've seen the Raiders projected more often than any other team to pick up Davian Nixon. And here's what Matt Miller had to say with the Las Vegas Raiders selecting at pick number 17. He said the middle of the defense continues to be a massive issue for the Las Vegas Raiders.

So much so that multiple picks to address the infield could be in play. With the first pick in the draft, the Raiders take the first defensive tackle off the board with Iowa's super athletic Davian Nixon. And as Matt Miller talked about when he came on our show, the things that stand out to him about Davian Nixon is his first-step quickness. As he mentioned, one of the things he likes to do is pause the tape and start it. Just move it in half a second into the snap to see who was the first person off the ball every single time, and it was Davian Nixon.

Every. Single. Time. He loved to see that. He also was very impressed with what Davian Nixon could do from a run-stuffing perspective as well. Pairing that on the Las Vegas Raiders defensive line could be a dynamic duo with him and Max Crosby. And as we saw with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, if you can get pressure on the quarterback, that is an opportunity that gives you more opportunities to win games. And that's what they did against Patrick Mahomes. Granted against two backup tackles, but nevertheless, having a Davian Nixon, a guy who can rush the

passer and defend the run, would be a huge benefit for the Las Vegas Raiders. That was pick number 17. Now, when we also talked to Matt on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, he also mentioned that he had a round three grade on Amir Smith-Marset. He also said that he had to do a little bit more digging, had to find a little bit more information out about Amir Smith-Marset. Obviously, there's some off the field type of issues that he wanted to dive into more, get some more information from NFL scouts.

But I think what's really important to note here is that a lot of his analysis is also based off what he's hearing. So when he does these mock drafts, he's doing it based off what he's hearing. More so in the first round, but still, when you get down to these bottom rounds, you're listening to what scouts are saying. And clearly, he thinks very highly of what Amir Smith-Marset can do. And I'm starting to see a lot more of the NFL draft community, the draft Twitter community, come out and talk very highly of Amir Smith-Marset.

He has Amir Smith-Marset, despite having a round three grade, has him going in the fourth round to the Cleveland Browns, which could use a burner like Amir Smith-Marset to go on that outside. Again, he has a round three grade. The wide receiver group is very deep, so guys like Amir Smith-Marset are likely going to be pushed down. I think running a fast 40 time is going to be huge for Smith-Marset. If he can run a sub 4-4, that is going to be phenomenal for his draft stock as well.

A guy who has shown he has the speed on tape, if he can match that up with the speed being timed, that will be a big benefit to Amir Smith-Marset. So those are the three Hawkeyes that landed in Matt Miller's inaugural seven-round mock draft on TheDraftScout.com. I highly recommend you go support him. Go check it out. And we'll be back, though, on segment number three, breaking down the Iowa versus Rutgers game. I hope you enjoyed this draft talk. There is going to be so much more of this coming up in the coming months, as I do love the NFL draft. I'm very involved in listening to what is going on, so I like to give that kind of draft talk. And obviously there's going to be a lot more changing,

especially as we get into the combine pro days, however that's going to look. We're going to have more information for you as well, so we'll be dropping all that right here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Again, coming up on segment number three, we're going to be talking about the Iowa versus Rutgers game. And as you can kind of tell, I have no idea what happened yet because I haven't actually seen the game.

I'm recording 10 minutes before the game. I'm going to go downstairs and watch it, and then I'll record that segment number three after this. You're going to get that in just a few short seconds. Before we get to that, though, if you want to win some money, put some money in your pocket, you've got to go to BetOnline.ag. BetOnline.ag is the fastest and easiest way to bet on all of your sports action. Football might be over, but the NBA, college basketball, and the NHL are in full swing. BetOnline.ag even covers awards, TV shows, and reality TV.

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All right, y'all, and if you get done listening to this and you want more conversation about the Big Ten and potentially the Iowa Hawkeyes, I highly recommend you go check out Big Ten Ben Stevens hosting the Locked On Big Ten podcast. Big Ten Ben crushes it every single day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. and boy, doesn't it feel good to have an Iowa win? It feels like it has just been forever. I know it's only been two games, but it feels like it has been forever since Iowa has gotten the W last night, taking down a No. 25 ranked Rutgers squad, 79-66.

And it was quite an interesting game. It started off pretty sluggish. Iowa couldn't shoot the ball, neither could Rutgers. I mean, the score is 35-25 at halftime. Iowa was shooting just 31%. So Rutgers did a phenomenal job of holding Iowa to basically not a very good offensive performance in that first half. But Iowa came back strong in that second half. It also helped that one of Rutgers' biggest playmakers, Miles Johnson, was out for most of the game.

He only played 12 minutes after getting two fouls early on in that first half. So big time for Iowa to have Miles Johnson out. I thought defensively, Iowa played a much better game as well. Rutgers isn't going to be a top-tier offensive type of team. But what I saw from Iowa was very indicative of what I would like to see from them going forward. And it feels like C.J. Frederick had a big impact on that. C.J. Frederick playing in 17 minutes of action. He didn't make any shots, but he had two rebounds and three assists.

And again, that defensive communication can be huge. Having him on the floor, having that consistency, being one of the best on-ball defenders. But Iowa did a great job of holding Rutgers pretty much to nothing, only allowing 21% from three, which has been really the key issue for Iowa's defense these last couple games. We talked about it on the show on Tuesday. That has been a big issue. Iowa did a phenomenal job of closing out.

And again, Rutgers has some athletic guards. They have some guys who can shoot the three ball well. And Iowa did a great job of holding them mostly in check in this game. Geo Baker, 1 of 6 from 3. McConnell, 1 of 7 from 3. I mean, that's huge when Iowa can hold those guys to bad scoring performances. And again, a lot of that goes back to the perimeter defense. How much of an impact was that having C.J. Frederick?

Clearly, based off how Iowa's been doing, it looks like it was a big impact. Now, again, C.J. Frederick's still trying to get to 100% healthy, but after the game, it did sound like he feels like he's in a good spot. He should be playing against Michigan State. Hopefully, we're over this. Hopefully, we can continue to get some decent minutes out of C.J. Frederick. I don't expect him to be playing 30 minutes anytime soon, but just getting 15 to 17 minutes out of him like they did against Rutgers can be very beneficial down the stretch. Also, Connor

McCaffrey getting injured early in the second half, only played 13 minutes. Because of that, though, we saw a lot of Keegan Murray, a lot of Patrick McCaffrey. Keegan Murray playing 27 minutes, finishing with a plus minus of 16. Patrick McCaffrey playing 14 minutes and finishing with a plus minus of 17. Again, those two guys on the court do a great job of playing together. It feels like they're just incredibly comfortable with each other. Keegan Murray finishing with 10 points on three of six shooting, six rebounds and one assist, one block and one steal. Patrick McCaffrey doing it all as well. Five points, one rebound, three assists, one block and two steals. Interesting enough, Luka Garza did get to 22 points,

but definitely struggled a lot in the first half, turned it on a little bit more in the second half, but finished with 8 of 20 shooting, 22 points, and 10 rebounds with 2 blocks and 1 steal. There was one play that I thought was particularly impressive with Luka Garza. I can't remember who it was. He drove into the lane, and Luka Garza jumped up to potentially block a shot, and he tried throwing it beneath him to go to Miles Johnson or whoever the center was at that time for Rutgers.

Luka Garza was able to get back on his feet and get the ball, creating a turnover for the Iowa Hawkeyes, which I thought was a really impressive defensive play by Luka Garza. There's been a lot of, you know, the last couple years it's always been, how can Luka Garza do There's been a lot of, you know, the last couple years, it's always been how can Luka Garza, you know, do a better job defending defensively, and I really thought he's done a great job this year for the most part being consistent, being a guy who, you know, redirects shots, as has Jack Nunji.

Jack Nunji not getting a lot of playing time as we would expect, 11 minutes, 4 points, 5 rebounds. A lot of that has to go to the fact that Rutgers really couldn't play a lot of their key guys or a lot of their key big men, either Miles Johnson, again, being out 12 minutes. They also play four guards, so definitely a more smaller ball lineup, which is, again, why Keegan Murray got more time in that game. Going on to a couple other themes as well, I know there were some concerns about,

I saw some concerns on Twitter about Jordan Bohannon and his ball handling. Here's what I have to say about that. Jordan Bohannon is not the ball handler of a Joe Toussaint, in my opinion. He's not the guy who's going to break you down off the dribble. And yeah, I've had a, I would say a love-hate relationship with Jordan Bohannon. I think he's a phenomenal player. I'm going to miss him when he leaves. You've got to take the good and the bad, though.

And Jordan Bohannon is not going to be a guy who, again, breaks guys down off the dribble, but his passing awareness is underrated. And a lot of time in this game against Rutgers, there just weren't a lot of open guys. There weren't a lot of open looks that Jordan Bohannon could get the ball to guys. So yeah, he's not the most athletic guy on the court.

He's not going to be the guy who's going to drive to the basket and get ridiculous shots. He's not going to be the guy who's going to drive to the basket and get ridiculous shots. He's not going to be Joe T in that sense. But what Jordan Bohannon brings to the game when he's on, he is a, he's an X factor. I mean, some of his, his shooting abilities is just, it's out of this world. Um, and even in this game, you know, I would say relatively quiet for Jordan Bohannon. He still shot 60% from three, scored 12 points, also dished out seven assists and had a plus minus of 11. That's huge. I know he had four turnovers. Again, not ideal, but I don't think that was as much Jordan Bohannon as it was.

Rutgers plays a very physical style of defense. They have very athletic guards. They get up in your face. And Iowa wasn't able to create as much early on, which to me kind of led to some of those issues with Jordan Bohannon. So that's kind of my thoughts on that one, at least for Jordan Bohannon. I am concerned about the lack of minutes getting played by Joe Toussaint.

Now, I love seeing Tony Perkins in there. I think he has really stepped up quite a bit, but what is happening with Joe Toussaint? Seems like he might be a little bit in a funk, and obviously I've talked about this before, but there's a lot of guards, and there's a lot of point guards specifically. And I think Joe Toussaint is a guy who needs to have the ball in his hands to be effective. He's not a three-point shooter. So he really needs the ball in his hands to be effective from a guard perspective. And that can be a bit difficult when you already have a Jordan Bohannon and a Connor McCaffrey or even a Joe Wieskamp who can bring the ball up and speaking of Joe Wieskamp what a performance by Joe Wieskamp

he has really turned it on these last couple games realizing he needs to be the guy he needs to be a playmaker for Iowa to win these games and we're starting to see an evolution of Joe we've known Joe is incredibly talented right there's no doubt about, that Joe Wieskamp is the second best player on this Iowa Hawkeye squad, right? It's clearly Luka Garza. Then it goes Joe Wieskamp right behind him. Joe Wieskamp finishing with 26 points, 10 rebounds on 9 of 14 shooting, 5 of 7 from behind the arc, and 1 steal. Again, Joe Wieskamp has been absolutely phenomenal these last couple weeks, trying to will the Iowa Hawkeyes to anything he can. In these last five games, I know three of them have been losses, but 26 points,

18 points, 17 points, only five in the win over Michigan State, and 19 points versus Illinois. Shooting the ball really well against Illinois, 71% from three. Indiana, 42% from three. OSU, 50% from three. And again, Rutgers, 71% from three. Finishing with double-digit rebounds in two of those games as well. Having a steal in almost all those games. I mean, Joe Wieskamp has just really turned it on, and it's phenomenal to see him continue his development and his evolution.

That's going to be incredibly important as we get into this stretch game because we've seen it where there's been guys who have gone hot and cold, but if Joe Weeks can't keep us in until these guys get going like he did against Rutgers in the first half, Iowa's going to be a tough team to beat. So that's one of the big things I took away from this. And again, this is a huge win. This is a Q1 win for Iowa. This is a win that gets them relatively back on track, you would hope. It seems like they figured a few things out. Again, offensively in that first half, not exactly where you'd like Iowa to be. But second half-wise, Iowa came out and they were humming. And that's why they finished with 79 points. And they did a great job holding a Rutgers team that has been hot the last couple

weeks. Geo Baker came into this game on fire. He finishes with just 11 points and 5 of 12 rebounds, or 5 of 12 shooting with 1 of 6 from 3. That's huge to see. Geo Baker has been a huge part of this revitalization for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights who have been on a four-game winning streak. So it's great to see Iowa get back on the winning track. They get Michigan State up next, which should be a win. But again, anytime you go to East Lansing, you always got to deal with some of those

Tom Izzo-type calls, right? He gets some calls in his favor, so it'll be interesting to see how Iowa can handle Michigan State. And then they get the Wisconsin Badgers after that. Wisconsin not playing the prettiest basketball will be a pretty ugly game when they play Iowa, but again, an opportunity for Iowa to get back on the winning track and really get the rest of Hawkeye Nation off their back. And that leads me to my last point. This is less about the basketball game and more about a specific podcast in general that I do listen to and I find to be incredible.

And that is The Standpoint, The Standpoint hosted by Zach Cohen and Jordan Bohannon. If you aren't listening to that, I highly recommend you check that out as well. I feel like they give a fantastic perspective from the players on this team. It's easy to forget these are young adults that are playing a sport they love and what they see from the inside. They had Patrick McCaffrey on a couple days ago, and he did a great job of speaking to Fred McCaffrey, speaking to what they're seeing. I think it provided a lot of perspective about how they're looking at this team.

They're not down in the dumps. They're not saying our season's over. Yes, we probably aren't winning a Big Ten title, which is a big issue. I wanted to win a Big Ten title. But they're looking at this as we still have all the goals in front of us. We have everything we want to accomplish still in front of us. And it's still there for the taking. And we were one, two plays away from winning each of these games.

They're right in there and they feel like they have the ability to win these games going forward. They just need to get back on the right track. So I highly recommend after you listen to the show, check out The Standpoint along with Locked On Big Ten and any other Locked On podcast. I know The Standpoint is not a Locked On podcast, but definitely got to check them out as well.

I want to give credit to where credit is due. Again, thank you all for tuning in to today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Stay tuned because we have a bonus episode dropping as well later today. It is not a Hawkeye-focused episode. It is one of our newest episodes, newest shows on the Locked On Podcast Network called Locked On Now. We've talked a lot about it on the show during some of our breaks, so I want to make sure you get a chance to listen to that. It's a phenomenal show that we are producing every single day, giving you the latest breaking news around the sports world.

Check that out as a bonus episode later today on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and let's go Hawks.