Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - PORTAL PRIORITIES: Iowa Hawkeyes MUST Strengthen Defensive Line & FIND Veteran QB?—Transfer Window TALK & CyHawk Hoops

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sighawk week continues as we're joined by Todd Bromelcamp. The Iowa women fall at Iowa State. The men with their opportunity to pull off the upset at Hilton, plus a look. Transfer Portal needs. What are the Hawkeyes need to do in football? You are Locked-on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon. He's Todd Bromelcamp, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We are your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes is brought to you by Fandul. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit Fandul.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. We have combined for decades of experience covering the Hawkeyes on the radio. You can hear me currently on the Iowa Sports Radio.

Starting point is 00:01:00 Radio Network. And glad to get Todd with us here on his weekly appearance. Todd, a lot of basketball to get into. We're going to talk some football as well. Good to see again. Yeah. We're officially shifting gears. I know there's still some big football news out there and the bowl game is set, but it's time to talk basketball. No doubt about it. We're going to get into recapping the women's loss as they came roaring back from down 17 down. A couple opportunities late in that one and a tough environment in Hilton. The men's side obviously goes tonight. We'll talk about that matchup against a cyclones, what I was going to have to do to pull off the upset. But I do want to begin today

Starting point is 00:01:34 with a look at football and the transfer portal opening here coming up in about three weeks. January 2nd is when that will officially open. You know, it's been interesting, you know, seeing people's opinions of what Iowa needs to do in the portal, what position groups makes a whole lot of sense for them. And, you know, it's always those conversations. I know everybody's got an opinion, right? And everybody has a thought on that one. Start at the top. When you look at this team, you look at what we anticipate the roster is going to be, not knowing guys that are going to be entering the portal. Is there a position group or two that say, yeah, that's a, that's a place that Kurt Ferenson Company needs to target? I think the natural place to go every

Starting point is 00:02:12 year is people are going to talk about going into the portal to get a quarterback. And I'm not necessarily concerned about quarterback going into the next season as much as I am on both the offensive and defensive lines. I think when you talk about portal purchases, I mean, acquisitions. You're usually looking at some of those big, you know, the sexier positions, the skill positions. I think they'd best be served to go out and look at the offensive line, the defensive line. And I'm sure there's somewhere where there's a speedy return man out there at some Mac school or something that maybe could fill the shoes of a Caden Weech. But that's where my mind immediately goes to when you talk about the portal and the Hawkeyes needs

Starting point is 00:02:59 for next year. You know, people are going to want to talk about quarterback. I don't think they necessarily need a quarterback, especially if Holinsky is as good as I think it certainly sounds as he's got some support there within the program. I'd go up front, both offensive and defensively, to begin. You know, the quarterback spot is going to be interesting because there's just one portal window open. And after Hecklinsky separated himself and took over the backup role after the performance we saw from Hank Brown, in the Indiana game, you wonder where Hank Brown's head is. And I think

Starting point is 00:03:33 we all anticipate that young Fitz is maybe going to follow his dad to Michigan State. That quarterback room is incredibly young and I don't know how confident if Hank Brown would make the decision to go into the portal. You're going to be going in with Jeremy Hecklinsky and then a whole bunch of really

Starting point is 00:03:49 young guys. Hecklinski is listed at 5 foot 11. If he's 5.11, well, I'm 6 foot and I think you know, Todd, that I'm not even close to that. He's not that big. He, although he can move around. We've seen the quarterback injuries that pile up. They want to use him as a runner.

Starting point is 00:04:03 I don't think you could go into it. So what I talk about quarterback, I think Hecklinsky is eventually going to be the guy. I know the guy's over 24-7, Elliott Clough. He had a report that he mentioned to me on the radio earlier in the week that Hank Brown's pride in practicing really well here in bull prep. And it's been just a couple of practices,

Starting point is 00:04:20 but he's starting to maybe light bulb coming on for him. Regardless of that, though, if Brown decides to leave, at minimum, I think he can, got to bring in a veteran guy, either to push Heklinsky or maybe secondarily, a guy that, at minimum, we have a guy that we feel comfortable in that backup role, even if Hicklinsky's going to be that starter. Yeah, I think the way to approach this is, you know, you might be getting a quarterback every year in the transfer portal, and it may not be your starter. It may be your backup quarterback, but you've got this percentage of money every year that you're going to allocate to

Starting point is 00:04:55 players in the portal. And if you go after a quarterback every year, you know, you're already taking a huge chunk of that money available to you. Brown's a really interesting case. He's kind of at a turning point right now in his career as far as you don't often see a lot of guys that come in as the number two and lose that position, stick around, and try to regain their footing with the program. I would love to see him. I don't think we've seen enough of him. to truly make a judgment. And maybe that's what bowl season becomes. I know we've sort of hemmed and hawed,

Starting point is 00:05:32 and people like Kirk Ferrence prefer to use it as a reward for the guys that got you there. But maybe bowl season devolves into a time where you can put your reserves out there, your backups. And if nothing more, maybe you can convince some of those guys to play in the bowl game so that they get more film for when they do go into the transfer portal. But I think with Holinsky, especially with Warren Ruggiero coming along from Wake Forest, I think there's a pretty good indication that he's a major part of the future plans.

Starting point is 00:06:05 And I think elevating him to the number two guy about halfway through the year sort of indicated that that's what Iowa was ready to move forward with. I'd love to see Brown stick around. But you're right. I mean, look a couple years ago when they had two or three injuries in that quarterback room, you can never have too many quarterbacks when you're a big tent. or a power for school. So address the needs there and maybe you're not getting a starter.

Starting point is 00:06:29 But I agree with you, Trent. Go out and get a capable guy. Maybe someone who is comfortable knowing that they're not coming in to be the starter, but they're coming into the to be the backup and they're going to get the first crack at the gig if the starter goes down to injury or underperforms. Really what Brendan Sullivan turned out to be, right?

Starting point is 00:06:47 I mean, that's kind of a perfect comp, I think, for what we're talking about, a guy that knew, I think, coming into the season, he wasn't going to likely unseat Cade McNamara. Now, of course, we heard that August, and maybe Sullivan should have been the guy over in a McNamara, but that's a conversation for a different day. Completely agree with you on defensive line.

Starting point is 00:07:04 As we did our grading of the team and what kind of position by position a week ago, Todd, defensive line overall, I thought was a bit of a disappointment, the lack of sacks, and you bring back three veterans, three guys that have played a ton of football, and they just didn't generate the pressure that I anticipated this year. You look at some of the numbers, and the linebackers are also part of that, but you go back to the Oregon game and the way they were just getting gashed in the run game.

Starting point is 00:07:26 They need, I think, that competent speed rusher, that guy off the edge. Now, those guys are also incredibly expensive. I mean, you're going to go out there and it's going to cost you some money. The one thing, though, that I go the other way with you is offensive line. I kind of like the pieces that they have coming back. You know, we heard it to the end. It was Dotsler and Lauk for that left tackle position. It was incredibly close.

Starting point is 00:07:47 Well, Lauk is now entrenched as a left tackle. What a season that he had out there on the left side. I don't think anybody could anticipate it. He played as high as the level he did. But if we think on the other side, right tackle will be Dotsler. Obviously, you got Peeper coming back. We saw a whole lot of some of those guys in the middle,

Starting point is 00:08:05 including the other Indiana kid that came in for both Stevens a couple of times. So, you know, we've seen a lot there. Ms. Linsky played a little bit this year, and he has another year of eligibility. The reason, though, that I push back is because I think they, yes, you would like to see some depth there. But we've seen Iowa go to the Porter for Offensive Line guys. We saw it this year.

Starting point is 00:08:21 George. During the summer out in Vegas, I asked Kirk about it. And he said, yeah, he's going to be competing for that spot. Didn't happen. Got hurt before the first game and warm-ups, which was weird, but it didn't quite happen. Go back to, was it Dejan Parker? We thought that that guy was going to be a starter. You know, they flipped him from Virginia. He comes in from Saginaw. That guy never played. We saw a little bit of Rusty Fest. So I don't think going in there and anticipating you're going to get a starter out of it is probably the right realm, maybe a depth piece, maybe that Rusty Feth type that can help you out, be a middle guy, somebody that can help you in the middle of it. But I don't see, and maybe it's just the

Starting point is 00:08:56 way that the Iowa system is, that it's easy to translate and coming certainly from a smaller level up to a big level, that you could do it in just one year's time. I'm glad you pulled Rusty Feth. That's the name that I was looking for, and I was spacing on. And at the moment they got him, I think, out of Miami and the Mid-American Conference. And yeah, it didn't turn out to be an all Big Ten guy, but somebody that was able to give them a little bit of a presence there and help that offensive line kind of grow into itself. Defensive line, I think you and I probably agree, is where if you were doing an exercise and you wanted to take the largest chunk of money and maybe allocate it to a,

Starting point is 00:09:37 I don't want to say a star caliber player, but a difference maker, a guy that you felt like was going to be a difference maker, I'd be hard pressed to look at a different position than somebody on the defensive line. Because like you said, this season with the talent that they had, it just felt like they were not getting enough pressure and not making as much of a difference as we've seen out of that defensive line in the past. One more, I wonder about kicker. Obviously, the departure of Drew Stevens, a part of that. They have the kid from Bettendorf that is there, but only to go into a season with one kicker seems a little bit. So they're going to be shopping. What kind of guy they get is a guy that's going to be a starter? We'll see on that front.

Starting point is 00:10:14 but I think that's another position, certainly that has to be on the list when you look through the special teams. Todd Bromel Camp, Trent Condon, here with you. Locked on Hawkeyes, we continue. We shift our attention over to basketball. Iowa gets Iowa State tonight in game two of the Sihawks series on the hardwood. Can they pull the upset? What's it going to take? We'll break it down as we continue.

Starting point is 00:10:36 This is Locked on Hawkeyes. the holidays are officially here which means gift hunting season is on and if you want something meaningful personal and guaranteed to get a reaction aura frames is the gift that delivers every time it's not just something you wrap it's a way to share memories because aura isn't your average picture frame you can preload the frame with photos before gifting it so when they plug it in the memories are already there to figure out, no setup headaches, just instant smiles. I've done something similar to this in the past with my parents.

Starting point is 00:11:14 This, though, is a game changer because trying to walk my mom into figuring out how to get those pictures uploaded, a little bit of a problem already set up for her. That is a perfect gift for that special somebody in your life. Endless uploads of pictures. And on top of it, not just pictures. How about this? 30-second videos through the ORA app that you can upload to your frame. It's a holiday gift that actually gets used, not forgetting forgotten in the drawer.

Starting point is 00:11:40 For a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visitingoraframes.com to get $35 off ora's best-selling Carver Matt Frames. Name number one, buy wirecutter by using promo code college at checkout. That's AuraFraFrames.com with the promo code college. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast. So order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. support the show by mentioning us at checkout terms and conditions apply. Trent Conant, Todd Bromel camp back with you on your daily Hawkeye podcast, Lockdown Hawkeyes. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:12:21 Shout out to our Everydayers. I'm going to talk a little bit later on about our Everydayers Club, except we just launched here on Lockdown. Before that, though, let's talk to basketball and let's start on the men's side of things. Iowa tonight, big underdog. 11 and a half the number over at Fandul. Hawkeyes getting the points in Hilton. And after what we saw from the Cyclones on Saturday against Purdue,

Starting point is 00:12:43 probably shouldn't be too big of a surprise that the Hawkeyes are a double-figure underdog. Not at all. And I'm not expecting as entertaining of a game tonight as we got last night with the women's game. And I know we'll touch on that coming up in just a bit. But you've got an undefeated Iowa state team and Iowa team that is going into an absolutely terrible place to play to net. And I mean that in the highest, highest complimentary. When you go into Hilton Coliseum and that place is rocking, it is tough to win on the road, especially in this series. So this is going to be a huge, huge test for them tonight.

Starting point is 00:13:19 They're going to have to do a lot of things right, just to, in my opinion, just to compete in this game. It is one of those games we go back to just over a week ago. They go out to, excuse me, East Lansing. It didn't go very well, obviously. Got off to a good start, but the wheels fell off. We talked about that last week. Does that environment, though, help just going through it for the first time, playing in a difficult environment?

Starting point is 00:13:42 We can argue, you know, is this going to be tougher than it was? Maybe it's a percentage tougher in Hilton than it is in East Brezlin, in the Brezlin Center in East Lansing. But regardless, they're both tough environments. You think that's going to help Iowa at all tonight? I think it may not help Iowa, but I think it might help Bennett Sturts, because Sturts really struggled in East,

Starting point is 00:14:01 East Lansing. And you can talk about pressure of first Big Ten game, first Big Ten road game, and it comes at Michigan State against a top 25, top 10 Michigan State team. I think it'll help Bennett starts to give him a better idea of truly that hostile environment that they're going to be going into tonight in Hilton Coliseum. Remember when we talked about this stretch, I think maybe two weeks ago, I was in that. You got to win one of the three. And they took care of business against Maryland. Now I sort of feel like you're playing with house money. Maybe you're, maybe it's the last chip. You're down to here. You know, you're running out of house money, but the hot guys have nothing to lose but a game tonight. Nobody, I don't know anybody that expects

Starting point is 00:14:45 them to win. Do you? No. So you go in and again, this is going to be a really strong test for them, especially defensively, because Iowa State can score, they can shoot the three. And the one way that I think Iowa can stay in this game tonight is to sort of drag them down, slow the pace down, and play lockdown defense, and maybe make this a rock fight, and they've got a chance here. But in order to do that, they're going to have to have a lot of things go right to make this the type of game that could set them up to win it. You look in 4336, like the Licklander era, the Michigan State way that they had.

Starting point is 00:15:26 I mean, probably not quite that bad, but I'm with you. It's going to have to be. Now, T.J. Ossaburger's Iowa State team playing faster than they have really the last two years. That tempo has increased a little bit more. They're not the methodical style that they were his first couple of seasons like we see from the Iowa side. Dictating tempo, I think, is going to be important in this one. The other part is we kind of look at the anatomy of an upset tonight. All right.

Starting point is 00:15:50 How does Iowa, we go into that final stretch, the final five minutes of the game, and I was at minimum hanging around. you've got to find some not just secondary scoring options. You've got the second, third, fourth options. It can't just be Bennett Sturts. It can't be where Sturts has 29. And then your second leading score has seven. There's got to be other guys.

Starting point is 00:16:08 We don't Cooper Cotch can shoot it from the outside. Really the one of the guys, though, Alverro Fulgaris, something hasn't been going well the last couple of weeks. Just has not been clicking. We know the upside certainly is there. I think Alverro is one of those guys you point to, though. They need some scoring punch and he needs to deliver. Yeah, and they're going to have to stay out of foul trouble tonight and maybe try to get Iowa State into a little foul trouble.

Starting point is 00:16:32 This is just, it's one of those, this is going to be a Herculean task for them. I go back, rewatched a little bit of the Michigan State game, and there were so many times in that game where they really looked like a Missouri Valley team going against a Big Ten team. And I don't mean that as a knock overall on them. A lot of these guys transferred with Ben McCollum from Drake. And I think that this is going to be another one of those games where you look and they don't look like they pass the eyeball test when you compare them to Jefferson and Monshelovich and some of the other guys that Iowa State's going to throw at you tonight. But it's not the size of the dog that's in the fight, right? It's the size of the heart that's in the dog. And they are, as you mentioned, double-digit dogs tonight.

Starting point is 00:17:16 And we're talking about point spreads in college basketball. When you're a double-digit underdog, you've got a big hill to climb. No doubt, going to be a difficult spot, difficult environment. And I don't think one way or the other, they get blown out that it's going to tell us a whole lot still about this team. No. We see in the Big Ten. I think Michigan almost is playing on their own tier of anybody in college basketball. I mean, the way the other night they just toyed with Villanova, blowing out Gonzaga, not just beating teams, but just pulverizing, decent teams and good teams, and the way that they're playing, Purdue, Michigan State.

Starting point is 00:17:49 I think there may be a tier of their own. And then after that, from the Illinois's to what we saw from Nebraska net last night, and their win against Wisconsin, that middle tier, UCLA, a bunch of teams. And I think I was in that mix. So I don't think this is like a measuring stick game. I don't think this is something where one way or the other. Even if they hang around that we say, all right, they're fixed. This is going to be a sweet 16 team.

Starting point is 00:18:11 You know, they lose 72.68. It's a great game down to the wire. I don't think we go that direction. But if they also lose by 20 seasons over, pack it up, and they made a mistake. hiring Ben McCullum. This strikes me as a type of game where if they do make the tournament this season, there could be a moment in March where somebody's asking a question of Ben McCollum and it's, well, we learn something from the Iowa State game. This is an opportunity to maybe learn a lesson or two, put it in your back pocket if you're Ben McCollum and use that to, you know, to win a game

Starting point is 00:18:46 down the road or get yourself in a better position. I'm with it. I'm with a you here, whatever happens tonight in this game happens. I'm not going to use it to paint with a broad brush and make a decree on Ben McCollum one way or another. I'm still highly optimistic on what I've seen from this group. I think he's a very good coach. I think long term he's going to prove to be the right hire for the Hawkeyes. But I do know that there are probably some fans out there that initially got excited and you lost to Michigan State. And now, boy, if you lose to Iowa State, They're going to be gnashing their teeth and tearing out their hair. Don't be that fan.

Starting point is 00:19:26 Don't be that fan because the best part about college basketball is it's different than college football, right? College football, you've got to finish in the top three or four of the Big Ten to be a playoff team. College basketball, you just have to be in the upper half of the Big Ten. So that's a ninth, eighth, ninth place. And I know nobody wants to finish eighth or ninth place. but you're talking about a ticket to the Instability Tournament at that point, and that's really all that matters. Get to the tournament and try to get to that second week and see what can happen.

Starting point is 00:20:00 So from the standpoint of what tonight's game means for the Iowa men, I think it means very little. Now, Iowa State fans would probably hear me say that and say, oh, you're trying to control the expectation. My expectations are that they lose. I don't need to control the expectations for this game tonight, but I do think it's one of those things where there's going to be something that they do tonight that they'll ultimately be able to pull back, you know, call back to in late February or March.

Starting point is 00:20:30 One more interesting note. And our everyday listeners out there, maybe you're sick of me talking about it. Brendan Hassan doesn't play against Maryland. We talked about what he did, the first half against Michigan State doesn't play in the second half. I know he's not a great defender, but boy, in a team that is going to struggle at times, score this year. It just feels like there should be a bigger role for Hassan. Maybe it's just that, though. He's just not a good enough defender. And if he can't defend, there's just no minutes available for playing for Ben McCollum. Yeah, you know, in the NBA, they've got that three

Starting point is 00:21:02 and D role. And he's got the three, but he doesn't have the D. And if he could, if he could work on that, I agree with you. I was, I was kind of high on the fact that they were going to bring him in as a transfer. And I thought that this guy is going to be playing a major role. And he still could, especially during Big Ten season. But so far, the minutes have not been there. And it's pretty clear why the minutes haven't been there, because this coach values defense, values play on both sides of the court. If he was a Fran McCaffrey guy, I think Fran would have him in there quite a bit, you know, try to shoot the lights out. But Ben McCollum's got some different expectations. And The hope there is that he settles into his new environment and goes to town, works on his defense, and gets better to the point where he can start earning some more minutes.

Starting point is 00:21:57 Well, Iowa, we mentioned there are an 11.5 point underdog on the money line over at Fanduil. You can get the Hawkeyes at plus 570. How about that? Odds that you normally don't see, certainly in this game for the Hawkeyes, if you think they're going to pull the upset here tonight. We'll mention the everydayers want to tell you a little bit about our everydayer. club right now you can go up a level and go ad free join the everydayer club today and get locked on hawkeyes with no interruptions members only discord access and a whole lot more all for just five dollars a month or fifty dollars for the year go to our website it is locked on hawkeyes

Starting point is 00:22:33 dot supercast dot com locked on hawkeyes dot supercast dot com that's where you can get involved with our everyday or club or you can also check out the link we have it in the show notes to learn more. That's time to take a look at the women's side and a recap of what happened last night. I think a lot of positives, even in a losing effort, as Iowa Falls for the first time. We'll talk about that. On the other side, it's locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandual. NFL Sundays move fast, one big play, and suddenly everything feels different. That's what makes live betting with Fandual so exciting. You're not just watching the game. You're reacting. You're reacting.

Starting point is 00:23:15 in real time. With Fanduil, you can place bets as the action unfolds, every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. While you're watching I-Y with State tonight, you can get involved with the Buccaneers as they face off against the Falcons and all the great NFL action, including some big games coming up this weekend. Live action and live betting, it's so much fun. You're seeing how the game unfolds. You're seeing what happens. You just get that feeling and you can jump aboard with Fandual. Player props as well, they update as a guy starts to heat up. You can bet the next touchdown score, drive results, totals, and a whole lot more. Every snap, every drive, every possibility.

Starting point is 00:23:52 If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit Vandul.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. Vandul, the game moves fast, and so can you. Trent and Todd back with you one final time, Lockdown Hawkeyes, your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen. Every day. Todd last night, down 17. Oh, boy. Then Iowa comes roaring back. Two things that I want to jump into. First, that first quarter, about as entertaining a basketball as you're going to find, up and down the floor. Both teams were huffing and puffing. You can see at the end of the quarter, they're waiting for that TV timeout to come. Iowa got the pace I thought they needed to. Unfortunately, for them, they weren't able to sustain playing that pace or pushing the pace, maybe more importantly. Audie Crooks was Audie Crooks. She was, tremendous, but maybe the coming out party for Chit Chat, right? Yeah. So back story on this last night. We were sitting on the couch and my wife said, oh, the women's game is on and check the

Starting point is 00:24:58 score. So I checked the score. And this was in the third quarter. And they were down 17 and we turned it on and she was like, oh, we don't need to watch this if you don't want to. And I said, I want to see if they've got a run in him here down the stretch. And Chit Chat was a huge part of that. We talked about In the past, her personality, I think Hawkeye fans are going to really grow to love her. And yeah, that was sort of a coming out party for her last night. She hit some big shots. So when she finished with 21 points and three assists, I think she was three or four from beyond the arc. And I had that unfortunate play where the ball glanced off her fingers there,

Starting point is 00:25:35 and they wound up reversing the call on the floor. But certainly looks like Jan Jensen's got a player that's going to be capable of making an impact when the Big Ten rolls around. And, yeah, sort of a story, a book, not a bookshelf, but bookends type of game where you've got that strong start and that strong finish, and then in between is where things look like maybe they were going to fall apart for Iowa. And credit to the Hawkeyes for finishing strong and trying to come back in that game. And like you said, Audi Crooks is Audi Crooks.

Starting point is 00:26:08 It's hard not to be a fan of basketball and not take joy. and watching her play. She reminds me a little bit of Shaquille O'Neal and just how dominant he was. He was just so big. Nobody could move him. Nobody could do anything with him. She's got great touch around the rim.

Starting point is 00:26:26 And, you know, thankfully for Iowa last night, Iowa State could not hit a free throw. And as a fellow degenerate, you know, hit your free throws. And that's what kept Iowa. That's basically what kept Iowa in that game until about the final 90 seconds. Yeah, the most confounding Jada Williams,

Starting point is 00:26:42 missing two, 26 and 27 on the year and misses two to keep eye when that one had a couple opportunities down three still i think a lot of growth there and kind of looking big picture at this team i mean this went into a top 10 environment a top 10 team and went toe to toe with them i know there's veterans still around we know hannah stulkey she's played a ton the last four years we've got to know kiley fearbach and taylor mccabe the last couple of seasons but after that this is still an incredibly young team yeah to do that in that environment to come back the way they did to give themselves an opportunity. And they also did it without Emily Rodriguez. And Emily Rodriguez,

Starting point is 00:27:18 look, she's got a lot of bad habits that she needs to fix. Go back to the Baylor game and she's doing double spin moves and throw the ball up when they're trying to hold on to a lead. She was able to get away with that at UCF on a bad team. On a good team, she can't. Now, she's also dealing with an injury, with her back injury. But she's one of the few players on this team, maybe outside of chit chat that can kind of go get her own, right? Hayden, she's got to get the ball into her in the post. Same thing with Stulke. These are not players. Speerbach, that's not her game. McCabe is an outside shooter.

Starting point is 00:27:47 Emily Rodriguez is a player that can go get her own. You've got to get rid of those bad habits. But when you're talking upside, a healthy Rodriguez, I think it could really help this squad. Yeah, I think that's the glass half full way to look at this team right now is it is almost all upside. And they're already number 11 in the country. Now, they're not going to get dinged too hard for losing to the number 10 team in the country on their home court. but this team is filled with upside. And I think as long as they continue to grow and learn together,

Starting point is 00:28:17 once the Big Ten season rolls around and you get into the heart of January and February, you're going to start to see some of those young players increase their role and their workload. But my wife asked me last night about this year's team and I was having a hard time describing, you know, there's no true star on this team. But it's a bunch of players that sort of know their roles and come together. And on some nights, you're going to have a player that goes off and scores 20, 25 points. And you've got a couple other, you know, what Hannah finished with 10, Taylor had 11, Kylie had 10. So it's going to be one of those teams, I think, where it's a group effort if they're going to get there.

Starting point is 00:28:59 And they will get there. You know, this is a solid basketball team. But the young players and getting them some experience and growth ahead of the big, that's where I think a game like playing in Iowa, Iowa State every year, going to the other team's building every other year. That's where the value in that series really comes from because it does give you a conference feel or an NCAA tournament feel really early in the season. Upside and upside on the defensive end of the floor. And that's why I'm excited about the growth of this team is I think there's some things

Starting point is 00:29:33 that they can be better than what we kind of grow in custom to here. They're going to be able to score. They got, as you said, a myriad of different players. I think that can help you out there. in different ways, but on the defensive end of the floor, a lot of upside also there. Thanks for tuning in today to Lockdown Hawkeyes. Coming up tomorrow, we will recap what we see tonight on the Hardwood with Iowa, Iowa State. Make sure you subscribe and follow Lockdown Hawkeyes, so you get all the latest episodes.

Starting point is 00:29:56 And did Locked on Hawkeyes make your Spotify wrap? Prove it on social media to secure a free month of our brand new everyday air club. Just tag our national lockdown podcast network account on any social platform. And we'll drop you a code. be one of the first to join the Everdare Club and get your favorite show, ad free and exclusive access to the member's only Discord channel. For those of you on video, we'll send you the first ever 24-7 National Locked-on Podcast Network YouTube channel on audio.

Starting point is 00:30:24 Make sure you make your second listen, Lockdown College Football, as we get ready for bowl season. Todd, good catching up with you again today. Should be an interesting one. I don't know how fun it's going to be tonight. It's like going to the dentist, but going into Hilton with a chance to shock the world. That's why they play the games and not on paper. But I agree with you. I think we know what the outcome is going to be, but I'm going to watch anyway.

Starting point is 00:30:48 Absolutely. He's Todd Bromelcamp. I'm Trent Condon. Thanks for being with us on Lockdown Hawkeyes. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Until then, go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - PORTAL PRIORITIES: Iowa Hawkeyes MUST Strengthen Defensive Line & FIND Veteran QB?—Transfer Window TALK & CyHawk Hoops

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.