Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Possible replacements for Tyler Cook | Megan Gustafson is a projected WNBA 1st round pick | Men's baseball hitting their stride

Episode Date: April 9, 2019

Megan Gustafson has been cleaning up the national awards after taking home the Naismith National Player of the Year honors this weekend alongside her coach Lisa Bluder who won the Naismith National Coach of the Year. We talk about what those awards mean and where Megan Gustafson could go in the upcoming WNBA Draft before we give you are weekly Hawkeye roundup covering all other Hawkeye athletics on segment #2. To wrap up the show we discuss possible replacements for star forward Tyler Cook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Locked On Sports Network, hosted by Andrew Wade, editor at DearOldGold.com. Welcome to our Tuesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at DearOldGold.com. We have another great episode coming at you today. We also just, we have a fantastic week for you. If you are joining the show for the very first time, you're joining it at a very exciting time in the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast history. On Sunday, we had the fantastic

opportunity to interview Matthew Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United. And the Iowa United, if you are not familiar with them, they are a collection of athletes from the state of Iowa, from the big four in terms of universities, that are going to be playing in the $2 million winner-take-all basketball tournament later this summer. So far, we've had five players announced. We have Nicholas Baer from the University of Iowa. We have Tyrus McGee from Iowa State. We have Wes Washpin from the University of Northern Iowa.

We have Reed Timmer from Drake. And then today, they were announcing that Josh Young, a former Drake basketball player, is also going to be playing on that team. So make sure to check into that interview we did. We posted it on Sunday morning. It's kind of a special Sunday morning episode of that. So make sure to tune into that. Some great conversations we had with Matt about the process of getting this team together

and kind of what the future beholds for this team. And if you aren't following them on Twitter yet, make sure you do that at IowaTBT. All right, IowaTBT. All right, IowaTBT. That's where you can find out the latest updates as far as who's going to be joining this team. They have four more players they are going to be announcing this week, including another Iowa Hawkeye. So make sure to check out that. It's going to be some awesome stuff seeing all four of the, you know, basketball universities in the state of Iowa coming together

and playing in that $2 million winner-take-all tournament. And they're doing it for a great cause for the veterans. We also have another, we have a special guest coming up, hopefully, on our Wednesday morning episode. I should be talking, you know, I'm recording this on a Monday afternoon, so I should be hopefully interviewing our special guest later tonight. More details will come on that once we have secured that interview and obviously gotten the time to chat with him. But he is a top recruit for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team.

You're not going to want to miss that interview. We're going to be hopefully posting that on Wednesday morning. So like I said, a fantastic time to join us on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. If you are tuning in, though, make sure you do subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And if you have a smart speaker at home, try this out one time. Just say, hey, Google, Siri, or Alexa, play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. It's that easy to listen to your favorite episode or the most recent episode of the

Locked on Hawkeyes podcast and any other podcast on the Locked on Sports Network. That's all you have to do to listen to them. That being said, though, on today's show, we have a couple things we want to talk about. First, we're going to be talking about the women's basketball team. If you haven't been paying attention to the news, some great stuff has happened to the women's basketball team this past weekend. Got a few more awards in the, you know, kind of the chest of awards for that team. So we're going to be talking about that on segment number one.

On segment number two, we're going to be talking about that on segment number one. On segment number two, we're going to be doing our weekly Hawkeye Roundup, talking about all the other sports in Hawkeye Nation, kind of what they did this past weekend and when their next events and games are so you can be in tune with what's happening in the world of Hawkeye sports. And then finally, on segment number three, we're going to be talking about Tyler Cook and the four players that are out there that could potentially replace him as he heads to the NBA draft. So stay tuned. We have a fantastic episode coming your way, and we're going to jump right into it with segment number

one, the women's basketball team. We've talked a lot about this. Everyone here knows I think Megan Gustafson is arguably the best player in Iowa basketball history, men's or women's. She belongs on the Mount Rushmore of Iowa players in general, regardless of sport. That's how good she is. And it was exciting to see her breakthrough on the terms of national media scale. I mean, she wasn't a unanimous All-American, which is absolutely ridiculous. Two people did not vote her as a first-team All-American, which I find laughable. But she got back at them a little bit. She did win the Naismith Award, which is a very prestigious award awarded to the top player in the nation.

And that is one of, I believe, four or five National Player of the Year awards that she has now received at this point. So very exciting to see her kind of break through. Typically, those kind of awards go to some of the bigger schools. You know, the Ucons, the Baylors, Notre Dames. So to see an Iowa player break through, and for the very first time in Iowa women's basketball history, was absolutely fantastic. And then joining her was head coach Lisa Bluter,

who took home the Naismith National Coach of the Year Award. So another, you know, just a great deal all around. As you can tell, this women's basketball team had a season to remember. Arguably the best season in women's basketball history. I know they did make the Final Four back in 1993, but at least from the generation that's been growing up with the women's basketball team over the last 20 years and in the Lisa Bluter era, this is definitely the best season they have ever had, at least in the last 25 years. And to see Blewer take home the National Coach of the Year, that is her first National Coach of the Year award.

Fantastic job for her. She's had a great career at Iowa and in the state of Iowa, starting at Augustana and then heading to Drake before finishing up here at Iowa. So love seeing that. This was the 10th time a head coach and player duo swept that award. So just really awesome stuff all around. And kind of in that note, you know, I was curious, you know, where is Megan Gustafson being projected in the WNBA?

I mean, she's a little bit undersized for a center, but just has such incredible touch. I mean, we saw her against Kalani Brown. Kalani Brown got a few, you know, shots blocked on her. But Gustafson, for the most part, did a really great job of managing to get balls in the basket. So when I looked at some of the most recent mock drafts, according to ESPN, they have Megan going at No. 12, right behind Baylor's Kalani Brown. And then Bleacher Report also has Megan going in the first round at No. 12 in the WNBA draft to the Seattle Storm.

The Seattle Storm are the reigning WNBA champions, so a really great situation if that does work out there. They don't have a ton of size in that team, and I think Gustafson would fit really well. It would also give her an opportunity to kind of adapt to that WNBA game. I mean, she's talked about this in interviews before. You know, she's not from a big town. She's not used to the big city. Her town in, you know, Wisconsin was a very tiny place. So, you know, adjusting to a bigger city in Seattle, getting acquainted to the WNBA season and those games,

that'll be huge for her to be able to play with such a talented group of players led by former UConn guard Sue Bird. A couple other things too, just to kind of talk about that. One of the big concerns with her in those draft profiles was simply her athleticism and her size. We look at her as a 6'3 center. That's not as big by WNBA standards, and if she's a little bit smaller, it'd be ideal if she'd kind of break it out and stretch the floor a little bit, but she's not much of a shooter from three.

She only had two three-point shots in her career at Iowa, so it'll be interesting to see how she adapts, but I have no doubt in my mind that she's going to be successful at the WNBA level. She just needs to get that opportunity. She is arguably the hardest working player I've ever seen. I mean, you see her doing the Mike and drill with three balls. Lisa Leslie, when they met this past weekend when Gustin collected most of her awards, was very impressed by that as well.

Just all around, really fantastic to see Gustson get some of that notoriety and credibility. And obviously to see her go in the WNBA draft would just give us another reason to watch the WNBA and see how great she does in her career in the WNBA. And we'll obviously be giving you plenty of updates as the WNBA draft gets closer, letting you know kind of where she's going to go, what are the projections. And then obviously once she makes the WNBA, we'll be giving you lots of updates as to how Megan Gustafson is doing in the league. That'll do it, though, for segment number one.

Just a reminder that on segment number two, we're going to be doing our weekly Hawkeye Roundup, giving you the updates on all the sports happening in Hawkeye Nation. So stay tuned for that after a few messages from our sponsors. So stay tuned for that after a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back with segment number two. And just a quick reminder, if you have not subscribed to our podcast, wherever you downloaded this podcast at, please make sure to do that. It helps me out.

It helps our podcast out and it helps our network out. They want to know who's listening to the show. So please do that. It would take only a few seconds and I would absolutely appreciate it. If you do not want to download it for whatever reason, please let me know. I would love to get an email from you explaining, you know, what are some of the reasons that you don't want to listen to this as much and let me know. You can email me at LockedOnHawkeyes at gmail.com. I love to get feedback, love to know what we can improve on the show. So please let me know that as well. And if you haven't followed us on Twitter yet, please do that as well.

Locked on Iowa. You can follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa. It's that easy. Plenty of opportunities to give you updates on Twitter, let you know when the newest shows are going to come out, give you some teasers as special guests in the future. And just in general, we like to post some random thoughts about Iowa Hawkeye sports.

So it's really a great opportunity for you, if you're on Twitter, to get all of your Hawkeye news, in addition to all the other great sources you are collecting your Hawkeye sports. So it's really a great opportunity for you if you're on Twitter to get all of your Hawkeye news in addition to all the other great sources you are collecting your Hawkeye information from. But let's jump right into it though with segment number two, the Hawkeye Roundup. Starting with the men's baseball team, they are doing great as of recent. They've won four of their last five this past week. They beat Clark University in Illinois State and then they won a series against Rutgers 2-1. They are now 18-12, and again, another fantastic Rick Heller team. This team looks like it can compete. Now they have Connor McCaffrey back as well, who is apparently projected to be,

you know, is one of the top 10 players in the Big Ten in terms of MLB prospects. So, Iowa should be doing even better now that they can have him more consistently in the starting lineup. This team is one that we should be watching hopefully in a couple months as they take on the Regionals and the Super Regionals for baseball. This next week, they take on Bradley on Wednesday before they get a three-game series at Purdue. Men's tennis got a huge win over No. 30-ranked Penn State 4-3 this Friday night. If you didn't check it out, we did retweet their celebration afterwards. It was pretty cool to see. They did ultimately fall

though on Sunday, 1-4 to number 1 ranked Ohio State. This weekend, they head to Purdue on Saturday and then they also face Indiana and IUPUI on Sunday. So a busy weekend for the men's tennis team. Men's gymnastics, they actually placed 7th at the Big Ten Championships this

past weekend in Iowa City. Two guys placed pretty well. Junior Andrew Heridor finished 2nd in the high bar. And freshman Stuart Brown placed 3rd on the vault. The Men's Gymnastics team is preparing now for the Nationals in Illinois on April 19th. So we'll be keeping you posted as to the expectations for that here in a couple weeks, or sorry, a couple days as we jump into that. Track and Field is also at home this weekend at the Musco Twilight Track Meet. Women's golf will be playing in the Liz Murphy Collegiate Classic this weekend in Georgia. And women's gymnastics is officially over. Their season is done after they finish

fourth in the NCAA Regional with a score of 194.775. But we have women's rowing back in action. They are taking on a few of their Big Ten foes in the Big Ten Double Duel this weekend. And women's soccer is doing fantastic this spring. They are on a 5-0 stretch in the spring, including wins over Drake and Iowa State. They take on UMKC this weekend before they finish up their regular season with Missouri in two weeks. Women's softball though, they are struggling a little bit. They lost their three game series in Wisconsin.

Lost all three games. They do have an opportunity to rebound against in-state foe Iowa State tomorrow. And then they also get a three game series versus Illinois this weekend. They are currently 15-18. If they can steal at least three of those four games, that will put them at 500, which would be fantastic for them. And actually, excuse me, they have to win all four games to be at least above 500. If they go three and one,

they will not be at 500 yet. They'll be finishing at 18 and 19. So hopefully the women can get back on the winning track this weekend. And women's tennis is on a four-game winning streak after defeating Rutgers and Maryland to get two big, awesome Big Ten wins this weekend. They have Nebraska this upcoming weekend, and they are currently 12-8. So that'll do it for our Hawkeye Roundup. Again, we are going to be doing this every single week on either our Monday or Tuesday show. I think it's fantastic to make sure we're giving support to all the Hawkeye sports.

It's easy to focus on football and basketball. And believe me, I do that mostly throughout the week on this podcast. But I think it's very important that we're giving the time to all those other fantastic student-athletes who are doing a great job representing the state of Iowa and the University of Iowa in all their Hawkeye sports endeavors. So we're going to be doing that weekly on our Hawkeye Roundup. That'll do it, though, for segment number two. And on segment number three, we're going to be talking about Tyler Cook

and the possible replacements for Tyler Cook. So stay tuned after a few messages from our sponsors on that. All right, we are back with segment number three, our final segment of our Tuesday morning episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. And we're going to be talking about Tyler Cook. The news came out last week that he was planning on declaring for the NBA draft.

He hasn't officially came out. He hasn't officially came out and said it. So I don't want to kind of spark more rumors here, but it's pretty likely that he's gone. I mean, it makes sense. He's being mocked in the early parts of the second round. So fantastic there that he's even in that consideration. Sometimes if you're close, you just got to go for it. And I think in terms of his body size, in terms of his potential, you know, he's not the kind of guy who's going to be, you know, probably ever going to be a first-round draft pick unless he can improve his outside game.

We saw this past year that really wasn't something he advanced in, and he kind of struggled down the stretch. But he's also pretty old. Coming into this next year, he's going to be over 21 years old. That's pretty old by NBA rookie standards. So it's an opportunity for him to depart. And anyone who's pissed off or being rude or inconsiderate to Tyler Cook, honestly, screw off.

He's a college kid and he has the opportunity to go to the NBA draft. If you're not happy about it, that's on you. But you should never be taking it out on a college student. So personally, if you're that kind of person, I don't care if you're listening to the show because that's not the kind of person you should try to be. And when you're representing Iowa Hawkeye athletics as a fan, be a little bit more respectful to the student athletes. They are working their hardest. I know I get frustrated too. I get frustrated when people struggle, but they are student athletes. They're just, they're just kids. And he's trying to make

a decision that's best for his career. So make sure to, you know, kind of lay off him a little bit on Twitter. That being said though, I want to talk to you about the four possible replacements for Tyler Cook next year. The first one being Jack Nungeon. You know, he was a redshirt, you know, redshirt of this year. Coming up next year, he'll be a redshirt sophomore. He could be in line for some big minutes. Last year as a freshman, he started 14 games and he's been playing apparently very well. Fran McCaffrey is really excited about his potential. He's been dominating practice. And the redshirt was less about his ability and capabilities in the Big Ten,

but more about they have a logjam at those big spots, and they wanted to kind of spread that out. Now Luka Garza is going to be a junior. Nunge is going to be a sophomore. You waited for Tyler Cook. He's probably leaving for the NBA draft. Ryan Kreener is going to be a senior next year. Minutes are beginning to open

up for Nunge. I think he could be a possible starter here. At 6'11", he would help Luka Garza form arguably the tallest team in the Big Ten in terms of their front court height and whatnot. Luka Garza is also 6'11".

Nunge at 6'11 would be a pretty tall team. You would have a 6'6 Weiskamp, a 6'5 Isaiah Moss, and then a 6'4 Jordan Mohannon running the point. When Connor McCaffrey's in, that is a 6'4, 6'5 Connor McCaffrey, I believe. So just a very tall team in general, which would cause some advantages for the Hawks, which I would love to see. As far as Nunja, what I think he adds is he may not be as big as Tyler Cook,

may not be such a low-post presence, but he also can break down a little bit and expand the court and space the court a little bit better. In his first year, he shot 1.7 three-point attempts per game and hit them at a 33% clip. He also shot 75% from the charity stripe. So if teams are going to foul him, and one of the big things that Iowa does well is gets teams in the foul trouble. We saw this, Tyler Cook isn't as adept at shooting free throws, but Jack Nunge is. So that's kind of my first candidate that I think could take over as a replacement for Tyler Cook. Another guy though,

that I think is kind of flying under the radar is Patrick McCaffrey. And I know he's a little bit undersized. At 6'8", he's only 175 pounds. Meanwhile, Tyler Cook is 250 pounds at 6'8". Patrick needs to get weight. Fran agrees. In an interview with, I believe it was the Gazette, Fran said that his son needs

to add at least 20 more pounds to be ready for D1 basketball. I think that's possible. He starts eating more food, gets into the strength training program at Iowa. I think it's very well possible. start eating more food, get into the strength training program at Iowa. I think it's very well possible. If he's able to do that, he could be a sleeper pick for that four spot. I think it'd leave Iowa a little bit undersized

in terms of weight-wise. He wouldn't be as thick as a lot of those Big Ten forwards are, but he'd be a lot more athletic. And a guy who gives the Hawks the opportunity to space the floor even more. He's developed a shooting touch. Not as much of a shooter going into his senior year, but did a fantastic job over the summer working on that.

Fantastic shooting now in his senior year at Iowa City West. And I believe with him and Luka Garza, that would still be a very athletic front court. But also him and Joe Wieskamp at the forward spots would form a duo that we haven't seen since the Jared Uthoff and Aaron White years. Just very athletic forwards who can handle the ball, and I think that makes the Hawks a lot more dynamic offensively and defensively. You know, you could put a Patrick McCaffrey on a smaller guy. You can also put him on a bigger guy, kind of like a Nicholas Bayer, being able to, you know, he might not be as big as those guys. They might be able to back him down a little bit,

but his athleticism, his ability to jump through the roof will allow him to maybe get some impact on shots, maybe block a few shots here, even if the guy is a little bit bigger than him. Another option with Patrick McCaffrey, though, is potentially, and this I think is probably the least likely option, is that he would move to the three, and this is only if Isaiah Moss declares for the record, but Patrick McCaffrey could move to the three, you have Nun only if Isaiah Moss declares for the record, but Patrick McCaffrey could move to the three.

You have Nunn at four, Wieskamp at two. That gives you a very tall lineup and a lot of flexibility, but either way, Patrick McCaffrey, as long as he can put the weight on, will give Fran a lot of flexibility in his lineup creations and his ability to handle at least that first and second string units. I think it makes them a little bit more of a dangerous team next year. And then finally, just two guys. I don't think these guys are actually going to be in line for a starter's role, but I think they're at least going to be competing, and that's Ryan Creener

and Cordell Pemzel. And mostly because I feel like both these guys make way too much sense as reserve players, giving you 15 to 20 minutes. Starting with Cordell Pemzel, I mean, for me, the biggest concern is his injuries. I think with his knee problems, you don't know how much that's going to return or how much that could impact him next year. Limited minutes might be the best for him, and that will give him 10-15 minutes, come off the bench with a ton of energy and passion. I think he would be a fantastic six-man player, kind of like a Nicholas Baer. Ryan Creener, meanwhile, I think his game is honestly just more fitted for 40 years ago.

You know, he does the hook shots. He can stretch the floor a little bit. But he's not, you know, despite weighing 255 pounds, he doesn't really play as big as I would expect down low. And I think he gives you a lot of valuable minutes off the bench as well. Being able to shoot three-pointers, also being able to have a very solid postgame with, you know, the hook shots and whatnot. He can kind of dominate that second string unit. And I think he'd be, you know, a main option on that second string unit. So I

just can't see him being that in that starters role, but being a senior playing lots of minutes this past year, I think he will at least be in line for a shot. He'll at least have a chance to do that. I just can't see Fran McCaffrey putting him in that position. Those are the four guys I think possibly could replace Tyler Cook. Obviously there's a lot up in the air right now. Fran McCaffrey has some big decisions to make over the next six, seven months before we get back into the Iowa basketball season

and I trust obviously that he will make the best decision. But there's going to be a lot of talented players on this roster and I'm excited to see how Fran can make that all work together. But that'll do it for segment number three. Just a reminder, if you did not check out our interview with Matthew Crawford of the Iowa United, make sure to do that.

It's a Sunday morning episode, so you can just go back to wherever you got this podcast from. Check out our Sunday morning episode with Matthew Crawford. Fantastic interview talking about the Iowa United. And just a reminder that we're going to be having a great episode coming at you Wednesday morning, tomorrow morning, with a four-star recruit from the Iowa Hawkeyes football 2020 recruiting class. We're going to be talking to him tonight.

So fantastic stuff that I'm hoping to put out there for you on Wednesday. You're not going to want to miss that. And make sure you are following us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa and Facebook on the LockedOnHawkeyes. And then finally, if you have email and you feel like emailing me some criticism Make sure you are following us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa and Facebook on the LockedOnHawkeyes. And then finally, if you have email and you feel like emailing me some criticism or feedback or things you love about the show, feel free to do that at the LockedOnHawkeyes at gmail.com. But that'll do it for our Tuesday morning episode. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed giving it to you.

I love hanging out and talking Iowa Hawkeyes with anyone. So again, follow me on all those mediums and we will make sure to communicate back and forth love to talk Hawkeye sports and that will do it for our Tuesday morning episode though have a fantastic day Hawkeye Nation and we'll be back tomorrow guitar solo you