Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Recap of win vs Pitt | Defensive and ST Big Ten awards | Strength of Big Ten basketball

Episode Date: November 28, 2018

Iowa squeaked out a one-point win over previously undefeated Pitt. We break down the game and highlight a few key players plus discuss Cordell Pemsl's season-ending knee injury. Segment two has us covering yesterday's All-Big Ten player announcements for defensive and special teams along with the two individual position awards that Hawkeye football players received. We wrap it up by highlighting the strength of the Big Ten basketball conference and how impressive the first month of the conference's season has been.Twitter: @lockedoniowaGmail: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, the latest addition to the Locked On Sports Network's growing list of college podcasts. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at dearoldgold.com, where you can find all things black and yellow, analysis, highlight articles, et cetera. You find whatever you want in terms of writing on dearoldgold.com, and we have a great episode for you today. If you didn't get a chance, please check out the first two episodes from this week.

The first episode, we recapped the Iowa-Nebraska game, talked a little bit about a preview for Iowa Pitt, which took place last night. And then yesterday, we had an opportunity to preview what bowl Iowa may attend, likely the Holiday Bowl. And then also we had an opportunity to preview what bowl Iowa may attend, likely the holiday bowl. And then also talked about potential post-season awards,

which we actually have some more information for you today. So feel free to check those episodes out on Monday and Tuesday. Give us a listen. If you like what you're listening to, make sure you subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And please,

please, please leave us a review. On today's episode, we have some great content for you. We have a recap of last night's Iowa's win over the University of Pittsburgh Panthers. We're going to be touching on defensive and special teams postseason awards. There were awards announced last night from the Big Ten, so have some things to keep you updated on. And then finally, we're going to be touching on Big Ten basketball and how so far the conference is off to a pretty hot start. And where do the Hawks fit into that?

What does that mean for Iowa? That sort of thing. So this is an episode you do not want to miss. And then tomorrow we have an awesome interview with Tanner Nessel, one of the site experts over at Badger of Honor, the fan-sided Wisconsin Badger website. So we're going to be talking to him about what the Wisconsin Badgers bring to the game on Friday night. And it is a great conversation, one you do not want to miss.

So please check that out tomorrow morning when we have that going up on wherever you get your podcast at. All right, for segment one, we wanted to touch on the Iowa versus Pitt game. And if you didn't get a chance to watch it, it was a relatively ugly game. Pitt got out to a huge start. I believe they were up 10 points or 8 points after the first half, and they were shooting so well. So they were shooting about 60% from the field or even better obviously allowed them to jump out to a 46 to 40 lead in the second half in the first half iowa's defense also just wasn't even though pitt was shooting really well iowa's defense just

didn't seem as in sync as it did when they played you know yukon or oregon so sort of a wake-up call I think you know when we talked about this on Monday's you know show Pitt came into the season with relatively low expectations they were predicted to finish last in the ACC but with their new coach with some new players they've had they had a top 32 class I think their class was 32 in the nation from last year they've been performing pretty admirably so far this year, and they really gave Iowa a run for their money. And I don't necessarily think this is as big of an indication that the Hawks are doomed,

but rather Pitt is a decent basketball team. They're firing on all cylinders, and they came in ready to play Iowa. So this will be important. Hopefully Iowa, you know, with the expectations that come with being ranked the 14th team in the nation, they can, you know, not fall to those expectations when they faced Wisconsin on Friday night in a big, big 10 matchup between the number 14 team and the number 22 team in the nation. From the Iowa perspective, it was kind of an off day.

Earlier in the day, Cordell Pemzel was one of their forwards. Their junior forward was announced to be missing the entire season with a knee surgery. He was supposed to be a key bench contributor. And he kind of showed when Fran started going to his bench, he really likes to use 10 to 11 players consistently. Last night, he only used nine. So it kind of impacted the way he had his rotation set up. And that obviously played a big factor into what the Hawks were able to do.

Pemps will get a medical redshirt likely to, so he can retain his eligibility and be able to stay with the Hawks for another two seasons. So we wish him the best and a speedy recovery. Unfortunate that he will be missing this season, but it'll be great to have him back for at least another two years, hopefully. From an Iowa perspective, they struggled shooting the ball, though. They shot 36.5% from the field entirely. They actually shot just a tick better from three-point, but not exactly a great shooting day, especially when you have forwards like Tyler Cook and Luke Garza.

They didn't have, you know, the best day. I'll try to pull it up now and get you some statistics on what they did. So Luke Garza only had five points and he only shot the ball five times. He was one for one from three point and two for four from, you know, within the paint. And that's not really an ideal stat line. He's been performing really well. He's had some great games. And I would have expected him, considering Pitt has a relatively small lineup,

to be able to post up and take the ball to the hoop down low. He also only had two rebounds total. So just an off game from him in general. Tyler Cook also had an off game. He only shot the ball five times. He made one of those. He did have 12 free throw attempts, which is the team high,

and he made seven of those, which is also a team high, for nine points. And then he brought in eight rebounds. So not the game I anticipated from Iowa's big men, but that'll – I mean, the job got done. At the end of the day, a win's a win. That's all that matters. But not exactly the job got done. At the end of the day, a win's a win. That's all that matters, but not exactly the performance we were looking forward to seeing.

So in terms of minutes, Jordan Bohannon actually took the lead in minutes with 37. That is a season high. He's been averaging around 28 to 32. So 37 is a little bit high for him. And then Joe Weiskamp, the freshman, actually had 34 minutes on the game and it makes sense he was having a fantastic day he was Iowa's arguably one of their best players

on the day he went seven for 13 and then four from eight from three-point land to four a combined total of 18 points he also had 11 rebounds so that was a team high as well when you have forwards like Tyler Cook and Luke Garza though though, WiseCamp getting the most rebounds is a little bit frustrating. You expect those guys to be able to get those rebounds down low, but I think it also speaks to WiseCamp's hustle, WiseCamp's ability to box out and that sort of thing and get those needed rebounds for the game. The big thing here, I think the other thing I want to touch on is, you know, Connor McCaffrey has been playing a lot of minutes as of late and averaging around 25 to 26 minutes. But in the game

against Pitt, he only had 20 minutes. He struggled from the field and he only had one point, but he did have the team high of four assists. So not exactly the best day for him either. And then Jordan Bohannon, oddly enough, had six either and then Jordan Bohannon oddly enough had six steals so Jordan Bohannon is not necessarily known for his defense not exactly a defensive stalwart but six deals is is great it kind of it put Iowa in the positive in terms of turnovers and takeaways against Pittsburgh so that was huge the other thing I want to touch on is on the free throws, they only made 67.9%, not exactly ideal. Iowa does do a great job of getting to the free throw line.

That is something we talked about when you listen to the Wisconsin-Iowa preview, but they need to connect on more than 67.9%. Typically, they've been connecting around the 75% to 80% range, and that would have brought this game to a 10 to 11 point advantage which would have equaled around what vegas favored them at so an off day from the free throw right or from free throw an off day from the field in general so not exactly the best iowa performance but good teams find a way to win and iowa squeaked out the victory 69 to 68 so nothing more we can really talk about that. It's great to get another win, great to go into Big Ten play undefeated,

and we're going to be talking to you about Wisconsin versus Iowa for 30 minutes tomorrow. So you do not want to miss that episode. It's going to be great. I honestly learned a lot about Wisconsin basketball. It's tough. You try to watch as many Big Ten games as you can, but ultimately you're going to miss a few things here and there, and it's tough you try to watch as many big 10 games you can but ultimately you're

going to miss a few things here and there and it's tough to see every single team so Tanner brought some great insight as to what the Wisconsin Badgers bring and for Iowa basketball fans or Iowa sports fans in general it's it's an episode that'll give you a lot of information when you begin to watch Friday night's game and that'll do it for segment one. It's great that Iowa squeaked out that victory 69 to 68. The other thing I wanted to bring up there is the arena was only at 66% capacity, so not ideal. If you are in the Iowa City area, what you're missing from both Iowa basketball programs is something we typically don't see every single year. The women's team has more consistently been a great program,

but you want to make sure you get out there and check those games out. The tickets aren't too expensive. If I were in Iowa City, I would absolutely go there, but unfortunately I am not. With that being said, on segment number two, we're going to be talking about postseason awards. Yesterday, the Big Ten handed out a few different awards, and I wanted to give praise to thoseowa football players that that received those awards but before we do that i have a

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by going to sling.com slash locked on. That's S-L-I-N-G dot com slash locked on. Never miss a game again with Sling TV. All right. Before we jump into segment two, where we're going to be covering the Big Ten Awards that were handed out yesterday afternoon or last night, depending on what part of the country you're in, I wanted to remind you that on segment three,

we're going to be talking about Big Ten basketball, how they're currently doing this year, why they're off to a hot start, and what that means for the Iowa basketball program. Also, before we jump into the specific awards, I wanted to kind of plug this in. Redshirt freshman Josh Turner is leaving the program. So Josh Turner is a cornerback. Obviously, if you've been watching Iowa football games, he hasn't really been playing and he's stuck behind four guys who are potentially going to be there for a few more years. So junior Michael Ojemudia, sophomore Matt Hankins, and true freshmen Julius Brents and Riley Moss

have really been getting most of the playing time while Josh Turner has been relegated to a special teams role. He's had about five, he's had five tackles this season. And, you know, when you're looking at the dev chart, unless one of those guys goes pro early, which I, I don't necessarily anticipate from Oja Mudia or, you know, Matt Hankins or even Riley Moss, maybe Julius Prince, depending on, you know, whether he's able to win the cornerback battle next year, but either way, not a lot of playing time in the future for him. This guy had 22 offers coming out of high school. So there's definitely going to be a large list of suitors, I would assume. And Iowa typically hasn't been too hard on players transferring. So it's an ideal situation

for him. He'll get out probably red shirt and then play in two years. So we wish Josh Turner the best. I'm unfortunate to see him go but understand why he was you know wanting to leave now let's get to a few of the the happy things so defensive and special teams awards were released last night by the big 10 and Iowa took home a ton of hardware so two individuals actually took home position specific awards which is awesome Amani Hooker the guy we've kind of talked about you know on dear old gold we talked a little bit about him on the podcast but he's really been the defensive mvp and you can tell kirk ferentz really trust him and so does

phil parker he has been really the jack of all trades moving all around the defense and playing whatever position they need and he's been involved in every phase of the defense. He's had, I believe one sack. I think he's second on the team in tackles. He has three interceptions. I mean, this guy can really do it all. And because of that performance, he was named 2018 Tatum Woodson defensive back of the year. What's incredible about that is most people don't think of university of Iowa as defensive back university. They typically think of LSU or something along those lines. But this is the third defensive back in a row to win that award and the fourth overall, right behind Josh Jackson, Desmond King, and Micah Hyde. Imani Hooker wasn't done taking in the awards, though.

He also received first-team All all big 10 defense by both the coaches and the media so coaches and media both vote on the big 10 teams and you'll notice the theme here is that coaches did not give iowa as much love as the media so on the coaches big 10 team the second team we had aj epineza coming in at defensive end and on the third team we had anthony nelson coming in on the third team so i would Anthony Nelson coming in on the third team. So I would have expected them to both be a little bit higher from the coaches, but the media did get it right. They had Epinesa on the first team, all Big Ten,

and they had Anthony Nelson bumped up a team to the second team, all Big Ten. I mean, both these guys had 10 sacks this season, which is tied for first in the Big Ten, which is typically what you expect from a Big Ten defensive end. You know, 10 sacks is great, especially when there's so much talent in the Big Ten at the edge position. So I don't understand why they weren't getting as much love initially. They also, it wasn't like they were slouches and run defense. In fact, Epinesa doesn't play a ton of snaps, so I can see why he may get bumped down for that. But Anthony Nelson is stout and rushed defense. I mean, and he's rising up draft boards right now because of his performance. So I think it's a little bit of an annoyance that he was only

given third team by the coaches, but you know, it is what it is and you kind of got to deal with it. The other thing to note there is that both teams received defensive player of the week honors twice this season so 33 of the big 10 defensive player of the week honors went to those two iowa defenders and for some reason they weren't able to get on the you know the first team or the second team from the coaches so a little frustrating but it's all good it's nice to see hawkeye defenders getting recognized for their work and then rounding out the all big 10 teams on the honorable mention team we had parker hesse the senior um really the the veteran leader of the iowa hawkeyes defense he has 52 tackles and four sacks he was honorable mention defensive end and then sophomore safety

gino stone who is tied for second in the conference with four interceptions. Senior safety, Jake Gervais had 77 tackles and three interceptions. And then senior defensive lineman, Matt Nelson, had 27 tackles and six passes defense. For those of you who are keeping track of these awards at home, that is two of Iowa's reserve players getting Big Ten honors. They had three safeties and four defensive linemen. So a lot of depth at some key positions, a lot of fantastic play all around, and pretty impressive when two of your backup players are getting Big

Ten honors in Geno Stone and A.J. Epinesa. And I'm excited for the future. We're losing some of those guys, right? We're losing Jake Gervais and Matt Nelson and Parker Hesse but there's a chance that Anthony Nelson returned for a year we definitely have AJ Epinesa for another year there's a solid chance we have Amani Hooker I've been checking out draft boards and he hasn't been you know listed on there anytime as as of late so good news we'll probably be keeping him as well and then Gino Stone will We'll probably be keeping him as well. And then Gino Stone will be staying with the Hawks as well, considering he's just a sophomore.

So there's quite a few players who have had outstanding performances and have the opportunity to build on those leading into their next season. And then on special teams, not maybe not super surprising, but something I noted in an article on dl gold was that i believed emir smith marset should get an award for special teams but i didn't think he would get this many awards and what i mean by that is not only did he finish first or he was voted first team all big 10 by the media he was he's only voted second team all big 10 by coaches like i said i don't believe

the coaches really know what they're talking about, apparently, because they've kind of underestimated underrated a lot of Hawkeyes so far. But the big thing here was that Amir Smith-Marset was given the 2018 Rogers Dwight return specialist of the year. And that is incredible that if you didn't catch that, Rogers Dwight, the Dwight part is named after former Iowa legend, Tim Dwight, who averaged 28.7 yards per return in 1997. Amir Smith, for context, has a 0.6 yard per return

average better difference than Tim Dwight. So he averaged 29.3 yards, which is second best in the nation. And like I said, almost a full yard greater than Tim Dwight. So he averaged 29.3 yards, which is second best in the nation. And like I said, almost a full yard greater than Tim Dwight. What's more impressive that he did, you know, he had 557 yards returning on kicks, which was third best in the conference, but he did it on just 19 attempts. So the other two guys had over 10 attempts more than Amir Smith-Marset, yet he had 19 and pulled out 557.

The only big thing, the thing I noted that would potentially hurt him is his lack of touchdown returns. But that's only a matter of time. I expect that to happen sooner rather than later. This guy is explosive, though, and it's fantastic to have someone on special teams who can flip the field, someone who offenses or other opposing special teams have to work to avoid because of his talent and his ability to line the Hawkeye offense up with such good field position.

So congratulations to those guys. Fantastic performances. And then the last person to kind of bring up on the special team side is senior kicker Miguel Racinos received honorable mention all Big Ten. So kudos to you, Miguel Racinos. Nice work on a season. He had a fantastic Iowa career, especially the last two seasons.

This year he connected for all 44 of his extra point attempts, and I believe 15 of 20 on field goals. So 75% clip clip not bad he actually i think put in 89 or 87 total points which is fantastic one of the best seasons by an iowa kicker in recent history so and that wraps it up for the big 10 awards we are going to be probably talking about the big 10 offensive awards hopefully either tomorrow or on Friday's podcast. And I do believe we're going to be pulling out a Friday podcast. It may not be as long, but something we want to cover a few more topics. And when Tanner and I started talking yesterday,

it was just such a good conversation that I did not want to miss out on the opportunity to give you all some insight and a little bit longer discussion into what Wisconsin brings versus Iowa. So we're probably going to be keeping the podcast tomorrow just focused on that. And then maybe Friday, you can get a little bit, a little special episode for your Friday commute, talking on a few other things that have happened over this week. All right. So on segment three, we're going to be talking about the Big Ten Basketball Conference and why it has looked so strong. But before we do that, we have a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back.

Like I said, for segment three, I want to touch on the Big Ten because they have jumped out to an incredible start so far this year. now the big 10 is playing the big 10 acc challenge the series is currently tied at four and four and there have been some interesting wins some interesting losses most notably you know last night number nine michigan lost to louisville on a in overtime which is unfortunate but it happens acc strong, and Louisville typically has a decent program regardless of what coach is there and whatnot. So it happens. Not too big of a deal.

Also, Penn State, who's been kind of one of the worst teams in the Big Ten, knocked off number 13, Virginia Tech, last night. So that has been great. Today we have an awesome slate of games. If you have an opportunity, make have an awesome slate of games. If you have an opportunity, make sure you check out these games. They're going to be huge in terms of getting that respect for the Big Ten that the Big Ten ultimately, I think, deserves. So tonight, we have number four, Virginia, taking on number 24, Maryland. We have number 19, Purdue, taking on number 15, Florida

State. And we have number 11, North Carolina, taking on number seven, Michigan. So the Big Ten coming into the season had three teams ranked, not a ton of love. There's a lot of confusion or uncertainty surrounding the Big Ten and what some teams brought to the table. But a lot of teams have come out really hot, played really well.

The ACC as well has a lot of really top tier teams. And then in the middle of the pack, they weren't really sure. A lot of teams have started off strong in the ACC as well has a lot of really top-tier teams. And then in the middle of the pack, they weren't really sure. A lot of teams have started off strong in the ACC as well. So this is a really good matchup and awesome cross-conference slate of games that we have going on. But if Maryland, Purdue, and Michigan can pull off at least go 2-1 of these games, that would look so well for the Big Ten. And it also looks really well for Iowa when they play some of these teams in Big Ten conference play.

Gives them a little bit more respect, gets their strength of schedule up as well, which is great. So just thinking about, you know, I wanted to touch on how incredible this Big Ten conference has played. Starting the season, there were three teams that were ranked in the top 25, and that was Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue. Meanwhile, four teams were receiving votes for inclusion and that was Wisconsin, Indiana, Nebraska, Maryland, but those teams weren't actually ranked, right? They just were receiving

some, some, you know, some rankings. They were receiving some votes, but nothing to write home about. They weren't actually in the top 25. However, four weeks later, we now have seven Big 10 teams in the top 25. And that is Iowa, Wisconsin, Maryland, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue. And there's also a few teams that are actually getting votes for Big 10 inclusion. So that is Nebraskaaska minnesota and indiana so those teams are also getting you know some some remarks or some votes for top 25 i don't think indiana may not get as much now if we're getting kind of smoked by duke last night but pretty impressive when you consider that you know nearly a fourth actually sorry almost a third of the top 25 is

comprised of big 10 teams and depending on how this week's slate of games go we could see a few more teams added to that list we're going to kind of go through the rundown of the different teams and where you know what kind of jumps they've made though over the year just kind of quickly and the first one we want to talk about is obviously the iowa hawkeyes who started the preseason and now you're not ranked and now they are number 14 and really the big catalyst for this was their win over number 13 Oregon you know a team that has a lot of high expectations coming into the season and then beating the University of Connecticut which has been consistently receiving votes for the top 25 throughout the season so big big thing there also you know they're they're currently undefeated which is fantastic

the Badgers they came into the preseason you know not ranked but they are now 22nd in the nation Big thing there. Also, they're currently undefeated, which is fantastic. The Badgers, they came into the preseason not ranked, but they are now 22nd in the nation. Their lone loss came to number four, Virginia, by seven points. They did squeak out a victory last night. And this team is coming off a lot of injuries from last year. They have some great players, and they are expected to make a run in the NCAA tournament. And you'll hear a lot more about that tomorrow.

The Maryland Terrapins, they were also not ranked. Now they're 24th in the nation. They're sitting at 6-0. And they have a big game tonight. So make sure you check that out against, I believe, number four, Virginia. And then the Buckeyes were also unranked. And they are now ranked 16th in the nation. And they have a big game tonight as well as they take on, let me see, Florida.

Let me pull it up. I'll make sure I get the games for you. But Ohio State does have a big game as well coming up. So don't want to miss that. Fantastic that they are doing so well this year starting this season off 6-0. Michigan started off number 19, and they are now ranked number 7. They beat number 8 Villanova by nearly 30 points and that was a huge catalyst for them. They have a big game tonight as they take on the Tar Heels from North Carolina. Michigan State was ranked number

10. They are now number 9, but they did lose last night to Louisville. They also lost to number 2 Kansas by 5 points. They beat number 17 UCLA by 20 though. So I don't foresee the Louisville. They also lost to number two, Kansas by five points. They beat number 17, UCLA by 20 though. So I don't foresee the Louisville loss being too detrimental. They'll drop a few spots in the rankings, but in college basketball, you know, a team gets hot,

a team does well. They can, you know, they can win regardless of being, you know, the lower talented team. So it happens, but unfortunate.

And then finally, Purdue was ranked 24th to begin the season. And they are now ranked 19th. Their lone loss came to number 16, Virginia Tech, and they play tonight against Florida State. So do not want to miss that game either. Would be an awesome game if they can knock off number 15, Florida State. And that really does it for where the Big Ten teams have gone so far early in the season. Like I said, this is huge though. The only issue I see is that the Big Ten is talented from top to bottom. And so every single game is going to be tough. Teams that survive that Big Ten slate are going to get a lot of recognition from the NCAA tournament committee. I would say similar

to the Big East a few years ago, where really teams were cannibalizing wins from each other. And although they may not get the best seed, you know, they're not going to be a top five or top 10 team having that, you know, having that tough slate of games going through kind of the gauntlet of teams will really help the teams out in the long run. Um, you know, for an Iowa team, it'll make them battle tested and they'll be ready for the NCAA tournament. So I'm really excited about what the big 10 is doing so far early in the season. I'm excited about the Iowa Hawkeye basketball team as well. And we're going to have tons of coverage coming to you for the rest of the season. As we follow the Iowa Hawkeye men's team and the women's team who, you know, is doing just as well as the men's basketball team. They only have one

loss in the season. So great stuff coming for the Hawkeyes this winter. We want to keep you posted on that. So keep listening to our podcast. And like I said, I don't want to keep harping on this, but if you haven't had an opportunity to, make sure to go subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts at. And please feel free to leave us a review.

Let us know what you think of the show. And that'll do it for our Big Ten Conference Preview, kind of a wrap-up of what's happened over the last month. We are going to conclude our Wednesday episode. Again, we'll be back tomorrow with fantastic content on the Iowa versus Wisconsin matchup with Tanner Nessel, one of the site experts over at Badger of Honor for the fan-sided network. You also can check Dear Old Gold.

We have a few articles coming out over the next couple of days previewing the Iowa versus Wisconsin matchup and some additional content touching on the awards, touching on where Iowa may go in a bowl game and that sort of thing. So great content going up there if you want to check something out

in between podcast episodes with that, though, I'm going to be signing off. I'm your host, Andrew Wade. You can find me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew, and you can follow all of the exciting happenings of the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast on Twitter at lockdown Iowa.

Again, make sure you subscribe to our podcast, wherever you listen to podcast at, and you can also reach out to me with questions, comments, or suggestions at lockedonhawkeyes at gmail.com. That is right. We have an email address now, lockedonhawkeyes at gmail.com. Thank you all for joining us on another great episode

of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and we'll be back tomorrow.