Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Recapping the Week that was in Hawkeye Athletics

Episode Date: February 14, 2023

Recapping the Week that was in Hawkeye Athletics Trent Condon returns from vacation with the latest edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast.Some thoughts on the Iowa men's basketball team after falling at Purdue and then bouncing back with a road win at Minnesota. Kris Murray is starting to find it again for the Hawkeyes and his play is pivotal as the Hawks try to get a top 4 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.What do we make after the loss to Purdue?Some football talk as well as Iowa picks up a big transfer in former Virginia linebacker Nick Jackson a the haul that Iowa has been able to put together in the portal is impressive.Finishing up with some thoughts on the Hawkeye women bouncing back from the loss to Indiana was an absolute whooping of Rutgers and the Iowa wrestling team cruises to a victory in the dual vs. Michigan.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm back from vacation and ready to roll here as we recap the week that was in Iowa sports. We got men's basketball inside of four weeks now until the NCAA tournament selection show. We talk about the win against Minnesota and the loss against Purdue. Iowa women bouncing back in a big win against Rutgers on Sunday after the loss to Indiana. A big week ahead for Iowa women's hoop. The wrestling team, they come down to the regular season finale and we got some football.

All today on Locked On Hawkeyes. Our Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, it's me, Trent Condon, back with you on the LockedOn Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks as always for making LockedOn Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. We're available wherever you get podcasts.

You can also see us on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button while you're there. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Glad to have you with us here today. Today's episode brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. With LinkedIn Jobs, you can hire qualified candidates more efficiently by matching open roles with people who have the skills, values, and experiences to help you achieve your 2023 goals. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on college. Terms and conditions apply.

Well, we're rolling here and back at it. Got back here late on Monday evening. And you know what? I said for everybody that has been patient over the last five days or so, we're going to get a podcast into your feed right away late on Monday night and get you rolling here on all the latest in the world of Iowa Hawkeyes. Had a great trip down to Mexico.

One of my great Hawkeye friends, Katie, she turned 40. So my wife came down there along with a bunch of our friends, had a great time down there. And now it's back to the grind and a busy week. Certainly we're going to talk a little wrestling here today. Iowa wrestling come down to the end of the regular season before Big Tens. And of course the NCAAs trying to figure out a path.

Is there any way that Iowa can chase down Penn State by the time we get to the championships in Oklahoma? We'll talk about that. A win against Michigan, a duel, some impressive performances out of the Hawkeyes in that one. It's State Wrestling Week, going to be busy covering all of that on the high school side of things. And of course, a lot of future Hawkeyes will be out there on the mats. But we're going to kick things off here today and talk a little basketball.

So I did give you just a little one-minute Lockdown Now recap after the win against Minnesota and also talk a little bit about the Purdue game. So if you caught it on Friday in your feed here for Lockdown Hawkeyes, it was not an instant reaction as I was in Mexico. And frankly, I was in no shape to be

doing anything podcast-related on that one. We were tying one up. Well-lubricated in that one, but was able to watch the game found a sports bar in our resort and it's just one of those nights. You know, Purdue, they've lost two of their last three.

Their only win came in that game Thursday night against the Hawkeyes. Purdue is not playing great, but still Iowa has to play incredibly well if they're going to beat a team like the Boilermakers. And they came into the matchup knowing that Zach Eady, they were going to have to double. They were going to have to be aggressive with him.

It was not going to be one of those games where they could just go, you know, hey, Robracha, you figure it out on your own. It's just not the way that Iowa's built. And the freshman guards, they were good. They were knocking down shots. They were hitting those open shots from the outside. Fletcher Lawyer, he had a really nice game for them. And Braden Smith, those two guys that have been solid this year, I think better than most anybody can anticipate. They played really well against the Hawkeyes. They

were hitting open shots and led to that one. You can't get overly disappointed in a game like that. Them coming off a loss, time to prepare. I was had their own struggles there. Frustrating aspects, but a night where he didn't play very well. There were opportunities. He got a single digits, had a chance there in the second half, and just ultimately could not overcome the 17-point deficit that they had at halftime. I walked away from that one thinking this Iowa team,

Chris Murray had kind of a quiet 24. Rabracha had 17 he did some good things but overall just one of those days that they didn't play very well they're gonna have those now what we hope is those are not the games that show up at the biggest times now a year ago Iowa was playing so well down the stretch and leading in to the NCAA tournament after the Big Ten Conference Tournament Championship and run the run that they had in the tournament all the way to the final and beating Purdue there. We were hopeful that this was going to be a different team, and they just frankly played, if not their worst game,

one of their worst games against Richmond in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Over the gas, they ran out of legs. That's what you're hoping for here. This thing is as wide open as maybe it has ever been. I mean, there's really a bunch of teams you can talk about that are going to cut down the nets and with it realistically. Yes.

Teams, teams make runs. We saw St. Peter's we've seen George Mason. Of course we saw before Gonzaga was Gonzaga making their runs early on going back to the Dan Monson days when they had Dan Dick Allen company and they're getting all the way to the lead eight. We've seen those before.

Anybody can get there, but they're realistically at this point to get to the final four, not win the whole thing, but get there. I think you can throw out 2025 teams that really have that opportunity and it shows you the wide open nature. So what you're hoping for here is this Iowa team that they're humming at the right time and they don't have one of those clunkers. That was a clunker against Purdue. Is Purdue unbeatable for this Iowa team? Absolutely not. I still think this team has a chance to be better than what we saw a year ago, and they accomplished a ton a season ago. What they did the year previous of being ranked in the top 10 for most of the season, earning a

number two seed in the NCAA tournament. And what happened there? They ran into a hot team. Oregon couldn't miss, and they got run off the floor. Those things happen. This year, let's hope it doesn't happen. That's what happened against Purdue, a better team and a team that just outplayed them on Thursday. Then on Sunday, your best chance at a road victory the rest of the way. I mean, on paper, by far, this was going to be the easiest matchup that they were going to have on the road. You go to Minnesota, you get out to the early start, looks like you're cruising along, and then it kind of hit the skids. You let Minnesota back in the game. It's a three three point game in halftime you keep them within arm's reach throughout the whole game you shoot poorly hit 9 of 15 from the free throw line but they did it on the board 17 offensive rebounds 17 assists

on 27 made field goals i mean those are winning numbers for iowa the biggest thing by turnovers keep those turnovers down how How is Iowa year after year one of the most efficient teams in college basketball offensively? They do it by not turning the basketball over. That happened once again, and Iowa was able to pull off the victory, get a little bit of breathing room there in the last couple of minutes, and ultimately hold

on for the 12-point win against the Gophers. Now, what's in front of them? Well, there are six games, and all of them varying degrees of difficulty. There's nothing like the Purdue matchup in front of them well there are six games and all of them varying degrees of difficulty there's nothing like the purdue matchup in front of them starting thursday night against ohio state the buckeyes have just completely continued to go down just an awful path for them there there is infighting there was a contentious press conference i mean there's a ton going on with this buckeye team this is a wounded team don't let them hang around you know there's a knockout blow there

just run them off the floor that's what you need to do on Thursday night. Then you go on the road Sunday at Northwestern, then the following Wednesday against Wisconsin. Two very winnable games on the road. Even if you get one of those, come back against Michigan State, get revenge in a game that you absolutely had them beat at the Breslin Center. Indiana is going to be incredibly difficult. Hoosiers are playing some really good basketball and wrap up at home against Nebraska. Now, the one that you can't afford more than anything is Nebraska just because of the metrics. They're ranked 100th in the net. They're 106 in the RPI. Ohio State in comparison, they're 54th in the net. So the Nebraska game is one you just can't afford to lose. Iowa, if they get beat by Ohio State, yeah, that means

he's still got more work to do against Northwestern, Wisconsin, maybe steal one at Indiana, beat Michigan State, those kind of things. You can't afford a game against Nebraska to put in the L-com. This team is still in really good shape. Most bracketologists have them between their six or seven seed right in that realm. Possibility still, they can play in Des Moines for the first two rounds. How awesome that would be to be able to see the Hawkeyes play close to home and the contingent of fans that'll make their way into Wells Fargo Arena. Just what a great experience that has a possibility to do. We still have the Big Ten tournament. You know, and Fran, he got a lot off his back a year ago, winning that Big Ten championship and a lot of the questions that are

there and really what they've done the last couple of seasons, just getting to the semifinals a couple of years back and then winning it all a season ago. But team, hey, there's going to be ups, there's going to be downs. You're hoping for the right mix. You're hoping to get the right, obviously, setup for them going forward. But Iowa basketball, we'll be talking about a lot this week here and get ready for that Ohio State game. Today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast,

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I'm back with you once again, here on the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, as always, thanks for making lockdown Hawkeyes. Your first listen each and every day. You're watching on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button. You see,

you got a little sun here. I feel good, feeling good and ready to roll here for another busy week of Hawkeye sports. So we talked plenty of basketball there at the top. Let's talk a little football. So the news that broke last week, right as I was departing, it's not a surprise, but it's something that has been in the works, been rumored about. And it's Nick Jackson making his commitment to the Iowa Hawkeyes. Now remember him as a linebacker prospect, three-time All-ACC selection, led the team a year ago. He was our defensive MVP

with over a hundred tackles. He had five sacks, seven tackles for a loss with a loss of Jack Campbell, along with Seth Benson. They needed help. We saw a big ascension a year ago out of Jay Higgins. You know, for first couple of years, it felt like Jay Higgins, his dad's great, right? Dad, Hawk, Hawk, Hawk, Hawk. Now four Hawks on Twitter. He's a character. He's fun. And Jay was doing his thing and playing very well on special teams. But you wondered maybe if that was going to be the ceiling for him. Absolutely not the case. After the injury a year ago to Justin Jacobs, he went in there and did an outstanding job. And now he's going to be the veteran. He's going to be the guy that is going

to have his profile certainly raised this year, but he needed help. There are a lot of question marks there. Guys with not a ton of experience. Some guys that maybe in the recruiting world you were excited about that haven't quite hit to the level that you'd hope at this point in their career. Now, when you're playing behind Seth Benson and Jack Campbell, there's not going to be a whole lot of playing time for those kind of guys. But to go out there to get a veteran like this to add to this defense, they're going to be deep up front.

They have, of course, bringing back guys like they are with Nelson, deciding to come back for his sixth season. Noah Shannon getting those guys back, along with the young pieces on the defensive line. You know they're going to be stout. Really excited for the defensive backfield. We'll get to see a full season now with Xavier Wampa at the safety position. What we saw out of the quarterbacks and the growth a year ago.

Of course, Cooper DeGene, an absolute star out there at one of the cornerback spots. You feel really good. It was the linebacker crew that was, I guess, a little bit of a question mark, but still, overall, they look to be incredibly solid once again. Some of the numbers that are going to be there, a lot of excitement. And big picture, when you look at what this class has been just in the transfer realm, what Iowa did in the transfer portal this year, I'll be honest, I'm shocked at how well it is. Now, do you want more? Yeah. And when the time we get through spring football and we get to the end of the second semester,

there are going to be more guys on the move. That transfer portal is going to open up once again. There's going to be names in there. Would you like to see another wide receiver too? Absolutely. Still question marks there, even with the addition of Seth Anderson, the return of Nico Raggini for another season. Even with those kind of returns, you still have your question marks there.

Look, Brody Brecht, what is he going to be? Is it going to be the time that he makes the decision, it's time to just concentrate on baseball? That's a real possibility. We saw glimpses of Brody Brecht a year ago, but you're still searching for more. Some of the young guys out there, we just haven't seen a whole lot out of them. We got to see Vines went out there after the wrist injury that he had back in August camp. He went out there late in the season, at least showed some glimpses,

but you need more. But when you look at the totality of what they did in the transfer portal, starting with Cade McNamara, an absolute coup for this team, something that frankly came as a surprise, I know, to a lot of people. Another one had been rumored, had been in the works. Right away, the portal opens and right away, Cade McNamara becomes an Iowa Hawkeye. He brings Eric Hall with him from Michigan, a guy that when he was healthy is as good as you're going to find. You couple him with Luke Lachey at the tight end position, you're going to be strong right there. And when Brian Ferentz's teams have been at their best offensively, it's when they've had a couple of high and tight ends playing the position. And that's certainly going to be the case next year.

They help on the offensive line. Dijon Parker, a tackle. They needed help there, no doubt about it. Rusty Fett, I thought they needed help inside. They went out and did that. They have crossed off so many of those question marks, those check marks that you had coming into the offseason of how they were going to be able to build, and they were able to do that. It was, frankly, a surprise. Yes, we knew they were going to try.

We knew that it was going to be a little bit different for them and what they were putting together, but when you look at this whole, this hall as a whole, even a guy like Deacon Hill from Wisconsin, he comes in there. They need another quarterback. They need another guy to go through reps here in spring practice. And we'll see what he can develop into. We know John Bydmyer absolutely loved him coming out of high school.

He was a guy that was offered very early when he was coaching at Wisconsin. Liked what he saw there. He's got some work to do physically to get back ready, but he's got an absolutely hoedzer for an arm. I mean, this guy can fire the ball anywhere. He's got arm strength. Now can you add some other elements to him? And that's your backup, right?

Or maybe even your third guy, depending on the way you look at the way that quarterback position is going to play out. Even the guys that are deeper down there, not the headliners. Hayden Large, who comes in from D2 Dort, a run-heavy offense, and he put up some nice numbers, and you just don't know when these guys are going to hit, and maybe this is just the spot that he's going to go out there and maybe becomes the third tight end.

You're excited about that one. And Austin Kuchar, another guy from Ohio State. He was a walk-on there, but he was very productive at the high school level. Look, the guys that he was playing behind, there's not many wide receivers out there that are going to play in front of the Troika and at times four or five deep that Ohio State's had the last couple of seasons. And now he's going to get an opportunity to run around out there with Iowa.

I think they did about as well as you could possibly imagine. Yeah. Would it have been great for them to get another wide receiver? Absolutely. But it's not over. That's exciting here. And we're bringing the positivity. We're brushed.

We're back ready. We're bringing some positivity on the football front after last weekend, the road that we went down after everything that happened with Brian Behrens. We're going to take one final time out here. I'm locked on Hawkeyes. When we come back, well,

it is time to talk about some more angles. We're going to talk a little more basketball, take a look at the women's basketball team and oppressive, certainly hall that they have had and what they did on Sunday, bouncing back after loss against Indiana, Iowa wrestling with a big win against Michigan. As we play a little catch-up here today. Thanks for joining us on Locked On Hawkeyes.

Hey, talking basketball as well. Thanks, as always, for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen. You want to check out our brand-new podcast for your second listen. It's Locked On College Basketball. As I said, we're inside of now four weeks to Selection Sunday.

Our experts, Isaac Schottdy and Annie Patton, they're going to bring you everything you need to know both on and off the floor. You can hear from the big-name experts, the coaches, the players, all throughout College Hoops. It's Locked On College Basketball, available on YouTube and wherever you get podcasts. Today's episode is brought to you by Built Bar.

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As always, thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. Excuse me. Yeah, we're also got to get the pipes back working again. After some time away, it was definitely one of those. We'll get everything back up in a high order, certainly here this week. So, wrapping up, and what we saw from both the wrestling team

and what we saw on the Iowa basketball front. The wrestling team, they absolutely throttled Michigan. 33-8 was the final in that one. Spencer Lee gets a major decision. Brody Teske with a tech fall in. You know, you're excited about Brody Teske. What could be?

Remember, he was one of the biggest prospects to come out of our state in a really long time. Of course, went to Penn State, ended up at UNI, now finishing up his career with the Hawkeyes. Now, if he can keep making his way up there, is this a guy that can get to the All-American state? Can he get to the podium and finish in the top eight? I think there's a real possibility there. Real Woods, not just winning, but winning impressively, a dominating performance from him, 13-1 in his victory. Max Buren, he gets a nice win.

How about Kobe Sebring? A guy that's a little funky, a little unorthodox, but he just finds ways out there. He's another guy. If I was going to chase down Penn State, another guy that's probably going to be, at minimum, have to be on that All-American stand. We're seeing patrick kennedy at times the future of him a guy that came in with a lot of fanfare excited about what his future is well future very well has to

be right now for him another guy need to get up to the podium tanny tony cassiope he falls in the weight class at heavyweight there but gave it a good run against the number one ranked guy, Mason Paris. So overall, it's a win. You're getting ready. It's Oklahoma State to wrap things up and then Big Tens. We'll talk more about the path

and what Iowa's going to have to do to compete at the highest levels, but going to be fun watching this team. And then the Iowa women, what they do over the weekend, the win against Rutgers, just an absolutely dominating performance. Put 111 up on the board,

race out. It's 60 in the first half and then 37 in the third quarter. Now, slow things down as the reserves came in late in that game. Kaitlyn Clark, 15 points, 10 assists, just doing her thing. As a team, the Hawk ladies

shoot 62% from the floor, 54% from downtown, 12 of 22. They out-rebound Rutgers 39 to 19. Just one of those days for Iowa. Everybody was getting involved out there. In fact, everybody that was out there on the floor got in the score column. Love to see that. Hannah Stolke continues to just impress what she's able to do out there,

coming off the bench, and she is such a big part. And when I was taking on, say it's a sweet 16 game, maybe an elite eight game. Those are the kind of plays that they're going to have to get out of her, her ability to run the floor. Kaitlyn Clark, you can see from her also just how much she is impressed by her, how much she believes in Hannah Stolke. She's going to need her. We know that obviously the connection inside with Kaitlyn Clark and Cezanne and what she's able to do, but you run out of superlatives.

You just do when you're talking about Kaitlyn Clark and this Iowa women's team. Loss against Indiana, that was a tough one. Hoosiers played incredibly well on Thursday night. Also, disappointing those games basically happening at the same time, and you like to watch both teams and two huge games that were going on at the same time. Kaitlin had 35 in that one, but didn't get a ton else. Warnock coming off that injury. She's played well too.

That's great to see. They're definitely going to need her. It's going to be a fun run here. It's a great time to be a Hawkeye, no doubt about it. And we're happy to be here with you. Thanks again for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day.

Again, make sure to check out our new podcast. It's Locked On College Basketball. Getting you ready. You're thinking about your brackets, right? You're maybe thinking about what bets you're going to be making come NCAA tournament time. You're moving past football season and getting into college basketball. Locked On College Basketball

is a place for you all in one spot. All the big names, insiders, coaches, players, they have you covered with Locked On College Basketball. It's available on YouTube and wherever you get podcasts. We'll be back this week, getting everything set up once again here on Locked On Hawkeyes. We're going to talk with Biz later in the week.

We also got LaShawn stopping by, talking some football. The dust has settled a little bit from what we saw and what we talked about a week ago with Brian Ferentz and the fallout. Also going to talk about some of those national angles out there. And as frustrating as it can be, here's some of those national people and maybe not completely understanding why it is a little bit different here. Certainly plenty of merit out there and plenty of different angles to take with that. We're with you each and every day.

It's Lockdown Hawkeyes here across the Locked On Network, your team every day. That's what we strive for. Happy to be back. Thanks for joining us once again on Locked On Hawkeyes. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.