Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - RIVALRY: Sweet 16 BREAKDOWN of Iowa vs. Nebraska - Who TAKES Game 3?

Starting point is 00:00:01 Hawkeyes and Huskers are tangling in Texas. We're going to do it right here, too, a crossover episode coming up next. You are Locked on Nebraska, your daily Nebraska Corn Huskers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, and thanks for making Locked on Nebraska and Locked on Lockheyes, your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get podcasts and on YouTube, part of the Lockdown podcast network.

Starting point is 00:00:36 the number one sports podcast network, your team every day. All right, welcome in special crossover episode today. And if it's ever been warranted, this is it. I'm Mitch Sherman from the athletic. Trent Condon of Locked-on Hawkeyes is with me. Welcome, Trent, to the show. What a week it is in our little part of the country. Yeah, it's crazy.

Starting point is 00:00:59 And I was saying on my radio show earlier today, we were talking about, well, what's the worst matchup? And I'm certain nationally people probably look at this one. But we deal with the importance here. And I think we landed on the Purdue, Texas one was kind of, I guess, eighth on our list of ones. But Nebraska, Iowa, definitely number one. And we know the rivalry aspect to it, the way this thing has built in a way organically. You know, the football rivalry was shoehorned in there after the addition in Nebraska to the Big Ten.

Starting point is 00:01:28 And I know there were some Husker fans maybe a little bit slower to adapt. But this is something, at least on the hardwood, that. has grown a little bit. And I had a long list. It was about, well, it was 27 things over the last 27 years, the last time Iowa made a sweet 16. And I had a list in one of those guys on the list was a guy from 2019 that went off for Iowa,

Starting point is 00:01:49 hit a shot to beat them and knocked them down a couple of pegs in the NCAA tournament, leading to them getting bounced in the second round of the NCAA tournament. So, you know, this rivalry, though, we've seen so many good games. And it feels like this year it just goes to another level. and now we get this. Yeah, it is a huge week here on the western edge of old Big Ten country. I say old, not really old Big Ten, just pre-West Coast invasion of the Big Ten. As we've said, Nebraska and Iowa in the Sweet 16 Thursday, 6.30 p.m. Central Time.

Starting point is 00:02:23 For Nebraska, first ever appearance in the second weekend of the NCAA tournament after the Huskers won their first two games in this event. last weekend in Oklahoma City. Iowa, as you mentioned, with the 27-year countdown, first visit to this round since 1999. How is the mood? That's where I want to start with you. How is the mood around Iowa? Because I've got to imagine when you consider that this is the first year for Ben McCollum, not that it was unexpected necessarily last weekend. We've seen this year how good Iowa can be, but certainly this was unexpected when the season began. So that considered what is the mood like around Iowa basketball and Iowa athletics this week? You know, it's elation.

Starting point is 00:03:06 It really is. And this is something that this fan base has been so star for. And I know for probably some Nebraska fans that are listening and they kind of roll their eyes thinking that. But Mitch, we're about the same age. I don't know. I think people understand. You know, we're about the same age.

Starting point is 00:03:21 And growing up for me in the state of Iowa, there was something that were related in the late 70s and into the 80s. It was the Iowa basketball network. And it was statewide television. and for your guys over there in Sioux City and Council Bluffs and those kind of places, they knew about it because there were affiliates in those places. And every part of the state, you got Iowa basketball games, not just a game a month. It was every single game.

Starting point is 00:03:46 And for me, I can talk about Lute Olson, the Lood Olson years. It was lewd into George Ravling. And that was my earliest memories, was George Ravling on the sideline. And of course, Dr. Tom, this was something that much like Nebraska football is really, ingrained at that time. And during that period, Iowa basketball was that big because there was a time. And in fact, Lou Wilson's book, he talks about it. I think it was year number three of the formation of the network. They were getting an 80 share statewide on television. If you don't know the television industry, it means 80% of people that were watching TV in the

Starting point is 00:04:21 state of Iowa were watching Iowa basketball. It's an unthinkable number. I heard of. Super Bowl does not get an 80 share. That's what they were getting at the time. So for us of this generation, people in their mid-40s all the way up into generations above us, this was such a big thing. And to get this back and to have it happen with the first year coach who grew up, a Hawkeye fan in the state, born in Iowa City, boy, the storylines write themselves and elation, definitely the word. You guys, I'm sure, a different kind of elation, but you got to be on Cloud 9.

Starting point is 00:04:54 Yeah, none of that statewide television network thing for Nebraska basketball in the old days. They certainly did their own version of that in women's volleyball, which is the crown jewel of the Nebraska Athletic Department. But I've had conversation, you know, along, of course, with the football program that brings in the money. I had a conversation this week in attempting to compare the moment that Nebraska experienced. Now, I think the accomplishment, the importance of what happened last weekend, the biggest thing is just that Nebraska won a game, experienced success for the first time in the NCAA tournament,

Starting point is 00:05:37 but clearly the moment that will be remembered or the most significant moment was clinching a spot in the Sweet 16, which even when Nebraska was 20 and 0 this season and ranked number five in the country a few weeks after that, when the Huskers came to Iowa City on February 17th, they were still ranked in the top 10 number nine at that time. Even in that time, I think people in Nebraska were of the mindset to get a win. Get a win in the NCAA tournament and everything else would be gravy.

Starting point is 00:06:08 Now you get to the round of 32 and you see, hey, you're a four seed. You're playing a five seed in Vanderbilt. Of course you want to win that game. But absolutely making it there ranks among the top moments in the history of Nebraska sports. It supersedes anything that's really been done. you know, outside of the sport of football, I do want to, of course, bring up that Nebraska had 92,000 fans for a volleyball match three years to go inside Memorial Stadium. And that was relevant on a global scale.

Starting point is 00:06:39 But as far as just the Nebraska importance of this, you know, I saw a video similar to this circulating around the Iowa social social channels on Tuesday. in Nebraska, there were living rooms, basements, garages, sports bars, outdoor beer gardens, because it was 90 degrees on Saturday, full of people celebrating like they'd never done before with the sport of basketball. And when that shot from Tyler Tanner of Vanderbilt, the 60-foot shot bounced out of the hoop and Nebraska had secured victory, it was elation. to use the word that you chose, it was elation like has really never been experienced with the exception of Nebraska winning five national championships in football.

Starting point is 00:07:32 Right there, it's right there behind that. And in some cases, I think even on the level of a couple of those titles that were maybe more expected for Nebraska to win in years where it was dominant. And the crazy part is we're going to kind of talk about the both sides of this today, Mitch, but what I enjoy about this so much, it feels like both of these programs now are playing for house money. And it wasn't Nebraska just winning a game. You get to that next weekend, right?

Starting point is 00:08:01 And to build up the builds. And you guys are definitely feeling that now. Iowa, getting there for the first time since 99. But now we've got to face each other. And now one of these teams is a game away from elite eight game to get to a final four. One of these teams is playing for a spot in the final four on Saturday. Which you would have said that to anybody coming into the season. and they would have called you crazy, yet here we are,

Starting point is 00:08:23 and it's against a rival, you got that component too. If you would have been playing any of the other 14 teams left in the Sweet 16, I think both fan bases in a way would have been happy about that because if you lose this game, you're losing to your rivalry, and you're going to see a rival that is then playing for a shot at the Final Four. So there's just so much extra that is built into this match. Well, I think there's one exception for both schools. You mentioned the 14 teams,

Starting point is 00:08:51 not in this game. And I will say, I think this is not where I intended this conversation to go, but you jogged my mind here. You made me think of this. There is one team for Iowa, and there is one team for Nebraska that you would not just say, well, okay, it was a great run. Because as much as Iowa and Nebraska have grown to dislike each other over these last 15 years, and it's real, the disdain is real. It's gotten very real in football in recent years as Iowa has dominated the series winning 10 of the last 11. And it got very real in basketball this year out of nowhere with two games that were high intensity, highly emotional, one in each one in each arena, both won by the home team. But there are still two teams, two schools, one for one for each of these programs that I

Starting point is 00:09:36 think they may hate more than the other. And for Iowa, that's Illinois. And for Nebraska, that is Texas. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I forgot about that. Well, and here's actually another angle I forgot.

Starting point is 00:09:48 You know, Iowa State is still alive. And for plenty of. Hawkeye fans. So that is so interesting, too. And this rivalry is, I know, lots of hate to go around. There absolutely is. So I grew up in North Central Iowa. For me, it was Minnesota. The gophers are the biggest rival. The pig is the best rivalry trophy in sports when you play for Floyd or Rosedale. For people in the Quad Cities, though, it is Illinois. For people in Dubuque, it's Wisconsin, but for people on our Western Edge, definitely know it. But in Central Iowa, where I live now, and I'll live in that the last 20 years, yeah, it's Iowa State.

Starting point is 00:10:18 Yeah, I guess I probably, I can't believe I'm saying this, I guess I could probably swallow a Husker loss a little bit better than a cyclone loss in a sweet 16. All right, let's take a break. We're going to come back. We're going to talk about those people, those fans. For Nebraska, it was an amazing fan experience last weekend. Iowa was in Tampa. I want to talk. I want to ask you about what kind of an impact the fans may have this week in Houston.

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Starting point is 00:13:08 All right, Trent, I want to get back to one thing quickly about the fans who we touched on all through that first segment before we kind of break down this game on Thursday. So very different experiences for Nebraska and Iowa in the first weekend of NCAA tournament play. Nebraska as a four-seed gets sent driving distance to Oklahoma City. It was a trip back in time for Nebraska fans to drive south into Big 12 country. And it was expected that Nebraska fans were going to represent well at Paycom Center, not expected so much, at least from people perhaps outside the state of Nebraska that there would be 15,000 Nebraska fans there that would turn the arena into something louder and even more intimidating than what Nebraska has at home in its 15,000 seat arena in Lincoln.

Starting point is 00:13:59 So Iowa, meanwhile, goes on the road and beats Clemson in Tampa, then beats Florida in Tampa, incredible finish there in that round of 32 game, just as Nebraska had an incredible finish in its round of 32 game that we mentioned earlier. What are you expecting based on the excitement that you're sensing that you're getting from Iowa fans this week? I know that Nebraska fans will travel to Houston. It won't be the same kind of turnout. It's not going to be 15,000 people, not with the University of Houston in this tournament, not with Iowa in Illinois, also bringing fans. But what are you expecting from Iowa and what kind of an impact do you think the fans can have for any of the teams among the four in the South Regional?

Starting point is 00:14:42 Thursday and Friday and Saturday. Yeah, I definitely think that there will be, obviously, a majority of Houston fans, and that's going to dominate things. And it will be interesting to see, too, if Illinois fans will get there. They travel incredibly well for basketball, not football, but for basketball, you'll see the orange clad, and they've done a good job of that over decades now, what them be able to do. Plus, with their path that they had, I'm sure they probably also got a jump start on tickets,

Starting point is 00:15:06 trying to jump ahead and get into that and get those sweet 16 prices. And if you sell it and even lose a little bit, they've, done that plenty of times in the past. So I think you'll see a good contingent there. I'm not sure if that's going to be the case with Iowa. I know a lot of people that want to go. I looked right after, within, I don't know, 20 minutes of the final horn, after the upset win against Florida, you could get direct flights out of Des Moines, leaving on Wednesday coming back on Sunday for, it was about $400, a little bit less. That's not bad. Less than two hours later, it was north of 800, almost $900. So the people that tried to do it had to do it quickly. It's drivable, kind of, you know,

Starting point is 00:15:42 14, 13 hours from Des Moines from Iowa City. It's about 16. I got some buddies that are just going to, four guys in a car, right? They're just going to divvy it up. You got a four hour shift, and that's the way that they're going to do it. And those seem young people. But I don't think there's going to be a huge contingent there. Alumni base, too.

Starting point is 00:15:58 There's a decent Texas alumni base. But I think even maybe Nebraska maybe has more alumni down there too. Snowbirds, you guys deal with that too, but that's more Arizona and Florida. So there'll be a decent one, but I definitely think of the four. I will be fourth in terms of the. proud size. It'll be interesting to see. Illinois has a huge alumni base, as you mentioned. It's as big or bigger than Nebraska and Iowa's alumni base is put together. But the Iowa and Nebraska are very much known for sending fans on the road.

Starting point is 00:16:26 I think there are some Nebraska fans who just continued south from Oklahoma City after the, after the Saturday night game and said, we'll see you in April. Or maybe we'll just go on to Indy. I say that somewhat in jest. But hey, you never you never know. circle, right? It's just a circle all the way around. You're good. There you go. And I've heard from a surprisingly large number of people who've gotten creative this week in either deciding to drive and break up the drive or, as you mentioned, there was a similar flight situation where if you grabbed flights right away into hobby or George Bush, you could do that out of Omaha for relatively inexpensive. But in a hurry, those flights got extremely expensive. So I know of people who were flying

Starting point is 00:17:06 into Austin, who are flying into Dallas and then making a three or four hour drive. I think Nebraska will be well represented, maybe four or five thousand people, which is, which is fantastic at an 18,000 seat arena. I'm really interested to see what that crowd dynamic looks like on Thursday in that early game. We have a very good idea of what it's going to look like when Houston plays, but the campus is three miles from the Toyota Center. But, and, you know, Houston has the smallest fan base of the four schools in attendance, but still, it's in your hometown. like Houston fans have to show up or that will be embarrassing. But I'm interested to see if it's like a Red River kind of situation in the,

Starting point is 00:17:44 in the arena. We talk about Texas, Oklahoma football in the state of Texas where half the stadium is orange and half the stadium is crimson. Something similar to that. I hope it's supercharged and emotional and high energy in that same kind of way for that 630 tip on Thursday. Yeah. I mean, if I had guesstimate, I'd say,

Starting point is 00:18:04 half of it's Houston, say 9,000 there, maybe 3,500 for both Illinois and Nebraska and the remaining whatever, 1500, whatever it is for I would probably be the way that I would look at it. I do want to say one thing, though, going back. And I talked to two national guys that were in Tampa. They said that is as close to a road environment for a first or second round game that they've ever seen. These guys have been covered. One was Kevin Sweeney, who works for Sports Illustrated, mentioned that, that he is never,

Starting point is 00:18:32 he could not remember a first or second round road game, if you will, that was like that. And just how loud the Florida fans were. They were into it. They were involved. It was a fun game, obviously, and more fun for the Hawkeyes side, the way that it finished up. But really thought that. But before the game, after they beat Clemson, Ben McCullum was asked about that, playing basically a road game. He said, bringing.

Starting point is 00:18:54 And that's something that is certainly a breath of fresh air for Iowa basketball fans. Yeah. It's not about the experience. No complaints. Yeah. Nope. No, no. In the toughness and the toughness you saw from that team. And you got Florida's coach Todd Golden, you know, over there, MF in Iowa and hollering at their bench. No, we're not going to back down. And Iowa was the tougher team against the best front line in America. They still went in there. They took their best shot and they beat them in basically a road game. And that says a lot. And for Iowa basketball, even the successes that have been happening during these 27 years to be able to do that and do it in that way, I think is something that. Hawkeye fans are definitely jumping back into this one head first.

Starting point is 00:19:35 Absolutely. And it was impressive to see McCollum and just obviously what he's done this year is incredible. But to see him in some of the verbal exchanges that took place at the end of the first half of that game and just going toe to toe. Like, yeah, you're the number one seed. You're the defending national champ. You're playing in your home state. You're the best rebounding team in the country. And we don't care about any of that.

Starting point is 00:19:59 And that's the way that it rubs off on his. players. And that's the way that Iowa played when you knew Florida was going to make a run. And they did. And they got ahead. And then Iowa came back. And at the end of the game, as you said, Iowa was the tougher team on both ends of the court. So that was the case as well on February 17th in Iowa City when Nebraska went into Carver Hawkeye and Iowa dictated every aspect of that game. 57 to 52. It was slowed down. Iowa out rebounded Nebraska by a huge margin. It was 12 to 2 on the offensive glass. Nebraska was completely taken out of its game.

Starting point is 00:20:33 I would say it was the second worst game that Nebraska played all season, the worst being the game at UCLA that started at like two in the morning local time for Nebraska. No excuses. No excuses. Right. No excuses. Hey, I said it, not Fred Hoywood. And that's a credit to Iowa. Like Nebraska played poorly because Iowa made Nebraska play poorly. Price Sanford couldn't get his shot. Things just weren't there that had been there all season for Nebraska. Even when Nebraska went to Michigan and lost, there was way more available for the Huskers offensively than what they found at Carver.

Starting point is 00:21:08 And then on March 8th, when Iowa came into Lincoln, the tables were flipped a bit. And Nebraska puts 84 points on the board in 45 minutes. It was an overtime game, of course. Iowa made a great comeback at the end. You had kale Combs hit the shot with two seconds left for SOTI. Nebraska kind of took Bennett Sturts out. out of that game a bit in much the same way that the Hawkeyes took Sanford out of the game in Iowa City.

Starting point is 00:21:33 So what do you think? Like what kind of a game stylistically are we going to see on Thursday night? I think we're going to see a lot of the national media making a lot of jokes because I think this thing's going to be ugly. We know about the Nebraska side of things and the way just that funky style of defense. And it's not that they're out-athleting you, right? That's not what it is. It's just they just have this style that makes teams uncomfortable and make them do

Starting point is 00:21:57 that. And that's all that Iowa tries to do is make you uncomfortable and you're going to play at their tempo and you're not going to be able to speed them up regardless of what you try to do. I think it's going to be ugly. And we might get to that like under eight time out and it's it's nine seven and all the jokes will be flying in. I think it's going to be because the scouting of both these sides, these two head coaches, these two staffs know the game so well. They know each other so well. Unless somebody gets incredibly hot from three, we see obviously Sanford. go off. We see sturt's get red hot early on. You know, something crazy like that. Outside of that, I think it's going to be a slug fest. It's going to be kind of an ugly old school big 10 football

Starting point is 00:22:37 game or it's going to look like Black Friday does a lot of times. And it's going to be ugly low scoring for a while, a lot of physicality. I think that is kind of the script. And certainly the script that Iowa wants to play with. That's the game that Iowa wants to play. That's the 57 to 52 game that we saw on in February, not the 84 to 75 game that we saw in, in March. And you're exactly right when two teams that are this familiar with each other, and it's not like Nebraska can get a lot about Iowa before this year. Like, Iowa is, everything about Iowa is new this year. So you got two games against Iowa, and the familiarity for Iowa with Nebraska is also two games. So there isn't like years and

Starting point is 00:23:19 years of history having scouted each other, but they've played twice in six weeks. And this will, of course be the third meeting. And it doesn't matter who the teams are. They can be in different conferences and match up like that. And it's probably leaning toward being in that style of ugly, ugly play because they are adept and well versed on how to take away the strengths of the other team. That's what I'm so intrigued to is seeing what buttons are going to be pushed, right? All right. You got the first punch. All right, we're going to put Bennett Sturts over here on Sanford. And then we saw in game number two back in Lincoln, all right, we're going to use Sanford in the post a little bit more because he's got to hide advantage and he's got that good

Starting point is 00:24:00 turnaround jumper. So we're going to use him a little bit more. So now we're going zigzag. Now we're coming back the other way and what comes up. And I got an X factor when we break things down a little bit more, Mitch, a guy that I might be more concerned about for anybody on the Nebraska side for the Hawkeyes because it's been a name that Hawkeye fans probably haven't thought about here during those two games. Okay. That's a great tease. We'll get to that after this message. What if sports were traded like markets, now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not you against the house.

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Starting point is 00:26:29 All right. Welcome back. Final few minutes. Locked on Nebraska. Locked on Hawkeyes, Mitch Sherman, Trent Condon, with you ahead of Thursday night in Houston, the Sweet 16. Number four seed Nebraska, number nine seed Iowa for a spot in the elite eight. The winner of that game will play the winner of Illinois, Houston for a trip to Indianapolis, and the final four. This sounds so bizarre and incredible to say. All right. Before we took a break, you mentioned that you have a player. And I don't know if you're talking about a Nebraska player or an Iowa player or what it is,

Starting point is 00:27:08 but somebody who's not being discussed enough heading into this game. What do you got? Well, I think it's more from the Iowa perspective. And it's a guy on the other side that just hasn't played very well in the two games against the Hawkeyes. I'm going to say no. Yeah. He had a couple of head scratchers, couple of bad turnovers, over in Iowa. just made one bucket over in Lincoln.

Starting point is 00:27:29 And that's Braden Frayor. And watching this dude, you can tell he's going to be an absolute stud. And obviously you guys have seen that throughout the course of the season. But I think he's kind of under the radar for a lot of Hawkeye fans right now. Yes. Of course, Price, Samford goes without saying Sam Hoyberg, of course. Ranked Mask, too, I think it was down to Iowa, Nebraska a couple of years ago for him coming out of the portal from Bradley. Those were the two finalists for his services.

Starting point is 00:27:53 So we know him incredibly well. to Marcus Lawrence thought we got rid of him. Now, now he's back again. So we know all these guys. Raquel Jacobson, who can forget overtime. Learned about him on March 8th. Yeah, absolutely. But Freger's the guy that I point to, and you guys know that, that what an X factor he is, his size, his skill set,

Starting point is 00:28:11 the shooting ability that he has, though certainly inconsistent. And that was a case in the first round as he went to a 10 from behind the arc. But a lot of skill there. And I think that is the guy that you look at the local kid that if Hawkeye fans are looking for somebody else, that maybe you've got to be worried about. You guys have seen it this year out of him. Intriguing for sure.

Starting point is 00:28:30 People in Nebraska remember this probably more than Iowa fans, but it was quite a moment for Frager in that overtime period against Iowa in Lincoln. He was photographed sitting on the bench while the entire team was in a huddle late in that game. And, you know, Braden's had a lot of ups and downs. And it's just, it's a process with him. He reclassified to come to school last year early when he should have still been,

Starting point is 00:28:59 you know, age-wise, a senior at Lincoln Southwest High School. And there's a lot of pressure on him because while Nebraska does have Sam Hoyberg from Lincoln Pius the 10th and Kale Jacobson from Ashland Greenwood High School, those two were not recruited. They came to Nebraska as walk-ons. One is the head coach's son and Jacobson is he's mystifying in some ways. the way in how he has turned himself into the player that he is and that we saw in overtime of that game. But Frager is a tremendous talent. And he redshirted last year. And he's like the little brother on the team. You know, he's had really high highs and he's had some low lows. And,

Starting point is 00:29:39 you know, they've stuck with him and they've remained confident in him. And they've not thrown him to the curve and said, hey, you know, in this moment, you weren't handling things right. So you need to go take a rest for a game. That's not how Fred Hoyberg has coached him. In the first round game against Troy, and this is Braden's first NCAA tournament game ever, he was forcing shots. He went two at 10 from three. And I'm sitting in my, in front of my TV going, they probably need to sit him. Like his shot selection is not great here. Not even a hint of that publicly. I don't know what they talked about behind the scenes, but not even a hint of that publicly from Fred Hoyberg. Fred Hoyberg said just the opposite. He said, I was thrilled that

Starting point is 00:30:19 Braden was confident enough in that moment to shoot the ball and that he squeezed off 10 threes, you know, never mind that he missed eight of them. He squeezed off 10 threes. That, you know, that's Fred Hoyberg, the, you know, the former prolific shooter himself at the college and NBA lever. You know, he never saw a shot that he didn't like and he appreciates that when his players have the kind of confidence to do the same thing. And that confidence that Hoyberg and that Frager's teammates have had in him allowed him to be in position when it was 72 to 72 with eight seconds left in that round of 32 game against Vanderbilt to take a pass from Price Sanford and drive straight to the hoop and score the winning points. That guy is one that we point at it. The Sanford

Starting point is 00:31:04 angle, I mean, it goes without saying. We definitely saw a lot of that and played up more. And obviously in Iowa City with the boo birds out and the chance that were going his way, that's going to be a component. Then he got Fred Hoyberg, obviously grew up in Iowa. but grew up in Ames and he got that part of it too. So the storylines they write themselves, Mitch, this is going to be so much fun, so entertaining. And for us here in the upper Midwest, a rivalry

Starting point is 00:31:26 that continues to build feels like we're going to get another brick certainly here coming up on Thursday night. Let me get a quick thought from you about this house money situation that you mentioned at the top and we promised to discuss in this show. I think it's similar for both teams.

Starting point is 00:31:42 I certainly have the feeling with Nebraska that they do, they do feel that the pressure was removed after that first round win over Troy. This is unequivocally the greatest season in school history. They've broken the win record, did that in the first round of the tournament. Now I'll have 28 wins. There will be statues carved of parts of this team. There will be banners hung inside Pinnacle Bank Arena that have never existed in the history of the program.

Starting point is 00:32:09 If Nebraska loses against Iowa, it will be a bitter pill to swallow for a number of days, maybe even weeks. But when the dust settles and they start to look back on this season and when they remember this season, five years, 10 years from now, even if Nebraska goes on and achieves greater things down the road, this will always be the first team that did anything remotely like this. So their history is, their legacy is written. It's solid.

Starting point is 00:32:34 And they're absolutely playing with house money at this point. So I think that should help their mentality coming out, even against an opponent that their favored to beat and slightly favored and know very well. You know, and from the Iowa side, it would be, you finally got that monkey off your back. It's been 27 years of the same talk. Dr. Tom Davis in his final year because they didn't renew his contract. And there's a lot of people to believe that there was a curse maybe put on Iowa basketball

Starting point is 00:33:04 because of that decision by Bob Bullsby and Mary Sue Coleman. I've heard things like that about other sports. Yes. You guys maybe know something about that over on that side, right? the curse that was put there and that's what Iowa went through and to finally break through. Yes, it would stink to lose to a rival to Nebraska, a team that had never won a tournament game before here. And now they'd stack up three and a chance to go to a final four that'd be there. But really, both teams are playing with house money.

Starting point is 00:33:30 And that's why in a way, I just want this to be a good game. Obviously, I want the Hawkeyes to win. But I want this to be a good game. I don't want it to be extras. I don't want it to be a cell phone in Fred's face. I don't want it to be the boo birds and the chance. at Peyton Samper. I don't want the extras. And we've seen the ugly parts in the football rivalry that pop up from time to time. You know, coaches that don't know all Americans' names,

Starting point is 00:33:53 things like that. That's not we're looking forward. Teams not wanting to shake hands. No, none of that. Let's just play a ball game. Let's just see who the better team is, the rubber match here, and the winner goes to an elite eight because this in itself, the basketball game is enough. A lot of times for what we do, we like those extra stories, those extra layers. For just a day, let's go out there not have to add all the extras just go out there let's play for the third time and see who the champion is of the three game series and who gets to move on to the lead eight i'm so glad we got a jay higgins reference all right before we go last thing on this show some kind of a prediction you want to predict the score or not the not the score the outcome go ahead predict something that you think is going to happen for me like it's it's it's almost unpredictable to it's very very difficult to predict the win of this game. I was tasked to do that in our sweet 16 capsules that Scott Docterman and I wrote in the athletic that published on Monday. And I was like, I flip a coin. But predict something for me

Starting point is 00:34:54 that you think happens on Thursday night. Well, I will predict something as we talked to about a friends from being dual earlier. I will have a bet on Nebraska. Historically, teams have pulled up big upset in the round of 32 like Iowa did over Florida. They normally struggle the next round. a one in seven against the spread following an upset win against a top two seed for the team that comes back after being a double digit dog. So that's a gambling angle that I'm looking at and I will have a bet on Nebraska. Plus, I like to do that because it's an emotional hedge for me, even if the Hawkeyes lose, but at least I got a couple extra bucks in my fan duel account.

Starting point is 00:35:26 So that is my prediction. In terms of the game, though, like I said earlier, I think it's going to be ugly. I think there's going to be jokes that'll be had, but that's all good. It's going to be a tight one. It's going to come down to the wire. but I do have Nebraska getting it done 67, 61, and the Nebraska horned court huskers in the elite eight. Who would have thought?

Starting point is 00:35:46 Yeah, I will take Nebraska too in some kind of a similar score. I think the final score is going to fall in between what we saw in Iowa City and in Lincoln. I don't know that the six point margin seems a little strong, seems a little heavy. I think this is going to be a one possession game in the final minute. and somebody's going to hit a shot. Is it going to be Price-Samford? Can you get loose? Is it going to be Bennett Sturts?

Starting point is 00:36:10 Is it going to be somebody like Combs that we saw do it the last time? So I'll take Nebraska in a one-possession game. And I think the X-factor in this game is going to be rinkmast. Rinkmas, you know, when it's all said and done, not that he's going to score the winning points, but he has, he's a seventh-year senior. You know, you talked about him transferring from Bradley, considering Iowa out of the portal. He sat out all of last season recovering from a massive procedure to heal his knee, to fix his knee, something they didn't know if he would even come back and be able to play basketball.

Starting point is 00:36:48 And he's so smart with his ability to, I wouldn't say pace himself, but rink was something special early in the season. And then as the year went along, you saw him kind of lag and kind of tire and he got sick. and made it back from that. And then in the tournament, there was, there, there has been new life. There has been new energy. He's so important to this team. He's so important to them off the court that if Nebraska's going to win, I think he has to play a huge role.

Starting point is 00:37:15 So I will, I'll take that as my prediction. And one more, Bennett Sturts plays well to shut up simple. How about that? There you go. I'll have no comment on that. All right. There's my parting shot. Okay.

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Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - RIVALRY: Sweet 16 BREAKDOWN of Iowa vs. Nebraska - Who TAKES Game 3?

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