Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - #Swarm20 is ranked 9th | Connor McCaffery a pro baseball prospect? | Hawkeye weekly roundup

Episode Date: April 17, 2019

Our weekly Hawkeye roundup is back this week as we give you the details of every Hawkeye sport currently in session with results from last week and upcoming games before kicking off segment number two by talking about how good the Iowa football recruiting class of 2020 currently is and how they've gotten to this point. As it stands today, this class is the 9th best in the nation and getting better. Segment three has us concluding the show by covering a variety of Iowa basketball topics including Maishe Dailey transferring to Akron, Connor McCaffery's emergence as a baseball star, and an announcement on Iowa's games in the Las Vegas Invitational in November.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Locked On Sports Network, hosted by Andrew Wade, editor at DearOldGold.com. Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, currently an editor over at DearOldGold.com, and we are back with a more traditional episode coming at you today. Obviously, we've had a lot of really exciting content on the show in the past couple weeks, a lot of great interviews. If you are just tuning in for the very first time today, make sure you are going to go

back and check those out. You're not going to want to miss those. I would say arguably some of the best shows we've had have come in the last two weeks. You're really joining the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast at a fantastic time. A week ago, we talked to Deuce Hogan, four-star quarterback commitment to the Iowa Hawkeye football team in the class of 2020. That was a great interview. He is a great kid with a great head on his shoulders, so don't miss on that. We also talked to Iowa's all-time reception leader, Kevontae Martin-Manley, and that episode aired this past Monday.

So, great conversation with him about life, football, and the two-star earn-the-fifth mentality. Again, some great episodes that we've had as of recent. And then also we've talked to Matthew Crawford twice. And Matt Crawford is the general manager of the Iowa United. And the Iowa United is a team that is going to be competing in the basketball tournament, which is a $2 million winner-take-all tournament that is combining, you know, the Iowa United team is going to be combining all four of Iowa's major universities. It includes Peter Jock and Nicholas Bayer from the Iowa Hawkeyes with a plethora of other great players from Drake, UNI, Iowa State, and one player from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,

Matt Tibby, Matt Tibby, excuse me, who is a former Urbandale, Iowa, you know, star player for that high school basketball team. So some fantastic stuff we've had in the show in the past, and we have some great stuff lined up in the future. We're going to have Matt Crawford probably back on the show to talk a little bit more about this team, especially once they get confirmed to be in the basketball tournament. We have a few interviews in the works with some Hawkeye commitments, and we also are going to be interviewing a few of the players from Iowa United. So we're not going to spoil the details yet.

We'll be sharing that once those details are officially confirmed, but just want to make sure you are in the loop on those great happenings that are coming on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. If you are tuning in, though, for the very first time, or if you've tuned in a couple times and you like what you're listening to, please make sure to like and subscribe this podcast wherever you got this podcast at, whether that's iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, you name it. And if you have a smart speaker at home,

try listening to this podcast one time through your smart speaker by saying, hey Alexa, Google, or Siri, play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. That will give you the latest episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Also, if you are on Twitter or on Facebook, please feel free to follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa

and Facebook at TheLockedOnHawkeyes. That will give you some updates into when our episodes are going to be airing. We have some great stuff coming up. We also let you know if we're not going to be having episodes so you're not disappointed when you wake up in the morning and you do not have the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast available to you. So make sure to do that as well. We love the support on there and we are very interactive with our fans.

If you have a question that you want to talk about on the show, feel free to tweet at us or message us on Facebook. I will make sure to bring that up as a topic on the show. And finally, if you are not paying attention to Iowa football, you should be. The NFL draft is coming up next week, and there's a lot of Iowa football players who are going to be finding out where they're going to be playing in the NFL at so in advance of that what we're going to be doing is we're going to have Sarah Bettinger from NFL Mocs on the fan side of network and we're going to be having Nick Kendall from Mile High Huddle he's a draft analyst

over there and an avid Iowa Hawkeye fans both are both you know both those guys are Iowa Hawkeye fans so they they very actively follow the draft and very actively follow Iowa Hawkeye football. So we're going to have them on for a special three-episode premiere next week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, as a build-up to the NFL Draft, talking about Iowa Hawkeyes and what they're going to bring to the NFL Draft. So make sure to tune in for that as well. On today's show, though, that was a huge opener, and I appreciate you kind of tuning in there. as well. On today's show, though, that was a huge opener, and I appreciate you kind of tuning in there. On today's show, though, we are going to be talking about a lot of kind of Iowa Hawkeye sports in general, starting with our Hawkeye Roundup. So we do a weekly Hawkeye Roundup,

usually on Monday or on Tuesday, but this week we're moving it to Wednesday just because we had some episodes air on Saturday and Monday, wanted to give you a break. So we're going to be talking about our Hawkeye Roundup on segment number one of today's show. On segment number two, we're going to be talking about the class of 2020. That class of 2020 that contains, you know, the Deuce Hogan that we, you know, interviewed a week ago and also containing Elijah Yelverton, a big time recruit that just committed to the Iowa Hawkeyes this past week. We're going to be talking about those guys and also just how historically good this class is so far. And then finally on segment number three, we're going to be

talking about men's basketball, talking about Macy Daly transferring, talking about Connor McCaffrey a little bit, and talking about Iowa's schedule next year. So let's jump right into it with segment number one. On our Hawkeye roundup for this week, a lot of sports are still in play right now. The baseball team lost to Bradley 1-3 in Peoria last week, but they did take two of three games against Purdue in West Lafayette, winning 10-4, losing 5-9, and winning 6-3. So good again. You know, they've been doing a pretty good job of at least coming out victorious

in those three-game series, especially in Big Ten play. They are now 20-14 and 7-5 in conference. They're also 11-3 at home, which is kind of interesting. They're kind of struggling on the road, which makes sense, although they did take a couple really big games from a ranked Oklahoma State team earlier in this year in Stillwater, which was pretty great. This week, actually, as we're recording this,

so we're recording this on Tuesday afternoon. This is going to be airing on Wednesday morning. So as of this time that you're listening to this, Iowa did play Northern Illinois last night. They likely won that game. And they have a three-game series against Nebraska this weekend. On the men's golf side, the Hawkeye Invitational is this weekend. After that, they are getting ready for the Big Ten Championships the following weekend. And men's gymnastics is in the NCAA qualifier this Friday

and possibly the championship Saturday, depending on how they do on Friday's meet. And then men's tennis kind of struggled this weekend. They lost to Purdue and Indiana 3-4 and 0-4 respectively. They did, however, beat IUPUI 6-0 on Sunday. They have a three-meet stand, kind of a home meet stand this week. They play Michigan State on Friday, Michigan on Sunday, They have a three-meet stand, kind of a home-meet stand this week. They play Michigan State on Friday, Michigan on Sunday, and Illinois State on Sunday. And then the following week, they have the Big Ten Championship. So the men's tennis team has had a pretty solid season so far. I think they can do pretty well in that Big Ten Championships, obviously depending on how well they do this weekend against a few other Big Ten opponents. And the men's track team has kind

of an interesting schedule this weekend. They have three different meets and invitationals this weekend in California. The Brian Clay Invitational, the Mt. SAC Relays, and the 25th Annual Beach Invitational this weekend. They've also had the Drake Relays the following weekend. So if you are in the central Iowa area, if you haven't been to a Drake Relays before, it is a fantastic time. I love the Drake Relays. Being a Drake alum, we would always go there and watch some of the events and whatnot.

It's a really great atmosphere and lots of great food around there as well. So check that out if you are wanting to watch the Iowa Hawkeyes track team in action. The women's golf team, they struggled last week and they finished in last at the Liz Murphy Collegiate Classic down in Georgia. Women's rowing, though, did a pretty good job. They beat Wisconsin and Minnesota this past weekend in a double duel in their only home meet of the season. Next weekend, they have a double duel against Harvard and Browns.

They're taking on those Ivy League schools here with the women's rowing team. Softball has struggled a little bit. They are not doing so hot. They are currently 16-21 and 2-10 in the conference, so not ideal. They lost to Iowa State 0-2 last Wednesday, and then they lost two or three games to Illinois last weekend. They take on a tough Drake team in Des Moines before heading to New Jersey to have a three-game series against Rutgers,

a very critical three-game series for them to get back on track in the conference. And then finally, women's tennis lost to Nebraska 2-4 on Saturday. They have meets against Wisconsin on Saturday and Minnesota on Sunday, both on the road. So hopefully they can finish off the season strong with those two big games. And that'll do it, for our weekly Hawkeye Roundup. We'll be back with this segment of the show next week in advance of doing some of that NFL Draft talk. Before we jump into segment number two, though, we're going to be talking about the class of 2020. We do have a few messages from our sponsors, so stay tuned for that right now. All right, we are back with segment number two, which is talking about the class of 2020,

which is historically great at this point. And the reason why I say historically great is right now it is ranked ninth in the nation and there is a ton of time left. So keep that in mind. There's a lot of time for things to change. You know, these hard commits could theoretically change their mind and go to a different school. We typically don't see that as much with the Iowa Hawkeye program, but it does happen. It could happen. Who knows? You know, people make late plays on teams and maybe they want to go somewhere else. But I want to talk about this class because right now it's shaping up to be one of the best classes in Kirk Ferentz's history. And when you look at the time that we've been actually ranking recruiting classes, which kind of dates back to around the time that Kirk actually started at Iowa, their classes have ranged anywhere really from the low 40s to the high 50s. There's been twice where they broke the 30s.

That was in 2005 where they had a class that was ranked 6th in the nation. It included three 5-star players all from the same town in Illinois. It included that Tony Miliaki. And that class actually ended up winning the Orange Bowl. So pretty awesome stuff they ended up doing. But it included two offensive linemen recruit who didn't really pan out as much as we anticipated. And then back in 2011, they had a class that was ranked 26th, and that team actually ended up being the Rose Bowl team that went 12-0 and lost on the last second in the Big Ten Championship. This year's class right now is ranked 9th in the nation,

and again, there's a lot of things that could change here. Iowa isn't going to be going for as many of those 4-star and 5-star recruits as those recruits roll in. They're likely going to be bumping up some of those other schools who are behind Iowa right now. But at ninth, that's pretty darn impressive, especially considering out of all the classes that Kirk Ferentz has had, including that 26th rated class in 2011 and that sixth rated class in 2005, their average recruiting class is exactly 40. So that's a lot of spots higher. And there's a couple of reasons really for this I want to talk about. You know, the first one I think is Iowa typically doesn't get a quarterback early. And in Deuce

Hogan, they got not only a quarterback, but a leader of this class. And when I talked to him on the podcast, again, if you haven't checked out that episode, make sure you do. It was a great conversation with Deuce Hogan. You know, he really sees himself as the leader of this class, and he's very active on Twitter. He's very active communicating with, you know, current commits and Iowa targets. So he's, you know, in their ear telling them how great it would be to be an Iowa Hawkeye, how great it would be to play football with them. And as a big-time quarterback recruit, that really, you know, that really makes a difference with some of these recruits. You know, you hear all these things from the Iowa football staff,

but hearing it from a guy who's committed to that program, who wants to lead that program to greatness, that really means a lot. And we saw it with Elijah at Yelverton, who committed this past week as a top tight end. He was only a three-star recruit, but he has offers from over 30 D1 schools. So I think the rankings are a little bit off there. But when we talked to Deuce about Elijah, he said he's been in communication with

him a couple of times a month. So you can't, you have to imagine that, you know, some of that had to play a difference and had to be a key factor in getting Yelverton to commit to the Iowa Hawkeyes. A couple other factors I do want to talk about though, is the fact that Iowa has Chris Doyle and it cannot be understated enough or cannot be overstated enough that Chris Doyle is an incredible asset to the Iowa Hawkeye football program. There's a reason that he is the highest paid strength and conditioning coach in the country. Just look at the NFL Combine and Pro Days. Those guys absolutely crushed it. There's a reason why these guys were two and three star recruits and then Chris Doyle took them and turned them into absolute beast Anthony Nelson should not test as well as he did he ran a 4-7 or 4-8 40 yard dash

and a ridiculous three cone drill at just over four you know four seconds at six foot seven 280 pounds that's not supposed to happen but Chris Doyle made it happen and that you know the players Iowa recruits come in and want to play and be under Chris Doyle and learn from him and work as hard as they possibly can to get to that point that Anthony Nelson did. Another big factor I think that we're not talking about as much is the fact that Iowa has had a lot of early draft prospects, early entrance to the draft in the past couple years, especially this year where they have two tight ends who are going to be drafted in the first round. Both the guys entered the program three years ago, exited with first-round grades. So that can't be overstated enough.

Again, excuse me on the understated thing that I keep messing up, but it looks good for tight end recruits. It looks good for recruits in general to think that you can come to a program and they're going to build you into an NFL player in just three, four years if you work your butt off. Why wouldn't you join that program? I mean, yes, the Alabamas of the world, they do a good job of churning out players, but they're also recruiting four and five star players. Iowa does a great job of finding the right commits, the guys who are going to commit and work hard in their program, not just the most highly touted recruit. So I think those are kind of some big reasons why we

can look at this class starting to take shape obviously getting Hogan was a huge signing for them there's some great in-state prospects that Iowa has also secured as well and some great prospects in the surrounding states and that Midwest area that Iowa has already gotten on board with but again this is this is a really awesome recruiting class and I'm really excited to see kind of what they can do and how far this class can go this year we'll find out in 19th. That's the early signing period opening date and see who actually commits and what Iowa can do to kind of round out this class. But they already have eight commits,

which is fantastic for this early in the year. You know, we're still eight months away from when they actually officially have to sign. So having eight commits already is really awesome stuff for the Iowa football program. That'll do it though for segment number two. On segment number three, we're going to be talking about Iowa basketball, talking about Macy Daly, talking about Connor McCaffrey, and next year's schedule.

So stay tuned with us on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast after a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back with our third segment and our final segment of today's Locked On Hawkeyes podcast show, a part of the Locked On Sports Network. And just a real quick plug, if you have not listened to the other shows on the Locked On Sports Network, please do so. We have some great hosts that are hosting great content on the Locked On Sports Network. If you like a specific NFL team, we have a show for that. If you like a specific MLB team, we likely have a show for that. If you have a specific NBA team that you like, we likely have a show for that.

So make sure to check out the other Locked On Sports Network podcasts that are available to you. But jumping into segment number three, though, I want to talk about Iowa's basketball. The first thing is Macy Daly did decide to transfer to Akron to play for the Akron Zips, you know, going to LeBron James kind of backyard. This is a really good move for him though. He has to sit out a year just because he, you know, only has, he didn't really redshirt at all. He played all three seasons with the Iowa basketball team. So he has to sit out a year. He hasn't graduated yet. He's not a graduate transfer before playing, but that really suits him well for two reasons. One, it gives him an opportunity to continue to grow his game and to acclimate to the collegiate basketball world.

And two, the Akron Zips have six juniors this year. So in this past season where they went 17 and 16, the Akron Zips have six juniors out of their top eight scoring players. So those guys are going to be gone. They're going to graduate the moment that Macy Daly becomes eligible. And that's a really great opportunity for him to step into a starter's role, which he has never been able to get with the Iowa Hawkeyes after playing in, I believe, 80 games, never getting a single start.

So really awesome for him. Really excited to see what he can do with the Akron Zips. Again, if you are for some reason disappointed or mocking him on Twitter, then that's ridiculous and screw you to be completely honest. This is just a kid. He's going to Akron. He's making a decision that works best for him.

He wasn't getting a lot of playing time with the Hawks and his playing time was likely to decrease next year with the influx of great players that are going to be coming on the Iowa Hawkeyes, whether that's the guys coming off redshirt or the guys who are coming in in part of the 2019 recruiting class, including Joe Toussaint and Patrick McCaffrey. Also want to talk about Connor McCaffrey real quick.

He was rated the seventh best prospect in the Big Ten for baseball. You know, the Big Ten is not a strong baseball conference, but that's still pretty impressive to be the seventh best prospect as a redshirt freshman. I think that just keeps pushing him in the direction of being committed and focused on baseball. I don't believe Connor McCaffrey has a pro basketball career, maybe overseas, but he does have an opportunity to potentially play pro baseball. Imagine what he could do if he focuses entirely on pro baseball. A lot of great potential there for the Iowa Hawkeyes and Rick Heller's team, especially for Connor McCaffrey.

The other thing I want to touch on for Iowa Hawkeye basketball for today is that it was recently announced, some sources said, that the Iowa Hawkeyes will be opening up the Las Vegas Invitational against the Creighton Blue Jays, which is an opponent that they're not really familiar with as of recent. They played them just twice in the last century, splitting both of those games, losing their last one, which is in, I believe, Fran's first season at the helm of the Iowa Hawkeyes. But they are going to be playing Creighton in the Las Vegas Invitational.

But what interests me the most about that is that if they beat Creighton, they then get to face Texas Tech. And Texas Tech, if you are not watching college basketball at all, did just finish as the runner-up in the NCAA tournament this season. So a great opportunity for the Iowa Hawkeyes to really put themselves back on the map and show experts that they are ready to play next year. They are there to mean business. They are competing for a national title. And I think this team definitely has the talent to, but those games will be huge for them. Being at a neutral site is great.

They do pretty well in neutral locations. I mean, they lost just one game this whole year at a neutral location. Sorry, excuse me. Two games this whole year at a neutral location, losing to Michigan and losing to Tennessee. That Michigan game, I think, was a little bit interesting. They're a little bit tired. Their shots were not falling. Against Tennessee, they almost beat them.

And Tennessee is a very talented team. So, you know, Iowa does pretty well at neutral locations. Going to Las Vegas will be the first time in a long time they've been to Las Vegas, maybe even the first time ever. I'll need to check on that to see when the last time Iowa was there. But it'll be a really great tournament to watch. That'll be November 28th and 29th, so that weekend of Thanksgiving week. I hope to see all of you Iowa Hawkeye fans there.

I plan on being there. I have a good buddy who is a Creighton fan. Great opportunity for us to catch some basketball, maybe gamble a little bit, and support, at least for me, the Iowa Hawkeyes. So that kind of ties into the fact that Iowa has a pretty strong schedule next year in the non-conference. I mean, this year their non-conference schedule was garbage.

We thought Oregon and UConn were going to be good teams. They were not, even if Oregon did advance to the Sweet 16. But when you look at Ken Palm's strength of schedule rating, their non-conference schedule was 326th in the nation, which is absolutely atrocious. So getting some of these big games in there early in the season, which will look really good for the Iowa Hawkeyes come tournament time, getting teams that are not necessarily in the Big Ten that are good quality wins.

They also have Iowa State. They're having a neutral court game against Cincinnati in December. So lots of opportunities for Iowa to kind of put a stamp on the map and say, you know, we're here, we're ready to play, we're ready to make a difference in the NCAA tournament this year.

That'll do it though for segment number three of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast as part of the Locked On Sports Network. I appreciate you all joining the show today. Again, a little bit shorter of a show today. We've had some great content, a little bit longer in terms of time content coming at you the last couple weeks and coming up as well with some of our NFL draft coverage with Nick Kendall and Sarah Bettinger, both draft analysts covering the Denver Broncos and the

Iowa Hawkeyes. So we're going to be having that next week. If you haven't subscribed or liked our podcast, please do so as well. If you do like the podcast, if you like what you're listening to, also leave us a review. We love to see the reviews. It also looks good, obviously, for my boss to see that you are loving the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast.

I absolutely appreciate the support. The downloads are going up every single day. So keep on supporting, keep retweeting, keep interacting with us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa and on Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes. You can also interact with me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew. Love to talk to people who love to talk Iowa Hawkeye sports, especially if you do it in a fun and consenting, you know, respectful manner. Love to talk sports with all of you.

So please do that as well. Make sure to follow us all on Twitter at LockedOnIowa or me at Wade underscore Andrew. And again, if you haven't liked or subscribed to the podcast, please do so as well. And if you haven't listened to our previous episodes, please go back and do that. They're not necessarily time sensitive. The Deuce Hogan interview, not time sensitive. Kevontae Martin-Manley, not time sensitive. The Iowa United interviews we've done the last two weeks, not time sensitive. So make sure to check those out if you are interested in learning more about those players or those teams.

And we do have some great interviews coming up from some of the players on the Iowa United squad. So you're going to have to tune in for that later on in the next couple weeks. But that'll do it for our show today. Again, thank you for jumping on the show, Hawkeye Nation. I appreciate all of you tuning in and listening to us on this beautiful Wednesday morning. Have on the show, Hawkeye Nation. I appreciate all of you tuning in and listening to us on this beautiful Wednesday morning. Have a great day, Hawkeye Nation, and thank you for listening to the Locked

on Hawkeyes podcast. We'll see you next time. you