Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Thank you Megan, Tania, and Hannah for an incredible journey - A tribute to the women's basketball team

Episode Date: April 2, 2019

This entire episode is dedicated to the women's basketball team. Segment one is a reaction to the loss to Baylor last night followed by a few audio clips of Megan Gustafson post-game and we wrap it up by analyzing some of the post-game press conference quotes from Iowa Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder and Baylor's coach Kim Mulkey. 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, editor over at DearOldGold.com, and today's episode is going to be entirely devoted to the women's basketball team. I think it's only right with the kind of season that they've had this year, with what they did to inspire the Iowa basketball community, the Iowa Hawkeye community, and in general, young women and fans everywhere. I think it's only right that today's episode is entirely devoted to that team. Last night, if you didn't find out or didn't know or didn't get a chance to watch the game, the Iowa women's basketball team did fall to Baylor, 85-53, to end their

season at the Elite Eight. They ran into a very, very good team. I mean, Baylor, you could tell just how strong they were. So we're going to be talking about that, though, for segment one, two, and three, trying to kind of break it up as much as possible. On segment number one, we're going to be talking about the game in general, just giving sort of a recap, an instant reaction to that game. On segment number two, we're going to be talking about the interviews,

playing a few clips for you from Megan Gustafson's interviews last night, and just talking about some of the quotes and whatnot. And we'll do that as well on segment number three. Before we jump in, though, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And if you have a smart speaker at home, I want you to try this out one day. It doesn't matter if you're cooking or if you're in your car and your phone's attached to your Bluetooth, just say Siri, Google, or Alexa, play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. It will give you the most recent episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast.

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have any special guests, that kind of thing. We have a lot of special guests coming up over the next week and a half. Some really exciting things. Some stuff I just found out about last night that we're going to be kind of debuting on the show in regards to some basketball, postseason basketball tournaments. Not necessarily with all Iowa Hawkeyes, but some stuff coming up. So want to make sure that you are being tuned in because you're not going to want to miss the stuff that we have coming up over the future episodes in the next couple weeks.

That being said, let's jump right into segment number one, instant reaction to the basketball game. I mean, obviously Iowa lost 85 to 53. It was not the result that any of us wanted. I think going into this game, especially with the way Iowa dominated North Carolina State, I really felt like Iowa had a chance, an opportunity even to upset the Baylor Bears. I knew the Baylor Bears were very strong coming into this game, and I knew they had a ton of size coming into this game. I mean, Juwani Brown is 6'7", Lauren Cox is 6'4". Megan Gustafson is 6'3", and she's the tallest player on Iowa. So, the tallest starter, at least. So, that going into that, I kind of thought that would be an issue.

But as the stuff we talked about on yesterday's show, Megan Gustafson is extremely quick, and I think that honestly showed in the game. She was able to get some of her points. She did a pretty good job of using her mobility and agility to get the points that she needed to get for the team. I mean, she almost had half of the team's points at 23 points in the game. I thought that was really interesting, especially considering that, you know, Baylor's head coach, Kim Mulkey, made a very strong point about how Kwame Brown's mobility was not actually an issue and it shouldn't be an issue against Megan Gustafson and kind of poking fun

and kind of being a little bit rude to the reporters when talking about Kwame Brown's mobility. Megan Gustafson showed throughout the night that she was more agile and mobile. The only thing that Brown had going for her was that she's freaking 6'7". So even if Gustafson got a good shot off, Brown's length was able to disrupt those shots and whatnot. But I thought Gustafson did a great job. Very quick release. Very good job of kind of moving around in the paint and getting off her shots, even in tough situations. And the fact that she pulled down nine rebounds is still impressive.

I mean, she was held the second half without a rebound. But I thought that it was as much to do with Baylor as it was to do with, you know, Gustafson. I thought Baylor did a really good job of attacking the boards and more so than Iowa did. I mean, Baylor has the size advantage. I get that. But Iowa needed to do a better job of attacking the boards and boxing out. I thought on loose balls, Iowa did fantastic at attacking that, getting to the loose balls, hustling and whatnot. But I just really felt like they could have done a better job of boxing out in the game.

And really, the score, Iowa obviously lost by 32 points in this game. So I think I can talk about ifs, ands, and buts all I want. But at the same time, we need to tip our hats to Baylor. This team is incredibly good. Their length was something that I still don't think I realized how incredible it was. Every time Taniya Davis tried driving the lane, it didn't matter if she got past the first two people.

The third person was there ready to block it. Even if she got a good quick release off her shot or layup, they were there to block it. If she did get a good quick release off her shot or layup, they were there to block it. If she did get past the first guy or first woman driving to the paint, there would be another person who would reach out their hands and disrupt the dribble. So just a lot of things kind of impacting the Hawks there. And then when Iowa did have some open shots,

they weren't connecting on a lot of those. Kathleen Doyle got going a little bit, I believe, in the second quarter, hitting two three-pointers back-to-back. I thought that was awesome. But overall, the team just didn't do a very good job of shooting the ball in the day. And that was partly because of Baylor's size and partly because I felt like they just weren't shooting the ball well. And they didn't shoot very many three-pointers, to be honest.

I mean, overall, they shot 10 three-pointers in the day. They made just three, two of those coming from Kathleen Doyle. When you look at the box score, Hannah Stewart shot 3 of 10. Kathleen Doyle was 3 of 11. Taniya Davis was 3 of 11. Megan Gustafson still shot over 500, you know, or 50% at 9 of 17. So, I mean, you just need more, you need more production from the rest of the team. I mean, there was, Mackenzie Meyer was 0 of 5.

Amanda Olinger was 0 of 1. And Olinger was 0 of 1, and Alexis Savillion was 0 of 1 as well. So just overall, not a good shooting performance. Baylor did a good job of disrupting that, but I also feel like, you know, that one I can't really give to Baylor. Iowa just didn't do as good of a job of shooting the ball today or yesterday, and that's, it sucks. It's an unfortunate way to go out, but tip the hat to Baylor. Fantastic team all around. Maybe their coach isn't exactly someone who I can respect and appreciate, but the players themselves did a really great job and worked their butts off in that game. I mean, it wasn't like they were just getting easy stuff handed to them.

They were working just as hard and out-hustling Iowa at times, but at the end of the day, what an incredible season by the women. What an incredible season by Megan Gustafson. What incredible careers by Hannah Stewart, Megan Gustafson, and Taniya Davis. I mean, Hannah Stewart to come back from not playing hardly at all when she first got to Iowa. Taniya Davis, multiple injuries, and Megan Gustafson from small town girl to probably

the best player in Iowa history, men's or wins. So pretty impressive all around. I think that's what I, I turned the game off with five minutes left just because I wanted to remember what this team was about prior to this 40 minutes, right? The season they had was absolutely incredible.

I didn't want to come, you know, leave that game upset or disappointed because I thought the women tried really hard. They played really well outside of their shooting performance and whatnot, and they gave it their best effort. And I thought getting to the Elite Eight, though, is just absolutely incredible. The one thing I was talking to a buddy and a guy that we've had on the show a decent amount,

Jared Starkweather, and it's incredible with women's basketball, the disparity between the top four teams and the teams, you know, five through eight and then the teams after that. I mean, you saw in the tournament, Iowa destroyed NC State. That was a three seed, right? So the talent gap between teams five and eight and teams nine through 12 was pretty evident already. Then you saw a talent gap between the number one team in the nation and, you know, the

number five or six team in the nation. I think Iowa nation and the number five or six team in the nation. I think Iowa truly is the fifth or sixth best team in the nation. They just ran up against the best team in the nation, a team that is probably favored to win the national championship this year. You can't do much about that at that point. But either way, if you're listening to this, I hope you, instead of thinking about this game and kind of where things went wrong let's think about how incredible the season was and how inspirational they were to a fan base that just you know craved a national title craved

a good run in the ncaa tournament and the elite eight is it's pretty darn impressive that's going to go down as one of the best seasons in women's basketball history and arguably just in in history of Iowa sports. I mean, that's right up there. I saw a tweet. That's right up there with the Orange Bowl win, right? I mean, that's the kind of thing that, that's the kind of momentum building, you know, season that you need in a program. So I thought that was just overall impressive. That'll do it though for our kind of instant reactions. We're going to take a quick break and let a few sponsors give you some messages before we come back in on segment number two and talk about a few press conference items. All right, we are back with segment number two. And just a reminder, if you haven't subscribed to the podcast,

please do that on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify, and leave us a review. Let us know what you think of the show. Let us know what you think of the new intro. I've heard a few good things about the intro. Had a person tweet at me and Grant and Ryan who kind of put the intro together. So if you do like the intro, make sure to let us know that as well.

Obviously excited to have that on the show. Kind of a nice way to start the podcast every single morning, listening to the fight song mixed with a little bit of ACDC. So segment number two, I want to talk a little bit about the press conferences. And before we jump into kind of the transcripts and the reactions, I want to play you two clips from Megan Gustafson's post-game interview. Just listen to the emotion and how she feels in these clips. I'm going to play the first one, then pause it, and then start with the second one. Here they are right now.

Definitely what Taniya said. We've all three had different journeys. Taniya is one of the toughest warriors I know to be able to battle back from three injuries with the shoulder and then the two back-to-back ACLs. Today she got her 1,000th point. That's amazing. Diana would run a good battle with anyone else. And, you know, she's going to do great things when she's done. And, you know, I just try to do my job here in Iowa

and just try to work hard every single day. You know, God has just blessed me with an amazing ability to play basketball. And I'm so, so blessed and thankful that University of Iowa chose me, and I chose them to play for them. All right, and that is the first clip from Megan Gustafson's interviews. The one thing I wanted to point out here is just you listen to her talk, and you can tell how much she loves University of Iowa, how much she loved playing for Coach Bluter,

how much she loved playing with her teammates, and how much she loved her teammates. I mean, this girl is going to go down as the best player in Iowa basketball history. She is an inspiration for a lot of reasons for a lot of young women out there. And I'm excited to see what that looks like in 10, 15 years with you have 17, you have 17, 18, 19 year old girls wearing their headbands, you know, just like Megan Gustafson doing the different drills that she is and handling themselves with class like Megan did throughout the season and throughout her career. I'm excited to see kind of the impact she's had on many young females out there. That being said, let's jump in.

I'm going to play you clip number two and then we'll react to that as well. there. That being said, let's jump in. I'm going to play you clip number two, and then we'll react to that as well. I think it's a dream come true to be able to have, you know, growing up in such a small school, you know, nobody, nobody thought this would happen. And so I'm just forever, forever blessed and thankful that, um, you know, Iowa found me and, um, I'm able to, to glorify God in whatever I do every single day. And I'm just, you know, sad it's over, but again, I'm happy that it happened. All right. So I think the thing here is obviously a little bit shorter of a clip, a little bit harder to hear, but I think the thing here is that

she is so proud of, you know, the kind of journey and not just looking at the accolades and whatnot, but she understands where she came from and how hard she worked. And it all kind of pours out in that when she talks about being from Port Wing, Wisconsin. She's so appreciative of Iowa for finding her and giving her the opportunity to have this absolutely incredible career with the women's basketball team. So pretty cool stuff there. We're going to take another quick break. I just want to kind of divide it up. Segment number three, we're going to actually go into and talk about the transcripts and some of our reactions to Lisa Bluter and to Kim Mulkey's kind of press conference stuff. So we'll be back after a few messages from our sponsors and come back with you.

Segment number three, talking about the transcripts. All right, we are back with segment number three, and I'm going to read you a few of the transcripts and then talk a little bit about that as we hit segment number three on today's Tuesday morning episode. The first statement I want to talk about is Lisa Bluter's opening statement. So I'm going to read it to you, and then we're going to talk about it. Baylor was just obviously too much for us today. I told the team that I'm not going to define our season by the last 40 minutes.

I don't think we played our best game. Did Baylor have something to do with it? Absolutely. But I just wish that we could have shown a little bit more of Iowa basketball. But I'm not going to. I'm going to try to not remember this game. To me, I'm going to remember cutting down the nets with these guys after winning a Big Ten championship.

I'm going to remember Tania's results coming back. I'm going to remember cutting down the nets with these guys after winning a Big Ten championship. I'm going to remember Tania's results coming back. I'm going to remember Hannah Stewart's journey. I'm going to remember getting the opportunity to coach one of the best basketball players in America, Megan. And that's what I'm going to remember about this season. I'm going to remember the relationships and just the great memories with these young ladies. So I'm very, very fortunate and very blessed to coach them. And as she finished that up, she was tearing up a little bit and starting to cry. And I've read that a couple times already, obviously prepping for today's episode.

And I just got chills reading that again. The love and the care she has for her players and for her team. And I think she's absolutely taking the right steps. As we talked about in segment number one, I don't think this was Iowa's best game. I think Baylor's an incredible team and that's not to take anything away from them, but that was not Iowa's best game. They weren't shooting the ball well. They weren't controlling the ball on their possessions.

They were running the ball up and down the court, kind of trying to keep up with the pace that Baylor was setting and they didn't have the stamina to do that. And I think it's absolutely crucial that we look back on this season with so much pride and happiness for this team. Getting to the Elite Eight is a fantastic feat, and they did a great job of persevering throughout the year. A lot of incredible memories that they provided us as Iowa basketball fans. So I thought that was a really cool opening statement by Coach Bluter.

She also went on, and obviously she's so full of class. Love the example she's also setting as a coach who's, you know, kind of, there's been some talks, you know, in the past years, you know, she's the right, is she the right person for the job? And I think she showed this year that she absolutely is. And this is kind of one of those things that, this is one of those quotes I thought was really interesting as well, talking about Baylor. She said, yeah, you know, I looked at their numbers

and obviously watched them on film and I thought their defense was good. I didn't realize it was that good. Until you're out there playing against them, how good their defense is. I mean, I hope they win it all. I hope they go on and win it all, definitely. But again, I thought they were a very good team today

as well, and I just wish we would have played our best game and we didn't. But again, I know that part of that has to do with Baylor. So even in defeat, Coach Lisa Bluter handling everything with a ton of class and a ton of respect for the program that they just lost to. Baylor did a great job. Again, tip their halves to Baylor. We talked about that a ton on the show already.

The one thing I wanted to point out, though, is that she talked about how good their defense is and how she didn't realize that. Their length just disrupted so many things in that game. I think after a few shots, it kind of put some fear into Iowa, and that's what we saw later on when they weren't making shots. They were missing open layups, opportunities they had to get easy buckets. They weren't even converting on those.

I also thought it was interesting that she said, I hope they go on and win it all. Personally, I hope Baylor loses their next game. I do not want them to go on and win it all. I know that's a very interesting thing to say because if Baylor wins it all, it kind of shows that at least Iowa lost the best team. But I just don't like the way Coach Kim Mulkey handles herself. I don't like the way she handled it going into the game or after the game.

She did say one comment though that I thought was interesting that I do think, you know, kind of maybe it's a form of an apology for how she reacted and behaved, but here's what she said in her press conference. I wanted to kind of gauge your guys' thoughts on this, but she said, So let me say this about Iowa. I want to say Iowa State because they are in our league, but what a great year Iowa had. What a great player Gustafson is. Just classy. Their comments were classy all the last two days. They had a tremendous year. And I've been in that locker room on the losing end, so my heart goes out to them as well. I mean, for as heartless of a person that Kim Mulkey seems to be based on her pregame quotes and how she kind of acted

during the game, I thought that was about as classy as she could have been. I think there's a lot more class that could have been had throughout the process of getting to the Elite Eight and in the Elite Eight. But I thought that was as close to an apology as we could have gotten from Kim Mulkey for how she behaved in her press conference and how she somewhat disrespected the women's Iowa basketball team to finally come out and admit

how great of a player Gus was in it. It doesn't take a genius to realize that Megan really had Kwani Brown's number throughout the day. She did a great job in the paint attacking her. Lauren Cox did a great job as well. Wanted to take nothing away from her. But I thought, you know, Megan Gustin did a really good job of attacking Kalani Brown.

And even Kalani Brown, she had an okay day. She went 6 of 11 for 14 points. Only pulled down seven boards. So the mobility thing, I think, was a real issue there. As you saw, Gustin was able to get under her, get around her at a moment's notice. Lauren Cox did a little bit better job against Gustafson, but I thought Lauren Cox really disrupted Hannah Stewart the most and really caused Hannah Stewart to kind of have a pretty bad day overall from the field.

I mean, only going 3 of 10, only getting 4 rebounds. Overall, though, that'll do it for our episode. Again, I wanted to devote this entire episode to the women's basketball team. I think they deserved it. They earned it. It was a really fun ride. I enjoyed watching you all.

If any of the women are listening to this podcast, thank you for an absolutely incredible season, a season that we're never going to forget as an Iowa Hawkeye fan. You truly inspired a fan base that needed and wanted and yearned for something like this. So getting to the lead eight, kudos to you all, your hard work, your effort, all that stuff. And we're excited to see what you do in your post-Iowa playing career.

Obviously, Megan Gustin is probably going to be in the WNBA. The other girls will be interested to see if they make a career out of it in Europe or what have you. But we'll be tracking that as well. And maybe we'll see if we can get them on the show. I think it'll be a really fantastic interview. Maybe in a couple weeks try to get all three of the seniors, Hannah Stewart, Nia Davis, and Megan Gustafson, on the podcast. Talk a little bit about their experiences and just get some reactions from them later after they've had a chance of deal with the emotion of losing and being done with their Iowa careers. But I'll do it for our Tuesday morning episode.

Again, thank you for jumping on the show today. Thank you for listening to our podcast. As I said earlier, we have a lot of great things coming down the pipeline. We have a guy jumping on the show, you know, Chris, who's going to be talking about, you know, traveling to some of these games, how you can travel these games for cheaper than, you know, what it may seem. We're going to have a 2020 recruit coming on for the Iowa recruiting class or the Iowa football recruiting class. He's going to be jumping on and talking to us about his recruiting experience.

That interview is scheduled to take place on Monday. So hopefully get that show out to you Tuesday or Wednesday. And then we have a really exciting announcement that I cannot wait to share with you about some basketball items. And again, I can't really go into much details now, but just want to give you a teaser of some really great stuff that we're going to be kind of sharing with you on the podcast for the very first time. So that being said, thank you again for jumping on and joining us with this show. Make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify.

Make sure you are following us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa and Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes. And if you love the show, it would mean a ton to me if you can go and leave a review on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. Thank you again for jumping on the show. Have a great day, Hawkeye Nation, and we'll be back tomorrow. We'll see you next time.