Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - The Root Issue of Iowa Football Offensive woes, Bye week hope? & Basketball minutes distribution

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

On the latest edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast Trent Condon takes a look at the root issue of the Hawkeyes offensive woes. Brian Ferentz couldn't come up with a root cause a week ago. Trent has found it and it's offensive line play.And it's not just over the past two seasons, though it has been awful. It's system wide with the Hawkeye running game as the offensive line has struggled and the stuff rate has been high ever since Brian took over as offensive coordinator.Next, Trent takes a look back at Iowa coming off a bye in the Kirk Ferentz era. The results are pretty uneven, but don't give a whole lot of hope that we'll see anything of significance for the team with extra time to prepare.Finally, a look at the Iowa basketball team. Trent looks at the minutes distribution for the team along with where each of the minutes will come from in each position.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! SweatBlock If you or someone you love is experiencing embarrassing sweat or odor try Sweatblock. Save 20% with promo codeLocked On at sweatblock.com. Also available on Amazon. LinkedIn LinkedIn 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 Bar Built 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. BetOnline BetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Upside Download the FREE Upside App and use promo code Locked to get $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more. Underdog Fantasy Sign up on underdogfantasy.com with the promo code LOCKED ON and get your first deposit doubled up to $100! SimpliSafe With Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnCollege to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up on today's Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, Brian Ferencz, well, he couldn't figure out the issues that were plaguing this Iowa offense. Maybe we have found something here. A look at the offensive line and second year head coach George Barnett, just how bad has it been? With a bye week, can we anticipate any kind of improvement? We'll take a look back at Iowa coming off a bye in the Kirk Ferencz era, and we'll talk basketball today.

There's 200 minutes in a college basketball game. How will the minutes be distributed? We'll talk about that all today on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Our Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Glad to have you aboard with us here on the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast. I'm Trent Condon, the host of the show. Glad to have you with us here today

as we talk Hawkeyes with you. Available wherever you get podcasts. Also available on YouTube. While you're there, hit the subscribe button. We greatly appreciate it as we continue to grow the community over there. A lot of great comments and see each and every one of those. Some good ideas, some crazy, but

hey, we're always reading and always listening. And a big thank you to everybody on YouTube. And if you're new to us, hit that subscribe button. You'll find us come into your feed each and every day with you five days a week and get ready for the weekend already is. We look forward to the matchup against Ohio State. So we've talked plenty here recently, of course, about what has happened, the press conference from last week.

LeVar Woods was there, the special teams coach. We got to hear from Phil Parker, but ultimately it was about Brian Ferentz and the offense that continues to be the worst in the country, ranked 131 even after the bye week. Nobody dropped down lower than Iowa this week. They still sit at that last place position in college football. So that's where the questions were, and there were some frustrating elements to those conversations.

I think you can hear my frustration. You can see my frustration that continues with this Iowa offense. And the lack of answers, but not just the lack of answers that we're getting from Brian Ferentz and that we're getting from Kirk Ferentz, but also a lack of accountability. Who's going to take this and say, we're not doing a good enough job. We're not doing this. We're not coaching these guys up enough. We have put this team in a bad position, recruiting some misses, and we'll get about into

all of that. But one of the other concerns and frustrations for me came last week when the question right away in the press conference was posed to Brian Ferencz. Now, where do you point? Where do you look to? And he said, well, there isn't a root issue. Think about your job and you're talking to one of your leaders. You're talking to somebody in the leadership team or you hear them speaking and things are not going well. You're the worst, I guess, for all intents and purposes, you're the worst area of a company. And then the boss comes up and says,

you know, I really don't know the root cause. It's a little bit of everything. That's what we got from Brian Ferentz. So the frustration that comes out of that, because yes, in a way, it is everything. It's everything combined together. We get that. It's not one area.

It's not Spencer Petras alone. it's not one area it's not spencer petrus alone it's not the offensive line alone it's the wide receivers and the lack of big playability that they have there it's all of those things together and then a play caller that continues to be in over his head and brian ference it is a confluence of all those different things together that make this iowa football offense as bad as it is. I get that. But ultimately, the root cause, I think, is pretty simple here. It is the offensive line.

Now, an offensive line that, you look back at recent history, has been terribly overrated. And we went back and we talked earlier in the week, maybe it was last week even, about the 2015 team that won the Joe Moore Award. That was an award that is handed out every year in college football to the best offensive line group in the country so i will that award for two reasons in 2015 one joe moore was a mentor of kirk ferentz the family is incredibly close nothing but glowing things that you continue to hear they went undefeated in the regular season that season so they had a good year and ran the ball well but look at some more underlying metrics that was not the best offensive line in the country and

the numbers bear that out so i got some numbers here for you today and show you it has gone from certainly not what you anticipate with an offensive line guru and kirk ferentz with his son brian ferentz who is an offensive line coach and was an offensive line coach before he was handed the job that he didn't deserve as the offensive coordinator. But look at these numbers and they're really eye-popping to me. And there's a couple of different ways that I looked and found some measurable numbers that you can look at. This is something I like. I'm a numbers guy. I think if you've been listening to the podcast for a while now, you know, I like to dabble in gambling. I dabble. I'm a numbers guy. I think if you've been listening to the podcast for a while now, you know I like to dabble in gambling. Not dabble, I'm a degenerate.

I'm betting every single day. Not the mortgage. No, not like that. But I like to have action every single day. It's just the way that I'm wired. So I like numbers. Something that's always intrigued me. And I like to have things that I can look at. That's what we're going to do today when basketball. We're going to break things down and talk about that. So these are some numbers that help you out a little bit in understanding just how bad this offense has been. And the offensive line play has gone from bad, and that's what it was before that, to even worse these two years of George Barnett. So starting in 2017, that is when Ryan Ferencz was handed the job by daddy and he took over as the offensive coordinator. This is just overall offensive line ranks from football outsiders. We talk about pro football focus a lot.

This is another measuring tool. If you ever hear people talk about DVOA, something that's talked about a lot in the NFL, it is a metric that basically measures everything together. DVOA is the defensive side of things and they have other measurables. But football outsiders, a group that I really respect what they do, Aaron shots and company. I've had Aaron shots on my radio show a bunch throughout the years. And I think they do the work. This is not, you know, just throwing a couple of things together and see what comes out. There's real work that comes into this. So starting then this is our offensive line. Great. Again,

we're talking about across the board, offensive line ranks for the season. 2017, the 73rd best offensive line in the country. The high water mark came in 2018. They were ranked 52nd that year. 2019, number 73. And then 2020, number 58. I hate to read too much into those 2020 numbers. Remember, of course, a lot of teams, including Iowa, played a conference-only schedule that year.

So many players that were sitting out. I personally, I don't completely throw it out, but you have to. I mean, for God's sakes, Iowa State played in the Fiesta Bowl. I mean, that says a lot after they lost to Louisiana Lafayette. That kind of tells you just how wild and hard to read a whole lot into that 2020 season. But they're 58 that year. But now the last two years, after Tim Palaszczuk left and George Barnett came on

as the offensive line coach. Last year, they ranked 112th in offensive line play from football outsiders. And this season, they're at 124. Now, not a surprise. We've talked also about what we've seen the last two years.

The recruiting misses that have happened from guys that have been injured, guys that they anticipated were playing. The youth that they've had to throw out there the last two years, the recruiting misses that have happened from guys that have been injured, guys that they anticipated were playing, the youth that they've had to throw out there the last couple of years. These are all reasons, not excuses. There are reasons that it is that you could say, why weren't you hitting the transfer portal

when you knew you were going to have these offensive line issues? Why weren't you out there banging the bushes, trying to find guys to come in and help you out this season and the season before? That's a great question. And something I think that needs to be answered by Kirk Ferentz, something that needs to evolve. Evolve or die. And right now, even at a spotlight offensive line, they brought in Coy Cronk, who before his injury, he was playing pretty well.

You need to have more of that. And I think if you go to an offensive lineman, a guy that has been around, has got some minutes, has played and has shown some good things, you go and you say, look, this is the amount of guys that we put in the NFL. You play offensive line at Iowa and you're even an above average player. You're going to have an opportunity at the next level because of Kirk's connections in the NFL, the way that the players are ready to play at the NFL. That's another thing you continue to hear, not just about the high end guys. Of course, the Tristan Wirfs of the world, the Tyler Linderbaums, those kind of players. But look at a guy like Larrick Jackson. Went in right away, got an opportunity. He's starting for the Rams. Those kind of players as a very late draft pick or even an undrafted free agent. Ike Becker,

another guy that continues to hang around the league and continue to collect a paycheck. You go to those guys in the transfer portal and you say, come here, you're going to learn what a system is going to look like. It's not going to be throwing the football 70 times a game. You're going to learn how to play offensive line and be more prepared for the NFL. It's something that they just haven't done enough in my estimation, and certainly these last two years.

But I think you have to point right there. When you're looking for reasons why this has been so bad, it starts up front. The offensive line play has not been good enough. Another metric that they have, I think is very interesting, is stuff rate. Another number that you maybe hear from time to time, what exactly is stuff rate? What does that mean? It's very simple. It is the amount of times, the percentage of carries by running backs that are stopped at or before the line of scrimmage basically how quickly a guy is being touched and this is not going to shock you these numbers also have been really bad not just in the last two years but overall dating back to go back all the way to 2015 mention Mention that great year. They're 35th. That's very good. Next year, 44th in the country, stuff rate-wise.

But then it started to go downhill. 2017, ranked 86. 2019, 92. 2020, that weird year. High water mark here recently at number 56. But the last two years, number of times a running pack has been hit at the line of scrimmage or behind the line of scrimmage. Stuff rate, 101st in the country last year, and this year it's at 119.

This is the root issue. Brian, this is the reason. Your offensive line is not good enough. Is this a George Barnett problem, or is this Iowa's offense being antiquated? You can a lot look at these parallels between these two and the numbers that I threw out here and the change in the rules in college football starting in 2018. After that rule is implemented after that 2018 season, 92nd, 56th, 101th, and 119th in the country in stuff rate. Since the rule change, that has been a big, big big number there and looking at the offensive line as a whole

124 this year 112 the year previous 58 in 2020 and number 73 in 2019 i think that says a lot right there it's offensive line it's a zone blocking scheme it is something that iowa has to be willing to adapt the backside guy the defensive end the outside linebacker whoever it is sometimes it's a safety because we know teams are very willing to play eight guys up in the box, sometimes nine guys up there near the line of scrimmage at times. Well, the reason for it is the change in the blocking rules, and Iowa has not adapted well enough. And now we're seeing so many of those plays dead on arrival. Before they can even do anything. You continue to see that.

Root cause. Brian couldn't do it. I did it for you here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. As we continue here, we got a lot more to talk. Football, basketball all coming up. It's a bye week. Iowa coming off a bye week and now ready for the Buckeyes on Saturday. Good thing.

Rest. Recovery. Maybe a new game plan. Has that been true in the Kirk Ferentz era? We'll talk about that as we continue. This is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. From cringing at the pump

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Trent Conant back with you on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Hit that subscribe button for our YouTube listeners. And while you're there also, if you're just listening on podcasts, make sure you hit subscribe there as well. And we will come into your feed each and every day throughout the course of the football and basketball season. Your daily host, Trent Condon, with you.

We got LaShawn Daniels, former Hawkeye running back. He'll be stopping by later in the week. And a big game for him. Obviously, his dad played at Ohio State. He's an Ohio guy. We'll talk about that with LaShawn coming up. Biz, my buddy, also stopped by later in the week. So the offensive line issues, we talked a lot about that.

Now the question is, is there any hope? Iowa's a huge, huge underdog. 29 currently the number as I look at it here at Circus Sports. There are times that Iowa's been underdogs and we remember the past right now recent history this has only happened once it's crazy to think that we have only seen one time in the Ference era since the early years since the first two seasons 1999 and 2000 where Iowa has been this big of an underdog. And I guess the hope is the last time that it happened, Iowa was a 24-point underdog in 2016 against Michigan.

Well, we know how that one ended, 14-13. Now, do you believe that Iowa, even as good as this defense is, that they're going to hold this Ohio State team to 13 points? I mean, come on. We know that's just not a realistic scenario, right? But all right, we'll play the game here. We'll go down that path and we'll come up and see what we can do.

How is Iowa coming off a bye? If we're going to put something together, maybe a new game plan. Schematically, not a lot's going to change. Found something, self-scouting, all the things that you do over the course of a bye week. This will give us hope, perhaps. Now you go back and you look at, of course, those first couple of seasons.

I mentioned that's where Iowa was an underdog a whole lot by this many. 1999, in year number one, they were a 26-point dog against Nebraska. Michigan State, 21-and-a-half. Penn State, 27. Ohio State, 24. 32 against Wisconsin. The next year, year number two of Kirk Ferentz. Game number one, they played in the old

Eddie Robinson Classic down at Arrowhead. It was 120 degrees on the field that day. They were a 29-point underdog, and then 41.5 against Nebraska. So those are the numbers we're talking about. We're going back in time. So looking back at bye weeks, I'm not going to go back to that one.

Going back to those years, it doesn't tell us a whole lot. As frustrating as it is, if you live through this, if you remember those teams as I do, as I was in college at the time and sitting in the student section and shaking my head a whole lot. Yeah, you remember those very well. So we'll just cross those off the list, though. All right. They weren't good. In fact, 1999, Michigan State, 49-3. Plaxico Burris could have had about eight touchdowns if he wanted. And luckily, Nick Saban, yeah, he was a Sparty coach back then. He laid off the dogs. The connection that Kirk and him had, because that thing, Michigan State could have scored 100 that day. That's just how bad it was. That was coming off

a bye. Woof. The next year, 2000, mentioned coming off the Eddie Robinson Classic. They play Western Michigan, and they get beat by Western Michigan. Again, it was early in the program. All right, let's go to 2001. Weird time, 2001. 9-11 happens. The Iowa State game is moved to the end of the season. They finally come back to play against Penn State.

They win it 24-18. Not a good Penn State team. It was a very workmanlike victory, not pretty by any means, but they got the job done. 2002, didn't have a bye week that year. Remember, their bye came in the last week of the season. They finished up the regular season against Minnesota, took down the goalposts. It was great. I was one of the first people on the field coming out of the stands. I had front row tickets right behind the Iowa bench. That one was a fun one, but no bye week that season. All right, 2003. Here we go. Let's see what Kirk had up his sleeve going back nearly 20 years ago.

They played Ohio State coming off a bye, and this is something you're going to see happen quite often for Iowa coming off a bye. They get the Buckeyes. They lose it 19-10. Nate Kading had a touchdown in that game. In fact, all three touchdowns that were scored in the football game between both teams came on special teams. Iowa played pretty well, all things considered. The defense was great that day. Ultimately, the offense couldn't do enough 19-10. That was also trestle ball. Don't anticipate you're going to see the same thing. 2004, coming off a bye, who do they have again? The Buckeyes. This one was at home,

and this was an absolute curb-stopping. Iowa tight in the first half, pull away in the second half. Great, great things happened in 2004, the last Big Ten championship season for the Hawkeyes. So a good one there, getting Ohio State off a bye. 2005, all right, now we're going to get into some scary thoughts. Off the bye, they go to Northwestern. They lose 28-27. Let a 27-14 lead dissipate and lose that one. Came out okay. Bye weekend, maybe there's some hope in that one. No bye weeks in 2006 or 2007.

We go to 2008 up next. They lose to Illinois. An Illinois team that, with Ron Zook at the time, had a lot of talent, not well coached because it was Ron Zook, but lose that game. All right, another frustrating one at the very least. No bye in 2009. We go to 2010. Iowa goes to Ann Arbor and wins against Michigan 38-28.

Hold on for the victory there. That was good. 2011, I was at Penn State for this one, and it was not pretty. 13-3. Yeah, it was an ugly one coming off a bye. Are you noticing a little bit of a trend? 2012, Iowa off a bye. Goes to Sparty and wins. 1916, one of the ugliest football games that I can remember. In overtime 1916, that thing was woof. Hey, they got the win, but it was not a thing of beauty. There were not a whole lot of wrinkles that went into that one.

2013, this was the one that I've heard a lot of people reference this week. So Iowa goes up to Columbus, again, noticing a pattern, goes up to Columbus, plays incredibly well. They're in the football game. They get an early lead, come back. Ohio State takes the lead. Then late in the third quarter, Jake Dusey goes 85 yards for a touchdown. It's tied up at 24.

Ultimately, Ohio State gets 10 points in the fourth quarter. They win at 34-24. All Iowa can muster up was an interception in a punt in the fourth quarter. But came out, used that three tight end system, worked incredibly well, really had the Buckeyes on their heels all game long. So that is the hope right there that you point to and say, and they came up with something new, they did something different, and it actually worked.

Let's hope. That was Greg Davis that was able to do that. Ken Bryan, don't hold your breath. 2014, they beat Indiana. 2015, they beat Maryland. All right, couple of good things there. 2016, this thing was ugly. Now, we know what happened a week later.

We referenced it earlier, the 14-13 win against the top five Michigan team. But the week before, coming off a bye, they go out to Penn State, and they are obliterated in that football game. 41-14, it wasn't that close. They made that defense look silly that day. It was an ugly one. 2017, hey, look at this. Another loss to Northwestern.

Iowa coming off a bye against Northwestern. Not very good. So just to look back at some history there of what we've seen in the past, Iowa coming off a bye. We go back to what we talked about originally, though. The root issue, right? Offensive line. Can it be adequate?

Can it be okay? Can you get the running game going? Because it will take so much off the plate of this team and what they're trying to do offensively. You can't play action if you're not running the football. We'll see. We'll see if that is, but a look back at some bye week tendencies for Iowa. Does it give you hope? Doesn't give me much hope, unfortunately. Wrapping up here, we're going to talk some basketball. That's right. Basketball right around the corner. Practice

has begun. One exercise I love to do in the offseason, it is taking a look. You get 200 minutes in a college basketball game. Breaking things down. Not when they're taking on Coffin State. Not against Bethune-Cookman. We're going to talk about in-conference play,

average minutes during conference play. We will do that as we continue here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Trent Condon here and want to tell you a big thank you to Nissan, our new partners with us here on the Lockdown Network. Worked to create a new segment across the Lockdown College Network titled Thrilling Moments. We highlight the most exciting play from the Hawkeyes game or throughout history of our alma mater.

This week's thrilling moment for the Hawkeyes is, oh, look back, 55-24, the last time the Hawkeyes and the Buckeyes got to get together. We definitely got to talk about that one. For me, there were so many moments in that football game, but I've talked about in the past, the sound inside of Kinnick Stadium, it was unlike anything that I've seen before. I've been there for a lot of big games. I've been going to basically every home game, every big home game since I was a sophomore in high school in 1996. I've been there for a lot of big games. I've been going to basically every home game, every big home game since I was a sophomore in high school in 1996. I've been there for a lot of them. I've been there for every big one of them throughout the history. And there was something different that night against the Buckeyes in 2017. But the opening play of the game, the pick six

from Hooker, taking it in, diving into the end zone. That definitely is a thrilling moment. And that was a great one there. We'll see if we get a thrilling moment for us coming up this weekend. This segment has been inspired by the thrilling new designs featured across Nissan's new lineup of vehicles. Pursue what thrills you with the all-new Frontier Armada. We're Pathfinder today. Available now at NissanUSA.com.

As we wrap up here, we're going to talk a little basketball. I love hoops. It is what made me a Hawkeye fan. Look, growing up in the 80s, we didn't have a whole lot of options. On the weekend, you'd be able to see a game, those kind of things, but nationally, there wasn't a whole lot. Back then, the Big Ten played so many Thursday night games in the Hawkeye basketball network. It was absolutely huge of really my development as a sports fan. I think without Iowa basketball, for me, it was on KIMT up in Mason City. Depending on what part of the state you were, you were able to watch it, though. Syndicated across the state. Luted olson reading his book years ago he

talked about the numbers that they would generate iowa basketball would get sometimes a 70 share across the state that's what a big deal it was and just how huge it was to have those games out of you knew you're going to be able to see some kind of basketball it's where my love of sport and certainly my love of the hawkeyes came from was those basketball games. I love it. I'm a big fan of McCaffrey fan. We might have some disagreements this year. I think this team is going to be good. We're going to talk about basketball team a whole lot. But the exercise I like to do is taking a look and breaking things down.

200 minutes in a standard 40 minute basketball game at the college level. Five positions, right? 20 minutes, 40 minutes out there. Rachel, you got 200 minutes, excuse me, to play around with. So you go through and you break things down. So what I did, first of all, is I broke this thing down individually, each player individually, and a little bit of a reference, taking a look back at last season, some of the numbers that we saw from a year ago. So when you look at those numbers, Keegan Murray and conference play, and that's what we're talking about here today, 33 and a half minutes a game. Jordan Bohannon, 28. Patrick played 25.7. Rabracha, 22 minutes a game. Chris Murray at 18.8. Tucson, 18. Perkins, 17.

Connor, 17. Aaron Uless, 14. Sanford, 8. And on down from there. So that gives you a little bit of a reference point of what we're doing here. Look, you've rarely seen it. Fran McCaffrey out there playing his guys, you know, huge, huge amendments where you're talking about somebody playing, you know, an average of 37, 38 minutes is just something that he doesn't do. I think this team's going to be pretty deep. You know, Fran loves to use his bench. In fact, I got 11 guys listed here.

Didn't put any of the walk-ons, didn't put any of the guys I don't anticipate are going to play a ton. But you start with Chris Murray. He's going to be the star of this team. He's going to be different than his brother. A little bit more of a playmaker. Better outside shooter, at least throughout the early portion of his career. That's something to keep an eye on with that lefty stroke out there. I got Chris down 32 minutes a game.

Next up on the list, Patrick McCaffrey, 26 minutes a game. Rabracha at 24. Tony Perkins at 27. I love Tony Perkins' game. I think he is going to be an absolute star again this season. Peyton Sanford, big jump up for him this year. He's tall. He's added a couple of inches.

We know how he can shoot it. This team's going to need, I think, his shooting ability quite a bit this year. I got him at 20 minutes a game. The point guard position, DeSante Bowen, I got down for 18. Aaron Uless for 14. We'll talk about that a little bit more when we go position by position. Connor McCaffrey, 15 minutes a game. And then the big guys off the bench, Riley Mulvey, I put him down for 12 minutes a game.

Is that a little bit high? We'll see, but they're certainly going to need him to play at a good level this year. Robracha needs some help inside. Big O, Josh Agondale, he's at five minutes a game. And Josh Dix also put in there, coming off that bad leg injury from a year ago, I put him at seven minutes a game.

So you add that all up, there's your 200 minutes. But that's just an overview. So we got to break it down by position. I think that gives you a better view of how I anticipate this Iowa basketball team is going to look this year. Excuse me. All right. So first, the point guard spot. Well, I told you, DeSante Bowen, I have 18 minutes a game. I think by the time we get to Big Ten play, I believe that he is going to be, if not the starter, the guy that is playing a majority of the minutes. And that's why

I have him a little bit more minutes per game than Uless. I also put Tony Perkins down for six minutes. And what I'm hoping for are just a couple of stretches each half. You know, you got the four minute TV timeout. I put him down for three minutes, but each half, so six minutes for the game. Last year, there was so much made about the move of the starting lineup. Jordan Bohannon started the year at the two guard position, moved back to point guard. They inserted Tony Perkins into the lineup. He struggled initially and then just caught fire and he was all systems goal, but go back and watch some of those big 10 tournament games and look how much Tony Perkins is actually running the point with Bohannon on the floor.

He was more of a point guard, I think, than a lot of people realized a year ago. We know what a playmaker he can be. He's so good off the bounce, just so tough, physical with the ball. His ability to get into the paint, really good with that jump stop, fadeaway shots, those kind of things. I think you're going to see Tony Perkins out there quite a bit and also put Connor John just two minutes a game at the point guard spot you're going to use him he's a Swiss Army knife Connor McCaffrey will be

out there a whole bunch mostly at different positions but I just put it down for two to make things a little bit easier then we go to the shooting guard position so we already got Perkins down playing six minutes a point. We got 18 at the two guard spot. Sanford at 15 minutes a game. And then Josh Dix playing seven minutes a game. So those three guys mixing and matching different rotations. We get to the guy that'll probably lead the team in scoring this year, Chris Murray.

Small forward, don't have a ton of minutes. Most of Chris's minutes, in fact, are at power forward. I got him 25 minutes at the four, three minutes at the small forward, also three minutes at the center position at times, matchups, those kind of things when Iowa goes small. Patrick McCaffrey, 22 minutes at the small forward position. I have him also with four at the power forward spot. I have Connor there for seven.

Perkins, they go a three-guard lineup. I guess he would be your de facto small forward in that kind of lineup and a few others. So a couple of things again, Connor, seven minutes of power forward, got him seven and small forward, got a couple of minutes at point guard for Connor and then the center position. Rabracha gets a majority. I got him for 20 minutes, also for playing with maybe one of the big guys. Maybe it's Moldy. Now, can we see four minutes a game where Moldy is playing together with Rabracha? I don't think that's a stretch. I think you can do that at times. Again, it's also going to be matchup dependent, and that's what you're talking about here. Mulvey with 12, Agondale with five, and Chris, when they go small, three minutes at the center position. So just a different way to look at it. This Iowa basketball team, though,

taking the minutes aside, they're going to be fun to watch. They're going to get up and down the floor. And one thing I was incredibly excited about is, as I talked about at the top of the show today, and thanks for hanging with me the whole time, I love numbers. And because of that, I love Bart Torvik. I love Ken Pomeroy. So Bart Torvik is an analytic site, as is Ken Pomeroy, for college basketball. Their measures are a little bit different, but Bart Torvik's numbers for this season have been out since this summer.

And Iowa, I believe, was at 36, 37, something like that, when his numbers first came out earlier this summer at Torvik. Ken Pomeroy, the better out longer. Some people say more respected. You're splitting hairs, and I like to just look at the ones maybe that makes iowa look at a little bit better light or is able to prove my point because i use them both but ted pomeroy pre-season numbers just came out over the weekend and when those numbers came out the iowa hawkeyes were ranked number 23 receiving votes in the ap poll but i have not

seen them on many ballots i've not seen them on many ballots. I've not seen them in many national people's top 25 coming into the year. It's great to see, analytically, those numbers being so good. At least Ken Pomeroy, his algorithm spits out the Hawkeyes as a top 25 team. The Big Ten is wide open this year. There's not a great team. Indiana, a lot of people's pick. Illinois, a lot of people like as well. Some Michigan State love out there. In fact, those are the three teams that are ranked in the

preseason top 25. Five other teams, though, receiving votes. Iowa, Ohio State, Purdue up there. Who else am I missing? It's not a great conference this year. And the wide open nature of it, if you get to 14 and six, that might get you a share of a regular season title. And somebody that has been on this earth for 42 years, I've never seen a Big Ten title. Yeah, we got to go back. 1979, the year before I was born, the last time we saw that. I don't care if it's a tie. I don't care if it's a six-way tie. Boy, if Iowa could find that, again, the development and the continued building of this Iowa basketball program out of the deep, deep hole that Todd Licklider, stealing money that he dug this program into, he has been able

to pull it out. Steve Alford, he took the program to a new level. It was a level down, and then it cratered under Todd Licklider. This program, I understand the frustration. Losing Richmond last year, it's inconceivable. That Richmond team stunk. There's no way they should have lost that basketball game. They did. That's what happens in a one-and-done tournament. They played less four out of seven.

I think they went to 4-1 against Richmond. But it's one-and-done. They were out, and we're still waiting for that second weekend. I get the angst and the frustration that comes with that. But realize, when you look at a big picture, Iowa has an opportunity here to get back to the NCAA tournament for the eighth time in the last 11 seasons. Dr. Tom never had a run like that.

Lute Olsen never had a run like that. This program is back at least to sustainability. I think they're going to be good again, and they're going to be fun to watch. Are there going to be frustrating losses? Yeah. Are there going to be things that I'm going to yell about Fran even as much as I respect him? Absolutely. That comes with the territory with basketball, but I think we're set up here for a very fun year and a fun breakdown of how at least I anticipate before we're getting a whole lot of buzz coming out of camp the way that the minutes are going to break down this season. Well, that'll do it for today.

Want more on the Big Ten? And of course, looking forward to that Ohio State-Iowa matchup. Check out Nate Dickinson. He's got Locked on Big Ten, where he goes around the Big Ten in 30 minutes each and every day. All the big storylines, all the big games. Nate has you covered with Locked on Big Ten. Make Locked on Big Ten your second listen each and every day.

More coming up this week. We'll make our picks later in the week presented by BetOnline. Jace will stop by. LaShawn will be here. We got a busy weekend. Fingers crossed we got a good game maybe, possibly. We'll have to see. That's all coming your way here this week on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Go Hawks!