Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - VICTORY! Iowa Hawkeyes Advance, Alvaro Folgueiras & Kael Combs DELIVER in NCAA Tournament Thriller

Starting point is 00:00:00 For the first time in half a decade, the Iowa Hawkeyes have won a game in the NCAA tournament. They get it done 67, 61 over Clemson, and now a date with number one, Florida. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes, your first listening. every day. Well, we are fresh off in Iowa victory as Iowa gets it done over Clemson, a breakdown of what we saw as the Hawkeyes move on to the round of 32 for the first time in five

Starting point is 00:00:46 years. We also got a lot else going on as we wait for the Iowa women to open up their play. They'll get fairly Dickinson in the three o'clock game. We'll talk about that. And also Iowa wrestling from over the weekend as Iowa gets a finalist in and the streak continues 35 consecutive years with Iowa having an NCAA wrestling finals. We'll talk. about that and some fight out of these guys. And I think a lot of positive at the end of a season when there's been plenty of years recently where we haven't had a whole lot of positives. We begin today with the Iowa men getting it done over Clemson, 6761. As you can tell, listening to me, my voice is a little bit under the weather. So we're going to battle through here and get it done. But boy, when you get a win like this and a game that wasn't exactly aesthetically pleasing. We've said that plenty of times. They really slum.

Starting point is 00:01:35 things down. And we knew this was going to be a grinder. Clemson, very happy to play the same kind of style that Iowa does and they're going to grind it out. I was going to grind it out and it was just that. But Iowa kept him at arms distance throughout and raced out to the early lead, played well during the first half half half. And just

Starting point is 00:01:51 were comfortable. They go into halftime up seven and you felt like it should be more. And all of a sudden, Clemson gets it back within two. And he said, oh boy, are we going to get a ball game here? Iowa had outplayed them for such a long stretch and yet it was a two point game there early in the second half and he got a little bit concerned but not the case i will respond it

Starting point is 00:02:10 bennett sturtz hit one of his three pointers as he finishes three a ten from behind the three point arc just four of 17 from the floor for bennett starts as he struggled as a team uh just five assists in the game that's not the number that you normally like to see out of the squad but this was really a game that not pretty but a win is a win and some crazy things that came out of that including seeing Iowa winning a game against a power conference team in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 27 years. That's right. Their last win against a power conference opponent came against Arkansas in that round of 32 game to get them their last sweet 16 back in 1999. Just an absolute incredible number.

Starting point is 00:02:56 The first win in the NCAA tournament in five years. You look obviously missed the tournament the last couple of seasons. before that it was a loss to Auburn and Birmingham. The upset loss is a five seat against Richmond. Their last victory came back in 2021 against Green Canyon. Other wins here recently going back, Cincinnati, they were in the American at the time. Temple also was in the American Davidson, obviously not a power conference team. Losses to Tennessee, Northwestern State.

Starting point is 00:03:25 Cincinnati, a win against Creighton, who was not in the Big East then. They were in the Missouri Valley all the way back to 1999. a game where you didn't have a ton out of Bennett Sturts. We mentioned, you know, his struggles, though, a couple of big shots out of him, just out of sorts. And you can see Clemson, obviously the game plan, as most everybody's game plan is, what they're going to do, try to take him out of it.

Starting point is 00:03:46 They were physical with him, really banging him. I continually want to see Bennett Sturts when he turns that corner, and just go to the rim. You'll get in there and get into the pain. And saw it again a lot, I thought, last night, where we just saw this squad too many times. those we know they're going to run clock, right? We know that they're going to eat up clock and they're going to play at a slow tempo.

Starting point is 00:04:06 But when you get those good shots with 7-8 on the shot clock, fire those ones up because I don't know how many times it was, felt like another half dozen again last night where they did not get a better shot late in the shot clock than what they would have got at that point. Got to give credit to some guys and what they were able to do, starting with Kale Komes. And Kail Combs is a guy that certainly here recently has really stepped up in a big time way. He's had a couple of great defensive performances.

Starting point is 00:04:36 We go back to the win against Ohio State, what he did against Bruce Thornton in that game. But if he could just knock down a three point or two, had a couple of them last night. He's a driver. And what he's playing at that level really opens things up. But of course, also Alvaryl Fulgaris. And we saw it again with Fulgaris when he is on. And though he didn't shoot it great, he got into the post a couple of times, got to the free throw line. he was impactful in the paint.

Starting point is 00:04:59 And a Clemson team that was not playing with one of their big guys, that's big. We know this team, right? They're going to go for the most part as Bennett Sturts goes. However, if you get other guys to step up and Tate Sage, he was able to do that off the bench. He's knocking down. He's getting to the rim throwing crazy shots up. Now, you want to afford the free throw line. That leaves you scratch your head just a little bit.

Starting point is 00:05:19 But overall, it was a team effort. It was a team win. And now you got your sights set on Florida. And that is not going to be easy. It is going to take a Herculian effort to knock off this Gator Squad. We're going to talk about that a little bit later on. Also, looking at Bennett Sturtz currently and some of the struggles that we're seeing out of the Hawkeyes' best player. And you go through and you look back now here over his last six games.

Starting point is 00:05:46 He is 33 of 94 from the floor, shooting just 35% in 15 of 52 from behind the three point arc. That's 29%. Yes, it's everybody. It's not just Bennett Sturts. But in this one against Florida on Sunday, I was going to have to be at an elite level. We're going to talk about the matchup, obviously, what they're going to have to do to pull this off.

Starting point is 00:06:09 We've seen the good thing so far this year from this Iowa team. We've seen them play well against elite opponents. This one, though, matchup-wise, schematically, might be the most difficult mountain for them to overcome. We'll talk about what it's going to take against the gators as we continue. This is locked down. on Hawkeyes. Welcome to the five-hour energy flavor draft with 18 different flavors to choose from,

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Starting point is 00:08:04 Guys podcast. Thanks for being with us and making Locked on Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Glad to have you aboard with us here today. As we got a lot going on. We got wrestling. We got basketball. We got men's and women's happening. So great time to be Hawkeye as it always is. I got the spring sports going on.

Starting point is 00:08:20 Big Ten battles for both the softball team and the baseball team. So a lot going on there. Friday night. How about a sports center top 10 catch from the Hawkeye baseball team? So a lot going on there. And once we get through this busy time with all the winter sports wrapping up, we'll start to get into those sports here a little bit more. Also want to let you know going on right now,

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Starting point is 00:09:21 Gators, if you watch them against their matchup last night in the 116 game, you saw just how good they are. They're big. We've teased the matchup just a little bit and what potentially this is going to look like. Now, Florida got off to pretty slow start earlier this year. Lost to TCU, lost to Arizona in the first game of the year.

Starting point is 00:09:41 Duke, Yukon, had a loss in early January against Missouri. A Missouri team that's okay. Auburn, who we know didn't even make the tournament. But then after that, they ripped off. And they were incredibly hot. And down the stretch, they went out there and won their final 10 games of the regular season. One of the

Starting point is 00:09:57 first round of the SEC tournament before their run out of the gym against Binderbilt. Florida's big. You start right there. And they have three guys inside in Alex Condon and Rubin Chittaloo. Those two together, 610, 611, with some

Starting point is 00:10:15 girth, not just height, they have some thickness to them too, toughness, really good defenders inside. Thomas Hawes, their small forward, he's six foot not. And he's also a good rebounder. Now, the one thing about this Florida team this season has been their backcourt. And though there are guys that were wanted in the portal,

Starting point is 00:10:33 this is definitely not the team that they were a year ago while they won a national championship in the back court because you remember that team from a season ago and they were led out there by Walter Clayton, his shot making ability, and Martin as well, a guy that could really shoot up from the outside. And that's not the case with this squad. Both of their guards now that play a ton

Starting point is 00:10:53 are shooting 28% for Xavier-Lee, and Boogie Flan is shooting 24% from three. But the game plan is simple. Now everybody's going to try to. to do this, right? You're going to load up the box. Don't let them get good shots inside and hope that this is a game where they're hoisting threes and they're missing threes. And it's a game where they probably take too many three-three-pointers for the way that they're built. And all of a sudden, you look up and there are three of 24 from three and he got yourself a shot. Now, if you thought

Starting point is 00:11:20 yesterday's grinded out style was slow, wait until what we see on Sunday because it's going to be, I think, even more of the same in this one. Ben McCollum knows that he's not going to be able to win this game, it attract me. He's not going to be able to get this team going up and down the floor, and that is not the path for this Iowa team to be able to beat the Gators. It is going to be slow. It's going to be methodical. It is not going to be pretty, but that is the way that I was going to have to go. And you're probably going to need Bennett Sturts to go superhero. You're going to have to have one of those performances that we just haven't seen a ton of them recently in this game. You're going to need him. We talked about the shooting woes that have

Starting point is 00:11:59 definitely stepped up recently for Bennett Sturts. And you go through and you look at recently what they've got out of him, they're going to need something like what they got against Maryland when he had 32. He was 9-11 from inside the arc, 4 or 10 from behind the arc, like that kind of performance. What he did against UCLA, where he was outstanding in that game. That's the kind of performance that you're going to need from Sturts. There's a crazy thing, too. As I was going through and looking at the game log and doing the math

Starting point is 00:12:26 and adding up his struggles, shooting the basketball here recently, One thing really jumped out to me is after each game at Ken Pomeroy's website, the analytical base site, that he gives a MVP of the game out in that one. And during the first part of the year, it was almost every time Bennett Sturts was the MVP. He has not been an MVP now of a game over the last six, something that is a huge rarity from what it is. banged up, played a lot of minutes, but need it to go to another level if they're going to have any shot at all against this squad.

Starting point is 00:13:05 Speaking of that, point spreads are out. Fan duel has it currently, I believe the Hawkeyes has a 10.5 point underdog as we sit here today. Ken Palm has an eight-point game, so maybe a little bit of value there. I was going to have to play great. I was going to have to be at an elite level if they're going to have a shot in this one. It's a big team, but I would dominate the boards against

Starting point is 00:13:26 Clemson. That was great to see new. You're not going to dominate against Florida on the boards, but can you keep it relatively even? You can't let them have 10, 12, 15 offensive rebounds. You're going to be in deep trouble if that's the case. You cannot have them be able to do that. But you hang around on the boards, give yourself a chance, slow it down, ugly it up, and you're also playing on the road. I mean, for all intents and purposes, this is going to be a road game, as this one will be played again in Tampa. And if you saw the crowd, a lot of Gator fans as you'd anticipate for that one. After the game last night, Coach McCollum was asked about that,

Starting point is 00:14:05 and he said, bring it on. He's not an excuse maker. He is not a guy that is going to be looking for the easy way out. I like the way that he's built. And one thing that going all the way back to the beginning of the year, and our everyday listeners, I'm sure you've heard me bring this up before, is when I looked at this squad, when we talked about them, I thought they're going to be a tournament team, they are.

Starting point is 00:14:28 Team that can win a game, maybe two in the tournament, here we are. And regardless of how things go Sunday against Florida, regardless of Iowa pulls a shocking upset, gets bounced, gets throttled, your number one was a success. And we saw the fan base start to come back. And we saw a lot of those fences being mended in some, past things that have happened. And those are the things that definitely need to happen. But on top of that, I never wanted to put a ceiling on this squad. And even in some of the down times, and as I get down,

Starting point is 00:15:03 certainly as a commentator, and I know you guys as fans absolutely the same, is I never want to put a ceiling on this team because you have an All-American at the point guard position. That's something that Iowa doesn't have. And you have a coach that I truly believe in. He comes up with the game plan against Clemson that was basically perfect. Now, they didn't execute it perfectly, but it was putting his team in the best position possible to get a victory. And that's the same thing here. And you look through the course of this season. And you go through the number of times that on paper they're out, man, you're going into Ames against an Iowa state team.

Starting point is 00:15:44 That's excellent. I know that pain, some of us to say. And he had a chance in that one. What they did on the road against Purdue. what they did on the road against Indiana. Yes, there's frustrating times, but they had a shot against Michigan late this season. They went on the road and came back against a Nebraska team.

Starting point is 00:16:04 That is good this season. Let's see how it plays out. I'm excited for it. I don't think I was going to win it, but I'm not saying there's no shot, and that's where we are as we go into it. Let's finish things up here. We've got a little women's basketball talk

Starting point is 00:16:19 as they get ready for their first round matchup, and yeah, a wrestling team, showing some signs of hope. Good stuff from Cleveland. That's next. It's tax time, but for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot, trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient, sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth wondering if they really get your situation.

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Starting point is 00:17:26 Today's episode is also brought to you by Game Time. The biggest stretch of college basketball is here, buzzer beaters, bracket busters, unforgettable moments. Everyone's talking about the next day. Being there live for something like that, well, that's bucket list stuff. The hard part is actually getting tickets. Long queues, prices jumping around at checkout and surprise fees as well. The GameTime app gives the fans the advantage with constant innovation.

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Starting point is 00:18:57 Download the GameTime app today. Trent, kind of back with you one final time here, Locked-on Hawkeyes. Thanks for being with us on your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast. Always love to have everybody aboard out there. We're persevering, we're battling through, and we'll have you covered coming up later here on Saturday, as we will bring you a rapid reaction to the NCAA Finals as Mikey Calliando. be going for a title for the Iowa Hawkeye wrestling team. And of course, the Iowa women later this afternoon, they're opening round matchup against Fairleigh Dickinson. We will have you covered in a Saturday

Starting point is 00:19:34 evening edition of Lockdown Hawkeyes. So over to the wrestling squad and Mike Caliando will be wrestling for the championship coming up on Saturday evening. Now he's going to go up against Mitchell Messonbrink. We know that those matchups have not going very well, certainly for Calliando throughout them, but anything can happen, roll it out there. And I guess see what happens. but we talked about success for Iowa wrestling leading into this and what does success look like for this squad where you're not going to chase down Penn State they're on a historical level once again

Starting point is 00:20:06 and even finishing in the top couple probably wasn't a realistic one but I think this paints a good picture. Yes, you're going to be losing a ton off of this squad and it's not good enough for an Iowa program. But when you're looking for signs and there's just been so many times recently where we've seen Iowa struggle at the end of seasons, where we've seen the Hawkeyes just not look like they have enough left in the tank

Starting point is 00:20:31 at the end of the year. And this group battling through on the backside of the bracket, I thought you saw a lot of fight. I thought you saw a program that didn't look dead tired and look like they didn't have a shot here at the end of the season. It's hopeful. It's hopeful. Now the right things are going to need to be done in the transfer portal.

Starting point is 00:20:48 You got to bring in not just talented guys, but the right guys and trying to find that. you have two guys that are just short of all-American status, two of your transfers, and Dean Peterson, and this year Bailey, but I thought both those guys certainly had moments. Peterson was right there with Lilandall in that matchup, going back on the day previous. So, again, good things there. And maybe the best thing, the best story outside of this street continuing 35 straight years with a finalist for Iowa wrestling, the top five streak also, in terms of team standings,

Starting point is 00:21:21 that will continue in for a wildest. this year looked like that was going to be in danger of not happening. But what we saw during that time was that Calliando gets there. But Gabe Arnold, a guy that is giving up 20, 25 pounds to these guys. And not only that, even at his traditional weight, he's a shorter wrestler. And because of that, he's giving up a huge amount of size. And for him, as what, the 27th seed, get All American Honors. absolutely love that for game Arnold.

Starting point is 00:21:55 Just absolutely huge what they were able to get out of that. Love that part of it. And a guy that just does everything that he can for the team. And finding a spot that does not put him in the best spot. There was a while this summer we were wondering if he was even going to be part of the team this year. Alas, that happens. But great work, Gabe Arnold. And certainly of the All-Americans, the guy got to feel best about what he did and being a good teammate.

Starting point is 00:22:23 Finally over to women's basketball. It'll open up today against Fairleigh Dickinson. So Fairley Dickinson has got a good record. They went undefeated in the Northeast Conference. They're 30 and 4. However, you go through, we saw Purdue is not very good this year. They lost to them by 19. We saw Rutgers not very good this year.

Starting point is 00:22:43 They lost to them by 10. Not a whole lot of depth in this resume for Fairley Dickinson. This should be an easy game. This should be, you put it in there. I was a 30-point favorite over at Fandul. Yes, this should be one. You put it in cruise control. But what awaits them, I think that's going to be the interesting part about this,

Starting point is 00:23:02 because we're going to find out here earlier in the game before that. Is it going to be Georgia again, who we saw just a couple of years ago? Is it going to be a Georgia squad that definitely has athletes, has a couple of nice wins this season, or Virginia out of the ACC, after they beat Arizona State in the opening round to get their sports. here at Carver a couple of nights back. That's what we're going to see there. Currently, Georgia is a two and a half point favorite in that game.

Starting point is 00:23:28 Two and a half is currently the number there. Iowa up to a 31.5 point favorite now as we take another peek at that one. Again, we'll be back with you recapping what we see here today. Got a little wrestling going on. Going to watch the constellations, get ready for tonight. We got women's basketball. We got the NCAA tournament happening. It is a great time to be a sports fan.

Starting point is 00:23:47 And even if you're battling the cold, I got you covered here. Locked on Hawkeyes. your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast. We will be back with you again later this evening. And again, if you want to join the everydayer club, you can get your first month for free with the code March. Lockdownhawkeyes. Dot supercast.com.

Starting point is 00:24:03 Get all of our episodes ad free. And you can get the first month for free with the code March. Lockedon hawkeyes. Dot supercast.com. We're going to get some tea. We'll talk to again later today. Until then, go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - VICTORY! Iowa Hawkeyes Advance, Alvaro Folgueiras & Kael Combs DELIVER in NCAA Tournament Thriller

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