Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - WHAT IF? Iowa’s Near-Upset vs. Michigan – Bennett Stirtz’s Heroics and Final Possession ANALYZED

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Iowa Hawkeyes push No. 3 Michigan to the edge on Senior Night but fall just short, 71-68, after a nail-biting finish in Iowa City. Can this gritty performance signal hope for the Hawkeyes moving forward? Trent Condon and Lucas Strain dissect every dramatic moment—highlighting Bennett Stirtz’s 21-point effort, late-game heartbreaks, and critical possessions that could have changed the outcome. The conversation spotlights Iowa’s defensive intensity, the impact of Michigan’s dominant big men like Mara, and the crowd’s electric presence at Carver Hawkeye Arena. Key topics feature critiques of shot selection, the ongoing struggle with closing out tight games, and the persistent reliance on three-point attempts. The hosts also preview Iowa’s next challenge against Nebraska, share updates on Tom Brands’ return to the wrestling program, and assess the upcoming women’s basketball rematch with Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament. Don’t miss this passionate analysis of the Hawkeyes’ turning point. Follow Trent Condon on X: https://twitter.com/trentcondon LISTEN TO THE PODCAST: APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-hawkeyes-daily-podcast-on-iowa-hawkeyes-football/id1441592240 SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/0GTyz5ygevcGXdTF6QSoEo YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnHawkeyes Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGY Have your cake & drink it too. Birthday cake-flavor is back, no fork needed. Vanilla-y cakey flavor, caffeinated kick, and no sugar. It's party time. Order Now at https://5-hourENERGY.com or Amazon. Mazda Like our players, we’re driven by the details. Because highlights make the reel. What it takes to get there makes it count. There’s more to a Mazda. Because there’s more to you. TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Robinhood You’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Senior night in Iowa City and the Hawkeyes push number three, Michigan to the break. But in a game that had Carver Hawkeyes shaking, Iowa fall short 7168, heart, fight, and one or two plays that made all the difference. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Come in, I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked-on Hawkeyes, your first listen every day, your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast. I've been covered in Iowa for over 20 years on the radio here in the state of Iowa,

including the current spot where I am, the Iowa Sports Radio Network, each weekday from noon to two. Talk to the world of sports with you and plenty of Hawkeyes. You can hear me on stations in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, a Quad Cities, Sioux City, along with our flagship, 106.3 KX&O in Des Moines. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes is brought to you by Mazda. We put that same drive into every detail. Wins define the moment. Putting in the work that defines you. Stay tuned for highlights.

And this week's moving the game forward, there's more to a Mazda because there's more to you. We got plenty to get into today. The Iowa women prepare for their opener in the Big Ten tournament. And they'll get a team. It's already won a couple of games over in Indianapolis. We'll talk about the rematch with Iowa, Illinois, which was a week ago, an epic matchup,

and we'll get to see that one again. Tom Brands will be retained by Iowa, according to a report from Chad Leickeau of the DeBoine Register. We'll break that one down after our long conversation earlier this week about that. But we again with what we saw here this evening, Iowa falling to Michigan, 71-268. A game that is going to leave us certainly wondering what if you get this victory, obviously Iowa. Any talk about the bubble is completely off the page.

as quality of a victories you're going to find in college basketball. Very few teams would have a victory like that. On their resume, it'd be not just another quad one victory. It'd be one of those quad one A victories in the top half of a quad victory against Michigan. But last can't get it done in a night where the shooting was not tremendous. It was kind of the type of game that Iowa needed this to play out. Michigan, they got them to play the style that Iowa wanted, dictated style. but in the end, too much Wolverines.

The size was a difference and a couple of garbage shots that go in, including Famara, bouncing that one in off the backboard. Just absolutely heartbreaking. Iowa had a shot to tie it at the end, starts with the deep three-pointer that was just off the mark as he finished with 21, but not enough for the Hawkeyes. A couple of big stories of this game. First, on the positive front, just five turnovers.

And if this team played the way they played tonight against Penn State last Saturday, they beat them by double figures. If they play this way against Maryland on the road a couple of weeks ago, they win that one by double figures. And that's, in a way, that's basketball to steal a phrase from Kirk Farrants, that's football. That's basketball. You're going to have bad nights.

You're going to have nights where you don't play very well. But in a game where you look at Michigan, they shoot 53% from the floor. They hit 50% of their three-pointers. They get to the free throw line 22 times compared to Iowa, just 12 times at the foul line. They turned it over, though, 18 times Iowa defensively was maybe as good as they've been going back to the Indiana game. I think that's maybe how far we have to go back and the defensive intensity and the effort that we saw from this Hawkeye team. Iowa was tenacious.

They were tough. They were physical. They were doing the things against a bigger, certainly size-wise Michigan team. They were right there with the chance to win it in the end. Couldn't get it done. Go back to those final couple of possessions. obviously the turnover from Tavion Banks, an absolute heartbreaker there.

Guy trying to make the play. Clock was starting to run short. Sturts, they got it out of his hands, got it to Banks. He went with the drive, went off his leg, defensive play. Look, the guy swiped down and hit off his leg. I mean, those kind of things happen. Bennett Sturts, I'll listen to Ben McCollum after the game said

didn't get the switch that he wanted. I would probably like to see something different, just get the ball right back into his hands. But it didn't happen. And we'll have to live with it. But, you know, one thing that jumped out, I looked at a couple of numbers. Ken Palm after the game,

Iowa actually went up in the rankings after this loss in those ones. Winds above bubble. We'll see those updated tomorrow. That is an important metric for the NCAA tournament. But after the frustrations of Saturday, some of their head scratching decisions, that's what you expect. Getting down 10 and battling back like they did,

tying the game back up. I think that said a lot about this group. Didn't shoot it well. Great Michigan team. Really good defense. you're right there. I don't want to play the moral victory. We'll talk about that a little bit later on.

Lucas Strain, who is also with me on the Iowa Sports Radio Network. We're going to join. We're going to talk with Lucas a little bit and go deeper into this ball game. But, yeah, it's heartbreaking. It's frustrating. It's going to be a lot of questions. What could have been in the end? 16 points on Lindenburg, who is incredible.

Johnson had a good game, but Mara, 7.3 inside. His ability with that. size, though, to just contort his body and change different things. Still, that garbage bank shot. It's going to bother me for a long time. That's going to live for a real long one. We'll talk about Bennett's dirt, 7 to 23 from the floor, 4 of 14. And one thing that I've seen, and I continue to see, is Iowa, when they attack the

rim, even against a big team like this, even against a shot blocking team, they're just better. This is not a good three-point shooting team in Iowa. And I just want to see more of that. I want to see more of that from Bennett Sturts. Not trying to get in there to get the 12 footer, get the runner, get to the baseline and try to find a jumper over there. No, get to the tin, get to the rim because A. Bennett Sturts is really good at it. This team as a whole, even as undersized as they are,

they're a lot better than that than settling for a long three-pointer with the shot clock running down. They're not good in that angle. I win the game finishes with 15 assists on 25-moyed field goals. That is a very good mark also. Yeah, there was some. highlights, but overall, Cooper Codch 1-4 from behind the three-point arc. We've talked a lot about Cooper, need to find that shot.

And good, good minutes, I thought, out of Isaiah Howard, out of Tate Sage, need to get the offense a little bit going for Isaiah Howard going into next season. Certainly, Tate Sage, I thought was tremendous, not just what he did on the offensive end of the floor, what he did defensively. He was right there. There was a couple of different times where he was out there guarding Lexenburg. He did a good job, I think, overall, and certainly the size advantage that Yexel has in that one. Tate Sage definitely stood up. Looking at the plus minus numbers for this one,

Cam Maniow, he finished with a plus eight that led the team, plus five for Tavion Banks, a minus 13 for Kiel Combs, but the bottom of the barrel was Alvaro Fulgaris. Once again, Fulgaris struggling in this one, just one of four from the floor and a minus 16 in the 22 minutes that he was out there on the floor. And we didn't see Brendan Hassen. After playing 15 minutes in the last game. That was a head scratcher. He's 11. Okay.

I still am not going to be able to get over that Penn State game. But we're here to talk about the Michigan game. And we're going to break it down a little bit deeper. Lucas Strain is going to join us from the Iowa Sports Radio Network. Lucas's show follows right after I finish up from 12 to noon until 2 o'clock. Lucas is on from 2 to 5 on the Iowa Sports Radio Network. We're going to batting around a little bit, dive deeper into this one for Iowa. Plus some more Hawkeye topics coming up a little bit later on.

brands to return to the Hawkeyes next season and the women's hoops up against Illinois in the Big Ten tournament. That's all as we continue on Lockdown Hawkeyes. This is Mazda's moving the game forward. For those who show there's more to the score than what's on the screen, these are the plays and the players that remind us what it really takes to raise the bar. It's that extra work off the court. And for this week, I'm going with Cam Man Yao. Man Yao has taken his game to another level. And against a big, rugged, physical Michigan team, he maybe had his best game in a Hawkeye uniform. Love the performance. He got out of him. Gritty, tough, finding all those extra details. He was doing the dirty work inside, even undersized at six foot eight. That is what

it takes to raise the bar and our Mazda moving the game forward player of the week. Give it that extra fire. That was Cam, that grit, and I never quit. We put that same passion into every model. Highlights make the real. What it took to get there makes it count. There's more to a Mazda because there's more to you. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes is also brought to you by game time. Well, the biggest stretch of the college basketball season is here. Buzzer beaters, bracket busters,

unforgettable moments that everyone's talking about the next day. Being there live for something like that, that's bucket list stuff. The hard part is actually getting tickets, long queues, prices jumping around, surprise fees when you get to check out, The Game Time app gives fans the advantage with constant innovation. It's how you unlock amazing tickets and experiences in just a few taps. And it's simple to use. The Game Time guarantee means 100% legitimate tickets delivered on time at the best price.

And here's the best part. Fees are included in the price you see. I absolutely love that on the GameTime app. Maybe you're taking a look and you decide I want to go to the Big Ten tournament. Women or the men, they got you covered with great tickets. It's the NCAA tournament on the horizon. You can jump in there. No stress, no guesswork, just a smooth experience from start to finish,

exactly what you want during the busiest part of the season and a chance for you to follow the Hawkeyes. Take the guesswork out of buying college basketball tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code locked on, L-O-C-E-D-O-N for $20 off with the game.

time app. Trent, kind of back with you once again on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for being with this. As always, I'm making Locked on Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast is we're joined by Lucas Strain from the Iowa Sports Radio Network and Iowa grad. Hawkeye fan like myself and, oh boy, Lucas, this is going to be one tough to swallow

as the Hawkeyes fall to Michigan, 71, 268. The Hawkeyes woulda, shoulda, coulda, 71, 68. and a performance that looked much different than what we saw Saturday against Penn State. It looked a lot different. If this team that we saw tonight would have showed up over the weekend, they would have won the game.

Plain and simple, there's no argument in that. This game also went a lot different than I thought it would. I thought Iowa was going to, this was not a matchup that was going to go in their favor in any way. We know Iowa struggles against big teams

and Michigan has some of the best bigs in the entire country. They're going to have the big 10th player of the year. We saw just how good Mara is tonight. He was dominating the whole time. But for Iowa, Trent, I'm not one who believes in moral victories. I don't believe in them in any way, shape, or form. But the way that Iowa played tonight against this Michigan team, I do feel happy with the way that they played.

They performed. They showed up. They didn't wilt when they got down by 10. And we've seen that a few different times from this Iowa team. It's, I'm with you. That's hard and especially this deep into the season to be searching for moral victories. Because it goes from a team safely in the tournament. We're talking about how they can move.

move up to the seed list, stay off the eight, nine game. Those are the conversations. We're just having really a week back and now here we are today. Well, they still feel good. But the lingering frustration that I have is these close losses. Yes. And game situations. And what could have been giving the ball up, not getting the switch and listening to McCollum on the way in here this evening.

And he mentioned, Bennett didn't get the switch that he wanted on that real, not the final possession with the final shot, but the one before that when they had a chance that, was it, 6866 at the time. Yeah, they were dead by two. Yeah, a chance to shoot for the tie or even take the lead with the three-pointer. Still, McCollum doesn't like to call timeouts. I get coaching philosophy and what you've got to do. But Davian Banks took the drive, went off his knee, and we know all the way that it played out.

I'm with you, though, when we look big picture, the moral victory part of it, it is hard. But they played hard. They played tough. They played against a Michigan team. We have seen so many times this year has looked like the best team in the country, and they went toe to toe with them. Yeah, and it's not a Michigan team that had nothing to play for either. Yes, they had already won the Big Ten tournament, Big Ten regular season outright. Yes, they're probably going to be a number one seed, no matter the results, the rest of the way.

But they were also looking to become the first Big Ten team to go undefeated on the road since that Indiana team went undefeated all season long. That's the last time we saw a Big Ten team go undefeated on the road. So it was a Michigan team that had something to play for. They weren't just rolling over and, you know, and I was rubbed their belly a little bit like a cat on a Sunday afternoon. They were trying. And for Iowa, the game plan that McCollum put together, the way that the Hawks were able to fight through this,

you talked about the adversity when they were down by 10 points, for how Iowa to come back in this game, to force nearly 20 Michigan turnovers, they're right there. It was a game in which Iowa, for them to pull off the upset, Trent, they needed everything to go right. And they just missed it by a couple marks. It was that close to being a victory.

All right. So as we're here live on the air on KX&O and also with our video stream on KX&O on YouTube, I do see something maybe a little bit funky happening over there. I'm going to come test your mic here for my side. Yes, I know. On your side, that's the last thing that we want. Before that, though, we're going to try our first other thing here. I'm going to bring up this where we play our audio during the radio show.

We're kind of going behind the scenes here for a little bit for our listeners right now in the 10 o'clock hour. It's a good time to do it at 10 o'clock. Absolutely. This is the time to do it. Let's go back to the first half in one of the few times that we saw Iowa be able to make some shots from the outside. Bennett starts late in the first half, back-to-back triples. Bennett, step back three over cheddar. God, finally.

And what a pressure basket with cheddar at 6-8 right in his skits. Fox's looking for the lead with 37 seconds against. Starts back-to-back. Shooting comment. You could see it in his eyes. He said that first one's down. Here comes number two. You look at how Bennett Sturt started the game.

He was one of nine. He was one of nine at that point from the floor. And we know just how good Bennett Sturtz is. And we know his shot creating ability. We know his shot making ability. We know about all of that. He starts the game one of nine, doesn't show any lack of confidence in any way whatsoever.

So for him to be able to step up and hit those threes like that, to hit the first one. And it's a nice shot where he created his own thing. And then you go back to you. this is a little different. The echo's gone, no. No, no, it's not still there. We're still, like we said, we're trying to do things.

So, so, for, um, four starts to be able to get that first one, and you see that first one go down. When he comes, when he brings the ball back down offensively for Iowa, and that second possession, the second clip we played, you knew he was going to shoot that ball immediately. You knew that was leaving his hands. You could see it in his eye. That's literally what Dolf said in the play.

You could see it in his eyes. He knew he was going to shoot it, shoot it, and he knew he was going to make that one. That is the Bennett Sturts that you needed. And I thought a couple of too many times he dribbled in, not to get to the rim, but dribble to get that 14 footer, you know, a 12-footer, get in right before the paint. And obviously with the Michigan size. I mean, we're talking about going up against one of the biggest teams in the country. And that physicality, that size definitely is a difference maker.

I want to see that so much. Now, when my six-year-old son is yelling at the Hawkeyes in the first half to stop shooting three-pointers. You know what? Let's go. Jack's basketball IQ is growing. And I love that. They were one at 13 at one point. Jack knows.

Stop shooting three-pointers. You can't make them. That was a direct quote from six-year-old Jack Honda tonight. He knows ball. He knew ball at that point because dad was, well, he had different words that he was used at the television. A little more colorful, huh? Yeah, absolutely. Yes.

The language was flying as it normally does. Lucas, I think I've told you this before. There is still nothing that I get in sports, more viscerally angry about than Iowa basketball. I don't know what it is. I'm sure it's something, you know, some deep recesses of how it grow up and how important Iowa basketball was.

But I don't get that way for football. Yeah, I get frustrated. I get upset as a fan. I have those kind of things that happen. But there's something about Iowa basketball that's still to this day as a middle-aged man at 45 years old. And they just, I get. So mad.

Were you getting there when they were one of 13 from three? I was right there with him. Jack, you're exactly right. You absolutely nailed it. Get Jack and a gold tie. Get him on the sideline. Let's go.

He'd be into it. He'd be into it. The Michigan point guard who, Cadill. Yeah, Cadill. He gets called, I think it was called for a foul at one point where he's two arm shoving. And then afterwards he's over there, John.

And then he throws his head back. This, I'm blaming your generation for. your generation. This is a scourge upon basketball at all levels. The throw your head back when you get bumped, I hate it. I'm at the point now. You as a referee,

make this happen automatic technical. If your head snaps back, you're teed up. So I want to see it like, this is worse to me than flopping. This has gone to another level. The throw your head back crap, and he was a big culprit of that tonight,

it drives me nuts. First starts saying it in the early 2010s. That was where Grace and Allen, made his money in his college ball other than tripping people. That's where Grayson Allen made his money at Duke. It's funny, you're talking about looking for contact. I'm going to fast forward here to the end of the game. The possession for Iowa before the quote last one, okay?

They were still down to it was the possession before that Michigan travel on the inbound's play. When Bennett Sturt's got that half a foot of separation, right? Trent, I was not happy that he went for the contact there. I'm right there with you. Because he had the shot. And it would have been a tough runner going away from the hoop. But he was looking for the contact there. And it gave that was tightly called.

There was a chance that they were going to call it. There was a chance. But I would have preferred if Bennett Sturz just went up for the shot normally instead of looking for the two free throws. Yeah. And we saw that I thought a couple of too many times. That's the other thing with Sturts. He is so good when he turns the corner and just goes to the tin.

He's so fast. It doesn't look fast, but he's. fast. And he's six, four. I mean, he's got size. He's got shing ability. Enough athleticism to get up there. I want to see more of that. And that's something that I've complained about for the last month. As we've seen, you know, this team take the step back that we've seen out of them is there's too much relying on the three-point shot. It's not a three-point shooting team. What did Cooper Cotch go tonight? Good question. I know we went five to seven last game and it was a really good game.

It was. Best game in a Hawkeye uniform. Iowa finishes seven of 26 from the three-point line. That includes Bennett Sturt's four of 14. Take that away. three of 12 from the remaining players, including one of four, Ata Cooper, Koch, one of four from Isaiah Howard. Tate Sage goes one for two

and O'Fer 2 for Begall Alvaro Ful Garras. Remember the one three that Howard did make. It was banked in. It was banked in and rattled home. And then I think his next three misses all came after that. All three of them were long. All three of them. One of them might have been a patented Isaiah Howard Airball.

Yes. He's due for one of those every game. He loves to airball along. He loves. How about the crowd tonight, Lucas? So I don't know if you were talking to anybody who was in the arena. And I was talking to somebody. I actually, I had tickets that I could have gone tonight.

But I ended up making the decision not to. It was before we decided to do this anyway. Don't worry. It made me feel bad. Especially if they would have pulled the upset. No. I would have stormed the court. Like I had to.

I would have had to have stormed the court, right? Was it their last game? Last home game was not Nebraska, was it? Last home game. No, Ohio State last week. Oh, that's right. So it wouldn't have been two court storms in a row for Iowa. Okay.

Anyway, so I was talking to people who were in the arena, and they said it was so loud, you could not hear when play was stopping. I don't know the last time that that happened for men's games. And that is something that I truly, truly care about, is that maybe that's the biggest win of the entire season. And obviously playing a team like Michigan of that caliber, a team that is that good,

the crowd is going to show up, right? But for the crowd to show up and have that kind of passion, for the team to play with that kind of effort and the fans to rebound around them and be right there in it on their feet for the last 10 minutes of the game. That's something we haven't seen out of Iowa men's basketball for a very, very, very long time. So seeing that tonight gives me hope for the future trend. I'm right there with you and hope that this team can go out there, play another good game on Sunday. I always like the match up against Nebraska. I just think they match up better when you look at the way that they're built and the way that they play.

I think it's a style that just works for Iowa against that team. Yeah, they're going to be walking into a Horton's desk. We know that the crowd's going to be ready. They're going to be fired up. They're going to be ready to go. But we've gone back to a year ago. That Nebraska team was still played for an NCAA tournament a season ago. That was an Iowa team.

I was not playing for that at the end of last year, unless they had a miracle in the Big Ten tournament. They went over there and won that game. That was a tough environment last year. I don't think the environment is going to be overwhelming by any means or anything like that. it's just Nebraska. Look, if they hit 12, three-pointers, I was going to be in trouble.

If they don't, if it's a rugged game like we saw in Iowa City, then I was going to have a chance going into the final 10 minutes of the game. Important thing to note here is that Nebraska does not play a game during the week this week. They have not. So they haven't played since that UCLA game. What was that on Tuesday? So they're still coming off of that 20-point loss coming back home. Yaxil, that dude is a stud.

He's a big 10 player the year. And why they didn't go through him more? I'll never understand. No, the big to big connection that they had when, when Yaxsburg had the ball either on the wing or the wing extended, so up towards half court. And they were able to just, think of how many times tonight,

Trent, we saw them just throw the ball to the rim where Mara was. And he would just catch it, come down and just lay it right back up. Or he would dunk with, well, barely even jumping. It was clear in the,

about around the 10 minute mark of the second half from about 12 minutes to eight minutes, that's what their entire offensive game plan was, was we're just going to go to, but we're just going to go tomorrow and we're going to let him use his size down low. That is Lucas Strain hanging out with me today. Thanks for Lucas for his time as we're playing around with some different things over on the Iowa Sports Radio Network. You can hear Lucas, along with Sean Roberts off the bench each weekday from 2 until 5 o'clock on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.

Coming back on the other side, some more Hawkeye News. We jump over to the wrestling met and the women basketball team. We look at Tom Brands coming back for another season and the Iowa women. get another shot against Illinois. That's next as we continue, Lockdown Hawkeyes. Welcome to the five-hour energy flavor draft with 18 different flavors to choose from, including new options like confetti craze, fruity rainbow, or cotton candy. There's something for everyone. The board is set. The flavors are ready, and I got my number one pick.

I'm going a little bit deeper down the board with my number one pick. I am taking a look at blue raspberry. It's sweet, it's tangy, a taste that nature just couldn't but should have bold blue raspberry candy flavor bright playful nostalgic taste smooth easy drinking texture reminiscent of blue slushies or hard candy with a clean sweet finish now a little bit later on in the draft i'm going to go a little bit different i think you can tell if you've been listening you know i like the sweets how about sour apple apple that bites back a crisp tangy taste i think this is one deep down in the draft talking about a value pick that is sour apple for me with the five-hour energy draft. Five-hour energy shots give you a boost with zero sugar. Five-hour energy has lots of great

upcoming flavor innovations plan for you. And there are so many fun ones that you can dream up any time when you're thinking about your five-hour energy draft. Find your new favorite flavor of five-hour energy shots available online, five-hour energy.com, or you can find them on Amazon. Back with you one final time. Lockdown Hawkeyes, thanks for being with this, as always, and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. And a big thank you to our everydayers with us each and every day on your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast. Also, you can get Lockdown Hawkeyes ad free with our Everydayer Club. Plus members only Discord access.

Just go to Lockdownhawkeyes. That supercast.com. Lockdown hawkeyes. That supercast. Dot com. Rapping things up and a couple of news items. Chad Leickew of the Desk out of the Des Moid Register reporting through background that Tom Brands will return for the two.

26-27 wrestling season after the disappointment of this year. Dual losses to Minnesota to Iowa State, ending their long winning streak against both of those rivals. Obviously, the blowout losses against Oklahoma State and Penn State. It has been a year of frustration for Iowa wrestling. Mo being dispatched from the team, injuries all over the place. And Big Ten start this weekend at Penn State. If you missed it, we did preview that.

The preview was not very fun for me as I did. it was Zach Seiko from lockdown Nitty Lions, but with Tom Brands, what do you think of a return coming back? It can't just be running it back, right? When we think through this and envision what it looks like, it has to be some kind of shift, some kind of change. It can't be what we're going to try again. We're going to work harder.

And that's the only way. We have to see something tangible. And I think as a fan base, a wrestling fan base, we need to see something that is happening, be it movement with assistance, and coaches. Oh, their training, different ideas. Those are the kind of things that I think us as wrestling fans want to see.

Tom Brands has won four national championships. Tom Brands, I understand, for a wrestler of the stature that he is, the successes that he has, he gets more slack. He gets more leeway, maybe than some other coaches out there in different sports. However, as a fan base, as passionate as Iowa wrestling fans are, I think we need to see something more than we just have to work harder. We'll see what happens after the season, Big Ten's this week. And then the NCAA is coming up in a couple of weeks.

How many, wrestlers were qualified? We will see about that. And then finally, Illinois wins again as the Illini. Move on now to the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten women's basketball tournament in Indy. We'll see the Hawkeyes tomorrow against them. 5.30 of the tip off for that one against the Illini. Go back to that game in Carver a week ago. We saw Illinois just play tremendous.

The great news is, now they hit the eight three-pointers in a row. row in the second half, including nine, if you go back to the one that they had late in the first half, that's not going to happen. It just, you don't make nine straight three-pointers. You certainly don't do it two times. Plus, you wonder about their legs, playing their third game in three days, how that's going to work out. I anticipate Illinois is going to come in confident after what they did in Carver.

Definitely, they're going to have some swagger to them. We'll see about the availability also of Hannah Stolke. That's going to be a big storyline, obviously, to keep an eye on as well of what her availability is going to be. I will keep an eye on that on Friday. Back with you tomorrow for your Friday edition of Lockdown Hawkeyes. Tom Kaker, will join us from Hawkeye Report.com as he does on Friday. And we'll do it on Friday evening as we'll recap that Illinois matchup for the Hawkeye women. I will come back with you with a late edition on Friday and get you through the weekend.

That'll do it for today as always. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes, your first listen every single day. Again, go over to lockdown hawkeyes. If you're interested in joining our everydayer club, you can get locked on Hawkeyes, the same show you listen to every day, but do it ad free and support what we're doing here for you each and every day. Thanks for joining us, tough one tonight, but hey, good news. As always, we love the Hawkeyes. We'll talk to you again tomorrow until then.

Go Hawks.