Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - What is going on with the Iowa men's basketball team plus the wrestlers dominate two ranked teams despite being shorthanded

Episode Date: February 8, 2021

The Iowa men's basketball team dropped their 4th game in the last 5 in the Big Ten yesterday when they fell to Indiana on a last-second shot. We break down what went wrong, what Iowa did well, and what is on the horizon for this team before diving into some wrestling talk.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Monday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and today's episode is brought to you by Bilt Bar. Go to BiltBar.com and use the promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get 20% off your next order. And on today's show, we are covering another Iowa loss. That's right, Iowa fell again.

This highly anticipated men's basketball team fell for the fourth time in five games to Indiana, getting swept by a not-so-great Indiana Hoosiers basketball team. And it's frustrating. So we're going to talk about that on today's show. We're going to talk about the defense. Why are we still in zone? We're going to talk about two-foul participation. What is going on with Joe Toussaint?

The late game collapses. Can this team win another game? I know that sounds silly, but you look at the schedule, and it's tough to find a lot of wins on the schedule. Tony Perkins getting more minutes. The foul calling officiating bad all around. And what's going on with Fran? Should we fire him?

If he doesn't get far this season, what's the deal? Is this the peak of Iowa basketball? I've been a huge Fran defender on this show. I've talked a lot about Fran and how good of a coach he's been and how he pulls the right triggers, especially early in the season. I've talked a lot about how the players love him. Whenever I talk to players, all they talk about is how much they love Fran, but we're seeing this happen again and again, and I'm getting a little frustrated. And then the fact that he was a complete jerk to the media today or yesterday, excuse me, was atrocious. We're going to get to

that all in today's show. We'll wrap up by doing a very brief preview of the football schedule and men's wrestling. Finally, you know, getting two wins today or yesterday, excuse me. I'm recording this on Sunday. Clearly I'm on the Sunday mindset, but I'm going to talk about Iowa getting two big wins over two ranked big 10 teams in the wrestling market. So let's get to the basketball talk though. First and foremost, again, Iowa loses to Indiana 67 to 65 on a last second shot. And it was frustrating. Iowa had multiple big leads at times and they just couldn't get it done. The collapse in the first half, the collapse in the second half, Iowa needs to be better and they just aren't. And yes, they're missing CJ Frederick quite a bit. It's clear that CJ Frederick is a big part of this team. We knew that though. But when you have a team that is expected to make a run for the final four, a team that people are talking about as a national

title contender, losing your third best player should not ruin your season. It's a big difference. I don't disagree with that, but it should not ruin your season. We should not be losing to Indiana twice. Indiana's a bubble tournament team. We should not be losing to them twice. Now, let's talk about defense first, because defense has been the hot topic. Iowa currently ranked 121st in Ken Palm, and they haven't been good. They've been getting worse and worse each and every game. I thought they played slightly better defense in this game,

but still not good enough. Indiana helped them a lot just by not shooting the ball well. 26% from three, 36% total from the field. Iowa needs to get the hell out of zone. I'm sorry, but it's just not freaking working. Iowa cannot rotate well. They cannot do what they're supposed to well. Try man.

I know Iowa doesn't have the athletes to guard a lot of people in the Big Ten, but they clearly don't have the communication abilities to play zone either. So why are we sticking in zone when we can't guard people and we're letting them get open three-point looks? Those are not only extra points compared to a two-point shot, but also momentum builders and momentum changers. So we need to do a better job on defense, and it starts with switching up and playing a little bit more man,

getting guys in there who are willing to play man defense if they need to. Iowa has a deep bench. Use them to play man. Now we're going to get to the bench in a second because I'm going to basically contradict myself there, but Iowa has a deep bench of guys who can play man defense. We should not be just sitting in zone, letting guys shoot threes all over us all the time. It's getting ridiculous.

But again, Indiana didn't really shoot the ball that well. However, they rebounded the ball very well. And one thing I want to point out too, we talked about, you know, one of the concerns of man defense is the fact that Iowa doesn't have the athletes to handle people on man defense. But Iowa does a pretty good job in the interior when there's not being ticky-tack fouls called to handle and redirect shots

between Luka Garza and Jack Nunji. Heck, even Joe Wieskamp, Keegan Murray, Patrick McCaffrey, those are athletes who can get up and block shots if needed. And we saw that happen a couple times in this game. Iowa finished with five blocks. You look at who got those blocks, right? Keegan Murray won. Luka Garza won.

Dobieskamp won. Dak Nunji, too. Iowa can redirect shots in the lane. So let people try to drive into the lane and get over Luka Garza or get over Dak Nunji. I know it's protecting some of those guys from foul trouble, potentially. But still, I think when you can't play defense, you need to maybe try a few things out. And I think it starts with maybe seeing a little bit more man defense in my personal opinion. Now, I do want to get to the two foul participation because we all know Fran McCaffrey is not a big proponent of playing players with two fouls.

And almost his entire starting lineup had two fouls early on in the first half. Luka Garza got his second foul at like the 12 minute mark and sat the entire rest of the first half. Now I know, you know, Fran McCaffrey had a very jerk comment to say at the end of the, you know, after the game to the media about that when asked why, you know, what was going on with the two foul participation. And here's my thoughts though. I have no problem with playing the bench, right? I do think the bench is pretty good. They had an off night tonight, or they had an off day yesterday, excuse me, 0 of 12 from the bench from the field. Jack Nudgee, 0 of 5. Patrick McCaffrey, 0 of 5. Aaron Ulis, 0 of 1. Joe Toussaint, 0 of 1. That's not going to get it done offensively,

but you've got to trust the bench. You've got to be able to go to the bench if needed. Jeffrey 0 of 5, Aaron Ullis 0 of 1, Joe Toussaint 0 of 1. That's not going to get it done offensively. But you've got to trust the bench. You've got to be able to go to the bench if needed. And the bench has shown they can do some good things. They didn't have it yesterday. We saw that clearly. That's not much we can do about it. They just didn't have it. However, I'm not saying don't play the bench.

I'm saying why are you sitting your All-American National Player of the Year center for 12 and a half minutes? Why? You're playing zone to protect those guys from getting more fouls called, and you're just going to sit them on the bench? He's a very intelligent player, and those fouls were crap. Indiana got a lot of good fouls in their favor. I thought the officiating was atrocious, in my opinion.

Again, very ticky-tacky fouls in their favor. I thought the officiating was atrocious in my opinion. Some, again, very ticky tacky fouls. They're letting some things go and calling about everything on, you know, everything else, especially, you know, Fran McCaffrey got a technical off the Connor McCaffrey block. Um, I don't think his feet were set, but the guy also pushed off and shoved Connor McCaffrey and Fran McCaffrey gets a tee also kind of a weak tee. He just, what is going, you know, basically what is going on here? Um, what was that? And got a technical from that. But, again, I'm not saying the bench shouldn't be in there. I think the bench has done a phenomenal job this year and been a key component for why Iowa has won as many games as they had.

But I don't get how you sit Luka Garza for that long. I just don't. How do you sit Luka Garza for 12 and a half minutes? The National Player of the Year played 28 minutes. Now, he didn't have his best shooting performance, 6-14 from the field. But how do you sit your best player? I don't get it. And when asked about it, I thought Fran McCaffrey had about as mean or jerkish of an answer as you could possibly have.

I'm going to play that for you right now. Just give me a couple seconds as I pull that up. But I thought it was pretty embarrassing, his response to everything. So let me play that for you right now. Just give me a couple seconds as I pull that up. But I thought it was pretty embarrassing his response to everything. So let me play that for you right now. You guys are unbelievable. You want me to play the bench

so I play, I give the benchers in there because guys are in foul trouble. Then you want me to take them out. How are they ever going to get better? How are they ever going to improve? It's a ridiculous question, Mark. You should know better. Are you freaking kidding me, Fran?

That's your response to that? You sat the national player of the year for 12 and a half minutes, and you want to call out a reporter for a question that everyone is asking? A respected reporter. You want to call him out for a question that everyone is asking? A respected reporter. You want to call him out for a question that everyone is asking? Be better, Fran. I defended Fran after the last game. I thought it was fair why he was upset. Sorry, the Illinois game, excuse me.

I thought it was fair. The officiating was terrible. He wasn't directing that towards the media. But you've got to be able to answer that question. The question is, why did you sit Luka Garza for 12 and a half minutes? He's the National Player of the Year. Indiana goes on a run. They have a 9-0 run in a minute and 20 seconds.

And this again, I'm not blaming the bench at all. This is not their fault for losing this game at all. The bench has been a phenomenal piece of this team and one of the best things to watch. It's fun when the bench goes on runs against a Maryland or Rutgers and gets Iowa back in games. They've done that at times. They didn't have it tonight, but they've done it at times. But there was a few stretches there that were a bit tough to watch. Late in that first half, we miss a shot, or sorry, we get the ball stolen, they go down, they hit a two real quick,

Iowa goes down, has a wide open, Patrick McCaffrey, wide open three, misses it, Indiana runs down the court, Patrick McCaffrey blows a defensive assignment, and they hit a wide open three, five points in a matter of 25 seconds, I even called on Twitter, one of the worst, one of the worst sequences of events I've seen in a long time. That was bad. That's how Iowa finished off that first half. That is not a good way to finish off the first half. If you can go into the end of the first half with a 6-7 point lead, and Luka Garza having sat on the bench for the entire half of the first half,

you consider yourself in a pretty good shape. Iowa ends up going into the first half with a deficit after having that big of a lead. Definitely, I think a valid question, Fran, and don't be a jerk to the reporters. That's my thoughts. We're going to talk a lot more about this game, though, coming up on segment number two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, so stay tuned for that. Before we get into that, though, there are a lot of sports going on right now. We got the NHL, we got college basketball, and we got the NBA. You can put a little extra money in your pocket by going to betonline.ag and signing up today for a free account. If you can use the promo code LOCKEDON, you'll get a 50% welcome bonus.

That's right, go to betonline.ag, use the promo code LOCKEDON for that 50% welcome bonus. Betonline.ag is the one place that has you covered and honestly the one place I trust for all my betting needs. I go there every day. It's a lot of fun to put a little money in your pocket by winning, you know, winning some, some games, especially prior to the last two weeks, Iowa was basically a sure bet. Maybe they'll get back on track. Maybe you can bet some money on them, either direction, whichever one you feel and get a little bit more money. And again, go to betonline.ag, use that promo code locked on for that 50% welcome bonus. Don't sit on the sidelines anymore. Get in on the action. Use that promo code lockedON for that 50% welcome bonus. Don't sit on the sidelines anymore. Get in on the action.

Use that promo code LOCKEDON for that 50% welcome bonus. BetOnline.ag, your online sportsbook experts. Get more of the sports news you need in less time with our new Locked On Today podcast. Peter Bukowski hosts Locked On Today, a daily podcast breaking down the biggest stories with analysis from our local experts. Start your day with all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes. Subscribe to Locked On Today wherever you get your podcast at. Now let's turn our attention back to that game.

A lot of things I wanted to cover. Let's get into the bench because we talked a lot about it on that first segment, but I don't understand what's going on. Why is Joe Toussaint only playing, let me check, four minutes? Did I miss something? I'm at a loss for words. Joe Toussaint, four minutes. Did he piss someone off? I think Aaron Nunes has a bright future. Six minutes for Aaron Nunes. Tony Perkins, 15 minutes. I do think Perkins is getting a lot more minutes now because he's a very active defender. He's one of the few guys who can drive into the lane under control.

He's playing very mature. And so I have no problem with Tony Perkins playing. He also had three or four free throws, did a pretty good job in that game. But I don't understand what's going on. Why aren't we playing Joe Toussaint more? Four minutes. And again, it's easy for me to be a couch coach and wonder why Joe Toussaint's not getting minutes but his minutes are progressively declining and I'm not seeing a decline in play so

I don't understand that also these collapses um to me that's just that's that's just ridiculous that's unacceptable Iowa's had leads in all their games and they've collapsed each time you can't do that they had had a double-digit lead against Indiana last time and lost it. You need to man up, play better defense, and hit some shots. Stop taking shots. And I know Iowa and what makes them successful is the fact they can go on runs very quickly, right? You can turn a 10-point lead into a 25-point lead by hitting a couple shots. But work the clock a little bit. Play much better defense. You shouldn't, that's not the time to let up. That is a mental thing at that point. Iowa doesn't have it into closeout games. And to me, that's a really big concern as we head

into tournament time, as we head into the meat of our Big Ten schedule. And that gets me to my next point. What's going on with Iowa basketball? Like when you look at the rest of their schedule, I don't see an easy win on that schedule. They got Rutgers. Rutgers has won the last four games. Michigan State on the road. We saw how Iowa played against Michigan State, and it wasn't very good. And Michigan State gets a lot more calls in East Lansing.

It's a tough place where Iowa has not traditionally been successful. Historically, they have not done well in East Lansing. They get Wisconsin. Wisconsin has struggled. That is a possible. But Wisconsin still is a top 25 team, and they're going on the road. Penn state, not a bad team. They get Ohio state on the road. We saw what happened when they took on Ohio state at home, Michigan on the road. Michigan has been one of the best teams in the country. So this concerns me. I don't see an easy win here from here on out. And I always got to turn it around, they get Rutgers in a couple days, they have to turn it around

they have to finish out this week with two wins at least go into the six game stretch where probably they should have at least gone four or two, possibly six, no you've got to at least go three and three to right this ship you don't win those two games I'm starting to seriously question if Iowa makes a tournament

and I'm not saying Iowa's not going to make the tournament now, but if they don't win those two games, you've got to be concerned about this team I'm starting to seriously question if Iowa makes a tournament and I'm not saying Iowa's not going to make the tournament now but if they don't win those two games you've got to be concerned about this team because that is a brutal schedule they get left Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin sorry, Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin that's a tough lineup

that's a tough schedule to go against and right now is arguably one of the easiest parts of their schedule and they're not getting it done. That turns me to my next thing. CJ Frederick is a huge loss. I know again, when you lose a guy like CJ Frederick, that is not a replaceable guy, but Iowa was expected to be a final four contender. All right. A final four contender. They lose arguably their third best player. Now that's a big loss. Don't get me wrong.

I think Cedric Frederick being back would help them win some of these games. But you would expect a Final Four contender with a deep bench like Iowa has to be able to make it work. They aren't. Who's to blame there? Is it Fran? Is it the defense? Is it the inconsistency from night to night of who's going to actually shoot the ball well?

I think it's a mix of all three, in my personal opinion. Then you factor in there's been some tough officiating. You know, there's games where Iowa gets a lot of good officiating calls in their favor, but the last couple games have not been that way. Illinois, terrible officiating calls in their favor, but the last couple games have not been that way. Illinois, terrible officiating. This game, I thought it was pretty bad officiating in the first half. The second half, not so bad. But the first half, absolutely atrocious.

Just bad officiating all around. Now, I'm starting to question, this is supposed to be the best team Fran's ever had. The most talented team Fran's ever had. The most talented team Fran's ever had. We're looking at a team that's likely going to be a 19th or 20th, I don't know, maybe 15th or 20th in the nation after the next AP poll comes out today. And if they don't win these next couple of games, we're in a serious danger here. Iowa 13-6, lost four of their last five. I've asked players about the Fran fade and they laughed it off, said it's not a real thing. We're going to talk about that on a future episode, probably tomorrow, about the Fran fade and whether or not it's real.

Because right now, it's looking a little real. It's a little concerning. Iowa just isn't getting it done. And when you have a team with the best player in the nation, you have one of the best three-point shooters in the history of college basketball in Jordan Bohannon, you have a future NBA player potentially in Joe Wieskamp, and you have the athleticism that you have on the bench, a bench that has outscored starting lineups multiple times this year. You expect better. I have been a big proponent of Fran. I have been a big defender of Fran.

I think Fran has definitely done a great job of revitalizing this program after the Todd Licklider years. I do not want to put that in doubt, right? Fran has done a great job of getting this program to where it's at. But if they lose that first game of the NCAA tournament, I think you have to seriously question if Fran's the right guy.

You look at the minutes that are being played right now by some of these guys, you've got to question whether some of these guys want to come back. I'm looking, you know, I'd be pissed if I were Joe Chisholm. Four minutes? The way Fran is handling the media and being incredibly rude about things that are on him. That's his fault. It's not just the team. It's not just

these players. We're seeing some inconsistent performances across the board, but Fran McCaffrey has also been an inconsistent coach the last five, six games. He has not been a good coach. He has not pulled the right strings to get these things done. And mentally, they're not strong enough to get these things done. They've collapsed multiple times in the last couple games.

Indiana, they started off well against Indiana the first time and then just completely dropped off the face of the earth offensively. Defensively, they can't do crap defensively. And again, I don't agree with the two-foul participation. I don't agree with how Fran's handling media. It'll be interesting to see what happens versus Rutgers. To me, this was a very important game. This was a do-or-die game for Iowa of whether or not they were going to be a 6-7 seed, 4-5-6-7 seed, or a 1-2-3 seed.

They're not winning a Big Ten title anymore. They're not getting a 1 seed most likely. They're probably not getting a 2 or 3 seed at this point. We're looking at a 4 seed or 5 seed. That puts us up against a 12 seed. That is a recipe for disaster for an Iowa team that cannot defend. If you get a team that shoots hot from 3, that's a recipe for Iowa losing that game

and being bounced in the NCAA tournament in the first round. After all this hype and potential, this is a team, except for Tyler Cook and Nicholas Bayer, Ryan Creener, two bench players and an NBA player. Two years ago, they took the second seeded Tennessee Volunteers to the wire in overtime. the second seeded Tennessee volunteers to the wire in overtime. And here we are, two years later, with the National Player of the Year. We've added

a ton of resources around him, a ton of talent, and we're looking at a team that looks in disarray. We don't know what's happening with this team. So it's very concerning here in Iowa, you know, very concerning in this Iowa Hawkeye community. We'll see what happens against Rutgers.

We'll be breaking down that game on Wednesday's show. Coming up on segment number three, though, we're going to be talking about wrestling and the football schedule. That's all coming up on segment number three of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked on Sports Network. And I've got to tell you about Bilt Bar. Bilt Bar is the best-tasting protein bar on the market today. It is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. It comes in 18 phenomenal flavors, and they have a couple of fantastic flavors coming out as well that you'll

have to check out. Some of my personal favorites are the mint brownie, the salted caramel, and the cookies and cream. All these bars are covered in 100% chocolate, and they are soft and easy to chew. So like I said, these bars taste phenomenal. I love eating one in the morning for breakfast or even just a snack after a workout. But the best part about these is that they have great taste, but they're also incredibly good for you as well. They are low-calorie, low-sugar, high-protein, high-fiber bars. One of my favorite flavors is cookies and cream. 130 calories, packs 17 grams of protein, 4 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of net carbs.

Go to BuiltBar.com and use the promo code LOCKEDON. You'll get 20% off your next order for this phenomenal protein bar. Use the promo code LOCKEDON for 20% off at BuiltBar.com. And just a reminder that we are going to be talking more about some of these things on tomorrow's show. We are going to be talking about the Fran Fade. We're going to be going into more details about the Iowa football schedule and what it means for the Hawks. We have a lot of great content always coming up on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, dropping every single day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Let's get back to the show, though. Let's talk about some good stuff, right? That was a tough conversation. We talked a little bit about the basketball team, 20 minutes about Iowa basketball and what they did and did not do on this Sunday matchup against Indiana. But let's talk a little bit about wrestling because the wrestlers did get it done. And they got it done despite being shorthanded, which is always a tough battle for them. Obviously missing their head coach. They had a dual lineup. That's not

exactly what you're typically expecting either. They started multiple young guys in the lineup and still got it done, right? So Caleb Young was unfortunately held out all American, two-time all American Caleb Young was held out due to COVID protocols so not exactly what you're expecting against Purdue, it was actually a little bit closer than we anticipated at 125 we didn't see Spencer Lee wrestle, we saw Aaron Cashman and Purdue took down

Devin Schroeder took down Aaron Cashman 18-0 at 133 Austin DeSanto took down Jacob Rundle, 23-8 with a technical fall, they were tied at 5-5. Jaden Ironman got it done at 141 with a pin at 346. At 149, Max Mirren also got it done over Purdue's Trey Cross. At 157, in a tough go for Zach Axmere, he lost 18-6 versus Kendall Coleman.

At 165, another insert here due to COVID issues. Purdue's Garrett, I can't say that name, at 165, Iowa lost. Joe Kelly fell and a pin. At 174, Michael Kemmerer got it back on track with a pin at 359. Iowa was up 21-15. So again, a close match. At 184, Nelson Brands unfortunately was upset by Max Liam. 6-1.

Hawkeyes were only up 22-18. Going into the next two matches, needed those big-time wins there. Jacob Warner took down Thomas Panola 9-4. Hawkeyes up 25-18, which is what was sealed the deal. Tony Cassiope over Dorian Keyes 8-1. Sorry, was leading 8-1 before he pinned him at 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Iowa won 31-18. So fantastic for the men's wrestlers to get that win in a closer than anticipated matchup.

Then Iowa went on to take on another ranked team in Ohio State, and they got started hot, 11-0 after Austin DeSanto gets a 19-4 tech fall, and Spencer Lee crushes Brady Kins by a fall of, or in a fall of 1 minute and 32 seconds Spencer Lee doing quick work again Jaden Ironman pinned Anthony Ichimendia at five minutes and 23 seconds Hawkeyes were up 17 to nothing and what's funny about that that pin in particular is that Anthony was talking a lot of crap to Jaden Ironman Jaden Ironman got his revenge, also seemingly hurt Anthony in the process on accident, but Iowa was up 17-0 after that. Unfortunately, Sammy Sasso, ranked Sammy Sasso, took down Max Muren at 149. At 157, Brett Leraina got taken down, lost 4-3 in a tough battle

at 157. At 165, Zach Axmere lost again, 18-3 in a tech fall. It was almost a tie game, 17-14, a close match with four matches left. Michael Kimmerer, though, got that win over Ohio State's Caleb Romero, 3-1 to put Iowa up 20-14. Nelson Brands takes down Ohio State's Rocky Jordan, 3-0 to give Iowa a bigger lead. And then we get Jacob Warner over Chase Singletary by an 11-1 major decision. Iowa closes it out 27-14 before Tony Cassiope pins Tate Orndorff

in 4 minutes and 52 seconds to win 33-14. Awesome stuff for the Iowa Hawkeyes wrestling squad. That was fantastic to see them get the wins. I know it was a tough day for basketball fans, but it is always good to see Iowa wrestling, take care of business, see Iowa sports, take care of business. The golfers also doing fantastic. We're going to talk more about that on tomorrow's show. We're also going to talk about the women's basketball team. I did not get a chance to watch the game yet. I'm actually recording this early in the afternoon before, you know, getting ready for the Superbowl, making some food for a little bit, for a little party between my wife and I, making some good

food for the Super Bowl. So didn't get a chance to watch all that. So we'll be covering all that on tomorrow's show. But the last thing I want to break down is that football schedule. We're going to go into more details tomorrow as well. But just quickly giving you the scoop, we get Indiana at home September 4th to open up the season. September 11th at Iowa State. September 18th, Kent State. September 25th, Colorado State at home. We go on the road to Maryland October 2nd. We get Penn State at home. Purdue at home. We have an open bye week on the 23rd, thankfully, before we go on the road to Wisconsin and Northwestern in back-to-back weeks. Finishing up with the home series against Minnesota and Illinois. And then finally,

our Black Friday game against Nebraska. I have a lot of thoughts about this schedule. I will say that Wisconsin-Northwestern back-to-back is going to be very tough for Iowa. But outside of that, I love this schedule. I absolutely love it. Iowa State is going to be a really tough battle. Iowa State is going to be a great team next year. But when I'm looking at the schedule on paper,

to me it looks like I predict nine wins at this point, possibly 10. I think if you can just win one of the Iowa State-Wisconsin-Northwestern games, that will be huge. Preferably, I know Iowa fans would love to be Iowa State, as would I, but you'd rather win that Big Ten game. If you can get a win over Wisconsin-Northwestern or Northwestern, excuse me, that would be huge for Iowa football. We're going to be breaking down what our early season predictions are on tomorrow's show, though. Again, I kind of gave you the brief hint of it.

I'm predicting 9-3 or 10-2. That's my thoughts going into the season. Obviously, all dependent on quarterback play for the Iowa Hawkeyes. That does do it, though, for our show today. I hope you enjoyed a Monday morning episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Hope you were able to enjoy the little therapy session of walking through men's basketball. We have another basketball game against Rutgers this week.

Let's see if we can get back on track with that. Hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Hope you have a fantastic Monday. And as always, Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks.