Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - What went wrong for the Iowa Hawkeyes in the loss to Michigan

Episode Date: February 26, 2021

The Iowa Hawkeyes got blown out by Michigan in Ann Arbor last night. We break down what went well (not a lot), what went wrong and talk about the remaining positives for the season.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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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 Friday 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 we're going to be talking about the depressing showing that Iowa put on last night versus Michigan, losing 79-57, their worst loss of the season by far. We're going to be talking all about that on today's show. Talk about the good, if there was any, and there's a little bit. Talk about the bad, what went wrong, and why it went wrong.

So, kick it off. Iowa loses 79-57, and I think it starts and stops with the matchup down low. Luka Garza, 6-19 from the field, minus 9, plus minus, two turnovers. He did have three steals. Good for him. One block and four rebounds. He played 33 minutes. He got absolutely neutralized by a true freshman in Hunter Dickinson. Now, coming into this game, I talked with Isaiah Holt from Lockdown Wolverines,

and I talked a lot about the center play and the matchups of Hunter Dickinson. He hasn't played a lot of good centers. And when he has, he hasn't fared as well. He played Travian Williams once. He played Liam Robbins twice. One game against Liam Robbins, Hunter Dickinson played really well. And another matchup against Liam Robbins, he played pretty poorly. He also played pretty poorly when he played Travian Williams.

I thought coming into this game, that would be a really key matchup to watch, as did everyone, but I really thought that was a matchup advantage for Iowa. Now, offensively, Hunter Dickinson didn't have the best game. He played 23 minutes, got into some foul trouble, scored 14 points, went 6 of 13 from the field, but nabbed 8 rebounds. He also had 2 blocks. Offensively, an okay game. Not a bad game. I thought Luka Garza did a solid job defensively against Hunter Dickinson.

Defensively, Hunter Dickinson absolutely shut Luka Garza down, and that was the difference in this game. Iowa's offense is predicated on Luka Garza drawing double teams, finding an open guy, and hitting an open three. It's not easy to do that when Michigan doesn't double team Luka Garza ever. I can't remember, I couldn't remember a single time where they were double teaming Luka.

They just allowed Hunter Dickinson to handle Luka Garza the entire game, and he did a fantastic job. So hats off to the true freshman. Just basically made a National Player of the Year candidate, which is a little bit dicey. I mean, it's hard to – I know it's just one game, but that is a tough game for Luka Garza. He basically made a National Player of the Year candidate,

the front runner, completely ineffective in this game. I know Luka Garza still got 16 points. That's what happens when you take 19 shots, over a third of your team's shots coming from Luka Garza. He got some good looks. Just nothing was rolling in. None of the baskets were working, and that's kind of been the trend the last couple weeks for Luka Garza.

So, frustrating to watch Joey's camp he has been playing phenomenal the last couple weeks struggled a little bit in the last matchup but uh not a great game either minus 10 plus minus four of nine from the field didn't really get going only had 11 points five rebounds couldn't really take over the game like we were hoping you would expect if Luka Garza was struggling in Joey's camp. And a lot of that goes down to Michigan has athletic defenders who can neutralize Iowa's entire offense. They just played man and handled Iowa easy.

Iowa doesn't have the athletes to drive on them. They didn't have the double team Luka Garza. They didn't do any of that. They were able to basically man up on all Iowa shooters and stop them. And you gotta give your hats off to Michigan here. I mean, what a performance by Michigan. I'm impressed.

I knew they were a good team coming into tonight, but you also have to look at it with some optimism there and the fact that they haven't really played a ton of good teams. They haven't. I mean, look at their best win was Ohio State. That's a good win. Don't get me wrong. That's a really good win.

But they haven't played Illinois. They haven't played Iowa. So you would think Iowa should be able to handle them or at least be able to match up better. I thought it was going to be a closer game. It was not. Definitely got out of hand that second half. The first half looked pretty solid.

I thought, you know, and to be funny, to be fair, someone texted me, how do you think that second half is going to go? And I had bad feeling, real bad feeling. I just didn't think Iowa's defense could hold up, and I felt like Michigan was going to get going soon. And you could tell Iowa couldn't get anything going offensively. And I was right. Iowa with their lowest point total of the season.

57 points. The next lowest total they've had this entire season? 65 points against Indiana. 65 points against Indiana. They were just annihilated offensively. They couldn't do anything. And it goes back to the fact that they couldn't put pressure on the defense. They couldn't get a lot of good looks.

They were struggling. Luka Garza couldn't get much from going at the rim. They shot decent from 3 points, 32%, 6 of 19 shooting. I mean, a lot of those looks were tough, though. They weren't getting a lot of good looks. They were struggling. Luka Garza couldn't get much from going at the rim. They shot decent from three point, 32%, six of 19 shooting. I mean, a lot of those looks were tough, though. They weren't getting a lot of open looks. And when they were, they weren't hitting them. So not the best three-point shooting night for Iowa, but especially considering they did get some open looks.

Field goal percentage overall, 36%, not ideal. There's a couple, especially when Michigan went on that run, I think Fran had three of the bench players in and it got sloppy. They were not doing exactly what you would need a bench team to do. They were being very careless with the ball, which helped get an even bigger lead for Michigan. You also got to talk about the officiating. I thought the officiating overall was atrocious on both sides. It felt like Luka Garza was getting fouled almost

every time down the court. And of course, Juwan Howard gets any call he wants and he can scream at the officials and not get a single technical for that. But Fran McCaffrey asked the same question and he gets a technical. So I think you can clearly see some of the bias in the Big Ten here against Fran McCaffrey. And I know Fran McCaffrey has a history of blowing up, but I think when he does, it's rightfully so. It's at the bat officiating. So I want to talk a little bit more about this game. Then we're going to get into some of the positives going into segment two and three.

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Now let's turn our attention back to that dismal showing last night, Iowa versus Michigan. Now, again, Iowa just couldn't do anything. Michigan is a good team. They are a very good team. So, you know, hats off to them. They did a great job against Iowa. I think Iowa could have shot the ball a little better.

Luka Garza is typically going to get a few more rolling in the right way. But overall, good on Michigan. A couple things I want to cover. Jack Nunji going down after just a minute of play, non-contact injury. That is a scary sight. Jack Nunji did not return for the rest of the game. A guy with a history of injuries. And you have to think, is this season ending? It looked kind of like it. It looked like he knew exactly what happened he touched the inside of his right leg went down and couldn't really move I think we have to start preparing for life without Jack Nungi this season and you know I don't want to speculate but but three major injuries. It's hard to imagine what kind of player he can be after that. And I think it's super unfortunate.

Everything he's had to go through, the adversity. I want nothing more than success for Jack Nunji. And that hurts more than the loss is to see a guy like him who has worked so hard and has had such an adverse offseason who has struggled with things this offseason, losing his father and coming back from another injury. And dealing with all that and to have this happen at this juncture in the season, that's so tough to see. But we will update you once we get more news on that.

Connor McCaffrey also getting injured, going down with an apparent ankle injury. You hate to see that as well. Now, Connor McCaffrey, some people in Iowa Hawkeye Nation love him. Some people in Iowa Hawkeye Nation don't know how he has a scholarship. I am one of those who loves him. I think Connor McCaffrey is a very valuable asset to the team. What he does from a passing perspective

and an overall court vision and court awareness and IQ perspective is parallel to none, in my opinion, on the team and in the nation. Connor McCaffrey is a phenomenal player, and what he does does not show up in the box score. And him being out is huge. It makes Iowa have to go pretty deep to their bench, which I thought was interesting because Iowa chose to not go to Joe Toussaint. Seven minutes of action. Fran McCaffrey really rode his starters here. 33 minutes for Jordan Bohannon, 33 minutes for Luka Garza, 31 for Frederick, 29 for Wieskamp, 22 for Keegan Murray,

14 for Patrick McCaffrey, 7 for Joe Toussaint, 6 for Aaron. So you've got to wonder, where is Joe Toussaint in this rotation? I know he's struggled a little bit. He only played 7 minutes, had a minus 11 plus minus. He's been struggling. We talked about this. The turnovers are a killer, so maybe that's why. But you have to think that when Iowa is getting manned up like that and they can't drive on Michigan,

you need guys who can get to the basket with ease. And Joe Toussaint is one of the few guys on our team who can do that. And it's interesting to see him not get more than seven minutes, especially with Connor McCaffrey out. So, yeah, it was frustrating. Tough, tough game to watch. I mean, rebounding was bad again. 39-31 Michigan, winning that advantage.

12-6 offensive rebounds. Michigan forced Iowa into one of their worst offensive games I've seen in a long time. Not necessarily shooting-wise. Iowa shot a little bit better than some of their worst games shooting wise, but look at the assist. Iowa is a team that predicates itself on ball movement and, you know, finding the open guy and getting, you know, not necessarily requiring assists, but you're often going to get a lot of assists when you watch this Iowa basketball team play, you're going to see a lot of assists happen and they just couldn't do anything. A season low

four assists on the night. The last time they had under 13 assists was Indiana. They've only had two games this year where they've had under 13 assists and that was the loss to Indiana. You hate to see it. You really hate to see it. Despite really hate to see it.

They didn't even, I mean, and despite the second team, you know, playing pretty sloppily, nine turnovers is not overall that bad. They couldn't do anything against Michigan. And credit again to Michigan. We talked to Isaiah Hull, a team that's very patient, very good with the ball, willing to find the open guy. Michigan only six turnovers, 13 assists. They did a fantastic job.

Again, kudos to Michigan. They played phenomenal in this game. They shot 47%, which is the fifth best mark of the season against Iowa for overall field goal percentage. They shot 47% from three, which is the second best mark against Iowa. We've talked about this defense being defense being better the first half I thought they did a fantastic job the second half I didn't think they did that poorly to be honest I think it part of it's you know having a smaller bench when you lose two guys two guys who play

key minutes you're going to have to rely on the stars a little more and our starters are not as athletic as michigan and michigan again did a great job very patient offensively able to beat us off the dribble and they did and they found open looks as well again hit 47 of their shots so um good for second best michigan is a number one team in the nation they are a top four team they are a number one seed uh if there's any doubt in my mind before this game, it has been eradicated. They are going to win the Big Ten conference title. Iowa's not. They have no chance at this point. It is off the table. Every scenario possible, it is gone. Iowa has no chance. They still have a very good chance of getting a double

buy, which will help them increase their tournament resume for the NCAA tournament. And I think we have to start looking at what is the best, most achievable schedule for Iowa coming into this tournament, because I truly don't believe Iowa can match up with Michigan. I don't think they can match up with Baylor. We saw what happened against Gonzaga. I thought they can match up with Michigan. I don't think they can match up with Baylor. We saw what happened against Gonzaga. I thought they could match up with Gonzaga. But when you get an athletic team that can shoot the ball and is patient,

that's going to hurt Iowa every single time. And I think that's kind of what I realized last night with Iowa losing to Michigan is the fact that the ceiling is not as high as we thought. This is a very high-quality Iowa basketball team. This is probably the best basketball team we've seen from Iowa in 20 years. Unfortunately, that's not good enough. I mean, if you get a team that's as strong defensively as Michigan, Michigan's a very good defensive team.

Iowa couldn't do anything. It didn't matter how good their offense was. I know Jack Nunji's a huge loss Connor McCaffrey is a huge loss but for what Iowa does and what makes them successful it is not all on Connor McCaffrey and Jack Nunji those are fourth and fourth fifth sixth seventh options at best it boils down to Jordan Bohannon Luca Garza CJ Frederick and Joey's camp those are the guys who make this offense hum. The other guys are just ancillary chess pieces that play a very key role. And so I know we were losing two guys, but that's no excuse. Iowa clearly is not a Final Four team.

And I think it's important for Iowa fans to realize that unless something drastically changes, we are not a final 14 now we can go pretty far still all of it depends on matchups we could get a surprising matchup in the sweet 16 against you know what if we got you know if we get a team like a Wisconsin right that that's a team that could make the sweet 16 get given their matchups and that would get us to elite eight but I think once you get to that spot, you're playing teams that play a high level offense and defense. And especially if, you know, Jack nudged out for the season that makes us go to our bench. I don't think we have an opportunity to get past that. I hope I'm wrong. I really do hope I'm wrong. But what I saw against Michigan left me pretty deflated

with what this team can ultimately do. Again, I love this team. I love the players. It has been a lot of fun watching them. But some might say don't overreact to that game. I think you can. I think that's a pretty big game. I think it's a pretty big game that it's tough to come away with that game

with a lot of hope and optimism for Iowa making a deep, deep run. Now, again, I think Iowa has the potential to go to the Elite Eight. I think that's about the ceiling for them. And, again, it's all very matchup-based. This is a team that if they could get a bad matchup in the second round, they're not advancing. I truly believe that. So we saw what happened. They neutralized Luka Garza.

They were able to guard our wings, and we couldn't hit open shots. So coming up though, on segment number three, we're going to get into some positives, talk a little bit more about what the rest of the season holds. Um, that's all coming up on segment number three of the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

Before we get into that though, you know, I got to tell you about some awesome stuff. So let me drop some ads in here and listen to that. And then we're going to get back into the show. Go behind the scenes of the game you love and get all sides of the story with the Rejecting the Screen podcast.

Each week, Noah Kozlov and Adam Stanko get personal while interviewing players, coaches, media members, all the people who make the NBA happen. Subscribe to Rejecting the Screen wherever you get your podcast at. Now, let's get into some potential positives with this game. You got to like what you see from Keegan Murray every game. Just phenomenal. He has been a key cog. Again, we could talk about him for days. I thought Jordan Bohannon actually played pretty well for the most part. The box store

doesn't show it, but I did think Jordan Bohannon played ballsy out there. I thought he did a good job. CJ Frederick clearly is healthier. I think he's back. I think unless something else happens, he is back, finished with the best plus minus of the night with a minus four. Before I actually get in, I want to talk about one other thing real quick,

and that's Juwan Howard's a big, whiny little baby. I think it's ridiculous that he played his starters late in the game when iowa took all their starters out uh if i'm fran mccaffrey i'm calling that bush league and i recorded this prior to the press conference i'm sure fran's not a happy camper in that press conference but i wanted to get this recorded i'm actually going to uh going on a little ski trip this weekend with my wife so not gonna not gonna have time to do it in the morning. And also that's a FYI, I'm not going to be recording an episode Monday.

You'll get an episode Tuesday. And then once the Big Ten tournament time happens, if Iowa does go far in Big Ten tournament and the NCAA tournament, I'll be giving you a special podcast over the weekend. That way you can get a preview of all that stuff happening. I'm not going to be previewing Iowa versus Ohio State. You've already saw what that game looks like, what that matchup looks like, and we've already kind of broke that down. I think Iowa does have a good chance to take down Ohio

State, but it depends on how motivated they come out against Ohio State. Ohio State is a solid team, but, and also kind of matters, concussion protocol with, I believe, Caleb Young, currently in concussion protocol for Ohio State. That is a huge, huge issue. Not Caleb Young. Excuse me here. Kyle Young. Wow. Yeah, I was drawing a blank there.

Kyle Young in concussion protocol for Ohio State, not exactly ideal. If he's unable to go against Iowa, that is going to be a huge issue for them. He has played some really key minutes, and again, it depends. If he's not able to go, that's a big win for Iowa. Iowa does still have an opportunity to get that double bye. They have to either win three games or have Purdue lose three games or some combination of those scenarios. Iowa still has three games left.

They should be favored in two of those. I think they do have a good chance of beating Ohio State coming up on Sunday. And on Tuesday, I'll make sure to break that down as well. So the goals are still in front of them. The ultimate goal is the national title, and they still have a good chance of getting a two-seed. If they can win these next three games, getting a key signature win over Ohio state and make it make a decent run in the NCAA or the big 10 tournament. Um, I believe they should be able to get a two or a three seed.

So not the worst case scenario that at least gives them a solid first round matchup, um, and a possible second round matchup, uh, you know, with a seven or 11 seed type of thing there. So, um, still opportunities for Iowa to advance to a Sweet 16 for the first time in a very long time. So the opportunities still are on the table for Iowa. They need to finish up the season strong. They need to bounce back strong. I know there's probably no one more disappointed in their performance

than they are right now, so I don't want to hammer too much on them. Other than that, and that's probably the big positives here, is the fact that I didn't expect this to be a win. I didn't expect it to be as bad of a loss as it was, but I did not expect it to be a win. They still have an opportunity. They have to win these next three games. Beating Ohio State, they need a signature win.

They have none this year. You can't look at a single win from Iowa and say, wow, signature win here. All the top teams they've played, they've lost. And then Indiana and Michigan. All the top teams Iowa played. They lost to Gonzaga. They lose to Illinois.

They lose to Ohio State. They lose to Michigan State. I don't want to classify Wisconsin as a real tough team here, to be completely honest. They're 12th in Kempom. I don't know how. That team is abysmal. They're not a good looking team. They're just a worse version of Iowa. So yeah, man, what a, what a rough, what a rough game. Uh, Kempom already has the updated here. Um, Iowa actually drops to second and offensive efficiency. They're just a defensive efficiency stays the same at 74.

So, um, not, you know, basically Kempom will look at how good Michigan is offensive efficiency. Their adjusted defensive efficiency stays the same at 74, so not basically Ken Palm will look at how good Michigan is offensively, what Iowa is able to do defensively. On paper, not the worst defensive game from Iowa. I actually thought they played a good job. I thought their pressing was pretty good. They actually forced

Michigan into a 10-second violation, which I haven't seen in a while from Iowa. That was pretty good to see. I would like to maybe see the bench a little bit more, especially when Michigan was going on that run. So yeah, I mean, it's tough when the defense plays pretty well and the bread and butter, the offense can't get anything going against a very strong defense. It's tough to really come away with anything other than Michigan just played a phenomenal

game and Iowa didn't. And we did not deserve to win that game. I do think the big 10 needs to take a serious look at their officiating after this season and probably fire half their, their officials, uh, on both sides, just atrocious all around, just pathetic officiating. So that, that that's some thoughts there. I think that is just absolutely pathetic, but that will do it for our show today. Uh, I know it was a little bit more depressing. Tried to give you some positives there. But, again, it's tough when you lose. You have a season low in scoring.

You lose 79-57 against a top-ranked team. You don't get that key victory, that signature win. You lose two guys to potentially long-term injuries, especially Jack Nunji. Your National Player of the Year candidate struggles against a true freshman. It's tough. It's tough to be super positive about that but we'll be back we'll be back on Tuesday talking about the Ohio State game and kind of what the rest of the season entails again I'm not gonna be recording a show on Monday gonna enjoy my little trip with my wife going skiing and snowboarding so I hope you all have a fantastic weekend I appreciate you all tuning

in if you like the show I promise you it's not as down in the dumps as this show was, but we do have an awesome content dropping every single weekday. So make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast app. Have a fantastic Friday. The sun does come up, and this Iowa basketball squad does have a lot more to play for, and they are a bunch of good kids, so a bunch of good young adults, and we should enjoy the ride while it lasts

because we're going to miss Luka Garza and Jordan Bohannon and CJ, not CJ, Joey's camp after this season. So enjoy the ride while it lasts, but definitely a frustrating loss, a tough one to hang and handle in there, and you're getting me right after the game. So obviously I'm not going to be as happy here. But again, have a fantastic Friday, a great weekend, and as always, Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks.