Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Why Iowa basketball is a Sweet-16 contender with BTN analyst Tre Demps

Episode Date: February 9, 2022

We are joined by Big Ten Analyst and former Northwestern basketball player Tre Demps to discuss the Iowa basketball teams. Tre explains why playing Fran McCaffery's Iowa Hawkeye squad was one of the toughest challenges in college, how difficult it was to take on Devyn Marble, and why he feels like Fran's system is so effective in the Big Ten.We also discuss this year's team including the most recent lineup changes, why it was the right move by Fran McCaffery, what he loves about Keagan Murray's game and the reason he believes this Iowa basketball team could make a run in the NCAA Tournament.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 “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order. 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 Wednesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and if you are on the YouTube channel, you see a very special guest with me. On today's episode of the show, we are joined by former Northwestern player, I would call him an Iowa killer for at least the amount of points he is putting up in games versus

Iowa in his playing career, and now Big Ten analyst Trey Demps. Trey, my man, how are you doing today, buddy? I'm doing well, Andrew. Thank you for having me on, man. Absolutely, man. It's a pleasure to have you on. I'm really excited to get into your career and also your experience with Iowa. We chatted very briefly before the show, and I think you were kind of surprised by some of the reactions from Iowa basketball fans about this basketball team so definitely going to get into that but first I want to thank all

of you Hawkeye fans out there for making us your first listen every single day you can find us wherever you get podcasts out you can also find us on YouTube as well so Trey my man how did you end up at Northwestern you played there for a couple seasons out of Texas I believe how did you end up at Northwestern yeah Yeah, so it's kind of an interesting story. So I went to high school in San Antonio, Texas. My dad was working with the San Antonio Spurs when I was in high school. And every year he would go to Chicago for the pre-draft camp. And so my junior year, I went with him. I played pickup at DePaul in Northwestern, visited Loyola, you know, just kind of saw some of the Chicago schools. And at that particular time, nobody was recruiting me.

None of those schools were recruiting me. But then as soon as the circuit kind of kicked off where the coaches could kind of come see you play in the summer, a few weeks after that, Northwestern was my first offer from a Power 5 conference school and was a team that seemed to want to meet the most. So kind of just went there along, obviously, with the academics. So it was kind of an easy choice. Absolutely, man. And after that, you ended up playing overseas for a couple of years. What was your favorite place to play overseas? Oh, yeah. so it's always interesting when people ask because i think the it's a different answer when you say favorite place to play versus favorite place to live yeah so for me my favorite place to live by far was uh greece we were on a

greek island um called rose a little bit like 10 10 miles from Turkey. It was beautiful. The food was amazing on the beach every day, but the basketball was terrible. That's, that's another story. So from a living standpoint, it was Greece playing probably Italy, to be honest. Um, it was just a lot, it was a free game in Italy. Like there wasn't a lot of structure in Europe. A lot of times there's structure. There's a lot of, uh, tactics used in the game. And game in Italy. There wasn't a lot of structure. In Europe, a lot of times there's structure. There's a lot of tactics used in the game. In Italy, it was more of a pro-style

approach to the game, especially on the offensive end. I probably enjoyed playing in Italy the most. Nice, man. Where were you at in Italy? I played in two different places. I played in a city called Pomona, which is in the north and then i played for a team uh called san severo which was in the south so got two different kind

of experiences there absolutely man italy is one of my favorite countries i've ever been to i've done a lot of so i used to do a lot of interviews for like the iowa united when they had that tbt team um and so talking a lot of those guys about their european experiences and it's always wild to hear the different experiences they had uh what were some of their favorite places to be at um and also just how different the european game is compared to the american game i don't think people realize um how different it is it's a completely different experience and how you play your game is also different over there as well well that's super cool now now you're actually a big 10 analyst so how did you go from northwestern to overseas now being a big 10 analyst that's funny um so i had or i have

uh kind of a chronic hip injury and so you know you know, it was very limiting, uh, to what I could do on the court or unlimited me, I should say. And so, you know, just was kind of going through that. I had hip surgery, um, you know, still not officially like official, official, official, officially like official official official you know retired but you know enjoying what I'm doing now we'll say that um and so uh you know I was just kind of brainstorming trying to figure out what I wanted to do I wanted to play you know 10 plus years and so um you know I knew that I loved sports journalism media I love to write honestly that that's probably what's most natural for me. But obviously, you know, I knew that that might take some time and that the best opportunity would probably be in the broadcasting space and being an analyst. And I know that I knew that the Big Ten Network had taken a ton of former players. So I just reached out, you know, just sent some emails and told them if there was any

opportunities, you know, to, you know, if they could consider me. And then, you know, I spoke to the executive producer on the phone and they got me in for an audition. The audition went well enough and, you know, got some opportunities this year. So it was it was great crazy kind of how everything worked out so just i'm really appreciative to the big 10 network for giving me the opportunity that's super cool um i think for any people listening out there i think the the key thing to take away from that is you got to shoot your shot right if you don't

shoot your shot you're never going to make it. I actually have the exact, like getting on this network. I literally bugged David Locke for probably three months, every week emailing him saying, you don't know me, but I guarantee you want to hire me. Bring me on. If I was like, can you just stop emailing me? Like we will like, let's just talk. He's like, all right, fine. We'll give you a chance. Don't screw it up. Here you go. So that's how I ended up here. And four years later, I'm still here so not doing something wrong i guess but uh yeah definitely yeah you

gotta because it's like they're you know these people at the top like they were once young people trying to get enough so that's how i thought you know what i mean like the david locks the uh you know all the executive producers who are making big time dollars now like they were all trying to at one point get an opportunity so it's like they understand where you're coming from yeah like i said if you don't do it you're never gonna know if you could get it so worst thing i can do is say no yeah like oh well who cares i move on i keep trying whatever it might be so uh love that man and you talked about you're not officially retired uh but you do love the the journalism side you want to get into writing um if you had to choose what would be your like what would be your long-term

goal 10 20 years down the road you know as I've done this I would say I would love to be able to do uh broadcasting be an analyst full-time you know to be able to do a broadcasting, be an analyst full time, you know, to be able to have a full schedule for the college basketball season, you know, have 40, 50 games, 20, 30 studio appearances. You know, that's kind of what it takes to make a living out of it. That's my goal. You know, that's what I'm working towards. And yeah, just trying to improve every single day, control the things I can control.

Like I said, the Big Ten network has been awesome to me, giving me feedback, giving me opportunities. So I can't say enough about that. Super exciting, especially if they're working with you to grow your skill set as well. Super cool, man. So obviously you watch a lot of Big Ten basketball, which means you probably watch a lot of Iowa basketball as well. You've also played against Iowa basketball. I want to quickly run down some of your statistics. I do think this, I was looking at it, it was very impressive. In 2015-2016, you had one game, 30 points, three boards, four assists, and three steals.

That was that really good team with Jared Uthoff and the rest of the strong Iowa team. really good team with Jared Uthoff and the rest of the strong Iowa team. 2014, 2015, the first game you had 15 points aboard to assist. The second game, 16 points, four rebounds, three assists. And your last game in 2013, 2014 versus Iowa, 20 points, six rebounds, five assists, a pretty darn good showing against the Hawkeyes. Those were arguably the two of the three better defensive teams Fran has ever had too. So very impressive nonetheless. What was your experience at Northwestern playing against Iowa, though?

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Plus the lockdown bangles and lockdown Rams are going to be in LA as well. Keeping you covered all week during the big game, man. It was the hardest team to guard without question. Like everybody talks about how fast Michigan State pushes the ball off the court. To me, Iowa pushes the ball faster than any team, and they're the hardest team to guard because once they push the ball off the court so fast, they get into that motion offense. Guys are cutting, moving.

You feel like you never get a break during the game. I don't know what kind of conditioning program that they have, but, I mean, how in shape those guys are, you know, on both ends of the court, it's incredible. Like they were so hard to guard. And I always tell people during my time there, I know you just brought up some of the stats but if you looked at the other side uh of who i normally was guarding especially young

when i was younger roy devon marvel was definitely the hardest player for me to guard just because he was taller than me he was older than me he was stronger than me like he he would just it was just a tough matchup for me you know just because he because he was 6'6", 6'7", could shoot over the top of you. So that was a guy that I always struggled with, especially, you know, they're getting the ball off the court so fast. They're moving in that motion. Like, you know, there's a ton of screens you got to get through. So that's – for me, that's what I remember playing against Iowa,

just like constantly just being gassed from playing. That's interesting. I mean, Iowa does push the ball all the freaking time. Do you feel like that hurts them on the defensive end, though, as well? You mentioned how good of a condition they were in, but sometimes when you push the ball that fast, the other teams might get in the same kind of tempo. They might also push the ball.

They're going to have a lot more scoring opportunities. do you feel like that hurts them defensively at all you know I think they have an identity you know I think if you look big picture it might but I would rather have an identity as a program than to say like oh well you know because we they push the ball, they take a ton of quick shots and give up some easy buckets on the other end. I look at it more as like, look, that's Iowa basketball. You know what I mean? That's the brand of basketball that Fran McCaffrey has built.

And I love it. I love watching it now just because, I mean, they get so many easy baskets. Like, when you watch Iowa, they'll give up a make and then they'll just go right down the floor and get the two points back like not a lot of teams are able to do that like that's that's a that's a rare thing um so i mean you got to give fran mccaffrey a ton of credit to like what he's built, the culture, the identity, you know, they want to play fast paced. They want to get a bunch of shots up. They want to play with great tempo. I think they're second or first in the conference, too. Like, it's not like they're walking the ball up the court. So I think Iowa fans should be appreciative for that, just the culture. I can definitely appreciate that look at it because when you look at Iowa basketball games, yes, the offense is fun,

but then we get into those slumps, right, where we're not shooting well and things aren't going well. And all of a sudden our defense can't hold us together and we lose by 15 and everyone gets pissed off because our defense is so terrible so i think it is it always is a give and a take but i think your perspective on that was really nice i appreciate that yeah yeah um so this year uh iowa doesn't have the three-point shooters that they've had in the past, right? We don't have a C.J. Frederick, which is a whole controversial and long story that no one wants to talk about. We don't have the same Jordan Bohannon, it feels like, right?

Jordan has struggled quite a bit shooting the three this year in a different role, nonetheless, but still shooting the three not as well. Joe Wieskamp is gone. Luka Garza. You don't typically talk about 6'11 centers as a key three-point shooting guy but we lost several really impactful three-point shooters this year and in our half

court offense uh we kind of struggle a little bit is that something you're noticing as well and uh what do you attribute you know to some of our struggles in a half court offense because we are doing a great job of getting out uh in transition patrick mccaffrey uh you don't typically see a six foot eight guy push the ball off the court and just go coast to coast, or Keegan Murray, or a Chris Murray. But, man, in a half-court set, we've had some struggles, especially against zone defenses. Is that something you've noticed as well?

Yeah, what I see is a team that's trying to find itself. You just mentioned all the guys that they lost. I mean, you lose two nba players uh cj fredericks was obviously a great shooter a guy that could get hot so i mean like it takes time you know what i mean like and then also what they you know what they did um putting joe tucson as a starting point guard and having Jordan Bohannon play off the ball. You know, I don't know what, how Jordan Bohannon felt about that, but it seemed watching last game. Cause you know,

they started Jordan Bohannon last game that he likes to be the point guard. You know, it seemed like he had a little bit more energy pop to him on both ends of the court. Defensively, that was one of his best games. I think defensively that was arguably his best game he's played defensively. Right. I mean, the job that they did on the guards, him and Aaron Ulis were kind of matched up with Stevens and Willis.

I mean, they took him out the game in the second half. And so it just – the energy that Jordan Bohannon played with last game was I think Hawkeye fans should be encouraged because he just looked engaged and I mean I'll keep it real he didn't look engaged he looked something looked wrong I can tell when a player is not happy and something's wrong there was something wrong and there was a conversation that was had and it looked like it worked so Hawkeyeye fans should be encouraged by that in regards to Jordan Bohannon. And it looked like he wants to be a point guard. He wants to have the ball in his hands.

So, yeah, I would be encouraged. I forgot what – oh, the half-court. The half-court offense. That was basically – because Joe Toussaint was kind of the guy running the point, and our half-court offense just wasn't really getting it done. So the answer, you kind of answered that question indirectly, but it worked out very well and I appreciate that. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, so that's what, I mean, obviously Patrick McCaffrey is being more of a versatile threat on the offensive end, which I think is opening up a lot. He's being a knock or being able to knock down threes. That's a huge development. Which is huge because that's going to open up driving lines for Keegan and Chris Murray. So I think this is a team right now I think that you've got to be excited

because they're still winning some games while finding themselves at the right time. I like that. Man, this is a very positive episode of the show. I mean, cause every other game we're like, Oh my gosh, we're going into like a free fall. This team is terrible. What is going on? We'd like fend off all these different, literally after Iowa beat Minnesota,

there were legitimate comments from fans saying, should Billy Taylor be our head coach and should we fire Fran? And it is just, it's absurd, man. Twitter is a bad space to be on after after an iowa basketball game sometimes um but nevertheless it is interesting you mentioned the jordan bohannon stuff because jordan bohannon uh because obviously at the standpoint he had that podcast previously and he kind of mentioned on there he wasn't really planning on coming back because he didn't want to take Joe Toussaint's spot. But Fran said, when CJ left, you can play the two.

And Jordan thought, okay, great. I can come in. I can play the two. But as you mentioned, I think it might have been a harder transition than maybe he realized. The idea was that he'd be coming off screens, getting a lot of open looks. But he has never traditionally been a guy coming off screens, getting just a catch-and catch and shoot type of opportunity. He's been more of a dribble down the floor, pop it from five feet behind the perimeter

and call it good. Right. So it's definitely an interesting situation. Joe Toussaint, I want to get your thoughts on him. I mean, he's a guy who has so much potential, but it feels like it's just pure chaos when he plays. And that chaos sometimes is magic. And that chaos other times is just so detrimental to the Iowa basketball team.

Is that something you're seeing as well? I felt like he would have developed more towards this point, but I'm just not seeing it with Joe Toussaint. What are your thoughts on him? All right, y'all. One last pause of the conversation, because I want to remind you that betOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before as football continues its march through the playoffs

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It is my go-to. It should be yours as well. So don't wait to take advantage of all the new amazing offers available for the 2022 season. Betononline.net where the game starts well the one thing he doesn't turn the basketball over so as out of control, he appears sometimes Iowa doesn't turn the basketball over. So to play that fast and to not turn the basketball over, I mean, that's a credit to him. I mean, you look at Michigan state, they, they have a ton of turnovers in conference play. And you can probably make the argument that Michigan state has more talented

point guards than Joe Toussaint. But, you know, I do like Joe Toussaint coming off the bench and giving you 20, 25 minutes in that capacity, playing with that second unit a little bit more. I think that was the right call to make. And like that, that wasn't Billy think that was the right call to make um and like that that wasn't billy that was fran's call like fran was like it wasn't like frank it's coveted then a lot of positions are completely off the table yeah people i was like what is going on here like this was a decision that brand talked about a week ago so right so yeah i i've always thought i like what joe tucson brings to the table i just like it coming off your bench he brings toughness he brings he changes the pace of the game a lot of times like he did last year he seems to have a good uh connection with the

the murray brothers which is awesome so yeah and i and like, you know, I don't know if Ulus will start now at the two, after the way he played instead of Perkins. But, yeah, I like, I think they found something. You know what I mean? Especially, I mean, you play a second half like that. You know, I know it's against Minnesota, who's the bottom of the Big Ten team. But to take out, you know, Battle and Willis in that second half, I think fans should be encouraged. Like, there's some momentum here.

You know, even though you lose a tough – I mean, Penn State's a good team, you know. Like, they're a good team. It's hard to win at their place. So, you know, I think Hawkeye fans should be patient, understand that it takes time. It might take a whole season to figure it out. And then you kind of hit your potential, you know, later down the road when, you know, Big Ten tournament,

NCAA tournament starts. Yeah, and you have to feel encouraged. Anytime you have a guy like Keegan Murray on the court or or you have a guy like Jordan Bohannon, who has shown at times he can get very, very hot from three and is able to hit some of those big shots in big time moments. So you have to feel pretty encouraged about the team going into Big Ten tournament play. You look at the rest of the schedule, they have nine games left. I would argue they're going to be favored in six of those. I think if you win six of those nine games you're assuredly in the tournament i think if you win five of those nine games you win one of the big 10 tournament you're probably in the ncaa tournament

advanced metrics seem to love the hawks uh so ken palm has them i think at 21 last i checked net ranking had them at 22 or something like that so uh definitely definitely definitely encouraging. As you mentioned, they're still figuring it out, which I think is an amazing perspective. Like they still are not there yet. And I think people want to see this team that we saw last year, but we lost so many players. It can be a little bit difficult. So turning our attention to kind of Keegan Murray,

what do you like about Keegan Murray's game? And I guess, you know, how surprising is this story? I mean, so Keegan Murray, do you know his story a little bit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just wasn't recruited. I think Western Illinois was his only offer. Yeah, I mean, he wasn't recruited out of high school, goes prep school, still doesn't get recruited.

I would love to bring up the tweets from Iowa fans saying, how dare Fran McCaffrey offer these guys scholarships and stuff? Because, dude, it was not a good day on Twitter that day. But Keegan Murray just been phenomenal. What are your thoughts on Keegan and also Chris as well? I feel like Chris is not getting nearly as much love, but ready to kind of take over at some point as well. I feel like Chris is not getting nearly as much love but ready to kind of take over at some point as well. Well, you know, I'll be honest. I didn't watch a ton of Big Ten basketball last year. But I did – I watched him enough to get an idea like there's something there with him.

Just as – I think his ability to play with other great players i think last year and be a role player and just to kind of find his spots and play off of garza i think that's gonna bode well for him when he goes to the next level because he's not going to be the best player on his team when he plays in the nba but he's already shown, like he can still score and be effective on the court when there's other great players. But the thing that I'm most impressed with Keegan Murray, I think is his body control. I think that that is something in basketball that's not talked about enough

because a lot of times you have these guys with a ton of athleticism, a ton of size, a ton of talent. But if you don't have body control, it's hard to create a rhythm on the offensive end. And what I mean by that is like you drive, you know, especially Big Ten defenses, everybody's collapsing, everybody's physical, like you have to be able to stay on balance to get a good efficient look and a lot of players aren't able to do that and so because of that they drive in there and they just kind of throw some garbage up like i very rarely see keegan murray do that as much as he drives the ball to the basket and then as i mentioned before just his ability to get easy looks like he's, he's a dog, like in terms of like getting offensive rebounds,

running out and transition. Like, I don't know if there's a stat, but I'm just, he averages like 22, 23 points a game. I'm sure like seven of those points are like, just off of like, just playing hard. And so I think that gives him a rhythm so that now I can make that contested three. Now I can make that isolation drive, spin, get to my mid range, all that type of stuff. So I mean, I love his game. I love his game. I love his game for the pro level. I think he's going to be a great role player. And I think Hawkeye fans should just be appreciative while you have him.

And I think Hawkeye fans should just be appreciative while you have them. Yeah, man, it's pretty fun to go from Luka Garza to another National Player of the Year candidate in Keegan Murray. And I don't think anyone can appreciate that enough. It's a pretty amazing time to be an Iowa Hawkeye fan all around. I want to have one more question about the men's basketball team. But first, as we're talking about National Player of the Year candidates, thoughts on the GOAT, Kaitlyn Clark, and what she's doing on the women's side man it's incredible it's incredible man like when we were we were watching her in the network um you know we have our men's

games on and then you know you have the women's game on it's like we like man forget the men's game this wasn't her 45 point performance this was it was another game but it's just like when she's on the tv like she's she's the she's the center of attention like she's more fun to watch than whatever men's game is going on that's that's my point and um because i'm in there actually i'm in the the studio a lot of times on thursdays and thursdays uh the network has women's games on the network and so and then the men's games are usually on espn or fs1 or something and so we'll have you know both both games games. But, like, when she's on, like, it's hard to not watch her. Just because, I mean, she's a special player,

and she's still unselfish, too. Like, to go along with her ability to knock down threes, like her ability to find her teammates. Like, you don't know what she's going to do when she comes down the court. Is she going to pull it from 30? Is she going to get in the lane? Is she going to get in the lane? Is she going to hit a step back? Is she going to find an open teammate?

Like, you just don't know. Like, she's so versatile on the offensive end, and she's so skilled, too. Like, I mean, she's amazing, man. I mean, some of those shots that she hit against Michigan, I'm just, come on, man. I know they were working. They were trying to get back in the game. And so that was part of the reason, but like, it's like still hit them to the shot clock and she's pulling, I mean,

it's like, she's floating towards the sideline hitting some of these threes. I mean, she's, she's the funnest player and most box office player in all of college basketball without question. That's amazing. Yeah, I love the one where she was getting triple teamed from literally the early part of the front part of the court. And she took it all the way down and then just drained it from the low. Yeah.

Cool. Right. How do you defend that? Like in shock. Like, first of all, that you had the audacity to take it. And then second, for it to look so smooth and so easy for it to go in, it's incredible to watch. That's amazing, man.

Yeah, it's, again, good time to be an Iowa Hawkeye. Kaitlin Clark, so much fun to watch. Keegan Murray, so much fun to watch as well. Two last questions for you. I know I've kept you a while. Jordan Bohannon, he's been at Iowa for what seems like a decade. He got there the year after I left. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, he's been, yeah. Oh, that would make sense. Yeah. I mean, he's like, he's 20, I think he's turning 24 and he might be going on 25. So yeah, he's been there quite

some time. What are your thoughts on Jordan and uh we talked a little about this before the show but he's I think he's arguably one of the most uh controversial Iowa players I think he's the guy that most opposing teams love to hate he's Brad Davison of Iowa I guess you could say um what are your thoughts on Jordan Bohannon as a basketball player and also what he did for NIL as well? Kind of a weird two-part question there. Yeah, I think he's great for Kyle. I think – listen, I think you need edge in your program, you know,

in whatever way, shape, or form you can get it. And that's what – he's controversial. Like, that's who he is, you know. I think it's awesome. I think if you need that type of personality in your locker room, you need that type of personality in your league just because it's going to generate revenue for the league, for the school. Like, it makes people want to see what's going on with Big Ten, Hawkeye basketball. Like I think it's awesome. I think the negative flack that he gets is, you know,

if anything negative, it should just be his play. Like what he does on the court. I think that's the only, and he deserves some of the negative flack that he got, you know, I would say. There was – after he – from the time he broke the record to the last game, I think he deserves some of that criticism because it all had to do with his – it didn't have to do with him, you know, riding on his shoes or – or was that – he, like, rode on, like –

That was a couple – yeah, that was, like, two years ago at Iowa State. He said, thanks for the message. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. Like, that's the competitive level of game. It makes it fun. It's a rivalry. It makes rivalry.

And people don't understand it creates revenue. Like, people tune in because of that. People Twitter click. You know, like, those things make sports fun and i think you got to give him credit just for being you know staying true to who he is um in doing that and so the only thing you should that fans should criticize him for is if he's not playing hard which he played extremely hard last game yeah it was a great game against minnesota my last question for you, Trey,

since we're definitely going over the time I told you I would take of your time. So I appreciate it. How, how far do you feel like this team could go? We talked about the fact that you feel like this team is still finding itself. There's still,

you know, several games for the big 10 tournament. There's a lot of talent on this team, but how far do you feel like this team can actually go? You know, I think they can go the distance, believe it or not. And I think a lot of it has to do the way that their roster is constructed. I think there's a lot of, like, mismatch nightmares that teams could have.

You know, one thing I've said a ton on the network, I love when they play the Murray brothers at the four and five because it just brings a different feel. They're fast. They're explosive. You know, they give up a lot in size, but, you know, they have a lot of firepower and mismatch opportunities on the offensive end.

So I think, like, when you put that lineup out there, where Brotch is playing better and more physical, like, but that lineup out there where Brotch is playing better and more physical, like I really think like, you know, realistically, they'll probably be like an eight seed if they continue to kind of do what they're supposed to do, seven, eight seeds. So, you know, you get to the second round, you get a two seed that has a lot of bigs and, you know, can't really match up with their athleticism and versatility on the offensive end. Like, who knows? You know what I mean?

As long as you win that first one, who knows what could happen in that two seven game? You know, you get a team like Texas who's, you know, huge and,, you know, they don't – from what I – I'm just giving an example. Like, they don't have a ton of guards that are – can match up with Iowa. Like, you just never know. Like, it's all about matchups come NCAA tournament time. So, yeah, I think they can definitely make a push and Frank can get his first Sweet 16 team. Yeah, man. I you're you're the,

the thing you're alluding to is speaking volumes to Iowa fans from last year where Iowa meet met up with an Oregon team who probably was a little bit underseated in my opinion, but nevertheless an Oregon team that had no one over six foot six and just absolutely ran Iowa out of the freaking gym. But you're absolutely, we have three, six foot eight guys, Patrick, Keegan and Chris who can guard arguably two through five can, can drive and have long lanky arms. And then Phillip, I feel like has been playing really well the last probably four or five games

being aggressive, being physical, despite being undersized where he's at. If we can get some solid guard play, Jordan Mohanis are hitting some shots. I think this is a team that does have the potential. So it'll be really interesting to see a team that see what they can do. Yeah. And if they peak at the right time too, like the, I think that second half showed me something like of like what they have in there, having the tank and like their favorite six out of the last nine, you win six or seven of those.

Now all of a sudden you're peaking at the right time. And that's, that's an important thing as well. Absolutely, man. Well, Trey, I have really appreciated your time.

You've given me a lot of positive thoughts going into the back half of the season for the Iowa basketball team. Appreciate that for sure. Where can the folks find you at for all of your great analysis, man? Yes, I'm on the Big Ten network. You know, it kind of varies from week to week, but a lot of times I'm on Thursdays on the big show, Friday Big Ten today, and then normally doing games on Saturdays as well.

So, yeah, it's been a lot of fun, and I look forward to following the best basketball conference in all of college basketball. Heck, yeah, man. The best basketball conference with Iowa, hopefully making a run for it as well. Trey, as always, it's been a pleasure, man. I'll hopefully have you on another time as well.

You just gave me, seriously, so much positive thoughts about Iowa basketball. I think our Iowa Hawkeye faithful out there are going to be really excited about this conversation. Iowa Hawkeye fans, you can tune in every single day, Monday through Friday, right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Just a reminder to check out the Locked On Bets podcast as well. You can find three to four games to bet on, some Big Ten games, some Iowa games potentially.

You can do that at betonline.net. So make sure to check out the Locked On Bets podcast. Thank you, Hawkeye fans, for tuning in. Have a fantastic Wednesday. And as always, let's go Hawks.