Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Why Iowa wrestling is still a national title contender despite loss to Penn State

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

The Iowa wrestling team fell to the Penn State Nittany Lions in the most anticipated dual meet of the season on Friday evening. We break down the results of the evening and also explain why the Iowa Hawkeyes are still a national title contender.We then shift gears towards basketball where the men's basketball team takes on Penn State tonight. After an easy win over the Nittany Lions last week, what does Fran McCaffery's squad need to do tonight?We wrap up by breaking down the NFL Combine and which Iowa football players have received invites to this point plus who we expect to receive invites going forward. 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.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.GetUpsideJust download the FREE GetUpside App and use promo code SCORE to get 25 cents per gallon or more cash back on your first tank. 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 morning episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. Excited to be back for another show today. And we have quite a busy episode for you. We're going to be talking about that duel, Iowa versus Penn State.

And despite Iowa losing to Penn State, why Iowa can still win a national title. We're also going to be giving you a preview of Iowa versus Penn State basketball game tonight. The men have another chance to get another W after falling last week to Purdue. We're going to talk about that game and what we would like to see from the Iowa basketball team in that game. We also have heard about two Iowa Hawkeyes receiving combine invites. We're going to be talking about what they need to do to improve their stock at the combine and who else we can expect to be invited going forward. Before we get to that, though, I want to thank you all for making the Locked On Hawkeyes

podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. And before we even get into the Iowa-Penn State reaction, I quickly want to make sure everyone knows that the Iowa football team did land another recruit in the class of 2022. They landed three-star cornerback Deshaun Lee. Honestly, a bit of a surprise,

but we're going to be breaking that down on tomorrow's episode of the show. Just wanted to make sure we let you know that there was some big-time recruiting news. We'll be talking all about that here on tomorrow's episode. So let's get into it though. Iowa versus Penn State. Iowa falls 19 to 13 to Penn State and it did not start off very well. Losing the first three matches for the Iowa Hawkeyes at 125. We did not see Drake Ayala get to go. And that was a huge loss for Iowa not having him in that match. With Drake Ayala, we saw Jesse Ibarra. It was a 9-0 major decision for Drew Hillebrand, a top 10 ranked wrestler. I would like to think that if Drake Ayala was in the lineup,

we would have had a better chance there of getting that win. Nevertheless, it sounds like Drake Ayala, it was his decision not to go in this matchup. I'm not sure what's going on. Sounds like there could be some injury things potentially going on. I hope he can get healthy soon because for Iowa to compete for a national title, they will need Drake Ayala, especially in Spencer Lee's absence. But it was a really interesting meet all around. Fantastic show up or show out by the Iowa Hawkeye faithful being up there at Carver Hawkeye Arena,

being loud and proud for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa just couldn't get it done. And a lot of close matchups, Iowa just could not get it done. One and three in bouts decided by two points or less. Two of those went into overtime. We have to talk about Michael Kimmerer's interesting match, okay, as Carter Scroce. It went into double overtime. There were several chances where Michael seemingly won that match or got additional points, only to be reversed later. I think that last little position he had,

the last five seconds of the original period. I thought he got that in. The ref calls it late. They then go to the tape and said, oh, wait, he was, you know, he called it after the time went out. That was a bit ridiculous. I don't know how you don't get that. I don't know how you call that stall call and then remove it. Nevertheless, an interesting matchup,

interesting match with Michael Cameron losing in double overtime. But that was literally just the way it went in this game or in this wrestling meet. Again, Penn State won six matches. Iowa won four. The point totals paint a different story. The 41 total match points for Penn State, 36 for Iowa. And again, Penn State going three and one in bouts by two points, meaning Iowa lost three of the four bouts that were closest.

Another example of this as well that doesn't even stand out on that three of the four bouts that were closest. Another example of this as well that doesn't even stand out on that piece of the stat sheet, Iowa still had a chance going into the 197 weight class. With Jacob Warner, he was up 3-0 going into the third period. Penn State's Max Dean scores eight unanswered points to get the W for Penn State, get the match W, and get the W for Max Dean. So just a really interesting match all around. People were kind of overreacting a little bit after this too. They were saying Iowa is not a national title competitor. They do not have a chance.

Penn State is cream of the crop. First and foremost, we lost Spencer Lee. We lost our number two 125 pound, and there were some really interesting calls throughout the match. And also a tournament style is not the same thing as a dual meet. There's a lot more emphasis on points scored. A guy like Austin DeSanto who racks up huge point totals. And his matches are going to be really beneficial to the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Furthermore, we had several 1v2 matchups in this match, Iowa versus Penn State. Not every single match is going to go Penn State's way. You look at last year, Iowa won a national title and really didn't have a lot going on in the final matchups. They won the whole title before they got to that point, really. So Iowa is still very much a national title competitor. And in fact, I would argue it's pretty impressive what they were able to do given the situation they were currently in.

I thought Austin DeSanto and his matchup did a really good job against Roman Bravo Young. In previous matchups against him, I felt like RBY really had an advantage against Austin DeSanto. Austin DeSanto didn't really have much of a chance, but in this matchup, I felt like Austin was really attacking the entire time, and RBY was just wrestling very boring, right? Very not willing to attack, just defending off attacks and finding his one or two shots, and really that was the story of the day for Penn State. Just a terrible, terribly boring brand of wrestling, incredibly tentative, allowing Iowa to do most attacking and just not really doing a lot. And they had a few things fall their way. So when you look at Iowa coming tournament time,

a tournament is not the same as a dual meet. A lot of different things can happen. Yes, Penn State has the edge right now in the 1v2 matchups. And with Spencer Lee out, it gives Penn State an even better chance. But Penn State has more glaring holes on their roster. better chance, but Penn State has more glaring holes on their roster. They have several spots that have almost no chance of making a run at it. Meanwhile, Iowa, outside of maybe 184, I say there's a pretty good chance if a guy gets hot, they could make and they will possibly medal. So it's okay. We don't need to overreact yet. There's a lot that goes into tournament scoring, a lot more than dual meets, and Iowa still

very much has a chance. They're very close in this meet. Nevertheless, they fall to Penn State 19-13, which is unfortunate, but it happens. Now they have this adversity, they turn it around, it's time to figure it out coming into February, and then ultimately into March, where it really does matter.

And hopefully we can see Drake Ayala get a bit healthier, able to take a run at it in the next upcoming dual meet. That does do it for our first piece. Coming up, we're going to talk about Iowa versus Penn State basketball. We're done with wrestling. We're moving on to basketball. Before we get to that, though, Hawkeye fans, this is your host, Andrew Wade, with an incredible app everyone who buys gas needs to know about. It's called GetUpside. My listeners are earning cash back from every gallon of gas every time they fill up.

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Put a little money in your pocket every time you go to the pump. All right, y'all. Thank you again for making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. So we talked about Iowa wrestling.

Now let's turn our attention to Iowa basketball. And this is a game that Iowa should have no problem winning. The last matchup at Carver Hawkeye Arena with a sellout crowd. That is important to note. Iowa won 68-51. Penn State had a solid first half. They were only down 30-25, but Iowa really came out in that second half and dominated Penn State for the remaining 20 minutes. In that game, we saw several very good performances. Chris Murray put together 13

points on 3-5 shooting from three. We saw Keegan Murray, of course, have a great game. 15 points on 3-5 shooting from the field, also adding in eight rebounds, of course, have a great game, 15 points on three or five shooting from the field, also adding in eight rebounds, two assists, and three blocks. Iowa just did a great job on the boards, beating Penn State in that area, and then defensively holding Penn State to only 51 points. So a great job in that previous matchup against Penn State. Now they go on the road to take on Penn State, 84th ranked according to Kempom, and Kempom is giving Iowa a three-point edge in this game. Anytime you go on the road, it's not exactly a gimme. Look at what happened when Iowa went on the road to Rutgers. But in

this game, Iowa should be favored, they will be favored, and they are the better team. Again, we saw it in the previous matchups. Here's what I would like to see. I'm not going to talk to you as much about Penn State. There's just a couple of guys you need to know about. First of all, in that last game, Miles Dredd had a fantastic game against the Hawks. That's a guy to be on the lookout for. But nevertheless, Iowa in a good spot to get another W here. Also worry about Seth Lundy, Ivy League transfer.

Also, John Herreraars always kind of had Iowa's number, but outside of that, Iowa should be able to get the W. So here's what I would like to see in this game, Iowa versus Penn State. First and foremost, I would like to see Iowa start and finish an entire game with the defensive intensity that they had in that last 20 minutes against Penn State. I want to see that for an entire 40 minutes. They have not put it together for an entire 40 minutes yet. I would love to see them do that. Get back to incredible defensive effort and continue to be better on the glass.

They struggled early on in the season. They've gotten better, even did pretty well against Purdue, all things considered. Against Penn State in the first matchup, the first half, Penn State dominated the Hawkeyes on the season. They've gotten better, even did pretty well against Purdue, all things considered. Against Penn State in the first matchup, the first half, Penn State dominated the Hawkeyes on the boards. I want them to do better throughout the game on the boards. If Iowa has a chance or wants to have a chance at going to the NCAA tournament and even making a run, their best way is defensively and with rebounding because shooting the ball has not been it for the Hawkeyes.

They have absolutely struggled shooting the basketball. And that is not something I'm used to saying for the Hawks. And by shooting, I mean three-pointers. They have not done a great job of shooting behind the perimeter, which is really what separated them from most teams last year. This year, according to Kempom, 176th in three-point shooting percentage. Not ideal. 215th in terms of the points coming from three-point shots. And you look at this team, not a lot of guys are really lighting it up. Outside of Chris Murray, who's shooting 40% from behind the arc on 62 attempts. Keegan Murray shooting all right,

35% with 87 attempts. Patrick McCaffrey shooting 32%. Tony Perkins is shooting 26% after a pretty good start early on in the season. Peyton Sanford shooting 34%. We're not seeing Peyton Sanford get a lot of playing time. Jordan Bohannon shooting 36%. But when you look at his shooting percentage in Big Ten play, it has been absolutely atrocious. And Philip Abracha shooting 20%. Which is interesting because Philip Abracha last year had a decent year shooting the three. On 41 attempts, hit 37% last year for Nocturcuta.

We're not seeing him step out, and that's part of him being down low, being a bit out of position for the Hawkeyes. So I would like to see them shoot the ball a bit better in this game. And as we mentioned, Chris Murray is really the guy who's carrying this team from a three-point shooting percentage, shooting 40% from three. I would like to see Chris Murray get more minutes. It's ridiculous that we're this far in the season. He's still struggling to get minutes at times. Against Purdue, he got 24.

Penn State, he got 20. Rutgers, 11. Minnesota, 11. Indiana, 29. Granted, his brother was fouling out. Look at Maryland, 10, Iowa State 16, Illinois 17. Chris Murray is arguably a top three player on this Iowa basketball team, and Chris Murray needs more minutes in this lineup. I don't care if he's coming off the bench or starting, he just needs more minutes. He is one of the only guys getting the job done on a consistent basis. And he's right now our only consistent three-point shooting threat. Against Purdue, two of six from three, Penn State three of five.

He struggled against Rutgers in Minnesota, but against Indiana and Wisconsin, shot 40%. I mean, against Purdue last time, shot 50%. Against Virginia, shot 50%. I mean, this is a guy who has been able to consistently knock down the three, and we need to see him have more opportunities to do so if Iowa wants a chance at winning more games. And I'd like to see Keegan and Chris on the floor together. What a matchup nightmare.

Honestly, Keegan, Chris, and Patrick McCaffrey. Three 6'8 guys who can run, they can shoot, and they can drive to the basket. Now, I have my things with Patrick McCaffrey. Patrick's a fantastic guy. I've had him on the show before. Needs to do a better job of finishing around the rim. But those three guys, those are our top three players, and we need to see them on the floor together, dominate some teams.

I would also like to see Peyton Sanford get a bit more playing time. We haven't seen him nearly as much, and I do like his defensive energy. So it'll be interesting. Again, Penn State, not a great basketball team. Iowa has to get this win. Now, I don't like to use the term must win. I would say you can't lose, really, against Penn State. It's not necessarily a must win, but a can't lose game against Penn State. And I talked about some happy things. Iowa does finally have two Quadrant I wins. Indiana and Utah State both moved up to their respective rankings just a little bit,

which gave Iowa two Quadrant I wins. Indiana moving up to 30th, which is huge, or moving up past the 30th mark, which is huge for that home game. Again, Utah State moving up past 50th as well for a neutral court game, giving Iowa two Quadrant I wins, which looks really big come tournament time. Now, we talked about this last week. Iowa only has a few more Quadrant I opportunities,

and they need to take advantage of all those that are coming up, but getting two at least on the docket. As an Iowa fan, I know it pains you to say this. It pains me to say this. We have to be rooting for Indiana to continue to succeed throughout the season. We want Utah State to also do well as well for Iowa's sake to get into the tournament. Coming up, we're going to talk about the NFL Combine. Two Iowa Hawkeyes have announced that they have been officially offered a spot in the NFL Combine. We're going to be talking about what the NFL Combine does for

players, why it can be difficult, and who can we expect to also attend as well. It's all coming up in a few short moments, but I just want to remind you that the new year, you probably have new year's resolutions. And if yours is about getting fit or eating healthier, make sure you include a built bar into your plan. Built bars, the protein bar that tastes like a candy bar, maybe even better than a candy bar and built bar makes it easier to stick to your resolutions because it tastes so freaking good, you're gonna want to eat it. Unlike those other protein bars,

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and you'll get 15% off your next order. Use that promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at Bilt.com. All right, y'all, we've talked about Iowa wrestling. We've talked about Iowa basketball. Now it is time to turn our attention to Iowa football. That is right. We have the combine and we are getting some guys accepted into the combine. So we're going to be talking about what the combine does for these Iowa football players. First and foremost, it's the biggest test. It's the one that everyone is most aware of. But before we even get to the part where you're testing at the NFL combine, it it's important to note that the NFL Combine does have a strategic value in helping you realize where some of these guys draft stocks are. Typically, top 300-ish players are invited to the NFL Combine. That's most draftable players. Now, that does not mean that if you were not invited to the Combine, you are not a draftable player. It does not mean that you won't be drafted. It just means that you

are on the radar enough that you're likely to be in that conversation. And with the good day testing, you can raise the bar and potentially go a little bit further. So to this point, Dane Belton has been invited. So has Tyler Goodson. We have not heard anything of Tyler Linderbaum, Matt Hankins, Jack Kerner, Caleb Shudock, Kyler Schott, or Zach Van Valkenburg, but I'm sure we will at some point. I expect Tyler Linderbaum to be invited. I would think Matt Hankins got invited and potentially Caleb Shudock. I would actually go in that order.

Out of the guys that we don't know if they've been invited or not, in order of what I would expect from most likely to least likely, it would be Tyler Linderbaum, Caleb Shudock, Matt Hankins, Jack Kerner, Zach and Valkenburg, Kyler Schott, in that order. Now, the thing a lot of these guys are running into, right, is the fact that last year's draft class was so slim. A lot of guys opted out and decided to return. A lot of guys decided to take advantage of a COVID year.

So this is going to be one of the tougher draft classes that we're ever going to see. There is not a lot of top tier talent that you think about from like the skill position players, but overall the talent is incredibly deep. Because there are a lot of top tier talent that you think about from like the skill position players, but overall the talent is incredibly deep. There's a lot of guys entering into this NFL draft. A lot of guys have another opportunity to go in after only having, I think 400 or 500 players declare last year, which is significantly low compared to previous years. So it's going to bump some guys down.

It doesn't mean they can't make it. It just means it's going to make it a little bit more difficult. But again, I expect Tyler Linderbaum to get invited. I would think Matt Hankins, but he's dealing with a bit of an injury. And we're going to talk about that when it comes to the Senior Bowl as well. Jack Kerner, I think, is a guy who's definitely going to latch onto a roster, but I don't think he's going to be at the combine. Kyler Schott, I think, will latch onto the roster

simply because he's had some pretty good tape, but definitely had some issues this past year. Caleb Shudock is a very interesting one that people probably aren't thinking about, but had a very good year from an accuracy perspective. Showed a very good leg. Did it in difficult conditions. The one year makes it kind of tough, but I think despite the fact that he wasn't considered for the Lou Groza Award,

wasn't a top three finalist, I think a lot of people look at him and say, you are a kicker who could kick in the NFL. So going back to Dane Belton and Tyler Goodson, what I expect from them, what we need from Dane Belton, it's going to be speed. Size-wise, you're pretty probably happy with where he's at as long as he doesn't show up under 200 pounds. You like the versatility of Dane Belton. Some of those quickness drills are going to be big, but I think speed is going to be the biggest thing.

We've seen defensive backs at Iowa drop down and go up because of speed. Desmond King dropped. He had a very poor showing from a speed perspective at the 40-yard dash. Michael Ojemudia had a good 40-yard dash and also had a nice week at the Senior Bowl. He bumps up, gets drafted in the third round. Josh Jackson doesn't test as well, drops down to the second round. Also, Josh Jackson has struggled in general, but that's besides the point. Tyler Goodson, meanwhile, he's going to need to check in as well. He's going to need to have

decent weigh-ins. You don't want to see a running back at 180 or 190. You want him to be at that 200 or a little bit above, and speed is going to be big as well. Look at Akram Wadley. We have these test cases from Iowa football players in the past. Akram Wadley showed up underweight and slow and could not build an NFL career off that. I don't think Tyler Goodson is going to be like that. I think Tyler Goodson is a different kind of player and a person than Akram Wadley, but that is going to be huge for Tyler Goodson as well. So when you think about the NFL combine, I think you show what you show up, you run some drills, you do it in basically your underwear and a tight fitting shirt. You do some interviews. What's the big deal. These are grueling

tests for these, these future NFL players. It's early wake-ups. It's long days. Not a lot of time to warm up in between drills. You're doing a lot of drills at once. But that is also a part of dealing with adversity. It's not conducive, though, to performing well. At least, however, they have an opportunity to perform at the Iowa Hawkeye Pro Day. My guess is both Dane Belton and Tyler Goodson are probably going to try to test in most of the items at the NFL Combine,

put themselves on the map, get more scouts going to Iowa's Pro Day to watch them, and probably if they get good numbers, sitting on those numbers and not testing at the Iowa Pro Day. We saw Noah Fant and TJ Hawkinson do that as well. As we find out about more guys who potentially get added to the NFL Combine or don't get added to the NFL Combine, we will make sure to cover that all right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Coming up on tomorrow's show, we'll be giving you a review of the Iowa Penn State basketball game

that takes place tonight. We're also going to be talking about the Senior Bowl. Only twice in the last 20 years has an Iowa Hawkeye not been to the Senior Bowl. We're going to be talking about that and why a guy didn't go this year. Plus, who could we expect to go next year? And also giving you coverage on the latest commit in the Iowa Hawkeye class of 2022.

That is Deshaun Lee, the cornerback out of Michigan. That's all coming up on tomorrow's show. Before we close out the show, I want to remind you to check out the Lockdown Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They do a great job of breaking down three to four games every single day so you can put a little money in your pocket by going to betonline.ag. That does do it for our show today though. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I hope you have a great Monday and as always Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks!