Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Why we should still support Fran even if you don't agree with him | Hawks fall to OSU | Lisa Bluder nominee for coach of the year

Episode Date: February 28, 2019

The Hawks fell to OSU 90-70 in a game that had as many storylines on the court as it did off of the court. Officiating was an issue and so was Iowa's shooting performance. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes couldn't miss, and they did a fantastic job of attacking Iowa's 2-3 defense. After the game Fran McCaffery went on a tirade at one of the officials and received a two-game suspension because of it, which is another controversy in it's own right. We dive into why the tirade wasn't the most appropriate, but why Fran is a fantastic head coach that is doing what is right by his players. To round out today's podcast we touch on the news that women's head coach Lisa Bluder was named a nominee for head coach of the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast featuring everything you want to hear and know about your University of Iowa Hawkeyes. We are a part of the Locked On Sports Network's growing lineup of good way, but I'm just going off the rails here, right? We're just going to go for it. Guns blazing. There's a lot of news that has just come out. I've written a few articles in the last hour, and I'm ready to talk about it. Lots of things happening. I wanted to wait.

I promised you all a podcast yesterday morning about the Iowa-Ohio State game and kind of giving a recap of that. I was a little frustrated by the game last night and had a lot of thoughts, or sorry, two nights ago and had a lot of thoughts about it. And I wanted to wait until I was able to really articulate my thoughts and provide those for you, the listener. But I kind of, you know, kind of waited a little bit, waited a little bit and decided it would be best to get a podcast out for you on this Thursday morning. I am recording though, Wednesday afternoon. So just in case anything else comes out after around 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon,

that's why you're not hearing about it on your Thursday morning commute. But the suspension of Fran McCaffrey was just announced. I wrote a fantastic article about that on dearoldgold.com and my thoughts. And I felt really inspired to really bring you a great podcast today talking about Iowa versus Ohio State, talking about the Fran McCaffrey and Gary Dolphin situation, and then also talking about Lisa Bluter and her being named a nominee for National Head Coach of the Year. So we're going to be a little bit different today.

We're not going to be doing as much of the segment. I mean, I'll try to as much as possible, but like I said, just kind of flying by the seat of my pants on this one. Really excited to talk to you all. So before we jump in though, to actually talking about the topics at hand, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And please, please, please, if you have a smart speaker at home, listen to Locked on

Hawkeyes podcast by just doing this. Just tell Siri, Google, or Alexa to play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. It's that easy to listen to the latest episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. So make sure you're tuning in at whatever way you possibly can. And like I said, if you haven't subscribed already, please do. And if you're not following us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa, make sure you're doing that as well. I like to post witty, or I think so, witty content on there, as well as letting you know when shows are being posted and released. That way you can stay in the loop, so you're not just sitting by your phone waiting for iTunes to download the latest episode of the LockedOnHawkeyes podcast. So let's jump right into it. Last night's game, Iowa versus Ohio State.

Sorry, two nights ago. Again, I'm recording on Wednesday afternoon. But two nights ago, Iowa lost to Ohio State 90-70. It was the second most points that Iowa has allowed this season next to the Michigan State game early in December. And it was tied for the first most points that Ohio State has scored this season in the Big Ten. Not necessarily tied, sorry. They're just first most points the Ohio State has scored this season in the Big Ten. Not necessarily tied, sorry. They're just first most points in the Big Ten overall

and second most points for Ohio State's season overall. So not exactly a good look for the Hawks, but I felt like this is really one of those games where a lot of things were going wrong. I mean, it started out kind of strong. Iowa got off to a 7-0 lead. Ohio State couldn't hit anything. I mean, they couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat in the middle of the ocean when it off to a 7-0 lead. Ohio State couldn't hit anything. I mean, they couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat in the middle of the ocean when it came to

shooting three-pointers, but then they got hot. I mean, they got really freaking hot. After they went 0-7 in their first seven shots, they made 50% of their next, you know, 20, 26, 25 three-pointers. Sorry, doing math in my head while on the fly here. They made 12 of their 25 three-pointers. Sorry, doing math in my head while on the fly here. They made 12 of their 25 three-pointers after they missed their first seven. And just a really questionable game all around. One of the big things that kind of stood out was it is incredible how not just in basketball, but in football, how these random guys can have fantastic games. Against Michigan State earlier in the season, Nick Ward, the third leading scorer on the Spartans, went off for basically a perfect game.

Two days ago against the Buckeyes, Justin Ahrens, a 6'5 freshman who was averaging 3.5 points coming into this game, went off against Iowa. He hit 6 of 10 three-pointers, had 9 of 9 free throws for 29 freaking points. Are you freaking kidding me? What the heck was going on there?

It just, it felt like he couldn't miss. He was getting hot and just started making everything. Also, the amount of times that Ohio State went to the free throw line was a little bit atrocious in my opinion, just because of how the games mostly have went throughout the season. Iowa does a fantastic job of banging it down low and forcing people into tough situations, forcing them to call fouls. But against Ohio State, those fouls just were not coming at all.

And there's a couple questionable calls in my personal opinion. I mean, it felt like every single time that Caleb Wesson, the forward for Ohio State, he got the ball down low. He was getting barely touched and getting fouls called against Iowa. Meanwhile, there was a play that I remember very specifically. Connor McCaffrey went into the lane, drove into the lane, went up for a layup, got pushed back, missed the layup, and didn't get a foul call. That is ridiculous. I don't understand kind of where that was coming from. And obviously, Fran McCaffrey was pretty pissed off too. We'll get to that in here in just a few seconds.

But Connor McCaffrey also got a technical. Say what you want about Connor McCaffrey. I know a lot of my friends who support some of the other Big Ten teams, they're not big fans of Connor McCaffrey. And I get it. I mean, he kind of, he can be a little bit obnoxious, a little bit loud. But I personally love him as a player. I mean, the fact that he is so emotionally invested

in the game. I mean, he very much reminds me a lot of Fran McCaffrey just on the court. He definitely wears his emotions on his sleeve. He gets a little bit frustrated when things aren't going his way and he got a technical call on him. And I really don't agree with the technical being called. You know, they thought it was questionable how he used his hands after a referee said something to him, but I felt like Connor was just trying to avoid the situation and not get a technical. That obviously did not help the situation as Fran got fired up even more after that. So kind of an interesting game all around. Iowa didn't shoot as well from the three-pointer. They shot 32% on the day. One of the tough things that kind of, you know, that made this even more

of a difficult performance is the fact that the combination of Tyler Cook, Isaiah Moss, and Jordan Mohannon went 8 of 26. 8 of 26 from the field. They only converted for a total of 24 points. Did that math incorrectly. 23 points on the day. Isaiah Moss went 0-4. He didn't make three of his free throws. Jordan Bohannon missed all five of his three-pointers. Tyler Cook had a rough day down low, despite having a pretty significant size advantage for most of the team.

And that was another thing that I thought was glaringly obvious. The fact that Iowa had a significant size advantage over Ohio State. Ohio State did a good job, though, of really capitalizing on Iowa's 2-3 zone and getting it into Caleb Wesson and letting him kind of operate the offense from the paint against Tyler Cook. Also, you notice that Luka Garza wasn't in the game as much. It wasn't necessarily foul trouble this time. It just wasn't a great matchup for him. Being as tall as he is, he wasn't able to guard the more athletic guys,

and it made sense for Cook to be on Caleb Wesson in that game. Also, Macy Daly had a pretty sound performance, went three or four from the field, two or three from three-pointers, or sorry, three or four from the field, two or three from free throws for eight total points, had a couple of really solid plays. Nick Beyer put in some solid minutes overall, had some questionable fouls on him. And that one foul where he basically, they said it was intentional and that really just kind of turned the game around. Huge, huge call on him. Ryan Creener put in some fantastic minutes as well.

18 minutes, nine points, five boards, did a really good job down low, but he was getting picked on defensively. So not exactly the best overall performance, more just offensively. But either way, I think this is kind of one of those games where I actually expected the Hawks to lose. And to be fair, I never expect the Hawks to lose. I don't want them to lose. But if I had to pick a game that was remaining on

their schedule where I thought this wasn't going to go Iowa's way, it was 100% this game. It just felt like with the amount of stuff going on over the past month that this wasn't going to go in Iowa's favor. Ohio State really needed this game. It was a key quadrant one win for them. Iowa at 21 wins is already in the NCAA tournament. They're guaranteed a spot there. They're coming off some pretty emotional games, some pretty crappy ADing by Gary Barta and allowing a lot of controversies to swirl over the Gary Dolphin thing, which we will touch

on here in a few moments. So just a lot of things kind of playing against Iowa and then going on the road is never easy, especially going against a team like Ohio State, not a great team, but a solid team, especially a solid team defensively. And that, that really showed in the game, you know, Tyler Cook was six of 14. He also shot two three-pointers, which if you haven't watched an Iowa game, then you wouldn't realize this, but that doesn't happen. And it was only happening because we were getting the ball to Cook with two, three seconds left. He had no chance to really make a move. So he had to at least take a shot, which is unfortunate because he's really out of position in those situations. But that'll do it though. Kind of wrapping up the Iowa-Ohio State talk. I want to jump into the

Gary Dolphin and Fran McCaffrey discussions before touching on Lisa Bluter. So we'll be back in just a few moments. We're going to take a few minute break from the show to let you listen to a few messages from our sponsors, and then we'll be back in a few seconds. All right, we are back with what I would basically equate it to be segment number two of the podcast for today. Like I was saying earlier, I wanted to touch on the Fran McCaffrey and Gary Dolphin situation. And first, let's touch on the Gary Dolphin situation. He is not going to be suspended after the season. So he's suspended for the remaining two games of the season, and then he's going to be back for football and basketball.

And this was really the right choice. I think it makes sense why he was suspended. I think his comments were not appropriate. I don't think they were intentional, but they were not appropriate and actions do need to be taken whether or not it was appropriate or not. For example, if I'm speeding, I may not realize I'm speeding, but if I get pulled over, I'm still speeding. I was still doing something illegally or incorrectly or inappropriately, despite me knowing or having the knowledge of speeding. And I still might get a ticket for that. I think it's a similar situation here. Hopefully he learned from that situation that he needs to be a little bit more cognizant of the word that he is using.

Calling Bruno Fernando King Kong probably not the best reference. Maybe calling him Godzilla or Superman or whatever it may be, that would be a little bit more appropriate in that situation. So he is now coming back next year. I think that's the right call. I don't think it's appropriate how Gary Barta handled that, allowing that controversy to swirl. Also making that notice right before the Indiana game. It's just, come on, man, that's your freaking job. Handle it a little freaking better and stop putting the pressure on these players. I think a lot of that had to do with Iowa's lackluster performance against Ohio State. Now there's

another controversy on hand. Bram McCaffrey suspended. All right. So if you didn't hear about it, he had a little bit of a confrontation with officials after the OSU loss. He was basically caught. And I can't repeat the words word for word or verbatim, but he basically said, and let me, let me pull this up to make sure I'm not messing this quote up. I don't want to, I don't want to give you incorrect information. want to give you incorrect information. He said in the hallway, mind you, you cheating mother

blank, you're a blank disgrace. Not necessarily the appropriate reaction to have to an official, regardless of what your thoughts are. I did think that the officiating was pretty crappy in the game. Not the reason why Iowa lost, but still crappy in that game. I thought, again, the technical on Connor was bullcrap, and this really got Twitter kind of swirling. First, there's a couple people that said, this is why Fran doesn't dare to be head coach. One of the guys specifically said, Fran isn't good enough coach to get away with the pile of bad stuff he's done.

It's multiple episodes a year. It's embarrassing. Iowa needs to do something about it. First off, screw you. That is not correct. He does not have multiple episodes a year. Is he a fiery guy? Absolutely. Does he get some technicals occasionally? Absolutely. This is not freaking Bob Knight we're talking about though. Bram McCaffrey gets mad about things for his players. He's not yelling at his players or throwing things at them or doing something inappropriate in that manner. He's sticking up and standing up for his players. So that part really frustrated me. Like I said, I don't agree with the tirade itself. I don't agree with the calling an official that.

I think it could have been handled in a more mature fashion. Granted, I wasn't in that situation. But the fact that he did say something about that really means a lot to me. And I think it means a lot to his players, current and former. Just look at this. So there's an interview with Tyler Cook last night, and he had this quote to say, he always has our back. He does that to protect us and fight for us. As a player, you always appreciate that. Whatever he does,

I'm 100% with him and the other guys are as well. That's coming from your star forward. And then Peter Jock, former Iowa basketball player, current G League player with the Northern Arizona Sun. He had this to say about the situation. One thing I've always loved about Coach McCaffrey is he always had the players back, no matter what, and did whatever it took to protect us. I'd go to war with Coach any day and time. And if you haven't played sports, maybe you don't understand this, but that is freaking huge. That is a big deal to have a coach that sticks up for you.

I remember one time going a long ways back here, but I was playing in an AAU baseball game and I got thrown out of the game for apparently using a swear word. Mind you, I did not swear. I said, darn it, because the ball went foul and I thought it was going to be fair. It was a real nice hit. Went foul. I said, darn it.

Turn around, walk back. The ump kicked me out of the game. That was a dumb situation. I shouldn't have been kicked out, but you better believe my coach, Ray Warner, had something to say about this. And eventually he got kicked out of the game. And then my mother got kicked out of the game and the rest of our team got kicked out of the game. And although, was that probably handled appropriately? No. Did I handle it appropriately? Probably not. But the fact that he had my back makes Ray one of my favorite coaches of all time.

Actually, I'd probably say my favorite baseball coach of all time. You know, he was an incredible human being, an incredible influence on me. And one of those reasons why I always wanted to go to bat for him is because I knew he would have my back as well. And that's exactly what's going to happen here. I think these players see what Fran did for them. They see how he set up for them and they have his back. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Hawks go 2-0 over the next two games while Fran is suspended just because they want to do it for their coach. They want to do it for him, not in spite of him. They love their coach. That's why they came

there. And for those of you saying this is the reason why Fran should be fired, bull crap. Do you realize, and for the record, it's not all about winning, but do you realize the 21 wins that Iowa has is a seven game improvement over last year's total season first off, and it's tied for the best ever regular season win total for the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Fran McCaffrey era. And it's tied for the best ever regular season win total for the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Fran McCaffrey era. And there's still three games left, three very winnable games left, a beaten down Nebraska, an up and down Wisconsin team, and Rutgers. Iowa could very easily finish this season with 24 wins, which is just one win, I believe,

from the all-time wins total from a Fran McCaffrey-led team. So I think that's very interesting that people still want to fire Fran at this point. I think he's a fantastic coach, and I love the fact that he sticks up for his players. If you have any questions or comments on that, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to tweet at me at LockdownIowa what your thoughts are.

I think this is going to be a very controversial topic, and I don't disagree with people who may not like it, but I'd just love to hear your opinions on that. So just real quick, wanted to give you the press release, though, just so you kind of heard what the actual release was on the two-game suspension. It says, University of Iowa Director of Athletics Gary Barta announced on Wednesday a two-game suspension of head men's basketball coach Fran McCaffrey for unsportsmanlike comments directed at an official following Iowa's loss

at Ohio State Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio. The suspension includes Iowa's next two games versus Rutgers and at Wisconsin. So again, very interesting. I want to hear your thoughts. Let me know what you think of that suspension, but that'll wrap it up for what we are going to consider segment number two for today and join us in just a few moments as we talk about Lisa Bluter and what she could possibly do with her time on the women's Iowa basketball team and kind of what national award she's up for as a nominee. We'll be touching on that in just a few moments after a few messages from our sponsors.

All right, we are back talking about Lisa Bluter from the Iowa women's basketball team, head coach there, former Drake basketball coach, fantastic coach all around. I mean, she's had a fantastic career, three-time Big Ten coach of the year. She's also two-time regional coach of the year. And like I said, just a fantastic time with the Iowa Hawkeyes. This, though, is one of possibly her finest performances and possibly could be one of her finest performances with the Hawks. They have not been to an Elite Eight since 1993 or a Final Four since 1993.

This is an opportunity for them to do that this year. With Megan Gustafson, arguably the best player. I wouldn't say arguably. I would say she is. But arguably the best player in the entire nation. The Hawks have a real opportunity here to go far in the NCAA tournament. Right now they're beaten on the door of potentially a three seed, maybe even a two seed if they win out and win the Big Ten Conference.

That would give them a pretty easy, not easy, but an easier path to at least the Elite Eight as they would face whatever number one team that would be there sitting for them. Now, though, kind of interesting. Lisa Bluter is up, though, for she's a nominee for the Naismith Coach of the Year. There's 15 coaches that are nominated late in the season. I think obviously it speaks volumes about what she has done with this program, what she has done with the Hawks this year.

I hope that she obviously takes home this hardware. I think it's going to be tough, though. A lot of that stuff is typically based off of wins and losses. So unless the women go to the Elite Eight or Final Four, I don't think she's going to win this. But if they're able to do that, which I do think is a very real possibility, I think there's a very good chance they could actually make that jump, then she very well could be named the Naismith Coach of the Year.

And I think if they were able to go that jump, then she very well could be named the Naismith player or the coach of the year. And I think if they were able to go that far, the Hawks would then also have Megan Gustafson probably being named the national player of the year. So really cool opportunity to get some hardware for the Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball team. They have just one game left against Northwestern before they jump into big town conference play. And before they jump into the NCAA tournament, these awards that will be announced, I think, at the tournament in the beginning of April. So stay tuned for that. We'll keep you posted right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

And that'll do it, though, for our show today. Like I said, just kind of going off the rails, really excited, really enthusiastic, and wanted to talk about some of this stuff. So didn't want to wait till the morning to give you a more up-to-date episode. Wanted to record it now so I can get it submitted, and that way you can have it on your Thursday morning drive. But I do appreciate you listening. I do appreciate you tuning into the show today. It means the world to me. I absolutely love anyone who's listening to the show. Absolutely appreciate it so, so, so, so much. And if you are listening to the show and you

haven't subscribed yet, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And if you want to get the latest recent or the latest updates on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, you can follow me on Twitter, Wade underscore Andrew, and you can also follow the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast on Twitter at Locked on Iowa. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions,

or just want to have a friendly discussion, always down for engaging in great debate, you can email me at LockedOnHawkeyes at gmail.com. Again, thank you for joining us on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. We'll be back tomorrow with some discussions on the Rutgers game and a few other topics, so make sure you're tuning in to tomorrow morning's episode as well. But have a fantastic Thursday, Hawkeye nation, and we'll be back tomorrow.