Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Will CJ Fredrick play Friday and how much does Iowa not like Illinois?

Episode Date: January 28, 2021

The Iowa Hawkeyes spoke to the media yesterday and provided quite a bit of insight into the team and their preparation for the game vs Illinois tomorrow. Will CJ Fredrick play? Fran was a bit coy, but we break down his response and how Iowa prepares for Illinois without CJ in the lineup. We then turn our attention to the player press conferences and their thoughts on the rivalry with Illinois and how the lineup might look without CJ Fredrick in it.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!KeepsIf you’re ready to take action and prevent hair loss, go to Keeps.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE to receive your first month of treatment for free.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Thursday 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 excited to be joining you on the show today. There is big news in the Lockdown Podcast Network nation. Lockdown has officially been acquired. And what that means for you is honestly nothing at this point. Lockdown has been acquired by Tegna. They are a media conglomerate that has a lot of stations across

the country. And really why this is a big deal for you, why I'm telling you early on in this episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast is that if anything, it's going to improve your experience listening to me each and every day. And you might hear a little bit more of me going forward. So that being said, just wanted to get that out of the way. I thought it was really cool. Some awesome news in the Lockdown Podcast Network Nation.

And let's get into the show, though. And just a quick reminder, if you like the show, if you like the content we're covering today, make sure to give us that five-star review and subscribe wherever you downloaded the podcast app. We're a minute in, though, and I haven't even told you what we're talking about. We're talking about all things basketball today. There was a press conference yesterday. We're going to be breaking down that press conference in three different segments. First, starting off with CJ Frederick and his injury, getting into Fran

McCaffrey and some of his other pieces of information he kind of talked about yesterday, and then finally wrapping up with a few player tidbits. They had some really nice quotes that I want to talk about as well on the show. I wanted to cover more Senior Bowl stuff this week, but to be honest, we're not getting the film until the next day. So it makes it a little bit tough to watch the film and break it down in a timely fashion. So what I'm going to do for you is on Monday,

I'll have a full breakdown of the Senior Bowl. I'll watch all the different practices and talk about what went right, what went wrong and grade each of the performances for Chauncey Golsan and Alaric Jackson, and obviously encompass or have that encompass the Senior Bowl as well. So that's going to be my promise to you. And on tomorrow's show, we're going to be talking about the Iowa-Illinois game, actually giving you a full preview, not just the press conference highlights and what we learned from that.

But let's get into the show today. Like I said, I've already talked for a while. I want to give you the content you love and deserve. And the first thing that's on our question on everyone's mind is there's been a big layoff and Iowa takes on Illinois tomorrow, a ranked Illinois squad supposed to be one of the best teams in the big 10. And I don't doubt that they are a very good team. They are one of the teams competing for the number one spot in the big 10 alongside Iowa and Wisconsin that, you know, is now claimed by Michigan but the big news going

into this game is CJ Frederick because he went out of the game against Indiana he was injured only played I believe 13 minutes it was definitely less than what he normally plays and we didn't see him return in the second half so what does that mean is he going to be healthy for this game and honestly at this point I don't know. I really don't. Fran McCaffrey was pretty coy with it, and he got asked about it multiple times. I mean, he got asked about it repeatedly, and he did a good job of kind of highlighting a few things and giving away some information without giving away any information at all.

And I think the big takeaway was CJ Frederick truly is day-to-day. And this is the quote that really kind of helped me formulate what my thoughts are on this. He asked, one of the reporters asked about whether or not CJ Frederick could play right now, if he's going to be injured long-term, what does that all mean? And Fran said, that always is the most difficult decision for a coach. And I typically just rely on my medical staff in situations like that. Can he go? Can he So again, we don't know what exactly is injury. It seems like a leg injury. We know that is probably the issue. What that actually means. I don't know. My guess is based off of the day to day piece and whether it could be long-term or not to me, that's more of a

soft tissue ish, soft tissue injury, but I'm not a medical expert. That's just my thought. Um, to me, it's a soft tissue injury because those can be really, um, big nuance, you know, kind of, nuanced, kind of tricky to deal with. If you injure your hamstring and you come back too early, you could be injured the rest of the year or you could be less than effective. I think especially with an Iowa basketball program that has aspirations of winning an NCAA title, they cannot afford to bring C.J. Frederick back too early. This is still a very good team. Even without CJ Frederick, this is still a top 25 team, arguably a top 10 team still in my personal opinion. Obviously, people want to point to the Indiana game and the fact that while CJ was out, Iowa couldn't score worth a darn. What they're not realizing is that Jordan Bohannon also couldn't

shoot. Joe Wieskamp got cold and everyone else in the entire lineup couldn't shoot the ball. Now, when you have everyone in your lineup unable and capable of making shots, that is going to hurt your team regardless and that's what happened against Indiana. Now, could CJ have helped? A hundred percent. A thousand percent. But he wasn't there and it wasn't all because he wasn't there that Iowa lost that game and struggled offensively. It had a lot more to do with the fact that the rest of the team also couldn't shoot even when they were getting good shots. That being said, what do I think is going to happen in this game? I do not think Fran is going to bring CJ Frederick back. I don't think there's a chance and heck that he actually plays

in this game. And again, I think it's a soft tissue thing. The fact that he's day-to-day, Fran has, in my opinion, historically, erred on the side of caution and with that long-term goal of playing as kind of the ultimate goal, right? And I think for me, that means CJ doesn't play in this game. Fran does trust his backups significantly, arguably more than any other coach in the nation, and for good reason. The bench has been really good most of the time this year. Look at what they did in that stretch after the Minnesota game. Rutgers, Maryland, I mean, they were leading, they were carrying the team as a bench. So I believe that because he has a strong bench, because he feels comfortable with the

guys he can bring in, he's not going to rush C.J. Frederick back. So my guess is we're not going to see C.J. Frederick play against Illinois. If we do, fantastic. He must be in good spot. If he can't, all right, I think it's time to go with the backups, right? We're going to see some more playing time for some of these guys. So what does that mean for the playing time for Iowa and the lineup rotations? First and foremost, it definitely changes up the bench rotations and when people are going to be subbed in and subbed out as we saw against Indiana. That kind of switched up how Iowa be subbed in and subbed out, as we saw against Indiana.

That kind of switched up how Iowa was rotating guys in and out. Now, at the start of the second half, Iowa had Keegan Murray in. They had Keegan Murray in with the starters. It moved CJ to the two. CJ typically playing the four, technically, but he's more of a point forward in that lineup. And Keegan Murray took over that four spot with Connor moving over to the two. So I think that's probably what happens. Jack Nunji is a big guy and has been bringing a lot of energy off the bench.

He's also somewhat of a liability offensively when the ball is in his hands if he doesn't put the ball up quickly. At least we've seen him make some bad passes. We've seen him get the ball stripped quite a bit the last couple games. But he does bring a ton of energy, and he has the size to be able to handle Illinois' pretty solid-sized lineup. So to me, that is probably what's going to happen. Jack Nunji will be the first guy off the bench, spelling Luka Garza.

Keegan Murray will be the guy getting his first career start for the Iowa Hawkeyes. What a rise for the freshman. I mean, what he's done has been absolutely incredible. It's been a lot of fun to watch. But especially with Illinois and who they have typically played in their lineups, Kofi Coburn, he is 7'2", 185 pounds. You want to make sure you have Jack Nunji or Luka Garza in at all times. Right behind him,

Georgie Bez. I'm not going to get into it. Georgie, 6'9", 245 pound junior. He's also a tall guy. You want to have Jack Nungy in there. So my guess is he's going to be the backup. The other two people we're going to see likely get more playing time is probably Tony Perkins, is my guess, and Patrick McCaffrey. Now you might be wondering why not Joe Toussaint? and I do believe Joe Toussaint could get more playing time. I think naturally the minutes are going to be spread around quite a bit but Joe Toussaint is in an unfortunate position where there are going to be two guys on the floor or three guys on the floor at any time that can handle the ball. Jordan Bohannon, Connor McCaffrey, Joe Wieskamp. Joe Wieskamp typically isn't bringing the ball up ever but those are three guys who can handle the ball. Joe T is going to get in when those guys go

off the court. So he typically isn't going to be a guy playing alongside Jordan Bohannon and Connor McCaffrey as much, especially with Connor, because that kind of ruins the lineup rotations and isn't exactly the ideal lineup rotation you'd want to see. And if you look at in the past, what they've typically done with Joe Toussaint on the floor, it's either Joe Wieskamp, Patrick McCaffrey, Keegan Murray, Jack Nunji, basically most of the backups plus Wieskamp, or it's Jordan Bohannon, Patrick McCaffrey, Keegan Murray, Luka Garza. And a lineup has been used very rarely is CJ Frederick, Connor McCaffrey, Patrick McCaffrey, and Jack Nunji. So typically you're going to see Jordan Bohannon or Connor McCaffrey, Patrick McCaffrey, and Jack Nunji. So typically you're going to see Jordan Bohannon

or Connor McCaffrey out at that time because Joe Toussaint needs to have the ball in his hand. So I don't think it's going to spell more playing time for him, but I do expect more playing time for Tony Perkins, who got a lot of minutes in the last game against Indiana. Got six minutes. A lot is relative, right? A lot for Tony Perkins.

He did a good job of bringing that intensity defensively. You could see his athleticism as well, being able to drive to the basket, giving you an element to the offense that you typically don't see from those reserves. So I think Tony Perkins is going to get his minutes elevated. I think Joe Toussaint stays around the same. And obviously you're going to see P-Mac, Nunji, they're all going to kind of be filling in to that spot. Keegan Murray going to get a bump in his minutes as well. That's my thoughts. Obviously I'm going to be watching those bench rotations.

I'll be watching to see how Iowa handles it offensively without C.J. Frederick on the floor. My guess is C.J. Frederick is not playing. That is just my guess. We will see and find out more as we get closer to game time tomorrow. That does it for segment number one.

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on the Locked On Podcast Network with Locked On Today. It's hosted by the great Peter Bukowski, and it's all the sports news you need every morning in under 20 minutes. Subscribe to the Locked On Today podcast wherever you get your podcast at. Let's get into the conversation, though, talking a little bit about what Fran McCaffrey said. He had a couple interesting quotes to say about Illinois and then also about the schedule. Let's get with the Illinois piece though. This was a question that got asked to basically all

the players that were a part of the press conference and Fran McCaffrey. But they're asking about Illinois and what is the environment going to be like going to play Illinois? How much does Iowa not like Illinois? And here's what Fran McCaffrey had to say about that. He said, I think I look at it like this. Every game in our league is intense, physical, a lot of emotion. They were two good teams just going at it last year. Both games came down to the last 30 seconds and we have respect for them. Just knowing who they have and they've proven the last couple of years that they are a team capable of winning at this level. And they're a team that I think no matter who they have, and they've proven the last couple years that they are a team capable of winning at this level, and they're a team that I think no matter who they play is going to have that team's full attention.

That's coach speak. I think 100% this game has a little bit more to it than just that, and we're going to hear from Connor McCaffrey and Luka Garza and Joe Toussaint later on with some press conference clips about their thoughts on Illinois. But I think this is Fran McCaffrey just intelligently answering the question. I have no doubt in my mind this game means a little more. Coming off a loss to Indiana, coming off the loss to Illinois last season at the end of the season, if you listen to Locked On Bets

with your boy Q and Lee Sterling, Lee talks about this a lot. That's a big indicator for him of when to bet on teams is do they have motivation from previous seasons? And this is a big motivation. This is a team, Illinois, that ended Iowa season. That was the last game of Iowa season. They lost to Illinois. They didn't get a chance to play in the Big Ten Conference tournament. They didn't get a chance to play in the NCAA tournament. It was Illinois. The last game they played was Illinois, and it was a very close game, and they fell to Illinois. You better believe there's a little bit of extra motivation for this veteran squad to take on Illinois, a team that had, you know, Io and, you know, Kofi return. Both those

guys returned. They wanted to bring Illinois a national title. Io and Kofi, those are two great players, and you better believe Iowa saw that happen, and they thought, I'm ready to take this team on. I am excited to beat Illinois with those two guys. I think Fran McCaffrey absolutely feels that way, obviously just given that coach speak. Going to Kofi and Io and what he thought on both of those guys, Kofi especially has really improved this year. He said, I think he's a little more versatile. He was more one-dimensional last year. He's not so much this year. I think he's really improved kind of on both ends.

He's trying to impact the game at both ends. When a guy is shooting 70% from the field, it's pretty impressive. And I couldn't agree more. He has really elevated his game. He was kind of a raw guy down low last year, a big guy, 7 foot tall, 285 pounds. When you have that kind of size, that's great. But what can you do with that size? Obviously, you're going to be a little bit better.

He's very athletic, very raw, but he could be a very good defender. But the offensive side hadn't really come up yet, and it has. I saw a clip the other day of Kofi actually taking a guy off of the dribble a guard off the dribble from the line and actually managing to almost basically just push him out of bounds legally and that's the kind of athleticism Kofi has this is going to be a really good challenge for Luka Garza because of his athleticism because of his size we saw Luka Garza struggle last year against Xavier Tillman of Michigan State I think Kofi's a bigger possibly a more athletic version against Xavier Tillman of Michigan State. I think Kofi's a bigger, possibly a more athletic version of Xavier Tillman, so that'll be a really fun battle for me to watch.

Also on Io, here's what Fran had to say. He said, I think it starts with the fact that he plays at both ends, and this is about why Io is so good. He said a lot of scorers don't defend. He defends, but he's kind of got a complete skill set. He gives it up. He's got an in-between game. He's got a three-point shot.

He can get to the rim. He kind of plays at his pace, and he plays well at the end of the game. And that makes sense to me. This is a five-star recruit. You would hope that he's pretty darn good, right? And he has been, and he continues to improve every single year. His first year, maybe a little bit out of control, but this year he has been phenomenal for Illinois. Their best player, undoubtedly a guy who will be in the NBA at some point. When you look at his stats though, the three-point shooting has significantly improved. Last year, shooting 30%. This year, shooting 39% on three and a half attempts.

He's averaging 21.7 points per game, almost a steal per game, and 6.3 rounds and 4.9 assists. All improvements over the past year. His free throw shooting percentage has also improved from 69% his freshman year to 75% his sophomore year to 81% his junior year. And his overall shooting percentage, again, has improved as well. 49% this year from 48% last year to 43% as a freshman. That's a big deal. He's a playmaker, and he plays a lot of minutes. They ride him hard. He plays 34.5 minutes a game. That's a big deal. He's a playmaker, and he plays a lot of minutes. They ride him hard.

He plays 34 and a half minutes a game. That's a big deal. He's going to be a guy that I'm interested to watch. As we've talked about on shows before, Iowa struggles with letting guys get hot from deep, and it doesn't always have to be an unheralded guy. Sometimes it can be a guy like Io, who is hitting 38%,

but he's going to want to take this game in his hands. Good players want to make big-time plays, and I could see him having a big-time night if Iowa doesn't get tight on him defensively. So that's my take on that. And then finally, they asked a question about the schedule for Iowa and what the schedule changes kind of mean for the Hawks. So I want to talk a little bit about that and Fran's response to that. He said, the league is really trying to work with all of us in these situations because we're obviously not the only team that is in this situation. Some teams are coming out of pause and some teams are just trying to get the games in. They're trying to be fair. There's going to be some teams that have a one-day prep and other teams that have more days. They're trying to do the best they can.

Do we have input? Yes, we have input. But at some point, you're going to be handed a schedule, and you've got to play it, and that's fine with me. Now, again, Fran's a competitor. I don't disagree that he's excited to play, and he's down to play any schedule he gets. But there's no denying the fact that Iowa had one game in eight days. There was an opportunity there, and the Big Ten blew it because they haven't been working.

Maybe they have, but they're not giving any information. There's no transparency from the Big Ten blew it because they haven't been working. Maybe they have, but they're not giving any information. There's no transparency from the Big Ten. I could go on that for days, but the Big Ten has been absolutely atrocious. I appreciate Fran McCaffrey being a little bit more level-headed about it than I have been because I've been getting very frustrated with the lack of transparency coming out of the Big Ten offices in Chicago. I just don't feel like they're doing their job. They're not reacting appropriately.

They're not being proactive about these things. They're just letting it kind of happen and seeing what happens and letting it go. And that's not okay, especially with so many teams having big time hopes on the line with an NCAA tournament this year. But that does it for segment number two. Coming up on segment number three, we're going to be playing you a few press conference clips from some of the Iowa players, Luka Garza, Connor McCaffrey, and Joe Toussaint. And then we're going to get into some of the details about what they said and what we feel about that. Before we get into that, though, if you want to put a little extra money in your pocket, you've got to go to BetOnline.ag. It's the one place that has you covered and the one place that I personally trust for all of my betting needs.

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They are picking college basketball, football, and NBA locks all winter long. Subscribe to Locked On Bets wherever you get your podcasts at. Now let's turn our attention to the press conference with some of the Iowa players, Luka Garza, Connor McCaffrey, and Joe Toussaint. We're going to play you a few clips and then break each of those down, starting with Luka Garza. We're just really excited for this matchup. We know how important this game is to us. And like I always say, the next game is the most important game on our schedule.

So we're really focused on what we're going to try to stick to the game plan to execute the game plan to the best of our abilities so again Luka Garza obviously having uh the wherewithal to understand kind of what the approach is it's the next game as usual but again I think this Illinois game is going to be huge the question there was simply you know what does this game mean to you what does this game mean to the Iowa Hawkeye players? And, you know, obviously having the season end like it did last year, what are you looking to accomplish in that game? The next press conference clip is from Connor McCaffrey. He was asked the question, you know, whether or not it's easy for him to take out the emotion from this game, especially in a game where, you know, he has been heated, you know, in the past from this game, especially in a game where he has been heated in the past.

Last year, there was that photo of him getting forehead to forehead with Illinois, and obviously he's probably one of the more chirpy players, chippiest players, I would say, on the Iowa Hawkeye squad, one who's not going to back down. Here was his very nice and kind of long response to that question regarding Illinois and what this game means, coming up right now? Yeah, I think you really just got to focus on the game when it comes to it. You can't think about all that extra stuff. But if something arises, obviously we'll deal with it then.

I think when it comes to the rivalry, I think it's just probably because we're both better than we have been. I don't know. I feel like we haven't, like, both matched up for a little bit. Like, they've kind of been, like, you know, this is, like, their, you know, up-and-coming team in terms of their, you know, what their fan base thinks and whatnot. Like, they're really good.

And, you know, us, you know, we've had really good teams. But, like, this is the first time we've kind of both been, you know, at, you know, kind of like like a peak I guess you might say so and I think that that's why you know we uh that's why you know you see all the all the tension and all the excitement heading up to the heading up to the game so I think you know that's that's what makes it fun and so to get into more details on that again Connor McCaffrey is basically a coach in waiting. He's going to be a coach someday, I personally believe. At least that's what Fran McCaffrey also believes as well.

And he understands the importance of this game, the intensity of this game, and why it has become such a good rivalry. It wasn't that way, as he mentioned. Iowa hasn't been good when Illinois has been good, or they haven't been able to evenly match up. Now they are. You have a big battle down low. You get the battle of the guards. I mean, this is a huge matchup for the Hawks and for Illinois,

and it's fun to see them kind of fighting each other, in a sense, figuratively, for the top dog in the Big Ten. You like seeing these intense matchups. You like the intensity of them, and you like the fact that the Big Ten is providing like seeing these intense matchups. You like the intensity of them and you like the fact that the Big Ten is providing some fantastic entertainment across the board. Coming up we have one more quick thing from Conor McCaffrey before we turn to a fantastic

clip from Joe Toussaint. The last thing from Conor McCaffrey was he was asked the question whether or not what he's going to be doing, how his role changes if C.J. Frederick is out for that game. As we kind of talked about, we already gave you our thoughts, but here's what Connor McCaffrey also had to say specifically about that

and what his role would be if C.J. Frederick is unable to go. I'll go from the four to the two for one thing. So, you know, I'll be running different plays I'll be running in different plays, you know, from different spots. So that's, that's one of the things. And I would say, you know, other than that I don't think it changes like a ton because I do think I'll still handle the ball, still be somebody who, you know, is looking to set up everybody else, you know, Keegan, Keegan will fill it and step in and fill that role nicely, you know,

playing really well, playing hard. You know, he's,, playing hard. He's picked us up. And so I think that just when it comes to the lineup, I'll have to adjust on who I'm guarding and maybe be a little bit more aggressive here and there because CJ's out, we lose another offensive weapon. So I think a lot of things go into it, but I also think we'll adjust just fine. And I, you know, obviously it's great to hear from him what that change would be. And obviously I talked a little bit about that on segment number one. The thing

that stuck out to me there though, was the fact that he said, I might need to be a little bit more aggressive on offense. And that might have some of you saying, oh gosh, please no. Because historically in the Iowa program, Connor McCaffrey has been probably the worst offensive player. I think that's safe to say at this point, one of the worst offensive players from a scoring perspective for Iowa basketball the last couple of years. Now you want to talk about offense in general. He's been phenomenal. He is the best passer. He doesn't turn the ball over. He knows exactly where to go with the ball at all times. That is not something I want to understate at all. But shooting wise, that has not been his forte. When you look at his shooting for this team, he is the bottom of the team. For any of the main rotation guys, he only averages 3.3 points per game. And when you look at his shooting percentages, it hasn't been that ideal. Three point shooting as a freshman was averaging 0.5 attempts per game, hit 50%. As a sophomore

point or sorry, and I know he barely played as a freshman. So I guess as a redshirt freshman, shot one attempts per game, average 20% last year, actually had a pretty decent season shooting the ball from three, three attempts per game hit 34% this year on two attempts per game, hitting 29% from the field in general, 36%, and only averaging one attempt inside the perimeter, and he's hitting 50% of those. And what he means by aggressive, I think it's important to note that when Connery McCaffrey came out of school, came out of high school,

it was not a thought that he was a bad offensive player. He was an offensive stud. I've seen him play in high school, and he was a beast as an offensive player. He just doesn't need to be on this team. He hasn't needed to be the entire time he's been here. He needs to be a distributor. He needs to be a key cog in the wheel, not necessarily a guy who scores 20 any night.

And now Connery McCaffrey isn't going to score 20 tomorrow or 20 against Illinois, but he is a guy who can score if he needs to. He can score 10 to 12 points if you need him to, if he has to be that kind of guy. I expect when he says to be more aggressive, it means to be willing to take a few more of those shots, to be willing to drive to the basket a little bit more in the absence of C.J. Frederick. And he's even talked about the fact that he has the confidence to do all those things despite the fact that some Iowa fans might not think so. It is important to note that Connor McCaffrey has been a solid offensive player in the past.

He just hasn't had to do that as much. And obviously he has struggled shooting the ball. I mean, there's no denying that when you look at the statistics. But he has the capability of doing it. He just doesn't need to. So it's not even a point of emphasis for him. That's my thoughts on that. It'll be interesting to see what Connor McCaffer we do get with C.J. Frederick potentially out.

His presence is going to be huge. What he can do offensively from a scoring perspective will be a big impact on that game and possibly a difference maker for Iowa to win that game. Now we have the last guy I want to bring up on the show, Joe Toussaint. He was the final interviewee of the press conference yesterday, and he had a very good quote. I just wanted to share it. I'm not even going to go in and analyze it. I thought it really spoke volumes to him as a player and kind of what his mantra is, game in and game out. So we're going to get to that in just a few short seconds.

But basically, it was him basically saying, I don't really like people. So let's get to that right now. And actually, real quick, just wanted to make a note that it was about, the question was actually about Illinois, whether or not he liked Illinois, whether or not he liked Iowa, because Iowa said a quote about not liking Iowa. But again, here's what Joe Toussaint had to say about that. To be honest, I don't really like anybody, if I'm being honest with you. That's just how it is, you know, in basketball.

Off the court, I mean, we're friends, but on the court, you know, I just don't like anybody at all. So, yeah, I guess you could say that I don't like them. I love that. I love Joe Toussaint. He's a character. He's a lot of fun. And the fact that he said that was, was great.

I love the fact that he says there's no friends on the court and you look at this Iowa squad and they really are, they're a very resilient bunch. They're very aggressive bunch and they don't take crap from anyone and they're not going to back down. And I think it's a mentality that they've established over the last couple of years under Fran McCaffrey, and Joe Toussaint adds to that mentality. So something to be watching out for. This is going to be a chippy game. The refs are going to need to be on point, and I expect Fran McCaffrey to get a bit heated at times. Maybe we'll see some

red-faced Fran at some point in time here. Maybe get a technical, depending on how the game flow is going. But this is going to be a chippy game. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch. And coming up on tomorrow's show, we're going to be giving you a full breakdown of that game, analyzing the stats, and what Iowa needs to do to win that game, and then also giving you a brief preview of the Iowa-Illinois wrestling match on Saturday. So that's all coming up on the show. If you loved the episode, give us that five-star review.

And as always, make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thank you, Hawkeye Nation, for tuning in. I'm your host, Andrew Wade. I hope you have a fantastic Thursday, and let's go Hawks.