Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Women win B1G Championship behind Gustafson's incredible performance | Hawks bring home just one wrestling champion | Men blow 16-pt lead vs Nebraska

Episode Date: March 11, 2019

Megan Gustafson had half of Iowa's 90 points as the Hawks won the women's Big Ten Conference Tournament yesterday. They are all but guaranteed to be a #2 seed now in the NCAA Tournament. We discuss the game and what it means going forward. In the wrestling world, the Hawks only claimed one championship and sent a few others to the podium in what could be considered a disappointing day on the mat. Meanwhile, the men's basketball team started out strong vs Nebraska before falling hard on their face as Nebraska got hot from three and beat the Hawks in OT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your University of Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at dearoldgold.com, where you can find analysis pieces on all things black and yellow. And we have a very action-packed episode for you today. Lots of things going on in the sports world. We had women's basketball in the women's Big Ten basketball conference tournament. We also had men's basketball taking on Nebraska and we had wrestling in the Big Ten wrestling championships among other sports. We're going to try to get to the other sports today but likely going to push those off until tomorrow's show or Wednesday's show depending on if we can get our Big Ten Conference Prediction show out.

I'm actually going to be co-hosting a show again with the Locked On Badgers, Tanner Nessel, who we're going to be talking about the Big Ten Conference tournament for the men coming up this weekend and talking a little about who we predict to win, who are some of our sleepers, and what we expect from the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Wisconsin Badgers. So make sure to tune into that episode, which we're hopefully going to be recording later this evening and then posting for tomorrow for Tuesday morning's episode. That being said, though, for segment number one, we're going to be covering the men's game versus Nebraska,

talking a little bit about that big disappointment. On segment number two, we're going to be talking about the wrestling team. And then on segment number three, we're going to be focusing all that attention on the women's basketball team because they had a fantastic Big Ten conference performance. I want to make sure we highlight all the great things they are doing as of right now. Before we jump in, though, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at.

And if you have a smart speaker at home, next time you want to listen to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, just tell Google, Siri, or Alexa to play podcast Locked On Hawkeyes. It's that simple. So let's jump right into it though. The men played Nebraska this Sunday and really it was an opportunity for what I felt like the Hawks to get back on track. They had been losing a decent amount of their games, three of their last four heading into the Nebraska game, and the last three in pretty bad fashion, just blowouts against Wisconsin. I mean, that was just an atrocious effort all around.

I think, obviously, there's been some concerns about the officiating in the last couple games, but that's neither here nor there. There's no reason to get blown out by 20 points in a game regardless of how good or bad the officiating is. The game should be closer to that if you want to win the game. Now, coming into this game, though, I really thought this, like I said, I thought this would be a good opportunity for the Hawks to get some momentum going, get an easy win. Nebraska is depleted. I mean, they were missing three of their top six scorers, including Isaac Copeland Jr., their second leading scorer. So I really thought this was a great opportunity. Not too long of a drive. Hawks could get a big win. And for a large part of the game, it looked like Iowa was going to do that. I mean, they had a 16-point lead with 17 minutes left in

the second half. At that point, all they needed to do was cruise. And Nebraska kept making a few little comebacks here and there. We're going a little wrong to make it a 10-point difference. But I really didn't think that this was a game that Nebraska had any chance of winning halfway through the second half. And I was really excited. I was like, this is great. I can't wait to talk about the positives from this game. Iowa's offense was outstanding for most of the game.

We saw Isaiah Moss actually make a freaking appearance. I mean, this guy is an incredibly talented scorer, and he's just been limited the past couple games. I think a lot of it's confidence. When he misses a few shots, he stops taking shots. So it was good to see him get back in action. Luka Garza was an absolute beast down low. I think he had 25 points on the game, so fantastic performance by him. Tyler Cook

was probably the most disappointing offensive performer. Didn't do much, you know, as far as getting buckets in there. I think he only scored nine points, but still decent game for him. And then Jordan Mohannon had 20 points. Joe Wieskamp had 14. Like I said, Isaiah Moss had 10. So it was fantastic to see four of the five starters get into double digits. But defensively, they broke down. And that's what allowed Nebraska to come back in the game. It also didn't help that Nebraska's senior guard, Glenn Watson Jr., decided to hit every single three-pointer he made or attempted, excuse me, in the last five to six minutes. I believe he had five three-pointers from the last 11 minutes of game time. That includes a six minutes of regulation and a five minutes of overtime. So

tough to beat that. But also just Iowa's closing attack was terrible. That last minute, Nebraska was all over them, smothering them in a full court press, and Iowa couldn't get out of it. And then Nebraska would be fouling them. Iowa would get two free throws, make those. Nebraska would come down, drain a three. And it was literally just switching threes for twos. Not exactly the way you want to do it. I was really disappointed in how Iowa handled that last 50 seconds.

They had a nine-point lead with 50 seconds left and still managed to blow it. And the fact that Iowa also had an opportunity to win the game with 10 seconds left, and they weren't able to do that. Connor McCaffrey couldn't figure out what to do with the ball, held the ball, got knocked out, only gave the Hawks 2.5 seconds to shoot the ball and potentially get a game-winner in. Obviously that ball was going to go to Jordan Bohannon. What I don't like about his shots is that I do agree that I love the fact that he's going to go to Jordan Bohannon. I thought what I don't like about his shots is that I do agree that I love the fact that he's going to get the ball. He's the guy who needs

that ball. He has big, you know, he's got stones and he's willing to make those shots and he has, you know, ice cold water in his veins. But at the same time, I feel like when it comes down to crunch time, he's looking to get fouled. I mean, some of his shots are just so unorthodox and I really feel like if he would just focus on making a good shot, he'd be fine, except for he's literally looking to get fouled, it seems like. So that's really frustrating to watch him. Overall, going 0-4 in the last four games, largest losing streak in the Big Ten currently.

Not exactly how the Hawks want to go into the Big Ten tournament. On the grand scheme of things, it ultimately doesn't matter, though. I mean, it doesn't matter if you don't take into account the intangibles, the idea that you need momentum, the idea that you need to be kind of playing well. That's obviously going to hurt the Hawks. But the fact that, you know, the Big Ten tournament, Iowa's already seeded as a 16th. They weren't going to move based off of this game. They're guaranteed to get in the NCAA tournament with 21 wins basically. So it's not going to hurt them that much. I. They're guaranteed to get in the NCAA tournament with 21 wins, basically. So it's not going to hurt them that much.

I just, I'm concerned that they're not going to be able to pick it back up within the, you know, with the Big Ten tournament. And they haven't had a lot of success in the last decade in the Big Ten tournament. They've won just three games. They haven't advanced past the second round since their 2006 championship team. In the Fran era, just three games total. since their 2006 championship team. And the Fran era, just three games total.

So not exactly an ideal season-ending performance to head into the Big Ten tournament. And then that'll probably impact what they get at the NCAA tournament. If they can win the Big Ten tournament, which I think they have the talent to, and the way the schedule's built out, they absolutely can. They have Northwestern or Illinois, whoever wins that game, they're going to play them in the second round

before taking on Michigan, a team they've already beat, a team that will likely be excited to play Iowa just because they're pissed off about losing, but Iowa matches up pretty well against that team, so it'll be interesting to see. I think Iowa has the opportunity to go far. I just don't know if they can at this point. I'm losing a lot of confidence in that team, but we'll see kind of how that all plays out. The games start on Wednesday. Iowa plays basketball on Thursday, the winner of the Illinois-Northwestern game. So make sure to stay tuned for that.

We'll be giving you a full Big Ten Men's Conference basketball preview on tomorrow's episode. And then we also will be giving you kind of individual previews of Iowa versus Northwestern or Illinois, and obviously, hopefully hopefully Iowa versus Michigan. So stay tuned for that on this week's episodes. That being said though, that is it for segment number one.

Just a reminder that if you haven't subscribed to our podcast, make sure you're doing that. Make sure you're giving us reviews. We love to hear the feedback. You can also follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa. That's how you can stay relevant with all the current news from our podcast when we're posting shows, etc. And if you haven't, try out sometime, try playing LockedOnHawkeyes with your smart speaker

at home. Just tell Google, Siri, or Alexa, play podcast LockedOnHawkeyes. It's that easy to listen to this podcast every single morning that we have an episode. That being said, though, stay tuned for a few messages from our sponsors before we jump into segment number two. All right, we are back with segment number two, talking about the men's wrestling team. And really, there was a lot of high hopes coming in

for the Iowa Hawkeyes wrestling team this season. They had a lot of returning studs, and then they went on a 13-0 winning streak Coming in for the Iowa Hawkeyes wrestling team this season. They had a lot of returning studs. And then they went on a 13-0 winning streak before losing to Oklahoma State. In the final regular season match of the season. Heading into the Big Ten Wrestling Championships. We did do a pretty big preview of this last week. But there was a few opportunities for the Hawks to take home a title, potentially to place on the podium, and I felt like overall, somewhat of a disappointing performance from

the Hawks. They did finish third as a team with 107 points, right behind Penn State at 157, Ohio State at 122, and they just narrowed out, or narrowly edged out Minnesota at 101.5, but I really felt like they could have done better in that. Spencer Lee, so we only had two guys in the finals for the Hawks. That was Spencer Lee at 125 and Alex Marinelli at 165. Spencer Lee lost 6-4 to Sebastian Rivera, who he's also lost to earlier in the season as well, but that was also while Lee was possibly dealing with some mono-like symptoms. He did lose. He was winning for most of the match. Rivera got a good point on him late in the game. Spencer Lee had the writing times

that allowed him to tie him up with 4-4. They went into an overtime, and it looked like Spencer Lee was about to get a takedown on Rivera before Rivera switched it up and knocked down Lee. So, unfortunately he did lose 6-4. Rivera claims the 125 Big Ten Wrestling Championship. At 165 Alex Marinelli dominated Vincenzo Joseph of Penn State.

He won 9-3. Joseph is the returning NCAA champion. So, pretty impressive performance there and that's probably Iowa's best chance of getting an NCAA title this year. So pretty exciting stuff. Overall though, a few of the other guys, not exactly as good as what we're hoping for. Spencer Lee finished second. Austin DeSanto went two and two on the weekend, finished fourth. You know, there was hopes that he could finish, you know, first or second, potentially very strong kid, but 133 is a loaded weight class. Max Mirren

went 3-2 and finished 7th. Pat Lugo went 5-1 and finished 3rd. Caleb Young went 4-2 and finished 4th. Marinelli again finished 1st. Mitch Bowman went 1-3 and did not place. That was kind of expected. We're really anticipating a lot from him. Cash Wilk went 4-2

and finished 4th. And Jacob Warner went 3-1 and finished 3rd. Sam Stoll did not do as well in his matchups, but I mean not exactly unexpected. He's been kind of struggling with some of the lower body stuff throughout the year. He did not place, and that ends his Hawkeye career. So that'll

do it though. That kind of covers the wrestling team. We're going to be giving some previews of what to expect with the NCAA Championships coming up in two weekends. Obviously, giving you kind of who we expect to win, what we expect from some of the Iowa wrestlers that are going to be there, and obviously giving you a heads up onto the automatic qualifiers from the Big Ten Wrestling Tournament. That being said, though, let's jump right into segment number three in just a few moments.

We're going to give you a few seconds to listen to a few messages from our sponsors before we talk about the women's basketball team. Alright, we are back with segment number three, my favorite segment of the day because this is obviously and most likely the happiest segment of the day because we're talking

about the women's basketball team and they just won their first Big Ten championship in nearly two decades. Fantastic performance, beating number eight Maryland, a team they already beat just a few weeks earlier, and really in dominating fashion. The women jumped out to a big lead early on. Maryland was able to come back into the third quarter and tie it up at 53-53 with about seven minutes left, but then a barrage of layups and shots from Megan Gustafson and Kathleen Doyle edged out the Terps and made that lead 69-60 for the Hawks heading into the fourth quarter where

Iowa continued to build on that lead. Overall, is there anything we can say about Megan Gustafson that we don't already know? I mean, this girl is incredible. She scored half of Iowa's points. She was 17 of 24 from the field, scored 45 points, brought in 10 rebounds, and had three blocks. If she's not the national player of the year, I'm going to be freaking outraged. There's no one in the country that can match up with her. She's leading the country in field goal percentage and points scored. That's just not a lot of scoring. That's just efficiency too.

Like for example, James Harden, fantastic scorer in the NBA, not exactly the most efficient, right? Steph Curry, one of the best shooters in the NBA, not as efficient as even Megan Gustafson. 70% of your shots is absurd. And being able to do that at a high level and bringing the Hawks to potentially a top 7, top 8 ranking is really impressive. So that win though is huge. Getting to the Big Ten Championship was huge for the Hawks who are currently slated as the 8th overall team in the NCAA tournament. Winning that game definitely solidifies them as number 2.

Losing that game possibly could have moved them back to number three. And that's really beneficial for a couple reasons. One, no matter what, they were going to get home court advantage for at least two games of the NCAA tournament. But two, they're not going to have to play the one seed in that bracket until the Elite Eight. So that's really exciting. The Hawks haven't gotten to the Elite Eight in a very, very long time.

But this is a really ideal opportunity, especially with Megan Gustafson there. Kathleen Doyle has been superb the past couple games. I mean, against Indiana a couple nights ago, she was a defensive stalwart. I mean, just kicking butt all over the place. I mean, one possession, she just basically owned the Indiana defender. And against Maryland, she did a fantastic job offensively, draining key and clutch shots throughout the game. So overall, just really excited about the women's basketball team.

Lisa Bluter should definitely be the national coach of the year. She's up for consideration. She's one of the top 15. And again, Megan Gustafson should absolutely be the national player of the year. I would be a little bit concerned if she wasn't. I mean, she already took home a plethora of Big Ten honors, winning her second Big Ten player of the year honor, getting named to the all-defensive team, and being named first team all-conference unanimous selection, which is, again, expected, but

still fantastic to see nonetheless. The women's basketball tournament does begin the same time as the men's. That tournament will start on March 20th, I I believe and then the selection is going to be you know on March 17th or March 18th I actually I think it's actually March 18th where we're going to find out exactly where the Hawks are going to be placed at in terms of seating but again I expect them to be in a number two seed possibly the sixth or seventh overall team just based off of their dominating performance over Maryland this past weekend and actually just yesterday in general.

So fantastic stuff all around. Love seeing that from the women. Obviously a great way to end the weekend. It was kind of a tough weekend watching the men lose on Thursday, then lose on Sunday. And the wrestling team kind of not necessarily disappointed, but just not come out with as much gusto and not able to exceed the expectations or the high expectations that we already had.

Another thing I wanted to cover too is the fact that one thing I think was bullcrap is the Big Ten Network was airing the Iowa Nebraska game, a game that really didn't matter a ton. And instead of airing Spencer Lee's final matchup, I mean, I was able to watch it because I was able to pull up Fox Sports Go app, but not exactly ideal. And then, you know, you get to the Big Ten Wrestling Championships and you find out Lee lost. So not exactly a fun day for Iowa fans all around. But hopefully that can change this week. The men are going to be in the Big Ten tournament.

The women are going to be off for a little bit. And wrestling is going to be off as well. So we'll be able to catch back up on some of those things and hopefully get prepared for the next couple of weeks. We're going to be pretty crazy in the Hawkeye sporting world. But that'll do it for our Monday morning episode. A little bit shorter of an episode for today. We have a great episode coming at you tomorrow and likely going to be a little bit longer as we preview the Big Ten Conference Tournament with the Locked On Badgers and the host of the Locked On Badgers

Tanner Nessel. So make sure you're tuning in to that tomorrow. Make sure you're also subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts at. And if you have Twitter, make sure to follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa and follow me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew. That's where

you're going to get most of your updates on whether or not we're getting shows out, when the show's going to be posted, and stuff like that. And if you haven't tried it, make sure, maybe tomorrow, maybe on tomorrow's episode, when you want to listen to the crossover episode where we discuss the Big Ten Men's Conference Tournament, just say, Siri or Alexa, play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. It's that easy. Try it tomorrow.

Let me know how you think of it. And again, make sure to give us a review on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify. We love to hear from you, the fans. And that'll do it, though, for our Monday morning episode. Hope you have a fantastic weekend. Enjoy your week back to work. And we'll talk to you tomorrow, Hawkeye Nation. Have a great day.