Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / Trent is joined by Nick Marovets, Wolves Fall in Game 5, Big 12 Private Equity Deal details & Reasons for Optimism and Concern for Cyclone & Hawkeye Hoops

Transcript

Trent is joined by Nick Marovets, Wolves Fall in Game 5, Big 12 Private Equity Deal details & Reasons for Optimism and Concern for Cyclone & Hawkeye Hoops · The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon

• 0:15
  Good afternoon, welcome in Miller and Condon on the air
• 0:18
  with you on a Wednesday as we talk the world of sports taking
• 0:22
  up until 2:00 here this afternoon.
• 0:24
  Then Sean and Lucas off the bench will take you home before
• 0:28
  overtime. Iowa from 5:00 until 6:00 coming
• 0:31
  up today on the program going to be joined in the second hour.
• 0:34
  Matt Rudy from Golf Digest for such a long time now writing
• 0:38
  golf books across the landscape out in the mountains in
• 0:41
  Colorado. He's going to join us to preview
• 0:43
  the PGA Championship. We'll get his perspective on all
• 0:46
  things PGA this week. We're already trying to make it
• 0:49
  two in a row, what the course looks like, a place that has not
• 0:52
  hosted many major events and certainly not recently.
• 0:55
  We'll get his perspective on that and a whole lot more than
• 0:57
  Sloan. Piva is going to stop in from
• 0:59
  Athlon. We'll talk some NBA playoffs.
• 1:01
  We'll get into some prop bets and a whole lot more.
• 1:04
  But joining me once again today, Ken will be back with us
• 1:06
  tomorrow. He is Nick Marvitz from Locked
• 1:10
  on Cyclones. Good to see you once again,
• 1:12
  Nick. And we are off and rolling here
• 1:14
  on a Wednesday. How are you?
• 1:16
  I'm great. I've got to say, with the music
• 1:18
  rolling in, it's so hard not to just start singing.
• 1:20
  I know this is sports radio, but it's just so tempting.
• 1:23
  You're playing some good stuff. Yeah, nobody wants to hear me
• 1:25
  sing. I have a terrible voice in
• 1:27
  general, and as bad as my radio voice is, my singing voice is
• 1:30
  even worse. So yeah, we're going to not have
• 1:33
  that happen. We'll stay away from that
• 1:35
  definitely going forward. And, and I think in my almost 25
• 1:39
  years now on radio, I believe I've sang twice and both times
• 1:43
  did not go very well. So we'll stay away from that.
• 1:45
  How's your singing voice, Mr. Marvitz?
• 1:48
  It's not good either. That's why I I I held back.
• 1:51
  But man, this is some good songs.
• 1:52
  That's. All you, you got better pipes
• 1:54
  than me. And so I thought maybe the the
• 1:56
  singing would go along with it. It was not the case.
• 1:58
  Now I'm going to go back in story time.
• 2:00
  So I take you way back to the late 1980s.
• 2:02
  I'm in elementary school. I'm, I would anticipate kind of
• 2:05
  looking back, maybe a little bit of a pain in the butt, kind of a
• 2:07
  jokester, kind of a goofball in the class.
• 2:09
  And, and definitely when we went to music class with Missus
• 2:12
  Gruby, I, I was putting the fun meter in the red.
• 2:16
  I was always goofing around, screwing around.
• 2:19
  And finally our end of the season spring play, you know,
• 2:23
  singing thing that we did was there and I had the most lines
• 2:26
  out of everybody and I had to do everything and I had a solo in
• 2:29
  there and it was absolutely disastrous.
• 2:30
  So she she came around, she had things figured out there.
• 2:33
  Those teachers, they know what they're doing.
• 2:35
  And I buttoned things up a little bit after that.
• 2:38
  Yeah, she she got you where you didn't.
• 2:40
  You didn't expect it. That is clever.
• 2:41
  What a way to get back to you. Missus groovy shout out here on
• 2:44
  a Wednesday. Well, Nick, we got a lot to talk
• 2:46
  about today. The PGA Championship on the
• 2:47
  horizon mentioned I'll be joined by Matt Rudy in the second hour
• 2:50
  really always does a great job of proving previewing things for
• 2:53
  us here on the program. But I want to start today with
• 2:57
  what we saw last night. It was the NBA for me, the
• 3:00
  Wolves in action and every time that they had a run got it close
• 3:05
  again, it just the Spurs responded every single time
• 3:07
  before obviously pulling away in the fourth quarter and and
• 3:10
  dominating from there. We know the history of game
• 3:13
  fives. It's about 80% of the time in a
• 3:16
  tie series, the team that wins game five goes on to win the
• 3:19
  series. I don't want to say the Wolves
• 3:20
  are completely cooked, but you're talking about threading a
• 3:23
  needle here now, having to win the final two games of the
• 3:25
  series, including what would be a Game 7 in San Antonio.
• 3:28
  I don't think we're going to see Wemby suspended again.
• 3:31
  And because of that, boy, Spurs are prohibitive favorites, as
• 3:34
  they probably should be. Yeah, look at you using the new
• 3:37
  lingo saying cooked and everything I got to say in this
• 3:39
  game, I really thought that Timberwolves are going to be in
• 3:42
  a good spot with what, 7-8 minutes left to go when it was
• 3:45
  like mid 60s, everyone was kind of tied up in that spot, but the
• 3:48
  pull Spurs pulled away. I do think there was an element
• 3:51
  of Wemby, you know, kind of agitated after getting
• 3:54
  suspended. And he's like, you know what,
• 3:56
  I'm going to show you what's up. I, I don't know if the
• 3:59
  Timberwolves can keep up with that kind of a performance, but
• 4:01
  I'm not counting them out, man. I actually really like them to
• 4:04
  make a run at these last two games.
• 4:06
  Are they going to push it to seven?
• 4:07
  I don't have the answer, but I'm not in any way, shape or form
• 4:11
  saying that. Well, you know, they lost game
• 4:13
  five. Statistics say they're
• 4:14
  officially done. No, I am saying that they are
• 4:17
  very much in this thing. Disadvantaged, yes, but not out
• 4:20
  by any stretch of the imagination.
• 4:21
  And you had a fired up Wembe. You definitely saw that
• 4:24
  throughout the course of this when Wembeano was just
• 4:26
  absolutely so good throughout the course of this one.
• 4:29
  We know what he is on the defensive end, the skill set
• 4:31
  that he has and just having a guy like that and you know, for
• 4:34
  the T Wolves, they can't have Julius Randall have that kind of
• 4:37
  performance. The struggles that he had 6 to
• 4:38
  17 from the floor, all four from behind the arc with the
• 4:42
  diminished state of Ant man of Anthony Edwards, you need to
• 4:45
  have him playing at the highest level.
• 4:47
  I guess the good news is they go back to Minnesota for Game 6 is
• 4:51
  those role players, those guys off the bench.
• 4:53
  And really I don't even consider Nas Reed one of those guys
• 4:55
  because he is a consistent. It is more inconsistent, I
• 4:59
  guess, than a star player, if you will.
• 5:00
  But look at Terence Shannon last night, who had been so good a
• 5:03
  couple of different times during this series as they've needed
• 5:06
  him and he had, I think he was all four from three.
• 5:09
  Three of those were really good looks and, and those are looks
• 5:12
  that at home, those role players, they just play so
• 5:15
  differently time in and time out.
• 5:17
  Those are the kind of guys if you're going to take Game 6 and
• 5:19
  force a game seven, you need Terence Shannon Shannon to knock
• 5:22
  down a couple of threes. You you need Mike Connolly again
• 5:25
  to find a fountain of youth and come back and have a good solid
• 5:28
  performance. And then of course, you need
• 5:29
  your stars to be stars and a lot more out of Anthony Edwards.
• 5:32
  We saw at the 4th quarterback in game 4 as he put the team on his
• 5:35
  back. They're asking a ton out of him
• 5:37
  and, and just going forward, you know, I see these odds out
• 5:39
  there. Lebron's next team and like the
• 5:41
  the 12th betting choice is the Timberwolves.
• 5:43
  Giannis's next team and I see the T Wolves, I think are like
• 5:45
  the 8th betting choice in that one.
• 5:48
  Need a little bit of help. But unfortunately for us
• 5:50
  Minnesota Timberwolves fans, we know not exactly a destination
• 5:54
  for a lot of of these NBA stars to make their way to the Twin
• 5:56
  Cities and be played in Minneapolis throughout the cold
• 5:58
  winter ones. I guess there's some truth to
• 6:01
  that. No, I actually want to throw
• 6:03
  Rudy Gobert in there. I know that he's got a lot of
• 6:05
  high praise, but I would have liked to have seen just a little
• 6:07
  bit more out of him because they are asking so much out of
• 6:10
  Anthony, Anthony Edwards. And you make a good point that I
• 6:12
  kind of wanted to touch on. They're playing at home, right
• 6:15
  in this Game 6, and they can win that game, right?
• 6:18
  That's a very winnable game. I am not counting them out.
• 6:21
  Once you get to a Game 7, that's what sports are all about,
• 6:24
  right? And we, we are down to the last
• 6:26
  four quarters. Anything can happen in a Game 7.
• 6:30
  Now, I understand it'll be in San Antonio.
• 6:32
  I understand that the Spurs might have momentum, whatever it
• 6:35
  is, obviously coming off a loss, maybe there's a revenge game,
• 6:37
  whatever. But it's really all down to one
• 6:40
  game and if somebody gets hot at the right time.
• 6:43
  I, I, I just want to push back on your, oh, it might be, might
• 6:46
  be cooked for for the Timberwolves here.
• 6:48
  I think they're still very much in this.
• 6:50
  If they can just get those role players to step up a little bit,
• 6:53
  just a little bit. I think they're very much in
• 6:55
  this. Yesterday, I sent you an article
• 6:58
  CBSSports.com had it talking about and really I think filling
• 7:01
  in some gaps that we had when we talked about this last week,
• 7:04
  Nick, about this private equity deal with the Big 12, what it
• 7:08
  entails. And you know, the biggest
• 7:09
  question mark we had on the local front is obviously Iowa
• 7:12
  State, the ability for them to take that $30 million loan.
• 7:15
  One of the details that definitely stepped up and we've
• 7:18
  heard that Iowa State has decided not to take that
• 7:20
  potential loan is did you see the interest rate on that thing
• 7:24
  double figures north of 10%? That was when you're talking
• 7:27
  about $30 million, that's one thing.
• 7:30
  You got a mortgage, it's another one you're talking about $30
• 7:32
  million and 10 plus percent on that one.
• 7:36
  That that rate absolutely floored me there.
• 7:38
  I can see why we have heard and everybody to this point has said
• 7:41
  no to that part of the deal with the Big 12 and and getting that
• 7:45
  private equity money because not just that $30 million upfront,
• 7:48
  you got to pay that thing back and you got to pay it back with
• 7:51
  some big interest. Yeah, Jamie Pollard with his
• 7:53
  accounting background said that it was pretty simple, like we
• 7:56
  just aren't paying that interest rate.
• 7:57
  We can find that money elsewhere for, for a more reasonable rate.
• 8:01
  And I, I actually do agree with him on that one, knowing that
• 8:05
  that was what the rate was. I know I talked about like, oh,
• 8:07
  maybe if Iowa State takes it, they can get some.
• 8:10
  You know, it's basically take like an insurance policy and
• 8:12
  then if the Board of Regents kind of allows the school to pay
• 8:15
  in the meantime. And there was kind of like a
• 8:17
  whole hypothetical situation I threw out.
• 8:19
  I don't, I don't this was the right play.
• 8:22
  Let's just wait on the 30 million.
• 8:23
  And plus you don't even have to take it right now.
• 8:26
  To my understanding, if it really came down to it and it
• 8:29
  was an absolute necessity last case scenario, apparently Iowa
• 8:33
  State can still take this down the road.
• 8:36
  So for now, absolutely I am cool with Jamie Pollard saying we're
• 8:39
  going to go ahead and wait on this one.
• 8:40
  I don't want to have to pay the double digit interest rate.
• 8:44
  The other component, and this is something that we did find out
• 8:47
  beforehand, but when these deals started to become part of the
• 8:50
  conversation, private equity, getting involved with
• 8:53
  conferences and in college athletics, is that they were
• 8:56
  looking to get a stake of these conferences.
• 8:58
  And same thing with the Big 10, the Big 12.
• 9:00
  In the same way, when that was a big part of the conversation,
• 9:04
  the conferences said no. And I'm thankful for that
• 9:06
  because private equity, I don't know the business well, but what
• 9:10
  I do know about it is it has a negative connotation, A
• 9:13
  connotation that definitely points in a way that says to
• 9:16
  you, they're going to take as much possible.
• 9:19
  They're going to strip this thing down.
• 9:20
  They're going to make it as financially solvent as possible
• 9:24
  for them and them to get their money.
• 9:25
  And then what are you left with? And after that deal is done, you
• 9:28
  see it so many times, then that portion is sold.
• 9:31
  It's sold at maybe a cost that makes them money, but it's not
• 9:33
  going to make your conference money.
• 9:35
  That for all the conferences out there, staying out of that angle
• 9:38
  with private equity, I think was a really good thing.
• 9:40
  And and good to see the details inside this article.
• 9:43
  Yeah, no, I think that was super important.
• 9:46
  That was one of the big things that I gathered when I first saw
• 9:48
  this. And you know, Utah comes up
• 9:51
  because they did this back in December with Otro Capital.
• 9:53
  And I thought there was a lot of question marks with that with,
• 9:57
  you know, they got, they basically separated their
• 9:59
  athletic department, made it its own entity and then the the
• 10:02
  private equity had ownership over that and they going to make
• 10:04
  decisions. To my understanding, the Big 12
• 10:07
  did this right, as right as you can and, and really came down to
• 10:13
  looks like the Big 12's trying to catch up to the Big 10 and
• 10:16
  the SEC just with TV deals and where all that money is at.
• 10:19
  It's no secret that the Big 12 isn't making as much money and
• 10:22
  they have to get creative, especially with how fast college
• 10:26
  athletics is evolving and changing.
• 10:29
  This is I, I, I don't necessarily love it, but it's
• 10:32
  kind of a necessity at this point.
• 10:34
  And I think if you're going to do it, Big 12 did it right, in
• 10:37
  my opinion. Nick, when you go through and
• 10:39
  you look at the way that this thing is, this is all pointing
• 10:42
  towards when the next media negotiations happen and with the
• 10:46
  SEC and their relationship with ESPN, Obviously the Big 10 and
• 10:49
  Fox and that relationship and and also the equity stake that
• 10:53
  is involved on both sides of that one with Fox owning a
• 10:56
  portion of the Big 10 network and that goes hand in hand.
• 10:59
  You look towards the future because the Big 12 is in the
• 11:03
  middle, right. They got some on ESPN.
• 11:05
  They have some over on Fox. They also have their deal as a
• 11:08
  portion in the trade with inside the NBA is TNT got a number of
• 11:12
  Big 12 games both football and basketball wise.
• 11:15
  But when you look towards the future, streaming we know is the
• 11:18
  future we're seeing with all the NFL schedule leaks obviously
• 11:21
  happening this week, more Netflix games that those kind of
• 11:24
  things that are happening there. But when I look at it, I see it
• 11:28
  like this and maybe this is the old man and me speaking, but I
• 11:32
  just know it's one thing. A Thursday night game on Amazon
• 11:35
  with the NFL, it's a standalone NFL game.
• 11:38
  You're going to find your way there here during these
• 11:40
  playoffs, NBA playoffs, yes, fighting your way to a streamer
• 11:44
  to to watch the Lakers Thunder the other night.
• 11:45
  That was no big deal. It was a one off game.
• 11:47
  However, a college football Saturday when there are dozens
• 11:52
  of games on, there are places all over the place.
• 11:54
  I saw The CW, it got even more games with their deal with the
• 11:57
  ACC. And it's not just that,
• 11:59
  obviously the big wigs that we're used to you flip me still
• 12:02
  got DIRECTV 2O6ESPN2O7 ESPN news two O 9.
• 12:07
  I know the numbers. I know where I'm flipping, but
• 12:09
  I'm not flipping away from that. I'm not going away from my
• 12:12
  channel guide unless it's Iowa State playing.
• 12:15
  But if it's even a good matchup, even if it's a a TCU Utah
• 12:20
  matchup that matters in early November.
• 12:22
  But there's three other games on quote UN quote regular TVI just
• 12:26
  don't see myself flipping over to that.
• 12:28
  And is that me just being old man or is that a concern If you
• 12:32
  decide to get into bed with a big portion of your rights and
• 12:36
  some of your big games go into a Netflix go into a prime out of
• 12:39
  college football Saturday? Yeah, well, I'm going to say
• 12:42
  that it's a it's a little bit of a you problem.
• 12:44
  I'm just going to go ahead and start there.
• 12:46
  But it's not the end of the world because there is something
• 12:49
  to be said about this is a slippery slope, right?
• 12:51
  Like this is it starts as 01 game out of the entire NFL
• 12:57
  season, not just one game per week.
• 12:59
  One game out of the entire season is streamed, right.
• 13:02
  And then all of a sudden it's OK.
• 13:03
  Well, all the Thursdays are on one platform and and he's and
• 13:06
  you know, Sunday night, we're going to throw on this one.
• 13:08
  OK, well, let's I guess it's to their stand alone games.
• 13:11
  It's whatever. And then it turns into, you
• 13:13
  know, down the road, you've got to have 15 different and but
• 13:16
  that's kind of where we're at right now.
• 13:17
  And so I don't know if I love that for the Big 12.
• 13:20
  If they go, let's say they go just to CBS and everything is on
• 13:24
  like Paramount or whatever it would be.
• 13:27
  That's great for if you only watch Big 12 games, but that's a
• 13:30
  problem if you want to watch college football.
• 13:32
  And so you've got to have then, you know, YouTube TV or DIRECTV
• 13:35
  or whatever it is, and then you've got to have Paramount to
• 13:37
  have your, you know, your Big 12 games on.
• 13:40
  And I know, you know, it's not maybe the biggest conference in
• 13:43
  the whole world, but there's definitely important games in
• 13:45
  the Big 12 playing on. So I I don't love the thought of
• 13:50
  splitting it up even more, making it even harder to find.
• 13:53
  Even if they're all in one spot, I can get behind the idea of
• 13:57
  keeping it like on your traditional channels.
• 14:00
  Just from the we talked about this, I prefer to watch it on
• 14:02
  YouTube TV where I can quad box it.
• 14:04
  I won't be able to quad box between two different apps.
• 14:06
  That's really like I don't want to end up in that spot where I
• 14:09
  can only watch on one app. The technology probably will be
• 14:12
  there by 2031, you would guess. I've noticed.
• 14:16
  I noticed this during basketball season this past year.
• 14:18
  So Peacock, the Peacock exclusive college basketball
• 14:21
  games, Big 10 had a host to them, a number of them
• 14:23
  throughout the course of the season.
• 14:25
  Well, actually on DIRECTV and there was a channel that was set
• 14:28
  up for that. I think YouTube TV also has
• 14:30
  something like that part of your package.
• 14:32
  We actually don't have to have Peacock exclusive if you have
• 14:35
  the right package obviously with your provider.
• 14:38
  So that's a component. And by the time we get to 2031,
• 14:41
  is it going to be more integrated?
• 14:42
  I, I think this is a billion dollar idea or maybe $1,000,000
• 14:45
  idea, but both sound pretty good.
• 14:48
  Is there has to be somebody that can put the technology where all
• 14:52
  these streaming services, I mean, I look it through, we got
• 14:55
  HBO, we got or HBO Max, we got Peacock, we have Amazon Prime,
• 15:00
  we have Netflix, we got Disney, we got ESPN plus, we have all
• 15:03
  these plus our DIRECTV, all these things together.
• 15:06
  There has to be a way where you can put it all in one spot,
• 15:09
  right? And if you can find a way to do
• 15:11
  that and find a way to make that manageable for everybody.
• 15:14
  And then you just hit the sports tab and then you see everything
• 15:17
  that is listed there. That makes I think the streamer
• 15:20
  an even better deal for these conferences making the decision
• 15:23
  to go that direction. The other what component I think
• 15:25
  is interesting when we look towards the future and we get
• 15:28
  when the rights are going to start here in three or four
• 15:30
  years is that relationship that I mentioned with TNT.
• 15:34
  Now TNT, that ownership group has been bought out by Paramount
• 15:37
  CBS. So the connection to synergy
• 15:39
  there we'll see about the NCAA tournament.
• 15:41
  For a Big 12 perspective though, as mentioned, the SEC in bed
• 15:45
  with ESPN, that is a relationship.
• 15:48
  I don't think it's going to change the Big 10 and Fox, same
• 15:51
  kind of thing. If the Big 12, if it makes sense
• 15:54
  for them to kind of stake their claim and take both the CBS
• 15:57
  component of it along with the Turner component of it and make
• 16:00
  that your brand. Obviously, you get over the air
• 16:03
  with CBS and we know numbers that come along with that.
• 16:05
  We'll know. We'll see what CBS kind of
• 16:07
  decides with their small package of games that they have with the
• 16:09
  Big 10 currently with that 230 window that took over for the
• 16:13
  SEC. But for you as a Big 12 guy
• 16:15
  does, is that something you would like to see jumping on and
• 16:18
  going almost head first into it? Hey, we're going to go with
• 16:21
  Turner, TNT and CBS as those two combined together and that's
• 16:26
  going to be our home for all of our different sports.
• 16:29
  I think it's probably the right play and and that kind of it
• 16:32
  goes back to the point I was about to make where I was going
• 16:34
  to say that it's not your idea of putting all of these sports
• 16:39
  into one spot is the right idea for the fans.
• 16:41
  The right idea for the conferences is to line up and
• 16:44
  say we are entirely on this platform.
• 16:47
  If you want to watch us, you have to sign up for this.
• 16:50
  Same thing with like the single games on Peacock.
• 16:52
  If you and I wasn't aware that this was, you know, available on
• 16:55
  DIRECTV, but if you want to watch this game, you have to
• 16:56
  sign up for Peacock. That's how you generate revenue.
• 16:59
  Essentially you're kind of create like creating like a
• 17:01
  monopoly. So to go back to your question
• 17:04
  about the TNTCBS from Big 12's perspective, that's the right
• 17:08
  play and that's how these teams and, and the conference as a
• 17:11
  whole generates more revenue and it's more competitive with the
• 17:15
  Big 10. And that, and I almost said
• 17:18
  ESCSPN or whatever it would be. That's, that's the angle.
• 17:22
  The question is, is there a demand, right?
• 17:24
  And if they do go exclusive like that, is there enough where
• 17:28
  people will actually sign up to watch all of those games?
• 17:32
  I think there probably would be at least enough to warrant it.
• 17:35
  I don't know if it would drive them up to the Big 10 or the
• 17:38
  SECSPN level. Really good article.
• 17:41
  If you're interested in this over at CBSSports.com, you go to
• 17:44
  college football tab and it was a pen by Brandon Marcelo who
• 17:48
  broke things down inside the Big 12's.
• 17:50
  Bet on private equity to close the revenue gap, compete in the
• 17:54
  NIL era. Changing topics here with you
• 17:56
  and Nick, you being in Eastern Iowa, guy.
• 17:59
  This one caught my attention for somebody that spent plenty of
• 18:02
  time over in the corridor as well.
• 18:04
  Something that is kind of interesting when you think about
• 18:06
  it. There's not a private golf
• 18:07
  course in Iowa City and it's kind of weird a city of it's
• 18:11
  size that you don't have a private equity now really good
• 18:14
  public courses and Iowa City is in good shape there when you
• 18:17
  kind of look around. Brown Deer, what's the One South
• 18:21
  of town, the Florida style course down there.
• 18:24
  Oh, I can't even think of it. Of course, fake find at the
• 18:26
  University of Iowa. A lot of good public courses
• 18:28
  there, but there isn't a private one and there is a group that
• 18:31
  has also involved along with it that potentially is looking at
• 18:35
  doing just that. As somebody that grew up in
• 18:37
  eastern Iowa, grew up close to the corridor and now lives there
• 18:40
  now, does it make sense financially viable?
• 18:43
  Is it something that you can wrap your mind around also
• 18:46
  knowing that you are a golf guy? Yeah, we did talk about this
• 18:50
  just yesterday. It looks like.
• 18:52
  What I'm seeing here is that they said they found the perfect
• 18:55
  property in Johnson County between Solon and Iowa City,
• 18:58
  just north of the village of Morse.
• 19:01
  I think that's a really great spot for it.
• 19:03
  So from that perspective, just looking at the pictures that
• 19:06
  they have here, it's 30 minutes from the Cedar Rapids airport.
• 19:09
  If it if it's a really solid course, that's definitely A+
• 19:13
  being able to bring people into the airport.
• 19:16
  I was reading up on whether it be private, public, whatever,
• 19:19
  and it looks like they're going to go hybrid where you would be
• 19:21
  able to have, you know, non local national members come in
• 19:25
  and and whatever. So that looks like they're
• 19:26
  already kind of thinking down that Ave. looking at
• 19:29
  incorporating essentially the airport right there.
• 19:32
  I think it makes sense. I think it'd be something that I
• 19:34
  would certainly be interested in trying.
• 19:37
  It's just not, it's not really a niche that has been fulfilled in
• 19:40
  this area. And so I don't see why not.
• 19:43
  Absolutely, I'm trying to wrap my mind around it.
• 19:45
  I think it makes a ton of sense and and the lack of the private
• 19:48
  part of that goes a long ways. I mean, we got some incredible
• 19:51
  courses here in the state of Iowa.
• 19:52
  We're really look lucky. Obviously the harvester is right
• 19:56
  up there towards the top of anywhere you go here in Des
• 19:58
  Moines. We got a lot of good ones, both
• 20:00
  the the public courses that we have along with the private
• 20:02
  ones, Wakanda, Des Moines Golf and Country Club had an
• 20:06
  opportunity. Shout out to my buddy Scott and
• 20:08
  my brother-in-law JD. Forget me on there and me
• 20:10
  hacking around. Hopefully not leaving too many
• 20:11
  divots out there. To avoid golf, but we really do
• 20:15
  have it good. But when I kind of think through
• 20:17
  that and just seeing that article, I think it jumped off
• 20:18
  to me. So that leads to a jumping off
• 20:20
  point. We got the PGA Championship
• 20:21
  starting tomorrow. Scotty Scheffler.
• 20:24
  These are the best odds you can get in Scheffler in quite a
• 20:26
  while to win a major. I saw a 5 to 1 popped up last
• 20:30
  night. I had to jump aboard with that
• 20:32
  one. I think currently at circa plus
• 20:34
  480. You know, we had been seeing the
• 20:36
  Scotty Scheffler numbers dwindle down into that plus 300 type of
• 20:40
  range. A little bit more value
• 20:42
  certainly there if you believe in Scheffler.
• 20:44
  And there's been times he's got off to these slow starts, has
• 20:47
  not played well on Thursdays yet is right there in contention as
• 20:50
  he was back in the Masters. And I think he's going to be
• 20:52
  here as he makes those strong charges seemingly every single
• 20:55
  weekend. I'm going to be involved with
• 20:57
  Scotty Shuffler, something I wasn't nearly as much.
• 21:00
  I got a top 10 on him. I got him to win, got a couple
• 21:02
  other guys. Anybody that you got to peek on
• 21:04
  an eye on coming up this week at the PGA?
• 21:07
  You would be hard pressed to get me off the Scotty Scheffler
• 21:11
  train. I am such a believer in Scotty
• 21:13
  Scheffler, especially after that generational run.
• 21:16
  He's still playing really well, obviously, but there was a while
• 21:19
  there where you just, you couldn't turn on the Golf
• 21:21
  Channel and, and not see Scotty Scheffler.
• 21:24
  I am also looking at maybe like a Cameron Young maybe.
• 21:28
  I really like Scotty Scheffler, though.
• 21:31
  I'm curious about Rory. You know, I, I, he's a fun
• 21:33
  story. I don't know if it'll play out,
• 21:35
  but I mean, if you asked me who I would put my money on, it's
• 21:39
  going to be Scheffler 100% every day of the week.
• 21:43
  And it has worked out incredibly well.
• 21:45
  You can get Scheffler also a top 10 -, 150 feels like boy, you're
• 21:48
  laying a big price. He's top 10 seemingly every
• 21:51
  single time. I like that one a lot.
• 21:53
  Couple of guys I got circled this week.
• 21:55
  I'll I usually end up in the majors.
• 21:56
  I play about five guys to win and then a bunch of top 10's and
• 21:59
  top 20s, those kind of things. A few match up plays that I do
• 22:02
  for the majors guys that I have to win.
• 22:05
  I have a Fleetwood ticket, a 29 to 1.
• 22:07
  Tommy Fleetwood. I think the definitely has the
• 22:10
  game for this one. Hovland, he's a guy that I've
• 22:13
  just become enamored with and I'm taking a shotgun him 63 to
• 22:16
  one last night. I know Xander Shofly, I haven't
• 22:18
  bet him yet, but I will because I do every single major and it's
• 22:21
  worked out a couple of times. So Xander, he's going to be a
• 22:23
  part of my card. And I think Matt Fitzpatrick and
• 22:26
  I know one of the three tournaments he won this year was
• 22:29
  the team event down in New Orleans that he won with his
• 22:31
  brother. But he's playing at a high
• 22:32
  level. You can get him at the top 20 at
• 22:34
  plus 110. Same with Fleetwood I plus 110
• 22:37
  there. I got AJT ticket top 20 for him,
• 22:40
  a little bit better than two to 1.
• 22:41
  So those are some of the guys that I have circled this week.
• 22:44
  One thing though, reading up on this course again has not hosted
• 22:47
  a major in a while is one thing you're going to see this is
• 22:50
  going to be a bomber's place and kind of like what the Masters
• 22:53
  has turned into. They pulled all the trees out of
• 22:57
  this golf course and we've seen this happen before.
• 22:59
  Where these guys in the technology and how far that it
• 23:02
  has come, just drive. It doesn't matter where it's
• 23:05
  going to go. And without much trouble out
• 23:07
  there, you're going to be able to find your way to the green
• 23:09
  just because you're hitting your way through the trouble.
• 23:12
  So this is interesting to me. I think I like golf tournaments.
• 23:16
  I love the US Open every year because I like to see the guys
• 23:18
  struggle and I know a lot of times it's unfair, but at least
• 23:21
  for one golf tournament a year, I love to see that part of it.
• 23:25
  I think this one's going to be 1 where 1617 under something like
• 23:30
  that wins the golf tournament. And I just don't like majors
• 23:32
  like that. I like to see them really be
• 23:35
  much more difficult. I don't think we're going to get
• 23:37
  that this week. No, I, I, I wouldn't guess so.
• 23:40
  That's an interesting. So do you like a defensive
• 23:42
  battle in like a football or like a big pitching battle in
• 23:45
  baseball? Well, remember, I've watched a
• 23:46
  lot of Iowa football. So, yeah, defensive battle.
• 23:48
  That is good for me. Yeah, you, you start to come
• 23:51
  into that. That was the same thing.
• 23:53
  I I just for years and years and years, Wisconsin fans, I got
• 23:56
  family up in Madison. I'm like, how could you enjoy
• 23:58
  watching Dick Bennett ball and into Beau Ryan ball?
• 24:01
  This is awful basketball. Well, they win, and I was seeing
• 24:04
  it last year with Iowa basketball.
• 24:06
  To run to in the lead 8. I'm like, hey, this is pretty
• 24:07
  good, I'll take this. Yes, winning cures all.
• 24:11
  But no, overall, I do like offense.
• 24:13
  It's just something about golf for the majors.
• 24:15
  I want a true test. I don't want to see, no offense
• 24:18
  to our friends in the Quad Cities, but I don't want to see
• 24:20
  the John Deere Classic. We can see that basically any
• 24:22
  other week with these four tests a year.
• 24:25
  I want to see it incredibly difficult.
• 24:27
  Yeah, there's definitely validity to that.
• 24:29
  Maybe it's just the young and in me, but I love looking at the
• 24:32
  scorecard. It's like 25 under.
• 24:34
  Yeah. And it's maybe it's because I'm
• 24:36
  usually 25 over, so it's like I'm just watching a spectacle.
• 24:40
  This is insane. But you do get with that
• 24:42
  difficulty increase some crazy shots, and I definitely have
• 24:46
  appreciation for those as well. I think this will be a fun one
• 24:49
  regardless. I'm not guaranteeing that
• 24:51
  they're going to be 17 under. Who knows, maybe the course
• 24:53
  plays kind of weird. There's some weather
• 24:55
  implications nobody saw coming or something.
• 24:58
  Let's not put the card before the horse and expect this to
• 25:01
  kind of be a stinker. I think it'll be fun to watch
• 25:03
  regardless. And it will begin, if you're
• 25:05
  thinking about putting some bets in, maybe I can do it in the
• 25:07
  morning before they get teed off.
• 25:09
  You better get up early because the first tee time tomorrow
• 25:12
  morning is at 5:45 Central time, 6:45 for them out there.
• 25:17
  Ben Griffin, a guy that I kind of liked before I saw that tee
• 25:19
  time, at least maybe to make a cut, top 20 type of thing.
• 25:23
  Ben Griffin, along with the aforementioned Matt
• 25:25
  Fitzpatrick's little brother Alex Mcpatrick will be going off
• 25:28
  at 5:45. Huge field.
• 25:30
  That's also something that you get in the PGA Championship.
• 25:32
  Remember that those top 20s a little bit more difficult when
• 25:35
  he got just the sheer volume of guys that are involved in this
• 25:38
  golf tournament. Well, coming back on the other
• 25:40
  side, Nick Berevitz hanging out with me, Trent Condon today here
• 25:42
  on Miller and Condon. We're going to get back into
• 25:45
  Iowa and Iowa State. We're going to talk about
• 25:47
  yesterday. We hit the football side.
• 25:49
  Reasons for optimism and then taking it the other direction,
• 25:52
  some reasons for concerns on both sides, both Iowa men and
• 25:56
  the Iowa State men, their seasons coming up this year, why
• 25:59
  you should be excited and maybe why you should pump the brakes a
• 26:02
  little bit. We'll do that next as we
• 26:03
  continue on Miller and Condon on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
• 26:19
  1232 on a Wednesday. Miller and Condon continues on
• 26:23
  the Iowa Sports Radio Network flagship Point O 6.3 KX&O here
• 26:28
  in Des Moines, along with our stations in Sioux City, IA City,
• 26:31
  Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities.
• 26:32
  Thanks for joining us here today.
• 26:34
  Got Nick Marvitz with me as a we're going to talk some Hawks
• 26:38
  and some Clones. A very successful year for both
• 26:41
  programs this past season. You're number one for Ben
• 26:44
  McCullum, TJ Asselberger, getting over the hump, getting
• 26:46
  back to a Sweet 16 this season. Lot to be excited about, a lot
• 26:51
  to be also questioning. I think about both of these
• 26:54
  squads as we go into the 2627 basketball season.
• 26:58
  Quickly, I'll look back for you, Nick.
• 27:00
  As you look back at last year, nobody's happy the way that it
• 27:03
  ends outside of one team, and that was Michigan this year in
• 27:06
  the national championship game. But I don't know if you had a
• 27:09
  letter grade, just an overall thought of the way the season
• 27:12
  was and how you remember this past season.
• 27:15
  No, I'd probably give it like a solid B plus maybe even
• 27:18
  somewhere up in the A's. Obviously it didn't finish the
• 27:21
  way that we would have liked, but we talked about this, I
• 27:23
  believe it was last week. Like you just can't control the
• 27:26
  injury situation. And while it's kind of the
• 27:28
  worst, if you take that out of the equation and you, well, I
• 27:33
  guess you put that in the equation on why they lost.
• 27:35
  And if you like, they played so well in the Big 12 championship
• 27:38
  game. The game against Arizona was the
• 27:40
  game of the entire year of all of college basketball.
• 27:44
  I don't really care who you're a fan of.
• 27:46
  That game was incredible start to finish, and they played a lot
• 27:49
  of games like that. They had some stinkers in there
• 27:52
  as well. The TCU one really stuck with
• 27:54
  me, so I'd probably go like AB Plus it was a fun year.
• 27:57
  That's really what it comes down to for me.
• 27:59
  Absolutely. And getting back to the second
• 28:00
  weekend, yes, it didn't go well against Tennessee, but getting
• 28:03
  there, getting back over that hump after the disappointment a
• 28:06
  year ago, what happened to them against Old Miss?
• 28:08
  He had another Sweet 16 to the resume and another one for TJ
• 28:11
  Atzenberger, now with his 3rd at the helm of the Cyclone program.
• 28:15
  You feel good, but you're also losing dudes and Joshua
• 28:18
  Jefferson and Taman Lipsy. Lipsy, obviously the importance
• 28:21
  of him to this basketball program.
• 28:23
  Mod Chilovich all signs indicating even if he does forgo
• 28:27
  the NBA draft that the likelihood he's back in Iowa
• 28:30
  State doesn't feel real high at this point in time.
• 28:32
  So you're losing some huge pieces off of last year's team.
• 28:36
  That's really the biggest downside and we're going to get
• 28:38
  into like positives and negatives here, I'm sure, but
• 28:41
  that's, I mean, you, you not only lost great players, but you
• 28:45
  lost your core. It was really cuz the five
• 28:47
  returners from two years ago to this last year was your
• 28:52
  Jefferson Heisey, Mamshilovich Lipsy and then Kate Kelderman,
• 28:56
  right? Didn't play a ton, but was
• 28:58
  definitely an integral part of the culture of Iowa State.
• 29:01
  And they're all gone. You're pretty much in a brand
• 29:05
  new spot. And so I trust TJ Alsenberger
• 29:07
  and we'll get into like the transfers and stuff, I'm sure.
• 29:10
  But that is really where the downside is for Iowa State is
• 29:15
  you're you're kind of taking on a little bit not too much of A
• 29:18
  new identity. Obviously it's still
• 29:19
  Alsenberger's squad, but it's just going to look a lot
• 29:22
  different. Want to get your perspective on
• 29:24
  a couple of the returners and want to start with what we saw
• 29:27
  towards the end of the season after a pretty big slump in
• 29:30
  there offensively with Killian Torre and what we saw, the shot
• 29:33
  was really uncomfortable. Look, like at times teams were
• 29:36
  leaving him open and then during that Big 12 tournament, started
• 29:39
  to make a couple of shots and it impacted him not just on the
• 29:42
  offensive end of the floor and him being more aggressive, but
• 29:44
  that defense. I was always good.
• 29:46
  Felt like that even ratcheted up to another level as he was
• 29:48
  finally getting a couple of shots to go down.
• 29:50
  You know? How much more upside do you
• 29:52
  think out of him offensively? He's going to have the ball in
• 29:54
  his hands a ton this year and I think they're going to be asking
• 29:57
  a lot out of him. How much more?
• 29:58
  Where do you kind of what's your baseline of expectations?
• 30:01
  We know he's going to be a great defender.
• 30:03
  How about on the offensive side? Yeah, he's, I expect big things.
• 30:07
  Looks like he averaged just under 9 points a game this last
• 30:10
  year. I expected to jump up maybe to
• 30:11
  somewhere around that 12 points per game.
• 30:13
  Not, you know, we're not asking him to become Maelon mom
• 30:16
  Chilovich or Joshua Jefferson or something, but kind of more of
• 30:20
  that Lipsy role. I do think that he was like
• 30:23
  literally the second coming of tame and Lipsy in a lot of ways.
• 30:26
  Obviously, he's not from Ames, but just that ability to play
• 30:29
  tough defense top to bottom entire game, you know, the
• 30:33
  entire length of the floor, that kind of fatality, the toughness
• 30:37
  and then a little bit of offense as well.
• 30:38
  I'm not expecting him to, you know, score 15 points tonight,
• 30:42
  but definitely be controlling of the ball and make good
• 30:44
  decisions. And that's where I look more for
• 30:47
  Killian Torre this upcoming year, You know, maybe in year 3
• 30:50
  or 4 if he's able to stick around.
• 30:51
  Then we look at maybe you're pushing 19 points a game,
• 30:54
  pushing that or maybe 19's a little high, maybe 17 points per
• 30:57
  game. But being that key scorer for
• 30:59
  Iowa State this upcoming year, I really just want to see can he
• 31:03
  handle the ball? Can he eliminate turnovers and
• 31:07
  then still bring that defense? The points will come, I trust
• 31:09
  that. Yeah, turnover rate a little bit
• 31:11
  high than what you want to see and certainly for a full time
• 31:13
  point guard as it could be the case this year.
• 31:16
  But they got some other names. We're going to be talking about
• 31:18
  joining him in the backcourt and then the two returning bigs.
• 31:20
  Your thoughts on both of them? And again, same kind of thing on
• 31:23
  the offensive end. You know, guys are going to play
• 31:25
  D. You're not going to play for Otz
• 31:26
  if you can't play defense. But what we saw at Buchanan,
• 31:29
  he's explosive. He's got some pop to him.
• 31:31
  And then Dom Plato, who we saw for moments in the Flashes,
• 31:35
  still a young guy coming over from Germany and acclimating
• 31:37
  himself, you know, offensively. Do you expect a ton more from
• 31:41
  either of those bigs? I think Buchanan will take a
• 31:44
  step in the right direction, but probably not as big as Plato
• 31:47
  just because even within last year alone, I thought Plato got
• 31:51
  a lot more comfortable, a lot more confident.
• 31:54
  He started to look like he was out there because like he he fit
• 31:58
  out there, if that makes sense. He he definitely looked more
• 32:00
  comfortable. So I expect him to at least see
• 32:03
  an uptick in minutes, which will and likely result to more looks
• 32:07
  and then probably more scoring as well.
• 32:10
  I think both of those guys are going to be a great returning
• 32:12
  core for Iowa State as far as the big position.
• 32:15
  But I did want to hit on one more guy, Jamari and Bateman.
• 32:18
  Let's not. Sleep on him, Bateman.
• 32:20
  I mean that that of all the guys that are coming back next year
• 32:24
  are probably I am most excited about because he could be the
• 32:26
  guy that shoots 35% from three. He's just the guy you look too
• 32:31
  late in the game that you'd need a shot.
• 32:33
  Give it to him. He was kind of that guy at a few
• 32:36
  games this year, only averaged 6 1/2 points, but he had some
• 32:40
  games where he played extremely well.
• 32:43
  I Of all of the returners, Bateman is probably the one that
• 32:47
  intrigues me the most. I'm not saying he's going to
• 32:49
  have the best year, but there's a lot of sealing there and I'm
• 32:52
  excited about it. We look at the transfers coming
• 32:54
  in, they had the group of five that came in for the weekend,
• 32:57
  they got all five of them and away they went in the transfer
• 32:59
  portal. Leon Bond, obviously a lot of
• 33:01
  people know from his days that you and I started his career at
• 33:04
  Virginia. Jaquan Johnson, watched a lot of
• 33:07
  him at Bradley this past season. Really like his game you go
• 33:11
  through and Ryan Prather, is that the guy again, I I think we
• 33:14
  stick with the offensive side of this one.
• 33:16
  Is that the guy they need to come in though out of this group
• 33:18
  and be able to help with the scoring punch?
• 33:21
  Yeah, I think that there's definitely something from Ryan
• 33:23
  Prather that I expect. I like maybe Trey Singleton as
• 33:26
  well in the transition game. That's an area that I think
• 33:29
  could be, I don't know, this last year wasn't bad necessarily
• 33:33
  in transition. I just felt like they got set up
• 33:35
  in the half court and didn't really have the half court
• 33:37
  offense too much. They they just, I don't know, I
• 33:40
  didn't like how much they were in that.
• 33:41
  So I like Trace Singleton to maybe push the pace just a
• 33:43
  little bit. But Prather could be that
• 33:45
  scoring option for Iowa State. That's just a turnover ratio.
• 33:49
  Obviously something to look at. I'm curious from an Iowa
• 33:52
  perspective, you're not going to play Iowa State, you know, 5 * a
• 33:54
  year. It's really only once.
• 33:55
  But is there anything from these five transfers that concerns you
• 33:59
  as far as like, oh, Iowa State's going to be the first team to
• 34:01
  win a national title in the state?
• 34:04
  I I do not get that direction. I I don't, because I look at
• 34:09
  this group, it's a nice group and it's going to be a good
• 34:11
  team. They're going to be a solid
• 34:12
  team. But I don't see anything that
• 34:14
  wows me that says, oh, this is going to be the year they're
• 34:17
  going to break down the door and they're going to get to a Final
• 34:19
  Four this year. There's nothing on paper,
• 34:22
  coupled with the losses that they had that makes this
• 34:25
  daunting, that says this is an impossibility, that Iowa State
• 34:28
  is by far going to have the superior team to Iowa this year.
• 34:31
  Do I think they're going to be better?
• 34:33
  I do. I think they are going to be a
• 34:34
  touch better than Iowa this year.
• 34:36
  But I don't think the gap is going to be significant.
• 34:38
  I don't think the gap is going to be nearly as big as it was
• 34:41
  throughout the course, really of most of this season between Iowa
• 34:44
  State and Iowa. Yes, we know what happened in
• 34:46
  the NCAA tournament. That changes perceptions for a
• 34:49
  lot of different people in a good way.
• 34:50
  When you go to an Elite 8, Nick, you've never seen that in your
• 34:53
  life. But, but I think Iowa State's
• 34:57
  going to be better. Do you see what's the baseline
• 35:00
  for this team? I mean, I see some of the
• 35:02
  projections out there. They're a top 20 ish type of
• 35:05
  team, you know, in that range. And I guess when you're a top 20
• 35:08
  team, you can't say, well, you got to make a Sweet 16, right?
• 35:11
  Where are your expectations right now?
• 35:13
  Well, so I, I, I'm not saying you're wrong, I just want to
• 35:16
  present more evidence. Did anybody think Curtis Jones
• 35:19
  was going to be what he was when he came out of Buffalo or even
• 35:21
  Joshua Jefferson out of Saint Mary's?
• 35:23
  Like those guys does a great job of putting guys in the right
• 35:26
  position and coaching them into being great players.
• 35:29
  And then I would argue that Altelberger knew these guys were
• 35:33
  the ones he wanted. It took Iowa State one weekend,
• 35:36
  it took Altelberger literally 3 days.
• 35:38
  Get them in the building they signed.
• 35:40
  And maybe that's maybe that's Altelberger swinging too low
• 35:43
  potentially. I guess that would be the
• 35:45
  argument, but I think that's really exciting.
• 35:47
  So all of those things considered, the guys coming
• 35:49
  back, the amount of retention that they have, I think Iowa
• 35:52
  State could very well be a top ten team yet again.
• 35:55
  I'm not going to say that they're going to climb to two or
• 35:57
  that they're going to end up, you know, staying top five all
• 35:59
  season long, but I think they'll poke put their head into the top
• 36:02
  ten if they, you know, get an easy stretch of the schedule or
• 36:05
  RIP off a few wins. They look really solid.
• 36:07
  I think it's very possible considering they play the Big
• 36:10
  12, the best conference for basketball.
• 36:12
  They're going to have that kind of help from, you know, the AP
• 36:15
  or whatever, Like, Oh, they played Houston and they played
• 36:17
  Kansas And I mean, it's just a perception thing really when it
• 36:20
  comes to rankings. So I, I, I genuinely think that
• 36:24
  Iowa State will be in a position to compete next year.
• 36:27
  I don't know if they'll, you know, make a Final Four run, but
• 36:30
  they're absolutely going to be in it come January, February,
• 36:33
  March. I think they're going to be very
• 36:35
  solid once again. And yeah, it's going to be
• 36:36
  another fun season because that's he's proven that you're
• 36:38
  in and year out. That is not the case for Ben
• 36:41
  McCullum. Your number one went incredibly
• 36:42
  well, but it is a different look and certainly with the guy that
• 36:46
  handled the ball more than anybody this past season.
• 36:48
  Bennett starts off to the NBA draft.
• 36:50
  Going through the combine process at this point in time,
• 36:53
  you look through and you look at this Iowa team, the questions
• 36:57
  are who handles that? And I also do wonder from the
• 37:00
  Hawkeye perspective, how much different it looks than it did
• 37:03
  this past season just because they put so much on the plate of
• 37:06
  Bennett Sturtz late clock situations, running the clock
• 37:09
  down. We're going to be bailed out.
• 37:11
  And I think you saw at times also his team mates doing the
• 37:14
  same kind of thing. We're fine.
• 37:16
  Bennett will get us out of this and and they just Chuck it back
• 37:18
  to him with three on the shot clock and he's got to hoist up a
• 37:21
  tough shot is are we going to see a little bit more movement
• 37:25
  at times out of them offensively?
• 37:26
  And I can't argue with the results and what happened in
• 37:28
  March and what they were able to do up ending 3 consecutive
• 37:31
  opponents seeded higher than them on their way to the lead 8.
• 37:34
  But it's going to be a lot different this year.
• 37:36
  I like what they did, but I am not enamored that this is a even
• 37:41
  a lock NCAA tournament team. Again, I side that way.
• 37:44
  I think they will be a tournament team but likely a
• 37:46
  bubble team going into next season even with the expanded
• 37:49
  field. Yeah, you talked a little bit
• 37:51
  about like the Elite 8 appearance kind of clouding some
• 37:54
  people's perception of how the year went.
• 37:56
  And I'm not discrediting Iowa in any way, shape or form.
• 37:59
  Like I, I, I really am not. But they kind of only played
• 38:02
  Florida, right? Like Nebraska, they played
• 38:04
  before they're tough team. But it wasn't like, you know, I,
• 38:08
  I don't know Tennessee, Tennessee maybe a problem
• 38:11
  Anyway, My, I do think that there was some bright side and
• 38:14
  there's a lot to be excited about when it comes to McCollum.
• 38:17
  But I really, I made this argument today clocked on
• 38:20
  Cyclones when it comes to like Jimmy Rogers in his first year
• 38:23
  at Iowa State. The reason the first year is so
• 38:25
  important is because we don't really have a ton of track
• 38:28
  record. It's not like Nick Saban's
• 38:29
  coming to Iowa State and he has a down year.
• 38:31
  Well, we know it's Nick Saban. He's going to be just fine.
• 38:33
  It's Jimmy Rogers. Is this what we're getting out
• 38:35
  of Jimmy Rogers? Ben McCall?
• 38:36
  I'm kind of the same spot here. Had a great first year, but
• 38:39
  hasn't really proven anything yet.
• 38:41
  And so next year, I think we'll be telling as well and and very
• 38:44
  important and we'll see how the transfer portal played out.
• 38:47
  As far as guys say crabbed, was there anyone that you were
• 38:49
  extremely like pumped about anyone that you thought moved
• 38:52
  the needle or was it more just a bunch of, you know, kind of role
• 38:55
  places? So at first what I saw, the two
• 38:58
  portal additions, when they went out, they got McKeever, the
• 39:01
  seven foot three kid from Saint Mary's.
• 39:03
  Look at the numbers, eight points, 9 rebounds, all 87
• 39:06
  three. But you see a couple of the
• 39:08
  highlights, doesn't look great. And then Tyree Coleman, who I
• 39:12
  really did like at Illinois State, I think he's going to be
• 39:14
  a good fit. I start with McKeever though,
• 39:17
  and a couple of things that I've read with him in the pick and
• 39:19
  roll game and just how good he was.
• 39:21
  Really the thing that he struggled with offensively, it
• 39:24
  was in post UPS situations. Well, Ben McCollum runs some of
• 39:27
  the lowest amount of post touches of anybody in college
• 39:30
  basketball. He's not going to be asked to do
• 39:32
  that. He's going to be asked to do
• 39:33
  something that is a strength of his pick and roll and pass from
• 39:36
  the top. Something.
• 39:37
  His assist rate for a big guy is really good.
• 39:40
  Same thing with Tyree Coleman digging in and getting into
• 39:42
  Synergy and looking into some of those numbers that sometimes
• 39:45
  make my head hurt and I don't know what the hell I'm looking
• 39:47
  at actually. But what I was able to figure a
• 39:49
  few things out. Both of these guys, it's not
• 39:52
  just they're guys that you could find.
• 39:54
  These are guys that absolutely fit his system I think
• 39:57
  incredibly well. And and what we heard from Trey
• 40:00
  Thompson, who red shirt of this past season.
• 40:02
  Well, I talked to Ben McCollum last week at the Polk County I
• 40:05
  Club and he brought up Trevin Your Rock just looking different
• 40:09
  and what he can do. And he's got such a unique skill
• 40:11
  set. Obviously has to improve on the
• 40:13
  defensive end of the floor. Tate Sage and Cooper Koch now
• 40:16
  going into their sophomore years after how great both of those
• 40:18
  guys played during the NCAA tournament, really the last
• 40:21
  third of the season, the jump that you're going to get out of
• 40:23
  that. So reasons for optimism.
• 40:26
  Cale Combs has got to take that next step.
• 40:28
  And we saw flashes of, but you need to have that consistency.
• 40:31
  If he can do that at the point point guard position, him
• 40:34
  working in the backcourt with Coleman together, I think
• 40:36
  they're going to be good. And I think we're now set up in
• 40:38
  a way kind of all-encompassing here.
• 40:40
  Now, Nick is when we look at both Iowa basketball, Iowa State
• 40:44
  basketball, you guys have had it now for the last half decade.
• 40:47
  You know, TJ, he is going to put at minimum a competent team on
• 40:51
  the floor every single year. Doesn't matter the pieces, he's
• 40:54
  going to be able to find a way. And I think we're trending that
• 40:56
  same direction now with Iowa basketball.
• 40:59
  Oh yeah. And I think it's great for the
• 41:00
  state too, right. Where if, if both teams are
• 41:03
  good, that I think is better. Just in general, I would say IOC
• 41:07
  is probably on a faster track to a national title, to a Final
• 41:10
  Four appearance, but. Well, that's just me.
• 41:14
  Iowa was 8 minutes away with the lead in the lead 8 game.
• 41:17
  You're getting blown out by a Tennessee team that lost 12
• 41:19
  games. Come on.
• 41:20
  Iowa State was one player actually being on the floor away
• 41:23
  right there. It comes not to you.
• 41:25
  In my opinion, there it is. Nick Beribitz locked on Cyclones
• 41:28
  joining us here today on Miller and Cotta.
• 41:30
  Quick timeout back on the other side.
• 41:32
  Black uniforms in college football not part of the color
• 41:36
  scheme for a program. And so fans are upset.
• 41:39
  That's next. Wrapping up our number one of
• 41:50
  Miller and Condon on the Iowa Sports Radio Network flagship
• 41:54
  One O 6.3 KX&O hanging with Nick Marvitz today locked on
• 41:59
  cyclones. You can hear Nick each and every
• 42:01
  day talking cyclones and ripping the Hawkeyes.
• 42:05
  I'm I'm getting some texts. You're getting people fired up,
• 42:07
  Nick. That's my main job.
• 42:11
  I know, I I know because I do it on the other side.
• 42:13
  You can listen to me every day and Locked on Hawkeyes as I take
• 42:16
  the Hawkeye perspective. Well, Nick, as we wrap things
• 42:18
  up, there was of course what 45678 years ago, however long,
• 42:22
  long it was, Iowa State made the decision that they're going to
• 42:25
  wear a black uniform and that rankled some people.
• 42:27
  Now I had no problem with them wearing black.
• 42:29
  I just thought the uniforms were ugly.
• 42:30
  That was my problem with it. And as the self-proclaimed
• 42:33
  uniforms are of the state of Iowa, I thought I had some
• 42:36
  insight into it. I just thought the uniforms were
• 42:38
  ugly. I had no problem with the color,
• 42:40
  they just didn't look good. But that aside, Ohio State has
• 42:43
  unveiled some black uniforms and I will tell you what their fan
• 42:47
  base, not nearly as excited as a Cyclone fan base was for those
• 42:51
  black uniforms. People are pissed that the
• 42:54
  Buckeyes are going away from the scarlet and Gray for a game and
• 42:56
  wearing these ugly black things. Yeah, You want to talk about,
• 43:00
  like, ripping on Iowa? This is where Iowa State just
• 43:02
  can't hang. I mean, it's gotten kind of
• 43:04
  ugly. I I don't know if it's
• 43:06
  necessarily that it looks bad. I don't like it.
• 43:09
  I want them to be in the Cardinal and gold.
• 43:11
  Looking at these uniforms, I don't know that I can say that
• 43:15
  they look bad. No, I think that they look fine.
• 43:17
  They're very the the contrast, the red, the white, the black.
• 43:21
  The biggest thing for me here is I'm surprised that there's so
• 43:23
  much pushback because Gray is basically black.
• 43:28
  In no world is red or gold close to black.
• 43:31
  That's a totally different color.
• 43:32
  Gray is literally just a lighter version of black.
• 43:34
  This was a weird one for me to see so many people upset.
• 43:38
  Nostalgia is a funny thing. I love uniforms of my youth.
• 43:44
  I love the uniforms and the other ugly color schemes and
• 43:47
  where the Padres had today with the old brown and yellow and
• 43:50
  though they brought those back. I love old school things from
• 43:52
  the 70s and 80's, the things that I grew up with and those
• 43:55
  kind of things. I love the Iowa State, some of
• 43:57
  the uniforms that they had football back in the 80s.
• 44:00
  Now I know for the fan base weren't a whole lot of wins back
• 44:02
  then and there were some ugly times for the program.
• 44:05
  I think there's some cool throwbacks though that Iowa
• 44:08
  State could do. Do you have anything any of the
• 44:10
  old logos? In fact, I I see on your your
• 44:13
  background there, you got a few of those old school Iowa State
• 44:16
  things. I do.
• 44:17
  And you know what? I don't really have great in
• 44:19
  insight here. It's just over my left shoulder
• 44:22
  is the 95 logo, by far my favorite.
• 44:25
  They call it the Sineto. It's not even close for me.
• 44:28
  And I think that's because that was kind of what I grew up with
• 44:31
  back when my parents were in college.
• 44:32
  That was the logo. So a lot of their stuff has that
• 44:35
  logo on it. But yeah, that, that logo, I
• 44:38
  it's just incredible. I mean, all the other ones are
• 44:41
  good, but when they show the throwback, you know, they do the
• 44:44
  logos on like TNT or CBS or whatever and they're like doing
• 44:47
  a special in Iowa State and they put up the, the one that looks
• 44:50
  like a bugle, like put sign ado on there.
• 44:52
  It'll look so much better. Bring it back, Nick.
• 44:54
  Appreciate it. We'll talk to you again soon.
• 44:57
  Thanks for having me on. How we're in the books, one more
• 44:59
  to go.