Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / Trent Live from Iowa Basketball Media Day with Bennett Stirtz & Ben McCollum & Mitch Holthus talks Chiefs

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Trent Live from Iowa Basketball Media Day with Bennett Stirtz & Ben McCollum & Mitch Holthus talks Chiefs · The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon

0:23
Hi, good afternoon. Things are going well.
0:25
How's your afternoon as we get things underway here on a
0:29
Wednesday? Can you hear?
0:39
I got a band playing in my ear. All right.
1:45
Good afternoon. Welcome Miller and Condon on a
1:48
Wednesday along with REO Speed Wagon as we take you until 2:00.
1:55
Hopefully the boys will need a break and we'll be able to talk
1:57
some sports here in the next couple of hours.
2:00
Ken Miller back in studio Trent in Iowa City for the program.
2:04
I here today. It is Iowa men's basketball
2:06
media day and TC is sequestered at Carver Hawkeye.
2:10
Will he where he will be in less than 10 minutes talking to
2:14
Bennett Sturtz, who's going to stop by Trent's broadcast
2:17
location and speak with the Sturtz coming up here in about
2:21
10 minutes. Following that, I'll talk to
2:23
Mitch Holtis, the voice of the Kansas City Chiefs.
2:25
I don't say the Chiefs get a bye week this week, but they kind of
2:28
do. It's the Raiders.
2:29
So we'll talk to the voice of the Chiefs about the Raiders and
2:33
take a look back at the Lions big win by Kansas City this past
2:37
week. And then Ben McCollum is going
2:39
to stop by trans broadcast location.
2:42
He will be on the air about 12:45 or thereabouts.
2:45
Our number 2 Cappy will be with me.
2:47
The very latest on the Cubs. I see Jed Hoyer just had his
2:51
year end press conference. We'll recap that a little bit
2:54
and then that Trent and I will kind of go round and recap the
2:57
day in sports and preview the night in sports and away we will
3:00
go. And Speaking of where we will
3:02
go, let's try and head east, shall we?
3:04
Off to Iowa City. Have you found your spot at
3:06
Carver Hawkeye? Are you good to go?
3:09
I am good to go. Yeah, fired off here as we're
3:11
sitting in the little media box there in the corner up here at
3:15
Carver Hawkeye Arena. So we're ready to go.
3:17
Excited to talk to Bennett, starts coming up here in about 5
3:20
minutes and then, of course, Coach McComb a little bit later
3:23
on. And dig in a little bit more as
3:25
we're seeing some of the players getting out onto the court right
3:27
now and they're wearing their new threads.
3:29
Kenny, they got the new. For the season, I like them, I
3:32
like. So give me your starting 5
3:33
Trent. What?
3:35
Who do you think McCullum is going to turn to when they play
3:38
their first game? Who will it be?
3:41
Fulgaris, I think. Yes, yeah.
3:43
Fulgaris, I think in Manoa will be your big guys.
3:46
I think both those guys are going to be there.
3:48
Cooper caught See the floor. See, I don't think as a starter,
3:52
I don't think that he's going to be there.
3:53
And you know, we've continued to hear that there's still a lot of
3:56
work to be done on the defensive end of the floor.
3:59
Tom Caker mentioned that to us before and and talking to a few
4:01
people here this morning, still some work to be done there still
4:04
maybe some flaws to fix after what he was taught a season ago,
4:08
but he's definitely going to be a rotational piece.
4:11
I do think Houston is going to be also as a starter, just that
4:16
shooting ability, having that kind of shooter out there with
4:18
stirts, I think is incredibly important.
4:20
Really, I think it comes down to one final spot and that's where
4:23
it becomes a little bit more difficult to figure out what
4:26
direction makes a whole lot of sense.
4:27
Who's the guy that kind of fits together with that group.
4:30
We've heard a lot of different things.
4:31
You know, does Banks make sense of being able to do that?
4:34
So we'll find out a little bit more today.
4:36
And that's kind of one of the things I want to unearth the
4:38
scene, exactly how that's going to.
4:39
Go and Hansen started for K State last year correct I think
4:44
he did yeah I think he did so that's interesting we'll see how
4:48
that goes. Obviously we know one of those
4:49
spots you're going to talk to the point guard coming up here
4:52
in about 5 minutes as Bennett Sturtz.
4:54
We'll we'll stop by just real quick.
4:56
Let's put a cap on last night's baseball game.
4:59
I know you like the dodgers. They just flex didn't they
5:02
they're just a better baseball team Trenton you know Game 3 as
5:06
the scene shifts out West here comes Glasnow and if and when we
5:10
get to game 4 here comes our shota our show A rather and in
5:15
game five you go back to Blake Snell.
5:17
It's just one after another for crying out loud.
5:20
I I hope it's a good series. I feel like sadly both of these
5:25
series are we're unlikely to see a game seven in either series on
5:30
Monday night. Is that fair?
5:31
Yeah. I I don't even think we're going
5:33
to get to maybe a game. 6IN either of those, maybe because.
5:35
It feels like it's going to be short and then we're going to
5:37
have that long delay because of course the things are.
5:39
Already getting locked in. Win the World Series, Yeah.
5:42
So we're going to have that long delay.
5:43
And it feels like every year that we have that in the World
5:45
Series, whatever momentum's kind of been created, it just falls
5:48
by the wayside. We got so much football,
5:50
football, football, obviously basketball starting up.
5:53
It's it's a difficult thing. And I don't think there's
5:55
anything Major League Baseball realistically can do because
5:58
they know the windows that make the most sense for them.
6:00
Even move it up a couple of days, it probably just doesn't
6:02
make sense. Well, it's it will start.
6:04
It's not scheduled. It's scheduled and will start on
6:07
Friday, October the 24th. So whenever the series end,
6:10
they'll have some time to do some inner squad stuff and then
6:12
get to the the scene of World Series game one and take it from
6:16
there. But with media days, they'll
6:18
have to get in a couple a little bit early there.
6:20
All right, let's go turn it over to you, Trent.
6:22
Bottom of the hour. Mitch Holtis will join me, but
6:24
Bennett Sturtz is standing by right now with TC.
6:28
And thank you very much for that, Ken, as we are joined by
6:30
Bennett Sturtz. Bennett, good to see you here in
6:33
person. And after watching you over in
6:35
Des Moines, our flagship KX&O, now you're over here in Iowa
6:38
City. So let's start right there,
6:40
going through it your final time, your final year on the
6:42
hardwood and making yet another transition.
6:45
How's the transition gone and going from Des Moines over here
6:47
to Iowa City now? Yeah, it's been pretty smooth.
6:49
People are great here. People are great in the state of
6:52
Iowa in general, and it helps bringing 6 guys over from Drake.
6:56
So yeah, it's been smooth and it's been super exciting.
6:58
You know, you look at the transition that you guys made a
7:01
year ago, making that move up from D2.
7:03
Coach McCollum said he thought you guys would be able to
7:06
translate, but he wasn't real sure.
7:08
Were you sure? I mean, making that move.
7:10
I, I know your love hearing you talk about Coach McCollum and
7:13
that, but were you sure that, hey, I'm moving up to the D1
7:16
level or did you have that? Hey, this is not going to be a
7:18
big deal for me. I actually didn't have a clue if
7:20
it was going to work or not until the first game of
7:24
conference play and ended up working out.
7:27
And I think that's what we're taking it this year.
7:29
Just having the confidence, but a humble confidence, not
7:32
thinking too highly of yourselves and not having too
7:34
big of a ego and and just being humble about the whole process.
7:38
You make your way over here, you mentioned 6 of you guys coming
7:41
over from Drake. That transition, it's different
7:43
now. You've gone through it
7:44
back-to-back years of coming with a group of guys that you
7:46
already knew. But tell us a little bit about
7:48
some of the new guys and helping them.
7:51
Being that leader and understanding what coach wants,
7:53
what the staff wants and being able to be that kind of leader
7:56
is everybody doesn't have to go into this kind of eyes wide
7:59
open. Yeah, it's you kind of have to
8:01
be consistent with it. You can't have too many off
8:03
days, but it helps that you have 6 guys cuz we brought four guys
8:07
over from D2 to Drake and that was easier to establish the
8:10
culture. And now we have 6 guys who's
8:11
been in the Pro Max program for, for, for a year now.
8:15
And the whole staff has been for a year.
8:17
So that helps. So it's not just me, but yeah,
8:20
there's, there's going to be some hard days, there's going to
8:22
be some good days. And that's, that's part of it.
8:24
And it's what you do on those hard days that makes it all
8:27
better. You guys don't mess around.
8:29
I've seen the videos, talk to coach and you guys put in the
8:33
work that offseason work and what you guys do now, that's
8:36
just what you're used to because he played for Coach McCallum for
8:39
four years now. But some of the new guys that
8:41
mentioned, I see Cooper down there, you know, he went through
8:44
it with a different coaching staff last year.
8:45
Some guys that have been in other programs that are coming
8:47
in. What did those guys said about
8:49
going through kind of the spring and summer practices under coach
8:51
and the coaching staff? Yeah, their heads kind of
8:53
spinning. Not anymore, but it was.
8:55
And it's kind of a shock for the freshman and and the new guys,
8:59
but they've had a great attitude all summer and all fall now
9:03
before we get started in the games here.
9:04
And yeah, they just had a great attitude.
9:07
And that's what it takes to succeed at this level.
9:11
You saw a bunch of good point guards a year ago, but it's
9:13
gonna be a step up this season in the Big 10.
9:16
You start with pre season All American who's knocked you out a
9:18
couple of times with Braden Smith over there at Purdue, Dent
9:21
who's tremendous at UCLA, former New Mexico player.
9:24
You've seen a bunch of them, but you know it's going to be game
9:26
in and game out. You're going to see some of the
9:28
best of the best. Who are some of the guys you're
9:30
excited to face the throughout the course of the season?
9:32
Yeah, all the point guards like Braden Smith, Donovan Dent, I, I
9:36
played with them and, and got to hang out with them at Chris Paul
9:38
camp, so that was pretty cool. So we're just all looking
9:41
forward to to the season and, and just battling against each
9:45
other. But yeah, you're right, every
9:47
game's going to be a battle and, and just another couple of guys
9:51
on that team, just NBA talent. So yeah, pretty much just all
9:54
the environments I'm looking forward to and each game's going
9:57
to be tough. So look forward to.
9:58
It want to ask you about a couple of the guys on the team
10:00
and some new faces. Certainly for you and I think
10:02
new faces because you know us with our station in Des Moines,
10:05
that's where we're based. And though we're statewide on
10:07
our network, we watch a lot of Drake basketball and saw a lot
10:10
of you guys a season ago. Want to start with Alvaro Fool.
10:12
Garris Fool comes in from Robert Morris and we've seen the joke
10:16
that maybe Robert Morris didn't have a real great weight
10:19
training program, but he's a really skilled guy.
10:22
He was away for you guys for a while this spring as he was
10:24
playing for the Spanish national team.
10:26
Tell us a little bit about his game and and how it's going to
10:28
fit in the system. Yeah, he's a game changer and
10:30
he's a pick and pop threat, which we didn't have at Drake
10:32
last year. So that's it's nice coming off
10:34
the ball screens when you're not just hitting the the roller, you
10:37
can actually hit the pop threat. So that just spaces out the
10:39
floor a huge amount and we have other guys who can pick and pop
10:42
threat, but then he can also pass, which also expands the
10:46
floor a little bit with Brendan out there and me out there who
10:49
can shoot it. So he's a game changer.
10:51
And when he wants to go, he can go.
10:53
And yeah, he'll, he'll be huge for us.
10:54
You mentioned Brendan Housen coming in from K State, started
10:57
his career at Villanova. He's played in some big games
10:59
himself and you mentioned that shooting ability.
11:01
Now we know we can fill it up from the outside.
11:04
Does Coach like him shooting those 2528 footers or is Coach
11:07
trying to push him a little bit closer into that line?
11:09
When he's hot, he can shoot whatever he wants, but it's nice
11:13
throwing, throwing the ball to him and just knowing it's going
11:15
to go in 95% of the time. So it's just another threat to
11:19
have. And yeah, it's even if he
11:22
doesn't shoot the ball, gravity goes towards him, as Mac likes
11:25
to say, and opens up the floor to a lot of other people.
11:29
Got a lot of different pieces for this group.
11:32
I think we anticipate the starters, but the five or four
11:35
of them that are going to be out there, you probably Brandon in
11:37
the backcourt up front with Alvaro and then Manoa in the
11:41
middle. Who do you think's going to be
11:43
that fifth guy? Has it been decided?
11:44
What did you guys do against Saint Louis?
11:45
Who, Who do you think would be that fifth guy out there with
11:47
you? Yeah, so we won't know until
11:48
like 5 minutes before the game. That's how Mac does it.
11:50
Oh really? Yeah.
11:51
So I don't, we don't know who the starting 5 is, but every
11:54
game. Every game, yeah.
11:55
Yep. So he keeps us on a toes, and I
11:57
like it because everyone's got to stay ready.
11:59
So Tavion Banks has been playing well.
12:01
Isaiah Howard, Kale Combs, just a bunch of the great, great guys
12:05
have been stepping up. Cooper Koch.
12:06
So it's been good. You've mentioned now you don't
12:10
like to leave the floor. Ever.
12:12
Not at all. Never.
12:13
I don't like the bench. You play 40 minutes.
12:16
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So.
12:18
But you're not. I mean, there's, there's going
12:20
to be something that happens. You're going to be whatever it
12:22
is. Who do you think is going to be
12:23
that That guy behind you? Who's going to be handling the
12:25
point when for those 30 seconds that you're out of the game?
12:28
I mean, anyone can kill Combs. Is has taken tremendous steps
12:32
this season, this offseason. Peyton McCollum has, it doesn't
12:35
always have to be me. Brendan Hausen can can bring the
12:37
ball up the floor, Isaiah Howard, Tate Sage, just a bunch
12:41
of the guys that we have. I know it seems like we don't
12:44
have a lot of depth in the point guard position, but we do.
12:47
You mentioned Tate and that might be one of the more
12:49
intriguing guys. I mean, he was, you know, not
12:52
widely regarded. You're used to that coming out
12:54
of high school. So I was committed to Drake,
12:55
kind of took a while for him to at least officially make his
12:58
commitment here to Iowa. And I think there was from the
13:01
fan base, maybe some head scratching boy, he's turned some
13:03
heads. Tell us a little bit about Tate
13:05
Sage and a guy that maybe can help you guys a little bit right
13:07
away. Yeah, he's a dog.
13:09
Just making highlight plays. He had a massive dunk in our
13:11
scrimmage and he can shoot the ball, he can guard at a high
13:15
level. So he's a freshman, but he's
13:17
still making plays and he's still getting better each and
13:20
every day, and I think he can help us out this season.
13:22
So from there, you guys had your first scrimmage.
13:24
Tell us a little bit about that because what we see the final
13:26
score, yeah, maybe not indicative of a real game.
13:30
Let's just start right there. What was kind of the What did
13:32
the game look like? Yeah, so we played 60 minutes,
13:35
so it's a lot. It's not.
13:36
Yeah, everyone played. That's pretty much the whole
13:40
structure of it. And we learned a lot about our
13:43
team and a lot about our lineups, which is good.
13:45
A lot of work to do. But yeah, it was super fun
13:48
getting out there and playing someone else.
13:49
Yeah. Don't have to beat up on each
13:50
other and you guys have one more scrimmage.
13:52
Yep. Who you guys playing?
13:54
Texas Tech. Texas Tech That's right.
13:55
So maybe a little payback for everything.
13:58
That's not the same. It's a scrimmage, but last
14:00
season, I mean, how much does that linger because there was a
14:03
lot in that game. What a should a, you know, this
14:05
play, that play, you guys were right there and had an
14:08
opportunity to get to the Sweet 16.
14:10
I mean, how much has that pushed you maybe throughout this
14:12
offseason and and getting another shot even in a
14:13
scrimmage? It pushed.
14:14
It pushed me a lot. It obviously lingered for about
14:17
a couple weeks and then it's on to the next.
14:19
But just knowing that we could have won that game.
14:22
We made a lot of mistakes that game.
14:23
So just thinking about that in the back of my mind, knowing
14:26
that we can hang with anyone. All right, so we look to this
14:29
season and we look at this big building that we're in right
14:32
now, the Carver Hawkeye. Had you ever been to Carver
14:34
before you committed? Never, Yeah.
14:36
Nope. What do you think the building
14:37
first of? All I love it.
14:38
Yeah, we can pack this thing out and I'm super excited looking
14:40
for it. Like just looking around
14:43
imagining it being packed. Pretty cool.
14:45
Yeah, absolutely. 15,000 strong in here and it's tremendous.
14:49
Hasn't been for men's basketball though recently.
14:50
You know, fan base had kind of checked out under the previous
14:53
staff with that, not just doing what you do between the lines,
14:57
but growing, building the brand, getting people out here and get
15:00
excited again for men's basketball.
15:02
What have you done and what are you planning to do to kind of
15:04
get this fan base re energized? Win some ball games?
15:07
No, but that's that's the secret and the main thing.
15:10
If we win ball games, they'll show up.
15:12
But just being around the community and and showing them
15:15
what we're all about. We're all blue collar guys with
15:16
the chip on our shoulder and who like to work hard and we'll and
15:20
we'll work hard this whole season no matter what win or
15:23
loss. So just showing them what we're
15:25
about, and if we do that, that's all it takes.
15:27
You have shown up on bunch of NBA draft lists.
15:32
Take us back to when you were playing basketball in high
15:34
school, knowing you're going to go to Northwest and where you
15:38
are today and wouldn't just you click on article and you see
15:40
your name on there. What is that like?
15:42
Because my name was never on those days.
15:44
Yeah, it's, it's, I don't believe it.
15:46
It's still kind of a shock to me and it's cool to see my name up
15:50
there, but it doesn't mean anything.
15:51
I haven't played a game in the Big 10 and I haven't proven
15:53
myself like I think I will or should, but it's obviously cool
15:59
and makes me want to work even harder all.
16:01
Right. Last thing for you, Bennett, and
16:03
you come from Des Moines. That's where I've been last 20
16:05
years, started here at college longer than that ago.
16:09
What's the place you get, You got a restaurant, you got a
16:12
maybe 1/4 spot that you like to hang out with.
16:13
What do you miss about Des Moines as you're now over here
16:16
in Iowa City? Is there anything that you got a
16:18
hankering for or anything like that?
16:20
Drake Diner, we always used to hang out there.
16:22
It's it's OK food, it's average food, but we had some great
16:25
memories there as a team. Breakfast is good, it's good
16:27
food, but just the memories we had hanging out with the guys
16:30
there, that's that's the spot. Drake Diner, there it is.
16:33
Good hanging out with you. Good talking with you.
16:35
Yeah. Thanks so much for having.
16:36
Yep, that's Bennett Sturtz, the preseason All American for the
16:38
Hawkeyes, as he joins us here. That was awesome.
16:41
That was really well done. The Trent, that was really well
16:43
done. I don't think I've ever heard
16:45
Bennett Sturtz answer in the fashion that he did.
16:48
He was really open with you and again, it's a one-on-one, which
16:52
is different than a group setting type of thing, but that
16:55
was really good. I learned a lot about Bennett
16:58
Sturtz, in addition to the fact he likes Drake Diner.
17:01
Just kind of how the. What's like you?
17:03
You're right. The fact that nobody's going to
17:05
know who's starting, Mccollum's just going to, he's going to do
17:07
that every single game. The fact that that scrimmage was
17:10
kind of maybe not on on the surface, not what it seemed to
17:13
be that they did play hard. Some of the names he threw out
17:17
there, you know, going back and forth sounds like Tate Sage
17:20
might be a player that was that was really good.
17:23
Yes, Sir. You asked some great questions
17:25
and he was willing to to really open up to you.
17:27
And again, in a way that I've never heard him do before.
17:29
I'm not saying he hasn't. I just hadn't heard it like that
17:31
before. I just heard in Group settings
17:33
and he wasn't really maybe as open as he was today.
17:37
Yeah, it was a a fun situation, you know, because you said, you
17:40
know, you get in these scrums, Ken, you've been a part of it
17:42
too. And it just, you maybe get a
17:44
question in. It's a question that you didn't
17:47
exactly get to ask it the right way.
17:49
It's fun to get these guys in this kind of environment and
17:51
hopefully going to have a little bit more.
17:52
We'll have Coach McCullum coming up here at about 45 after the
17:55
hour. So we're going to have a ton
17:56
there. Now he goes out to the hardwood.
17:58
Now he's got to go take his pictures.
17:59
And that's what they're doing now.
18:02
Yep, he's going out there. They got the new home whites on
18:05
and so he's gonna go out there right now and get his pictures
18:07
taken. Just saw Alvaro fool Garris and
18:10
he's a little bit taller than I thought.
18:12
So he's listed at 6:10, Yeah. Well, I don't think he's that.
18:17
I remember when he committed, there was some talk of yeah,
18:20
maybe 6-7 and a half, 6-8, something like that.
18:22
I now my estimations, can you and I, neither of us are the
18:26
tallest guys in the world, so everybody feels pretty tall,
18:29
most compared to us. But yeah, just seeing him out
18:32
there, I think he's a good 69 at minimum.
18:33
I don't know if 610, but yeah, he's a little bigger than I
18:36
thought. And one thing that Bennett
18:38
talked about Alvaro, because I said it last weekend, I think
18:41
he's the key, you know, if he puts together a really, really
18:44
good season, you know, honorable mention all Big 10 type.
18:47
I think this team at minimum, you know, as a team that gets to
18:50
the second round of the tournament, maybe even a little
18:51
bit more. I think he's that big of a
18:53
factor for them of was his passing ability, though.
18:56
And that's something talk to somebody else this morning when
18:58
I got here. And that's another thing that
19:00
they mentioned. You know, people are maybe
19:01
overlooking having that kind of guy.
19:04
Bennett talked about him being able to knock down the three on
19:06
the pick and roll and pick and pop, but also his passing
19:09
ability at the top when he gets the ball.
19:11
I think that's going to be a big part of this offense.
19:12
Too. Yeah, no doubt about it.
19:14
Is starts on a 6/4. I think so, yeah.
19:17
He, he, I was already sitting down when he sat down next to
19:20
me. But yeah, he looks all at six.
19:21
More good stuff. Well, excited about this
19:24
basketball season. We know there's a tournament
19:25
team in Story County and we'll see if there's one in eastern
19:29
Iowa. I think that I think they're
19:30
both are Trent. I'm excited about this team.
19:32
Here's the thing, we know if McCollum can flat out coach and
19:36
maybe worth a win or two on that on that slate.
19:40
So if that's the case, perhaps there'll be a Selection Sunday
19:44
show over in Iowa City this year.
19:47
Maybe. Didn't seem like that was going
19:48
to be the case. What did he say about the
19:50
freshman? Anything.
19:51
But he mentioned McCullum. I mentioned Sage.
19:56
Who else he didn't mention, didn't ask.
19:58
Him about your act. OK.
20:01
Yeah, I did. I, I and that was one that I had
20:02
my list that I didn't get to want to ask him.
20:04
That's the you. Know I know, Trev.
20:06
Yeah, yeah, the Valley kid that called a lot of his games these
20:09
last three seasons, that was one I missed on.
20:11
I'll have to. Maybe I'll save that one.
20:12
We'll get one from Coach McCullum on that front and talk
20:15
about the Valley. Product and he's going to join
20:16
Trenton in about 25 minutes Mitch Holtis joins me next.
20:21
We'll get back to Iowa City coming up here at about 12:45.
20:24
Before we go to break, let's give you the keyword this hour.
20:26
Keyword. Your chance to win $1000 in this
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nationwide contest is bankbank@kxno.com.
20:33
Mitch Holtis and the Chiefs, their next Papa John's
20:35
throughout the state of Iowa. Sponsor that.
20:37
More from Iowa men's basketball Media days coming up here with
20:41
Trent and Coach McCullum scheduled at 12:45.
20:45
It's the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
20:52
I'm Hillary Condon. Welcome back.
20:53
Iowa Sports Radio Network. Flag shipped out of Des Moines
20:56
sports station one O 6.3 KX&O. We'll get back to Iowa City.
21:01
Trent will have a Coach McCollum coming up here in about 15
21:04
minutes. Right now, I'm going to speak to
21:05
the voice of the Kansas City Chiefs. 3 and three and
21:09
certainly looking like the best team on the AFC.
21:11
Although the playoffs started, Mitch, hard to believe that the
21:14
Chiefs would not be participating.
21:16
Long way to go. That's the good news.
21:18
Oh boy, they looked really good, I thought, against Detroit this
21:21
past Sunday. Maybe their most complete game
21:23
of the year. Mitch.
21:26
Yeah, I would say so. And they have no penalties
21:30
accepted in the game. There was only one called
21:32
against them. That's on the heels of the 13
21:34
penalty game in Jacksonville. So all three phases they played
21:39
fairly pristine in this game against a really good opponent.
21:42
And when you look at since Xavier Worthy's been back and
21:45
the Chiefs have averaged 32 points a game and now Rushy Rice
21:50
will join the party. That's not good news for fans of
21:53
other teams in that division, but here, here we are.
21:56
I thought, by the way, Speaking of receivers, I thought Travis
21:59
Kelce had his best game of the year as well.
22:03
I thought he kind of turned the clock back a little bit of there
22:06
was one drop and I don't know if it was Mahomes or he was on 87,
22:09
but I thought Kelsey was really good on Sunday.
22:13
Yeah, and he double caught one, but he still caught it.
22:16
The fact that then he becomes now such a third down asset,
22:19
which he's been, but all these other guys surrounding him has
22:23
precluded teams from double, double teaming him or shading a
22:28
safety over the top or trying to bump him and play 1 1/2 men
22:31
coverage. And so the fact that he's going
22:33
to get single covered, you have to now because you've got, well,
22:37
the Chiefs are the only team in the NFL with four players that
22:39
have 225 or more yards receiving, Hollywood, Brown,
22:44
Taekwon Thornton, Juju Smith, Schuster and Kelsey.
22:47
Now Rice comes into the play, Burchard Smith becomes more of a
22:51
factor as a receiver and you're going to have to single Kelsey.
22:56
And so if he can win those, especially the third down
22:58
battles, it just gets potentially even better.
23:01
Again, there's just a super vibe of excitement in the hallways
23:05
here. Yeah, there has to be.
23:06
What did you think of that Detroit squad, Mitch?
23:09
Well, they're just decimated by injuries.
23:11
To have five corners down and then Kirby Joseph played hurt.
23:16
He was trying to stay in the game.
23:18
What it did, it was precluded them from doing anything really
23:21
tricky in their nickel or dime packages.
23:24
Their offense is really hard to stop, but it's also a controlled
23:29
offense. Very it's not.
23:31
It's not dissimilar, somewhat similar to what what Denver's
23:34
doing now. It's just that Denver has the NF
23:36
LS best defense, but it's a controlled game, meaning it's
23:40
not running the ball, but it's using the 8:00 to 11:50 yard
23:44
passing game and then having your guys break tackles.
23:49
Detroit's good. They're really good.
23:50
They could end up being the one seed in the NFC.
23:53
They've got to get that defense healthy or they're going to face
23:55
some other losses. Mitch, we ran out of time last
23:58
week before I wanted to ask you about Josh Simmons because it
24:01
seems like the Chiefs and their brass have done it again.
24:05
Every time I watch Shimmons, I think he gets better.
24:07
It was an area of concern, obviously in past years, that
24:10
left tackle position. It seems like maybe now they
24:13
found the answer and this is going to be solidified for the
24:16
years to come. I thought Simmons is getting
24:18
better every week and already playing at a very high level.
24:22
I think it's going to be a big week for him as well, just
24:25
because one, it's the Raiders and it's Max Crows and it's
24:28
Malcolm Kunz, and the one thing they're doing then is pressuring
24:30
the quarterback. So yes, big week for him in the
24:34
entire offensive line. When you look at the Raiders,
24:36
what do you see? Is it a different obviously
24:38
different head coach, different quarterback?
24:40
What do you see in this edition of the Raiders?
24:44
Well, Gentie's a stud. He's for real.
24:47
They've had Bowers hurt. He's for real.
24:49
He's kind of the new Kelsey. Their offensive line's a little
24:52
bit of a mess, and Gino's throwing picks.
24:55
He's got 10 interceptions. Geno Smith and six of the 10 are
24:58
without blitzes or pressure. So is that scheme.
25:03
I don't know what that is now. Jacoby Myers is a good receiver.
25:06
Trey Tucker is a good receiver. Defensively, they've got to rely
25:09
completely on their pass rush. They went kind of they they got
25:13
out there older. Their linebackers are older.
25:15
Or the Devon White had a crate game.
25:17
He destroyed us in Super Bowl 55 with the Bucks.
25:20
But their secondary has got to rely on pressure up front, which
25:23
they can do because the Raiders can't attack the quarterback.
25:28
Geno Smith kind of hit and miss as far as how his season is gone
25:31
when watch him. Mostly miss.
25:34
Yeah, I just. You can't.
25:35
You can't. I was looking at today, the
25:38
Raiders defense isn't bad. I mentioned that, the front
25:41
especially, but their defensive starting field position because
25:45
of all these interceptions is the worst since 2009.
25:50
Like they're putting them in impossible situations.
25:53
Gino's got to take care of the ball and he did a little bit
25:56
better last week. But they're going to center
25:58
everything around Ashton Gente, both as a runner and as a
26:00
receiver and then complement that with Jacoby Myers and as I
26:04
mentioned, Trey Tucker and even the best kid who's the rookie
26:07
out of TCU. So but he's got to quit throwing
26:10
picks. I mean, 1010 interceptions in
26:12
six weeks is brutal. But he's he's looking at Jameson
26:15
Winston's 30 picks he threw a couple years ago.
26:19
Papa John's sponsors this weekly segment with Mitch Holtis every
26:22
single week until with the exception of the Bible.
26:24
Get to them in just a second. Mitch from a talk show host,
26:28
from a from a fan perspective. You look at the conference
26:30
overall, I know that you guys don't do it, but you see where
26:34
the Chiefs are in the plane that they're seemingly playing on.
26:36
And then you look at the teams that you know we're going to be
26:39
the two teams that take over the AFC.
26:41
Well, the Ravens are one in five and Lamar Jackson's in and out
26:43
of the line up and the defence is banged up.
26:46
But the Buffalo Bills, the teams they've beaten, are combined 3
26:49
and 21. They've lost their last two
26:51
straight. The AFC seemingly not as top,
26:55
although the Colts may be entering the conversation, is a
26:58
legitimate threat. How do you see this conference?
27:02
I think it's wide, wide open and the fact that there's new blood
27:05
now entering the card room here to play cards because you
27:09
mentioned the Colts, the Broncos are right there.
27:13
The Chargers are going to figure some things out because they're
27:16
they're leaking oil here a little bit, but I think they'll
27:18
be fine. And then you've got what are the
27:22
Jags going to do? I just think it's going to be
27:24
very, very exciting. The Bills have better stop to
27:26
run. And I'm going to throw the
27:28
Patriots in this discussion with what Drake May's doing and with
27:32
what Vrabel has done to and, you know, put some teeth back into
27:36
that team. They're going to be involved.
27:37
So it's going to be incredibly exciting next 10 to 11 weeks.
27:41
Yeah, that quarterback class from a couple years ago looks
27:44
like it might turn out to be a pretty good one.
27:46
No doubt about that. It's better than pretty good.
27:48
It's real good. And it's Papa John's, and they
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sponsored this weekly segment. They're headquartered in
27:53
Johnson, but of course, across the state of Iowa.
27:56
What have they got going on? Well, I found out your nickname
27:59
in Canada growing up just this week.
28:02
I just found it out. Papa Dippa.
28:05
Yeah, yeah, Papa Dippa in Saskatoon.
28:08
And so right now the Donaldsons have put this out there from the
28:14
R&D lab in Johnston. The Papa Dippa 4 dipping sauce,
28:19
like 3 new sauces. Wait for it.
28:23
Roasted garlic, parmesan, garlic pesto, garlic hot honey.
28:29
Almost passed out reading that to you.
28:30
Yeah, I can see why my mouth's watering.
28:33
It's unbelievable. Let's go.
28:35
Show's over. Trent can take it.
28:37
Hell yeah, we'll. Take the rest of the.
28:39
Day you're on your own. I'm headed to Johnston.
28:42
Good stuff Mitch Holtz, just we'll talk to you next week.
28:44
Thank you, buddy. Appreciate it's coming on see.
28:46
Papa Dippa. There you go.
28:48
See, Bud, Mitch Holtz is the voice of the Kansas City Chiefs.
28:51
So certainly look as though they're flexing again and about
28:54
to rise to the top of the AFC. Yeah, how about that for the
28:57
Bills? I looked at that look closer
28:58
last night, the four and two record and obviously they've
29:00
lost the last couple. Are they still legitimate
29:03
threat? The teams that they have beaten
29:05
to get to their four no start. The Ravens are one in five.
29:08
The Jets are O in six. The Dolphins are one in five and
29:13
the Saints are one in five. The two teams they played with
29:15
the Pulse, the Patriots beat them in Buffalo and then of
29:20
course, this past Thurs, this past Monday night, the the
29:23
Falcons took it to him on Monday night in the early game in in
29:27
Atlanta, two No 3 and 21, a combined record for the I think
29:32
they still aren't the favorite to win the AFCI don't know how.
29:36
And as Mitch mentioned, as Trent's mentioned, they cannot
29:39
stop the run. And if they don't figure this
29:41
out, this team is in trouble. We'll head back to Iowa City.
29:43
Ben McCullum is going to join Trent when we resume.
29:46
David Kaplan will kick off our number 2 for you.
29:49
Cubs fans do a lot on Cappy and how he sees next year's team,
29:53
where they may spend their money, who they may try to keep,
29:55
who they may persuade to let go or flat out let them go as there
30:00
are player mutual options, etcetera.
30:02
But we'll talk to Kathy about that.
30:03
And obviously those Chicago Bears, Miller and Condon talking
30:06
sports with you on the Iowa Sports Radio Network on Des
30:09
Moines sports Station One O 6.3 KXNO.
30:15
All right, welcome back. As we continue here and a look
30:19
at from Iowa City, it's Iowa men's basketball media day and
30:22
we are joined by the headband for Iowa basketball, it's Coach
30:25
McCollum. Coach, good to see you again.
30:27
First time on Zoom, well, first time on radio, then we did it on
30:29
Zoom and now we're doing it in person.
30:31
Good to see you here and it really an exciting day for Iowa
30:34
basketball. Yeah, absolutely.
30:35
You know, it starts to kick things off.
30:37
You can kind of feel it, you know, where you get your first
30:39
game. And you know, I think our guys
30:41
are are ready for that. They're excited for that.
30:43
And, and obviously, you know, we're trying to create some buzz
30:47
around Carver and, and get the fans out.
30:50
Had an opportunity to talk with Bennett a little bit earlier.
30:53
I think he's excited about your guys's next scrimmage against
30:56
Texas Tech and maybe getting another opportunity against
30:58
those guys. It's just a scrimmage, but you
31:00
know, a lot of people, there was a lot of play that saw the final
31:03
score from the scrimmage and probably didn't paint exactly
31:05
the full picture of what happened against Slew.
31:07
So first of all, just explain to our listeners a little bit about
31:10
that. And it's a scrimmage.
31:12
Yeah, they're scored, kept, but probably doesn't tell the whole
31:14
story. Yeah.
31:16
So this is how I do scrimmages and I'd probably am a little bit
31:20
unique. I don't like visible scores.
31:23
And so when we go in, we just don't have a visible score.
31:27
Because if I see a visible score, which you still play to
31:31
win the game, but I'm going to play to win the game.
31:33
And what happens then is maybe a guy can't, he struggles to
31:38
defend this kind of ball screen. And so then you're just going to
31:41
take him out and you're just going to play somebody
31:43
different. But in these types of deals, I
31:46
just think that crush is confident so quickly.
31:48
So what we what we've done historically is we don't really
31:53
scout the scrimmage and we just kind of go in, you know, we'll
31:57
show them a little bit of film, but we go in fairly blind.
32:01
And we try to stick with our basic coverages, whether it's
32:04
our ball screen coverage or our switches or whatever we're
32:06
supposed to do defensively. And then offensively, same
32:10
concept. You know, we've been working
32:13
against the show all year and which is, you know, our coverage
32:16
essentially where you show on a ball screen and they switched
32:19
and we haven't worked on switched switches.
32:21
And so they press and we haven't worked against the press, which
32:24
is fine. That's a good thing when you
32:27
kind of struggle through that. You know, I don't know what the
32:30
I don't even know what it was after the first couple.
32:35
And then we started to, we sub quite a few guys after that.
32:39
We might have been up after the first couple.
32:41
I'm not sure. It's irrelevant in regards to
32:43
the score. The good part is, is and why we
32:46
wanted to scrimmage them is you get exposed at some things and
32:52
that's the goal is to get exposed and then to to fix it,
32:58
solution find and then move into your next one.
33:00
And then your next one you're going to scout a little bit
33:02
more. And then obviously your first
33:05
game you're going to scout like crazy.
33:06
So yeah, I mean, I remember and I told the story in the in the
33:12
room upstairs, I remember when my first year at Northwest and
33:16
we scrimmaged A-Team named Mid America Nazarene and they're an
33:19
NAIA team. And the guys, the guys coaching
33:23
was Rocky named Rocky Lamar and they were every year A-35 win
33:26
team. I mean a Final four like elite
33:30
NAIA team, which usually elite NAIA teams will beat, you know,
33:33
your kind of middle tier division twos.
33:35
And that's the time we were probably middle of the pack.
33:38
And I remember going in and we scouted it and we had it all
33:41
tuned up. And I remember I think we beat
33:43
him by like 35. And I'm like, man, we're going
33:46
to be pretty good. We go on into that season, we're
33:49
12 and 15. And so and then Fast forward, I
33:53
remember another game we played A-Team named William Jewell
33:57
College, and they ended up beating us by because at that
34:01
point we had won a national championship.
34:02
And so I'm like, well, you know, we should be pretty good.
34:05
Well, we go into William Jewell and they ended up beating us by,
34:09
I don't know, 1015 points, something like that.
34:11
I remember like, man, it's going to be a long year.
34:14
And that team ended up 38. No.
34:18
And so I don't know, I can understand why people read into
34:23
something something like that doesn't always tell the full
34:26
story. Now, did Slew play really,
34:29
really well? Yeah, they played really, really
34:31
well. Did we play really well?
34:32
No, we didn't play great at all. But does does a score and a
34:37
scrimmage that wasn't posted when you're playing during the
34:39
thing and there's different quarters?
34:42
I mean, all right. I got you, I got you.
34:45
I, I talked to Bennett about a bunch of teammates, 2 guys I
34:49
didn't get to 1st Trev and Urak and feels like at least there's
34:53
going to be a few points at minimum this year.
34:55
You're going to need his size, maybe foul trouble, those kind
34:58
of things. What you've seen from Trev, I
34:59
told you before, I I've called probably 25 of his games in high
35:02
school. Really a guy that I know is
35:05
working hard to transform that body and be big 10 ready.
35:08
What have you seen from him and and how much can he help you in
35:10
year 1? I think he could help us.
35:12
The game slows down for him. You know, I think it'll be
35:15
unique to each situation. Depending upon the big that he's
35:18
guarding, that'll be the the biggest, but from an offensive
35:21
perspective, no issue at all. Really good offensively and he's
35:25
getting better defensively. You know, I think part of it is
35:28
just the speeds in regards to just being in that kind of
35:33
shape, just being in in you know, super conditioned and
35:36
whatnot. He's man.
35:38
He's. He looks different.
35:40
Yeah, he's, he's even, you know, he's even more mentally tough
35:44
than you would expect. He fights through fatigue.
35:49
He keeps competing. He does all those things.
35:52
He's a great teammate. You know, you see why he was a
35:56
winner. But yeah, the game slows down.
35:58
You know, hopefully he'll, he'll play some minutes for US.
36:00
One other guy didn't have a chance to ask Bennett about was
36:03
Trey Thompson. And I think it grabbed a lot of
36:05
attention. I mean, a guy that everybody in
36:07
the recruiting services thought he was pegged for Purdue hasn't
36:10
been a whole lot of wins for Iowa basketball recently.
36:12
Beating Purdue for some prospects now reclassifies.
36:15
He comes in a little bit behind the 8 ball because he's young
36:18
coupled with, you know, he didn't get the same kind of
36:20
workout you guys did throughout the course of the summer.
36:23
What have you seen from Trey Thompson and what he can do for
36:25
you guys in Year 1? Yeah, You know, he's been from
36:28
an offensive perspective, he's been really good, really bouncy,
36:31
can really shoot it. I think he's shooting 4550%
36:34
somewhere in that range from three.
36:36
Great personality, super energetic.
36:39
So he's he's been a good teammate.
36:41
His biggest thing will be picking up the defense and how
36:43
quick he can, you know? Sounds like that's a lot of
36:46
these guys. Huh.
36:47
Well, it's just when you're when you're a freshman, you know, And
36:50
so like, that's, that's the tricky part about like, you
36:52
know, we just talked about the scrimmage.
36:54
Like that's kind of the tricky part about those things is when
36:57
you put freshmen in the game and they make a defensive mistake
37:02
and you pull them 10 seconds later, you have now shattered
37:05
their confidence. And so when they go into these
37:09
scrimmages and they play, you have to allow them to play
37:12
through mistakes. And you know, the same goes for
37:16
any freshman that we play. If we put a freshman in the
37:18
game, we feel like they're ready enough to be able to kind of
37:21
work through their mistakes or they're ready enough to not make
37:23
as many mistakes as as they originally were defensively.
37:27
Schedule came together. When I talked to you this
37:29
summer, you were still working on that.
37:31
You mentioned to me you wanted to make sure you got one power
37:34
conference game in your guys's exempt tournament.
37:36
But as we see this one come together, there are some
37:39
contracts already done, some other things.
37:41
Going forward, what do you anticipate the non conference
37:43
schedule is going to look like? What what is kind of going to be
37:45
your goal season and season out knowing that this wasn't
37:48
complete control this season? Yeah, I mean quad once, you
37:51
know, I think, I think you want to have quad once and then you
37:55
know, there's kind of a formula to to the other teams that you
37:58
play the buy games that you play and so.
38:01
Those buy games, do you like the three hundreds and blow them out
38:03
by 40? Or would you rather have the one
38:05
50s and get a little bump? Yeah, good question, you know.
38:09
You need to get out the calculator.
38:10
Yeah, I think that's the problem.
38:12
Yeah, is this is. It's like to me, this is my
38:18
yeah, no one cares what I think. But to me, if you beat A-Team by
38:21
one point is the same as beating somebody by 50 points.
38:24
Like the goal is to win the game.
38:27
Like I don't. It doesn't make any sense.
38:30
And that doesn't say that. Though I know it just makes zero
38:33
sense to me, but I understand why they do it just because it's
38:37
oh. How else are we going to
38:38
calculate that? It's better than the RPA.
38:41
Yeah, but then you go out and you try to cheat the system, you
38:44
know, and you're just like, OK, so we got to play this team that
38:46
can't do this, it can't do this, and I think we can beat them by
38:49
50 and we're going to leave our starters in the whole game and
38:51
we're going to do. And it's just like it doesn't
38:53
make sense. And then so then I get blown up
38:55
naturally for the Drake and you and I thing and it's are you
38:59
scared? It's like no one's scared.
39:02
It's just like the reason they stopped doing it was
39:05
specifically because the net came into the equation and it
39:08
made no sense to to do that. To do that, you're better off
39:15
playing a quad one or a team that may not be as good.
39:19
Like for instance, I thought we were pretty good last year at
39:21
Drake, but our net was still, I don't even know what it was like
39:26
anywhere 55 to 65. And then there was Power Five
39:30
teams that were under 500 or close to it, that we're higher
39:35
in the net. Absolutely.
39:36
It makes absolutely no sense to me.
39:38
And, and it's but this, that's what it is.
39:42
And so. You're in a power conference
39:43
now, though. So like, if you're trying to
39:45
predict the future, you want to play a power conference team
39:50
because naturally they'll play in a power conference and that
39:53
power conference will naturally inflate their net ranking, which
39:57
ultimately helps you make the NCA tournament, which is kind of
40:00
your goal. So long, long explanation.
40:03
But you know, I, I get blown up for that.
40:07
All the 12. I don't necessarily people will
40:09
tell me this Drake fan. And then one of my buddies did
40:11
it. Northwest Missouri said he sent
40:14
me as my Sid and he sent me a thing that he he posted because
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he was AU and I. Grant OK, Yep.
40:20
Yep, He posted something like I expect more out of Coach
40:22
McCallum. Like, do we need to keep doing
40:24
this? I call.
40:26
It's Colin McDonough. I'm calling him out.
40:28
Yeah. Do we need to keep down I?
40:30
Don't call it. Oh yeah.
40:31
And he was just joking because he knows.
40:33
But but it doesn't come across like a joke.
40:36
Right, well, coach, we are out of time.
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I could talk schedule with you all day long.
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I absolutely they'll have schedule stuff.
40:43
Good catching up with you again. We'll do it again real soon.
40:45
Good to see you there. Is Ben McCullum the headband for
40:48
the Iowa Hawkeyes? We're live here from Iowa City,
40:50
IA Mens basketball.