Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / Iowa State women win with Addy Brown back, more Hawkeye Hoops reaction & Kerry Miller talks College Hoops

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Iowa State women win with Addy Brown back, more Hawkeye Hoops reaction & Kerry Miller talks College Hoops · The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon

0:09
Good afternoon and welcome in Miller and Condon on the air
0:11
with you. Here with you on a Thursday as
0:14
we talk the world of sports. Take it up until 2:00 this
0:18
afternoon. Trent Condon final two days of
0:21
Ken's vacation as he makes his way back from South Carolina.
0:25
He'll be back with us on Monday, today in his spot, it is Mr.
0:29
Todd Brommelkamp back with us on another Thursday, his day off
0:33
and hanging out with us here today.
0:34
Todd, good to see you once again.
0:36
And for listeners, good to hear you what's happening.
0:39
Oh, not a whole lot. I'm excited.
0:42
We got way more to talk about today than we did last Thursday.
0:45
Yes, absolutely. After on the heels of Tuesday
0:48
night, still plenty to talk about.
0:50
And the Iowa victory against Nebraska, a lot of big picture
0:53
stuff coming out of that. The Fred Hoiberg incident, if we
0:56
want to use that, I guess phrasing for what happened with
0:59
the student rushing up towards him.
1:00
It got that component to it. Nebraska, just the domination.
1:04
And I got a couple of chuckles as I saw some screenshots of
1:06
some Nebraska message boards that are sick of losing to Iowa
1:10
in every sport. They're sick of it.
1:12
And yeah, always get a kick out of that, of the rivalry aspect.
1:15
The environment at Carver Hawkeye Arena, even though it
1:17
wasn't a full boat like it was on Saturday, I thought the
1:20
student section was absolutely incredible.
1:22
Really didn't talk much about that on yesterday's show.
1:24
Coming up today on the program to guest and one in our number
1:28
11 in our number 2. We'll kick things off here at
1:31
about 12:25 on the guest list as Carrie James is going to join
1:34
us. A long time scribe as Carrie
1:36
Miller has been with us multiple, multiple times
1:39
throughout the college basketball season.
1:40
Get that good look at the national scene and always good
1:43
to get the national perspective. Then how the locals will do that
1:45
with Kerry coming up here at about 12:25.
1:48
Then in the second hour of the program, 125, we will be joined
1:52
by Matt Postings with Heartland College Sports on all things Big
1:55
12 and a lot of news items from the Big 12.
1:58
Darren Peterson, once again, the continued issues with him down
2:02
in Kansas, the health, what it's going to be and what it's going
2:05
to look like when we get to the NCAA tournament.
2:07
And you will feel confident in all putting any kind of money
2:10
behind that. Speaking of having money, I had
2:12
a bunch of it, a lot of future tickets on Texas Tech to make
2:14
the Final Four, had a couple of long shots to win the national
2:16
championship, JT topping out for the year.
2:19
And yeah, I can definitely RIP those tickets up because those
2:22
ones are not going though anymore.
2:24
We don't have to RIP up tickets anymore, Todd, because it's just
2:28
online. So it's just virtually RIP them
2:30
up. Yeah, nothing beats the old days
2:33
of having to wade through picking up those tickets just at
2:37
the track to see maybe somebody dropped a loser or something.
2:41
Kenny's probably done that a time or two in his life, I'm
2:43
sure. Absolutely.
2:45
Probably been there a couple of times going through it.
2:47
I remember one of my first times in Vegas, I was doing just that
2:49
because things were not going real well at that point in time.
2:52
And because of that, you know, maybe it's just somebody missed,
2:55
missed something that didn't come to fruition for me.
2:59
That was also the time, though, that I hit my first time in
3:01
Vegas. I hit the winner of the Indy 500
3:03
Memorial Day weekend. I heard an radio interview with
3:07
the Sense Pass. Is Dan Weldon the guy that
3:09
passed away? Regardless, heard a radio
3:12
interview with him on the drive. I was driving and flying out of
3:14
the Quad Cities and hey, I'll put 20 bucks on him.
3:18
He was like 30 to one. That was a big hit for me,
3:21
certainly back in the day. Those were a racing bets are fun
3:24
because the odds are usually, you know, I mean, a lot of times
3:27
it's a crap shoot. Yes, yeah.
3:29
Unless you're, unless you're looking at like IndyCar, there's
3:31
like 3 guys that win an IndyCar, right?
3:34
But yeah, you know, when you work for, when you work for a
3:38
guy that used to drive NASCAR for a living, you tend to pay
3:41
attention to it. So I'm trying to get my NASCAR
3:45
bona fides down. I missed out on Daytona last
3:47
weekend though. As did I, and I mentioned it
3:50
yesterday, one of the two guys that was sitting in yesterday,
3:52
Blake Walker, he's a big racing fan.
3:54
Connor, who produces the show right after, he's a big racing
3:56
fan. It just never worked for me.
3:59
I just, I don't know the reason. When the NASCAR boom was
4:02
happening, you know, in the early, early 90s into the mid
4:06
90s, I tried. There were a bunch of gear heads
4:08
around me, certainly in Osage, you know, small town, a lot of
4:10
guys that that love that kind of thing.
4:12
I tried. I couldn't do it.
4:14
Indy 500 sounds like a fun party.
4:16
That would be something on my bucket list and and that's a
4:18
good thing. I hear from everybody, even if
4:19
you're not a race fan, that is the experience that you get if
4:22
you like to party. And I like to dabble from time
4:25
to time. Not nearly as much anymore.
4:27
It is a good place for that kind of thing.
4:29
Are you telling me you're like a teetotaler now?
4:32
You're totally out of the out of the party scene?
4:34
Weren't you just in Mexico like a month?
4:37
Ago, yes, yes, absolutely. But since then it's better.
4:40
Rarity I, I can't even remember it.
4:42
Yeah, wife and kids do that. Yes, right.
4:45
Absolutely. I know all too well.
4:47
Changes the perception. Let's get into it to that.
4:50
Mentioned a couple of those Big 12 stories that are definitely
4:52
big ones when we talk about the Big 12 and really that race the
4:56
way it's shaping up. I want to begin today, though,
4:58
with Iowa State women and last night kind of a surprise with
5:02
Addie Brown in her return. They go out there, they
5:05
absolutely throttle Arizona State.
5:07
But I thought it was so interesting after the game, the
5:09
press conference from her as she was sitting up at the podium
5:13
with Audie Crooks and just to see the raw emotion from her.
5:16
Addie Brown, she's tough. I mean, that is a tough woman.
5:19
She is physical on the hardwood, but to see that emotion come
5:22
out, know what it meant because I'll tell you there were long
5:25
stretches and right after that injury that there were many
5:28
people that thought her season was over, that she was not going
5:30
to return this year. We know what a difference maker
5:33
Iowa State goes from a nice team, A-Team, good enough to
5:37
make the NCAA tournament, maybe win a game, possibly 2 with the
5:41
right draw. It completely changes the
5:43
equation for this Iowa State team now still getting past the
5:46
behemoths and the work they have to do seating wise to not have
5:49
to face a number one seed, say in the in the Sweet 16 is going
5:53
to be difficult for them in order for that to happen.
5:55
But just to see that, it was a surprise to me because we know
5:58
all players are emotional, but it's just that dichotomy between
6:01
the player we see on the floor as tough, as rugged of a player,
6:05
the women's college basketball and Addie Brown, and then see
6:07
the emotion that went along with it.
6:10
Yeah, was it, I think 11 games, right.
6:12
They played without her. And you're right, she's such a
6:15
competitor that I'm sure it was absolutely eating at her to to
6:20
have to watch those 11 games. And I I was surprised a little
6:24
too with with the emotion. Just as you said, she's normally
6:27
tough as nails. And I, for me, I think that's
6:31
one of the, the things that I like the most about athletics
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and college athletics in particular, is when you know,
6:38
these young men and young women are not like the media, polished
6:44
professionals. And you, sometimes you get to
6:47
drop the curtain every once in a while and you get to see the
6:49
human side of them. And, and to just be reminded.
6:53
I think there are some fans in this day and age with the amount
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of money and name, image likeness and everything that,
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you know, they view these athletes as professionals.
7:03
And I just, it's, sometimes it's, it's good to be reminded
7:08
that they are, are young adults, young kids and they've got
7:12
emotions just like everybody else.
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And, and win or lose, good for her for, for letting out, you
7:18
know, a couple months worth of frustration last night.
7:22
And, and unfortunately for Arizona, they had to be on the,
7:25
the losing end of that one. But that was a that was an
7:28
impressive route last night for the Iowa State women.
7:31
And again, this is the time of year where you want a team to
7:35
look exactly like ISU did last night.
7:37
Hold the way we've talked a little bit here in the past
7:41
about what it's been getting. Obviously Jada Williams, who she
7:43
came in from Arizona, how good she's been for this team this
7:46
season, being more consistent as a shooter, certainly from the
7:49
outside. But the return of Ariana
7:51
Jackson, they were going through that long losing streak that
7:54
they had. It wasn't just Addie Brown that
7:55
was out. They also lost Jackson.
7:57
And since she's come back, this team has looked completely
7:59
different again. They've won seven out of eight.
8:01
Now, you add Addie Brown to the mix and it goes back to
8:04
something we talked about the preseason.
8:05
Todd, looking at this Iowa State team team on paper, this felt
8:09
like potentially this could be Bill Finley's best team that
8:12
he's had. He's had plenty of successful
8:14
teams, 1921 seasons, all the successes that they've had.
8:18
They have that kind of maybe high upside type of talent maybe
8:22
that they haven't had before. Now, as I mentioned, it's going
8:25
to be difficult because you look at them in the metrics, they're
8:28
34th right now. I see a Bartorvick, the advanced
8:31
analytics, the net number really in a similar stage for them.
8:35
The likelihood is there may be a six seed, something like that in
8:38
the NCAA tournament. But as I mentioned earlier, you
8:41
don't want to be on the same side as #1 maybe that's not a
8:43
bad thing for them. Yes, you're going to have to go
8:45
on the road. You're going to have to win
8:46
around a 32 game against somebody on their home floor.
8:49
But maybe that's the path here. And with a healthy squad, this
8:53
Iowa State team, they can compete with the upper reaches,
8:56
not the Yukons of the South Carolinas of the world, even
8:58
UCLA, maybe 2 lesser extent. But that next tier of team, I
9:03
think a healthy Iowa State team can compete there and give
9:05
themselves a shot. Absolutely, I completely agree
9:08
with you. I know that makes for boring
9:10
radio for doing this as long as I have, but I agree with you.
9:14
You want to avoid the one and you get past that absolute top
9:18
tier in women's basketball that Iowa State team is is good
9:22
enough and tough enough that they can go and and they can win
9:26
on somebody else's court as long as we're not looking at at A1
9:29
seat. You know, women's college
9:31
basketball has changed a lot, but it's still pretty top heavy.
9:35
So it's tough to win on the road, but you get a two or three
9:40
or four. Absolutely.
9:41
Those are winnable games for for Bill Fennelly and the Iowa State
9:44
women. I was playing around a little
9:45
bit last night with a website, I'm sure you know, B
9:48
ball.notnothing.net. That is where you can project
9:52
for each of the conference tournaments.
9:53
The what it's going to spit out. Even giving Iowa State wins of
9:56
their final two games. They go to TCU this weekend.
9:58
It's going to be incredibly difficult there.
10:00
Even if they win their last two, everything plays out kind of in
10:03
normal fashion. There's still a seven seed in
10:06
the Big 12 tournament, which was crazy to me.
10:08
I know they had the big losing streak in there, but still a
10:10
seven seed going to be a much longer path obviously, if it
10:14
plays out there as things that get started in the Big 12
10:16
Woman's Conference tournament Wednesday, March 4th.
10:19
Let's jump over to your side of the state, Todd and get into the
10:22
Hawkeyes. Noah.
10:23
Still plenty of IS to dot T's to cross after what we saw at
10:29
Carver Hawkeye Arena on Tuesday night.
10:32
It was such a necessary win for this team.
10:35
He could see the emotion of of everybody that was involved in
10:38
that one. Not a fun basketball game, but a
10:41
fun environment and an important one for Iowa.
10:44
Yeah, you say not a fun basketball game.
10:46
And I couldn't help there were times watching that where I
10:49
thought, you know what? This is probably what Iowa
10:51
basketball would have looked like under Todd Licklider with
10:54
better talent, you know, just ugly.
10:57
But they won. They didn't.
11:01
And tip tip of the cap to our friends in Vegas who had that
11:05
one sniffed out. You know, I was a 1 1/2 point
11:09
favorite at home against the number 10 team in the country or
11:13
#9 team in the country. They knew they had a pretty good
11:16
idea what was going to happen. But I think from a, you know, he
11:20
would talk about a need standpoint and, and every
11:24
standpoint when you look at that, they, they had to win that
11:27
game. And I just think it it takes a
11:29
little bit of pressure off everybody involved at this
11:33
point, Ben McCollum, the players, I don't know if there's
11:36
pressure on fans, but it it at least allows them to maybe catch
11:41
their breath here a little bit after hyperventilating recently.
11:45
You know, the, the hay is not in the barn, as Hayden Fry used to
11:49
say, there's still games ahead and and there's still, you know,
11:52
some losses to be to be had for this team.
11:56
And the Maryland 1 still sticks out like a sore thumb.
11:58
But being able to beat Nebraska, you know, I, I put this on
12:03
social media Tuesday night, you know, I imagine trying to go
12:06
back 2530 years ago and explaining to your, your younger
12:10
self that Indiana football was going to win a national title.
12:15
Kirk Ference was still going to be the head coach at Iowa and
12:20
Iowa fans would rush the court in men's basketball after
12:24
beating Nebraska. I I don't know what, which one
12:26
of those things is more improbable, but it just tells
12:30
you the, the times that we're living in right now, the crazy
12:34
times. It's always fun to beat
12:36
Nebraska. Football's usually more fun than
12:39
basketball, but that's just because Nebraska basketball
12:41
hasn't been very good. But you know, the Hoiberg, you
12:44
had Fred Hoiberg into the mix. And yeah, there's still
12:48
something to be said about beating Nebraska, and that could
12:52
be a big catalyst toward a strong finish for this team
12:56
here. No doubt we look at this squad
12:59
and what's now in front of them. You get Wisconsin coming up this
13:02
weekend and Wisconsin has been such a Jekyll and Hyde team this
13:05
season. 3 of them maybe most high level wins of anybody on
13:09
the road at Illinois, on the road at Michigan, given the
13:11
Wolverines their only loss at home, they blew out Michigan
13:14
State and then they followed up with just a pitiful performance
13:17
against Ohio State. I don't like this match up
13:19
though for Iowa perspective. And the reason is the back court
13:22
for the Badgers with Nick Boyd, with John Blackwell, both of
13:25
those guys, they can make shots from the outside.
13:28
They're good shooters, not elite level, but really good 3 point
13:31
shooters. But The thing is with both of
13:33
those guys, they can get to the rim.
13:35
I mean, they're so good off the bounce, and that's not the way
13:37
that Nebraska's build that is the.
13:39
Way this is I, I think Wisconsin is a bad matchup you know, and
13:44
then you probably throw in that I think there will be a little
13:47
bit of a hangover effect as well.
13:49
You know, coming off the first ranked win since since what
13:52
January 24 or something like that.
13:55
This is just it's a really tough spot and like you said,
13:57
Wisconsin, the, the DNA, the make up of that roster is not
14:02
necessarily a great fit for the Hawkeyes at this point, but I I
14:05
don't want to take anything away.
14:06
I've been looking forward to doing today's show ever since I,
14:10
I dragged myself to bed Tuesday night after stand up.
14:14
At this point in my life, I feel like that was too late to stay
14:17
up, but I wasn't going to go to bed until I, I knew how that one
14:20
played out. But again, I don't, I don't know
14:23
what that win means in the long term on Tuesday night, but in
14:28
the short term, it was exactly what they needed to just get
14:33
back on track and and have everybody sort of get the proper
14:37
perspective on this team. So I wondered out loud yesterday
14:41
on the show, how much was Bennett Sturtz run around the
14:45
floor? And I know they had the tracking
14:46
devices and everything. And our guy over at the
14:49
register, Tyler Tashman, well, he got you covered.
14:51
Bennett Sturtz covered 5.9 miles of ground over the course of
14:56
Iowa's win against Nebraska, roughly on par with his recent
14:59
average. And that effort on the defensive
15:01
end of the floor, when you saw right away he's going out there,
15:05
he's guarding Price Sanford. That was an eye opener because
15:08
we know there's been times we've seen this season, Bennett,
15:11
Sturtz, he's not on the best defender.
15:13
He is an offensive player. He's maybe taking on that number
15:16
2 guard. He's taking on that guy that is
15:18
more of just a spot up shooter and simplify the game plan.
15:22
That was not the case. He wanted the most difficult
15:24
assignment. He knew the importance of that
15:26
assignment for the fan base of the people that were in the
15:28
building on top of it with Bryce Sanford coming home.
15:31
He wanted that to do that, to put that kind of performance and
15:34
then everything obviously that he's asked on the offensive end
15:37
of the floor as really nobody else is stepping up for them on
15:39
that side. That was yes.
15:41
You look at the box score, that does not paint the picture of
15:44
just how incredible that performance from Bennett Sturtz
15:47
was. Let let me ask you this, I, I
15:49
think it's a interesting question here.
15:51
What, what's his legacy 5/10/20 years from now on the eyes of
15:56
Iowa basketball fans, a guy who's one and done.
16:00
But I mean, he just, he does so much on the floor.
16:05
I think you're going to remember him as as one of the all time
16:08
greats to wear an Iowa uniform, especially if they can get that
16:13
30 year old monkey off their back about, you know, getting to
16:16
the second week in the NCAA tournament.
16:18
I just I'm, I was such a fan of his Drake.
16:22
It was fun. You know, that's the whole story
16:24
last year about Ben McCollum, you know, stepping up to D1 and
16:30
having Bennett Sturtz the whole way with him from, you know, his
16:34
previous stop. And I just, I, I can't say
16:37
enough about him that he's an Iron Man and hardly ever gets
16:40
off the floor. You know, he's out there the
16:42
whole time, everything that he does.
16:45
And, and I think he embraced that challenge on Tuesday night.
16:50
And they were. He was not going to let Price
16:52
Sanford beat them on, you know, on what used to be Price
16:57
Sanford's homecourt. It was that kind of effort.
17:00
I absolutely loved what we saw and gives you a little bit of
17:03
that glimpse. They do need more though.
17:04
They need more on the offensive end from somebody and I continue
17:08
to go back. Is it a time where you just got
17:11
to get bread and Haas and you got to get him 810 minutes a
17:13
game because they're so limited offensively?
17:15
We talked about this step back that they take taken recently on
17:18
the defensive end. Well, if you play Haasan, we
17:21
know that you're not going to have a great defender out there
17:23
when that's the case. And and the thing that I see
17:25
with Haasan is when he plays in the games, you can tell he's
17:28
trying really hard on that end of the floor.
17:30
He's doing everything that's ass.
17:31
It's just maybe more of a physical thing than anything.
17:34
And on the ball he actually looks OK.
17:36
Usually the issue with him, though, is some of the things
17:39
off, the just kind of understanding what they're
17:41
trying to do, that connectedness that you're always looking on
17:43
the defensive end. It feels like that's really
17:45
lacking. But when you're scoring like
17:47
this, I mean, the final 10 minutes of the game, all Iowa
17:49
did was run down the shot clock, hoist one up from deep.
17:52
There were some ugly, ugly shots in that one.
17:54
When you're searching for something I still cling to
17:58
Brendan Hassan can still help this team.
18:01
I don't mind if a guy stinks on defense or offense, but as long
18:05
as he's out there trying. And when I see him out, I mean,
18:08
he's trying to do the bet. Nobody's going to, you know,
18:12
mistake him for a lockdown defender anytime soon.
18:17
But you can tell he knows his value on the offensive side of
18:21
the floor. And and in order to justify his
18:25
being on the court, he needs to give his best on the defensive
18:28
side. And I just, you know, that's
18:30
the, the difference between college and pros still to this
18:33
day is you, you got guys that, you know, they're not the
18:37
greatest basketball players in the world, but he's trying and
18:41
he's busting his butt. And again, you know, I, I think
18:45
if you can get more out of him offensively, justify keeping him
18:50
out there on the floor as long as he's giving you what he can
18:53
defensively. So one other angle haven't
18:56
talked about is the crowd, the environment, not full all the
19:00
excuses. They're just that they're
19:02
excuses. They're left.
19:03
They're like buttholes, right? We all have them.
19:05
They all stink. But 8:00 tip off.
19:07
Mine's Immaculate. I don't know what you're
19:09
talking. About got a bidet over there.
19:10
High school basketball is going. We've heard them all.
19:13
Look, Iowa State because they have a great program year after
19:16
year after year, they fill out that building and guess what?
19:19
When things were not going well under Wayne Morgan, under Greg
19:21
McDermott, they didn't fill the building out.
19:23
Winds cure everything when it comes to that.
19:27
However, the student section, not just what they've done,
19:30
implementing the risers back behind the basket, I thought
19:32
that helped immensely. And we've seen those big gaps
19:35
back there at Carver and the construction and after some of
19:37
the renovation that just added even more of that depth back
19:41
behind the basket. That has helped.
19:43
But the other thing was looking behind the basket and the old
19:46
normal student section. There were a lot of bodies in
19:49
there and that is not always the case, certainly for men's
19:52
basketball. That was great to see, and it
19:54
felt like the environment and the student section, maybe most
19:56
importantly, definitely helped out Iowa in this one.
20:00
Yeah. You know, I, I think in this
20:03
business and the business that I'm currently in, you know, you
20:06
know that if you lose a listener, it's really hard to
20:09
get them to come back to you like if you've got a customer.
20:13
That you, you lose for whatever reason, it's not the easiest
20:17
thing to get them back. And I was gone on a decade plus
20:20
of losing a lot of people. And I'm I'm tired of the excuses
20:25
to, you know, it at this point, people are almost going out of
20:29
their way not to, to come back to Iowa basketball.
20:32
And I think that's why another reason why Tuesday night was so
20:35
important, I was, I was surprised just because I thought
20:39
the Big 10 network, it wasn't really conveying the energy in
20:42
the building. I don't know whether they had,
20:45
you know, whether they muffled their sound or had to turn the
20:49
crowd mics down or so I so I asked on social media, I was
20:53
like, is this place alive or what?
20:55
And so I was told by people that were there that the crowd was
20:59
great. I didn't get that sense on TV,
21:02
but you're absolutely right. I you know, the how many years
21:06
did, and I'm not throwing any administrator or anything under
21:10
the bus, but how many years was their pushback on doing even the
21:14
smallest, slightest change with the students?
21:18
And we've got to worry about the people that donate the money and
21:22
we don't, you know, sometimes you just have to piss people off
21:26
and get results. And I just, you know, the the
21:29
students have taken so much crap for so long from so many members
21:33
of the Iowa fan base give it up to them because they have they
21:38
were given an opportunity. And I think that they have have
21:42
shown that, you know, they deserve that.
21:44
That new seating. It does change the atmosphere in
21:47
the building a little bit and you know, Carver still isn't
21:52
maybe the toughest place to play in the big 10, but I don't think
21:56
any team thinks they're going to walk in there and and waltz out
21:59
with a win. So I I think the students have
22:02
been great. I think the fans that have been
22:04
showing up have been great. And you know what, sooner or
22:07
later, those people that are going to they'll be back on the
22:10
bandwagon and they'll be trying to convince you that they were
22:13
there the whole time. We know, you know that the empty
22:16
seats don't lie, but you know, just just tell it like it is.
22:21
You know, just you're right. People look for excuses.
22:24
The high school basketball games and the weeknights and
22:27
everything. You know what if you're a fan
22:30
and you've got the ability to go and you've got the money,
22:34
there's no excuse at this point. There shouldn't be.
22:37
You're just, you're looking for the easy way out.
22:40
So the team's fun and exciting to watch and they've got a
22:44
exciting young, younger coach who's from Iowa City.
22:49
There's just so many reasons to embrace that team and and get
22:52
behind him that I'm just, I'm over talking about the crowds.
22:56
Carver Hawkeye Arena at this point.
22:57
It's it's good. To be.
22:59
A you and you and I would you and I would have done anything
23:02
probably short of murder 30 years ago to have a a ticket to
23:06
a even a non conference game. I remember my aunt and uncle had
23:09
season tickets for years and occasionally we would get the
23:13
non conference, you know, Charleston Southerns, the world
23:16
or whatever, and and my mom or my dad would would take me and
23:21
it was something to be in the building even.
23:24
And now they can't even get some people to show up for Nebraska
23:27
or Purdue or anything. Like I just, I don't know,
23:30
different era. Give Beth gets a ton of credit
23:34
because I think she is. She proved it from day one,
23:37
before she even had the full time job, that she's not afraid
23:40
to to break a few eggs to make an omelette.
23:43
No doubt we got a lot more college basketball we're going
23:45
to get into. In fact, we're going to do that
23:47
next as we're going to be joined by Carrie Miller, a breakdown of
23:50
everything happening in college basketball.
23:51
Look at the locals. We'll talk Iowa and Iowa State
23:54
as well. That's coming up next.
23:56
Todd Brommelkamp hanging out with me here today.
23:58
It's Miller and Condon on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
24:11
Back with you out of Thursday, Trent Condon here, joined today
24:14
by Todd Brommelkamp. It's Miller and Condon on the
24:16
Iowa Sports Radio Network. We talked a lot of college
24:19
basketball there at the top of the show, talks of Iowa State
24:22
women and a little bit about the Iowa men.
24:24
Let's talk about the national scene and some of the other
24:27
things that are filtering around as we are joined by Carrie
24:29
Miller as he joins us here today on the program.
24:32
Carrie, it's been a while. Good to catch up with you once
24:35
again. And this has been, boy, an
24:37
incredibly fun college basketball season.
24:39
So many storylines and hearing more and more people talk about
24:43
on the national scene just how good this is.
24:45
And maybe we're getting a few more casuals into this college
24:48
basketball season. Yeah, I've heard that the
24:51
ratings are like, all time high, or at least in the last decade,
24:56
all, you know, high at, I don't know how much of it is just, you
24:59
know, NBA fans are checking out an absolutely ridiculously
25:02
stacked freshman class. How much of it is people are
25:06
interested in basketball again? But yeah, it's been wildly
25:09
entertaining. It feels like every single
25:11
marquee game delivers in a big way.
25:13
And, you know, we've got some distractions as far as the, you
25:18
know, Charles Bettyaco and people coming back to college
25:21
basketball. But the actual product is as fun
25:24
as it's been in quite a long time.
25:26
You know, I want to start with our neighbors over to the West.
25:28
No, not that far West, a little bit closer with Omaha and
25:32
Creighton last night. I mean, you talk about a
25:33
surprise performance and not just because there are a lot of
25:36
Blue Jay fans over there. We have a station over on the
25:38
West part of the state that also has our show.
25:41
So we got plenty of those Blue Jay fans, but also the
25:43
connection with the two former Hawkeyes that are over there.
25:46
Josh Dix after the passing of his mom, just absolutely gut
25:49
wrenching of what he's gone through.
25:51
And the family's gone through here as she's battled cancer now
25:54
for a number of years and finally passing away his
25:56
performance last night. And then you have the other
25:58
component, Owen Freeman, maybe one of the highest paid guys in
26:02
the portal, certainly out of the center position.
26:04
That guy was paid. He's not even playing for the
26:06
Blue Jays. And if he does get off the
26:07
bench, it's only for a couple of minutes.
26:09
Just what a crazy story. A disappointing season for the
26:11
Blue Jays. And they've not only beat UConn,
26:14
they do it on the road. Yeah, that was it felt like
26:18
Connecticut finally got caught playing with its food.
26:21
I don't know how much it is. You know, I think maybe
26:23
Creighton just had a a magical night.
26:26
But yeah, Connecticut is just. I mean, they've had several
26:30
overtime games, twice played Georgetown tooth and nail, close
26:36
games against Providence. Like these are teams that
26:40
historically speaking, you look at a team that's fourteen and
26:42
two in the Big East, you're like, wow, that's probably the
26:44
best team in the country. But I think they've gone from
26:47
6th down to 13th on Ken Palm by winning 14 or the last 16 games,
26:52
or might actually be like 20 or the last 22 because I know they
26:56
won last few non conference play as well.
26:58
But yeah, it's going to be interesting to see if UConn is
27:03
still the Force number one seed when that top 16 reveal comes
27:07
out on Saturday. I think there's still a very
27:09
solid case that they should be even after everybody watched
27:12
them, you know, take their worst loss of the season by far last
27:15
night. And we maybe got the game of the
27:17
year last night in all college basketball. 1/17 1:15 the final
27:22
as Bama holds off Arkansas high scoring games.
27:25
You mentioned Betty Yako a little bit earlier.
27:26
Of course, he's not part of it anymore.
27:28
Didn't matter. 49 from Darius Acuff.
27:31
What a performance. It's their game of the year for
27:33
you. Arkansas, Alabama last night.
27:37
I mean, it was up and down from the jump.
27:41
I mean, we thought it was going to be a game in the hundreds.
27:42
We didn't know it would take two overtimes to get up to the 100
27:45
and 10s. Looked like it was going to get
27:46
there in regulation. But yeah, that was wildly
27:49
entertaining. Arkansas was down to, I mean,
27:52
they may have been playing scout team guys towards the end there
27:55
because they they were already without Carter Knox to start the
27:58
game. Four guys fouled out.
27:59
I can't believe a cup went for the tie instead of at the end of
28:03
double overtime with as limited as they were at that point.
28:06
But yeah, that was that was something else.
28:08
And by getting that win, it probably will put Alabama in
28:12
that top 16 on Saturday. If they're not, I guess we'll
28:15
find out how the committee feels about those wins that happened
28:18
with Betty Oako on the roster. Carrie, this is my favorite time
28:22
of year watching college basketball because you've got
28:25
the the teams that are maybe in the middle of their conference,
28:28
some of them are poised to sort of to make that run or make that
28:31
move. Is there a team that's, you
28:33
know, maybe in that 6th or 7th spot in a league that you think
28:37
maybe this is the time where they they make their move?
28:43
I mean, I think you could argue that Wisconsin has already made
28:46
that move with some of the wins they've gotten lately.
28:49
I mean, I don't think anybody really in that that tier in the
28:52
ACC is going to make a run. I definitely don't see anyone in
28:55
the Big East making that run. I guess if if BYU finally starts
29:02
winning some marquee games, they can get back in the mix as a
29:05
legitimate, you know, Elite Eight Final 4 caliber team.
29:08
But they just lost Richie Saunders to a torn ACL.
29:11
So I don't see that happening. I don't know.
29:13
I feel like the really the top 12 teams in the country are
29:17
probably going to remain as such.
29:20
It feels like we've got about, you know, 10 legitimate title
29:23
contenders. It's hard to see any anybody
29:24
joining that conversation at this point.
29:26
Carrie, you had something interesting I thought earlier
29:29
today on Twitter and it's something when we talk a ton
29:32
about the resumes for Iowa State, you know, what's it going
29:34
to take for them to be a number one, where does Iowa sit
29:37
currently? And we've talked a lot about the
29:39
difference between the results based metrics and the other
29:42
metrics, the advanced metrics, the predictive ones that are out
29:44
there. You said though earlier today,
29:47
if you haven't already made WOB, Winds above bubble is what WOB
29:50
is your primary sorting metric for bracketology purposes.
29:54
No time like the present to start.
29:55
Fill us in on the details. It's something I've been
29:58
mentioning a little bit, but I know you're much better at this
30:00
than I can be. Tell us why the importance of
30:03
winds above bubble and when we come to the NCAA Tournament
30:06
selection committee, why that metric is being used so much
30:09
more. Yeah, so last year was the first
30:13
one with Wild officially on the team sheets and the top eight
30:17
overall seeds. They were all top 8 and Wob.
30:20
Of the top 25 teams in wins above bubble, Louisville was the
30:24
only one that didn't secure a top six seed.
30:27
A Venn diagram of the Top 40 teams in WOB and the of the all
30:32
the teams that were 10 feet or better, it's a single circle.
30:34
Like I think the committee proved last year that they're
30:37
going to lean pretty heavily on this metric.
30:40
I don't know how much I agree with that.
30:43
I have to go with it as a bracketologist.
30:45
But you know, I spent a lot of time last week on my podcast
30:51
really digging into like each team's wobbling and what it's
30:53
going to take for them to to win or to get into the tournament,
30:57
You know, looking at all the bubble teams and stuff.
30:59
And you know, the weird thing that kind of jumped out that I
31:02
always kind of knew but never actually, you know, dug into
31:05
numbers and looked at it is like if you look at a teams, you
31:08
know, upcoming wins above bubble, there's a Max, right?
31:12
Like Miami, Ohio can get a Max of I think something like .6
31:16
wins above bubble the rest of the way if they win these last
31:18
five. And it doesn't really matter
31:21
which games you win and lose as far as WAB is concerned, like a
31:24
19 and 11 team, if they, you know, beat their 11 toughest
31:28
opponents and lost to their eleven worst opponents, it's
31:31
still going to come out the same in the wash as if it went the
31:33
other way, which is kind of weird.
31:35
And I think this year, you know, the idea with Wob is if you have
31:40
a positive Wob, you should be in the field because you're better
31:42
than bubble teams. But this year, like no, nobody
31:45
in the bubble or only a couple of teams on the bubble have lost
31:48
really bad games. So you're seeing a lot of teams
31:52
right now that would be outside that have like a full win above
31:55
bubble. So I'll be curious to see how it
31:56
actually plays out in the end. But definitely leaning more on
32:00
this little metric more than ever before.
32:02
Well, mentioned the locals and before we run out of time, let's
32:05
talk about Iowa and Iowa State on what we're looking at for
32:08
both of those teams. Speaking of Wob and the NCAA,
32:11
they have Iowa State currently at 8th.
32:13
That would be the end of the number two line for the
32:16
Cyclones. I mean, is it as simple as maybe
32:19
one loss in the regular season down the stretch, potentially
32:22
that Arizona game and then winning the conference
32:24
tournament? Is that about the only path
32:26
knowing that other things could happen?
32:27
There can be a bunch of other losses for other teams, as we
32:30
saw last night with UConn against Creighton.
32:32
Is that, though, probably the path you're looking at for the
32:34
Cyclones? Win everything outside of the
32:36
Arizona game and once again go down to Kansas City and get
32:38
another Big 12 tournament championship.
32:41
I mean, I think they win the Big 12 tournament if they do what
32:44
you're saying there. So there would be 7 and one the
32:46
rest of the way. I don't know how they wouldn't
32:48
be A1 seat at that point. They would certainly have picked
32:51
up enough quality wins to pass Connecticut.
32:54
I mean, in theory they may leapfrog Arizona as well.
32:58
Even if they lose the game at Arizona, if they then turn
33:00
around and beat the Wildcats in the Big 12 championship, maybe
33:02
that flips that. Yeah, I think they would have
33:06
enough. They they might be the fourth
33:08
number one seed this weekend. I think it's a really tough call
33:11
between UConn, Iowa State and I think Houston's probably, I
33:16
mean, for me, they should be 6 overall.
33:19
The Cougars, I think they are only two and three against quad
33:22
one. AI think they haven't done quite
33:23
as much as the Cyclones or the Huskies.
33:25
But it's a tough call between Connecticut and Iowa State right
33:28
now. Carrie, if I made you choose
33:30
between Illinois and Purdue, whose train would you hit
33:34
yourself? Whose wagon would you hit
33:36
yourself to? Speed wise, I would go Illinois
33:41
and definitely, you know, if I had to pick one to make the
33:44
Final four, I'm going Illinois as well.
33:47
I think they've funny thing is Purdue can't win at home, which
33:51
is perfectly fine for the NCAA tournament.
33:53
If you're able to win away from home.
33:55
That's what we want to see. But I think Illinois has proven
33:57
it even more so than Purdue has. I mean, one at Purdue, one at
34:03
Nebraska, one at Iowa, they beat Tennessee on a neutral and now
34:07
that they have Thailand Boswell back.
34:09
I mean, like Keith Walker was amazing for those seven games
34:12
Boswell was out. But now it feels like they are
34:15
really that complete package. And you know, they're certainly
34:18
one of those ten teams I think could win it all.
34:20
I don't. I don't know that I'm buying
34:22
Purdue quite that much, although they were the preseason number
34:25
one team. And maybe Fletcher Lawyer will
34:27
start making some shots again. That would be nice for them.
34:30
Certainly need him and an ugly, ugly couple looks there against
34:34
Michigan. There was one point felt like
34:36
maybe they could get back into it and he missed badly and that
34:39
was that for that one. As the Wolverines flex their
34:41
muscle. Let's talk a little bit about
34:42
the Hawkeyes mentioned that resume.
34:44
Very big gap between the results and the resume that they have
34:48
when it's the predictive market wins above.
34:51
Talk about that number for the Hawkeyes.
34:53
Finally got that, not just a quad one victory.
34:55
They had a couple of those with the road wins against Indiana
34:58
and against Washington. But it was the quad 1A win,
35:01
right? Beating Nebraska, a really good
35:03
team that helped out a ton on Tuesday.
35:05
What do you think overall about the Hawkeyes resume in a very
35:08
difficult schedule down the stretch for them?
35:11
Yeah. I think right now they're on
35:12
that borderline between the the sixth seed and the seventh seed.
35:16
I think I have them as my last six at the moment, but they
35:20
really, really needed that win. If they had gone two and four
35:24
down the stretch, losing both games to Nebraska, losing at
35:27
Wisconsin and then losing to Michigan, I mean they would have
35:30
been I think O and nine against quad one AI mean UNC got in last
35:36
year 1 and 12 against quad 1. So maybe that would have been
35:38
perfectly fine, but they would have gotten at least a little
35:41
bubbly at this point. I think they're they're probably
35:43
a locked to dance. They feel like a very solid
35:46
single digit seed. And if they can, you know, pick
35:50
up a few more wins down the stretch, I mean, if they were
35:52
to, you know, upset Michigan, if they were to win at Nebraska,
35:55
man, they could they could skyrocket up to like a three
35:57
seed. That would be incredible and in
36:00
Ben Mccomb's first year to do something like that, it got the
36:02
Hawkeye fans smiling ear to ear and they definitely needed it
36:05
after the two game losing streak and the bounce back on Tuesday
36:08
night. Finally, I'm sure you're getting
36:09
this all the time, Carrie. Saint Louis finally takes the
36:12
loss after their long winning streak.
36:13
Miami of Ohio has not taken loss yet all season long.
36:17
What are the projections for both those teams?
36:18
I love that Saint Louis team. Obviously they they got, you
36:21
know, the bespeckled big man in the middle that we saw at
36:23
Indiana State and Shirts has done a nice job on what they do
36:26
just efficiency wise. They're kind of that new age
36:29
college basketball team. But when it comes to seating
36:31
processes and what you're doing and what you do with your
36:34
podcast, the unnamed Bracketology podcast, what are
36:37
you seeing for both of those squads?
36:39
Yeah, what's crazy for both of those teams if if neither Santa
36:44
Clara nor VCU is in the projected field right now,
36:48
neither of them has played a team in the projected field like
36:51
Miami, Ohio definitely hasn't. They played one home game
36:54
against Akron. That's their only win or their
36:56
only game against the top I think 130 team.
37:00
There's a reason everybody's like Pooh poohing their 26 and O
37:03
record, even though I think if they go 31 and O, there's
37:06
absolutely no chance in hell the committee's going to leave them
37:08
out even if they lose in the Mac tournament.
37:11
But Saint Louis, they were a sixth seed for me that dropped
37:15
them to right on the 8-9 cut line just because they don't
37:17
have those marquee wins. Like, it's weird for a team to
37:20
move to full seed lines at this point in the season.
37:24
But I think they've they've left themselves susceptible to that.
37:27
If they were to, you know, turn around and lose at home to VCU
37:30
on Friday, all of a sudden they could be somewhat on the bubble.
37:35
But I, I think I think they'll probably be OK.
37:39
I think if they go four and one down the stretch, they'll be
37:41
more than fine. Carrie Miller joining us as we
37:43
take a look at college basketball.
37:45
He's with Bleacher Report, and you can find his podcast as
37:47
well. Gary, as always, thank you for
37:49
your time. We'll try to track you down here
37:51
one more time before we get to the full madness.
37:54
Sounds good. Take care guys.
37:55
Carrie Miller on the program with us here today.
37:58
And how about that, Todd? He's got the Hawkeyes in his
38:01
latest bracket as a six seed. You tell Eddie Hawkeye fan right
38:04
now, six seed, the NCAA tournament, you got to take it.
38:07
Yes. No right now.
38:08
There can't be one person that says no to that.
38:10
I would literally punch someone in the face if they said no to
38:14
that. I mean, how crazy are your
38:16
expectations for this team? I came into this season not
38:21
expecting them to make the tournament.
38:23
I mean, they had one guy on the roster when Ben McCollum took
38:27
over. Now granted, he brought in a
38:28
heck of a lot of talent with him from Drake, but let's stop
38:32
acting like this was a foregone conclusion at the beginning of
38:35
the season. A six seed right now, hell yeah
38:40
you you, you take it and just you know, it's about what they
38:44
can do beyond this season in my opinion as to whether or not you
38:48
know things will work out long term.
38:50
But what, a six seed would just be absolutely crazy, you know,
38:55
going back to how things. Started.
38:57
That would be incredible and a realistic path into the second
39:01
weekend. And then we can stop all the
39:03
nonsense as we've talked about before.
39:05
Me watching a Sweet 16 game at One Eyed Jake's back in
39:09
1990890998 the 9890. Nine Are your Are your feet
39:15
still stuck to the floor? Well, I mean a little bit later
39:18
on had to go up to the dance floor.
39:19
You get down the steps OK, that's that was always really
39:22
key at the end of the night. It was easy to go up the steps.
39:25
It was difficult to go down the steps and.
39:27
Then you got to go up more steps to get to the dance floor.
39:30
Not very. Often I will.
39:31
You know what? I don't recall crossing paths
39:34
with a young TC on the dance floor out there.
39:36
But. I was moving well, I was
39:37
probably hiding behind everybody.
39:38
Most of my buddies are like 6-4 and so I'm a foot shorter than
39:41
everybody else so that definitely helped.
39:43
Out rest in peace to DJ Breakfast.
39:45
There you go. How about that call my guy
39:48
Casey, He was a DJ up there. Oh man, We're going back in time
39:51
to the late 90s in Iowa City. Yes, that is the last time Iowa
39:55
made a Sweet 16. Coming up on the other side,
39:58
Olympic hockey. I still haven't watched a
40:00
minute. We'll see if Todd can talk me
40:02
into it. Should I get excited about this
40:04
one? That's next.
40:05
It's Miller and Condon 1250.
40:18
Back with you. Put a cap on our #1 Miller and
40:20
Condon continues on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
40:23
Our number 2. We'll talk Big 12 and some big
40:25
injuries. JT Tappan lost for the year.
40:28
Saunders goes down for BYU. And the latest with Darren
40:32
Peterson and Kansas. That's coming up with Matt
40:34
Poston's from Heartland College Sports.
40:37
Todd Brommelkamp with me today. Todd, another sport that I tried
40:41
much more like we talked about earlier with NASCAR and I think
40:44
I was a bigger fan of hockey in the early 90s when there was
40:48
talk of the NBA is starting to slide back.
40:50
Of course, MJ, his retirement and I put that in quotes
40:53
retirement as he was possibly tinfoil hat forced away for
40:57
gambling. But that's a top for another
40:59
day. And I started to like hockey a
41:01
little bit. It also helped that I was
41:02
playing like NHL 93 on the Sega. That also maybe pushed and
41:07
started to know the players a little bit.
41:08
But I just never been a huge hockey guy outside of that that
41:11
small period of times. Olympic hockey's happening.
41:14
Connor who comes in afterwards, he absolutely loves it.
41:17
I just flipped it on for the first time because I realized
41:19
and their period in scoreless with the US and the Canadian
41:22
team for the gold medal. I don't know.
41:25
I know people love the Four Nations and that kind of thing.
41:27
Are you a hockey guy at all? Absolutely.
41:30
By the way, NHL 9494 was where it was at.
41:34
Jeremy Roenick, shout out to #27 on the old Sega.
41:39
Hockey's one of those sports, you know that.
41:41
I think if people give it a chance, you got to attend in
41:46
person, in person. And I think it's pretty easy to
41:49
fall in love with it. It's a it's a great sport to
41:52
watch. And yeah, we got the US and
41:54
Canadian women going at it right now and the men are getting
41:58
ready to take on Slovakia I think in the next it it's just,
42:02
yeah, it's a great sport and and it's kind of like a, an All Star
42:08
world, All Star classics. So you know, you mentioned the
42:10
Four Nations and you know, they they were missing a couple key
42:15
players. Team USA was during the Four
42:18
Nations, so and because I am filling in for Ken Miller, yes,
42:22
we've got to give a shout out to Connor Hell about the goaltender
42:25
for the Winnipeg Jets, who's been doing an outstanding job
42:28
for Team USA. And it would be absolutely
42:31
incredible. So Ken, when we get to when we
42:33
get to the spring and things start to slow down to the local
42:36
front, we spread our wings a little bit more and we'll talk
42:38
some hockey during the playoffs and talk about the NBAA little
42:41
bit. Basically playoffs only as you
42:43
know, our markets here in Iowa, not exactly once you talk about
42:46
a whole lot from basically August until April, but that
42:49
starts to get this way in. Hellebuck has annoyed him so
42:52
much because he's so talented, he's so good.
42:54
What, 22? What is it?
42:56
What? The trophy for the goaltender
42:58
bonanza, that trophy, Yes, yes, yeah, that thing.
43:01
And yet when it comes to the playoffs, he stinks.
43:03
And if his then his favorite team out of everything is the
43:07
Canadian National hockey team. And if he goes out there and
43:10
beats the Canadians in the gold medal match, that is the one
43:15
that I'm actually, I would absolutely be tuned in for the
43:18
full time for that one if that plays out, just to see the
43:20
reaction from Ken. Yeah, I, you know the there's so
43:24
much to like about the Winter Olympics, but the hockey,
43:26
especially with the men and the Canada and US possibility of
43:30
facing off there is it's going to be must see TV even for you,
43:34
TC. Yes, I'll get there and I got it
43:36
on now in the studio. I I got US Canada on no score as
43:40
they go into the second in that one.
43:42
So I'll keep my eyes on that. We'll be watching Nate Heisey
43:45
sister, the more talented of the family members, right?
43:47
It's one thing to be a really good college basketball player.
43:50
It's another thing to be an Olympian.
43:51
So she gets to take the cake on that one.
43:53
Hopefully she puts a goal out there and the US get a victory.
43:57
I watch some curling, but I'm also not somebody curling just
43:59
on. If it's it's on for me, I'm not
44:02
somebody that I have to watch because this is the next thing.
44:05
If it happens to be on when the TV's on, it's background noise
44:08
and then I start to get sucked in.
44:09
But I'm not, I don't know are are they in the middle round yet
44:12
for curling? I I couldn't tell you now, the
44:15
biathlon's mine. I was watching that the other
44:18
day. I got skiing and shooting and
44:21
they had a dog that ran out of the course and one of the skiing
44:24
events like this, Yeah, signed me up for all the goofy stuff
44:27
going on. Hey, what other question for
44:29
you? We talked to Carrie James in a
44:31
moment ago, Carrie Miller, who joined us and talked about the
44:35
Creighton game. The Owen Freeman thing is so
44:38
crazy. And we look back at the way his
44:40
Iowa season ended a year ago with a hand injury, a lot of
44:44
time to recover and he never came back.
44:47
Boy, there just is something incredibly off.
44:49
He's a talented guy. He should not be getting off the
44:52
bench for this Creighton squad. No.
44:54
And I, I, you know, I hate to question where somebody is
44:58
mentally, but sometimes, you know, you take a demotion or
45:01
something and you just can't quite get over the hump.
45:04
And I'm wondering if maybe he's just not wired to to be coming
45:08
off the bench. And maybe that's part of his
45:10
struggles, but he's too talented to to look the way that he has
45:15
right now. Todd Bromlichamp, Trent Connon
45:17
with you here, taking you up until 2:00.
45:19
One hour in the books, one more to go.
45:21
Talking Big 12. We kick off hour number two
45:24
Hawkeye football program looking for a new head, a new coach and
45:28
not the head coach, a running back coach.
45:30
That's next.