Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / Alec Busse talks Cyclones, Bill Bender on College Football & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports

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Alec Busse talks Cyclones, Bill Bender on College Football & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports · The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon

0:00
Melody Condon, welcome back. Hour number two, it's the Iowa
0:02
Sports Radio Network. We are here until just before
0:06
2:00. Coming up, Bill Benner covers
0:08
college sports for the Sporting News etcetera.
0:11
Wears other hats over there, but we'll pick his brain on variety
0:14
of topics. Coming up at the bottom of the
0:16
hour, Trent will make his plays of the day circus sports out in
0:19
Las Vegas or here in the state of Iowa.
0:21
If you're listening in Illinois, you can download the app here in
0:24
Iowa. And likewise in Illinois, Circus
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Sports Daily sponsors Trent's Plays of the Day day.
0:30
Let's get to Alec Bussey. Boy, I know you were moving,
0:33
unpacking and packing boxes, but boy, oh boy, you really put up.
0:38
Put out a ton of content today at cycleandalert.com.
0:42
Well done. Alec Bussey, how are you?
0:45
Good. Thanks guys for having me on.
0:46
Yeah, it's amazing what you can do with pre scheduled articles,
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wrote those Sunday nights. That wouldn't help too much here
0:52
last night. So I was able to schedule some
0:54
stuff and thankfully I was able to do that.
0:56
So I was, I was still around, but I wasn't necessarily around
0:58
too much. Gotcha.
0:59
So we must have Internet in a new place then, right?
1:01
Already you got that box. Check.
1:03
Yeah, we got. Yeah, we do.
1:05
I'm really happy with the current provider.
1:07
I'm not going to shout him out because I don't want to get in
1:09
trouble with your guys airwaves. But yeah, they've given us some
1:12
good, some good business already.
1:13
Good stuff. Well, let's get into let's start
1:15
with basketball and maybe one of the notes that caught me off
1:19
guard as much as anything was I was stating Purdue or playing a
1:22
non conference game this championship Saturday in college
1:26
football. And I don't know where you're
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going to be. What covering the football team
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in their championship game should they get there?
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They did last year. But all kidding aside, Purdue,
1:35
Iowa State, that's a pretty big match up for a non conference
1:39
game in early December. Alec Bussey, I did not know
1:41
about it. Maybe I missed it, but I'm glad
1:43
it's part of the schedule. Yeah, I think you just happen to
1:46
miss it or maybe you forgot about it a little bit there.
1:48
Ken. It was announced a few months
1:50
back that they would be playing in a non conference game.
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It's actually a home at home series.
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So I would say it was going to Matt, the arena one of the
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loudest places in college basketball here this fall.
2:00
And then next year Iowa State will host Purdue at Hilton
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Coliseum. TJ Alstenberger and Matt Painter
2:06
have a really good relationship. I believe it's kind of started
2:09
at USA Basketball is where their relationship began.
2:13
So that's absolutely a cool dynamic and a really fun game
2:15
for the 2 fan bases to get excited about over the next two
2:18
years. I will say the dynamic of the
2:21
game being on, you know, college football championship Saturday.
2:25
To me, just the latest example of college basketball leaders
2:30
and decision makers frankly having no idea how to schedule
2:33
the sport effectively, especially in the first two
2:36
months or so of the season. For whatever reason, they decide
2:40
to compete against themselves a lot more than competing against
2:43
the NFL or competing against nobody during the middle of the
2:46
week. It really makes no sense to me.
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I think it makes more sense if college basketball and college
2:51
football kind of work together and allow their teams to play
2:58
exclusively on each day of the week.
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If that kind of makes sense. Because I think if if Iowa State
3:03
is in the Big 12 championship game, Purdue, even the Big 10
3:06
title game, much more of a long shot because the bowling makers
3:09
aren't expected to be very good this fall on the football field.
3:12
But if I was stated it's in, you know, Dallas for a second
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straight year, Arlington, I should say for a second straight
3:18
year. It's going to be really hard for
3:19
Cyclone fans to be able to enjoy both of their teams.
3:22
Now, thankfully, this is a home at home and not a neutral site
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and say Chicago to be kind of like a decent middle point
3:28
between the two schools. You know, fans would be picked,
3:32
forced to pick which one they want to go to.
3:33
And I don't think that's fair for the fans.
3:36
I just think it's dumb. Like no one's going to watch
3:37
this game because everyone's to be invested in the Big 12 game
3:41
in the early window, the SEC and the ACC games and then obviously
3:44
that Big 10 game late at night on on Championship Saturday.
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So frankly, just dumb scheduling time, but obviously very excited
3:51
for the game and hopefully I'll be back to Mackey Arena because
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it's one of my favorites. We know obviously they'll be the
3:56
non conference game against Iowa and they're going to be playing
3:59
in the Players Era tournament as we saw a year ago, Oregon won
4:03
that tournament, helped propel them to the NCAA tournament a
4:06
season ago. We know some of the teams
4:08
involved and the dates will be there around Thanksgiving time.
4:11
Did you ever hear from any of your colleagues at 24/7 or just
4:14
offhand how much money was actually given out to the
4:18
players for that tournament a year ago and what maybe the
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anticipation is for this season? Yeah, I never asked directly how
4:25
much money was going to some of those teams.
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I want to say I heard at one point that the winning team got
4:31
like $1,000,000, but I don't know if that's for certain.
4:35
I have heard that one area that they were able to kind of fund
4:40
some of the NIL space for this event.
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It's in private equity. So I think that that's kind of
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interesting and obviously it's a loaded field and it's going to
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continue to grow here over the next couple of years.
4:51
The people running the players are event have aspirations of
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kind of making it an early season tournament around this
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week and then kind of playing it off of March Madness.
5:02
So we all kind of think of college basketball starting with
5:04
Champions Classic, which features, you know, Duke,
5:07
Kentucky, Michigan State and Kansas.
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But I think the goal is the people running players era is to
5:12
kind of make us think college basketball starts with players
5:15
era in Vegas every year, 32 team tournament whirl that down to a
5:20
championship make us kind of think, hey, here's the start of
5:22
college basketball at the tournament in the end of college
5:24
basketball with the tournament and what we know is March
5:27
badness. But yeah, it's a loading field
5:28
next year. Trent, you got Bama, Auburn, you
5:31
know, Baylor has to replace this entire team, but that's a
5:34
successful program. Houston's going to be down
5:36
there. Kansas has lots every place, but
5:38
they bring in the number one player in the country and Darren
5:40
Peterson. Michigan should be a top five,
5:42
ten team in the country. St.
5:44
John's should be in that same kind of group, top five team.
5:47
And Tennessee is also down there as well.
5:49
So it should be a loaded group. But I didn't even mention
5:51
Creighton or Contaga. So it's going to be a really
5:53
good group. And Houston down there,
5:54
potentially preseason #1 so it's going to be a lot of fun.
5:58
Imagine giving up Hawaii for an opportunity to play in this,
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because that's what we're seeing.
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I mean, these other tournaments, they're going to have to adapt,
6:05
Alex, or they're going to be left behind because because it's
6:08
all about the Benchmans, right? And and NIL, I think is going to
6:12
trump all, including Hawaii, which is crazy.
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Yeah, I think you are going to start seeing events like the
6:18
Maui Invitational. If you guys, I don't know the
6:20
Maui Invitational off the top of.
6:22
I I have it here. Alec.
6:24
Alec. Can you tell me some of the
6:25
teams because I know it's not very good.
6:27
It's not So you got Texas. This is one of the years for
6:29
now, yes, that Shaman odds in it, but here are the other teams
6:33
after Texas, USC, Washington State, Seton Hall, NC State,
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Boise and Arizona State. That is yuck for the field that
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we've seen the last 1520 years of Maui.
6:46
That's bad. Thinking about what you saw this
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last year. Yeah, it is.
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And I mean, you know, Texas should be like a borderline top
6:53
25 ish team. Sean Miller's done a fairly good
6:55
job, I believe, of assembling a roster down in Austin.
6:58
Eric Musselman's done a good job at USC.
7:00
Gideon, Rodney Rice, Tedrick Rizzara, Gilbert Arenas is done.
7:04
Obviously he was involved in a previous car accident a few
7:07
weeks ago, but it sounds like he's kind of trending
7:10
positively. He's a five star recruit.
7:12
USC might be pretty good as well.
7:15
But yeah, I mean, that field obviously lacks a lot of the
7:17
juice that we've seen in previous now imitationals.
7:20
And I mean, even the battle for Atlantis has kind of served as
7:23
like another really good MTE and peace week in its field isn't as
7:26
good as it has been in the past. So yeah, it is kind of like
7:31
players are taking control of it.
7:32
And I know that, you know, previously, guys, I covered
7:35
Illinois and I remember Brad Underwood staying at one point
7:37
in my last year covering them. His feelings on Mt ES was
7:40
changing because so much of determining their entity
7:46
tournament resume is your schedule, who you play, where
7:48
you play them and obviously how you played them in that game.
7:52
When you play in MC ES, you don't necessarily have the
7:55
greatest influence over who it is that you're playing and how
7:59
good they are. But if you're looking at the
8:01
field of players era, there's a lot of really good teams and
8:04
really good programs in there that you should feel pretty
8:06
confident in in having an ability to play into into have
8:10
that boost your resume. So I think that's kind of the
8:14
the way that players era has gone and not to take a stray at
8:17
Colorado, but like I would say play Colorado O'Malley last year
8:20
and beat them by 25 or 30 points or whatever it was.
8:22
And Colorado ended up not being very good.
8:24
Like that hurt Iowa State's resume more than it probably
8:27
helped the Iowa state's resume at the beginning of the year.
8:30
Now, I guess you could argue they beat them by so much that
8:31
that was quite good for their metrics.
8:32
But you get you get the argument that I'm kind of saying I just
8:35
want to be able to control the schedules that they play where
8:37
they play them. And obviously you know that
8:40
helps your resume well. Since you opened up an Illinois
8:42
door, let me just walk through it and we'll get back to Iowa
8:45
State in just a second. What do you like what Underwood
8:48
has done the the construction of his roster with all of those
8:51
EUR? I guess I'm, I'm kind of picking
8:53
your brain from a betting perspective because the radiator
8:55
won, but I kind of do. Alec, what about you can, can
9:01
that roster win the way it's currently constructed?
9:04
Yeah, I I like it. I think it's a lot of fun.
9:08
I think it's a really old roster.
9:10
I don't think that they're going to play anybody on the team next
9:13
year who either has not played professionally at some point in
9:17
in their life or at least two years of college basketball.
9:19
So that's obviously really good. They're going to be old.
9:21
They're actually going to be skilled.
9:22
They have really good positional size, which I think is good.
9:26
And obviously some concerns that I have about them.
9:29
You know, athletically, I think that they're going to be a
9:31
little bit limited, which I think is going to hurt them on
9:33
the defensive side. But they should play really good
9:36
offense. Like they're they've got a lot
9:37
of really good cutters, ball movers, some potential shot
9:40
makers. I don't think that they're going
9:42
to shoot as many threes as they did this past season.
9:44
So their Valium from three probably won't be as high, but I
9:48
think that they can shoot a better percentage with more
9:50
capable shooters across the floor.
9:53
But a lot of people thought this past Illinois team was going to
9:55
shoot it really well. I think, you know, certainly if
9:58
you're I don't want to solicit gambling advice to someone who
10:01
doesn't really gamble, but if you're looking for like a big 10
10:03
basketball, like preseason, you know, bet champion type thing,
10:08
Purdue has to be who you bet. Like they're a preseason top two
10:11
or three team. They're going to have two all
10:13
Americans and Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman Wren.
10:16
They bring in Oscar Klaus by name that we've obviously talked
10:18
about on air here over the last month to to play the five next
10:22
to Kaufman Wren. And then obviously Fletcher
10:24
lawyers can be a really good player for them too on the on
10:26
the on the wing and chop maker. But I do think Illinois can be
10:29
good. You know, Illinois has been the
10:32
second best program in the Big 10 really since COVID.
10:34
They've won the second most games, I think in the Big 10
10:37
since COVID started, along with Purdue there.
10:39
Matt Painter. We know how good the
10:40
Boilermakers have been. So I would bet on them to win a
10:42
lot of games. I don't know if I've bet on them
10:43
to win the Big 10. Got you makes a lot of sense Hey
10:47
over to football with you Alec Bussey joining us from Cyclone
10:50
alert great article going through the position groups and
10:54
kind of breaking down position by position, the strengths of
10:57
the team. Now, I don't know, maybe it's
10:59
just the way that I'm wired. Of course, I went down to the
11:01
bottom right away. Who's he got #10 on these
11:03
position groups and it's that defensive line which on the
11:06
surface surprised me and I'm sure surprised a lot of cyclone
11:09
fans because he start with Dom Orange.
11:11
But but. Then.
11:12
Yeah, We talked about this a lot, Alec and I, and I think
11:14
it's very fair when you look at that defensive line, they got a
11:17
guy have guys that step up on the inside and got to find guys
11:20
that can get to the quarterback. They do, yeah.
11:24
I think that that defensive line group could rise quite a bit
11:28
this fall. They bring in just so many
11:30
transfers. I ranked them at that spot
11:31
behind the offensive line, which is number 9, I think largely
11:35
because the defensive line just has more question marks to it,
11:38
to me than the offensive line does.
11:40
You bring in Tomatola McDonough. That was my favorite defensive
11:43
line transfer that they did. They landed this test offseason.
11:47
He had I think 6 1/2 backs at Yale last year.
11:49
He'll get to Iowa, 5th campus here in May or June.
11:52
Von Trey Malone, he comes in from Tulsa.
11:53
He'll also play on the edge. He had a really good spring.
11:57
From everything that I've heard, Matt Campbell is really
11:59
complimentary of him here this spring.
12:02
And then I also, they brought in Cannon Butler, a transfer from
12:04
Northern Iowa who also play defensive end.
12:07
They just lose 3 of their top 4 defensive lineman from a year
12:09
ago. It's Tyler.
12:10
And yet, and I'm transferring it to A&M and CJR, Singleton and
12:14
Joey Peterson, you know they're out of eligibility.
12:17
So you lose those three guys. Don Warrens, in my opinion, was
12:20
like the biggest or second biggest transfer portal, roster
12:24
movement, acquisition, retention, whatever phrasing you
12:27
want to use there. Right up there with Rocco Beck
12:29
for next year's team. So I think that that group can
12:33
rise quite a bit if they hit on these transfer editions.
12:36
Other that's Malone, McDonough, the JUCO edition, Markel,
12:39
Chapman, who will help provide depth on the interior that could
12:42
move that group all the way up to the top five or six or
12:44
whatever it is. It's just hard for me to be
12:47
like, OK, this is a top five group when I haven't seen a lot
12:51
of these guys play significant snaps and Iowa State uniforms.
12:55
Just goes to show you back to basketball for just a second,
12:57
how difficult it is to to find yourself your name called in the
13:01
NBA draft or find a spot on a bench or or or playing time in
13:05
the NBA. I was, I guess it was, it was
13:09
good to see Curtis Jones and both Keyshawn Gilbert.
13:12
And I thought Jones had a chance to get the big combine invite.
13:15
He didn't. But the G League combine, both
13:18
of those players are going to represent Iowa State, represent
13:21
themselves now since they're about to be pros.
13:24
But my question is the G League combine, how difficult it is?
13:28
Is it to get from there to that next step?
13:31
Do you have any idea, Alec? Yeah, if they perform really
13:35
well at the G League combine, they test well.
13:39
I don't know if they do interviews there.
13:40
I'm sure they do test well, do interviews there, scrimmage
13:44
well. If they play really well there,
13:46
there's an opportunity that they can then earn an invite to the
13:48
NBA Combine, which I believe is the week after the G League
13:52
Elite Camp, which I think is what they actually call it.
13:55
So if they play well, that can really help them and improve
13:58
their stock. I will say Curtis Jones is a top
14:01
100 player on Jonathan Gaboni's current big board and he is the
14:05
most plugged in, accurate NBA draft analyst.
14:09
You were sure ESPN started Draft Express?
14:11
He does awesome work. People often ask me over the
14:14
last year who I thought the best NBA prospect on IO States roster
14:17
was, and I often said Keyshawn Gilbert because of his
14:20
athleticism, ability to get to the rim.
14:23
I do think that I maybe would change my answer now to Curtis,
14:27
and not just because of what Gavoni has written and published
14:31
about him, but I think Curtis's shot making ability can
14:33
translate. I also think that Deshawn's
14:37
negative assistant turnover ratio, excuse me, at times this
14:39
year could really hurt him in the eyes of NBA evaluators.
14:44
And also, he just hasn't ever really proven to be a lethal
14:47
shot maker on the perimeter. And it's not like he has the
14:50
elite size that so many teams are looking for in league guards
14:54
or elite ball handlers now. So I do think that there's a
14:57
path for those guys to continue to impress NBA organizations.
15:01
I think it'll hurt them that they're both old, especially in
15:03
Curtis's case, being a fifth year guy coming coming into the
15:06
NBA draft here. Teams want to have young,
15:10
controllable assets that can help them in the immediate but
15:13
also in the long term. That's what we kind of saw the
15:15
Thunder build their rosters, how we're kind of seeing the Spurs
15:19
build up theirs. Obviously when you have an alien
15:21
and by Yama, but there is a path for them to rise in the eyes of
15:27
NBA evaluators. Anything we should know we're
15:30
getting ready for camp season. Obviously a school winds down
15:34
will be looking a much harder at that class of 2026.
15:37
I know around here Jacobson, the big tight end for Waukee, that's
15:40
been an apple of well, not just people in states eye, but
15:43
everybody's eye. Any names we should be watching
15:45
here during the springtime for football recruiting?
15:49
Yeah, I think that there's a lot of really good things going on
15:51
for Iowa State in the 2026 class.
15:53
They've got a top 15 class in the country right now.
15:55
A lot of that is boosted, of course, by quantity with their
15:58
13 commitment, but there are some big names still out there.
16:01
You mentioned Evan Jacobson. He has not scheduled an official
16:04
visit to Iowa State. I know Auburn is a school that's
16:06
really interested in him. A few other SEC schools are also
16:09
really interested in Jacobson. But I would say 10 ends.
16:12
Coach Taylor Mauser went and visited Jacobson late last week
16:15
at high school, goes to Waukee. And maybe the biggest headline
16:19
of that Iowa State is still after and still in a fairly
16:22
decent position for is Ian Primer.
16:24
So I'm from Great Bend, KS. I don't know exactly where
16:27
that's at. I believe it's out in the
16:28
western part of the state. He is somebody who is a top 30,
16:32
top 50 type of prospect in the country.
16:35
He has the top five or planned official visit list that
16:38
includes Notre Dame, Iowa State, Kansas State and KUI.
16:42
Don't remember who the 5th school is in that dynamic, maybe
16:45
Michigan, but he would be a major addition for I would say
16:49
he camped at I would say a year ago.
16:51
Really impressed Matt Campbell with his athleticism, a fluid
16:53
mover. He's really quick.
16:55
You'll have to add strength to be more of an inline blocking
16:59
type with tight end. Thinking of him more as like a
17:01
pass catcher as Jacobson would be more of your physical
17:04
blocking type of tight end because Jacobson doesn't get a
17:07
ton of opportunity and locked. He at least what I have seen
17:09
live of him in game to be a massive pass catching force for
17:13
the Warrior offense. Good stuff, Alec Bussey, a ton
17:16
of content produced today at cyclonealert.com.
17:20
What else you got coming up this week, my friend?
17:23
Yeah, we are actually updating our 2025 class rankings for
17:27
basketball. So make sure to check that out.
17:29
Those will become public I believe tomorrow at noon or
17:31
11:00 AM Central Time. So obviously I would say fans
17:34
who want to check out where Jamarian Bait, May, Killian
17:36
Torre, and then obviously we're Davia Mitchell ranked and I was
17:39
in 24/7 final rankings. That'll be a final 150.
17:43
So make sure to check that out and we'll have content
17:45
throughout the week. Looking ahead to the 2026
17:48
recruiting calendar with official visits coming up here
17:50
in May. Good stuff.
17:51
We'll speak with you on Monday if your schedule allows.
17:54
Thank you, Alec. Thanks guys, looking forward to
17:56
it. Have a great day.
17:57
Yeah, you're the same Alec Bussey 24/7 Sports
17:59
cyclonealert.com ton of content. I love his weekly column.
18:04
He stacks a lot of paragraphs on top of each other.
18:07
He really does a good job over there.
18:09
You know, we were talking about the the non conference schedule
18:12
and the different tournaments coming up Thanksgiving time and
18:15
throughout he mentioned the oh, what was it?
18:18
The the big one, the Bahamas one, right.
18:21
And what that used to be And just going through, we mentioned
18:24
Maui and what that's going to look like, the battle for
18:26
Atlantis. Here's what we got Colorado
18:28
State, Saint Mary's, South Florida, Vanderbilt, VCU,
18:34
Vitech, Western Kentucky and Wichita.
18:36
Wow. And that thing had.
18:38
How the might have you fallen? Louisville and Duke Kentucky and
18:42
and a who's who well a trip like that or a trip stateside couple
18:48
hour flame plane ride out to Vegas but.
18:50
They got that carrot in Vegas. That cash and the biggest thing,
18:55
yeah, your players get paid, right, that's.
18:57
What I mean for these? One year vagabonds For these one
19:01
year rental players that are coming in, you got a choice
19:04
between two programs. One's taking a trip to Hawaii,
19:07
sounds great. The other one you can go make
19:10
$150,000 if you win this event. What are you choosing?
19:14
Yeah, a kid, of course. And let's be honest, I mean,
19:18
it's not like just in your Fargo, right?
19:20
Right. Not the great I'll ask a shoot
19:23
out anymore. Right, and that was a big
19:25
tournament. Schefsky loved that tournament
19:28
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Bender next trends plays of the day still to come Miller and
20:00
Condon on the Iowa Sports Radio Network Miller Condon welcome
20:04
back 1:30 on a Tuesday trends plays of the day Circus sports
20:08
sponsor those. Those are coming up here in
20:11
about, oh, 15 minutes or thereabouts.
20:13
At the top of the hour. We'll turn things over to the
20:15
drive, Heather and Lucas from 2:00 until 5.
20:19
Bill Bender covers well, sports, college sports, college
20:22
football, depending on the season for the Sporting News,
20:25
sportingnews.com and Bill joins us.
20:28
Bill Trenton. Ken, thanks for coming on.
20:29
Appreciate it as always. I guess we'll want to start with
20:33
Bill. When it comes to college
20:34
football, just at this point, I don't speak for everybody, but
20:39
I'm trying to find that under the radar team, maybe a team
20:43
that you know, didn't qualify for their championship game last
20:46
year that for whatever reason, maybe it was an injury that that
20:50
some of us have forgotten about that that's appearing on your
20:53
radar. Who would that team be, Bill or
20:57
Teams Up? You know, I'm doing the the Big
21:00
12 quarterback rankings as we speak that we're going.
21:03
To put out, yeah. I mean your neighborhoods
21:06
interesting because you kind of forget that Rocco Beck's a
21:10
three-year starter and you know, Matt tends to do well with that
21:14
experience at quarterback. That conference is wide open in
21:18
a lot of ways. It always is.
21:20
A lot of returning starters, a lot of you know, second year
21:24
starters in that that league too with Avery Johnson, for example,
21:28
at Kansas State. But I'd say, I would say it's
21:29
interesting to me because they're on that fringe where you
21:32
see them anywhere from 18 to 1, right post spring top 20 fives
21:37
and that that that would fit your description, I would say.
21:41
Speaking of going through those quarterback lists and as you
21:43
look at the returning quarterbacks, just thinking back
21:46
to what it once was and what it is today, figuring out where
21:49
these guys were. Oh, I remember him.
21:51
I remember him from two different stops now and now
21:54
ended up their career at another place.
21:55
When you're kind of going through and figuring out these
21:58
quarterbacks and how it settles, do we overrate the quarterback
22:01
position or is it still something when you're setting up
22:04
how you're going to predict things, how things are going to
22:06
play out, that almost everything starts at the quarterback spot
22:09
in college football. Well, I laughed.
22:12
I probably shouldn't say this on the air, but I was looking at my
22:15
Big 12 quarterback rankings from last year and I had Arizona
22:18
State 16 and a big blurb about how Sam Levitt wasn't
22:22
experienced and it's going to be rocky and they won 13 games.
22:27
So, you know, we we won't talk about that.
22:30
But that's it's a huge part, a huge piece to me that you have
22:33
to have the right quarterback in place.
22:35
A lot of dual threat quarterbacks in the college
22:38
game. When you see that combination
22:39
of, you know, efficiency, touchdowns, not a lot of picks
22:42
and some rushing yards to go on top of it, those guys tend to do
22:47
well. And I mean, if you look at the
22:48
Heisman winners over the last 10 years, Cam Ward ran a little
22:51
bit, but you know, guys like Jayden Daniels and even Baker
22:55
Mayfield, they ran a lot. They they did let's go to the
22:59
your Big 10 rankings were published earlier and and Drew
23:03
Aller, who I think is going to be you know, it's him or Arch
23:06
right Seemingly are the two apples of everybody's NFL
23:09
quarterback needy teams. I at least at this point, Aller
23:13
tops your list when it comes to the Big 10.
23:15
When you look at him, do you see an NFL starting quarterback in
23:20
waiting? This is a big year for him.
23:24
He's polarizing. There's no doubt he's he's
23:27
polarizing at Sporting News depending on who you ask.
23:30
You know, the the arm talent is there doesn't throw a lot of
23:34
interception. Good leader has won a lot of
23:38
football games. But, and I think you know what
23:41
I'm going to say next, in the big games, there's been
23:44
shrugged, you know, rather it was Oregon, Ohio State, the
23:47
playoff games last year. Those five games he had a
23:50
completion percentage of less than 60%.
23:53
So I think he has to answer some questions this year, especially
23:56
with, but here's the other question, how much of that is
23:59
because Penn State doesn't have a strong receiver room.
24:03
So he is definitely the most polarizing of those top five
24:07
guys and we haven't really got into arch yet.
24:09
I just don't think we've seen enough of Arch yet.
24:13
Speaking of guys that maybe it's just the times that I watched
24:16
LSU, the Garrett Nussmeyer thing.
24:19
What am I missing? Oh, what?
24:21
What is it about this guy? I know he's got a strong arm,
24:23
Okay, We've seen plenty of those guys.
24:25
What is it that people think he's going to be a first round
24:27
pick, He's going to lead LSU back to the playoff because I
24:31
certainly have it. So what am I missing on
24:32
Nussmeyer? Our NFL guy likes him a lot then
24:35
he does. I'm more on the fence like you
24:39
because I do see the arm. I do see the guy that waited
24:42
this turn had a really strong close to last season that you
24:46
know, he averaged over 305 passing yards in their last
24:49
three games. But the picks, the
24:53
interceptions, the decision making, he is a, we used to call
24:57
Mike, Brett Favre light. That's what I would call him.
25:01
Not bad. I mean, yeah, it's of high
25:04
praise in some respects, no doubt about it.
25:07
When it comes, I want to go back to the Big 10 for just a second
25:09
because I thought that there was going to be a time last year
25:14
that I thought Will Howard was going to get benched because I
25:16
was never on the Will Howard bandwagon, right?
25:19
And I kept keep waiting for this kid who transferred in from
25:22
Alabama saying Julian saying, because I've heard so much and
25:26
read so much good articles, so many good articles about him.
25:31
Is he, he's going to be the guy for Ohio State this year.
25:34
Is he going to be asked to, you know, to repeat?
25:39
What about saying, is he ready? Yeah, he looked good in the
25:43
spring game. And keep in mind, whoever starts
25:46
for Ohio State gets the throw to Carnell Pate and Jeremiah Smith.
25:50
That's a good start. That's not bad.
25:52
I mean, you know, you get to do that.
25:53
You get to settle in that way. Now, the pressure point of
25:57
you're starting out against Texas.
25:59
And to your point about Will Howard, I mean, he had doubters
26:02
all the way up to the title game.
26:04
There were still, you know, is he going to make up for that
26:07
Michigan game, things like that. That was still going on in
26:11
January. But he did close with a
26:13
fantastic finish to his Ohio State career.
26:16
And you know, Lincoln, King Holtz, we'll see if he'll make
26:19
this a battle in Paul camp. But I think saying the guy
26:22
little bit different style, little bit size, not not a big
26:26
guy like Will Howard was so and California guy different kind
26:30
of, you know, voice in that quarterback room.
26:33
So he'll have a lot to prove. Try more.
26:36
Let's go to the other side of that rivalry.
26:37
Looks like A2 game suspension for him.
26:41
What we're about a month away from when we're going to get the
26:45
the case, the infraction case that's going to be happening
26:47
there. Take us in kind of to this story
26:48
and and what for us on the outside?
26:50
What should we know? Is this important?
26:52
Does this matter? Yeah, it does.
26:55
It does matter not to have your coach on the sideline.
26:57
And we're like it. It was just because time travels
27:01
like this. But it's just like forever ago
27:03
that Harbaugh was serving these suspensions and now this is
27:06
dragging into a third season and it's still hanging over the
27:10
program. I'm sure they would like some
27:12
resolution. That probably means there is
27:15
some fire where the smoke was with the text messages with
27:19
Connor Stallions that were deleted.
27:21
I think it's a little bizarre that they pick the games that
27:26
he's funded for. Absolutely, yeah.
27:28
What's that like? We need him for that Oklahoma
27:31
game. But we don't have Nebraska.
27:33
But we don't need him for Nebraska.
27:35
I'm sure Matt Rowe will put that on a bulletin board somewhere.
27:38
Yeah, no, the did you see the Netflix the neck Netflix piece
27:42
on Connor Stallions? I did.
27:46
And you know, I, I mean a little bit of a different, not a
27:50
different opinion. My opinion of the whole mess is
27:52
this that do I think it's overblown a little bit?
27:55
Yes. But it's only because he went
27:57
too far. It's only because he the extent
28:01
of which he did it now his sign stealing signal or his system,
28:07
so to speak. I found that fascinating.
28:09
I did too because I was like, if you could do that, why not?
28:14
But the way in which you obtain that material a little too far
28:19
within the the the realm of the sport.
28:22
And I'm also if it got us helmet communication and pushed the
28:26
sport into the 21st century. Good point.
28:28
It actually made made the game better.
28:30
Yeah, excellent point. Yeah, I kind of changed my
28:33
opinion after I watched that and it's kind of A1 sided watch on
28:36
there. Watch them fly to Vegas.
28:38
It's a pretty good watch if you get an opportunity, Trent.
28:41
Brett Yourmark has a contract extension with the Big 12 bill.
28:45
A guy that came in difficult spot.
28:47
OU leaving, Texas leaving, had to find new revenue streams and
28:52
he's done a tremendous job. Is this in the big scale?
28:55
Your thoughts on your mark? But then secondly, college
28:58
commissioners, in this new era of college athletics, we be
29:02
thinking a little bit more outside the box like the Big 12
29:04
did. No, I like what Brett your
29:07
Mark's done. Again.
29:08
I always tell people it didn't told me the Big 12 would even be
29:12
around after Texas and Oklahoma left, you know, and after that
29:17
moment and you would have told me, well, there's going to be a
29:20
power conference that'll be dead in three years.
29:23
I wouldn't I would have said Big 12 and not PAC 12.
29:25
So the way that they went about marketing that conference and
29:29
getting new teams and being aggressive, it is a very good
29:32
basketball conference. Really should have had the
29:37
national champ in basketball this year really had a chance to
29:40
do that. They didn't.
29:41
They came up short. But I I think he's done a
29:43
fantastic job. Because to me, I always make
29:46
comparison, Trent, they remind me of The CW.
29:48
They might not be the the big network of college football, but
29:52
there are plenty of people that watch that.
29:54
Or they used to when I was in college.
29:56
Yep. And that's the home of the ACC,
29:58
which leads you into my next question or some of the ACC
30:01
games. And I think that North Carolina
30:03
has probably passed by The CW for one reason, that's Bill
30:06
Bella. But, and I was all on board with
30:09
this Bill. I couldn't wait to see this.
30:10
I thought he was going to change things in college football.
30:14
Who wouldn't want to play for him?
30:16
I'm not sure he's going to be there when September rolls
30:19
around at this point. It seemingly gets worse by the
30:22
week. How's this going to end with
30:23
Belichick in North Carolina? Well, there's going to be a
30:26
point where the North Carolina administration is going to have
30:29
to be like, what's going on right now?
30:33
You don't. I'm trying to figure out the
30:35
right words for this because I've done it a few times where
30:37
I've said, you know, So his personal life aside, it's
30:42
bizarre. When you watch the CBS News
30:46
interview, it was fine for 5 minutes.
30:48
I was like, yeah, this is the typical Belichick stuff.
30:52
And then it took a turn when he got the craft and said, you
30:56
know, he wasn't in the acknowledgement.
30:57
And then Jordan breaks in and interrupts the interview.
31:01
And, you know, I think one of the distractions, and he's his
31:04
coach that's notorious for eliminating distraction.
31:08
When we watch the North Carolina game, the camera is going to
31:11
pander her all the time. That's given 100% given.
31:15
So how long is North Carolina going to be willing to do that?
31:20
It. Really is, I mean the Dunkin'
31:22
Donuts, she forced herself into the commercial, apparently.
31:26
I don't know how it's going to end or where it's going to end,
31:28
but that's a great point, Bill. I mean, the cameras are going to
31:31
she'll be she'll get more camera time at North Carolina games
31:34
than Taylor does at Chiefs games.
31:36
She might. That's what I.
31:38
That's what I'm saying like, and when you open yourself up to
31:40
that, it's such a right. And when you have an age, and
31:44
you know what, I'm not going to pass judgment on who dates who,
31:47
but she is the same age of she's in the yeah and she is in the
31:52
same age range as the players. So you can't not say it's a
31:58
bizarre story. Good stuff.
32:01
Anything else, Bill Bender? Thanks as always my friend.
32:03
Look forward to the Big 12 rankings coming out.
32:05
The Big 10s are out. It tis the time of the year.
32:08
Anxious to see, you know, continue these forward and we'll
32:12
read you as we always do at sportingnews.com.
32:14
We'll talk to you down the road. Thanks, Bill.
32:16
Hey, thanks for having me on guys.
32:17
Good to talk. To you, Yeah.
32:18
Good to talk to you, Bill Bender.
32:19
Sporting News as we catch up with our friend Bill Bender.
32:23
We'll take a time out, come back Trent's plays of the day, they
32:26
are next. Circus sports sponsors, good
32:28
night in the NBANHL. Cubs keep winning, we'll talk
32:32
baseball etcetera. When we come back on the Iowa
32:35
Sports Radio Network. I'm Mary Condon.
32:39
Welcome back. Final segment here on a Tuesday.
32:42
Trends, plays of the day, circus sports sponsor.
32:44
Those those coming up momentarily top of the hour of
32:47
the drive, Heather and Lucas 2 until 5 overtime.
32:50
I were 5 to 6. So since we're talking kind of
32:52
betting, not kind of betting, we're talking yeah, gives me
32:56
just sovereignty won the Kentucky Derby is not going to
33:00
run in the Preakness. What a let down.
33:03
There will be no Triple Crown winner.
33:05
There will be no opportunity to win the second jewel of the
33:08
Triple Crown because he is going to pass.
33:10
And you know what, I don't blame him.
33:12
And I was always a hardcore. It's always been this way.
33:16
You can't change the rules. It's why it's so hard to win the
33:20
Triple Crown. Well, if the horses aren't going
33:22
to participate, that's not good for a sport that needs all the
33:26
positive pub it can get. So here's what you do.
33:29
You run the Derby the first Saturday in May, the Preakness
33:31
the first Saturday in June, and the Belmont the first Saturday
33:35
in July. Horses don't race like they used
33:37
to. I mean, a horse would race and
33:39
in the afternoon be home pulling a plow for God's sakes back in
33:42
the day. Well, not quite that bad, but
33:44
you get my point. You race every four to six weeks
33:46
now and these horses don't, the trainers don't want to put their
33:50
horse into a race after, you know, being off for essentially
33:55
2 weeks. It's not it's not good for the
33:57
horse. Falls on 4th of July, no big
34:00
deal there. No, I think that's actually
34:02
maybe better. Yeah, you know.
34:04
Need that after the hot dog contest.
34:07
Oh God, yeah. So that's what I would do if I
34:12
was the commissioner of Horse racing.
34:15
We'll see where it goes by the way, away from another, away
34:19
from the horse. For just a second I saw that the
34:22
Indiana Fever Brazil National team drew 1.3 million people to
34:27
their televisions to watch on ESPN on the 1st Sunday in May.
34:32
An exhibition basket WNBA game. WNBA game The average number of
34:36
non fever games people viewing last year was 3.380 thousand.
34:42
So just a million more people we'll watch the pre season game,
34:46
exhibition game. Not even pre season amongst
34:49
Brazil and the fever. A lot of Sophie Cunningham fans
34:52
out there, they love her, no doubt.
34:55
Have you seen her? By the way, she's a good
34:56
edition. She has a good edition.
34:57
Have you seen the possibility? This is something I think we
35:00
need to research a little bit more, a possibility here in the
35:03
state of Iowa of a hike in the taxes on sports wagering.
35:08
This is apparently in front of the Iowa Legislature.
35:11
We do not do politics here, no. But if it pertains to something
35:14
like this. That's not good.
35:16
We need to get a little more information.
35:19
I believe so. Because you know who loses on
35:20
that? You do, folks.
35:22
Uh huh. Yes, and consolidation and if
35:26
you like those bonus bets and those kind of things, those are
35:28
the things that go away very quickly when the operators have
35:31
to pay so. Is there a chance this will pass
35:33
'cause I know Illinois just, I mean they change their rules.
35:36
You can't do business in Illinois as a sports betting
35:38
operator. It's incredibly difficult is
35:40
they make it more and more. Like why?
35:41
That's why they don't want to go to New York.
35:43
Yes, and for us here, we are lucky that we have a multitude.
35:48
Of operators because that is a great tax state.
35:51
For the operators, for you as a sports better that is better for
35:55
you. You do not want some
35:56
consolidation. You do not want two big brands
36:00
that is going to be bad for you because all those shiny bells
36:03
and whistles that you have, it's great right now.
36:06
But if there's only two competing, 4 down to 1
36:09
competing, that is not going to be there anymore.
36:11
And that -110 that you're laying on everything -112 and all of a
36:15
sudden it's up to -115 and guess where majority people are going
36:19
to be going after. That no, I'm sure, sure.
36:21
Illegal sports betting, we talk about it all the time.
36:24
Shop around, shop around. Well, there might not be any
36:26
opportunities to shop around and that is not good.
36:29
So that'll be our spring project here, finding out a little bit
36:32
more about that a part of it tube wagering yes and we're
36:35
doing it a couple of different books because of my 7 bets
36:39
today, five of the best prices were at Circa, one at FanDuel,
36:42
one at Bet Rivers. Let's start in the NBA taking
36:46
the Warriors. Maybe it's an emotional hedge
36:48
grabbing the. 6 1/2. Grabbing the 6 1/2 in game one.
36:51
What? Playing hockey tonight.
36:53
I'm getting plus 1/23 with the Caps in game one with you.
36:56
I think the Hurricanes are a better team.
36:58
Home team, Game 1 + 123. Just like the Leafs last night,
37:02
I'm jumping aboard on that one. That leaves 5 plays in baseball.
37:07
I'm taking two big favorites. Give me the Dodgers again -247
37:11
Also going to grab the Tigers tonight at the Rockies -174 but
37:15
here's my three other plays. Going to start with the Rangers,
37:19
you hitting coach coming in dead coach bounce, whatever it may be
37:23
-112 and like more importantly, the pitching match up with
37:26
Evaldi, who's been tremendous again, grabbing him against
37:29
Giolito. I will lay -112 there in Fenway
37:32
and then two big dogs tonight going to start with the Orioles
37:36
against my Twins. Now, it's not just because of
37:38
that. It is because Povich is going.
37:40
Who's been good. He's been the only bright spot
37:43
really in that rotation for Baltimore to this point, at
37:46
least at times this year. He's a lefty, though.
37:48
The Twins 25th in baseball against left handers so far this
37:52
year in OPS. So we will grab the Orioles plus
37:55
158. And I think this one is just
37:58
priced dead wrong. The Reds against the Braves,
38:03
Yeah, the Braves should be favored in.
38:05
A on. The other side's Abbott, though,
38:07
who's been tremendous himself, nearly 2 to 1 + 193 is the price
38:13
that you can get at Circa. We'll jump aboard there with the
38:17
Reds. All right, you were threw a
38:19
perfecto at him yesterday, in a good way.
38:21
Let's keep it going. Might be perfect the other way
38:23
today. We've seen those before.
38:25
That'll do it for us. The drive is coming up next.
38:28
Cappy joins the program tomorrow.
38:30
I always look forward to Cappy. 1:00 for Cappy Miller and
38:32
Condon. Weekday noon to two on the Iowa
38:35
Sports Radio Network.