Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / Nick Marovets Joins Trent, previewing Iowa State/BYU & Iowa/Wisconsin, why WOB matters & Tom Kakert talks Hawkeyes plus the Bears to Indiana?
Transcript
- 0:17Good afternoon. Welcome in Miller and Condon on
- 0:19the air with you back at it on a Friday as we talk the world of
- 0:25sports. We're with you for the next two
- 0:26hours as we break down everything going on.
- 0:29The Canadians in trouble, maybe not going to show up for the
- 0:33gold medal match. We'll get an update on that one
- 0:35Team USA and men's hockey action later today.
- 0:38The women with the gold winner, winner, winner, gold medal
- 0:41winner. Easy for me to say yesterday as
- 0:43they get it done in overtime against the Canadian National
- 0:46team. And yes, Heisey involved once
- 0:49again, as we've talked about here throughout the course of
- 0:51this one, becoming an adopted eye when I think we need a for
- 0:54that hockey front coming up today on the program on the
- 0:57guest list. We'll kick things off here at
- 0:58about 12:25. Tom Caker from hawkeyereport.com
- 1:02and his normal spot on a Friday as we talk Hawkeyes with Tom A
- 1:06breakdown of the matchup with Wisconsin coming up this weekend
- 1:09and a difficult spot for Iowa coming off the big win against
- 1:13Nebraska. Now you have to go to a pissed
- 1:15off Wisconsin team after their performance against Ohio State
- 1:19and a Wisconsin team that has two of the best wins of the
- 1:22season, 2 Rd. victories that they have against Michigan,
- 1:24against Illinois. Going to be an incredibly
- 1:26difficult spot for them for the Hawkeyes coming up on Sunday,
- 1:29we'll also breakdown the BYU Iowa State matchup and the trip
- 1:33out West with Eugene Repay. He will join us here at 1:25
- 1:37today. Joining me for Ken's final day
- 1:40of vacation, he is Nick Murovitz from Locked on Cyclones.
- 1:44Nick, good to see you once again.
- 1:45Good to hear your voice. How are things over for you on
- 1:48the east side of the state? Yeah, pleasure to be back once
- 1:51again and obviously feeling pretty good after those two big
- 1:54wins for Iowa State men's basketball.
- 1:56The Heisey family is representing Iowa well.
- 1:58All is good in this House. No doubt about it.
- 2:01Well, Nick, as we look through and what we have coming up this
- 2:05weekend, a great slate of games in college basketball, one of
- 2:08the few times ever we've had the top four teams facing off
- 2:11against each other. I will get that coming up this
- 2:13weekend with the big match up, of course, with #1 #2 and many
- 2:17of the different polls with Michigan and Duke going added on
- 2:20a neutral floor in DC. A lot of people, a lot of big
- 2:24fan bases there, obviously with the people that moved away from
- 2:27their college area and moved to DC.
- 2:30So we're going to see a big contingent, I think, of both of
- 2:31those fan bases. Should be a fun one with those
- 2:34two squads. And then of course, what we have
- 2:35in the Big 12, Arizona, Houston coming up this weekend as well.
- 2:40Kansas back at it with the continued Darren Peterson, the
- 2:42injuries of the Big 12. Nick, I want to start right here
- 2:45with you today as a Big 12 guy as you are, you know, the Big 12
- 2:48just a week ago, we're talking about not just teams that can
- 2:51make a Final Four, but potentially national
- 2:53championship contenders. And if all breaks right, you
- 2:56know, I go back and when you talk about AJ Debansa, well,
- 2:59remember what Carmelo Anthony did at Syracuse as a freshman
- 3:02and putting that team on his back?
- 3:03And could there be something similar that happens with him?
- 3:06JT Topping and Texas Tech, a team that I've always loved at
- 3:09times I watched him on. How did this team lose 6 games
- 3:12that they had? But now he's lost for the season
- 3:14with the ACL injury. Saunders goes down for BYU and
- 3:17that was really a three headed monster that they have.
- 3:19It goes from so many teams that you feel can win a championship.
- 3:23You have the questions with Arizona, not a great 3 point
- 3:25shooting team, Iowa State with the free throw shooting and
- 3:28suddenly it goes from others. All these Big 12 teams that can
- 3:30win a title. Feels like not only the sheer
- 3:33volume of teams has gone down, but some of the questions with
- 3:36all the teams may be starting to pop back up as well.
- 3:39No, absolutely. And I think that's just showing,
- 3:42you know, how long the season is.
- 3:43We all talk in December and January.
- 3:45Like how how tight of a race it's gonna be.
- 3:48And and Iowa State was in these shoes last season, remember,
- 3:51with Milan missing that stretch? And then it was Keyshawn, what's
- 3:54going on with him? And it really derailed Iowa
- 3:57State season. And now obviously the Big 12
- 4:00beats up on itself so much because you're playing such high
- 4:02level competition night in and night out.
- 4:04Looking at Texas Tech. I actually watched that Arizona
- 4:06State game. And you wouldn't expect Arizona
- 4:08State to be one of those teams to take down a top team just
- 4:11sitting at what they're 567 or whatever from the bottom of the
- 4:15conference. But they were competing, They
- 4:16looked really, really good. And it forced Texas Tech to kind
- 4:19of exert their, their flex, their muscle, I guess, late in
- 4:22that game. And unfortunately, JT topping
- 4:25goes down. You know, I think the, the cream
- 4:27is kind of rising to the top of the Big 12 right now.
- 4:29Arizona, you mentioned 3 point shooting.
- 4:31I don't know if it matters for them.
- 4:33They shoot like what 7A game? So it's just they win on the
- 4:36inside in Houston, still rated above Iowa State.
- 4:41They're phenomenal team and they just lost one on the road.
- 4:43I think it is what it is. Iowa State in that conversation
- 4:45and we'll see what DP does for Kansas, but Texas Tech falling
- 4:49out of the kind of front runner isn't good for the conference.
- 4:53But I think it makes sense just the way that the season is so
- 4:56long and and so grueling for all these athletes night in, the
- 4:59night out. You know, the Big 12 as a whole
- 5:00very top heavy this year and now with the injuries for BYU and
- 5:04Texas Tech as certainly diminishes, diminishes.
- 5:07I think the chances of either of those teams at least making a
- 5:09run to a Final four. They were going to be long shots
- 5:11regardless. But in consideration with the
- 5:13injuries that they have sustained and we've seen these
- 5:15last two years now I see a Ken Pomeroy, they are ranked this
- 5:18year as the third best conference in college
- 5:20basketball. When you take the totality and I
- 5:22think it makes a whole lot of sense because we go through that
- 5:25run starting, you know, in the early teens back in 2012,
- 5:30thirteen range where year after year it was the Big 12 far and
- 5:33away was rated the best conference in college
- 5:36basketball. It no matter what kind of
- 5:38metrics you were looking at, that's what you got out of the
- 5:40Big 12. But also remember at that time
- 5:42you're talking about 10 teams in the conference.
- 5:44You have the double round Robin, which was absolutely great for
- 5:47fans. But now you have this bottom
- 5:49tier of the Big 12 and the continued gap that seems to be
- 5:52growing with the Colorados and now K State with the disaster
- 5:55that's happening there. Utah this year is an absolute
- 5:58disaster and even that middle portion isn't nearly as as
- 6:01strong as this conference once was.
- 6:03I I think we're seeing now with the expansion and all this is
- 6:07football driven. We get that, Nick, but you're
- 6:09seeing what it's done to the basketball league as well, where
- 6:12it is not that top shelf year after year.
- 6:15Yeah, you might have a couple of drags year after year, but in
- 6:17A10 team conference, it's a lot different.
- 6:19When he got 16. No, agreed.
- 6:21And you said it best like it is football that's driving
- 6:24everything essentially all the changes and realignments and
- 6:27whatever. But I will point out on the flip
- 6:29side just to because you're exactly right.
- 6:31I mean, all I would be doing is kind of echoing your statement,
- 6:34but Houston comes in and has been phenomenal since they
- 6:37joined the conference. I believe they have like 6
- 6:40losses and then I think it's like 3 to Iowa State or two to
- 6:43Iowa State, whatever it is, just because I'd seen that stat this
- 6:46week. Houston has come in and played
- 6:48exceptionally well. Arizona obviously at the top of
- 6:51the conference right now. So you still have some of those
- 6:54original teams like Iowa State and Kansas that are really in
- 6:56that mix. I think to win it this year and
- 6:58to make deep runs, but you do have these.
- 7:02These changes weren't made for basketball, but there was some
- 7:05good that came out of it. I can agree with you there.
- 7:07Nick, we're going to talk more Big 12 a little bit later on.
- 7:09Of course, we're going to preview the match up with Iowa
- 7:11State and BYU. We'll talk Iowa, Wisconsin as
- 7:14we'll break everything down from last night though when I do a
- 7:17quick hit as we always like to take a look at the locals here
- 7:20at the top of the show. The Iowa women were the only
- 7:22team in action that we talked about plenty.
- 7:25And with them we get the news late in the afternoon yesterday
- 7:28afternoon. The Hannah Stolke's going to be
- 7:30out now. This is not a very good team.
- 7:32In fact, it's a bad Purdue team. I think it's easy to say that
- 7:35still. You're going on the road, you're
- 7:36coming off a win against Nebraska earlier in the week.
- 7:39It's the back-to-back on the road trip.
- 7:41You kind of wonder what the response is going to be.
- 7:44They came out on fire once again, and a big part of that
- 7:47has been the play of Taylor Stremlow.
- 7:49She was red hot just like she was to begin that Nebraska game.
- 7:52back-to-back Rd. victories. And though they kind of played
- 7:55with their food a little bit in the second-half of this one,
- 7:57Purdue never really got within striking distance.
- 8:00I think there was less than a minute left before they even got
- 8:02it back into single digits. They didn't completely blow them
- 8:05out, but to do that without Skokie, I think that was eye
- 8:08opening. We know this is not a very deep
- 8:10team. You couple that with the McCabe
- 8:11injury, just a nice Workman like kind of victory over there and
- 8:15Purdue setting up the big stage coming up this weekend for them
- 8:18as they welcome in Michigan. No, absolutely.
- 8:20Looking at you got 4 starters with double digits, three of
- 8:24them over 15 points. And you didn't shoot the lights
- 8:26out from beyond the arc either. Only 9 and 19.
- 8:29Obviously shot well from the field at nearly 60%, but you
- 8:32gotta commend the Hawkeyes here for getting it done on the road
- 8:36essentially because no game is guaranteed.
- 8:38I think that there's a an element of, you know, it's just
- 8:41just Purdue or whatever. And of course the news of
- 8:43Stolkeys, it puts people on edge a little bit.
- 8:45But every single game you got to come out and you got to play
- 8:48your best ball. It looks like Iowa is
- 8:51definitely, you know, defending that top 15 ranking right now
- 8:54with that win over Purdue. Yeah, got a #11 from the
- 8:57committee when they came out last week on the women's side
- 9:00#11 overall seed for the Iowa women and a win this weekend
- 9:04against Michigan at home. And, and it's weird, it's their
- 9:06second to last home game of the season.
- 9:08They still have a match up next Thursday at against Illinois at
- 9:12Carver. But this is going to be Senior
- 9:13Day for the Hawkeye. So we're going to see the
- 9:16seniors get honored before the game.
- 9:18Anna Stolke, hopefully she's able to play.
- 9:20Taylor McCabe, the emotions. Kylie Fearbach, They're going to
- 9:22be going through the senior Day ceremonies.
- 9:24Jana Gympie, another one that is also injured this season, though
- 9:28she wasn't anticipated to be a big part of the team on the
- 9:30floor of this year. So they're going to have some
- 9:33injuries, some injured players out there for senior day, but
- 9:35just interesting that they do it.
- 9:37I see also a big recruiting weekend.
- 9:39They got a five star player coming in, a bunch of prospects
- 9:41making their way to Iowa City. But this Michigan team, they are
- 9:45playing well. In fact, the only team in the
- 9:47Big 10 that has been able to even push UCLA this season as
- 9:50they played them to a three-point game here about a
- 9:52week and a half ago. So that's coming up on Sunday on
- 9:55the women's side. Let's get into the men's side of
- 9:57things and let's start with BYU talked about the Saunders
- 10:00injury. Obviously impactful for that BYU
- 10:03squad, ABYU team that at times look like a top ten team.
- 10:07Certainly has not been the case though recently for them.
- 10:10Then on top of it, you're going to stay out there then take on a
- 10:14bad Utah team. Still long road trip.
- 10:16You never know exactly what it's going to happen.
- 10:18After the two emotional wins, those huge victories here, any
- 10:22concerns of a little let down? Yes, it's still a top 25 BYU
- 10:26team, but just after what we saw at Hilton these last couple of
- 10:29games against Kansas and against Houston, the possibility that
- 10:32there could be a little slip up coming up tomorrow.
- 10:35Yeah, there's always that chance.
- 10:37And and if you haven't already, you need to go see some clip
- 10:40from somebody somewhere of a BYU home game.
- 10:44I mean, it is literally a circus in there.
- 10:46They've got flags, they've got LEDs on them.
- 10:48They've got the inflatable dudes that are at the car shop.
- 10:51Like it is mayhem in there. And BYU fans are super, super
- 10:56ravenous. So I am slightly concerned about
- 10:58Iowa State playing in an environment like that.
- 11:00When you look at their win loss ratio this season, all losses on
- 11:04the road, right? Kansas at Allenfield House,
- 11:06that's kind of what we're walking into with BYU here.
- 11:08Just a crazy environment. Cincinnati and TCU both on the
- 11:11road as well. So 2 huge wins at home, yes,
- 11:14that's awesome. We know Hilton Magic is real.
- 11:17But I am slightly concerned, even though BYU isn't at full
- 11:20strength, I would say just hasn't been great on the road.
- 11:22I think this is a perfect opportunity for them to prove.
- 11:25Obviously they'll have Arizona later in just a few weeks or
- 11:27whatever, but this is an opportunity to keep that
- 11:29momentum going and show that they can win these games on the
- 11:32road because March Madness isn't be played in Hilton.
- 11:34Right. Yes.
- 11:35Unfortunately for the Cyclones, that will not be the case
- 11:38because, yeah, we'd be having a different conversation if
- 11:40they're played all those games in that gym.
- 11:42You mentioned the Marriott Center and that place is not
- 11:44only it's ravenous, but it's huge.
- 11:47This is one of the biggest basketball arenas in the
- 11:50country. In fact, when it was built, it
- 11:51was over 22,000 is what it was. And they've gone through
- 11:54renovations, but still they they get 18,000 in there and it's
- 11:58going to be packed up and they're going to be ready to go.
- 11:59So it is going to be certainly a more difficult environment than
- 12:03and what they saw against TCU, you know, their last Rd. game
- 12:06that ended NNL. This is going to be a completely
- 12:08different environment than what they've seen really going all
- 12:11the way probably back to the Kansas game.
- 12:13You look through the other Rd. games that they had, Oklahoma,
- 12:15Okoma State, not many people in the building for that one.
- 12:18K State, everybody was ready for Tang to leave and eventually he
- 12:21has. Since that beat down that they
- 12:23gave the Wildcats in Manhattan, This is going to be a different
- 12:27kind of environment for them. So charged up, How about 930 tip
- 12:31off for that one? And we know ESPN tip off time.
- 12:34What time do you think that thing's actually going to tip
- 12:36off? It's not going to be 930.
- 12:38I yeah, I'd love to see them actually get go on before 9:45,
- 12:41but you never can really tell. So as long as I'm seated and
- 12:44just enjoying the pregame show, I guess I can't complain too.
- 12:47Much, Yeah, absolutely. We'll we'll get going on that
- 12:49one mentioned to Bansa for BYU. He is an incredible talent.
- 12:53What do you do against him defensively?
- 12:55I mean, the way now that it's going to be a different look for
- 12:58this BYU team, you take Saunders out of there, you know, play
- 13:01some, probably need a little bit more out of Canard Davis.
- 13:03I think that's going to be a key for them.
- 13:05Kita, he is a monster inside. He is thick, not tall, but just
- 13:08stick. But what do you do defensively
- 13:10against the Bandsta? Because he is an incredible
- 13:12talent. He can get to all the different
- 13:14spots. He can make shots all over the
- 13:15floor. Yeah, I wonder how much of BYU's
- 13:18offense will go through Debansa. The BYU's been so good from
- 13:21beyond the arc this season 2, so obviously the injuries I think
- 13:25are going to make a major impact on how this game plays out.
- 13:28But I wonder if you, you know, you do a lot of ball pressure
- 13:31whenever Debansa has the ball. I would say has the guys like
- 13:34Jamari Bateman and Killian Torrey to get that done.
- 13:37And I think they have to really commit because this is how they
- 13:40run their defense. But there are games where they
- 13:41don't commit quite as hard as I'd like them to to the double
- 13:44team. As soon as you can get the Bansa
- 13:46with two guys on him and just try to force him to make some
- 13:50errors, obviously we know how good he is.
- 13:52But if you can draw one or two, that could be the margin that
- 13:55Iowa State needs to win this game.
- 13:57I think other than that, you're just gonna have to force the
- 13:59rest of BYU to beat you. I think you have to shut down
- 14:02the bands for what you can, even if you even hold them to 15 or
- 14:0620. Might be a good night.
- 14:07Just kids. Incredible.
- 14:09Yes, I also wondered inside their young freshman bop.
- 14:14I think is how you say it. Kadeem Bop, he is another big
- 14:18body in there. They've been playing now with
- 14:20Saunders outgoing back to the Arizona game, been playing an
- 14:23extra big in there to go along with Kita.
- 14:25So they're going to be a little bit bigger.
- 14:27They're going to be built a little bit differently too, and
- 14:29how Iowa State kind of goes back there.
- 14:31It's going to be a cat and mouse game and a really good coaching
- 14:34match up here. We know about odds, but we don't
- 14:36know about Kevin Young came from the NBA.
- 14:38Guy that runs a lot of good stuff, guy that comes from that
- 14:41NBA background. Kevin Young's a really good
- 14:43coach here and I'm sure he's going to have a few different
- 14:45angles here against the Cyclone team as they look to end what
- 14:48has been losses of five of their last seven games and the injury
- 14:51of Saunders on top of it. They needed overtime to get by
- 14:54Colorado and then though they played well, I thought earlier
- 14:57this week against Arizona. Still going to be fun, match up
- 14:59and get that coffee ready. Going to be a late night
- 15:01tomorrow night. Oh, absolutely, and I will say
- 15:04this too, I would say BYU over the last few years has just been
- 15:07incredible. Every single game I am always up
- 15:11until the last second on those because you know, you can't go
- 15:15to bed early. You don't know what's going to
- 15:16happen. Crazy comebacks, maybe last
- 15:18second shots, whatever it is. So obviously Odds and young are
- 15:21going to be in a little bit of a chess match and I think both are
- 15:23capable of handling the other. It's just going to be who gets
- 15:26the upper hand in this one. But regardless, I know we're in
- 15:29for a real, real treat and I'm super excited about this one.
- 15:32Over to Iowa City, the Hawkeyes go to Wisconsin to face the
- 15:35Badgers coming off the win against Nebraska.
- 15:37Now it's Wisconsin. They got drilled by Ohio State.
- 15:41Still, this Wisconsin team, it's not.
- 15:44Look, Wisconsin's 18 and 8, They're 10 and five in the Big
- 15:4710. We're not talking about this is
- 15:48not Michigan. But in terms of a matchup for
- 15:51Iowa, I think this is just a bad matchup.
- 15:54And we've seen recently, up until the Nebraska game, Iowa
- 15:57had been struggling so much defensively and they've been
- 16:00struggling against teams that just frankly are going downhill
- 16:03against them. Get into the rim, being able to
- 16:05get by by the defenders and and get into the paint.
- 16:08And with Boyd and Blackwell, that's why I'm really concerned
- 16:11about this matchup. Not only do you have a Wisconsin
- 16:13team, if you buy into the theories of a bounce back and
- 16:16those kind of things are let down from the Iowa perspective,
- 16:19you kind of have both angles on that.
- 16:20Coupled with just the matchup here, I think this is a bad
- 16:23matchup for the Hawkeyes. Yeah and and Wisconsin's number
- 16:27six in the big 10 right now. So there is like the top 25 yes,
- 16:31but they're they're not really making any big waves.
- 16:33Don't forget they beat where is it Michigan, right and one of
- 16:37the only teams to if not the only team, yes, the only team to
- 16:41do that. So they're capable of making
- 16:43those big punches and if it's if it's going to come down to
- 16:46matchups I I do like Wisconsin here.
- 16:49The fact that Iowa just depends on kind of how you buy into the,
- 16:54the whole let down and, and what the big win over Nebraska means
- 16:57and all of that. But no, I, I don't love the
- 16:59Hawkeyes in this situation. And I do say that from an
- 17:01analyst perspective, not as an Iowa State fan.
- 17:04I want to bring a couple things up here as we've talked about
- 17:07resumes and the way it is for Iowa State, what's it going to
- 17:11take to get up to a number one seed for Iowa?
- 17:13You know, can you get out at least minimum that 8-9 game and
- 17:15even move up to a six seed? What it would take?
- 17:18Thought it was really interesting as many of the
- 17:20national media guys yesterday had an opportunity to go inside
- 17:24the committee room and go through and they built their own
- 17:26bracket and went through all the principles.
- 17:28Learned a little bit more, but coming out of that I'm hearing
- 17:31from a couple of different articles I read for the people
- 17:34that were inside the room yesterday, including Matt
- 17:36Norlander from CBS who joins us from time to time here on our
- 17:40program. Mentioning that I think one of
- 17:43the big takeaways for me is the importance of WAB.
- 17:46And you might be saying Condon, what in God's name are you
- 17:48talking about? Now you talk about Bartorvick
- 17:50and Ken Palm and all these other numbers.
- 17:52Now you got another one but it sounds incredibly important
- 17:54because recently and we talked with Carrie Miller who's gone
- 17:57through this exercise yesterday, he mentioned that as well.
- 18:00Wins a above bubble. All this is is a metric that
- 18:04rates what you would do would get as a average tournament team
- 18:0745th best team in the country. That would be what they consider
- 18:10average out of the at large pool.
- 18:12What they would do against your particularly schedule.
- 18:16This is something when you look through the last couple of NCAA
- 18:18tournaments, the teams that get in the number one deciding
- 18:21factor is not net that we talked about a ton.
- 18:24It is actually WOB wins above bubble and also comes to seating
- 18:28purposes. That is something that is
- 18:30incredibly important. So just look at that metric
- 18:32alone. Iowa State is 8th in the country
- 18:36in this metric. Iowa is 29th.
- 18:39So a little bit lower than they are in the advanced analytics
- 18:42that you have, though. That's still a piece of it.
- 18:43Just found that interesting. And, and probably my biggest
- 18:46take away, Nick, I think, you know, I am an absolute college
- 18:49basketball junkie. It doesn't have to just be
- 18:51Hawkeyes and Cyclones. For me, it is about all of it.
- 18:53I love these kind of things. I love the building of a
- 18:56bracket. I've always something, it was
- 18:57what I was doing in my free time as I was sitting with my
- 19:00notebook, you know, back in school.
- 19:01I've been making my own brackets.
- 19:02I've always loved these kind of things.
- 19:04Very interesting to see that this new metric that has come
- 19:07out, the importance it sounds like now it means for the
- 19:09selection committee. No, 100%.
- 19:12And it does make sense when you kind of think about it on some
- 19:15level, like for a team like Iowa State, right, losses to
- 19:18Cincinnati and TCU are going to they're not going to help that.
- 19:21And when you look at advanced analytics, I think Iowa State
- 19:23saved a little bit, especially when we talked about Iowa State
- 19:26over Oklahoma State, Colorado, UCF, Kansas State, Baylor, like
- 19:30their offensive efficiency was kind of inflated.
- 19:32But at the end of the day, you got to win the games.
- 19:35And so that WOB metric ultimately calculates that.
- 19:38And I think that's what it comes down to when you're talking
- 19:41about the end of the season, right?
- 19:43Like, what have you accomplished?
- 19:45Not how good were you in games where you won by 50, not how
- 19:48close were you in games that you lost by two or three?
- 19:51Did you win or did you lose? Because when the tournament
- 19:53rolls around, it is literally just win or loss.
- 19:56I don't care if it was on a buzzer beater from Furman or if
- 19:59you beat, you know, a Kansas State by 68 points.
- 20:01It just, it literally does not matter.
- 20:03So it's, it's actually pretty cool metric.
- 20:05I I took a look at it when you sent it over.
- 20:07Yeah, it's a different way, a different look at way that they
- 20:10kind of measure these teams. One more thing from the mock
- 20:13committee that went through yesterday, there was an argument
- 20:16for the final number one seed and it came down to Houston and
- 20:19Iowa State. Well, I think for most everybody
- 20:22after what we saw Monday, this is pretty easy on the surface.
- 20:25Incredibly similar resumes. Iowa State, they sit at 23 and
- 20:29three. Houston also sits at 23 and
- 20:31three. Iowa State has the head to Of
- 20:36course, what they did in the dominating performance against
- 20:38Purdue on the road, you think that would be a big help to him.
- 20:41But eventually it does go to Houston.
- 20:45Houston got the nod in this selection committee for the
- 20:48final number one seed and I'll tell you, I struggle to see it.
- 20:52I struggle to see it because the resumes are incredibly close.
- 20:55Houston's losses, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Iowa State.
- 20:59I guess the one thing you could point to is Iowa State out of
- 21:02the group of losses has the worst because of their loss to
- 21:05Cincinnati and to a lesser degree TCU.
- 21:07Maybe that's what it came down to is the Iowa State.
- 21:09Two of those losses are considered in this eye, and
- 21:12certainly the eye for a number one seed are bad, but I
- 21:15struggled to wrap my mind around that one.
- 21:17That's funny that the Iowa guy is a little bit more on Iowa
- 21:20State side. And I can, you know, as an Iowa
- 21:22State guy completely see where they pick Houston here because
- 21:25you mentioned the quality of losses, which I absolutely
- 21:29dislike the term quality losses to the maximum degree, but
- 21:33quality losses, Houston versus Iowa State.
- 21:36When you look at the Iowa State Houston game though, what
- 21:39actually transpired inside of those 40 minutes, Iowa State
- 21:43kind of needed a lot of magic from Hilton to get that done.
- 21:47And that was where when I saw this, I was like, you know, if
- 21:50this game was played in Houston, that game probably ends
- 21:52differently. If this game was played, you
- 21:54know, at a neutral site, it probably ends differently.
- 21:56And then when you compare the resumes, if you're going off the
- 21:59losses, I'm not super upset that they picked Houston here.
- 22:03I think Iowa State can use that, especially now as a chip on
- 22:06their shoulder for the rest of the season.
- 22:07Can't just sit back and relax. But I do think it actually makes
- 22:11sense when you look at, you know, I would say it was down 10
- 22:13with what, 7 minutes to go or whatever it was.
- 22:15So they found a way with, with the homecourt advantage.
- 22:18But you know, if it's on the road, I don't know.
- 22:20Outscore him 17, four to end that game, and it's not just a
- 22:23run to end the game being down double digits.
- 22:26Houston, I think the most difficult team to beat in an
- 22:29environment like that, down double digits against anybody in
- 22:31the country. I think Houston's about the last
- 22:33team that he'd want just with their style of play and to hold
- 22:36them to four points over the final 7 minutes.
- 22:39That was just absolutely eye opening.
- 22:41With that, we got to take a break.
- 22:42When we come back on the other side, time for a little more
- 22:44Hawkeye talk. Maybe Tom Caker can provide some
- 22:47hope for the Hawkeyes this weekend against the Badgers.
- 22:50Plus, football recruiting is underway as we look at the class
- 22:53of 2 thousand 2627. We'll get into that and more.
- 22:56Tom Caker, Hawkeye report joins us on the other side.
- 22:59Nick Maravits hanging out with me, Trent Condon.
- 23:01It's Miller and Condon on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
- 23:1712/28 on a Friday. It's Miller and Condon on the
- 23:20Iowa Sports Radio Network across the great state of Iowa stations
- 23:24in the Quad Cities, Cedar Rapids, IA City, Sioux City and
- 23:27our flagship right here, one O 6.3 KXNO.
- 23:31It's a Friday. That means it's time to talk
- 23:33Hawkeyes with Tom Caker from hawkeyereport.com.
- 23:37Tom joining us here today as he does almost every single Friday
- 23:40throughout the course of the year.
- 23:42Tom, thank you as always for your time.
- 23:44Good to talk to you again. And boy, you got to see a really
- 23:47good environment there at Carver earlier this week, though it
- 23:50wasn't a banged out building like it was against Purdue.
- 23:52That was about as charged up as I could remember, and talking to
- 23:55people there that we've seen in the performance from the
- 23:57Hawkeyes definitely help getting the win against the Huskers.
- 24:01But I think the crowd made the difference in the game.
- 24:03Yeah, really do. And I think, I think Ben
- 24:05McCollum basically said it after the game too.
- 24:09I'm not sure I will wins without that crowd.
- 24:12And they were particularly the student section because I wasn't
- 24:18sure that the student, you never know if the students are going
- 24:21to show up or not. And, and they showed up, they
- 24:25were all wearing black. I think it may have helped that
- 24:28I think Price Sanford may have had some communication with some
- 24:31of the some online student group thing or something that
- 24:35basically said they were going to beat you and they were ready
- 24:40for them coming in obviously. And it's loud the entire game.
- 24:46And, and I was found a way. It was this, you know, it's
- 24:50remarkable. Iowa has scored 57 points in
- 24:53their last two games each. Each game, one of them, they
- 24:57lost by 21 and the other they won by 5.
- 25:00That's wild to me. Feels a little bit better on the
- 25:02backside of it, no doubt. And the defensive performance
- 25:06that had been it had been cratering even during the six
- 25:08game-winning streak. And Tom, that's something that I
- 25:10talked about A fool's gold is probably not the right term
- 25:13because they're still winning games, right.
- 25:15But we saw that defense was taken a pretty significant step
- 25:18back. I know in the month of February
- 25:20before the Nebraska game, I think Bart Torvik had him 242nd
- 25:24in the country in defensive efficiency.
- 25:26Now Bennett Sturtz defensively was a big part of that and what
- 25:29he was able to do against Price Sanford.
- 25:31But is it just more of a matchup thing?
- 25:34Sam Hoiberg's a tremendous point guard and I'd never thought I'd
- 25:36utter those words when he began his career, but here we are.
- 25:40That guy is a pest. He's a nuisance, but he is good.
- 25:43Still. He's not a guy that's going to
- 25:45go to the rim and finish, right? He's not that we go to Sunday.
- 25:48It is another two guards that can get to the rim.
- 25:51Was it more match up dependent or do you think that we're
- 25:54seeing the side with defense get back on track?
- 25:57You know, what was interesting is it wasn't like it was a game
- 26:01plan thing against Nebraska. It was basically kind of Ben
- 26:06McCollum and the staff just kind of challenging these guys said
- 26:08go out and guard people here you go and just go out and do what
- 26:13you know that you can do guarding people man to man.
- 26:17And they did and it worked. And credit to to Bennett, I
- 26:23mean, you know, not only shouldering a massive load
- 26:28offensively for Iowa, but also regarding price.
- 26:33And price was, you know, how he comes off screens and everything
- 26:37else he's he's all over the court.
- 26:38So the amount of mileage that that Bennett put on his wheels
- 26:43that day was a lot. And he stayed out there for all
- 26:4740 minutes. He didn't come off the floor.
- 26:49So to him I I was just amazed that it wasn't like a game plan
- 26:53thing. It was just basically the staff
- 26:55just challenging these guys go out and guard somebody and they
- 26:57did. They did.
- 26:58It was it was a whole lot better.
- 27:00It's Tom Caker from Hawker Report joining us here.
- 27:02Miller and Condon on the Iowa Sports Radio Network hanging out
- 27:05with me today, Nick Maravitz from Lockdown Cyclones.
- 27:08Nick, take it away for Tom Caker.
- 27:11Yeah, Tom, I have a quick question about that win over
- 27:13Nebraska. How big was that for kind of the
- 27:15culture of Iowa basketball, you know, a top ten win, you know,
- 27:19from an Iowa State fan's perspective, going from 2 and 22
- 27:22to what now odds has turned the program into.
- 27:24Is there a lot of hope for what you know Iowa basketball could
- 27:27look like over the next few years?
- 27:30Yeah. They just, they needed that kind
- 27:34of reaffirming signature win on the resume, especially coming
- 27:39after that, that ugly loss at Maryland and then just kind of
- 27:42getting drilled by Purdue because I think everybody was
- 27:44kind of jazzed up that maybe they'd get Purdue, but they
- 27:48needed to get kind of a signature win to to kind of, I
- 27:53think solidify themselves in the NCAA tournament.
- 27:56They still got work to do like most teams do, but but they just
- 28:01needed this. And I think from a fan
- 28:05perspective, the fans needed to be convinced and seen that, hey,
- 28:09I can go to a game and I can make a difference and be loud
- 28:12and Carver can can get going like Hilton always is.
- 28:17And I think they did that. They they gave a good
- 28:21advertisement to those students in particular.
- 28:24Come back here. It's a good time and you can
- 28:26have a lot of fun and maybe you can get your your phone slapped
- 28:29out of your hands by Fred Oyberg.
- 28:31You get in the, you sneak into the handshake line.
- 28:35I found it interesting. So Iowa comes out with their
- 28:37release on that and says there was a breach in the security.
- 28:41OK, that happens. Have we heard anything at all
- 28:43from the Nebraska side? Not really Fred, just I just saw
- 28:48a video of Fred spoke about it at his press conference today
- 28:51and said he really appreciated that Iowa apologized and he said
- 28:54he reached out to the guy was staff members and he ended up
- 28:57hitting accidentally and apologized to them right when
- 29:03that happened and then apologized to him yesterday.
- 29:06And Fred even talked about how you know, something with his
- 29:10because he's, you know, obviously had the heart issues
- 29:12over the years that the the pacemaker with, with stuff like
- 29:15that, that it, it could trigger something with him.
- 29:17So he's very kind of cognizant about stuff like that.
- 29:22So you understand why, you know, it happened and the person
- 29:28didn't need to be there. It just that's, that's just, you
- 29:33know, he they came around the opposite side where there was no
- 29:36security and that's kind of how it worked.
- 29:39And he got in that that line and they were trying.
- 29:41I saw some of the students trying to go get after Price a
- 29:44little bit too. I mean, just leave people alone.
- 29:46I mean, Iowa had to put up with that at Minnesota, too.
- 29:48They were kind of got caught in that, in that court storm.
- 29:53And and, you know, things were said to the Iowa players too,
- 29:56that day. But that's just, again, part of
- 29:59college sports. But one of the dangers of the
- 30:01court storm is, you know, stupid things can happen, and we saw
- 30:06one of them happen on Tuesday. And Fred Hoiberg for his look,
- 30:10you know, he just looks like the all American boy, right?
- 30:13That guy is a competitor and talked to people that played
- 30:16hoops against him back in the day, talk to people that still
- 30:18see him on the golf course and they say, yeah, he might look
- 30:21really nice, but there is a competitive drive inside of him.
- 30:24And no surprise, after a tough loss like that, a little
- 30:26frustration definitely bounces out.
- 30:29I have a feeling it's going to be frustrating against
- 30:31Wisconsin. Mentioned it a bit earlier with
- 30:32you, Tom. Those guards getting downhill,
- 30:34that is incredibly scary. Wisconsin coming off that ugly
- 30:37performance for them. Iowa coming off an emotional
- 30:39win. It's going to take a lot here.
- 30:41So what is the game plan? What is it going to take for
- 30:44Iowa to go in there to Madison and pull off a win?
- 30:48Yeah, they're really dangerous because what's been this thing
- 30:52that's gotten Iowa quite a bit this year, and especially in
- 30:55this this stretch where they haven't had good defense, it's
- 30:57been downhill driving cards. Guess what Nick Boyd and John
- 31:00Blackwell do? They drive hard to the hole and,
- 31:03and Boyd's a little different too, because he's a lefty.
- 31:06So you're just not used to it. So you got to kind of overplay
- 31:08that left hand a little bit. And so that's that's the danger
- 31:13too. And, and obviously different
- 31:16coaching staff, different players this year, but Blackwell
- 31:20lit Iowa up last year up in Madison.
- 31:22Remember that game where I hit 6 threes and scored 32 points?
- 31:25And so, you know, he's he's gotten comfortable against
- 31:30shooting against the Iowa jersey.
- 31:32They're going to have their hands full because they've got
- 31:36they've got to score some points.
- 31:38And the other thing that Wisconsin's got is they've got
- 31:41bigs that can step out and shoot the ball a little bit too.
- 31:43So Iowa's got to find other options and other players score
- 31:49some points beyond just, OK, let's hold it for 30 seconds and
- 31:53let Bennett create and hopefully something goodwill happen.
- 31:56You just can't. You can't live and die by that
- 31:59each game moving forward. Gonna get into the women here at
- 32:02a moment. A little football talk as well
- 32:03with Tom Caker from Hawkeye Report.
- 32:06I got a few texts from people at the game, the Sanfords.
- 32:10They kept cutting to him on TV. And I'm sure much like fans of
- 32:14everybody outside of Iowa got sick of seeing Caitlin Clark's
- 32:16parents, you know, in the stands of them, cutting to them
- 32:18continuously throughout the cars of the game and then wearing the
- 32:21red. It was all right, a little
- 32:23little bit frustrating there. You mentioned the chance, but
- 32:26how about Sherm Dillard hanging out with the Sanfords?
- 32:27What do you think of that? Yeah, Sherm's been around, Yes,
- 32:32I think must still be in town, living in Iowa City and.
- 32:36Hanging a 30 hop. He was around.
- 32:40Probably he was. He was.
- 32:42Around, he was around, Kirks were always there, and Kirks
- 32:46spent a lot of the games too, and they were pretty excited.
- 32:50Just that mainly Sherman and Kirk were there to kind of spend
- 32:56some time with Aaron White, who was back for the first time
- 32:59since his last game. So they were, it was great to
- 33:03see why he and why he's just why he's the same guy and got 4 kids
- 33:07now, fifth one on the way. And so he's he's obviously got a
- 33:10big family, but he's playing over in Japan and doing really
- 33:13well. Making money and coming back
- 33:16sometime after his playing career finishes up, you have to
- 33:18assume and he's going to have a big contingent with them and
- 33:20maybe some future Hawkeye hoopers there.
- 33:22Coveted in dad's spotlight, as we've obviously seen here
- 33:25recently with Iowa. Why don't you jump over to the
- 33:27women, great first half out of them and then playing with your
- 33:31food. Just a Workman like victory in
- 33:33the second-half against Purdue. Purdue, I know, was also down.
- 33:36One of their better players, one of their better shooters was out
- 33:38of this one. But really, the story continues
- 33:40to be, even playing without Hannah Stalky, it's Taylor
- 33:43Stremmelow. Taylor Stremmelow who we'd
- 33:45always know. She has never lacked for
- 33:47confidence, right? You can see that right away as a
- 33:48freshman. She is a kind of person that
- 33:51people like to rally around. But her game seems to be
- 33:53catching up. Those turnovers are getting cut
- 33:55down. She's knocking down 3 pointers.
- 33:57If they get this Taylor Stremmelow, this is a team that
- 34:00can get to the second week and get to a Sweet 16, but on top of
- 34:03it maybe win an extra game. Yeah, they were, you know,
- 34:07they're wondering where they would go direction wise with the
- 34:10the guard position with the Taylor McCabe out for the season
- 34:14with the ACL and initially tried that a deal and it just it just
- 34:19seemed a little bit much for her.
- 34:21And, you know, I thought Addie gave him some good minutes last
- 34:23night too. But but Stromlo, 19 points in
- 34:26the first half, five of five from three.
- 34:29She really played well turnovers down.
- 34:32She'll throw some crazy passes every once in a while.
- 34:35She likes to just get a little Pete Maravich to her passing
- 34:38game, real behind the backs and some stuff like that.
- 34:42But it'll it'll wild the crowd a little bit and sometimes it
- 34:45works. Sometimes She wouldn't have
- 34:47thrown that one, but they had him.
- 34:50Ava Haydn was just the dominant force in the game.
- 34:53They had no answer for Ava the entire game.
- 34:57And yeah, just played well. I thought hopefully Hannah will
- 35:02be back for the game Sunday. I mean, as big as the game is
- 35:05for the men on Sunday, it's even bigger probably for the women
- 35:07because Michigan is a nationally ranked team.
- 35:10And Iowa can potentially move up in the the seedings for the Big
- 35:1510 tournament with the with the win against the Wolverines, who
- 35:19are playing really good basketball.
- 35:21So hopefully they and they probably can't.
- 35:24You know, it'd be tough to win without Hannah against Michigan.
- 35:28Michigan team that is the only team in the Big 10 that's really
- 35:30given UCLA any kind of tussle. They had opportunity to win that
- 35:34game a couple of weekends ago. So they're playing well.
- 35:37Not a great 3 point shooting team, but they're athletic,
- 35:39they're quick and they force turnovers.
- 35:41And that goes back to kind of where we started the
- 35:43conversation with Taylor Strumlow.
- 35:44But as a whole, we've seen this Iowa team struggle turning the
- 35:47ball over. They turn it over 1518 times
- 35:50against Michigan. I think they're going to be
- 35:52cooked. Yeah, they had 19 turnovers the
- 35:55other night and that that second-half was just where they
- 35:58were just struggling even to get it up the court sometimes
- 36:01because they were turning it over so much and they got to
- 36:04take care of the ball. Chitchat didn't have a great
- 36:06game shooting the ball against Purdue, so hopefully she can
- 36:12bounce back because when she gets her shot going just makes
- 36:16Iowa a better team I think. Wrap it up with a little
- 36:18football talk with Tom Caker from Hawkeye Report.
- 36:21Tom, Omar Young off to the NFL after one season.
- 36:25Go back to I know you were there down in Florida when Kamari
- 36:28Moulton was talking about the relationship.
- 36:31Strain's not the right word. It just seemed off.
- 36:33It's very rare when a question comes up about a coach and the
- 36:36kind of response that Bolton gave.
- 36:39I guess this doesn't come as a shock, but for the second
- 36:41straight year, looking for a new running back coach.
- 36:44Just didn't seem like a great fit.
- 36:47I don't know if Omar's heart was in it.
- 36:49I think Omar came for a job and not to not as a destination.
- 36:54So I'm going to be interested this time because one of the
- 36:57finalists for the job was Jason Manson, who was, you know, kind
- 37:00of in a analyst role right now for the offense.
- 37:04And it's working with the offense, but quarterbacks a
- 37:08little bit. Just wonder if maybe they'll
- 37:12slide him into that position. But I know Kirk's going to open
- 37:15it up. There was somebody else that
- 37:17interviewed for the job, but I've never been able to figure
- 37:19out who it was. But there were like 3 candidates
- 37:22at the end, and Omar was one of them.
- 37:24Jason Manson was one of them. And there was somebody else that
- 37:27Tim Lester really liked. And Kirk really kind of let's
- 37:30Tim Lester kind of make the final decision or at least give
- 37:34the final recommendation to him. So it's somebody that Tim Lester
- 37:38is going to be comfortable with too.
- 37:40So we'll see what happens. Yeah, Jason Manson would make a
- 37:44lot of sense. And you're talking about a
- 37:45destination former Hawkeye player now with Sons on the
- 37:48team. That one obviously would be kind
- 37:50of the easiest 1. He also moved up from the player
- 37:52developmental role into an offensive staff member this last
- 37:55season. So I guess if, you know, I like
- 37:58odds a little bit, he'd be the betting favorite at this point.
- 38:00And I, I saw and I get a chuckle and I've seen that in your
- 38:04message boards for 25 years. Now is all right, there's a
- 38:07coaching opening. Doesn't matter if it's a head
- 38:09coach or assistant. Now here comes the slew of
- 38:10former Hawkeyes. But the Albert one young one
- 38:13that was thrown out, I kind of like that one.
- 38:17Yeah, Albert Young would be interesting.
- 38:20I don't know that he has any college experience at this point
- 38:23yet, but that might be the the knock on him.
- 38:28But yeah, there's Desmond King and Marvin Mcnutt and you know,
- 38:33it's it's always you get the Rolodex out of former Iowa
- 38:38players. And I'm sure those guys.
- 38:40You know, I think AY would be interesting, especially because
- 38:44he's going to he'd open up some doors maybe in recruiting in New
- 38:46Jersey again, But we'll have to have to see where what direction
- 38:52Kirk goes. You know, there's one time where
- 38:54he went to a high school running backs coach or a high school
- 39:00coach in in Florida, and that was Liddell Bats.
- 39:03Worked out well. Worked out well and now, but
- 39:06once those guys get in that that NFL roulette, they want to stay
- 39:10in that thing because it's a heck of a lot easier than trying
- 39:13to navigate the world today of college sports.
- 39:15One final thing I saw over with your guys's recruiting side of
- 39:19things and some talk about potentially Iowa in some pretty
- 39:22big quarterback targets out of the high school level.
- 39:25You know, is it a real sign that Tim Lester is starting his
- 39:29messaging starting to work? We've seen some improvements in
- 39:32the passing game. It's also very early in the
- 39:34process for a lot of those guys. Some good names, some exciting
- 39:37names are those quarterbacks that I was in on and has some
- 39:40visits coming up. Are you optimistic that I was
- 39:42going to be able to land a a big name out of the high school
- 39:45market for a quarterback next year?
- 39:48I actually AM I think they they've gotten in with some good
- 39:53guys now. They were really in on the
- 39:55Braylon Warren kid from Omaha West side, but he committed to
- 40:00to Mizzou in December. You know, they they, but there's
- 40:04there's a good crop in the Chicago area this year, which
- 40:08which is going to help. And Jake New Rock was one of the
- 40:11guys from Hershey High School who's.
- 40:14Dad was, you know, former Hawkeye.
- 40:16So I there's some ties there with the with the Iowa program.
- 40:21He's going to be visiting in April, so we'll see if they can
- 40:24get him. But Israel Abrams is another kid
- 40:26that they're really interested in from Montanini Catholic up in
- 40:31Chicago. So that that's another guy to
- 40:34watch in that group. But they're they've got some
- 40:37good options and I think they feel pretty good about the
- 40:41options that they have right now.
- 40:43Tom Caker joining us as he does Fridays.
- 40:45Appreciate the time as always Tom and road trip for you up to
- 40:48mad time. You leaving Saturday morning are
- 40:50you going to or Sunday morning are you going to go up a day
- 40:52early? I'm going to go up Sunday
- 40:54morning, just going to hang out at home and watch some good
- 40:58college basketball on Saturday with, you know, Duke and
- 41:01Michigan and Arizona, Houston. I mean, there's some good
- 41:05college buckets coming up, so that'd be fun.
- 41:07Safe travels up to Madison. We'll talk to you next week.
- 41:10OK, thanks. That's Tom Caker,
- 41:12hawkeyereport.com as we talk Hawkeyes on a Friday.
- 41:16Coming up next on Miller and Conda.
- 41:18Nick Maravitz hanging out with me today.
- 41:20We are going to get into couple of news items, including is this
- 41:25real, the Chicago Bears to Indiana.
- 41:28That's next. Wrapping up our number one of
- 41:41two, it's Miller in Condon on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
- 41:45I'm Trent Condon, joined by Nick Maravitz.
- 41:47Locked on Cyclones. Yes, I hit the locked on Hawkeye
- 41:50side of things. And Nick, boy, you've had a lot
- 41:53of content here. You've got a content machine
- 41:55over there with the Cyclones, football and basketball.
- 41:58What you got in here over the last month or so?
- 42:00It's been very busy is one way to put it for sure.
- 42:03We're super excited about the football side of things.
- 42:05I went and listened to all of the coaches that spoke to the
- 42:08media and I'll tell you what Ross Watson is, is one of my
- 42:11favorites. I the way that guy speaks.
- 42:14I just fired up for this new staff.
- 42:16And then on basketball side of things, obviously just an
- 42:19incredible year. No matter how it ends.
- 42:21It's been a a super fun 2-3 months here.
- 42:25Not been fun for Bears fans in Chicago.
- 42:27And after the talk for years now, Arlington Heights was going
- 42:31to be the destination. The family bought the land out
- 42:34there where the racetrack was. This was going to be an easy go
- 42:36of it. Well, it isn't.
- 42:38And you know, talking earlier this week, we had David Kaplan
- 42:41on from ESPN 1000. He brought up something
- 42:44absolutely crazy, was absolutely befuddling.
- 42:47If they go ahead with the plans at Arlington Heights and the tax
- 42:50rate that is currently there doesn't change on a yearly basis
- 42:54just in taxes, the Chicago Bears and the family would have to
- 42:59spend 100, $1,000,000 a year just in taxes.
- 43:04You talk about cutting off your knees.
- 43:05That is the case. That was what I heard that from
- 43:08Kathy. That was the most eye opening
- 43:09thing to me, just showing that the financials, all right,
- 43:12they're all rich people, who really cares.
- 43:14That's a completely different level compared to what they go.
- 43:18In fact, a place that's actually closer to downtown Chicago in
- 43:20Hammond, IN than Arlington Heights would be.
- 43:23That one, though, was an eye opener, and it certainly makes
- 43:25sense from the financial component.
- 43:27Nobody in the NFL pays $100 million a year in taxes.
- 43:31Yeah, well, just even comprehending that number is is
- 43:35hard for me to wrap my head around.
- 43:36So I guess I can't necessarily blame them for shopping around.
- 43:39And and when you brought this segment up to me, I wanted to
- 43:42ask you a question. It was the first thing that
- 43:43popped in my mind because we talked about if the bears were
- 43:46to come to Iowa, right? Like, what would that look like?
- 43:49I mean, would you rather the bears be in Indiana or somewhere
- 43:52in Iowa? That that would be a crazy
- 43:54thought that Iowa finally, because how many years has it
- 43:57been where it's I oh, we don't have a pro team, but you can't
- 43:59say that anymore. It was grandstanding out of, and
- 44:03I don't even know who introduced it, you know, out of out of our
- 44:05people. We don't talk politics here, but
- 44:08that's the ultimate grand state. There is no way in the world.
- 44:11Hammond, it's just a suburb, right?
- 44:13It's connected to Chicago. They're not coming to Quad
- 44:15Cities. They're not coming to Davenport.
- 44:16They're not going to put them in Mason City.
- 44:18It's not going to happen. It is going to be somewhere in
- 44:21the Chicagoland area. And Hammond makes the most sense
- 44:24with the brakes that are there and he can make fun of it.
- 44:27But there's so many teams that do the same thing.
- 44:29In fact, Hammond IN is closer, as I mentioned, than Arlington
- 44:32Heights. You have other teams, the Giants
- 44:35and The Jets don't play in New York or still the New York Jets,
- 44:38they play in New Jersey. We have the Commanders who don't
- 44:40play in DC anymore, though they're going to go back
- 44:43eventually. They play in Virginia.
- 44:45This happens all over the place. I mean, look at the gap in the
- 44:47distance between Santa Clara and San Francisco that is 45 miles
- 44:51away in terms of just actual mileage.
- 44:54And when you talk about drivetime, a lot longer than a
- 44:5745 minute drive for that. They're just so many components
- 45:00that I think it does make sense. And the financial aspect is a
- 45:03big one. This is also not an organization
- 45:06that is run just by a hedge fund millionaire, right?
- 45:08Billionaire. That's not what this is.
- 45:10This is still more of a family business though.
- 45:12They're acting finally financially more like a big boy
- 45:15in the way that they should as an order of the Chicago Bears.
- 45:18That is also a component. It's just there's so many things
- 45:21that outside of if you are a Chicagoan, I really don't think
- 45:25should matter. And me as a Bears fan, this is a
- 45:27nothing burger. Put them wherever makes sense of
- 45:31whatever ultimately helps you as an organization the most
- 45:34financially. I'm fine with that.
- 45:36And it would be a great thing, I think, for not just the area
- 45:39having that kind of building, just because the address happens
- 45:42to, say, Indiana, it's still the Chicago Bears.
- 45:45That's what I was going to ask. And to piggyback off of the
- 45:47financial side of things, when you look at like what the
- 45:50Broncos did right or what they've kind of done since they
- 45:52brought Sean Payton in, it does prove that money and ownership
- 45:58is a very real part of the NFL. We talk about money on the
- 46:00college side of things all the time, but it's very real in in
- 46:04the NFL side as well. Nick Berevitz hanging out with
- 46:06me today, Trent, Connor Miller and Connor continues our number
- 46:092 next on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.