KXEL Presents: The Jacobsen Group Podcast - March 18, 2023

Hello, this is John Jacobson and welcome to this podcast of The Jacobson Group.

We're on the radio on News Talk 1540KXEL each weekend and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of the podcasts of the program.

Prepare to be informed, entertained, and amazed right after this.

Good morning, Eastern Iowa.

This is Scott Corey with Mike Shane at the Controls.

You are listening to the John Jacobson Report here on KXEL 1540, the Blowtorch, brought to you by the great Dr. Jeff Stein.

And we are joined on our March Madness Bracketology with the great coach, Patrick J. Knapp Jr.

from the desert in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and Creighton slash Cyclone Fanatic.

Chip Reedman who's gonna join us and wallow in my misery as our Hawkeye men struggled on Thursday evening down in Alabama.

And so we have so much to go over today.

It's a great time to be a part of basketball at March Madness.

We have the men tournament with some major upsets on Thursday.

We have the women kicking off at Carver Hawkeye Arena there on Saturday or Friday afternoon.

We have so much to go.

We're so grateful you be a part of us here on KX.

And with that theme song, we all know what that means.

Coach Patrick Day Knapp Jr.

joins us.

Coach Knapp, thank you for joining us on this great weekend.

March Madness is one of those great weekends in all of American sports.

I'd like to get your thoughts on kind of some of the games that started already and how far has your bracket gone?

Did it make it even past two o'clock central time?

No, I did okay.

Excuse me, I'm very sorry for that.

I did pretty good actually, but staying with our Iowa Hawkeyes, I did have that over under and I sneaked that over, which was incredible

at

151.5 as Auburn beat Iowa yesterday evening.

I did have West Virginia, who beat Maryland.

I did have Charleston, so San Diego State won that one.

I did not have Princeton, who upset Arizona.

I did have the other upset, firm in Virginia.

The other game that bothered me last night, boy, is Penn State on a roll.

I had Texas A&M.

meeting their in-state rival, Texas, later this weekend, but that will not be.

Jalen Pickett and Penn State and Micah Shrewsbury, the coach are just on a roll, nailing threes all over the place.

So that was my day yesterday.

You know, Chip, Raymond, how is your shoulder?

Is it true that you have to go see an orthopedic surgeon next week because a viewer in Des Moines and you threw your shoulder out, throwing the horn's down sign all throughout the Wells Fargo arena?

It's more like hand cramps is what I'm fighting.

So just home therapy, squeezing a rubber ball.

That's about all I can do right now.

Well, you know, as we get through the March Madness coach and ship, I'd like to get some of your thoughts.

It's one of those great times of the year, I believe, where you have so many upsets and we've already talked about a few of them and we'll go into more in depth to some heartbreaking losses to alluded to the Iowa game.

Let's talk a little bit about that.

You know, coach,

and I and Chip we were all texting Thursday evening and I said the over was dead with about 15 minutes to go in the second half but all of a sudden Iowa kind of caught fire but it's too little too late.

We are in year 13 of the Fran McCaffrey coaching in Iowa City.

Zero sweet 16s.

Iowa has not been to a sweet 16 since Dr. Tom Davis in 1999.

It's another first game exit to something that Dr. Tom never did at Iowa.

He always won on the first weekend.

What is going on and where does Iowa go from their coaching chip?

Well, they don't have enough dudes and by dudes in the vernacular of college basketball, pros,

Pro-like guys.

You don't need a whole team of them, but you need a couple.

You need a couple of pros.

And Murray, Chris Murray is up and down, to be very honest with you.

He caught fire too late last night.

I don't believe they have a dominant guard.

I believe their role players are excellent in the Gaffrey boys in particular.

And I don't think they have much in the middle.

Even though Rabaccha does the best he can, that big dude, Barum, from Auburn, could have had 30.

He was jumping over top of them the whole game and missing that little left-handed hook, although he did play well enough.

Too many shots at the rim against Iowa for Auburn, and Auburn always plays sticky defense.

To me, that was the difference.

You know, we talked a little bit about what happened.

Another exit, you know, Iowa had a three game losing streak in the season.

A loss at senior day at home to a struggling Nebraska team.

First round exit in the Big Ten tournament and then a first round exit in the NCAA tournament.

Chip Reidman, what is going on?

I maintain that there is a curse.

There is a stench over the University of Iowa basketball program and it all started when then athletic director Bob Bolesby fired.

and did not renew Dr. Tom Davis' contract.

And ever since then, Iowa has struggled in the tournament.

We've had higher seats under other coaches, but we just can't get out of the first round.

What needs to happen in Iowa City?

I think there's some changes probably in calls in order, but I don't know about the Fran deal.

I just, I don't know if there's enough to justify letting them go.

Is it enough to say that he has got him in the tournament despite maybe a low record on wins?

I'm just not sure there's enough reason for them to get rid of him.

I was kind of looking over the game.

I did watch most of it.

I know you guys were rather distraught, especially coming down to the last couple of minutes and were kind of half thrown in the towel.

I guess I wasn't that pessimistic about him.

I thought, getting to the end of the game, I thought they had a chance to pull it out.

I'm not exactly sure.

I must say, roughly two minutes, maybe a little bit less.

They were down by seven points.

Three baskets.

We all know what happened at Michigan State.

Now, looking back on that, is that really more of a miracle than the team just getting their act together?

I don't know.

But like you said, they kind of caught fire in the second half.

And you just never know.

I thought they actually had a chance to maybe at least get it into overtime.

And as disappointing as it was, they just couldn't finish it out.

And Auburn

Coach, you're right.

That guy under the basket was just a beast.

He was just hard to get around.

You made some excellent points about their lack of NBA talent.

But I was just thinking as a team that they could make things work out, and it just never happened.

The stats show that it was really an even game.

I mean, it wasn't that far off.

The only stat that really jumps out of me is the fast break points, which obviously, when you recall the game, the horror of that is Auburn had a lot of fast break points.

during the game but other than that it wasn't there was no huge discrepancy you know in the scoring other than you know because both teams struggled three points until Auburn had that one run you take away that one run and we got a whole different outcome.

Well I think what coach would like to get your thoughts on this I think is an Iowa fan my entire life and talking to some folks over the weekend.

What kind of bothers us about what's going on under under Fran and don't get me wrong.

Him and Margaret have done a great job at the University of Iowa.

They've done so much for the Children's Hospital in the community, but Iowa took on a Auburn team.

who was coached by Bruce Pearl, who was an assistant coach under Dr. Tom Davis in Iowa.

And Bruce Pearl has been in Tennessee.

He's been in Auburn.

He's made runs in the tournament.

He's had exits as well.

But for whatever reason, coach, it just seems that Fran, when he gets into March, he struggles in this tournament.

And is it a coaching philosophy?

Does his guys run out of gas?

Is it the Wilson basketball that we're here and talk about on social media?

What is kind of the combination?

Well, obviously not having watched all 13 NCAA games right in front of me immediately, or having the box scores even, to kind of string together a trend, I could tell you that as a coach, Fran feels it too.

There's absolutely no way you want to go into the NCAA tournament.

13 years in a row and not win.

That's difficult.

That's difficult.

And believe me, he's looking for answers as well.

I can only speak to this team right now.

And that is, like I said, I don't think they have a dominant guard.

Murray has been hot and cold to me.

And there's not enough dudes.

Defensively, I like what they do to mask their... It's like Jay Wright said,

on the TBS pregame show, they don't let bad defense, their bad defense, affect their offense.

They will always do good things offensively, one of the better offensive minds in the country with the things that Iowa does.

But they don't have enough athletes and Auburn was attacking them the entire time and disrupted them enough

to win that ball game.

So I don't have an answer as to why every NCAA exit, but I can tell you that it bothers the coach as well.

You know, we talk about dudes and things like that.

Iowa does have a dude, or a dudeette we should mention, and that is Caitlyn Clark.

The number two seeded Iowa is hosting later this weekend.

They have a couple games in Iowa City.

Coach, I think I saw on social media in your bracket, you have a certain Caitlyn Clark-led basketball team going to the Final Four.

Is that true?

Yeah, I do.

I do.

I think the women's...

As much as they want to tell you that the women's bracket is open, I think you will see, excuse me, in the first and second rounds, you could see some upsets.

But in the end, I believe Chalk will prevail.

And even though Iowa is two seed, Stanford hasn't been on its game the last month of the season either.

Caitlin Clark and her crew

senior laden crew, experienced group, I believe will make it to the final four with South Carolina where the train will stop, unfortunately, although that will be a player of the year battle supreme that everybody must watch on TV.

The other side, the bracket is crazy.

I do have Indiana going all the way through, although LSU could be the spoiler there.

And I'm going to take my buddy Geno Oriama in Connecticut to get to the final four.

I just don't believe Virginia Tech is a household name yet.

So we shall see.

I think everybody out there should be watching the women's basketball tournament as well in the coming weeks.

you know, and Chip and coach like to get your thoughts on this too.

Here we are talking about the middle of the men's tournament, but Caitlin Clark and the Iowa women have basically captured the heart and minds of not only the state of Iowa, but basically the entire nation in the Midwest.

And there was an uproar that Iowa did not get a one seed.

Think of that.

How far the Iowa program has come where they got a number two seed, but they felt slighted.

And I mean, that shows the kind of

that the University of Iowa is getting under Coach Bluter and I don't think she gets enough credit to be honest.

For what she's done, I don't know if she was maybe at a Yukon or South Carolina, maybe she'd get more credit.

But I think she is one of the maybe top three to five coaches in the, or not only in the conference, but in the nation.

Well,

sometimes I want her to fly over country.

Go

ahead, Jeff.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I just wonder if it's a flyover country situation that the media out on the coast just don't pay attention to her.

Yeah, she's done a marvelous job this year.

I don't see a huge problem with it from the standpoint that maybe it's going to inspire them to play a little bit harder.

Coach can probably speak to that a little better if that really does happen out on the court.

But maybe that's going to give them a good chance to prove that they do belong, that they should be the team.

you know, that should have been ranked number one.

You know, coach, I'd like to get your thoughts.

I mean, here we are talking about one of the most high profile and high powered teams in the country.

And they're going to go in there with a chip on the shoulder because they got a two seed.

That just shows how far Lisa Bluter has brought this Iowa program.

Well, she is without a doubt one of the top three coaches on the list for coach of the national coach of the year this year.

And, again, she has been consistent throughout.

And she wins NCAA games.

So the people in Iowa should be very happy.

I agree.

She's undervalued out there.

She's not known out there.

But she has the best player in the country right now, so people should tune in.

You know, and that's a great point too, because I think I saw, and I don't know if the number is quite right, but basically the university sold out Carver Hawkeye Arena over 14,000 tickets and basically 50 some minutes for their first couple rounds at Carver Hawkeye Arena.

So that just shows the kind of star power that Blooter as well as the the Caitlyn Clarks of the world have brought to the women's program.

And I think it's kind of unfair to them in a certain extent because they're playing on a Friday afternoon in Iowa City.

But at the same time the men's national conference tournaments are going on too.

I mean that's not really fair to the women's program.

I don't think coaching ship

Yeah, I think that's a very good point.

Yeah, in the past ESPN and the NCAA used to separate these things where the women would go Saturday, Monday and

Yeah, it's changed.

There's no doubt that it's changed.

There's a lot of overlap.

Some of it, mistakenly, I believe, but on a positive light, some of it may be the fact that now the women can't hold their own with an audience.

As you can see at these home sites, which many of them will sell out, Iowa, Yukon, Stanford, many others.

So that's a positive for the women's game.

You know, we talk about our audience and we're so grateful that you're tuning in today on KXEL 1540.

You're listening to the Jacobson report here with Scott Corey, Mike Shane at the controls.

We got coach Patrick J. Knapp Jr.

from Las Cruces, New Mexico, who has taken his Georgetown women to the sweet 16 and we have Creighton slash.

Cyclon fanatic chip read me on the line talking to us this week about one of the greatest weekends in sports the March Madness and the Bracketology and Switching gears just a little bit back to the men's conference.

I know we have some big games We have an Iowa State program that it plays on Friday.

We have a Drake program Drake I mean they are the state of Iowa put in some tremendous teams into the conference or excuse me in the NCAA tournament both men and women this year and you know, we have a crazy

What are your thoughts?

How far can Iowa State and Creighton go?

I'm going to use the old jinx on them.

I'm going to say they're a sweet 16 team just to get them out of the first round.

Well, thank you very much.

I appreciate your honesty.

That's

what I'm here for, Chip.

That's what I'm here for.

I've got multiple pools out there.

I've got Creighton anywhere from losing the first round to making it and winning the sweet 16.

I'm just all over the board on that one.

It's interesting, I was watching CBS and they had their four main guys talking and they put up all 68 teams and they went through the analysis of what guarantees a team will not make it to the finals.

And one of the stats they brought up was if you've lost more than five games in a season, you're not going to make it to the finals.

Of course, I don't expect Creighton to go that far, but Creighton is one of the few teams.

I think there's only two of them they took out at that point because they had a six game losing streak.

So you have to have some concern about how they're finishing up a season.

They had some good wins.

They did finish up with a couple of good wins at the end, but it was a lower bracket teams in the conference.

So that's understandable.

I just don't know who's going to show up.

Let's take the Iowa Auburn game for a moment.

When I was looking at those, that Auburn team

Those guys looked huge.

I don't know why.

Maybe it was just some illusion.

Iowa looked skinny compared to a lot of these guys.

And I think a Corkbrenner, I think Corkbrenner is going to have a tough time with some of these big centers if he starts running into them.

I think he's had a problem with them in the past.

His height has kind of overcome some problems.

But he's going to have to be on his A game to try and get him through this situation.

Ultimately, I think that when the first game, the second game is kind of a toss up.

So I'm not sure what's going to happen after that point.

Iowa State is another story.

There again, another one that's up and down.

We've talked about this in some past conversations.

They lose to teams that are unranked.

They beat the teams that are ranked.

Baylor as an example.

Who, Clayton, would get the second round?

Again, who's going to show up?

I really don't know.

They're not known to be a high-scoring team.

and that's going to be pretty critical in this tournament.

Coach, what are your thoughts?

I mean, if Creighton goes to the sweet 16 or the lead eight, I'm concerned not only for my health and well-being, but also John Jacobson, because I'm afraid he's just going to go completely off the deep end and just be in a puddle of tears and a mess.

What are your thoughts?

Do we have to get the straight jacket out for Jacobson if they do make it that far?

Get the straight jacket

and the crying towels out baby.

I got Creighton going to the sweet 16 The issue is You know what happens in that other bracket a lot of prognosticators are talking about UC Santa Barbara being the upset darling against Baylor They were struggled at the end of the year as well as athletic as they are They're way more inconsistent than they've been in the past

So I have one pool with Creighton's playing Ted and Barbara and the other pool where they're playing Baylor, but I have Creighton coming out with that one.

Iowa State has a tough road.

They play a tough pit team today who has already shaken off the nerves in the first round play-in game.

That's always dangerous.

And Iowa State will battle them defensively.

I think they'll take away a lot of pits threes.

have Iowa State winning that game.

I just think that they are on a good mojo as the year ended.

And then we'll see what they can do against Xavier.

So it's a toss-up day today.

I guess the upset darling, if you look at the games, a lot of people are taking Drake over Miami.

Miami does have an injury, so they are down a starter.

So that's a key thing there.

The other game that I'm interested in watching

being from the East Coast and a big East sky is Yukon Iona.

Now Iona is not in the big East, but their coach Rick Petino was a legend at Providence and a Hall of Fame coach, albeit some scores on the resume.

Rick Petino versus Danny Hurley, Yukon.

There's another one.

Yukon under Danny Hurley has not won an NCAA game yet in five years.

A lot of pressure on Danny Hurley and Yukon today.

Watch that

game.

That's a shot.

I had no idea.

Are you serious?

Coach Yukon has never won with Hurley as coach, has never won in the tournament.

In five years, early on they were either NIT or didn't go in because he took over a program that went on probation, if you remember.

And the last two times he's been in the tournament,

Game one they've lost and guess who they lost to last year, New Mexico State.

Coach, you've got that circled.

You're going to remember that for a long, long time.

Talk to us real briefly here as we are listening to a 1540KXEL brought to you by Dr. Jeff Stein here, the Jacobson Report, Scott Corey, Mike Shane, Coach Patrick J. Knapp Jr., as well as Chip Reidman.

What is the dominant team out there?

Is it going to be a Kansas?

Is it Houston?

I don't, Houston to me is not going to be the dominant team.

You know, who is that team that we all can rally around?

to say that's probably going to be our national champion right now

coach i know you spent a lot of time or texting and stuff talking about injuries i'd although that wasn't a great game by houston i really kind of think that they're going to go a long ways also had arizona go a long way and see what that got me

well that was brutal

feeling it's yeah i got this feeling about arizona or excuse me uh... houston and kansas are the two teams i'm looking at david is my wild card

You're concerned about I know about the one player was a hamstring injury But the other feeling is that he'll be back if they can get to the first weekend That he'll be back for the second weekend and that's when things are probably gonna ramp up on him So that's probably the the two teams Kansas Houston and wild card is Xavier Which some people probably think I should be saying Marquette, but

that's what I've got out there Yeah, you know Houston is troublesome to me.

I I think this is a fairy tale story

If they get to the Final Four in their home city and Jim Nantz, who started his career as a Houston student announcer for the 4-5 Slamma Jamma back then, he ends his career in the Final Four at Houston with his old team in it.

But if Marcus Sasser isn't healthy, I don't see it.

Houston didn't look good last night.

You were right, Chip.

They play Auburn tomorrow.

Uh, or, uh, yeah, I guess that would be Saturday and, uh, that'll be a tough game.

So as I look at the brackets, it's crazy.

Uh, I thought that Texas, uh, with their, uh, interim head coach may have a problem.

I think they're going to be on a roll.

They're one team to look at.

Uh, I'm not buying, uh,

on the west.

I'm not buying Kansas goes all the way.

I think Bill Self is worth a lot of points in each game.

So I have Gonzaga there.

Alabama to me goes all the way and Marquette is the other team that I'm fairly certain can make a run.

I think Purdue cannot handle Marquette's pressure.

That'll be interesting.

the rug rats of Marquette running around pressing against a seven four guy in the middle who's the player of the year for Purdue.

So I like Marquette.

I do like Texas.

I like Gonzaga and the other Alabama without a doubt getting there.

If I can throw in Scott.

So coach you say about Bama.

A lot of people were talking that Arizona is probably one of the teams that was going to knock off Bama, which

That's my bracket buster at this point.

I would almost throw out there if you're saying Creighton is going to make it through the sweet 16.

A lot of people just don't think Alabama is that good.

I almost wonder if that's going to give them the opportunity to make it to an Alabama game with no Arizona there.

If they can get past Baylor, they're down in Missouri and Princeton.

Princeton obviously being an upset.

Missouri, I'm just not that sold on that team.

We could theoretically have an Alabama Craydon game coming to the elite eight if Craydon can get past what I feel is the biggest hurdle is the Baylor game.

You know, that's a great point, too.

As we move into March, you know, it's the great thing about March Madness, the Bracketology, you're going to have a lot of upsets, but you're also going to have a lot of chalk.

But as we move through the program here, this is a Jacobson report with Scott Corey, Mike Shane at the controls, Coach Patrick J. Knapp, Jr., as well as Chip Reidman.

We have a special interview coming up now with our great sponsor, Barb Hames Bryant.

You know Mike Shane as we move through the weekend and the Springs are right around the corner one of the great segments of the week in my opinion is talking with Barbara Hames Bryant Hames Bryant Homes and she is just one of those people that not only Warms my heart, but makes me so proud to not only be an Iowan But everything that she does in Eastern, Iowa is just tremendous Barbara.

Thank you for joining the program today.

There's so much going on.

We had a little bit of a snap

no storm earlier in the week, but spring is right around the corner, isn't it?

It certainly is, and we're so proud of our homes.

They have great insulation, energy efficient furnaces.

They really do stay warm and cozy in this kind of weather.

You know, talk to us just a little bit about some of the homes and the amenities that we have as we move into spring.

I heard from on the grapevine that you also have some dog parks for people that have those those fur babies and things like that.

You have a lot of walking trails.

You know, I'm getting stir crazy living in my home right now.

I need to get out and lose some lose some weight and exercise a little bit.

My wife's looking at me.

Call me a little chubby.

What she

did.

I know it's brutal living in our home right now, Barbara.

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that.

But if you lived here, you would have walking trails to walk on, which are available winter, spring, summer, and fall.

And the dog parks, the dogs love them in any season.

The dogs need to get out and stretch their legs too.

Even though our homes are beautiful, they are built with the same building materials as traditional site-built homes.

Pitched roofs, shingled roofs, decks, porches.

spacious vaulted ceilings, island kitchens, garden tubs, even though they're built

so beautifully.

People still need to get out and get a little exercise, even when it's cold out.

They sure do, Barbara.

And one of the great things about the homes that you have there is that it's not only once you make that purchase, you have something that is tangible, that's never going to go down in value.

It's just one of those things that really, really in this unsettled times gives you kind of a peace of mind, doesn't it?

It sure does.

There's a common misconception that manufactured homes

formerly called mobile homes, formerly called trailers, depreciate in value.

They do not.

In fact, lifestyle.com has shown that manufactured homes appreciated in value 35% over the past five years.

That is significant.

That's hardly what I would call depreciation.

People are building up equity in their homes by living here and we have a finance company as well.

So for folks that

are wondering about how to actually pay for a home.

We have lots of options available.

No, Barbara, talk just a little bit about how if somebody wants to schedule an interview or even take a look at the inventory that you have online, what's the best website to go to?

Our website is hamshomes.com.

It's a great website name.

We're also available at the corner of Wilson Avenue and West Post Road Southwest in Cedar Rapids.

So that's Wilson Avenue and West Post Road Southwest.

We're open seven days a week.

We have dozens of beautiful model homes for folks to look at that are move-in ready.

You know, Barbara, not only are you the matriarch of such a multi-generational home area right over there in the Cedar Rapids area, talk to us a little bit about some of the things that you do on the other side of your life.

You took the Capitol by storm this week in Des Moines with the Iowa Republican women, didn't you?

Yes, that's my other job.

I'm president of the Iowa Federation of Republican Women.

Once a year we get together at the state capitol and talk to our legislators and our legislators talk to us.

We learn about what's going on in Iowa, what the important laws are that are getting considered and passed, and tour our beautiful state capitol.

We all wear red, so you can't miss us, and we make quite a scene when we're all at the state on the steps in the capital.

Now, Barbara, talk to us a little bit about what it is like to go into Des Moines like that, because, you know, Des Moines is used to being the political capital of the world during the caucus season, but I heard on a good authority that you were signing autographs and taking pictures there on the rotunda.

You were like a rock star there at the grand staircase.

I can neither confirm nor deny that.

But Barbara we are so grateful being in the state of Iowa because you know due to the Iowa caucuses and all the presidential candidates that come through here our citizens have the opportunity to look these people in the eye and talk to them about their everyday issues that sometimes get glossed over once they go to more of a national campaign and I think it's so important that we encourage all Iowans to get out

to as many of these candidates, events that there are across Eastern Iowa and Central Iowa and Western Iowa, to look these candidates in the eye and talk to them about these important issues.

I couldn't agree more.

As my dad, the famous Kurt Hames used to say,

Politics is not a spectator sport.

You need to get involved because you'll get the government that you work for.

You know, that's a great point too.

And you know, we are so grateful here in the state of Iowa to have the opportunity to meet these people.

But we also have our legislators and our governor and the executive councils that are very accessible to the public as well.

And I think that's why it's important.

You know, you talked about going to Des Moines with the Iowa Federation of Iowa Republic and women.

You know, our citizens can go to the Capitol at any time and meet with their legislators, can't they?

And a lot of times it's either a text message or a note into the well of the Senate or the House saying, hey, representative so-and-so, I'm out in the cat... Rotunda, can you come out and talk for a few minutes?

And they come out and talk, don't they, Barbara?

They absolutely do.

I am so sick and tired of people badmouthing politicians and elected officials.

Because from what I can see, they are some of the hardest working people I know.

They get beat up morning, noon, and night by the media, sometimes by voters, but they get the job done.

They get and they work and they talk and they make compromises and they pass laws.

They are some of the hardest working people that I know.

And yes, they are very accessible.

If you go out on to Google or your favorite search engine and search

find my legislator in Iowa, you can find it right away, their email address, and their phone number.

And you can text them, you can call them, and they will answer you.

You

know they better because they're they work for

you exactly exactly and Barbara We are so grateful to have you a part of the program Once a week it just it almost seems like we need to have you on almost daily Just to kind of give us a pep talk because I know John is on assignment this weekend But when you you come in on the program you boost us all up you talk to us and you give us somewhat of a Energizing effect that gives us enough energy to get through the next week as well

Well, you know, I feel the same way when I talk to you guys.

I I feel definitely pumped up.

We are so grateful to have you a part of it.

Barbara, one last time.

Where can people get a hold of you if they want to look for a new home there in Eastern

Iowa?

Hamishomes.com or in Southwest Cedar Rapids at the corner of Wilson Avenue and West Post Road Southwest.

Well, thanks for joining us again this weekend, Barbara.

It is actually my favorite segment of the weekend.

I hope you have a great weekend and then go Hawks.

Go Hawks.

You are listening to KXEL 1540 AM brought to you by Dr. Jeff Stein.

This is the Jacobson Report.

You got Scott Corey here listening at the control center with Mike Shane and we are joined once again with

Cyclone Phonetic Creighton Phonetic Chip Readman.

This is a Jacobson report brought to you by the Purple Powder with Dr. Brad Meyer as well as Brad Fogarty as well and we don't forget our great sponsor as well Dr. David Hartsuch from Eastern Iowa.

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Chip Readman as we move through the march that

trenches.

We have a lot of basketball yet to talk about.

It is March Madness.

Talk to us just a little bit about what happened in Lincoln this year.

Fred Hoiberg had that program turned around and he had him humming there at the very end.

He knocked off Iowa and Senior Day in Carver Hawk Arena.

He came up just a little short to make the NIT for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

I think Hoiberg probably hasn't moving right along and should be in the middle of the pack next year.

I think it's a good possibility.

The question is how many players he loses.

You're right, he was very, very close to making it to the NIT.

That Minnesota loss just absolutely killed him.

I think if they had won that game and made it to the next round of the conference tournament, they could have been in there.

It's pretty much a sealed deal from all the news I'm reading and all the gossip is that he is definitely back.

Albert has got a lot of faith in him that he's

finally figuring out the Big Ten conference and the Big Ten way of playing, unlike our football coaches in the past.

So, yeah, I think he's got a good possibility of producing a team.

It's all going to come down to who's going to stick around and what he's going to fill them with.

The transfer portal has become so huge in all sports, it seems like, anymore, and he's just going to have to dip into it and hopefully find a couple people to plug a couple holes.

You know, Chip, you brought up a great point.

You talk about the conference play and things like that and how coaches have to adapt.

It seems like there's basically three seasons in men's basketball.

You had the so-called non-conference preseason.

You had the conference slog.

And then you have the NCAA and it seems like once we get in the NCAA, the big 10 cannot get a team into the elite eight or the final four or even the championship game.

I mean, what is going on?

Do coaches have to adjust their way of play as well as their recruiting styles in order for the conference to make runs and to basically catch up to the big 12?

Are you worried about the conference or you're worried about the NCAA tournament?

And if you don't worry about the conference, you don't have to worry about the tournament because you're not going to make it there.

So you refer to it as a slog.

That's probably the best way to put it.

Sometimes you could call it a scrum the way some of these games go.

Yeah, the whole conference has to adjust it once, it seems like, to make it better on the national stage.

And I don't see that happening.

You could look at the football, the Western side.

is so much, you know, the black and blue division, blood and guts out there.

How is anyone going to climb out of that crab in the bucket situation?

How is anyone going to climb out of that bucket when you have to be mauled by several weeks and several tough teams and then want to get onto the elite stage hitting up against Michigan or Ohio State, possibly making it into a bigger tournament?

I know that's confusing football with basketball a little bit, but it's very similar.

You just, you just, you can't go through this conference

and be successful and at the same time be able to compete on national stage because what it takes is so opposite to each other in a style of play.

You know, I think that's a great point too, because I think it's also a philosophical process that the conference has to go through as well.

And I'm as guilty as everybody else on social media.

I jump on the referees a lot, but it seems like this year, especially this year, the consistency of the officiating has really suffered.

And I think the big 10 needs to really take a hard look at, because we are the number one conference when it comes to revenue,

We need to get this officiating under control and have it more consistent, similar to the way the NCAA is paired with its officiating.

And I think that goes a long way to the style of play.

Yeah, I think you're right about that.

I think the Big Ten does need to step up their game on that.

I'll tell you, watching live games, I could never be a ref.

There's a

lot of times I'm looking when it comes to offensive charging versus the blocking foul and everything.

There's a lot of times I look at those and they're 50-50 calls to me.

I just don't know if it's a mood

or

the angle or where they're standing or which coaches, you know, maybe ticked off the rest of most lately.

It's just some of those calls is absolutely baffling me and I maybe I just don't understand the finer detail of how those are made.

There's so much hacking going on.

Overall, I think the NCAA tournament, a lot of the games I've watched, I think the refereeing has been pretty good.

I haven't seen many problems like I've seen in the Big Ten matches.

But yeah, I think the Big Ten does need to take a little step up in that, maybe do a little better recruiting.

I think you brought up in past conversations we've had is that the demands

on

the referees in the Big Ten, it is pretty difficult, is that they do a lot of games in a short amount of time.

And maybe that's part of the problem too is the pool.

This isn't big enough.

Yeah, I think that's a very interesting point that I think that we need to bring up and have conversations about with as we move into the summertime because some of these referees, they're calling games.

They might be in Maryland on a Monday, then they go to say Houston and then they're off to LA, then they're back in Iowa City, and then they're back down to Florida.

I mean, they're working, you know, nine out of 10 days a week.

And I mean, these guys

are trying to keep with prime athletes up and down the court all the time and it's just physically demanding.

Well it's also mentally demanding.

I mean you have to have eyes on and you're going to have eyes on that game a hundred percent of the time.

You just you can't just you'll sleep through part of the game after that ninth trip in a row and how many thousands of miles of being in the air.

oh it's it's beyond just the physical and you're absolutely right about that they are trying to keep up with that you lead athletes moving up and down the field or court and you do get those fast break situations you've got to be hoping it down there to watch what's going to happen underneath the basket at the other end but mentally you've got to be on top of it and then you got the coaches yelling at you

and coaches and the fans

yeah and the fans that's right you can't tune them out that much and it's just

That's a lot of stress.

I just don't know.

I just I couldn't pay me enough to do that.

You know, that's a great point.

I think that's one of those conversations that we have and I know we've had uh, uh, officiating folks on our programs before and I think we're going to try to bring some more on again to get some of their pro perspective moving forward.

But you know, as we move into the tournament, uh, you're listening to the Jacobson report here on KXEL 1540 AM, uh, Scott Corey, uh, Chip Reidman and Mike Shane at the controls.

Uh, we talk about being kind of a

A different league right now in elite league is the big 12 and they're just going to get stronger because they have Cincinnati joining the conference later this year.

They have Houston joining the conference.

The big 12 to me is probably the toughest conference in the nation.

And comparable to what the SEC is doing in football right now, and where does Iowa State fit in all that?

And I think it'd be very interesting to see how Iowa State moves forward after this year as well with Coach TJ.

And I'd like to get your thoughts on that, Chip.

I think it is going to be interesting.

It is going to get tougher.

And of course, there's always that side conversation about the four corner teams.

You know, Arizona, like we said, they flopped.

you know this year

well i i joked

over time

i joked the other yet on a thursday evening i said arizona is ready for the big 12 because they pulled an iowa state as a two-seat and lost to princeton uh so they are ready for the big 12

yeah they are but it's and from the other hand it's they're going to be a talent coming in um

What is it, Utah?

BYU is not?

I think that's one of the

teams he

talks about.

Well, there's rumors by a conference commissioner, Big 12 commissioner, Brent Yormark, that Gonzaga is a target of the Big 12 as well, and that will probably be wrapped up in May or June of this year as well.

So I mean, they are getting stronger and stronger by the minute.

And if that happens, they will then be a beast of the entire country.

What you know is interesting as a side point is,

SEC in the past has been looked down on when it comes to basketball.

And there's made some moves this year or in the last couple of years anyway.

Alabama is an excellent example.

When was the last time you ever heard of an SEC team predicted to potentially win the whole tournament?

Probably Florida.

I'd say Florida in the 2000 area with Donovan, probably the closest I would say.

Yeah, and that's been a while.

You know Baylor's had you know good teams, but of course then they get caught with some infractions that exposed their program unfortunately in a bad light So I it's you know, it's gonna be very interesting if the SEC can maintain that which is gonna leave the big 12 on top the ACC, you know, they're out there.

They've they've always done well They're always gonna be you know one of the blue bloods of the basketball tournament

But the Big 12 is definitely making some moves in that direction, at least when you listen to all the rumblings going on in the mill.

You know, and as we talk about as what the big 12 is being compared to right now, I think it's probably the heyday.

The big 12 is basically what the big 10 was in the 1980s and early 90s.

When you had those powerful teams at Bobby Knight at Indiana, Judd Heathcote up there in Michigan State, Gene Katie at Purdue and Dr. Tom Davis in Iowa City.

And it'd be interesting to see how coach TJ continues the recruiting process there at Iowa State.

He had some issues.

released Caleb Grill here a couple of weeks ago from the program.

What are your thoughts and what are your rumblings you're hearing on the ground there in Ames?

What really did transpire and how do they change that culture there?

You know, it's been pretty tight.

I just really haven't heard very much at all as to what's going on inside that program.

I'm sure there's always some rumors out there, but I haven't seen anything hit any major

media publications or anything.

At some point, how much do you take all the rumors?

When you look at the chat boards and all that kind of stuff, maybe what's going on, I just kind of have to discount a lot of that.

And so until something major comes out, I'm just not sure what I can say about it.

You know, as we talk about this going forward,

It seems like here in the state of Iowa, we are blessed with some very strong men's and women's basketball programs.

We got some great programs there at Northern Iowa, Iowa Ames, but we're sleeping on the Drake Bulldogs and Coach DeVries.

He has probably got to be on everybody's shortlist moving forward, especially if you're a Power 5 to be contacted.

What he's done at Drake is just tremendous.

Yeah, he has done a real good job there.

I just want to interject this.

real quick because we mentioned this.

Nebraska, the women are on the women's bracket.

They did slip and I think they underperformed.

But you mentioned Northern Iowa.

So there's an interesting thing in the women's NIT.

I think it's on Monday.

Nebraska plays Northern Iowa on the women's side in there.

So I just want to throw that in their little shout out to the Northern Iowa women's team.

You know,

good luck in their game.

I don't know who's going to win.

Trying to look I can't tell what the seating is on the screen that I'm looking at as to maybe who's higher rated or whatever But good for both teams at least making it to the second round there

You know, as we talk about everything that moves forward, you know, we talk about March Madness and we are going to start talking about coaching searches moving forward.

And so Chip, what are some of the coaches on the hot seat is Fran on the hot seat in Iowa?

What happens in Iowa City?

Huyberg seems to have settled in there at Lincoln.

We have coach TJ.

He has the strong grip on the controls there and aims.

What is kind of your feeling right now?

Are we looking at some coaching?

changes are we looking at basically a status quo season going forward?

I think a lot of the situation is going to boil down to what happens with Bart and his job.

And Scott, I think that's something that you should address here in a minute.

I think Cran is on a warm seat right now.

I don't think it's going to be hot unless a new athletic director comes in and starts making some demands.

And I think those demands will all be behind closed doors.

We won't hear about them.

At least if he's a good athletic director, you don't do that kind of laundry out in public.

So I don't think Fran's got much to worry about until that bar to change happens.

Other coaches, I don't see much else in our local area as far as changes.

Creighton, Iowa State, I think they're all doing well enough.

You know, earlier conversation, coach was talking about Danny Hurley out at Yukon, never winning in the big dance at all.

I think that's interesting.

Just I'll throw that one out there.

There's a guy that maybe should be on a hot seat.

I would expect more from Yukon.

basketball then to be loosened in the first round of every tournament.

Yeah, when coach mentioned the Yukon situation, that shocked me.

I thought for sure they had won at least one or two games.

And so I was very surprised by that statistic that coach Knapp put out there.

But you do talk about what's going on in Iowa City right now.

And there is an angst in a malaise.

And I know a bunch of us were on the text thread Thursday evening.

And one of the big concerns that I have, and I know a lot of donors are talking about that as well, the ones that I talk with at least, is that there seems to be a malaise right now in Iowa.

the city and to quote my good friend, state senator Annette Sweeney, there's a stench it seems like over the athletic department and it all is emanating right now from Gary Barda, the athletic director.

And I think until that situation is cleared up, we don't know what's going to transpire moving forward because

If you look at the coaches that we have, and we have some great coaches at Iowa, we have Kurt Farrance, who's a legend.

You know, Fran has done a nice job.

Lisa Bluter is probably one of the most underrated coaches of what she's done in the women's program.

Coach Heller, the baseball program, has them humming right now.

Coach Tom Brands in the wrestling program, you know, they are the number two team in the nation right now competing for a national championship.

And the problem is, is that you look at Fran, you look at

Farence and the only look at least of the blue tears ages.

They're all in their 60s and are older and Until the bar to situation is cleared up.

There is kind of an apathy It seems like right now that especially amongst the sports programs that I just mentioned that there's apathy in the football program as well as the Men's basketball program and you can't have that in the big 10 moving forward Especially with USC and UCLA joining the conference on July 1.

We have to have that athletic department

humming right along competing because I'm looking at programs around us.

I'm looking at Iowa State with Jamie Pollard.

I'm looking at Nebraska with Trev Alberts.

I'm looking at Ohio State with Gene Smith.

Those are top notch athletic directors and they had their programs all in line.

They're winning programs.

You don't have to worry about multi-million dollar lawsuits against them.

You know, four lawsuits in seven years costing millions of dollars.

And here Iowa is, we're struggling it seems like right now in our athletic department and we shouldn't be struggling.

And I think that's the biggest concern we have right now.

And until President Wilson and the donor class stand up and get rid of Gary Barda, it's that's where we are.

That's definitely a problem, Scott.

You're right on there.

Let me ask you one question.

I'm not sure you know the answer to this one.

Has Barda cost more money?

to the university or the athletic department in fines in the past and compared to

What's his buyout for his contract?

I'm curious which one is higher, the buyouts or the fines that they've

had to pay?

That I don't know.

It has to do some research on that right now, but I do know that due to the recent settlement, you know, President Wilson is on record that said she would reimburse the state via $2 million for their portion of the settlement.

I mean, you can't be spending that kind of money.

I mean, yeah, $2 million is a lot of money, but we're going to have north of 75 to

80 million dollars in the next year off our TV program and we can't have our coaches in our athletic department being in depositions all the time because somebody shoots their mouth off and can't run a tight ship.

I mean that's where we are right now as an athletic department and we're spending more time with our coaches.

It seems like under deposition because

Gary Barda said something to somebody that he shouldn't have said and that's where we are and now the state of Iowa has basically pushed a law through or in the process of pushing a law through saying that the state is no longer on the hook for any of this that this is going to come directly out of out of any athletic department budget whether it be Iowa, Iowa State or UNI because they are under the regions and so

well they should do that and they should do that Scott was tell me was Barda involved in the

Uh, the judgment or that should maybe say the settlement that was done behind the closed doors.

The coaches

didn't know

about or did Barton know about it at all.

From what I've been able to read by reporters, the Des Moines Register and, and, and other articles, he was a part of it.

Uh, I do know for a fact, uh, uh, coach Ference actually released a statement saying that he did not want to settle.

He wanted to fight because once the, uh, uh, the plane, the plane, us were put under oath.

they were retracting all the statements that they were saying that the coaches were making.

Incredible.

And so, I mean, it's just, it's unforced errors.

And I think that's the biggest issue right now that's facing Hawkeye Nation is that we're having all these unforced errors in the athletic department and we can't get them addressed until we deal with the problem child himself, Gary Barda.

And I mean, if you're in a room with Gene Smith and Trev Alberts,

and your other big 10 athletic directors, I mean, who takes Gary Bartis seriously?

If you're in that, if you're in those negotiations, I just don't see it.

I'd like to know how he made it to, wasn't he, it was the last year of the year before he was head of the NCAA selection?

Yeah.

or

something?

Yeah, college football.

Yeah, the college football playoff.

He was the head, the chairman of that.

And so I have no idea.

And so it's going to be very, very interesting to see the next few weeks.

And hopefully before July one, we have some resolution to this Gary Barta situation in Iowa, because it is an albatross around our program.

I mean, you look at Iowa in some of the athletic directors we had and I will always maintain that it

Iowa the best athletic director we had.

was Bump Elliott.

Bump Elliott came in.

He brought in Hayden Fry.

He brought in, you know, he was there with Dr. Tom.

He was there with C. Vivian Stringer.

Coach Gable at the wrestling program and wrestling, you know, as well as ravelling.

I mean, that guy could turn a program around.

And then he went down to Kansas State with Bill Snyder and turned Kansas State around and turned that into a powerhouse all those years back in the 90s.

And so, I mean, if you have one

strong athletic director like a Gene Smith or or a Jamie Pollard.

I was that close to being able to be on that top elite level in the conference moving forward.

And that's where we need to be because there are changes coming to college football and college sports in general.

And we need a strong athletic director and we just don't have one right now.

And it's going to be interesting.

What kind of person is that going to be?

Is it going to be a person that's from like a legal lawyer background?

is going to be a person from a marketing background that knows how to manage money, manage image, promotion.

It can take a rare mix of personalities and talents moving forward.

This is for all teams across

the

country.

to be able to handle what's going on with the with Fox network and ESPN and and all the money that literally they're throwing at these conferences

and you have to have the

very very good person

and you have to have the social media savviness too i mean you have to be it's a whole new world it isn't like being an athlete director like it was even five to six years ago the world has changed and it's going to change even more i mean there's talk and we've talked about it on this show and other shows chip where

There's a very strong likelihood that the big 10 and the SEC are going to break away within the next five to 10 years and basically form its own little consortium when you talk about sports as well as the college football playoff because that's how big the money is right now.

And you know, if Iowa does not have a strong athletic director, they're not going to have a strong voice at that

table.

So taking what you're saying there about the social media and everything, and you mentioned about Kirk earlier, you can throw in so, okay, so Nebraska's got a new coach.

And his coaching staff is quite a change in anything I've seen over the last, you know, two decades.

The people, the personnel that he's hired to handle different things, he has definitely moved into or appearing to take more of a CEO rule or job than what coaches have in the past.

Maybe a little less hands-on as to what's going on in the background.

I'll take Saban's example.

I don't know.

Maybe that's the kind of the direction he's moved into.

But there's so much going on because of the NIL, the promotion, the social media and everything.

You just need a different coach handling that.

And that will trickle up.

You need a different athletic director at the top being able to manage that because he's got all those teams underneath him.

And he's got to keep a sharp eye on what's going on to make sure everyone keeps their nose clean.

And again, it's just a different type of person that we need today than we had 20, 30 years ago.

You know, that's a great point too, Chip.

And as we get ready to wrap up this program, you're listening to the Jacobson Report here on KXL 1540.

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This is Scott Corey wishing everybody having a great weekend.

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