Jock 2 Jock Podcast featuring Connor McCaffery - "Shoots & Twitter"

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Basketball season in full swing.

So I'm joined by number 30 of the Iowa basketball team, Connor McCaffrey.

Welcome back.

Glad to be back.

Had some successful games here, including a double double here recently.

Yeah, no, the Georgia Tech game was a good one.

You know, anytime you play like those big 10 ACC challenges, you want to obviously want to win, but it's nice to have like, you know, good competition kind of early on.

So being able to play them and and play well was good for the for the team.

And I still think like we can we can make a lot of improvements.

But like that was definitely a good one for us.

And we'll keep trying to stack up.

Wins like that against the ACC

with the ACC.

How do they play different than the big 10?

Um, I would say it's less like the ACC and more just like the Coaching staff and like the style I don't know Clemson kind of reminds me like Wisconsin like how they play they're physical and they But then like they'll flop too.

So it's kind of like you kind of get you see both sides But then like somebody like Georgia Tech they they kind of play

Like us defensively in the sense that like they change defenses a lot like they try to get you off balance like they'll play man, then they'll play zone then they'll play.

Like a 131 then 113 like they switch they switch all of that up and then offensively they run the the Princeton action which is like just like a read and react offense which is what Northwestern runs at times so it's kind of like it's I would say again like it's less about the.

the league and just more about the type of coach that's at that school.

The team looks good.

How do you feel about the team right now jelling together as a player?

Yeah, no, I think we've been, I think we've been good.

I think we definitely still have a ton of things we can improve on.

Like, I mean, you know, we have like, we've had a hard schedule to this point.

We've won, you know, we won at Seton Hall.

We beat Clemson.

We beat Georgia Tech lost to TCU and there's, but there's positives and negatives from

every one of those games and and the thing is like you know it's not getting any easier so we still need to the bottom line I would say is like even if we do go on a losing streak two three in a row whatever we still can't like it's not like this season's over you know we still need to be confident and just continue to learn from those from those different games because it might seem like everything's coming going wrong there's always things you can learn even when you're losing.

You are on Twitter right now at Connor underscore m30.

Yep.

You paying for that blue check mark yet?

No, I'm not but and I'm definitely not gonna keep I'm not gonna pay for it once that Once they make it that you have to

how difficult was it for you to get in the first place?

It wasn't it wasn't difficult at all.

I bought like I just opened Twitter Hadn't been on Twitter in a day or whatever open Twitter and I saw that I was verified It wasn't like I didn't request it wasn't like Instagram

Instagram was more difficult than on Twitter.

It just like it just happened and it wasn't just me.

It was like our entire team one night just got verified.

Does that mean much for you at all being verified?

Not really.

I

don't

get

any attention.

I mean like it's cool like at the time but like now like there's random people verified so I would say it means like a lot less now.

Well, Elon Musk is talking about three different levels of checkmark, the blue, the gray, the red, who knows what else we're going to get.

I know that they're separating out the level so that people can't go on, get a verified checkmark, and then screw up things again saying, insulin is free, you know, that kind of stuff.

Right.

That makes sense.

But isn't that kind of why you just have the normal blue check to start with?

And he wanted to keep that process going, but to monetize Twitter, he wanted to get those verifications

you know, to give a guy like me who doesn't have 16,000 plus followers.

Yeah.

If I wanted a blue check mark, well, then I can go out there and pay like $7.99 for it if I wanted to.

But I don't think I'm going to do that either.

How often do you use social media as a college athlete?

Oh, a lot.

Yeah, every day.

Yeah, way too much.

Is it Twitter?

Is that what you're after Instagram?

It's kind of everything, I guess, like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok.

would be like the three main probably.

Okay.

Any TikTok trends that you're following right now?

Um, I mean, I don't do the dances.

I just watch the videos.

So I would say like not really like just whatever comes up like on my for you page.

Yeah.

But I just, I don't like, there's nothing that really stands out.

Like I, I do things like the Twitter stuff, the Twitter memes and the Instagram.

I'm definitely more into.

Twitter and Instagram, then take a talk.

One of the things that I've noticed is athletes make announcements on Twitter.

Cade McNamara made his announcement yesterday.

Yeah, I saw that.

He was putting this on Twitter saying that he's coming to Iowa.

He entered the transfer portal and now he's going to be the quarterback for the football team.

Is that good?

Is that bad to do that on Twitter?

Is it the easiest way to reach out to your fans and the community?

What do you think about that?

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say like it's

Good or bad necessarily.

I just feel like that's kind of how everyone does it.

And like, I mean, it is a good way to reach like media sources to a lot of people just get their news from Twitter, right?

So I think like for him, I mean, he pretty much by doing it on Twitter, the news already broke even before he did it, which kind of sucks for him.

I felt bad about that.

But I think that like for him, doing it on Twitter is just probably easiest and, you know,

everybody else does it that way.

So just following along the same path.

With Twitter, you know, a lot of people use the platform to pile on negatively a lot is what I see.

And some fans use it to coach from their couch.

I see, you know, especially, and there was one that you had called out to the fans here recently.

And if you don't mind, I'd like to quote the tweet.

November 21st, 2022, 1042 p.m.

Hock fans.

that came tonight.

Thank you.

This is not at you.

This is and this is not a complaint at all.

But this was probably the worst regular season crowd we have had in my career here coming off a huge roadwind.

We have some big games coming up.

So please help us out with the energy that you bring so that some people read that and immediately went negative.

And words don't carry emotion.

How are you feeling when you tweeted that at 1042 on November 21st?

Yeah, no, that was

That was crazy because I truly meant nothing bad by that at all.

And that is the truth.

I did not think that it would even get a little bit of a negative response because I didn't mean it in that way.

But I guess that's kind of just how people took it.

But I only meant it because our next three home games after I tweeted that were Georgia Tech, Iowa State, and Wisconsin.

Hopefully, we bounce back.

We've had bad crowds before.

We've had good crowds before.

I don't really read anything into it that much, I guess, because I just kind of know it kind of ebbs and flows with the season and what day the game's on, the time of the game, the weather, whatever.

There's a lot of things that go into why and when people come.

Football gets amazing crowds and they deserve it.

Crazy popular sport, but like the bat our best crowds are also on Saturdays like when football football plays on Saturday at You know and they only play six home games a year like when we play on Saturdays or Sundays or whatever those are our best crowds That's when the most people come because people all throughout Iowa can come to the game and like drive you know people in people in Sioux City or even Des Moines or Wherever the Quad Cities, it's really hard for them to get to a

a six o'clock game on a Tuesday.

Like you can't, it's not really hard.

It's impossible.

And

we understand that.

And that's like the kind of fan base we have is a fan base that's willing to drive that far for a game on a Saturday.

It's just easier.

But like on a Tuesday, it's just impossible.

And we don't have the amount of people in Iowa City that like a lot of the other big schools do when you just, you know, when they just have these great crowds.

So I would say that that was like kind of like

one of the biggest issues.

But again, like with my tweet, like I didn't, I meant nothing bad about it at all.

But then I saw, I mean, the trolls came out and then there was negative and whatever.

And it was like, you know, it was fine.

I didn't even really pay attention.

I stopped looking at the stuff because how much it blew up.

But in this case, you know, knowing you in the conversations that we've had before, I read it the way that you just explained it to me is like, look, I'm trying to hype up and get people to our games.

Is there anything that you think that the university could do differently to help you guys out to attract the bigger crowds?

Because you said football, like you said, only six home games a year, the wrestling team has also sold out for the remainder of this season.

What can we do to get the Hawkeye faithful inside Carver for more of the home games?

Because there's a huge stretch coming up here.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, you know, again, like with wrestling too, like a lot of their

If we played only on weekends or whatever, Friday, Saturdays, we'd probably be sold out almost every time.

But this is not the case.

And I don't think there's nothing that the university can do with that.

Because I think that they don't control the TV times, the TV days.

That's all up to TV.

So it's not their fault that we're having this problem.

Don't know like I guess if you look at like the other people's complaints Which I don't have to deal with fortunately because I'm just at the arena But like I think people don't like the traffic the parking like it's cold like those kind of things So I don't know maybe like a whole like a new arena or something in a different spot with easier access to parking and better transportation to the

for people to get into the arena and not as many steps.

I don't know what the secret is for basketball, but I know that it's a lot more difficult for a fan base that lives as far away as ours does throughout the entire state to get to the different game times that are on weekends.

So what you're saying, Connor, is despite what everybody thinks on Twitter, you as an Iowa athlete playing on the floor at Carver,

Really have nothing to do other than win the basketball game and nothing else that goes on with it even though people think that you do, right?

Yeah, I mean we have no say like we have nothing we have nothing to do with any of that and we as much as I'd love like if we could play every home game on Saturday That would be that would be awesome if we just played ever every game like on Saturday Sunday I played back-to-back Saturday and Sunday every week and just

you know, not take the rest day, just play back to back all year if that's possible.

But unfortunately, it's just not.

I wish it was.

I've gone along a little bit longer about basketball than we normally do on today's show.

Double, double, dumb ass coming into this one.

Oh, and four so far.

But today I've got two stories and essentially a way for you to kind of get some points on the board.

So you're ready.

All right.

First headline, a TSA officer recently spotted a live cat while scanning a bag at an airport.

The officer found an orange cat inside a checked bag after it went through the X-ray machine.

Is that at Northwestern, Minnesota, or Rutgers?

And we'll get to the second story here.

And a recently hired American Eagle Envoy Air Pilot

collapsed and had been pronounced dead shortly after taking off from a large international airport in route to another location within the Big Ten.

We'll be looking for where they took off from in this particular story.

Northwestern, Minnesota, or Rutgers, and walk me through your process.

All right.

So I'm going to say I saw the guy who passed away.

I saw that story, but I didn't see where it was.

All right.

I'm going to guess for that one, I'm going to guess Chicago because of how big the airport is.

But I guess you could kind of say that for all three because Minneapolis and New York City are both also huge.

I don't know.

But I'm saying Chicago for that one.

And then for the other live cat, I'll say Minnesota for that one.

Final answer on both.

Yeah.

You got one on the board.

There we go.

All I needed was

one.

Yeah.

So you were right.

The American Eagle Envoy Air Pilot collapsed and pronounced dead shortly after taking off from O'Hare International Airport in route to Columbus, Ohio.

Sad to note that he passed away about 30 minutes after the plane had taken off.

The co-pilot had to take over at that point because the death was not immediately released.

The FAA is looking after that one.

Now, the other one, TSA officer recently spotted a live cat while scanning bags.

You said Minnesota, right?

Yeah.

Incorrect.

Sorry.

This one was Rutgers because it was at JFK or Port New York City.

Yeah.

I was going to say maybe New York because of Rutgers is so close.

Yeah.

All right.

So you're one in five right now, but I wanted to give you an opportunity because this plays a little bit more into your wheelhouse.

To help singles find love, Wallet Hub compared more than 180 US cities across 36 key indicators of dating friendliness.

So what we're looking for are the 10 best cities in America for those who are dating.

There are two schools from the Big Ten that would have made it in the top 10.

What school in the Big Ten do you think made number six on the list?

I'm going to say maybe Maryland.

Maryland.

For DC.

I'm going to still ask for final answers here in just a moment.

What Big Ten school made the number two best city for those who are dating?

Well, are they counting Northwestern as is in Chicago?

Because it's not

I'd count that I mean I'd count that because it's really like an hour away sure But then I could also count Illinois and see I'm giving a little bit of a proximity on some of these like if something happens in Pittsburgh I'm gonna give it to Penn State.

Okay, so yeah, I'm gonna say Well then to scat away me.

Okay.

No, I'm not I'm not saying Rutgers.

I'll say I'll say Northwestern for Chicago for that one as

well.

Okay

And final question, did Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City make the top 50?

No, I don't know.

No chance.

Your answer for number six, 10 best in worst cities in America for those in dating, you said Maryland.

Number six, Minneapolis.

I was going to guess Minnesota too.

Yeah.

So out shun that one.

Yeah.

You got 10 best in worst cities in America for those of dating.

This is the number two best city.

You said Northwestern, thinking Chicago.

Number two, Madison.

Oh, God.

Yeah, right.

Are you serious?

Why?

Why do you say that?

Because nothing good happens at Wisconsin.

Nothing at all?

No.

There is a... There's a deep hatred, it seems.

Not a Wisconsin guy.

Okay.

And final question.

I was looking for ways that we could pop things going for you.

Did Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City make the top 50 according to Wallet Hub?

Yes or no?

You said no?

Actually, yes.

I mean, I'm just cold.

Oh, for a million.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa City made number 41.

I

just don't know if I buy that list is the thing.

Oh,

why not?

Is Wisconsin being on it?

Well, that

being number two Wisconsin, but like Cedar Rapids, Iowa City being top 50.

Think about all the cities in the world to date, or in the US to date, and then Cedar Rapids and Iowa City is number 41.

I just don't know if I buy it.

Are you interested in knowing what the top five were?

Yes.

Number five was Portland, Oregon.

Okay.

Four, San Francisco.

Number one for fun and recreation category.

Three, Denver.

I mean, people are high there all the time.

Yeah.

Madison 2, Seattle, number one.

What's going on?

Why Portland and Seattle and, you know, West Coast, I guess?

Younger audience, I would assume.

It rains a lot, so people have to be inside and go places.

I look at it as maybe Madison got a little bit of a push because of how much beer they drink.

That's probably true.

But, I mean, Iowa City can't be far off that tally.

No.

Maybe

that's why we're 40.

Yeah, right.

Because Iowa City has been on lists of the top drinking schools before.

Iowa City has topped that list a few times.

Madison has topped that list quite a few times.

So maybe that's what the plus is.

But you as an individual who has been in that dating scene, I mean, there's a couple of places go out in Iowa City, right?

Yeah,

no, there's some spots.

There's definitely some spots.

But a lot of times, like it's more younger crowd, like college students

than

it is.

dating if you're actually, I guess I don't really know.

But for the most part, I think it is more like college students that are going out.

Do I have to modify this game a little bit?

The double, double dumb ass to help you out?

I mean, clearly it's not really going well for me, but I kind of just liking how it is.

Cause I just, it makes me want to heat up and get a couple, right?

Right.

Exactly.

Connor McCaffrey joining us.

Number 30 from the Iowa men's basketball team.

Connor, thanks again for the time.

Yep.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the jock to jock podcast presented by rock 108 and sponsored by I'm on communications experience.

The I'm on difference.