Iowa post-game press conference notes

[lou v]

Fran McCaffrey

What did CJ Frederick give them in his return from injury: 3-point shooting, intelligent defender. "He's just got great feel." "He's a baller."

Garza 25 minutes without scoring: He was fresh because he was out for so long. Watched how they were defending. "The more we got it to him, the better he was."

Evelyn: Plays multiple positions. Cerebral player. Can plug him in anywhere.

First look at NU's young team: Know Buie really well. "He's been as impressive as any freshman - forget about the league, in the country." He'll give them a lift when he comes back. Young guys getting minutes is important. "Those guys are going to be really good in a couple years."

Good 3-point shooting: Ball movement was especially good. Went inside to outside. Took open shots.

How defended Nance: Played zone in first half. Went in and out in the second half. Any team is going to pay attention to him, he's a good player. Tried to neutralize him with zone in particular.

 

[lou v]

Chris Collins

Iowa did a lot of good things tonight. Garza is a terrific player. Return of Frederick gives them another guy who can make plays. Hit the wall a little bit emotionally and physically. Four games in 10 days. Second half we were gassed. We were hanging around, but we could never find energy and fight needed to beat a team like Iowa. Second half shooting was fatigue. Having a hard time finishing and getting to the foul line. Our guys need some rest.

Switching defense: Do it every game. Try to throw different looks. Paint scoring worried us the most with Garza. Gotta pick your poison. Would live with 3s. More fatigued we got (the more he scored). He's relentless.

Young best post defender: Him and Jared are our two most physical guys. Young's foul trouble hurts us. We need him on the floor. Took us out of our rotations. Been double-teaming to protect him from getting into foul trouble.

Nance shot well tonight: Working on attacking basket. On the right track. He's a young player. He's growing. Got a double-double. Didn't settle for jump shots. Effort and energy was there. Needs to continue to work on game. View him as freshman because he missed half of last year.

Iowa ball movement: Very sharp offensively. 24 assists. Getting it side to side. Held Iowa to 40% shooting in second half.

Exhausted. Took early timeouts in second half. Part of that is pace. They play fast. Energy in second half was not nearly what it was in first. We got them in the first half. Our guys gotta get in the ice tubs, get away from the game. We've got to recharge and get ready for the next game.

Scoring: 62 points is not enough. 27 in second. Need to get more going. A lot of his shots in the second half were short. Had tired legs. Robbie's emergence is good for our team. Playing almost 30 minutes per game. That's how you get better. Exciting to watch his development. We miss Boo's scoring. Need Turner, Pat.

3-point shooting: Miller had 8 of 17 3s. We're not built to be a 3-point shooting team. Have to knock them down when they're there. We had eight in first half vs. Nebraska. We had 10 3s in the last game and we won. Shot about same amount of 3s tonight: we made five, they made 10. That's a 15-point difference.

Law signing with Magic: First kid who committed to our program with me as a head coach. Talked about going to the NCAA tournament and being a pro, and both things happened for him. Now we have a great example of a local guy who stayed home, played in the NCAA Tournament and played pro.

 

[lou v]

Miller Kopp and Pete Nance

Shooting 3s: Kopp: Gotta shoot your open looks.

Fatigue in second half: Nance: Iowa was really ready in the second half. They had a little more left in the tank than us at a crucial time.

Doubling Garza: Nance: Usually on the other big man. Game plan to come from the other big to bring some length over.

Modeling self after Garza: Great player, lot of experience. Try to take things to add to his game.

Stopping momentum: Kopp: Locking in and getting stops. Let Garza get some really deep touches. Got some open looks from 3-point line.

Put-back dunk: Nance: It felt good to see one go in and try to get going.

Benefit from rest before Illinois: Kopp: Tough stretch. Four games in 10 days, travel and starting class. No excuse. No one is gonna feel sorry for us. Rest is important, to decompress physically and mentally.