Jan. 2, 2010
Iowa Head Coach Todd Lickliter
Opening Statement
“We just took turns throwing it to (Minnesota) and you just cannot defend that. They capitalized on our mistakes and we just couldn’t catch up. We’re not the first team this has happened to in the history of basketball and we probably won’t be the last. It’s not enjoyable and very tough on the guys. There wasn’t anything we could do about it. They were clearly better than us today and we couldn’t compensate for it.
“To our guys’ credit, the second half was better. Our guys cut down the turnovers and played a little bit better basketball.”
On Minnesota
“We’ve played good teams, and we’ve played them much better than this. I thought coming in that (Minnesota) had the talent to compete for a championship in this league. They’ve got talent in every position and depth, so I think they are a contender.”
“You can work on all kinds of things in practice, but it’s very hard to simulate the kind of speed and length you saw tonight (from Minnesota). We changed our alignment in the second half and it seemed to be more effective.”
On Starting the Big Ten Season 0-2
“I’m not saying we’re Purdue, but Purdue was 0-2 to start the Big Ten season last year, too. We’ve started the conference schedule playing the No. 4 ranked team in the nation (Purdue) and Minnesota was ranked as high as No. 16, and we’re just working to be a better team. We are the youngest team in the conference and we are in the process of trying to establish a foundation here. We’re going to keep fighting.”
Minnesota Head Coach Tubby Smith
Opening Statement
“First, we were happy to get the win. I thought we came focused and ready to play. Obviously, Iowa is a very young team, some inexperience in the back court there, so, we felt like if we were to, early on, really set the tempo with our defense and we did. We forced quite a bit of turnovers there and that was a key to us getting our game going. Blake (Hoffarber) hit some shots early on, but I’m impressed with how tough the Hawkeyes are. We had a chance there to pull away, and they never gave up. They played extremely hard, and we played extremely hard so it was a good win for us on the road in the Big Ten.”
On reacting to opposing teams’ defense
“Well we were playing against a much younger team than before (against Penn State). Penn State has a more experienced back court and Talor Battle wants to test the best guards around, but I was impressed with Matt Gatens’ athleticism. He drove by us and he did a good job of taking us off the dribble. We made some adjustments there. We were trying to trap in the backcourt. I thought Damian (Johnson) was much more active this game and we made some good rotations especially in the first half, you know with spreading out of traps and trying to get to the shooters.”
On team rhythm with a big lead
“A lot of it has to do with the opposing team. Certainly Iowa wasn’t just going to lay down. They made their adjustments they had to make defensively, and took advantages of those in those areas. They made some open shots. I thought the rebounding was one of their keys. They had 12 offensive rebounds to 25 defensive rebounds, so they’re doing a great job on the boards. Once again, we got out rebounded. I thought we did lose our focus there. What happens is, when you get a lead, everybody thinks they’re the reason. You know they want to get in the scorer’s column; they want to get on the stat sheet, so we take quick shots and we get out of character. That’s something, you know we’re maturing, we’re still growing and that’s an area we have to get better at.”