Jan. 21, 2010
Iowa Head Coach Todd Lickliter
On playing hard in the second half …
We never said, `let’s just play hard and see what happens,’ we kept saying it’s the possession at hand, play the game the right way and continue to concentrate on the things you can do and should do. We kept teaching and working. I think it is typical that they were in control. I’m sure there was a let up on their part, they were in control. To our guy’s credit, I think we continued to fight. I thought we fought in the post the last seven or eight minuets. I don’t think we had a turnover in the last seven or eight minutes, which is huge. We got in striking range, although, you have got to hand it to them that when we did, they made a big shot. They are a terrific team and really well coached. The environment that they created here is very enviable. It’s incredible and my hat goes off to them. I think it is fun to come in here and play, they are not all friendly but it is impressive. They have a great coach, great team and great support. That stacked against us a little bit, but it is a great place to come and compete.
On coming back from down 19…
To be down 19 is really daunting to this team. We had 14 turnovers, nine in the first half. We stayed on 19 forever. We would like to be a good team. We want to keep fighting and be a really good team and I don’t think you are going to do that if you feel sorry for yourself, don’t compete, and you don’t continue to adjust and learn. These are opportunities, we’re still growing. I think it is well documented that we’re still young and we’re trying to build something. This is a tough league to build in because the competition is so good. Hopefully we can build on this. The idea is to win, without it, it’s all pretty shallow. We have to see what was done well, and we need to do more of that. Sometimes in tough situations we do things that are hard to understand. There is no one who can make or catch some of the passes we try to make.