Feb. 16, 2012
Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery
Q: What was the message at half time?
A: I think in the first half, when they jumped us, we started quick shooting the ball. You can’t do that on the road. Now, that was disappointing. You can look at a lot of things and say you should do this or that, but that’s the one thing that was glaring in the first half. It affected our ability to keep it under 10, which would have been nice under the circumstances. So, in the second half, we obviously wanted to play better defense, get 30 points. I thought offensively we didn’t execute very well in the first half at all and obviously in the second half we executed much better
Q: Second half you got a pretty big performance from Matt (Gatens). He ended up with 21 points. What was it about his determination that stood out to you?
A: He really continuously works hard to get open. We did a good job finding him. I thought Aaron White made some big hoops when we really needed it, when we were struggling. He made some big hoops. I thought (Roy Devyn) Marble had a spectacular game for us. Forty minutes, I can’t take him out even though he’s hurt. I’m really proud of him.
Q: Free throw shooting down the stretch…?
A: Not good. That’s unfortunate. We got it back to a 1-possession game and then couldn’t close it out with free throws. We were working hard enough to get there. Josh (Oglesby) misses one, Aaron (White) misses one, Melshan (Basabe) missed three.
Q: Down the stretch, you send a guy shooting 35% to the line…?
A: To his credit, we fouled him on purpose. We let him catch and fouled. He was a 38% foul shooter. Give the kid credit. He stepped up there and drilled them.
Q: Late in the game, did you want your guys going straight to the bucket, get fouled and get right on the line?
A: Well, you’re trying to lengthen the game there when we’re in the double bonus. If we can get to the free throw line and get fouled and stop the clock, then we can decide if we want to press, do we not want to press? Do we want to go zone? Do we not want to go zone? Do we want to stayman? What are we going to do? It gives you some time to put it all together.
Q: How’s Bryce’s (cartwright) future? Is it up in the air?
A: I think it’s hard to say. High ankle sprains are a bit difficult to come back from. When we play Sunday, I don’t know. He may play, probably not. I’d say doubtful but possible. He’s made a lot of progress since Saturday. He has made a lot of progress and I think that’s encouraging.
Q: If he (Cartwright) can’t go for you Sunday, do you stick with the lineup from tonight?
A: I haven’t thought that through yet. Probably stick with what we had. That would be the logical alternative, especially because they’re so big.
Q: Was Graham the only guy you wanted to foul?
A: The only guy in the game. And that’s risky. It’s a three-point game. If he makes one it’s a 2-possession game. You’re thinking that through, but if they shoot at the end of the clock and we foul or they get a tip or a rebound, there’s only 13 or 14 seconds left in the game. It makes it tough.
Q: Matt (Gatens) was really looking for the ball. You guys found him but he missed all of his shots in the first half and hit them in the secondhalf?
A: It was an amazing performance by Matt. Very few guys can do that. Once they start going sideways, like he was, to come out and hit five. He was really, sort of wired at half time. He was sitting there and you could tell he was disappointed in himself and how we played collectively. He was going to affect some change, and he did and everyone sort of fed off of hisperformance and his energy level. Then we had a shot. We got it to a one- possession game.
Q: What did you think of Josh’s (Oglesby) performance?
A: I thought Josh couldn’t make a shot, but he played really well defensively. He had three assists, no turns. He’s not a mistake maker and he’s doesn’t hurt us on defense. I thought from a stamina standpoint, I was worried. He was able to hang in a very intense physical game. We know he’ll make shots.
Q: What’s the message to this team going in to Sunday’s game?
A: We have to play better than we played out there. Weplayed pretty decently defensively today in the second half in particular. I think we’re getting better we’ll just focus on that. We have to score too. Zach (McCabe) struggled tonight. We need him to play better, especially if we’re going to have a chance against Indiana.
Q: Do you think your team let up on (Tim) Frazier in the second half?
A: No, I don’t think so. He got in foul trouble. He had two and then Pat took him out. Then he was kind of going offense-defense a little bit. He’s a handful. He’s going to have the ball all the time. I think one of the things that worked was the zone. It limited him a little bit, but he still made a couple big hoops when we really needed to stop. He’s able to find a seam and make something happen. But, it’s almost like if he gets lower than 20 points, you feel pretty good about yourself. He’s an all league player.