Feb. 11, 2013
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Complete Coach Bluder Transcript
IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa head women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder fielded questions from the media after the Hawkeyes were downed by Nebraska, 76-75, on Monday night inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Opening Statement:
COACH BLUDER: Well, another tough one, obviously tonight any time you lose a game by one point you always have those `What if’ situations and you think about all the opportunities and those are the ones that keep you awake at night, but it was nice to see Morgan (Johnson) get on track. I thought we played with much better focus today; great determination, fought back, played well in crunch time, it was just too much Jordan Hooper for us in this game.
Q. Coach, what can you say about their 3-point shooting? It seemed to build the lead for them and then maintain it?<>< coach=”” bluder:=”” yeah,=”” they=”” shot=”” very=”” well=”” from=”” 3-point=”” range.=”” you=”” know,=”” it’s=”” too=”” bad,=”” but=”” i=”” need=”” to=”” look=”” at=”” the=”” film=”” and=”” see=”” if=”” more=”” came=”” against=”” zone=”” or=”” player.=”” our=”” closeouts=”” in=”” the=”” zone=”” sometimes=”” weren’t=”” very=”” aggressive.=””>
They’re a team that can get 3s in transition, too. They’re a good 3 shooting team. Rachel Theriot hit a couple tonight, and Brandi Jeffery hit a couple tonight, and those are big for them. Extra players hitting 3s that haven’t consistently done that all year for them.
But we’ll get another opportunity in a week or so.
Q. It obviously doesn’t get any easier now. How do you keep them up at this point?
COACH BLUDER: Well, you know, we have the No. 1 team coming in in our conference on Thursday, and we get them on our home court, so that’s a great opportunity. So we’ve got to make the most of that opportunity.
We go to Purdue on Sunday, and Michigan was able to just get them over the weekend.
Going to Nebraska, we feel like, hey, we were in this game tonight. So we’ve got to remember that going into Nebraska.
Q. Coach, what do you have to work on this week in practice in order to be ready for the next game?
COACH BLUDER: Well, I won’t know that until tonight. Because I haven’t looked at Penn State, so I need to get ready for them, and I’ll know that better probably about midnight, I’ll have a better idea of that. But I wouldn’t be able to tell you that right now.
Q. Coach, are you confident your resume still looks pretty good going into the last week?
COACH BLUDER: I think we still have some work to. I’d like to see us win three more. I think that would solidify things. But I don’t know. Who knows what the selection committee will think.
Q. It looked like was there an effort to get Morgan the ball in the first half and especially in the second half?
COACH BLUDER: She was shooting the ball. She was 5-of-5 in the first half. So we definitely wanted to get the ball into her hands, and she’s shooting the ball well tonight. So, yes, we were looking to get her the ball.