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UNIVERSITY OF IOWA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 26, 2015Lisa BluderWISCONSIN – 74 COACH BLUDER: Well, we're thrilled to come out of here with another victory, of course. Sam Logic, wow, she's playing like the All‑American she is, isn't she? One assist away from a triple double, just outstanding. Beth had a good second half. First half struggled a little bit, but I believe every one of our shooters, if they have a bad first half, they're going to come out the second half, and we certainly shot the ball a lot better the second half. Free throws were great. You know, I thought our crowd was good. I felt like, I know they closed it in, but we have an 8‑point lead at 1:38 and I need to watch the film. I feel like we were in their face. They got some shots that went in, but I feel like we were there and contesting. But I need to watch the film before I attest to that for certain. But we shot the ball well in the second half, and that was good to see. Q. You win 300, and I know you're just happy with another win, but what does 300 wins here at Iowa mean to you? COACH BLUDER: Just means, again, long time been here. You know, Jan and Jenni, you can't go without saying those two, because they've been here for every single one of these wins. But you just think about, again, the players that have won the uniforms, unbelievable. I'm so fortunate to be at a place that supports women's basketball so much and to have great players, obviously, you don't do it without them. Q. Coach, (Indiscernible). Was it you? Was it them? They shot it really well. COACH BLUDER: They did, and again, it's really weird. We have a 13‑point lead with 3 minutes to go in a game. You know, I thought we did a decent job of trying to milk the clock a little bit toward the end. But they made some quick shots. Again, I need to go back and watch it on film to watch those threes. You know, we came out of zone, we went all player, and they still got some. So it's definitely something we need to work on some, closing out the game strong. We did have a good eight‑point lead with 1:30, and you don't want to have those close games when you have that type of lead. Q. Going into that stretch you had a 15‑0 run where you were down 2 and pushed it out to 13. What was working right offensively and defensively that allowed you to take that lead? COACH BLUDER: We took care of the ball, I thought, well the whole game. We had nine turnovers in this game to their 18. But there was a stretch we had a couple in a row, and that's when they were making a run at us. We couldn't draw a foul. It was 11 minutes before we drew a foul to get to the free‑throw line even. Then Beth tied it up for us, I believe, at 54, and from then on, I just thought our kids just locked in. I thought they did a great job, again, taking care of the ball and rebounding through that stretch and to give us that lead. Q. What was the message at the under 12 timeout. We didn't have a lead, and then we went on the run. Do you remember what you said to the group? COACH BLUDER: Probably get our act together and maybe not those nice of words. But I felt like there was a section of time we weren't playing ourselves. We weren't playing like I feel like we were capable of playing, but Wisconsin's a good team.  They took‑‑ it was only a three‑point loss to No. 25 Northwestern just the other day. They're playing to stay out of that first day of playing. They're a good team. I don't want to take anything away from them because they're a good offensive team. I thought we could have scored better the first half against them than we did. Q. The defense in the last three games, what can you do if anything, to try to break out? COACH BLUDER: Yeah, they definitely have been. In my opinion, again, when people do that, there are other things we should be taking advantage of like getting the ball inside to Beth or looking at driving to her side and those type of things if they're not going to help off of her because that opens up the lanes for other people. We probably need to isolate her a little by more. We run some plays for her, but Melissa's not the best at getting open off of screens. She's really good when we're in transition, and Wisconsin did a really good job of taking that away from us tonight. But Melissa, it doesn't matter, she goes 1 for 5 from three‑point range tonight. She could make 4 for 5 the next day. I just believe that with Melissa again. Every time she shoots the ball, I really believe it's in. Q. It just seems like she's gotten better off the dribble. A little bit more mobile than she's been the last couple of years. Is it the fact she played before quite a bit last year or what? COACH BLUDER: I think that was probably. Q. How nice is it to get that 16‑0 at home? COACH BLUDER: Very nice. I can't believe we're talking about the last game of the year. We have an opportunity to do a lot of great things on Sunday. Go 16‑0, finish second in the Big Ten. Give a great finish to these four seniors who really, really deserve it. I think we'll have a great crowd because I think people admire so much of what these women have done on and off the court. We have three 1,000 point scorers leaving us. I just think everybody's going to want to pay tribute to these women after the game. They're going to be able to talk on the microphone and express their feelings of what it's like to be a Hawkeye, and it's going to be a great day. One other thing that we didn't talk about today that is a great accomplishment for our program is that Academic All Americans came out today. There are 15 women named Academic All Americans in the whole United States, and two of them are wearing Iowa Hawkeye uniforms. That is an amazing accomplishment. We're the only school in America that has two Academic All‑Americans on our team. We're the only school in America that has a sophomore that was recognized on that team with Ali. So Sam and Ally were both recognized today. I'm telling you. I'm as proud of that accomplishment as this win today because that to me is really huge how well these guys have done both on and off the court. Q. Can you talk about the level that Sam's playing at? It got to the level where you expect that type of performance? COACH BLUDER: And I would say to say that it would because how can you expect that? How can you expect a triple‑double out of your point guard? She said she's seeing the ball so well. It's like going up and elevating so strongly in her jump shots, shooting the three ball really well. I think she's taken it to another level lately. I really do. She's just playing confidently. There are times even when I still say, oh, wow. You know, because of what she does, whether it's in practice or out there. Like an unbelievable jumpshot. She's a pretty special player. Q. You talked about it before, and now it's locked in you're going to get one of the top four seeds and not playing until Friday in Chicago. How important is that to have that locked in going into the last game? COACH BLUDER: Really important to me. It takes a lot of pressure off the game because we know we're in that. But even though it takes pressure off, we still have such high expectations for ourself that there is still a great deal of pressure, if that makes sense. Even though we know we don't have to win for that. We want to win because we're so proud of being Iowa Hawkeyes. We want to win because we can accomplish so many great things with a win. Even though, yes, we're super glad we don't have to play on the first two days, we really want to get this. And we want to get them back. They beat us at their place and we want to get them back. Q. Can you elaborate more on that? Last year you went all the way to the championship, and like you said, you didn't get a bye. Talk about how important it is compared to last year where you guys were playing basically every day. COACH BLUDER: We did it the hard way last year. We did it the hard way, four games in four days. That is hard for anybody to do. It's only been done once in the history of the Big Ten Conference tournament where somebody has made it and won the championship after four. We felt like we were there last year. We felt like we played so well all the way through that tournament. Not to have to do that, to think that we only have to play three games, that should give everybody a good pep in their step. But certainly we'll take it one game at a time. Our players are so seasoned. They know how to do that, and we're glad that we don't have to play on that first day, and we'll make good use of that bye. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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