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UNIVERSITY OF IOWA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 8, 2015

Lisa Bluder

Iowa City, Iowa

Upper Iowa 41 Iowa - 95

LISA BLUDER: First of all, I want to wish Carol good luck this season with her team. Appreciate their effort coming in here for our exhibition game.

I thought we had a good first time out. There's always things you want to work on, but I really loved some of the things that I saw. I saw unselfish play. We had 22 assists. I thought we took care of the ball. We only had nine turnovers. We had 18 steals in the game tonight, 10 blocked shots, a lot of really good performances by our team.

But you know, what can you say about Megan coming out here in her first game and having a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, and then Tania had seven assists in her first game as a freshman, as well. It was just a lot of good, balanced play. I thought Kali Peschel crashed the boards really well for us, especially in the beginning of the game, kind of got things going for us, but I'm excited about our future. I'm excited about this season and opening up on Friday.

Q. Coach, what specifically did you want to accomplish and what did you see out of your team?
LISA BLUDER: Well, we wanted to see transition, offense and defense, and I think we definitely saw that. We talked about fundamentals. We really wanted to be a fundamental basketball team, and I think you see that with 22 assists and nine turnovers.

We wanted to make sure that we just executed and got better at running our system and not just going one-on-one, and I don't think you saw a lot of that. We had situations like that in the fast break, but I don't think you saw kids just going one-on-one, because they could. We wanted to have team basketball.

Q. Nineteen points for Megan; is that the kind of offensive output that we might see from her throughout the season?
LISA BLUDER: It could be. She's going to be going against bigger kids than what she did tonight. She certainly has the potential. I love it when our team has the potential to get those kind of numbers from anybody, so it's kind of what they're giving us, we'll take, and tonight she definitely had a height advantage.

Q. Six of 21 from behind the arc. How did you see about the three-point shooting?
LISA BLUDER: We can shoot better from behind the arc, but we shoot them. That's a part of what we are. I don't think there was any bad shot selection. We'll definitely watch the tape and see, but I don't think I saw any contested threes going up, and that's what I look for. I think if you're open and you're a three-point shooter, you shoot it.

Q. What were some of the things that you saw offensively with Ally sitting out the game? What were some of the things that you saw offensively that you liked that might not have been there had Ally played?
LISA BLUDER: It gave us the opportunity to give some other kids some more minutes, and I think that's good this time of year. I don't think having Ally out was a bad thing at all for us. I thought we pushed the ball extremely well. I thought we got out and ran very, very well, and that's nice to see. Sometimes Ally has led our fast break and gotten out and run those wings. It's nice to see other people do it.

Q. Was she just resting for this game?
LISA BLUDER: No, she has a minor injury. She'll be back next week.

Q. Tania had a nice little flurry there early on with some assists on some buckets. Kind of her energy level, seeing it out there against other competition for the first time, how did you like that?
LISA BLUDER: I thought she played really well. You never know when a freshman steps on the floor for the first time how they're going to react, how they're going to react to the fans and to the lights being on and to wearing an Iowa uniform for the first time. I thought she looked like a natural out there. I think you can all tell that Tania belongs.

Q. First chance to see the new rules in action. It didn't seem to affect the game too much.
LISA BLUDER: No, I really don't think it did. It was weird, when it was kind of in the anthem looking up there and seeing 10 minutes up instead of 20 minutes, but it's just odd. But I don't think it really affected this game at all.

Q. Nothing with substitution patterns or anything in that regard with the four 10-minute quarters?
LISA BLUDER: No, I don't think it really bothered us that much. You know, it'll be interesting as it goes forward, but really we didn't notice it this particular game.

Q. How was it seeing Chase get into the mix and kind of building up confidence after last season?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, I thought she played well. We got good inside presence from both Chase and Megan, so that was nice. I thought Chase ran the floor well. She had some good blocked shots for us, so again, I'm pleased that we have kind of two different looking post players: One that's kind of more agile and pulls defenses out, where Megan kind of likes to be down there on the block, and that's, I think, good. It gives us two different looks.

Q. Upper Iowa definitely had a tough shooting night, but what did you see that you liked out of your defense?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, I think you've got to go back and look at the film and see some things. I think there's some things in our zone that we need to improve on, but I'm happy with the steals.

We forced a lot of turnovers tonight, forced 26 turnovers on 18 steals, so I mean, that's pretty darned good. I don't think they had a lot of good looks. You know, I think we took care of the paint really well. I thought we blocked shots down there and didn't allow very many uncontested paint shots. Those are high-percentage shots, so I felt good about it.

Q. Were there any adjustments coming into the season in the offense?
LISA BLUDER: In the offense? Not really. We kind of have a style and we recruit to that style. It's pretty similar offensively to what we've been doing the last several years.

Q. Where is the team in your mind? Do you have some things to work on yet before Friday's season opener?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, they have three days of practice, but I'd take three weeks. Us coaches always want to practice, practice, and the players want to play. So there's always things to work on. Definitely we'll go watch the film right now and figure out what those things are to make us a better team by Friday.

Q. Obviously Megan and Tania show up a lot on the box score tonight, but what about the other freshmen like Hannah and Tagyn? How did you like what you saw out of them in their time out there?
LISA BLUDER: I thought Hannah ran the floor well. I thought that was exciting to see. She got four points in the first half in transition, so that was fun. I thought Tagyn did some good things, as well. I think they're all going to be able to contribute at different times throughout this year.

Q. What does this win do to your team's confidence coming into Friday?
LISA BLUDER: We felt like we were going to win. We walk in here feeling like we're going to win every single game, and that's the same way we're going to walk in here Friday night. This is our home. We went 18-0 here last year. We feel like we can beat anybody. That's the attitude that we'll take on Friday night just like it's attitude that we took today.

Q. Is this the kind of scoring that we should expect coming into the regular season?
LISA BLUDER: Well, it's what we were trying to get. Last year we averaged 80 points a game; tonight we scored 95. So a little bit more than what we averaged last year. You know, obviously when you play Division I opponents versus Division II opponents, the defense is going to get better and it's going to take that number down a little bit.

Q. Was it nice seeing at least every player on the floor getting some playing time?
LISA BLUDER: It was good to get everybody off the bench and get some minutes, absolutely.

Q. I know rebounding was a big part of what you wanted to improve coming into the season. Did you see that in this game?
LISA BLUDER: I don't know if it's a good test today because we had such a height advantage and probably a quickness advantage, as well. I think time will tell with that. I was happy with the way we crashed, though. I thought we crashed the boards very well. I have to watch the film to see the box-outs.

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