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UNIVERSITY OF IOWA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 28, 2016Lisa BluderIowa City, Iowa Iowa - 85, Michigan - 69 LISA BLUDER: I want to, first of all, start by thanking the crowd for coming out tonight. You know, we needed that. This is a game we really needed to have people behind us, coming off what we've been coming off. I can tell you it's a lot more fun coming in here tonight than it's been the last couple of weeks. So we're really thrilled to get this win. Megan has her first career double-double. Chase has her third career double-double. I thought Chase was outstanding tonight. And then Tania, I don't know what I can say about her, career high in points, not only did she shoot the ball well, 18 points, she had five assists and zero turnovers. She did the job on Flaherty, and she's a heck of a player. That girl can shoot the ball. She had 24 points in the first 15 minutes. We really challenged Tania to face guard her, try to keep the ball out of her hands, and then she scored seven in the last 25 minutes. So I thought Tania did an outstanding job defending a key player for them. Q. What did that 10-0 run do or whatever it was at the end of the first half for you guys? LISA BLUDER: Well, it's one of those things you're down nine with three minutes and 20 seconds to go, and you're thinking, oh my goodness, do I need to call a time-out? We get to the free-throw line and we score at the free-throw line and then we got it rolling and it's a good thing I didn't call a time-out. You never know. But I thought that momentum that we took at the end of the second quarter into the locker room was huge. I mean, it was just a huge momentum boost for us in the locker room. Q. Do you think the transition was what let to the great performance in the beginning of the third quarter? LISA BLUDER: I hope so. I think we came out of the locker room feeling good about ourselves and ready to go out, and I think we won every quarter tonight,including the fourth quarter. Q. Statistically not just the way you guys played today, getting up and down the court, but is this more of that Iowa basketball that you guys talk about? LISA BLUDER: Absolutely, 21 assists, 12 turnovers, I love that. Our bench, obviously because of Chase, out-scores their bench tremendously. We had four people in double figures, so good balance there. So all good stuff right there.It's one game, I understand that. We're going one game at a time, but hopefully this will get us going down the right path for the last nine games. Q. What do you guys talk about in practice this week? Obviously some changes in the starting lineup, change obviously on the court from the last game. What was the big focus in practice this week? LISA BLUDER: The big focus for us was a new season, that we were starting over, and we were going to forget about everything that happened up to that point and we were going to start over, and I think that our players -- so much of this is mental at this juncture. Our freshmen are growing up, our sophomores are getting more and more experience, and that's helpful at this time of year. They're not babies anymore. So it's nice. Q. Coach, talk about that sequence of offensive rebounds there with about two and a half, three minutes. That was kind of a difference, wasn't it? LISA BLUDER: Yeah, Megan and Christina Buttenham both got on that. Christina, I thought, played very well for us defensively. She did a great job, but she's got a great knack for offensive rebounding, and she leads our team in offensive rebounding in the Big Ten season. She has four of them tonight, and that was crucial because we were able to use a lot of time off the clock during that time. Q. I know you haven't -- I assume you haven't taken a big hard look at Northwestern yet. Just generally, they lost again tonight, they're 2-7. Does that come as a surprise to you? LISA BLUDER: Yes, very much so, especially the way they started out the season. But I have not even watched them play one time, and I'll do that tonight. Coach Jensen has a scout, so we'll be meeting right after this. Maggie Lyon, of course unbelievable three-point shooter. She's a senior now; this is her last time around. Nia Coffey is probably one of the most athletic players in the conference. She's a tough match-up because she plays a power forward. She can do great things posting up, but she can also come out and face, so she's just a tough match-up. They're a team that can score a lot of points just like Michigan, so our defense is going to have to come through for us just like it did tonight. We've always had a great crowd there at Northwestern, so hopefully we'll get a lot of people coming over on Sunday, as well. Q. How much of an emphasis were post touches tonight for both these two against that zone? LISA BLUDER: You know, we really wanted to get the ball inside, whether it was to those guys or to our cutters. We really talked about it, worked on it, and I thought they did a good job of focusing on it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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