UNIVERSITY OF IOWA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 27, 2022

Fran McCaffery

Men's Basketball Press Conference

Purdue 83, Iowa 73

Q. Much like the first game you guys fell behind, but you made another comeback that fell short. What was the difference in the first and second half in your view?

FRAN MCCAFFERY: I didn't think we competed in the first half the way you have to compete to beat a team of this caliber.

That doesn't mean we didn't play hard. You have to play hard, you have to be connected, pay attention to the game plan, and we were late on stuff, and then we tried to do it all on our own offensively.

We're not a team that has 10 assists and 24 baskets. Everybody then tries to go one-on-one, so in the second half our defense was way better, our press, our half-court defense, and our offense.

We got into the bonus by the 11 minute mark, so we're driving the ball, multiple penetration. That's the way we have to play in order to beat that team.

If you are late, they're going to score. They're too good. They have too many weapons. It's not like you can zero in on one or two guys; it's everybody. Everybody they have is a veteran guy who can score.

So it takes a team to be more connected than we were. But we had a great look at a three with a great play set, would've cut it to three after being down 18.

So you're proud of the guys for fighting the way they did, but then you're disappointed because they know better. So hopefully we'll learn from it.

Q. How do you explain that? Are there some times when it just happens and you're just not able to explain it?

FRAN MCCAFFERY: It's always disappointing when it happens. You know, sometimes you can feel it coming; sometimes it just happens. At some point you have give your opponent credit, too. They were ready to go. They came out ready. They jumped us a little bit.

Then I think we were a little bit too much, all right, we need to make a play so I'm going to go do it. Its we're going to go do it, not I'm going to go do it.

That's exactly what we did in the second half. The way we attacked their defense in the second half is the only way you can beat them. If you try to do what we did in the first half you're not going to beat them, period.

Q. What are your thoughts on what Kris brought to the table in the second half stepping in for Filip?

FRAN MCCAFFERY: I thought Kris was great the whole game. He had to play a lot. Keegan was in foul trouble. He of course then got his second. Filip tweaked his ankle so we just kind of left him out there.

I just thought his aggressiveness at both ends was really good, and just to see him playing with that level of comfort and confidence is really important for him and for us.

Q. Did you think about putting Keegan back in the first half, like 11 minutes?

FRAN MCCAFFERY: No, I didn't.

Q. He said he wanted to come in.

FRAN MCCAFFERY: Well, yeah, but he got his third right away in the second half. Then I left him in, so now if he gets another one then all of a sudden he's got four and has to sit for 14 minutes.

He gets his third, just keep playing. He was good in the second half. We needed him to be better. You say, Oh, he had an off game; 14 and 9 is pretty good. The kid did a lot of good things. He's defending guys, in some cases a lot bigger than him. But he was good.

Q. Fran, early in the season you talk about Kris playing through mistakes. He missed the lay up, but I think a minute later came down and hit another big shot for you.

FRAN MCCAFFERY: That's the first thing we all said to him, myself, just everybody in the building, like, Why didn't you just dunk it? You got to forget that and just come back. I'm not taking you out. We're leaving you in. You're playing great.

Hits a huge three right after that. I think that was really important for him. He was attacking, he was open, he was making plays, and when he's doing that, we're better.

Q. Kris said something kind of interesting, a good observation. Said the ball movement hasn't been maybe a crisp as you like.

FRAN MCCAFFERY: Wasn't in the first half. It was terrible. It was better in the second half.

Q. I guess to create open looks for the...

FRAN MCCAFFERY: For everybody, yeah. And, you know, teams are defending you a certain way and they're defending Keegan a certain way, J-Bo a certain way. They watch film, too, so they're setting up their defense to play guys certain ways.

So now you have to adjust.