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UNIVERSITY OF IOWA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE
November 9, 2012
Iowa – 63
Northern Illinois – 40
LISA BLUDER: Well, I thought this was a good opener for us. You know, any time you open up and you only have 10 turnovers, you play some pretty good defense, hold them to 29 percent shooting and 40 points, I'm happy with that. I thought that we got a lot of people involved in this game, and that's good for them, just to get some extra minutes. But it's also good for our legs on Sunday with a quicker turnaround than what we're used to.
So I thought it was an excellent first time out for us.
Q. Jaime, what are your thoughts on getting back on the floor with the knee?
JAIME PRINTY: It's just a great feeling. I can't even describe it. I mean, it's so fun to be out there with my teammates and to play in front of all these fans and stuff, and it's just‑‑ I just couldn't stop smiling the whole time. So it was a lot of fun.
Q. There seemed to be a lot of elevation when you came into the game and you hit your first three shots. You must have been pretty happy about that.
JAIME PRINTY: Yeah, I was. I mean, the crowd is great and fans, everyone has been so supportive, and just feels great to be back out there.
LISA BLUDER: I was thrilled. When she made that first three, I was really excited, but then I was even more excited when I saw her take the ball to the hole, because you never know about that aspect of your game coming off the injury that she did, and I just was thrilled to see her take the ball to the hole hard, and got my Jaime Printy back, so I'm pretty happy.
Q. Jaime, what's that rig you're wearing out there on your leg?
JAIME PRINTY: Oh, my brace? Well, I've got a sleeve and brace on my left leg. The sleeve just helps keep the brace up. And then on my hamstring, it's just like a little sleeve to try to keep it warm and stuff. It's nothing big.
Q. It just looks like a lot of gear. Did anybody say anything to you before the game?
JAIME PRINTY: No, it's fine.
Q. Sam, talk about getting the first game out of the way leading into Sunday.
SAMANTHA LOGIC: I think it's really good to especially come out with a win, just like Coach said, getting everyone a lot of minutes and playing time on Carver and in front of people, it's different than practicing, and even our exhibition game doesn't count normally.
But it's fun to finally be out here playing against people other than ourselves and that it actually counts.
Q. Coach, you've got some depth this year. It's early, but talk about all the players that you have that you're able to sub in there.
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, when you can get everybody on your roster in the game, I think that's a good sign. But this is the most depth that we've had since I think I've been here at Iowa. So it's fun to have so many different parts. I think it allows the players to play harder when they're out there because they know they don't have to pace themselves and that they can play as hard as they can and not worry about a foul here or there or getting tired because the next person can step right in for them.
Q. Talk about the first half and the way you guys played defensively. Seemed like that was pretty impressive.
LISA BLUDER: I thought so, too.  I think in the first four minutes they might have had six points and then they had seven for the last 16 minutes of that game or the half. So I was very happy with our defense, and we've tried to tweak a few things and change some things, and I think from today it looks pretty good. We only allowed 10 paint points, as well, so we forced them to take some shots maybe they didn't want to take.
Q. Sam, what does it mean when you get three shot clock violations on them in the first half?
SAMANTHA LOGIC: I think it's really an energizer for our team, showing that you don't need to get steals to get stops or force bad shots, even just playing defense for 30 seconds, it's really energizing to your team knowing that you can do it, and doing it three times in a span of 10 minutes or whatever it was just really energizes you for the next defensive time, try to do it again.
Q. Coach, what was it like to have to look to the bench there and see Jaime and bring her in off the bench?
LISA BLUDER: Well, I probably‑‑ I don't know, I think that's probably the first time Jaime Printy has ever come off the bench in her life, so as far as something different that she's ever done, and she handled that situation well. But it just feels so right to have her back with our team and back being a part of all this. We have great depth right now and just want to keep it that way because it's a lot of fun to play the way we are right now.
Q. What problems might a quick turnaround cause, and talk about the quick turnaround you have getting ready for Sunday.
LISA BLUDER: Well, one thing is getting the scouting report done because we don't know when that's going to come down out of the sky or the server tonight, could be around midnight before we get the film and we have practice actually at 8:00 tomorrow morning, so we're going to go early. You worry about your team a little bit, but at the same time, Illinois State or Morehead State, whoever is coming here, is going to have a harder time because they've got to travel on top of it, so we definitely have the advantage by hosting.
Q. What's your initial reaction to losing the rebounding battle and not maybe getting the most effective offensive games out of Bethany and Morgan?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, you know, the rebounding is really bothering me because that's one of the first statistics I look at, and I probably harp on them every media time about rebounds because I just am such a believer in owning the boards, and so that's the one kind of disappointing thing is that we got out‑rebounded by 10 tonight and we didn't crash the boards very well. Kali Peschel was our best crasher out there tonight.
Morgan and Bethany didn't have good games, but isn't it nice to know that we have different weapons that we go to because we know what they're capable of doing. And so to me it's always like, okay, as long as you win, our post didn't play well, well, just wait until we get it all put together, so I think that there's optimism because we can win this decisively without them playing their best game.
Q. Sam, obviously you guys won a lot of games without Jaime in there, but when she came off the bench it seemed to spark you. What's it like to have her back there and playing?
SAMANTHA LOGIC: Well, I think having Jaime out there just really opens up the defense, they can't help off, and then when you have her and Melissa in there together and then Morgan down low or Bethany or both of them down low, it's really tough to defend. You don't really know which weapon you're going to use; Melissa hit seven threes last Sunday or whatever it is and then you bring Jaime back and Morgan All‑Big Ten. So it's really just nice, another offensive threat and make the defense worry a lot more. Like you said, they can't help off, but you don't want to give up open threes to those people.
Q. Coach, it seems like Kathy played with a little attitude. Is that good for you guys?
LISA BLUDER: I like it. I like it. She has a little chip on her shoulder, and I think that's a great spark off of our bench.
Q. Jaime, the fact that you got that first game out of the way, are you able to kind of settle down now and kind of get in your groove?
JAIME PRINTY: Yeah, definitely. To be completely honest, I was actually nervous, and usually I don't get nervous before games. But it just feels great to get back out there and get those nerves out and now just kind of settle in and go with the season.
Q. Coach, your freshman are shooting 1 for 15. Is that shot selection something you'll talk about tomorrow morning?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, I mean, definitely you don't want to take bad shots, but I think sometimes that freshmen will rush things because they just almost want to get the ball out of their hands as quickly as possible when they get it there. And so just taking smarter shots will be important for us to improve our field goal percentage definitely as we go down the line.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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