NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - AUBURN VS IOWA

March 16, 2023

Fran McCaffery

Payton Sandfort

Connor McCaffery

Legacy Arena

Iowa Hawkeyes

Media Conference

Auburn - 83, Iowa - 75

Q. That was a major home court advantage for a lower-seeded team. Did that seem fair to you all?

CONNOR MCCAFFERY: Playing in the Big Ten, we're used to playing on the road, playing in hostile environments. So I think, for us -- I mean, obviously, like if we had our choice, we would have preferred to be a little bit more neutral. But that's not why we lost at all.

We're used to that. And that's something -- we won at Rutgers. We won at IU. And those places are 100 times louder than it was in here today. So I think it's just part of the game.

PAYTON SANDFORT: It is what it is. You play to get to the tournament. Control what you can and play the game as you can. Unfortunately we didn't play up to our capabilities. That's what happened.

Q. How did you feel basically playing a road game here?

COACH MCCAFFERY: I look at it like this: Kind of very similar to what Connor said. In a perfect world, yeah, we probably would rather play somewhere else. But I think the focus is, looking at the schedule we had, looking at how tough our conference is, we just want to get into the tournament.

We want to be one of the teams that's in it. And I think once that happens, you have to take the mindset of we'll play anybody, anytime, anywhere. And I think that has to be your mindset.

I would tell you this, I put the toughest schedule that any Iowa has ever played in in front of these guys this year because this kind of situation may happen. We played Duke in The Garden. We played Seton Hall on the road in the Big East Challenge. Obviously all the teams in our league.

We played TCU and Clemson down in Florida. So we're used to playing really good teams. We're used to playing -- every game in our league is a hostile road environment. So we cannot be an excuse, nor would we want to make it one.

We were right there. And you have to give credit to your opponent.

Q. When Bruce was in here earlier, he compared SEC style versus Big Ten. He felt the SEC quickness, speed, played a difference tonight. How big of a factor was that for your team?

COACH MCCAFFERY: I think we've seen a fair amount of quickness in our league. I think leagues tend to get too generalized. We have a lot of quick teams in our league.

We have a lineup that we can play that's a little quicker. We have a lineup that's a little bigger. Maybe one's a little better offensively than the other. But we didn't shoot it well in the first half. Either today. But we kept coming in the second half. We outrebounded them. Didn't turn it over that much. The press was marginally effective. Give credit to them for that.

I thought our running game was pretty good. But they do have quick guards. But I don't know that it's a thing where you just say, okay, this is one style, one league versus another. It's two teams. What happens in the league is, in my opinion, irrelevant.

Q. When you scouted them on tape, I'm guessing you didn't see K.D. Johnson hitting a lot of 3s or even Tre Donaldson playing a lot of minutes. How surprised were you by some of the contributions they got off their bench?

COACH MCCAFFERY: I will tell you this, when I watched them, I watched a lot of games. Obviously you find out on Sunday; you don't play til Thursday. You don't have a chance to watch a lot.

I was impressed with Donaldson. I think that kid's a good player. Johnson, he's had games where he's gone off. He's just taken over at the end.

So I mean you could look at the numbers and say, okay, this is what they did over 32, 33 games. But I looked at the quality of the player, the complete picture. And I think those two kids are really good.

Q. The Hawkeyes ended the season on three straight losses. Obviously you didn't want to have anything like that. Does that slide affect the way that you're going to approach the offseason and next year?

COACH MCCAFFERY: No, not at all.

Q. Obviously Alabama's known as a football state nationally. What was your impression today of the atmosphere, the crowds?

COACH MCCAFFERY: I think it was what I would have expected it to be. I mean, you look at how those two teams draw at home. You've got a great program in town right here. UAB. So there's a lot of really good basketball being played in this state. And I would say these folks are sports fans. They love both.