Iowa coach after non-con win
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00:00 All right, questions for Coach.
00:07 It just kind of seemed like there was a lid on the hoop for you guys tonight at times.
00:16 What do you attribute that to?
00:19 You know, I thought we got good shots.
00:23 You know, some that normally go in didn't go in.
00:25 It happens.
00:26 I don't attribute it to anything.
00:30 I don't think much about it.
00:31 We won the game.
00:32 Did what we had to do.
00:36 Coach, Arkansas State had a lot of rebounds, a lot of turnovers, a lot of fouls, a real
00:40 scrappy team.
00:41 How did your team adjust to that?
00:42 Well, you have to because you're right.
00:45 You identify what their style is, especially when they downshift and go small.
00:50 So they put all their guards out there and they just go off the bounce and they fly at
00:55 the glass and they fly around and they put their hands on you.
00:58 They're very physical.
00:59 You know, it's a style that they employ and they've been pretty successful with it.
01:06 They won the last game, scored 100 points, made 19 threes.
01:09 The game before that, they got down big and came back and took the lead in the second
01:13 half on the road.
01:16 So you've got a team with a bunch of old guys that are athletic and talented that are physical.
01:23 It was a good test for our guys to have to deal with that.
01:26 At least part of the plan, were you impressed by how your guys were able to get downhill,
01:32 get in the paint, score in the paint, especially when the three-point shot was just not falling?
01:35 Yeah, the three-point shot was not falling, so it was very important that we get downhill,
01:39 that we throw the ball inside.
01:41 Wisconsin beat them throwing the ball inside, so we wanted to get the ball inside to Ben.
01:46 We went to Owen when he was in there and he did pretty well, got fouled down the stretch,
01:50 struggled at the line there, but he's usually pretty good with that.
01:55 So I thought our recognition and our ball movement, sharing the ball, was really good.
02:01 We fumbled a few plays that we were really working and Tony missed one and Ben fumbled
02:07 one and Peyton fumbled one.
02:10 That's not normally us, but we got the stops we needed to get the win.
02:14 James just told us DeSantis' turnover to assist is 17 to 1 this season.
02:20 He probably leads the country, I would think.
02:25 Is this the DeSantis Bowen that you expected to see eventually when you brought him in
02:30 here?
02:31 Yeah, there's no question about that.
02:33 He was a phenomenal player on the AAU circuit and in the prep school circuit.
02:39 Nobody saw it his last year because it was pandemic, so nobody went to the games.
02:46 We had seen him when he was a sophomore.
02:49 The thing about him, he's really talented.
02:51 He's a good athlete, he can run your offense, he can make plays, he plays defense, he rebounds.
02:57 But he's one of the finer people you'll ever come across from a great family and we're
03:02 just proud to have him on our team.
03:05 Coach there's a sequence in the first half.
03:07 Owen had hedged on the screen, got back, got a block.
03:10 Tony kicks it to Josh for a three.
03:12 Is that kind of like a perfect sequence for you as a coach?
03:15 Yeah, no question.
03:16 We go ahead and we throw it in, something like that.
03:20 But Owen is really, he's getting there.
03:22 He's real close.
03:23 I have a lot of confidence in him.
03:29 I didn't play the freshman as much tonight, but when I did they were effective.
03:33 DeSantis had those first half, second half, he had the opening points.
03:38 What did those two plays show about him?
03:41 It tells you he's locked in, but it's really important when you're playing a team of this
03:45 caliber because they come in and they get a lead on you, they're going to be hard to
03:50 beat because of how they play and the number of three-point shooters they have, the number
03:55 of drivers they have, the number of offensive rebounders they have, and the veteran guys
04:00 that they have.
04:01 A lot of these guys didn't start at Arkansas State, but they're there now.
04:04 They scored a ton of points somewhere else.
04:06 A lot of transfers and the veteran guys that are back all scored the ball at a high level
04:12 for them.
04:13 So there's a lot of ways you can go with a game like this in terms of scheduling, and
04:18 this was a good one for us and we knew it.
04:22 Like Ben, doesn't he really get too high or too low?
04:25 No.
04:26 I mean, what's the value of having someone that experience that kind of is just level?
04:34 It's just a completely different situation for him.
04:38 There's nothing he hasn't seen.
04:40 Owen and Lodgy and Price and Brock, they're trying to figure it out on the fly.
04:46 He's already been through it.
04:47 I mean, look at him, 25-9, two assists, four steals, three blocks.
04:54 He's affecting the game in a lot of different ways.
04:56 Those guys will get there, but obviously Ben's there.
05:01 He's in year five.
05:02 A little bit of that, I mean, like we talked about, they're a gritty team, hard-nosed team,
05:07 physical team.
05:09 You rebounds 10 in the first half.
05:11 Do you credit them for that?
05:13 Is it something that the guys weren't quite used to?
05:15 A little disappointed in us.
05:16 16's too high a number, but you have to give credit to them because they were flying around
05:25 and they're tipping it, keeping it alive, never quit on it.
05:30 I mean, you've got to give your opponent credit in situations like that.
05:35 So we just got to do a better job gang rebounding because if they're shooting threes or coming
05:39 long, they shot, what, 24 threes.
05:46 So that ball's coming.
05:47 They missed 14, so they're coming long.
05:49 You've got to make sure you get those.
05:50 It looks like no matter who you play in San Diego, you're going to be playing two good
05:54 teams.
05:55 Right.
05:56 What will the coming week do for you?
05:59 Well, it prepares you for what's coming after that.
06:03 We have Iowa State, we have two league games, and we have the league schedule, which we
06:07 know how difficult that is.
06:09 So when you get an MTE of this caliber, you know what you signed up for.
06:15 And we signed up to play really good teams in a great environment on television.
06:22 It's great exposure for the program.
06:24 It's a great opportunity for the players.
06:26 You're playing teams from Pac-12 team, Big 12 team, Big East team.
06:33 We just played a Big East team, and that's ultimately going to make your team better,
06:39 but who knows who you're going to play in the NCAA tournament.
06:42 If we play well enough to get there, those are the kind of teams you're going to play.
06:47 The styles are different, and that's important.
06:50 Ben's obviously playing at a high level, but are there areas you're still challenging him
06:55 to get better in?
06:57 Well, one of them was rebounding, and he was terrific tonight.
07:01 He got traffic rebounds.
07:03 Offensively, he's very efficient.
07:06 He's not a turnover guy.
07:08 He's not a selfish guy.
07:12 He gives it up, takes good shots, never stops moving.
07:17 He also is a guy that screens.
07:20 When you have guys that shoot a lot, they don't screen.
07:22 That's a sign of selfishness.
07:25 Not him.
07:26 He's going to set his teammates up.
07:27 He sees flare screen opportunities, flare screen slips.
07:30 His ball screen action is really good.
07:36 He's everything that we hoped he'd be.
07:39 Okay, guys.
07:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]