Fran McCaffery 112923
iowa basketball coach
Transcript
00:00 All right, going to questions for coach.
00:07 Fran, obviously you knew about the situation with Tony.
00:12 Can you just speak to his effort tonight and especially given the circumstances?
00:16 It was really remarkable and speaks to his character.
00:23 He found out on Monday morning, you know, his biggest fan, his grandmother, passed.
00:29 He was in my office and he was incredibly emotional.
00:34 He could not practice on Monday. He couldn't do it.
00:38 But he came, he watched film, and he watched practice.
00:41 He practiced Tuesday and obviously played a spectacular game tonight at both ends of the floor.
00:48 Showed great leadership, great intensity.
00:53 And I think it's just amazing to see how focused he was under the circumstances.
00:57 Just really proud of him.
00:59 Could you sense that right away?
01:01 You know what, if you had talked to me before the game, I would have predicted it.
01:04 Just knowing him, that's what makes him special.
01:08 People talk about how Iowa feels like a family.
01:11 You know, he talks about the support system you guys have provided.
01:14 What does that mean to you as a coach to know that your players feel that way?
01:18 Well, you know, to be truthful, I think it should be an expectation
01:23 because it's what we discuss in the recruiting process.
01:26 We tell them we're going to treat them like family.
01:28 We tell them we're going to take care of them.
01:30 So when things like this happen, that's what you have to do.
01:34 It's going to be really interesting because the service is next Wednesday.
01:39 So he will stay after the Purdue game with his family,
01:44 and we'll have to get him up either late Wednesday night or Thursday morning for the Iowa State game.
01:53 Prenton, Owen had that stretch of three blocks.
01:57 What are you seeing from him defensively?
01:59 Is that what you're kind of expecting from him?
02:01 Well, he's been really special in a number of ways,
02:04 and obviously the shot blocking but the rebounding.
02:07 But his awareness has been really good.
02:11 You know, he might make a mistake or two, but he doesn't linger on them.
02:16 He's got a pretty keen sense of where he's supposed to be.
02:20 Occasionally he'll come up too far like everybody,
02:23 but for a freshman he's been really special in that area.
02:30 You can almost just count on him when I put him in to do good things
02:34 and impact a game that both ends on the floor in a positive way.
02:38 He's not a mistake maker.
02:41 He's an effort guy, and he's an athlete, and he's skilled.
02:46 So I think the scary thing is he's going to keep getting better.
02:50 That's a great thing.
02:52 Coach, both your bigs, Ben and Owen, were here last year,
02:55 and now they've shown they're ready to produce.
02:58 How confident are you in their abilities going into the Big Ten play?
03:02 Very confident.
03:03 Obviously Ben is a veteran guy, not in the league,
03:06 but when you lead the Missouri Valley in scoring,
03:10 that says a lot about who you are.
03:12 He's played internationally.
03:14 He's special.
03:16 Owen was somebody that when we recruited him we figured he would be an impact
03:20 player as a freshman, and he certainly has been that.
03:27 Like I said, he's going to be an all-league player without a doubt at some point.
03:32 Adding to what you just said, I think -- I wouldn't say it's a cliche,
03:38 but it seems to be a commonly said thing that freshman big players come along
03:45 a little slower than everybody else.
03:47 Why is that not the case with him?
03:50 Well, I think for two reasons.
03:53 He's an athlete.
03:54 He runs, he slides his feet, he jumps.
04:00 But secondly, he trusts his own talent.
04:03 He has confidence in himself.
04:05 And so I guess we help provide him with that.
04:09 We want him to be a confident guy.
04:12 That's one of the things that I talk about all the time.
04:16 I let him play.
04:17 I let him run and dribble the ball and shoot the ball
04:21 and drive the ball and play in traffic.
04:26 We're not afraid to switch with him and have him guard a smaller guy
04:29 or hard hedge and get back to his guy and use his length.
04:33 He's a guy that -- he comes from a real basketball family.
04:38 His mom and dad both played.
04:40 His mom coached at the college level,
04:44 played for one of the best high school coaches in Illinois in Sean Taylor
04:50 for one of the best programs, not only in Illinois but probably in the country.
04:56 So he came ready.
04:58 And so we've worked with him, but, you know,
05:02 you don't do what he's doing as a young player and this, you come ready.
05:05 Is the defense the key to kind of opening this game up?
05:08 And what did you -- you know, you guys brought --
05:09 Yeah, because they play a unique style.
05:14 I was really impressed with Matt's team.
05:17 They've got quickness and drivers,
05:21 but they're going to shoot 30 to -- somewhere between 30 and 43s every game.
05:25 So over 50% of the shots typically -- and today it was 31 out of 66,
05:31 it was a little less,
05:32 but they're usually right at 51% of the shots they take are going to be threes.
05:35 So that is obviously going to stretch the defense.
05:38 And now you have, you know, you have Smith and Moss and Lanier driving the ball
05:43 with an open post, so it makes it difficult.
05:46 So we gave up some threes in the first half and the second half,
05:50 but in that one stretch I think we did a really good job.
05:53 We also did a great job with the press, obviously.
05:55 Over these first few games we've been seeing more of that Freeman/Crickey
05:58 lineup of two bigs.
06:00 Is that something you expect to see more of?
06:03 Do you like what you're seeing from those lineups?
06:05 I love that lineup and you can see that a lot.
06:08 You know, we have a lot of guys that I want to get playing time for.
06:11 You know, I think Majestics was really special in the second half.
06:16 Dezante was special in the first half.
06:18 Brock I thought was really good.
06:20 Price was really solid.
06:22 And so was Lodgy defensively.
06:24 He made some mistakes on offense and made some shots like he normally does,
06:27 but I'm just really confident in playing those guys.
06:30 So, you know, it was either those two or put Lodgy in there.
06:34 And I haven't done it much, but I would be very comfortable playing Evan Brons.
06:38 He just hasn't had a shot yet because I'm playing the other three bigs
06:41 and I also play Payton and Patrick as well.
06:45 You were up by 12 in the first half and then towards the end of the half
06:49 it kind of got whittled down.
06:52 What was the message at halftime?
06:54 What was it?
06:55 Well, I wasn't happy with how the half ended.
06:58 You know, we've got to make sure when that shot goes in, the first one,
07:05 that that clock is under 30 seconds when we inbound the ball
07:08 so we can take the last shot.
07:09 So we quick inbounded the ball with 33 or 34, you can't do that.
07:14 You've got to let it roll.
07:16 And you inbound it.
07:17 You take the last shot, you don't shoot it with nine.
07:20 So we shoot it with nine.
07:21 Not only did they get one shot, they got two shots.
07:24 That's unacceptable.
07:26 And I wasn't happy in the last game, they had a three at the buzzer.
07:30 Now we trapped the ball screen in that situation, didn't rotate up.
07:34 We can blame me, we can blame anybody for that
07:36 because I'm the one who called for the trap.
07:38 But you've got to go in with at least a six-point lead in that situation.
07:47 All right, thanks, Trent.
07:48 Thanks, guys.
07:49 Thanks, Brent.