• 2 years ago
Iowa Women's Basketball 12-16-23
Transcript
00:00 and then go to questions.
00:02 - Well first of all I just want to thank the people
00:08 of Des Moines, I mean they really came out for us.
00:10 It was just a
00:12 great atmosphere, I felt
00:14 a little bit like a tournament atmosphere again.
00:16 It was electric and I think a lot of these people
00:18 haven't been able to see us play live
00:20 and so it was an opportunity for them to
00:22 do so and I thought we did
00:24 a nice job putting on a good show.
00:26 Kaitlin obviously
00:28 her adjusted field goal percentage
00:30 shooting is 83%,
00:32 38 points, perfect from the line.
00:34 Hannah has a double-double,
00:36 13 rebounds,
00:40 Sharon has 10 rebounds, we just really
00:42 did a great job on the boards.
00:44 Really happy with that and
00:46 really I thought, had some unbelievable passes
00:48 to dissect the zone.
00:50 - Kaitlin, you get to come back to your home town
00:52 and play. I'm sure there are a lot of people from Des Moines
00:54 here, just what was it like to play in front of
00:56 a home crowd?
00:58 - It was really special. This is probably the game
01:00 that was circled on the calendar for myself.
01:02 I was just really excited to come back here
01:04 and thanks to our coaches for wanting to
01:06 play this game. The men's coaches,
01:08 our administration, marketing, everybody putting this
01:10 on and it takes a lot of hard work
01:12 to be able to put on events like this so I'm really just thankful
01:14 that I was able to come back here and play
01:16 in front of a lot of family and friends.
01:18 I thought we played really
01:20 well. It's just really
01:22 exciting. I had chills when we ran out of the tunnel.
01:24 It's just cool to see how people support
01:26 us and like Coach Bluter said, a lot of these people probably
01:28 don't have the opportunity to get to see us play all the time
01:30 so it's cool to give people
01:32 in Des Moines an opportunity to see us play live.
01:34 - A little more physical?
01:42 I thought they were, I mean on film I think they
01:44 really work hard in their zone. They're very scrappy
01:46 in it so
01:48 I don't know, I guess
01:50 not something that really jumps out at me
01:52 though.
01:54 - How was it for you? I mean you've kind of been battling a couple different
01:56 injuries but to kind of go out there
01:58 really dominate on the offensive glass
02:00 sorry I'll talk louder, really
02:02 dominate on the offensive glass, a lot of putbacks,
02:04 it just seemed like you were kind of back in your comfort zone
02:06 maybe than the past couple of games or so.
02:08 - Yeah, I think it was a lot of fun
02:10 playing out there. I like to play
02:12 happy so
02:14 don't laugh at me.
02:16 - Happy like Hannah.
02:18 - Yeah, I thought I was back to myself and it was a lot of fun.
02:20 - Caitlin,
02:22 talked to one of your family members
02:24 and he thought it would mean a lot
02:26 for you to walk out of here with a win.
02:28 I think the last time you played here you did not win.
02:30 - I didn't have many of those here in high school
02:32 unfortunately.
02:34 - So what did it mean to have a performance like this
02:36 in this particular arena?
02:38 - It was awesome.
02:40 Like I said earlier, I just was
02:42 really excited to be able to come back here and
02:44 probably my best shooting performance I've ever
02:46 had in Wells Fargo Arena. I don't remember too many
02:48 great ones previously
02:50 but I grew up coming to games
02:52 here. I was a fan of the Iowa energy
02:54 before they turned into the Iowa Wolves and were
02:56 really good. My brothers had
02:58 their birthday parties here.
03:00 I came to the hockey games here.
03:02 I was here all the time. I just loved
03:04 this place and
03:06 it's cool to be able to be a kid
03:08 that grew up coming to games here.
03:10 I eventually played here in high school and now
03:12 I had the opportunity to play here in college.
03:14 It's special. This place
03:16 will always have a special place in my heart.
03:18 I'm just really thankful to be
03:20 able to come back here and play in front of this crowd.
03:22 - Kaitlin,
03:24 nine three-pointers
03:26 in total tonight. There were a couple
03:28 that you really seemed
03:30 to be feeling it. You chucked it up and
03:32 then you ran back to the other side of
03:34 the court thinking that it was going to go in
03:36 and so forth. Obviously most of them
03:38 did. Were you just feeling
03:40 confident, just excited about
03:42 obviously playing in this arena
03:44 and in your hometown? - Yeah, I didn't know if you were
03:46 going to say nine threes or nine turnovers.
03:48 No,
03:50 my shot felt good.
03:52 Anytime you play a zone defense, which we
03:54 don't really see hardly ever,
03:56 you should be able to
03:58 get good looks from three. I thought we did
04:00 a really good job of getting the ball into the high post
04:02 and then our shooters being able to
04:04 spot up and have really good looks. Coach Bluter always
04:06 says in and out threes are the best threes. Even for
04:08 myself personally, I feel like when I have my feet set
04:10 and my body's already facing the basket,
04:12 I have a pretty good chance of them going in.
04:14 Honestly, I know I made nine, but
04:16 I felt like a couple more could have dropped.
04:18 I thought they were going to go in, minus the one that
04:20 didn't even hit the rim that I shot from about
04:22 half court.
04:24 I love playing against zone defense. We
04:26 obviously don't see it much just because we
04:28 have such great shooters on our teams.
04:30 It was nice to not have a game prior this week, so
04:32 we had all week to prep for that.
04:34 - Kaitlin, what was that experience like?
04:36 You hit that last three-pointer and you're
04:38 running down the sideline high-fiving.
04:40 First of all, was there anybody there
04:42 in the front row that you knew?
04:44 Just take us through that moment. - Yeah, a lot of
04:46 our donors were sitting there in the front row, so
04:48 a lot of people that just support our program.
04:50 Somebody that works at Hy-Vee, that's a
04:52 huge fan of mine, Donna Tweeton.
04:54 She's our biggest fan, so she was having
04:56 a good time with me, too.
04:58 Those are people that are really passionate about
05:00 women's basketball. They understand the game.
05:02 They're cheering for us.
05:04 They're at every single game.
05:06 Those are people that are constantly there supporting
05:08 our program.
05:10 They have fun with us, too.
05:12 I like to get them involved. That's what makes it
05:14 exciting. That's what makes them want to come back.
05:16 I gave them a high-five. I was kind of
05:18 smiling and running back.
05:20 - Anna, you had
05:22 six offensive rebounds, which is
05:24 as many as Cleveland State had as an entire team.
05:26 Did you come into this
05:28 game thinking that you were going to be able to be
05:30 productive, especially on the boards, or
05:32 is that just something that happened?
05:34 - I think it just kind of comes to me.
05:36 The ball was bouncing in my favor
05:38 tonight on the offensive rebounding
05:40 side.
05:42 - Caitlin,
05:46 it seemed from where I was sitting, in the first
05:48 half, I wouldn't say you
05:50 looked tight, but you didn't look
05:52 maybe as expressive
05:54 as normal, and in the second half, you obviously
05:56 loosened up. Were you at
05:58 all nervous about this game?
06:00 - Honestly, not really, no.
06:02 I was excited to play
06:04 more than anything.
06:06 It's hard to be nervous when there's...
06:08 How many does this arena sit?
06:10 However many people, and they're all wearing black and gold.
06:12 You have that many people that have your back.
06:14 I have teammates that have my back.
06:16 I think as a competitor,
06:18 these are the games that you get up for a little more.
06:20 I get to come back to the place I grew up
06:22 playing basketball and play
06:24 in front of a lot of family members.
06:26 My mom always jokes I always play better the more family
06:28 members I have in the crowd, so maybe that theory holds
06:30 true. I don't know.
06:32 - Higher bus.
06:34 - Higher bus. It's a good idea.
06:36 I didn't feel
06:38 tight, honestly. I was
06:40 just hoping a couple more threes would go down.
06:42 - So
06:44 Kaitlyn, you were talking about how you perform
06:46 well in front of your family. There was one
06:48 special person in the crowd who
06:50 saw you play as a college student
06:52 for the first time. Will you talk about her a little,
06:54 please? - Yeah, my grandma,
06:56 who wasn't able to come to much. My mom's parents
06:58 come to quite a bit. My dad's mom
07:00 doesn't really come to a ton, so it was really fun
07:02 that they were able to come.
07:04 They were up in a suite, so I'm not sure exactly where they were,
07:06 but I know they were
07:08 cheering pretty loud. So, like I said,
07:10 it's really special for me to be able to come back
07:12 here and just a lot easier for
07:14 my grandparents to be able to come to games like this.
07:16 Yeah, I'm just
07:18 really grateful.
07:20 - Hannah, a lot's been made.
07:22 A lot was made last season with your free throw shooting
07:24 through the offseason. You were 5-6 today.
07:26 You're shooting upper 70s
07:28 percentage. Just take us through that
07:30 journey and where
07:32 that's taken you and where you're at now with that.
07:34 - I think
07:36 it's just been confidence.
07:38 Building my confidence,
07:40 getting those extra reps in have been
07:42 really important. Even in
07:44 high school, I wasn't a great
07:46 free throw shooter, as you know.
07:48 You were at a lot of games, but...
07:50 [laughter]
07:52 Oh.
07:54 But yeah, just building
07:56 that confidence, getting those reps
07:58 have been really important.
08:00 - Kaitlin, you're surpassing a lot of names on
08:02 the all-time NCAA scoring list, but the one you passed
08:04 tonight was Ashley Jones, somebody that I'm sure
08:06 you know pretty well. Can you just talk about maybe your
08:08 relationship with her and what that means to surpass
08:10 her number on that scoring list?
08:12 - Yeah, I think it's pretty cool. I think there's
08:14 three Iowa girls that are on
08:16 the top 10 scoring list. I could be a little
08:18 mistaken. One at Drake, one at Iowa, one at
08:20 Iowa State. And I think it just
08:22 speaks to women's basketball in this state, not only
08:24 recently, but just the history of it and how
08:26 good it is. Whether
08:28 it's back to the 6 on 6 days
08:30 or whether it's currently, I think there's just so many
08:32 talented players. And Ashley was one of those really
08:34 talented players. We had our hands full
08:36 when we would go up against her at Iowa State.
08:38 I think it just more than anything
08:40 speaks to the talent of this state. Sometimes that gets a little
08:42 overlooked, how good women's basketball
08:44 is in this state. Not just the University of Iowa,
08:46 but the other programs in our state are really
08:48 good as well. - Hannah, from
08:50 the teammate perspective, what is
08:52 it like for you guys to, and I realize
08:54 you sell out Carver-Hawkeye Arena, but
08:56 to be in this environment and see
08:58 just how much support there is for Kaitlin,
09:00 what's it like from everyone else that's not
09:02 her perspective?
09:04 - I don't know. I think it's awesome.
09:06 I love her a lot.
09:08 So just seeing that other people
09:10 do too, she's just an amazing
09:12 basketball player. I think it's awesome
09:14 that they're supporting her and supporting us because of her.
09:20 - Coach, you're going up against
09:22 a pretty darn tough Cleveland State
09:24 team, somebody that you had flagged before the season
09:26 as a 31 team.
09:28 Having seen them, having played
09:30 against them here, do you think they sort of
09:32 lived up to that
09:34 expectation of how difficult they are?
09:36 Just sort of how tough
09:38 was it to play against them here?
09:40 - Well, unfortunately, they suffered
09:42 injuries, and injuries to key players.
09:44 Their best player
09:46 is out. They have another
09:48 player out.
09:50 That changes things. Injuries
09:52 change a team, changes the complexity
09:54 of the season.
09:56 I know
09:58 Cleveland State's still going to have a good year because Chris
10:00 is a good coach, but
10:02 we thought that it was going to be
10:04 probably a little tougher if those
10:06 players would have been healthy.
10:08 - Lisa, even without a couple of those
10:10 players, they've had a pretty solid defense this season.
10:12 I know you guys probably are
10:14 by far and away the best offense they've seen, but what
10:16 did you see from your offense able to break
10:18 down them in different situations?
10:20 - Well, first of all, I thought our
10:22 offensive rebounding was just outstanding.
10:24 And
10:26 we score, what,
10:28 104 points without even shooting
10:30 that exceptional from three-point range.
10:32 I mean, we have a lot
10:34 of other people that can hit threes.
10:36 I'm very
10:40 happy with the way we dissected the zone. I thought
10:42 we did a really good job of hitting cutters,
10:44 making high percentage shots.
10:46 I mean, we had 44 paint points
10:48 against a zone defense.
10:50 That's kind of hard to do.
10:52 - Never thought I'd ask this
10:54 question in my journalism career.
10:56 Kaitlin, you went from the Jordan Shrug
10:58 and I looked at, there's a couple of photos
11:00 and videos of you after hitting threes. You started sticking
11:02 your tongue out. Have you gone
11:04 from the Jordan Shrug, like the Jordan tongue out
11:06 after a big shot? - Honestly,
11:08 sometimes I don't even know. You just get so
11:10 excited once you hit a shot.
11:12 I think the Jordan Shrug is still the go-to
11:14 though.
11:16 - Coach Beluder, congratulations.
11:18 At this point in the year
11:20 -- Jess Suttles back here, good to see you.
11:22 At this point in the year,
11:24 what do you love about your team and
11:26 what are the couple things that you just got to get
11:28 a little better to win this whole thing?
11:30 - Yeah, I think the things we have to do
11:32 a little bit better at, I mean, obviously we turned the ball over
11:34 too many times tonight. We took
11:36 some risky passes tonight that we probably
11:38 didn't need to. Kind of
11:40 got excited there and forced
11:42 a few. You know, defensively,
11:44 I've been happy with our progress
11:46 this year, but I think there's still
11:48 some room for improvement there.
11:50 But I really, really like
11:52 the way that we're passing the ball,
11:54 the way that we share the ball.
11:56 I really like the way that we're
11:58 rebounding. That's
12:00 much better this year. We said that we
12:02 needed to be better offensive rebounders
12:04 coming into this year, and I think we're doing that.
12:06 But more importantly,
12:08 I love being around the team.
12:10 They're great young women that just happen to play
12:12 basketball, and I'm really, really
12:14 just really
12:16 thankful that I get the opportunity
12:18 to go to work every day with these women.
12:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]