Patrick McCaffery Interview
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00:00 You seem to know that that last free throw wasn't important.
00:05 Yeah, I mean, I had a pretty atrocious game to be completely honest, but you know, I just,
00:13 I knew that I was at 995 or whatever, 100 people told me before the game, so I know I just, I know I just needed five points.
00:19 Yeah, wish it came a little sooner. But it is what it is. I'm glad we won and I'm glad I got there.
00:26 The coach said he thought you guys played with more urgency tonight than they did. Did you sense that as well?
00:33 I hope so. We talk about urgency all the time. That's like, that's a big word that we use and we don't always have it,
00:40 to be quite honest. So that's a word we use all the time. And I think, so it's good. I'm glad he said that. It's nice of him.
00:49 Patrick, you've been around some really good players here at Iowa. Payton Sanford just had the first triple-double in program history.
00:55 Are you surprised? Like, what do you think about his performance?
00:59 Well, I knew he had eight assists at halftime because Josh Dix made every shot. So I was like, so somebody came up to me,
01:06 I think it was one of our managers, and he's like, "Payton's on trip-double watch." And I'm like, "What?"
01:11 And he's like, "Well, he's got five, five, and eight assists." I was like, "He has eight assists?" I was like, "I had no idea."
01:16 And then I knew he said something about how he wanted to get one more rebound, and I figured that's probably what it was.
01:23 I didn't know how many assists he – I didn't know how many he got in the second half.
01:29 But yeah, so I figured – everybody made a big deal when he got the last rebound, so I was like, "Okay, something must have happened."
01:35 And I'm happy for him.
01:37 So he knew he was at nine?
01:38 I think so. Yeah, that's the only way he would have acted like that.
01:43 You know, a lot of people label Payton as just a shooter, but does this kind of just showcase his all-around game,
01:49 and he's more than just a guy that can go out and hit threes?
01:51 I think anybody who says that doesn't watch our games and doesn't watch him play.
01:56 He's obviously much better than that.
02:00 Yeah, he does a lot. He does a lot off the bounce, off the move.
02:04 He can rebound really well for his position. So yeah, no, he – yeah.
02:08 Do you think he's going to be an NBA player?
02:11 Yeah, probably. Yeah.
02:14 When you talk about urgency, sometimes you guys have it, sometimes you don't.
02:19 Why do you feel like you guys had it today?
02:21 I don't know. We always talk about it, so yeah.
02:25 So I think – yeah.
02:27 Yeah, I don't really know why we had it today.
02:30 I know we lost to them last time, so that probably played a part.
02:33 But yeah, it was good. You know, happy we won.
02:37 What does 1,000 points mean to you?
02:40 It means – you know, it's cool. Not a lot of people do that.
02:45 You know, it was something that was a goal of mine.
02:49 A lot of people seem to care. My phone's blowing up.
02:53 But, yeah, you know, it shows I had a long, successful career.
02:58 I've been a pretty good player on really good teams,
03:00 and I'm grateful for the opportunity to play here,
03:03 and I'm glad I was able to do something with it.
03:05 Patrick, there were multiple times in the game where Penn State just kept
03:08 falling back. You guys had a double-digit lead.
03:10 They would cut to like seven, then five in the first half and second half.
03:14 So what was – what kind of got you guys to just keep pushing the lead
03:18 even further every time they came back?
03:20 Yeah, I think in certain parts of the game we strung some stops together,
03:25 and that was good.
03:27 Like when we needed to get some stops, we got some stops.
03:29 I wish we could put a team away.
03:31 It's kind of been our bugaboo all year, something we haven't been great at.
03:35 So I wish we could, you know, be a little bit better at that.
03:39 But, hey, we kept them at bay.
03:41 I don't think it ever got too close.
03:42 I think the closest it ever got was like six or seven.
03:45 So, you know, good.
03:49 Did you feel like this was a good game for you guys?
03:51 I mean, it might not have been a win, but like –
03:53 Yeah.
03:54 You've been playing so well lately.
03:55 Do you feel like you can continue that as a team?
03:57 I mean, yeah, we won, right?
03:58 So, yes, in a way.
04:00 But I think there's so many things that we need to correct.
04:03 I mean, I made 100 mistakes, and I think other guys made several mistakes.
04:07 And I think it was – I mean, we scored 90 points, but I thought it was –
04:11 our offense was – I mean, and we had 22 assists on like 25 made field goals,
04:15 but we had some goofy turnovers, missed some free throws,
04:18 just kind of uncharacteristic things for us.
04:20 And that's kind of – that's what Penn State does,
04:22 because they press and they get after you, so they're responsible for a lot of that.
04:25 But, you know, I think we could – yeah, there's still a lot of stuff you have to clean up.
04:31 It's never going to be perfect.
04:32 You're never going to play a game that's perfect.
04:34 The best games we've ever played, we've made –
04:37 still have 50 clips on the film of mistakes that we made.
04:40 Do you feel like you guys are still getting better,
04:44 and how do you try to close that gap in this last little bit of the season?
04:47 Yeah, I mean, I like to think we're playing better.
04:49 I don't – yeah, I think a lot of it, you know, depending on how we play,
04:53 is match-up-based, who we're playing, kind of how we match up with them.
04:56 But, no, I think we definitely – I like the way we're flowing.
04:58 We have good continuity right now, I think.
05:01 You know, guys are making shots, guys are making plays.
05:04 We've been guarding better.
05:06 We didn't guard great today.
05:07 They had 81.
05:08 We need to do better there.
05:10 But I think overall we've been playing a little better.
05:15 But, like, still we're making a ton of mistakes.
05:17 We made a bunch of mistakes at Illinois, made a bunch of mistakes tonight,
05:19 made some mistakes at Michigan State, made mistakes against Wisconsin.
05:21 So it's still stuff we need to clean up and work through.
05:24 Patrick, we know you guys are kind of on that bubble territory right now.
05:27 I think you guys are pretty aware of that too.
05:29 Do you just go one game at a time, or do you talk about the bigger picture?
05:32 How do you guys just kind of approach the bigger picture?
05:34 All you can really do is just talk about one game – is go one game at a time.
05:37 You can't really look ahead.
05:40 You can't talk about Northwestern and Illinois because we have to beat Penn State.
05:44 It doesn't really make a difference if we lose before.
05:48 So, you know, we just know that we got to do what we can do
05:51 and let the chips fall where they may.
05:53 All right, thanks, Patrick.