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Iowa coach Fran McCaffery answers questions after the Hawkeyes' 79-72 win over Cincinnati in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Chad Leistikow, Hawk Central
COLUMBUS, Ohio – After completing his television interview following Iowa's 79-72 win over Cincinnati, Fran McCaffery gave a boost to Hawkeye fans at Nationwide Arena. He hugged his wife, Margaret, on the way to the locker room.
An unstable pair of weeks for Iowa's ninth-year coach and Hawkeye basketball turned into an NCAA tournament win in the first round. The Hawkeyes are heading to the weekend as one of 32 teams alive for a national championship.
It's pretty special.
"To celebrate with your teammates in a locker room after a win in the NCAA," said the coach, "nothing is better".
Connor McCaffery (30), Nicholas Baer (51) and the Hawkeyes react to their 79-72 win over Cincinnati. (Photo: Gregory Shamus, Getty Images)
McCaffery had been suspended two games at the end of February for post-match behavior. His team's history of the setbacks in March was magnified by fans and the media (including myself), while the Hawkeyes lost five of the six matches in the NCAA tournament.
And what makes the moment so special is that his son, Connor, is part of the team. His other children – Marit, rookie Patrick and Jack – were in the stands to cheer on the Hawkeyes. They all shared the victory together.
"It's huge," said McConnery candidly. "I will always have my dad's back, of course. I like it. My brother Patrick, all my brothers and sisters. I wish I could take some of the bullshit that they catch, I suppose, for a lack of a better word. I would like to be able to do more for them. It's hard for my mother. It is. To go out and win such a victory means a lot. "
Powerful things.
This Hawkeye victory was absolutely a team victory. It's not all about McCaffery. But as their son said, the program's first family had an extra reason to celebrate on Friday.
And it turned out that Connor McCaffery almost did not play.
The guard of the rookie in red shirt woke up Friday with nausea. He did not participate in team warm-ups because he had intravenous fluids, hoping to get ready for his NCAA tournament debut.
Connor came to the ground just before the end of the match. He was on the bench early in the game – freezing.
"I was really cold after the IV. I had chills, "he said. "I was trying to warm myself because I was not stretching myself. I did not warm up. I was trying to get to the point where I could be ready to enter. When I came in, I cracked it. When I arrived in the second time, I was fine. "
The 11 minutes of McCaffery were needed on Friday. With Iowa lagging behind, 52-47, he found Luka Garza for a 3-pointer on a bottom piece. Then he put a 3-point score at 11:08 to push Iowa ahead, 53-52.
"Every member of the team helped me during the match," he said, "because they knew I had pain."
McCaffery is a traveling player for the Iowa baseball team and had planned to join Rick Heller and Co. in Bloomington, Indiana, for a three-game series that began Friday. Not anymore. He has another Sunday basketball game in the NCAA tournament. (And maybe another batch of IV.We will know more about his status on Saturday.)
"I've already texted coach Heller and coach (Marty) Sutherland," McCaffery joked. "They are happy for me, I think I'm good."
Jordan Bohannon, the junior guard from Iowa, found himself stuck in a 79-72 win over Cincinnati.
Chad Leistikow, Hawk Central
Before the game, I defined four "imperatives" for the Hawkeyes to beat Cincinnati. How are they?
N ° 1: Win the battle of the boards. Success! Iowa got up early on the offensive glass, but won the battle back late. Iowa got 33 rebounds versus 32 for the Bearcats. Cincinnati was 23-2 in winning this category. "The fact that we passed them speaks volumes about the hardness of our team," said Fran McCaffery.
# 2: Commit nine business figures or less. Failure: Iowa had seven in the first period, 14 for the match. Not less than 10, but the number was not terrible against an oppressive defense.
# 3: Do not leave a surprise star in Cincinnati. Incomplete: Justin Jenifer, who scored eight points or less in six of his seven games, scored 12 points in the first half and finished with a career-high 19 points. The senior guard is a star, but usually not a big brand. In Iowa, the Bearcats went from 3 to 6 versus 27 (22%).
# 4: Make 10 3 points. Success! Iowa had 11 points out of 22 in the 3-point range, including a remarkable 7-of-11 points in the second half. It was probably the biggest statistic of the Iowa victory. Six different Hawkeyes connected from the deepest.
Fran McCaffery did something unusual (for him), perhaps out of desperation. And it worked.
He brought Cook back to the ground with 9:20 to go in the first half with two fouls. The Iowa top scorer sat for five minutes before coming back and had an impact on the Hawkeyes' return from a 20-12 deficit. Cook scored four points and did not commit a foul until the final session of 3:52.
At this point in the game, Iowa needed a good 5½ minutes of a key … and got them. It was not Cook's best night (1 shot out of 9, five points), but the junior player had seven rebounds, four assists … and his first win in an NCAA tournament.
"I'm smiling, I've had one of my worst games." I could not finish much, "said Cook." But it's nice to see that we fought and that we did it in a group. "
The Hawkeyes are fortunate to have a rookie of this type. Wieskamp had 19 points in his debut in the NCAA tournament in 33 minutes.
Chad Leistikow, Hawk Central
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