From time to time Fran McCaffery will show his emotions on the sideline. But, his son's have said they rarely seem him show much emotion as far as crying. But that wasn't the case following Iowa's victory over Purdue to secure the Big Ten title. McCaffery shed more than a few tears as he celebrated with his family members, including his two sons. He talks about those emotional moments and the play of his team in the win over the Boilermakers.

COACH FRAN McCAFFREY OPENING STATEMENT

I don't know if I've ever been more proud of a team than this group, how they worked, sacrificed and incredible unselfishness. But I have to say we played a tremendous team today, incredibly well-coached team who had a great year and anything short of effort that we put forth today we would not have won. They were committed to the game plan, they were committed to each other, and there's no better feeling as a coach than to watch them celebrate the way they would celebrate after the game for the Big Ten championship.

Q. Fran, after the game, big hug with Connor, emotions kind of pouring out. Describe that moment and what it meant to you.

COACH FRAN McCAFFERY: It was incredibly special. I had the same with Patrick, I had the same with my wife, my daughter, my other son. I think back to first time I ever took him on the road, I remember we won it. We won the SoCon Championship in 2001 and I'm holding Patrick and he was a year old and had the net around his neck. It's been a long journey with them, going to tournaments and traveling with the team and then participating for the team.

But to celebrate at this level together on this stage, it's really difficult to describe how awesome it was and how emotional it was.

Q. Fran, what were the key moments to you in today's game? What that kind of turned it for you guys?

COACH FRAN McCAFFERY: I think it was the start of the game we were ready defensively. It's a tough team to defend, you know. We wanted to do a better job on the glass than we did. We got out-rebounded 48-30, so that's not something you're preparing to do, but if you're going to combat that, you better not turn the ball over and you better disrupt them, get them to miss shots, get them to turn it over. They had 17 turnovers, we had six. We had 13 steals, they had four. So that can balance out the size disadvantage and enable us to get our break going. We kept fresh bodies out there. The guys who came off the bench really contributed. We got in a little foul trouble. I thought Josh Ogundele was spectacular, I'm so proud of him. Riley, he tried, he was in there mixing it. That was good experience for him because he's going to be a good player down the road.

Q. Fran, kind of a big picture to build off that first question you had, you're obviously not from Iowa and I wonder what it's kind of been like for you to reestablish roots, you know, and raise a family there and kind of become a different version of the same guy maybe. I don't know.

COACH FRAN McCAFFERY: Well, I think one of the things that Mr. Barta and I talk about all the time is when he went looking for a coach, he wanted somebody who wanted to be here and wanted to represent the university, the state, but also someone who recognized and was aware of the tradition. There have been some unbelievable coaches and players that have come through here and had really strong teams, long-standing winning teams, Hall of Fame coaches. So whoever took this job had to take pride in that and had to understand it. At the same time, he wanted the program run the right way, which we've done.

Now, the family side of it, I had a young family, so that was an integral part of the decision. Okay, we're going to move across country and we're going to raise our children basically in the state of Iowa. Well, anybody who's from there knows that that's pretty special. People there are awesome. We were welcome from day one. They had great experiences in elementary school, middle school, high school, athletically, made great friends, and then they chose to come play for me. And I gave them the option to go somewhere else if they wanted to, but they grew up basically in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, so they wanted to play there and they wanted to put that jersey on. So it's been an amazing ride for all of us and that's why it was so emotional today.

Q. Was there a moment this season where -- clearly the depth that you play with allows you to play fast and today it really paid off. You played like 12 guys in the first half. Was there a moment this season where just you saw things just kind of coming together, all the pieces as they are now? Because it seems like everybody has a role.

COACH FRAN McCAFFERY: You know what, I really felt good about it early in the season. I think we all looked to, okay, I made the lineup change. Clearly that was -- that was important, it worked, it really established Tony, put the ball back in J-Bo's hands and Joe Toussaint was great coming off the bench, so everybody accepted their role.

I felt early on with the schedule we put together, we played some pretty good teams, we played some teams we were supposed to beat, but you go on the road at Virginia and you win there, that tells you something. I thought even though we lost at Purdue without Keegan, I thought we established that, hey, this team's pretty special. We've got some other guys that can really play and that was important for our confidence. And we won all those games we were supposed to win and then won a big -- won the ACC-Big Ten matchup and then played okay. But we lost a few games at the start of the season in the Big Ten. I think we looked at, okay, who do we play? We played at Purdue and Illinois at home, two of the best teams in the country. How did we do? Well, we lost close games. So we knew we could get there and we believed we could get there. Then as the season progressed, I think you saw that happen with everybody playing confidently and producing.

Q. First of all, congratulations. Four games in four days, a grueling test. And you talk about your bench, the fact that you had to play so many guys, and there were guys that played today that didn't play earlier in the tournament but they play in the biggest game in the tournament. Not only you have to have trust in them but also the guys out there playing have to have trust in them. Is that learned through practice and, like you say, the preseason games and different opportunities for those guys to play?

COACH FRAN McCAFFERY: Yeah, no question. I think my main responsibility as their coach is to develop each individual and get them to the point where they can play with supreme confidence. Understand and know your role. What are you coming in to do? Josh knew he was coming in to play two of the best post players in the country and he knew he was going to have to move his feet. He knew he was going to have to be physical. He makes two huge buckets for us and he played with ultimate energy and was one of the main reasons we won the game. Riley came in, tried to hold the fort down. He was a little overwhelmed, you know, a little surprised when he shot the three. I might have pointed that out to him, but that kid's going to be good and he knows it.

And I think it's an expectation we have when we go to our bench. They read the scouting report, they go through the scouting report, sometimes they're on the scout team, we'll ask them questions in preparation, how are we guarding this play, how are we guarding this action if they do this, what are we working on on offense? Make sure they understand the game plan so when they go in they're not confused, they're not tentative, they're coming in to impact the game. Clearly they did.

Q. Coach, kind of following up on that question, four games in four days, you talked yesterday about how much focus it takes for a team to make it this far. Now that you're the champions. How would you evaluate how your team stayed the course and the effort and energy they played with today?

COACH FRAN McCAFFERY: They couldn't have done it any better. That's the truth. We're processing information rapidly when you're playing back to back to back to back. I mean, that's not easy to do because this league, as we all know, is incredibly challenging. But each team presents different challenges. Everybody plays differently. Everybody has different stars at different positions.

Can you understand what we want to do to them and what we need to do defensively. You know, can we press them, can we run on them, can we execute our half court offense, are we going to run more sets or more motion, what are they going to run against us, is it all ball screen action, is it transition team, is it a team that's going to run the clock down, how are they going to guard ball screens, how are they going to guard Bohannon, how are they going to guard Keegan Murray. All this stuff has to be absorbed, processed and then executed. It's not okay to just do one without the other. So masterful job by a very mature group.

Q. Coach, the players talked about kind of the passion and intensity that Tony plays with and how they kind of feed off of that, but what's allowed him to kind of come into his own of late and what about his personality kind of makes him play with that chip on his shoulder?

COACH FRAN McCAFFERY: I wish I could say there's something magical. I think you identified it, that's just who he is. That's one of the reasons we recruited him in the first place, he just comes after you. He is fearless. He plays both ends, he has an uncanny ability to make a mistake and come right back and do something really well. He's committed to winning, he's not selfish at all.

And you feel so great for everybody, but when you have a hometown kid win the Big Ten Championship in his home state right where he's from, all of his family were here, I mean I'm just so thrilled for him. He's a young guy with great character.

Q. Purdue was obviously going out of its way to contain Jordan on the perimeter. How important was Sandfort's perimeter offense, specially those back-to-back threes?

COACH FRAN McCAFFERY: Yeah, I think really important, I mean, that kid, he's just a tremendous player. I think we recognized his shooting because he's such a good shooter, but he's a really good player. He rebounds, he can bring it down, he makes plays for other people, and he's fearless. But that's kind of the team we have. Patrick hits a big three. Joe Toussaint was so amazing in both halves. We kind of relied on Keegan, J-Bo and Tony. Kris and Filip were great, but they were in foul trouble, but they were phenomenal defensively and they did what they could. Kris was aggressive offensively.

But it's that kind of team. I go to Payton, he produces. I go to Connor, he produces. I go to Joe, he produces. Go to Josh, he produces. And it doesn't always happen that way, as you know.

Q. Looking at how this tournament has unfolded as a whole, what has this said about this conference?

COACH FRAN McCAFFERY: I think it just is an example of what this conference is and what it's been: The most difficult conference top to bottom. Like I said, not only is every team really good and really hard to beat, but every team is dramatically different. I think that's what makes it exciting for the players, exciting for the people that are watching and it's why we've got so many teams in.

Q. Coach, you played against two teams, Indiana, who tried to beat you up inside. You go against Purdue, tried to do the same thing. How have you guys been able to overcome the obstacle there?

COACH FRAN McCAFFERY: We're going to run, we're going to get it in go. I think defensively I think we were better today at going down and doubling and rotating than we were yesterday. Trayce gave us a hard time, but I thought we did a better job today.

Now, we didn't keep them off the glass. We got them to miss a few times, but they got a ton of offensive rebounds, that's what they do. I think it's our style of play, we turned them over. I think our ability to execute offensively in particular at crunch time was crucial.