McCaffery on loss to Illinois, avoids being critical of officials

It was clear that Fran McCaffery was frustrated with the officials following the loss to Illinois on Friday night. Iowa went over 10 minutes in the second half without a foul being called on the Illini and the Hawkeyes only took six foul shots in the game.

Following the loss, he met with the media and while avoiding saying much about the officials, he did discuss the performance of some of his younger players and the status of C.J. Fredrick for next weeks games.

Q: Bohannon has a combined 15 points in your losses this year. Is there too much being read into it or is there something to that?

McCAFFERY: I don’t know.

Q: Can you discuss the goaltending call that they took away? What did they tell you?

McCAFFERY: I can’t.

Q: What is the rule on the goaltending call there? Does the whistle stop everything?

McCAFFERY: Apparently.

Q: Then on the free throws you got into the bonus with about ten minutes to go and didn’t get to the line the rest of the game.

McCAFFERY: That’s very interesting. That’s a great observation by you. You are a smart guy. You really are a smart guy or I have do a much better job of getting Luka Garza to the free throw line, apparently. I am just a horrendous coach. He shoots one free throw and that’s my fault. I will take full blame for that.

Q: How did you try and stop Ayo and what he does?

McCAFFERY: I thought we did a much better job in the second half. In the first half he was terrific. Our transition defense was bad and our man to man, in combination with our transition defense probably wasn’t what it needed to be. I thought our zone was better. I thought our transition defense and our awareness in the second half was substantially better.

Q: How did you feel you coped without Fredrick?

McCAFFERY: I thought pretty well. I thought the guys that played competed hard and played well.

Q: Big picture what did you think of the teams response from the first loss eight days ago?

McCAFFERY: It is one of those things where you lose the game and you look and say this guy should have done this or that guy should have done that. We were in a position to win the game. We had a chance. We had a couple roll out on us down the stretch and they hit a couple of shots and give them credit. I think we learned a lot about ourselves on how to play the zone and in transition better. I thought on execution was better. We had new guys in different spots and I thought they met the challenge. I thought Keegan was good. I thought Patrick and Toussaint were good. I thought Tony Perkins came in and gave us some great minutes. How great was Nunge when Luka was on the bench? I thought he was great and I am really proud of Jack.

Q: What does the timeline look for you guys coming up with an NBA like schedule?

McCAFFERY: Yeah, we will get home late and have an off day tomorrow. We will start getting ready on Sunday for Michigan State on Tuesday. Then it’s obviously a quick turnaround. We will handle it. Everyone is going to be in that situation at some point this season.

Q: You mentioned Perkins. He seemed to meet the moment in a pretty big spot in the second half.

McCAFFERY: Yeah he’s been really aggressive in practice and he’s figuring it out. He knows where to go and what to do. He knows how to play through situations. I just loved his tenacity tonight. That kid is a competitor.

Q: What was the thought process sitting out Fredrick tonight and do you think he will be out again on Tuesday night?

McCAFFERY: It’s a question I know you have to ask and truly I do not have an answer. It’s not like I am trying to hide anything. I think I said in the press conference before this game that he is literally day to day. The last thing we want to do is run him out there and risk making it worse and then he can’t play for the next four weeks or something like that so we are trying to be prudent. I think that’s the only way to handle it. You have to trust your medical people. We have a trainer and a doctor with us. He is getting treatment and rehab and they are on top of it. He’s a tough kid and he will be back as soon as he can.