Fran McCaffery was blunt in his assessment of the performance from the Iowa basketball team on Christmas night on the defensive end of the floor, it was unacceptable. The Hawkeyes held a lead in the final minute of the game only to see it disappear and lose in overtime.

Following the loss, McCaffery discusses what happened in the final minute so the game when his team held a lead, the poor three point defense by the Hawkeyes, and how their defense could hold one team to 55 points and another to gets 102 in the same week.

Q: Your perspective on the last 45 seconds when it looked like you were about to salt the game away?

McCAFFERY: Yeah we had a defensive breakdown in our press that shouldn’t happen and they hit some tough shots on us. We got the ball in-bounds against the press and missed a couple of free throws and that’s about it.

Q: What did you think of your three point defense? Was it lacking or did they just hit tough shots?

McCAFFERY: A little bit of both. Carr hit a couple of tough stepback’s. Johnson was open and there’s no excuse for that.

Q: Did Johnson surprise you?

McCAFFERY: Well, he hasn’t made 8 for 9. I think we have to do a better job of adjusting to a guy that gets hot and we did not, so that’s disappointing.

Q: What’s the lesson for your team?

McCAFFERY: We’ve got to be tougher. We have to be more connected and ready at the start. A lot of things. We just have to be better. We weren’t very good tonight. There were certain things. I thought Luka Garza was spectacular in the second half along with C.J. but our defense tonight was unacceptable.

Q: Luka was challenged in the first half. What could have been done to alleviate that or take advantage of it?

McCAFFERY: It was no secret. They were just crowding him, so others have to cut and make shots to give him the space he needs so it doesn’t all fall on his shoulders. You can run motion or you can run ball screen stuff or you can run sets. Bottom line is you have to move the ball around and I thought in the second half that C.J. was really good and that really opened things up for Luka. I thought Wieskamp made some big plays and Patrick was aggressive when he came in along with Joe Toussaint. There were some good things offensive that we did in the second half that we didn’t do in the first half.

Q: You gave up 55 points the other night to Purdue and 102 tonight? How do you account for that?

McCAFFERY: It is something we have to try and figure out. We have to be better than that. Give them credit. They made 17 three’s. Even though some guys were open, they still have to make them and they did. Our defense has to be better, collectively, whether it be in transition, zone, or man to man. It just wasn’t good enough tonight.