Fran McCaffery's return to his hometown didn't have the result he wanted, but the Iowa head coach was proud of the fight that his short-handed Hawkeyes showed in the loss to Penn State. Following the defeat, McCaffery updated the health of C.J. Fredrick and what he felt was the difference in the game.

Q: Down the stretch they hit their last five shots. Was that fatigue that hit you guys or something else?

McCAFFERY: A little bit, probably. They got the lob over the top. Stevens is pretty good in the high post and they surround him with three pretty good three point shooters, so it’s not easy in the zone. I was a little more disappointed in our defense earlier. We had our offense going and we kind of weren’t getting back and they were scoring in transition. I thought that was a critical part of the game where we didn’t execute defensively.

Q: What did you feel you had to do once you knew Fredrick wasn’t going to be available?

McCAFFERY: Somebody else is going to have to step up. Guys were going to have to play more minutes and that wasn’t easy today because it was really hot and guys were getting tired. I thought Bakari, Cordell, and Ryan gave us great minutes under the circumstances.

Q: You think this is as deep as the league has been?

McCAFFERY: Yeah, no question. It’s as deep as it has been since I have been in the league.

Q: Is this kind of heat and moisture typical for this building?

McCAFFERY: No. But, it’s not the first time that I have experienced this here. It does happen. It’s unseasonably warm today, which was unfortunate.

Q: Did you get what you wanted in the last two, three, or four possessions of the game?

McCAFFERY: We got to the free throw line a couple of times. I thought we had pretty good looks at it. There was a little bit of contact and I thought they did a pretty good job of not calling a lot of the cheap stuff. We are going to drive the ball in that situation and try to stop the clock. We were going to go to Luka when we have a chance and he was tremendous today. In the last possession, when Ryan shot it from deep, that’s really not what we wanted, but the play and the action broke down and he just let one go.

Q: What did you think of Brockington today?

McCAFFERY: He was tremendous. That’s what he does and that was what I was referring to earlier. He got it going in that stretch where we were scoring and we weren’t getting back and set and if you are zone you have to wall him off because he will keep going and we didn’t do that.

Q: What’s the difference between Penn State now and previously?

McCAFFERY: They just have more weapons. Many more guys who can score the ball. They have different pieces that bring something to the table and a lot of guys that can get you a bucket.

Q: Do you find them to be deeper defensively this year?

McCAFFERY: They always played really hard and competed defensively. They are maybe a little deeper now and they can go small and put pressure on the ball and your cuts. Pat’s teams have always been that way.

Q: Did you talk to your guys about the extra energy coming out of the gate for some of the Philly guys?

McCAFFERY: Here’s the thing, maybe that was true today, but their guys come out with energy no matter where they play. It’s not like when we play them up there that it’s an easy game. It’s never been an easy game up there. I don’t think it was any different because that’s how they play all the time.

Q: Do you feel the difference now without a guy like Bohannon down the stretch?

McCAFFERY: I think there’s that, but I also think we really needed Fredrick. He didn’t have it today. He thought he could go, but didn’t do much in the first half and couldn’t play in the second half. There was a lot of pressure on Toussaint, Connor, and Bakari, and it also puts a lot of pressure on Wieskamp to score the ball. He did a tremendous job of that today. Fredrick would have given us another three point weapon.

Q: What was the conversation like agreeing to play the game here? McCAFFERY: It really wasn’t a conversation. I guess technically I had the right to say no, but I’m not sure I did because it’s their home game. They can play wherever they want. I certainly wasn’t going step up and say absolutely not, we are not going to play there. Pat said he wanted to play the game here and I said ok, let’s play it here.

Q: Did you think there was any advantage for Penn State playing the game here?

McCAFFERY: It’s obviously very loud here. But, we are kind of used to that. Everyone in this league is used to that type of hostile, loud, road situation. I think what made today so difficult was the heat, especially with the short bench. Then there were guys slipping and I’m just glad no one got seriously injured.

Q: Is it an ankle with Fredrick?

McCAFFERY: Yeah, ankle or foot. Something like that.

Q: What’s the prognosis?

McCAFFERY: I don’t know.

Q: It doesn’t feel like there’s total disappointment from you after this game.

McCAFFERY: You know me pretty well, I don’t get too high or too low. I felt we did a lot of things really good today. I thought we lost to a really good team. We did some things that I would say were uncharacteristic. We had some guys in situations where they had to think and react. For the most part we out rebounded them. We fought pretty hard. You don’t want to turn the ball over 15 times against this team because they convert turnovers into points. With other teams maybe you can turn it over and get your defense back, but not against them. When they were struggling from their perimeter, that’s how they got their energy going, scoring off either a bad shot or a bad turnover.