For a while it looked like the Hawkeyes were going to cruise to a one-sided win over a short-handed Gopher squad missing four players and a pair of assistant coaches. Instead it turned into a game that came down to the final minute with Keegan Murray hitting a huge three pointer in Iowa's 81-71 victory.

Following the win, Fran McCaffery spoke to the media about the struggle with Minnesota's zone, the big shot by Murray, and the improved play of Filip Rebraca.

Q: They cut into the lead you had built in the second half. What was going wrong there and what did you think of Keegan’s shot?

McCAFFERY: I think we got a little tentative and they got some momentum. They got hot and we fumbled it out of bounds the one time. Things started to snowball a bit, but we got the stops we needed and we didn’t attack the zone well. I think that was pretty obvious. We are usually pretty good at that, but we didn’t get to the high post or along the baseline or drive into the lane, the stuff you want to do. We were kind of settling for jump shots, but Patrick made a big hoop, Filip made a big hoop, and then as you pointed out, I coached him up on that last shot. (laugh)

Q: Do you feel like the guys are turning to Keegan in those moments?

McCAFFERY: He’s a confident guy and we have confidence in him. His teammates have confidence in him. To him it’s just no big deal. It’s just how he plays. He doesn’t hunt shots. We did run some stuff for him, but he still gets 25 in a variety of different ways. He’s special.

Q: Were you impressed by the way Minnesota reacted to a tough situation?

McCAFFERY: Yeah. You are going to miss Curry. He’s a big part of this team and he’s a veteran guy. He’s been playing great. But, you kind of knew that it was going to be Willis, Stephens, and Battle. Those are the guys you are focused on when you are playing these guys. That’s no disrespect to Curry because he had 19 on the road in their last game against Michigan State.

Q: Rebraca gave you a spark today.

McCAFFERY: Rebraca was great. We need him to play like that. He is gaining confidence every game. He tries so hard to be a part of a winning team and he doesn’t think of himself enough and that’s ok. I thought defensively he was great. They run a lot of ball screen and if you are switching then you are guarding guys like Wills and Stephens and he gives you that flexibility.

Q: Is it hard to coach a kid to be a little bit more selfish?

McCAFFERY: I think it’s hard to convince him that it’s ok to be selfish. Coming down the stretch, Battle was firing. That’s not being selfish. That’s what he’s supposed to do. That’s what I want Filip to do. That’s what Keegan does. That’s what Bohannon does. Filip has the ability to do that too.

Q: You have Rutgers coming up in pretty short order here. Does this win give you a boost?

McCAFFERY: You hope so. This league is brutal. There is no one where if you come with less than your best, you are going to lose. I think we all know that. Rutgers just had a great road win at Maryland. They have really good personnel and a veteran group. It’s a tough place to play.

Q: Why did Connor not play today?

McCAFFERY: Yeah it was his back. He warmed up and couldn’t go. Really pleased with Payton Sandfort’s effort. He played really well when we put him in for the second half and he got a big hoop in transition. He’s playing with confidence.

Q: It wasn’t Bohannon or Ulis at the end of the game handling the ball. You talked about maturity being important. Was that the case there?

McCAFFERY: The reason we only had Bohannon in there at the point was because they were in a zone. I wanted to put him on top because that stretches the defense because you have to go up there and get him. It gives you more room at the high post and on the wing. Joe played well today.

Q: Do you think Connor will play this week?

McCAFFERY: I am hoping it won’t be game to game. The Indiana game was a fist fight. You saw that and he was right in the middle of that. He has to continue to get in the training room and try to get back. You also have to be man enough to say, coach I can’t help you today.

Q: You guys have dodged Covid so far this year….

McCAFFERY: Easy…(laugh)

Q: Are you guys doing something right?

McCAFFERY: I don’t do much wrong. (laugh) Think about it. This has been parts of three seasons. When it got shut down it was like wow, ok. Then you have last summer and into the season. You can’t tell your guys not to go anywhere. You can’t tell them not to go out to eat or anywhere. But, we tell them to be intelligent and I think it starts with the fact that everyone in the program is double vaccinated and boosted. That’s players, coaches, and managers. I also think we have guys who make pretty good decisions. I don’t think we have anyone losing their minds on New Year’s Eve and things like that.