One of the mantras of the Iowa basketball program under the direction of Fran McCaffery is to never get too high or too low. That even keeled approach has served the Hawkeyes well this week as they rebounded with a pair of victories after experiencing a little bit of turbulence this season. Following the blowout win over Michigan State, McCaffery praised his team for their approach and for the entire team stepping forward in even when Luka Garza doesn't have a huge game scoring the basketball.

Q: How important was the three point shooting from Connor and Keegan in the first half because they were really tight on Luka?

McCAFFERY: It’s really important because of what you just said and how it impacts Luka, but it also impacts Wieskamp and Bohannon and anyone else that comes in. Jack came in and got into the act off the bench today. When you are making shots and getting stops, it opens up driving lanes, post feeds, and opportunities to get to the free throw line. It just changes everything. Getting Connor and Keegan going early really changed how our team performed offensively in the game.

Q: It wasn’t much more than a week ago when you are team was being criticized for its defensive performance. You have now held three straight teams under 40% shooting. What is working?

McCAFFERY: I think, and I have said as much, I think the last time we talked, I thought we stayed with the zone too long. We stayed too long with it. So I challenged the guys to compete and defend man to man. Be connected on ball screens and be able to stay in your stance and be able to do a one way close out and in addition couple that with scouting report information. You are playing Michigan State, so it starts with Henry and Langford and they have a lot of other weapons. I thought to a man, defensively we really competed. We didn’t give them many opportunities in transition and that starts with your offense and your execution and productivity.

Q: No one really ever comes into this building and wins by 30 points. What do you attribute this win to today?

McCAFFERY: It’s a combination of things. I start with tough man to man defense and then it goes to execution on offense, so if we don’t make our shots, we at least get our defense set and back. We don’t give them transition baskets or second shot opportunities. We almost lost to them at our place because we gave them 20 offensive rebounds. They missed 40 shots today and only got 11 of them back. Typically they get a bunch back and they outrebound you as well. So it was our defense, our offensive execution, and our rebounding. And then like I said, our productivity off the bench came up huge.

Q: To have this kind of win with Garza scoring just 8 points what does that do in terms of the teams confidence?

McCAFFERY: I think that’s a great point. It completely changes your confidence to know that Jack Nunge can get a double-double and Keegan can perform well even when he’s in foul trouble and Connor can take some of the pressure off Bohannon and Wieskamp. I thought Patrick was terrific and Tony was really tough. Tony, Joe Toussaint, and Ulis were really good. To me what was most impressive was how happy Luka was in the locker room for his teammates and for our victory. That says all you need to know about our leader.

Q: Can you expand more on Nunge. He not only led the team in rebounds, but also assists. What did you see out of him today that maybe you hadn’t seen from him in a game before?

McCAFFERY: Jack is doing what Jack does. He’s doing what he is capable of doing. To watch him have the confidence and mental toughness to do what he did today is something. You look at the stats and he had 18 and 11 and 6, I mean, what a performance. He got buckets when we needed them, he finished through contact, and he contested around the rim. He didn’t given them second shots, which I said was a big focal point of our game plan. It’s just so awesome to have him with Luka or if I need to take Luka out when he got his third, to have Jack in there.

Q: You talked about maintaining the professional attitidue and never getting too high or too low. Is that the approach you continued to take this past week and every day in order to put yourselves in this position?

McCAFFERY: We have a veteran club, so they pretty much know how we are going to do things. They weren’t surprised by anything. We discuss it. We watch film and go over the game plan. We really didn’t do a lot on the court live after the Rutgers game. It was a hard fought and intense game and a win over Rutgers and with an early start on a Saturday and a travel day yesterday, I wasn’t going to run them too much. This was a mental preparation. We are not going to panic after a loss or get too excited after a win and we are going to continue to teach and work. We are going to be smart about how hard we push them so when you get to the middle of February you have fresh legs and they responded in a big way.

Q: All three of the teams that tied for the conference title last year all had spells where they lost three or four or four or five games. Do you think people understand how normal of a thing that is?

McCAFFERY: I think most people do. I think a lot of people get it. Some are just emotional. I did a radio show the other day and we kind of got into that. We continue to talk all the time about how tough this league is and every team has veteran players, great scorers, and a terrific coach. We sort of brag about how great our league is and then people surprised when a team loses. We somebody is going to lose. The question is what do you do then? You don’t start pointing fingers or blaming, you just grind. Maybe you get on a winning streak, if you are fortunate to do that, but you better not get too fully of yourself because someone is sitting right there for the next game. I think all of us hope that this kind of grind will benefit our teams in the NCAA Tournament.