It feels like it was another season ago the last time Iowa and Illinois met on the basketball court. In fact it was three months ago in Iowa City and the Illini dominated the glass to the tune of 29 more rebounds than the Hawkeyes. Iowa has improved on their rebounding and that's been a key to their development.

Fran McCaffery spoke to what's different about his team and the Illini since that first meeting and updates the health of Patrick McCaffery heading into the game.

Q: Three months is a long time three months ago when he played Illinois. The rebounding was obviously not good and there was a stretch when it wasn't good even into January, but obviously, that has turned around. What have you done to make that happen?

McCAFFERY: You know, more attention to detail, you know, playing a little more, a little more physicality. You know, that game was strange. Normally, you know, you get a rebound by 29 that you lose by 29. We hung in there, which was good. But you're not winning the game when you when you get out rebounded by 29. I think, you know, that was something we had to come to grips with and say we we've got to improve in that area. It's really a mindset that you have to have and you've developed that.

Q: I was wondering, you know, long Mike's line of questioning that three months is a long time since you've seen Illinois what's different about them from December to now?

McCAFFERY: No, not that much. I mean, you know, Curbelo is back. You know, he obviously he helps. They got a couple of other guys that are out. You know, but you know, the main guys you know, Kofi, Plumber,Frazier, Grandison, and Coleman Hawkins those guys are all playing really well. You know, and then you know, obviously now, the guy like Goode little bit older. He's getting quality minutes, you know, Williams, veteran guy, you know, he's been there a long time. He's very effective in a number of different ways. So you know, they have a lot of really good pieces. It's one of the reasons why they're one of the best teams in the country.

Q: What would it mean to have a double bye next week?

McCAFFERY: Obviously gives you a much better chance to, to win the whole thing. And that's what everybody is, you know, aspired to do. You know, the fresher and you know, hopefully you know, we can make that happen.

Q:After the Michigan game Keegan said that a big part of the team success is just being more proactive at the start of games, kind of, you know, putting teams early on instead of getting into a hole, which definitely affected that the Illinois game kind of have you seen, you know, the team kind of maybe maybe it might be a change in mentality might be a change in execution, but what have you seen in terms of just better starts during this recent stretch?

McCAFFERY: You know, I think there's a lot of factors that go into that, you know, every team starts the game wanting to get off to a good start. You know, do you make shots early do you get an early foul trouble? You know, are they on fire from three early you have a game plan that you execute that you hope you know, is working, and as we've discussed many times a lot of times the best game plans don't seem to work right away. So now you have to make adjustments. It's a 40 minute game. But we have done a better job of that you right, and you want to continue to do a job with that. Good job of that but you know, so as your opponent they're trying to do the same thing. So sometimes, you know, you got to grind it a little bit more, and you got to correct things throughout the course of the game. And you got to nurture some of your best players to have time that are in foul trouble. So there's a lot of things that factor into it, but I do think he's right in a sense that you know, it starts with the right mindset.

Q: How did Patrick came out of came out of the game feeling like the next day do you think he's ready? To ready though Sunday?

McCAFFERY: Hard to say. He's hurting a little bit. Not sure about that right now. But he did not come out of it like we had hoped.

Q: How important is being flexible for you in the course of a season and you feel like you've gotten I don't want this to sound insulting. It's not meant to be but do you feel like you've gotten more flexible as you've gone along?

McCAFFERY: No, I don't think so. I think I think our roster, you know, gives me a lot of options. And like I said, you guys before, I don't remember a team that I've had to hear anywhere else that has been this deep so that that gives me some options in terms of personnel. We have our style of play is consistent. And you know, I let my guys go you've always done that. Encourage them to go make plays and be confident people out there. So I really think it's really nothing more than we got a lot of guys that I could put in the game that can produce and I'm trying to do best again to give them all an opportunity

Q: I'm trying to find a specific stat in front of me but over the last maybe seven or eight games the team is averaging close to 90 points a game I know this is off and said that likes to score but you know, continue to work. Can you attribute you know this recent success to offensively kind of sustaining that consistency over a long period of time, especially towards the end of the season?

McCAFFERY: What you know, I think you know, Bohannan has been part of that point. You know he’s played really well. I think Tony's played really well. And Joe teams played really well coming off the bench and sometimes that is a function of who you're playing. Some teams, they melt the clock. So as much as you might try to get 90 is fewer possessions in the game. It makes it really hard so that it's going to be a function of a degree to plan. A look at the last few games. You know, Michigan runs Michigan State runs Northwestern runs and takes run. So there's gonna be games in the 80s and 90s. Typically, with the talented players that are in our league see there's

Q: What has been the biggest challenge in managing the depth that you have this year.

McCAFFERY: It's trying to be fair with everybody. You know when guys know we deserve to play they want to play and we all want to play sometimes more than you can provide minutes for them but you know, I just want to get them all in like you know, I didn't play Peyton in the last game and that really bothers me because he deserves to play and I need him to play was a different kind of game. You know, coming down to stretch we kept that experienced group out there. The fact that we had a lead so you know, I was my defensive group. And they got the job done. So every game is different. So there's going to be opportunity, and we just try to get those guys to stay positive and stay ready.