The pre-game work is essentially done for the Iowa basketball team. Fran McCaffery led the Hawkeyes out for one final walk through at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on Thursday before their Friday meeting with Cincinnati. Before hitting the court, McCaffery had one final visit with the media on Thursday morning to discuss the Bearcats and his team preparing for the NCAA Tournament game.

COACH MCCAFFERY: We're thrilled to have this opportunity. Proud of our team. Tremendous respect for Cincinnati and the job that Mick Cronin has done there and the success that that team had. We played a long, grueling, 20-game schedule in the Big Ten and accomplished a lot of great things. Proud of my guys and looking forward to playing tomorrow.

Q. Coach Cronin mentioned this week that you guys are friends off the court. I'm curious how that relationship started and what it's like.

COACH MCCAFFERY: It started many years ago before he even got into this business. I was at Notre Dame and he was a very young coach, and got to know him then and over the years obviously we crossed paths. But we spent a lot of time a few years ago at the Final Four when my son Patrick was sick. That was in 2013 when he was diagnosed with cancer. We have a lot of mutual friends. We talk periodically and so we're on the road. We spend time together, go out to dinner, that type of thing. Just a coach that I have tremendous respect for -- how he does it. I think he is a guy that has great respect for the game and has had an interesting path to the success where he is. He grinded his way up. And that's kind of who he is. So I would say he's a dear friend in this business and somebody that I have tremendous respect for.

Q. Is it easier or more difficult to prepare for a coach that you know that well?

COACH MCCAFFERY: I think it's about the same simply because we don't see a lot of teams in that league. We don't watch them as much. I kind of follow him because of my friendship with him and hope he does well. But it wasn't until now that we really studied his program. I kind of know they defend, they rebound. They have a toughness about them that's somewhat unique. But I've been really impressed with how they share the basketball. Even with Cumberland shooting as many shots as he shoots, he gives it up easy. He has 123 assists. So I think that's kind of the beauty of this tournament. You're playing teams that sort of know you but don't know you as well because we're grinding so hard with a 20-game Big Ten schedule.

Q. Obviously the kids are excited and probably nervous and butterflies. You've been doing this a long time. This isn't your first rodeo. Do you get nervous, amped up and nervous for this weekend?

COACH MCCAFFERY: I don't get nervous coaching the game. I've done it so many times. But I understand and appreciate that this is different. And it should be. It's a tremendous accomplishment. Everybody wants to do well. Every coach, every player, every assistant coach who had that scout, you want to do the best you can. You want to help your team advance. We're all trying to do the same thing. So I'm understanding and respectful of that. We'll do everything we can to stay positive, because when you get out there, the critical thing is going to be can you get to the next play, because somebody's going to miss a shot, somebody is going to make a mistake, turn it over, forget an assignment. You want that to be obviously limited and not be a trend. Once it happens once, twice, three times, that can't happen when you get here. So I think our guys are mature enough and intelligent enough to understand that and after what we've been through, get ready for it.

Q. Connor's had an interesting week. Just curious as his father and as his coach in basketball you've seen him juggle the baseball, basketball thing, and obviously it's got to be tough.

COACH MCCAFFERY: I was just incredibly impressed with him. We got up after we lost to Michigan on Friday night, and I didn't really know that he was going to jump in the car and head up and play on Saturday. We got back in time to see him. He played Saturday. Then he played a doubleheader Sunday. Then he played Tuesday. He was at practice. He didn't miss any practices for us. And then to go 4-for-8 with two walks and two stolen bases and a couple of doubles, I was really impressed that he was able to do that. But probably more so that he was Academic All-Big Ten while doing all of that. So just couldn't be more proud of him. And I remember, seems like yesterday that he was thrilled to be out there in the layup lines when we're warming up in Tampa, 2008, and now he's playing. So, it's really a proud moment.

Q. In your experience entering this tournament, is there any different way you have to approach it when you win a lot of games coming into the tournament or you're in a bit of a downspout coming in?

COACH MCCAFFERY: No, I don't think so. We've kind of done it both ways. I think you feel better if you came in riding a winning streak. A couple years ago I know we were 6-6, ended up 12-6 in the league and won our last six games in a row and felt really good. But I think you look at the body of work and you consistently analyze where do we have to get better? If we didn't win, what could we have done differently? And then you're now shifting to a completely different team, from a different league. But your preparation is very similar, very business-like -- grind, watching film, get on the court in practice. This time of year I think if you're going two and a half hours in practice, you're crazy. So we scaled back practice time, make sure we have fresh legs, but at the same time focus on the interesting or specific things that we have to do for that game.