John Beilein Postgame Quotes - Iowa
1/17/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2016
Opening Statement: Been in the league a few years now, not as many as some but more than others, and Iowa has a really good basketball team. They have things a lot of teams would love to have. They have four seniors; they have a heck of a junior who has stayed the course. We didn't worry about him when he was a freshman, and now all of a sudden he's Tim Hardaway III. He's getting all kinds of good looks, and they have become a really good team. I think what really has separated them right now is their bench play; they have guys coming off the bench making plays as well. They were a better team than us tonight, without question. We fought hard; we had three really bad spurts during the game. At the beginning of the first, three quarters of the way through the first half and three quarters of the way through the second. Thirteen turnovers for us is catastrophic, some were forced, and some were unforced. We had a few walks, we had a huge foul in the post while fronting a player late in the game, and those are things that we cannot afford to do. Right or wrong with the refs, we have to make it so it can't even happen.
Q: In previous double-digit losses, I don't know if you showed the response that you did tonight. Did they show you anything new?
Beilein: We were really happy with this, that from the fan standpoint like this, when you go down, and this place is rocking and rolling, everybody trying to stay warm on this day, and they were good, they didn't miss many shots. In the second half, they made tough twos to beat us, there were some easy shots, but they made some tough twos and tough threes. They did show a lot more than they did in a couple other games.
Q: Derrick (Walton Jr.) seemed to take it on himself more than we have seen in a long time.
Beilein: I'm just realizing this right now that last year he didn't have what Spike (Albrecht) had. Alright, Caris (LeVert) is gone, I'm going to run this team, and this is my job. The 30-second shot clock is changing a lot of that; the guy has to think five seconds quicker. I've really liked his growth right now and how he is running the team, making shots and trying to make the best decisions.
Q: You have played Iowa the last few years, and they have been pretty decent, what is the difference now with (Jarrod) Uthoff and (Peter) Jok that maybe wasn't there the last couple years?
Beilein: I don't see a big difference, as far as just they probably have more seniors out there than in years past. They had (Roy Devyn) Marble and a strong kid who was good; last year they had Aaron White, but now they have four of these guys who have had huge minutes, and I think that is the separator. The depth and the experience is the separator. As Fran (McCaffery) has been growing the program, he's had one or two seniors every year; they were good and evolved as players. Now he has four of those dudes out there, they're good, they are really good. It's the way basketball used to be, and they got it, and it's going to be a heck of a year for Iowa fans.
