Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery Previews Matchup Against No. 1 Purdue Basketball
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — No. 1 Purdue basketball welcomes Iowa to Mackey Arena at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday. The two teams met three times last season, including twice in regular season play.
Ahead of the matchup, Hawkeyes head coach Fran McCaffery met with the media to discuss how the team will prepare for the top-ranked Boilermakers, who are led by star center Zach Edey alongside freshman guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer.
Here's everything McCaffery had to say before the game:
Q. Fran, can I assume that the media is probably going to make a bigger deal out of you guys facing the No. 1 team than you and your preparation? Does it even come up much?
McCaffery: Really it doesn't. I think at this point, anybody that plays Purdue has tremendous respect for that team and Coach Painter and the players they have. Everybody knows who they have. Tough place to play; everybody knows that, too.
We're just trying to get ready.
Q. Beyond what Zach Edey has done, which is plenty, what's made them a team that's 22-2?
McCaffery: They're a very connected group. You can see it. You've got two freshman guards that are playing really well, and you have some veterans coming off the bench, accepting their roles and excelling in their roles. You've got a deep team. They're big. They've got a multitude of 3-point shooters. They're not a mistake team. They defend. They've always done that.
It's a team you have to beat.
Q. How much has Edey's game grown just in the last year?
McCaffery: I think it helps that he's not splitting time. He's more comfortable out there. They've always gone to him. Even when he only played half the game, they would go to him when he was in there. He's become much better at playing in traffic and making plays.
When he first got there, he wasn't very good at that, and now he's passing the ball to cutters, he's skipping opposite, he's going quick, and that makes him that much harder to guard.
Q. How do you beat this team?
McCaffery: You have to make sure that you defend every possession, don't turn it over and get a good shot opportunity. You can't let them dominate the offensive glass and get second shots. They're really good at that. Not just him; he's No. 1 in the country. But Furst and Gillis and those other guys, Morton and those guys are winning players. They're going to go after it on the glass.
You give them more than one or two shot opportunities, you're going to have a hard time beating them.
Q. At what point do you sacrifice shooting for size in playing a team like this?
McCaffery: I don't know that you sacrifice anything at any point in time. You take what's there. You have to be careful; you can sell out on him, and they can make 15 threes on you. You have to be able to guard the paint. You've got to be able to guard the perimeter. You have to be able to guard the drive if you're going to beat this team.
Q. I know the game, players are a lot younger now, but they have two freshmen guards like they do and to sustain it like they do, how unusual is that?
McCaffery: Well, those don't guys don't play like freshmen, so I think it starts there. You're seeing more and more veteran teams now with the transfer portal, but if you have really good freshmen, you play them. They're ready to go. Sometimes they've got guys ahead of them. We have two really good freshman guards, but they've got guys ahead of them, so they're playing, but they're not playing probably as much as they would like. I would like to play them more, but the other guys are playing well.
They lost Thompson and Hunter and Ivey, so there was opportunity there for those guys, and like I said, Jenkins is a 2,000-point scorer and he's content coming off the bench. It's working for them. Those two guys are special.
Q. From what you've seen on him, is there any difference between how Purdue played with Haas and those other bigs as opposed to how they play now or is it kind of the same deal?
McCaffery: It's kind of the same. The difference was they had two bigs then, and then they had two bigs the last couple years. They had the other kid, the kid Haarms, and he wasn't -- he didn't want to split time, so he transferred. So they brought Edey in, so they had Edey and Trevion, and they were a handful because they both played 20 minutes, and they both were fresh the whole time.
So I think Zach's stamina, knowing he was going to play 30-plus minutes, I think that he's in a good place there. But he's also more comfortable like I said.
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