Inside The Hawkeyes
  • last year
iowa women fairleigh dickinson
Transcript
00:00 -Well I think we were ready to go tonight. It was like we were tired of
00:04 beating up on each other, we were tired of beating up on our gray squad,
00:08 and our team just wanted the opportunity to get out and face somebody else tonight.
00:12 I thought we played extremely well in a number of
00:16 areas. We shot the ball well from two, not from three, but from two.
00:20 We had a lot of great paint points. I mean 66 paint points.
00:24 Our transition game was really good. 28 assists on
00:28 turnovers, I love that. Kaitlyn has a double-double.
00:32 And then I thought Hannah and Sharon played really well.
00:36 I mean everybody, I know it's one game, but everybody's worried about our inside game.
00:40 Hannah's adjusted field goal percentage is 95, Sharon
00:44 is 88. They're perfect eight for eight from the free throw line between the two of them.
00:48 So they had really good nights. And I know the competition's
00:52 gonna get better, but it's a good confidence boost for everybody.
00:56 -With your mix and match lineups, what were you
01:00 sort of looking for in terms of seeing what the reserves
01:04 would do?
01:08 -We've been trying to mix up our lineups all year
01:12 long in the preseason trying to get ready.
01:16 We know we're gonna have to have different lineups based on
01:20 illness, injury, fouls. Somebody's
01:24 not having a good night. So just having the opportunity to get those different matchups,
01:28 those different lineups in there together is a good thing I think. -Lisa, you gave
01:32 Sharon the start. Just kind of what was your thought process behind that?
01:36 Was it just for this game? Is it moving forward? Or just kind of what is it right now? -She's been playing
01:41 well. I mean she's been producing in practice,
01:45 playing great. And you can see tonight she played really well. -What do you like from her
01:49 specifically that she's been doing not only in practice but then tonight? -She's just been
01:53 ceiling big. She's been asking for the ball. She's been scoring at a
01:57 good rate. She runs the floor hard.
02:01 So just a lot of good things I think Sharon's been bringing to our team. -Yeah, Sharon,
02:05 for you, just talk about the last few weeks. You had a really good exhibition
02:09 against Clark and then another good game tonight. What do you feel like has been changed over the last couple weeks?
02:13 -I think it's just been building confidence throughout practice.
02:17 I think I have teammates that continue to tell me
02:21 to keep going and to keep getting... Or Coach J says
02:25 you know your money shots so just having confidence with that. Again,
02:29 like we talked about the whole season, knowing that we don't have to fill Monica's role
02:33 completely exactly like she was but that we have our own strengths.
02:37 I can just see the confidence building over the past couple weeks. -Sharon, what was it like
02:41 just coming out, your first start, 6-3 from your Lyme Springs?
02:45 What was that like for you? -I was thinking
02:49 since February of 2020 that I started my last basketball game.
02:53 That was a long time ago, a month my mom passed away.
02:57 So just looking back over all that's happened since then
03:01 and that was a lot of the thoughts behind it I guess. But also just grateful for the
03:05 coaches and for my teammates. -When did you find out that you were gonna start tonight?
03:09 -Just the other day at practice.
03:13 -It seemed like the energy was there from the get go. Zero turnovers for you I guess.
03:17 Or was it just working so well for you offensively and just the team as a whole? -Yeah I think
03:22 our transition game early was really good. I think zero turnovers but as a team
03:26 only seven turnovers is really good on 28 assists. That's what we kind of
03:30 pride ourselves in is a lot of assists and low turnover numbers. So seven's really good
03:34 especially earlier in the year. Sometimes those numbers can be a little high. Obviously
03:38 the competition level's gonna increase a lot so that's gonna be really important. For myself
03:42 I feel like that's an area I can really grow in is taking care of the ball, knowing when to take risks,
03:46 knowing when to not take risks. Hopefully that number continues to stay like that.
03:50 -Hannah what was your three pointer like?
03:54 -It felt good. Kim passed it and she was like shoot it. -I said shoot it, shoot it, shoot it.
03:58 -She thinks I can make it. I did.
04:02 -Why did you miss the first one? I said you better shoot another.
04:06 -50%. -There we go. -Was that the one where you were calling for the ball
04:10 and then you immediately kicked it out? -Yeah I think it was on some sort of
04:14 screen of some sort maybe by Sharon. Hannah
04:18 might have said a screen and I got the ball off the curl and Hannah's girl kind of stayed with me and Hannah
04:22 popped and was just wide open. Hannah's been working really hard on
04:26 her shot and we all know that she can really make it and that's gonna be an important part of our team. If she can
04:30 knock down one or two here and there it's gonna be huge for us.
04:34 I had all the confidence in the world that she would make it. I just needed her to shoot it.
04:38 -Kaitlin take us through the thought process and your vantage point at the end of the first quarter.
04:42 I think Sydney just kind of dived all over and then Molly... -Wasn't that a great
04:46 hustle play? You love that when your team is up and you're playing at home and they
04:50 are diving on the floor. Sid just laid out
04:54 to get that ball and Molly what a shot at the end of the quarter right
04:58 at the buzzer. I thought that was fun. I loved how much the fans appreciated
05:03 the hustle of the team. -I was gonna say I think there was a photo they tweeted out where
05:07 right after she hit the ball there was the biggest smile on her face.
05:11 -I'm sorry did you ask?
05:15 -No I was gonna say if you want to sum her up in general. -Oh the smile? Oh my gosh.
05:19 That's fun right? That's what it's all about.
05:23 You come into a game like this and you have a lead
05:27 to still be able to play that hard and have fun,
05:31 that's what you work hard for. -Kaitlin can you describe your vantage point in that
05:35 celebration? -They probably should have gave me a second call for being on the court before the buzzer went off.
05:39 Sid's just one of those players that's always gonna
05:43 do the dirty work. She's busted her lip in practice,
05:47 lost part of her tube, thing gone in her lip. Those are plays
05:51 Sidney makes every day and then Molly makes crazy layups like that all the time.
05:55 It wasn't surprising by any means but those are the type of plays that
05:59 Iowa basketball is about is making the hustle plays, going the
06:03 extra mile for your teammate but also giving the crowd a little something to cheer about so that was pretty
06:07 fun. -Hannah we've heard all offseason about how you've been working on your shot to make a three point
06:11 of the night to go three for three from the free throw and a nine of ten. Practice is one thing
06:15 but how much of a confidence boost is it to come out and do it in a regular
06:19 season game now? -It's a huge confidence boost. I think
06:23 you work so hard to get better and I'm always in the
06:27 gym, especially with Taniya. She's been helping me a lot.
06:31 It feels great to actually be able to do it in the game.
06:35 -Hannah, what's it like to officially be shooting free throws at a higher
06:39 rate than Kaitlin here?
06:44 -We'll see how long that lasts.
06:48 I'll sign up for that.
06:52 I love that. -Kaitlin, you look at this
06:56 opening stretch that you guys have and tonight was really kind of the
07:00 only breather that you guys get for ten days a week.
07:04 In the context of that, how important was tonight to get off
07:08 to a good start and then how important will the next stretch be to
07:12 kind of accelerate some of that growth that you guys are looking for? -I think
07:16 that's what's so exciting for us is, like Coach Buter said, is we're kind of
07:20 tired of going to practice every single day and just playing our gray squad. We get to go out here and
07:24 compete against really great teams. We're gonna see where we are with Virginia Tech and a team
07:28 that I think is very similar to the way we play basketball, a very up tempo, offensive minded
07:32 team. It's gonna be a great challenge for us. Like you said, UNI, Drake,
07:36 K-State, those are really, really difficult games. I think it's a great
07:40 challenge for our team. I think now that I'm a senior, you understand the ups and downs of
07:44 the season, especially early. That's when you learn the most about your team and kind of grow.
07:48 I'm excited. I think it's gonna be a fun challenge. These are some of the most important
07:52 moments that I think gave us great success in late March last year.
07:56 Being able to learn and move on and grow as a team is gonna be really important.
08:00 I know we didn't shoot the ball very good tonight from three as a team, but I told the girls in the locker room
08:04 is just trust the work you've put in. This isn't really a reflection of what we've been doing
08:08 in practice or what you've been doing on your own. Just trusting that
08:12 moving forward and knowing the type of team that we are. -It's almost the final in Vegas.
08:16 LSU's gonna lose. If you guys beat
08:20 Virginia Tech, take care of business Sunday, should you guys be considered
08:25 to be the number one team in the nation? -I don't even know.
08:29 I don't care. I don't even want that,
08:33 to be quite honest. Our target is big enough as it is.
08:37 We just know we have a really tough challenge
08:41 on Thursday night and then on Sunday at UNI. That's a tough place to play.
08:45 I'm not gonna get ahead of myself in those type of scenarios.
08:49 -Lisa, you mentioned the assist to turnovers tonight. It wasn't
08:53 just Kaitlin like it is sometimes. Everybody is moving the ball, passing the ball.
08:57 How does it open up the offense when you can rely on all five players to find an open
09:01 pass and make tough passes? -That's the way we like to play.
09:05 Just great ball movement and hard cuts
09:09 and getting people open. Those high assists, that is just so much
09:13 fun. It's what we try to do.
09:17 -Lisa, you guys have played in a lot of big games. Obviously the tournament run last year
09:21 and I think the main message you've tried to convey to your team is don't make the moment bigger than what it is
09:25 and embracing it. Now that you have an experienced group, you're going into
09:29 Virginia Tech, how much does it help your job as a coach to not
09:33 have to focus on telling your team it's not this big a moment
09:37 and you can just focus on the X's and O's rather than the emotional part of it?
09:41 -We think that it's a big game on Thursday but we also know
09:45 it's not the end all. We learned that through last year's experience.
09:49 We're gonna go in there and give it everything we have. If we win
09:53 it's not the end of the season. If we lose it's not the end of the season. It's like an opportunity
09:57 for growth and that's what these games are in the non-conference season. They're opportunities
10:02 for growth. We're gonna go play in a great environment, a neutral
10:06 court, great basketball city.
10:10 I think I heard they have 15,000 sold already for that game.
10:14 It's gonna be a lot of fun. It's gonna be a great environment
10:18 but I think Virginia Tech does play a lot like we do
10:22 and Kenny does a great job with his team. He's got really, really
10:26 great coach.