University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Iowa
2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Recap | Notes | Photo Gallery 1 | Photo Gallery 2
Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino
Opening Statement...
"Awesome game, I'm proud of our guys, they showed some heart and great character to break through. 17 to 5 in double overtime is terrific. Nate Mason was tremendous and obviously Jordan Murphy was phenomenal, I mean Jordan did that just by sheer will, when he does that we are pretty difficult. A lot of respect for that Iowa team, they have really really good talent, obviously Jok is terrific and some of those young guys will be a force to be reckoned with. Overall I am extremely proud of our guys, probably the most proud I've been since I've been here."
On why he is so proud of his team...
"I thought they just fought through it, they were really tired, and Iwas refusing to sub. They squandered a lead and they fought through it. Nate Mason made winning plays at the end and so did Jordan Murphy. I think it was just one of those deals where we had to break through at some point; we have had a bunch of overtime games."
Iowa Head Coach Fran McCaffery
On the second half comeback……
"Better activity, better pressure, and full-court pressure"
On Jordan Murphy's performance...
"He was terrific tonight. He played with great energy. I have always really thought of him when he came into the league last year…I think he is growing. He is fitting in on the different team this year…He has got more weapons now."
On Peter (Jok) shooting…….
"Well he got a couple of run-outs. He mixed it up and he hit a couple. He was feeling it."
On the takeaways from this game…….
"There was a lot that was teachable. There was a lot of good things. Yeah it was disappointing in a lot of ways, but I thought we showed tremendous fight. We were much better in the second half, defensively…We moved the ball extremely well… We just got to give them credit. They kept fighting too."
Sophomore Jordan Murphy
On difference from previous OT losses...
"Those were definitely tough losses, but we were definitely able to put it together tonight. Our team was strong; we were mentally strong, physically strong. We toughed it out and grinded it out."
On importance of winning a close game...
"A lot of our losses are from really close games, so this gives us a lot of confidence going into the next close game. We know we can grind it out when we need to."
On his breakout game...
"It definitely started with my rebounding. I knew getting it going on the rebounding end would let everything else get going. My teammates were finding me when I was open. I was just really confident down the stretch, and I knew that eventually they would start doubling me and not let me be open more. Then, Nate took over the game and that was just what we needed."
On back to back dunks in OT...
"It was definitely a big momentum swing when we got the back to back dunks. It really got the crowd involved. That's what we look forward to doing, seeing the fans get up and start clapping and cheering us on like that."
Junior Nate Mason
On basket to send the game to OT...
"Coach trusted me enough. He got the ball into my hands with 20 seconds. It was either Murphy or Reggie that came up and set the screen. I saw Pemsl switch on me, and I knew he couldn't stay in front of me. I drove right and just kept going."
On Pitino's message after struggling with Iowa's traps...
"We were playing timid when we first saw it. We didn't know why. We were just trying to get over and pass through it. However, once he told us to attack it, we handled it pretty well. We started attacking and finding the open man. We played off that, and that started helping."
On locker room after the game...
"It was just a great win. Before the game he showed us the clips of Kansas, how tired they were and how they pushed through against Kansas State. That just motivated us, so we came out there and said we're going to give it our all today. We went through two overtimes. You could see how fatigued we were in those overtimes. It's fun to come out on the winning side of those.
