Fran McCaffery credits Nebraska in season-finale loss

On Sunday, Fran McCaffery and the Iowa Hawkeyes suffered a frustrating loss to the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

After the game, McCaffery didn’t blame his own team for the loss. Instead, he made sure to credit Nebraska.

“Well, you’ve got to give them credit,” Fran McCaffery said. “They made shots. They moved it. You make 14 threes, you got a good shot to win. We really locked into [Derrick] Walker and [Keisei] Tominaga and [Sam] Griesel, and they had other guys hurt us.”

Nebraska was 14 for 26 from three-point range in the game. Iowa made 12 threes itself, but the Cornhuskers shot a much higher percentage from deep. For the game, Nebraska shot 58.5% on field goals while Iowa only shot 36.5%.

“Look at the stats. So, [CJ] Wilcher, [Sam] Hoiberg, [Jamarques] Lawrence was terrific. He’s been playing great and [Wilhelm] Breidenbach. So, we kind of, like I said, geared our defense to the other guys. Our rotations weren’t maybe as great as they should have been or could have been, but those guys had to eventually make the shots and they did.”

In a tight Big Ten, this was a big loss for Iowa. They finished the regular season fifth in the Big Ten with an 11-9 conference record. A win would have propelled the Hawkeyes into a tie for second place. This set up Iowa to play the winner of the Wisconsin–Ohio State game in the Big Ten Tournament.

“So, like I said, give them credit,” Fran McCaffery concluded.

Fran McCaffery on Tony Perkins’ growth

One player who has shown a lot of growth this season is Tony Perkins. A three-star recruit in the Class of 2020, Fran McCaffery is incredibly excited about his development this season.

“I think it’s a belief in himself. Wish I could tell you it was something miraculous that I did. I don’t think that’s the case. He’s always been a gamer, and you know what that means. I remember it was the COVID year, freshman year, they get a free year. We had a bunch of veteran guys so it wasn’t going to be a great opportunity for him to play a lot. So we’re on the road at Rutgers and we had injuries and foul trouble and put him in there,” McCaffery said.

“I said, ‘Oh, this dude is special.’ He was fearless, driving the ball, stealing, just handling it right in the middle of a very difficult road win. And I said, ‘OK, we have something special here.'”