Q. At what point in Connor's life, basketball life, did you recognize him to be a team-first guy in how he performed on the court? Was it there all along? Did he gradually grow into that role or at what point did you see him maybe become that type of person that he is today?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: I think he kind of always had it in him. He would always come to practice when he was in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade. He would watch film with me on weekends with the staff. He would come to all the film sessions. So there was something sort of engrained upon him.
For his middle school team, for his AAU teams, as an elementary school-aged athlete, he scored a lot more. But even then, he moved it and made really good passes. But, particularly when went to play at West High for Coach Bergman, when he got there as a freshman, they were loaded up with talent and he was the perfect fit for what they were trying to do. Get the ball to Wyatt, who was going to lead the state in scoring and they had so many other talented players, David DiLeo, Wally, Devontae Lane, so many good players. So he ran the offense for that team and engineered a state championship.
So he's kind of always been that guy. And then his senior year they moved him around a little bit more. He played a little bit more on the wing and he guarded post guys, which I think gave me the confidence to do that last year when we started having injury situations that required us to kind of move him around. It's great to have that kind of versatility from a guy who knows all the spots and understands how to win and understands that we have the best player in college basketball, let's get him the ball. And we have got great shooters, great players.
And he's also been really good with our young guys. Obviously, with his brother, he's been like that since they were little. But with Keegan, with Tony, Ahron, Joe Toussaint, he does a terrific job as a leader.
Q. I think I remember seeing Connor at a career day when he was probably in 8th grade at, or 8th or 9th grade, and the thing he said he wanted to be was a coach. Do you think that's in his -- that seems to be in his makeup. Do you see that as his future?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: I think he would be a really good one. I think he has prepared himself. As a finance major, he's actually a double major now, finance and political science, he had a 3.94 last semester, he was on the Dean's list. So he has the opportunity to enter the business world, I think, in a good place, perhaps to go to law school. That's something he's talked about wanting to do. I think it would be hard for him to distance himself from the game. But again, he could have a very successful career in another field as well. So we'll see. Maybe he would stay around as a graduate assistant, kind of like Nicholas is doing now, we have had other guys, Kyle Denning did that, and kind of get a feel for it, maybe get his MBA. But it's nice to have options and I believe he would make a great coach. But to be truthful, I'm not sure his mother would encourage that career path (laughter).
Q. This is statistically your best 3-point shooting team at Iowa (sample size is growing). How important is that to the way you run your offense when you have a 3-point shooting team like this?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: I think the more 3-point weapons your team has, the harder you're going to be to guard, provided the group of individuals are unselfish and team-oriented. When you have the best low post player in a college basketball, you want to throw it inside, you want to get him the ball. But he's equally effective at the 3-point line, which creates opportunities for others to flash into the low post and post up or drive the ball into a space that wouldn't be there if Luka was always there.
So the other thing is, when you have players coming over the bench who can also make threes, a lot of times you might have a couple 3-point shooters in your starting lineup, but you don't have 3-point shooters coming off the bench which changes everything when you go to your bench. But Patrick and Keegan and Jack can all hit threes. Joe has been a guy who can make some threes. He's not going to shoot as many, but he's capable. And so are Ahron, Tony and Chris.
I think moving forward, most coaches are going to try to recruit as many 3-point shooters as possible. When you think about the return on investment per possession, it makes a lot of sense. If you're going to the analytics side of things, shooting threes, provided they're open shots and you've moved it and you've made the defense work and you don't constantly settle, because if you do that you're never going to be in the bonus, so there's got to be a mixture there. But having multiple weapons and not having the other team be able to focus on one or two guys is really helpful.
Q. This is the first game that we know of that may be affected by the COVID situation. How much information are you getting about what's going on on other teams and do you feel like you're getting enough information?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: We don't get a lot of information about other teams, unless we're getting ready to play them. So we were informed that there might be one or two guys out. If there are, I hope they're doing well and getting better.
But as it relates to, say, Penn State and Nebraska, I suspect Brad Floy, our trainer, may know more, but we're not playing those guys for awhile, so they're on pause and probably expect them to be back off pause when we get ready to play them.
Q. Regarding Michigan State, what do you think is the key to a program having sustained excellence like they have had over decades now?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: Well, I think there's a variety of things. Coach Izzo is a Hall of Fame coach. That is a good place to start. But they've recruited well. They have had really good players. I think they play a style that is I think really good for the personnel that they have. They have always played fast and they have always defended. And they compete hard.
So you put a great coach and really good players and a good system and a team that competes and understands how to play, they're going to win a lot of games.
Q. Whenever we talk to you guys about defense, you always talk about, the team has to be so well connected on the defensive end of the floor. What's the formula for having a well-connected defense?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: Well, first of all, you have to be committed to playing it, everybody that's out there. So if you have one guy who is sort of relaxing on defense to save his energy for offense, it won't work. We're a team that changes defenses, so that's critical. So what are we in? And let's make sure we're making the appropriate slides, if we're in zone, if we're in man, are we switching, are we not switching. Are they running ball screen continuity, are they running set plays, or are they just dribble, draw, and kick.
So it's a combination of factors that really is pretty simple. Is everybody down in a stance, where they're supposed to be, competing defensively until we get the ball back?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: I think he kind of always had it in him. He would always come to practice when he was in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade. He would watch film with me on weekends with the staff. He would come to all the film sessions. So there was something sort of engrained upon him.
For his middle school team, for his AAU teams, as an elementary school-aged athlete, he scored a lot more. But even then, he moved it and made really good passes. But, particularly when went to play at West High for Coach Bergman, when he got there as a freshman, they were loaded up with talent and he was the perfect fit for what they were trying to do. Get the ball to Wyatt, who was going to lead the state in scoring and they had so many other talented players, David DiLeo, Wally, Devontae Lane, so many good players. So he ran the offense for that team and engineered a state championship.
So he's kind of always been that guy. And then his senior year they moved him around a little bit more. He played a little bit more on the wing and he guarded post guys, which I think gave me the confidence to do that last year when we started having injury situations that required us to kind of move him around. It's great to have that kind of versatility from a guy who knows all the spots and understands how to win and understands that we have the best player in college basketball, let's get him the ball. And we have got great shooters, great players.
And he's also been really good with our young guys. Obviously, with his brother, he's been like that since they were little. But with Keegan, with Tony, Ahron, Joe Toussaint, he does a terrific job as a leader.
Q. I think I remember seeing Connor at a career day when he was probably in 8th grade at, or 8th or 9th grade, and the thing he said he wanted to be was a coach. Do you think that's in his -- that seems to be in his makeup. Do you see that as his future?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: I think he would be a really good one. I think he has prepared himself. As a finance major, he's actually a double major now, finance and political science, he had a 3.94 last semester, he was on the Dean's list. So he has the opportunity to enter the business world, I think, in a good place, perhaps to go to law school. That's something he's talked about wanting to do. I think it would be hard for him to distance himself from the game. But again, he could have a very successful career in another field as well. So we'll see. Maybe he would stay around as a graduate assistant, kind of like Nicholas is doing now, we have had other guys, Kyle Denning did that, and kind of get a feel for it, maybe get his MBA. But it's nice to have options and I believe he would make a great coach. But to be truthful, I'm not sure his mother would encourage that career path (laughter).
Q. This is statistically your best 3-point shooting team at Iowa (sample size is growing). How important is that to the way you run your offense when you have a 3-point shooting team like this?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: I think the more 3-point weapons your team has, the harder you're going to be to guard, provided the group of individuals are unselfish and team-oriented. When you have the best low post player in a college basketball, you want to throw it inside, you want to get him the ball. But he's equally effective at the 3-point line, which creates opportunities for others to flash into the low post and post up or drive the ball into a space that wouldn't be there if Luka was always there.
So the other thing is, when you have players coming over the bench who can also make threes, a lot of times you might have a couple 3-point shooters in your starting lineup, but you don't have 3-point shooters coming off the bench which changes everything when you go to your bench. But Patrick and Keegan and Jack can all hit threes. Joe has been a guy who can make some threes. He's not going to shoot as many, but he's capable. And so are Ahron, Tony and Chris.
I think moving forward, most coaches are going to try to recruit as many 3-point shooters as possible. When you think about the return on investment per possession, it makes a lot of sense. If you're going to the analytics side of things, shooting threes, provided they're open shots and you've moved it and you've made the defense work and you don't constantly settle, because if you do that you're never going to be in the bonus, so there's got to be a mixture there. But having multiple weapons and not having the other team be able to focus on one or two guys is really helpful.
Q. This is the first game that we know of that may be affected by the COVID situation. How much information are you getting about what's going on on other teams and do you feel like you're getting enough information?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: We don't get a lot of information about other teams, unless we're getting ready to play them. So we were informed that there might be one or two guys out. If there are, I hope they're doing well and getting better.
But as it relates to, say, Penn State and Nebraska, I suspect Brad Floy, our trainer, may know more, but we're not playing those guys for awhile, so they're on pause and probably expect them to be back off pause when we get ready to play them.
Q. Regarding Michigan State, what do you think is the key to a program having sustained excellence like they have had over decades now?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: Well, I think there's a variety of things. Coach Izzo is a Hall of Fame coach. That is a good place to start. But they've recruited well. They have had really good players. I think they play a style that is I think really good for the personnel that they have. They have always played fast and they have always defended. And they compete hard.
So you put a great coach and really good players and a good system and a team that competes and understands how to play, they're going to win a lot of games.
Q. Whenever we talk to you guys about defense, you always talk about, the team has to be so well connected on the defensive end of the floor. What's the formula for having a well-connected defense?
FRAN MCCAFFERY: Well, first of all, you have to be committed to playing it, everybody that's out there. So if you have one guy who is sort of relaxing on defense to save his energy for offense, it won't work. We're a team that changes defenses, so that's critical. So what are we in? And let's make sure we're making the appropriate slides, if we're in zone, if we're in man, are we switching, are we not switching. Are they running ball screen continuity, are they running set plays, or are they just dribble, draw, and kick.
So it's a combination of factors that really is pretty simple. Is everybody down in a stance, where they're supposed to be, competing defensively until we get the ball back?
