The Fran McCaffery era begins Sunday afternoon when the Iowa basketball team opens the regular season at home against South Dakota State. This will be the fourth different school he has debuted as the head coach having also led Lehigh, North Carolina-Greensboro and Siena.

McCaffery says the things a coach feels personally is the same as past games, but says it is different because of the attention since it is the first game for him at Iowa. Iowa scored 111 points in an exhibition victory over Illinois-Springfield but McCaffery cautions against reading too much into the outcome.

He says they did what they should have done, as the other team was missing a couple of big guys and they should have been able to go inside and they did, so he says he won’t get too excited about it. McCaffery says the challenge will be much tougher against South Dakota State.

McCaffery says they spread you out, move the ball, make three’s and compete.