The Iowa Hawkeyes downed Minnesota 63-59 in Iowa City last night. The Hawkeyes went on a 9-0 run to end the game and seal the win over the Gophers. Iowa coach Fran McCaffery was upset with his team’s defense after they gave up 103 points against Indiana, but says the effort was much better against the Gophers.
“It’s a 40 minute game and you can’t play any better defense than what we played in the first 10 minutes of that game, and that’s I think what made me the most proud of this team,” McCaffery says.
McCaffery questioned his team’s toughness to play defense in the Big Ten after the Indiana loss. “They have it in them, we have been tough, we just haven’t been consistently tough game in and game out, and that’s I think what always frustrates a coaching staff,” McCaffery says.
He says the way the team came out to play, you knew they remembered the poor performance they had Sunday.
Matt Gatens led Iowa with 18 points, and Roy Devyn Marble had 12 points.
Iowa is now 12-11 on the season and 4-7 in the Big Ten.