Fran McCaffery
Iowa opens the NCAA Tournament in Birmingham this afternoon against Auburn. It’s Iowa fourth straight appearance in the tournament.
The game will be played about two hours from the Auburn campus.
“I don’t think anybody is going to think much about that”, said Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. “We see a lot of hostile environments in our league.”
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl says it will take more than a partisan crowd in Birmingham to beat the Hawkeyes.
“We have got to stop one of the top offensive teams in the country who is bigger than us at every position”, said Pearl. “We are going to have to hang our hat on our defense, keep them off the offensive glass, make some shots and survive and advance.”