Businesslike approach aids in Hawkeyes' success

IOWA CITY — Minutes following an Iowa basketball game, players shuffle into a media staging area for interviews.

Unlike their 40 minutes on the court, the athletes are reserved with little emotion. There's no hollering or bragging. Outside of a playful remark, one wouldn't know the game's outcome by reading their mannerisms.

'You've got to take it one game at a time,' said senior Jarrod Uthoff, who ranks second in Big Ten scoring at 18.4 points a game. 'All we're looking for is getting a win at Illinois next week. That's how you have to approach it. If you do over the course of time, we're going to reach our goal.

'We know what needs to be done. We just go out there and we do our part.'

Their demeanor is a nod to Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery's philosophy of keeping a businesslike approach. That starts with how the Hawkeyes prepare for games, how they compete within them and then how they put the result to rest.

'I have the same conversation after every game,' McCaffery said. 'I want them to relax and enjoy that win. Enjoy what they accomplished. Appreciate what went into beating a Big Ten team and winning a game and then the next day, you get up in the morning and you think about the next one and get them ready for it.

'If we lost the game, 'OK, what could have we done differently? What could you have done different?' Hold yourself accountable and be honest with yourself and get up tomorrow and try to affect change and get ready for the next. Do it every game.'

Cliches and narrow approaches often provide clarity in sports. Iowa football under Coach Kirk Ferentz has mastered that philosophy over the years with his 24-hour rule. The players are allowed a full day to accept the result and then it's time to move to the next challenge.

The leadership in both the football and basketball programs have developed the same type of mind-set, Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said.

'I think when Kirk and Fran and the rest of our coaches go out and recruit, they recruit people who share their approach,' Barta said. 'Yeah, it's businesslike. Kirk instills that, Fran instills that.'

Some football lessons — which helped shape a 12-2 overall record and an unbeaten regular season — have spilled over to the basketball team. Iowa basketball (18-4, 9-1 Big Ten) currently is ranked fifth by the Associated Press and tied atop the Big Ten standings.

'They had a great year,' said Iowa basketball guard Peter Jok, who is friends with many football players. 'We just want to be like them, too. Nobody expected them to do what they did. Nobody expected us to be where we're at right now, except for us. We believed in ourselves, and they did the same thing.'

Each team walks a careful line between enjoying the moment and focusing on the next task. McCaffery learned his approach while assisting John MacLeod at Notre Dame. MacLeod coached in the NBA from 1973 through 1991 before leading the Fighting Irish. With an 82-game regular season, plus exhibition and postseason games, MacLeod kept an even approach to every game in the NBA and Notre Dame. That philosophy rubbed off on McCaffery, who also concedes there are differences.

'There are times when the college game and the college players need a little more emotion,' McCaffery said. 'They have to experience that and it's a function of the game itself and it's a reality. But I just feel like ... if you take the same approach to breaking the other team down and how we prepare to play that team, and we spend enough time in the preseason preparing for how we're going to play and our style of play, and then we have enough different things in so that we can make adjustments, then you just focus on those things in that game on that day. Then you shift to the next one. What it does is it creates a consistency that's required.'

Iowa's players have bought into that mind-set since McCaffery took over in 2010. This year's group, which consists of four seniors and a junior in the starting lineup, lives it every day.

'I don't think it's really difficult because our team doesn't care about all the hype,' Jok said. 'We're not into the hype at all. We're focused on winning on game at a time.'

McCaffery concedes a younger player to team, like one he'll mold next year, might struggle to grasp the concept initially.

'But if he's a good player and he's a smart player and he's a good person,' McCaffery said, 'he'll really, really try to do exactly what we need him to do and what you'll see him do then is get better throughout the course of the season.'

l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com