Iowa notes: Temple’s Coleman on recruiting, McCaffery talks temper

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Philadelphia native Devin Coleman was an early target for Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery before electing to play college basketball at Clemson five years ago.

Coleman - now a senior at Temple - said he spurned Iowa in part because of the distance from his home area.

'Being young, at the time, it's a hard decision to make,” Coleman said. 'Personally I wanted to make sure I took into consideration all of my options and followed through seeing all the possibilities. I think that's where my mind was at that time. I made the decision I made and that was it.”

Coleman transferred from Clemson to Temple last year and is a key cog for the Owls off the bench. He averages 9.3 points and hits 40 percent from 3-point range. His 64 3-pointers lead Temple. Coleman admits he's thought about what life would have been like under McCaffery at Iowa. But he's also content with his life choices.

'I remember a great guy, a great staff,” Coleman said about McCaffery and assistant Andrew Francis. 'They were recruiting me even before I got to Siena, so I spent a lot of time talking to those guys. I just remember great people, great coaches there, plenty of successful teams. Obviously another one this year. So I'm looking forward to the match-up. It should be a good one.”

TALKING SLUMP

Among the many topics Iowa players discussed before Friday's game was their end-of-season slump. Iowa finished the regular season 2-6 after being ranked No. 3 nationally and 10-1 to open Big Ten play.

'We really had a strong middle of the season,” Iowa forward Jarrod Uthoff said. 'Towards the end, I think the Big Ten season really started to wear on us. Day in and day out, you're playing great teams. It's not like you're playing poor competition. Losing to those good teams, I think it's a good experience for us, and I think we'll bounce back in this tournament.”

Iowa didn't have a loss by more than eight points, and that game was tied with less than three minutes left.

'All of our losses were by one or two possessions,” Iowa center Adam Woodbury said. 'We make a couple of 3s, they miss a couple 3s, turn the ball over, we win five of the seven losses or whatever.

'If that happens in the middle of the season and we start winning at the end, nobody talks about it. Just happened at the end of the season, everybody wants to talk about it and make more out of it. But we're in every game. We've never been out of a game yet, we've never been blown out. We've never lost by double digits. We're excited about the way we played. We definitely can play better, but we're excited with where we are.”

MCCAFFERY TALKS TEMPER

McCaffery is known for his fiery demeanor on the sidelines. He was asked if it was a product of his competitiveness.

'I think there's only one way to play the game. You've got to compete,” McCaffery said. 'I will be honest, I think sometimes I'm unfairly categorized as a guy that's constantly fiery. If it you watch me coach, about 85 percent of the time, I just have my arms folded, and I just watch the game.

'What will upset me is, if we have repeatedly gone over something and then that aspect breaks down. So in other words, if you play for me, I'm not going to ask you to do what you can't do, but if I ask you to do a certain thing and you don't do it and I know you can do it, that's going to be a problem. We're going to have an issue there.

'So I'm not the kind of guy that's constantly yelling and constantly griping. You shoot the ball, and I tell you you should have drove the ball. You drove the ball, you should have passed the ball. I'm not that guy. I'm not in your face. I get out of your way, and I let you play. But when we have a game plan and there's a certain expectation, how we're going to defend ball screens, what we're going to do in transition defense, how we're going to play a certain guy in the post, well, I expect to you do that to the best of your ability because I know you can do it, and that's why I have you in that position.”

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