Iowa's Big Ten education continues with Michigan

IOWA CITY — Except in very rare cases, there's very little a college basketball player will be able to fully grasp without experiencing it firsthand.

Coaches and teammates can tell a newcomer what an opposing venue is like, they can describe the pace and level of play; they can set expectations. But as Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery pointed out during a teleconference on Friday, knowing and understanding can be two different things.

That's the context for why McCaffery called the Purdue blowout a 'great experience.' No, a coach never wants to see his team blown out. But sure as the sun rises in the east, the Hawkeyes left Mackey Arena on Wednesday night understanding — not just knowing — what Big Ten play was about.

The next step is turning understanding into corrections.

'You're talking to intelligent people and they say, 'OK, I kind of get what you mean.' But you walk in there and the atmosphere, their physicality and the way they move the ball, and your ears pin back. Now they really know what we mean,' McCaffery said. 'Ultimately we're going to have to figure out how to do better on the road because we've got more tough teams coming up.'

Defending good teams — especially the good teams in the Big Ten — comes with a high level of 'pick your poison.'

With Purdue, it was hot shooting guards or one of the best frontcourts in the nation. As McCaffery pointed out, Iowa tried focusing on the post and to recover in time on closeouts, and 'it didn't work out for us.' Michigan offers a similar challenge, though without as formidable a challenge inside. The Wolverines are guided primarily by their backcourt and leading scorer Zak Irvin, but offer versatility in forwards Moritz Wagner and DJ Wilson — both of whom shoot well.

Once again, then, the onus is on Cordell Pemsl and Tyler Cook, the latter of whom McCaffery said 'there's a good chance he's in the starting lineup.' Both freshman forwards found themselves in foul trouble against Purdue, which hampers everything. Being able to effectively defend Michigan as a unit will derive a lot from what those two are able to do inside to ensure the backcourt players can recover quicker.

McCaffery doesn't spend a ton of time coaching Pemsl and Cook on how to feel about dealing with foul trouble, though acknowledged frustration can be a factor in picking up more. Instead his corrections focus on positioning.

If the two freshmen are where they're supposed to be, foul trouble is much less likely.

'What has to happen eventually is they have to figure out how to stay out of foul trouble. That's one of the components of learning the process of how to be a good player when you're a freshman,' McCaffery said. 'That's something nobody ever talks about — where do you keep your hands, how do you move your feet; how do you anticipate the action so you're there and not late? And that's why you're fouling.

'I think we would probably spend more time talking about that — getting to where you need to be at the right time.'

It's going to take more than one Big Ten game — and certainly more than one road trip — before this Iowa team is going to feel fully confident in what to expect and what they want to be relative to their conference competition.

Iowa got beat up while in zone defense, but McCaffery isn't about to abandon it now. The Hawkeyes will face teams that can do what Purdue did multiple times the rest of the way, starting with Sunday.

Bottom line, McCaffery said, they just have to do things better. They both know and understand what those things are much better now.

'You really don't know what's coming (with Michigan) because they run so much intricate stuff. It's personnel driven and it's following your defensive rules, and that's about the only way you can do it,' McCaffery said. '(Purdue) moved the ball well and made shots. We stared at the ball a little bit and didn't close out properly. Those things are correctable. But sometimes you play a team that's on fire, it seems like you're there and you're not there. And Michigan can do the same thing.

'Sometimes you feel like you've closed out to a space and he pulls anyway and it goes in, that's what this league is. We just have to do a better job.'

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