Iowa’s McCaffery expounds on hiring, recruiting and more

Iowa men's basketball coach Fran McCaffery took 30 minutes out of Final Four weekend for a question-and-answer session with The Gazette Friday morning in an Indianapolis hotel lobby.

McCaffery discussed a wide range of topics, including recruiting challenges, hiring assistant coaches, player retention and his background.

Here are some of the questions The Gazette posed to him and his responses:

Gazette: You said during your introductory news conference you'd consider a former Iowa player as an assistant coach. Are you close to hiring one?

McCaffery: There are a lot of times you'll say you want a former player on your staff, and there really are one or two or three potential candidates that make sense. We have a lot that want it that really makes sense. I expected it to be shorter, much smaller. Here at Iowa, the thing I'm coming to grips with is it's actually a longer list than I thought it would be, which would make it more complicated to eventually end up with one name. So I think it's important that I talk to four, five, six maybe that think they would be a good fit. Ultimately, I'd have to pick one and it may be that I have one or two that I really like, I don't have them now, and I say just keep doing what you're doing, you're getting experience where you are. Down the road, if an opening comes up, and then we know where you are.

Gazette: Have you hired any assistant coaches yet?

McCaffery: I haven't hired anybody, I'm getting closer. This is the kind of thing it's good we have (director of basketball operations) Jerry Strom. He's there. He's been very, very helpful in regards to meeting people and helping me manage the first week.

Gazette: If Siena assistant coach Mitch Buonaguro isn't hired to replace you as Siena's head coach, would you hire him?

McCaffery: It would be very likely, yes.

Gazette: Have you seen any of the current players on film and if so, what are your impressions?

McCaffery: I haven't watched film other than what I saw before I came here. And I will, but what I want is for every one of our players to stay with the program. I want to make these decisions with regard to so-and-so is a better player I really need to focus on more him rather than the other guy who doesn't come back. It's OK. They all came to Iowa and they're all a member of our program, I want them all to stay. So I'm treating them all exactly the same way in that regard.

Gazette: Have you and current assistant coach Chad Walthall changed the players' off-season workout schedule to cater toward your style of play?

McCaffery: I've talked with Chad, I've been impressed with him. With regard to the workout schedule, there won't be any changes in the short run. With regard to strength and conditioning, eventually I'll be running the skill-development workouts. Right now, what I need to do is get a handle of where we are roster-wise and then if we have one or two scholarships - we have one presently - if we have one or two or three, hopefully it won't be, but if we do, we've got some recruiting. So I need my staff on board so I can be involved, but my focus would be more on the players here. Anytime you try to sign somebody late, the head coach has to be involved because the amount of time a prospect would have to normally come to grips with his decision is shortened a great deal. So it's incumbent upon me to ensure that I put the quality time in. They can do some of the leg work, but eventually I'm going to have to do a lot of the work recruiting as well, so it's going to be a very busy time.

Gazette: Is Chad Walthall a candidate to stay with the program as an assistant?

McCaffery: Chad is somebody I'm considering, and I've told him that. He may be the right fit, he may not be. If he's not, it won't be for any negative reason. I think he's qualified and that kind of thing. Clearly qualified, clearly a fine person. I need to ultimately decide what staff is the right combination of coaches for what I think we need to move forward. Right now he's in the group of guys I'm considering.

Gazette: Rumors abound about Aaron Fuller's possibly transferring. Is he going to leave or stay?

McCaffery: I don't have anything one way or the other. I will tell you this: I really enjoyed my meeting with him. I need to have more meetings, more discussions with him. He was very open to it. The reason he was very open to it was because he really loves his teammates and that came through loud and clear to me. That's the thing that impressed me most about him. Yeah, there were some things he didn't like. But you look at his improvement; he really improved as a player. He loves his teammates and he loves the institution. He loves being at Iowa, so he just has to get comfortable with me. I think that won't take long. We hit it off right away. Always you wonder about players from elsewhere. Sometimes I remember we had a player years ago who loved everything about home and he just wanted to go home. I don't get the impression that that's Aaron Fuller. Yeah, he's from Phoenix, but he loves it here. It's my job to make sure he's comfortable enough to stay.