Iowa’s McCaffery ‘not surprised’ Wisconsin beat Kentucky

INDIANAPOLIS - Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery wasn't surprised two Big Ten teams advanced to the Final Four. He was even less surprised that Wisconsin upset Kentucky 71-64 on Saturday.

'Obviously I've been asked a lot the last couple of days that who do you think is going to win, Kentucky-Wisconsin,” said McCaffery from a downtown Indianapolis hotel on Sunday. 'That was the game everybody wanted to talk about. So many more people wanted to talk about that game. I said, ‘Wisconsin's got a better team.' I said that from the beginning. I said it (Saturday) before the game, (Wisconsin's) got a better team, with all due respect to what Kentucky has done. So I was not surprised at all.”

McCaffery guided Iowa to its second straight NCAA tournament berth. The Hawkeyes won their first NCAA game in 14 years with a 31-point pounding of Davidson. Gonzaga then ended Iowa's season two days later in the round of 32.

The Hawkeyes competed against their border-rival Badgers twice in 12 days this year. Wisconsin routed Iowa 82-50 at the Kohl Center. In the rematch at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa shot 64 percent in the first half but still trailed Wisconsin by six at halftime. The Badgers won that game 74-63.

'We played great, and they played better,” McCaffery said. 'That's kind of what they do, certainly this group. They have the exact components that you want to beat Kentucky. You have to be big, and you can't turn it over. You've got to have multiple shot makers. They have experience, there's no panic in them. You're down four with five minutes to go and Kentucky's got the ball, the normal fan is thinking, ‘This one's over.'

'They're going to get it to two, they're going to tie it, somebody is going to hit a shot. They're not going to miss their free throws late. They're going to make their free throws. They're going to get a stop.”

McCaffery called Michigan State 'underseeded” but said the seventh-seeded Spartans' meeting with Duke was 'a tough match-up.” Michigan State lost 81-61.

MOVING ON

In the moments following Wisconsin's win against Kentucky, Wildcats guard Andrew Harrison uttered a racial slur under his breath directed toward Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky. The words were picked up by a microphone and caused a stir.

Harrison later apologized to Kaminsky, who said Sunday, 'nothing needs to be made out of it.”

Wisconsin sophomore Nigel Hayes said the team's ability to shrug off incidents helps the players remain focused on the task at hand.

'We have more important things to worry about,” Wisconsin sophomore Nigel Hayes said. 'Like the eye-poking thing. OK, that's fine. We still won both of those games. We're not going to worry about it anymore. Or the slip-up by the Kentucky player (Saturday) night in regards to Frank. OK, it happened, we're not going to worry about it anymore. It's just us being goal-oriented and focused.”

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