Wednesday Quotebook: Toussaint Learns From Mistakes

Joe Toussaint is a freshman, so these things happen.

The Iowa guard played just six minutes in last Friday's 87-74 win over Oral Roberts. Some of that was the product of foul trouble — he picked up two fouls in the first half. Some of that was because of his shot selection.

"Now I know not to get two quick fouls and take a bad shot," Toussaint said, smiling, during Wednesday's media availability. "It's just that simple. "

It was only the third regular-season game of Toussaint's career, and he admitted he got "a little caught up" in things before the game.

"As a young player, you really don't know what you did wrong," he said. "But when you sit down and look at it — you know, time and score...

"You have to understand that. I understand that now."

Iowa was up 74-56 midway through the second half when Toussaint missed a jumper just 10 seconds into the shot clock. The miss and rebound turned into an Oral Roberts layup, and Iowa coach Fran McCaffery immediately called a 30-second timeout.

"It was hard for him because he got two quick (fouls)," McCaffery said. "He's going to be active defensively, and you never want to take that away from him because he makes steals, it's nothing that anybody has schemed. It's something he saw and he just went and did, and you want him to be that guy.

"He got two quick ones, so he didn't play the rest of the half, and then we had the one unit that was clicking. We got up 22, and we went to the bench, and we got a little sideways, and we went back to the starters, and that kind of thing happens. I think he's mature enough to understand that, and he'll have opportunities to play a lot moving forward."

McCaffery wants Toussaint to stay aggressive.

"He's a guy that's always been able to just go make a play," McCaffery said. "When I first put him in (in the first half) he went down and just raised up and shot one and made it. He did the same thing in the second half. Well, in that situation it really wasn't what we needed, especially because he missed it. But you also don't want him to be questioning his ability to go do what he does because that limits really what makes him special.

"We'll continue to encourage him to be who he is, but maybe not coming down the stretch when the other team is on a run."

Patrick McCaffery update

Patrick McCaffery, Fran's son who is a freshman forward for the Hawkeyes, has been practicing with the team as he deals with health issues related to his treatment for thyroid cancer more than five years ago.

"He's been really good," Fran McCaffery said. "We're continuing to work through it, trying to help him manage what his body is going through, what it's been going through. It's a huge adjustment, as we all know. But his attitude has been very good."

It's unlikely that Patrick will play in Thursday's game against North Florida at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

"We'll see how he's doing, but I don't think (he'll play)," Fran said.

Patrick has been dealing with similar issues since his surgery and treatment in 2014.

"It's very unique to say the least," Fran said. "Not having gone through this, there's not many test cases of it. But when you go through what his body went through — you talk about his weight, you talk about his energy level, you talk about his sleeping, his eating, his digestive system — it's completely different than what anybody else goes through, and it takes a huge toll when you are going against the athletes the caliber of the guys he's going against right now. So it's been a huge adjustment for him physically and obviously mentally, as well, as a result of that.

"He's doing the best he can, and we're working with our medical staff and our nutrition folks to try to help him."

Bohannon update

Senior Jordan Bohannon played 22 minutes against Oral Roberts, the most court time he's had this season as he recovers from offseason hip surgery.

"I think he's getting a little better," McCaffery said. "I thought he was good the other night. He's been good at practice. Getting closer to being himself."

Bohannon can play 10 games in the first half of the season and still be eligible for a medical redshirt season.

"He's going to keep playing for a while and then we'll see how he feels," McCaffery said.

Add us as a preferred source on Google