'It's Not Fun': Hawkeyes Not Interested In Looking Back
CJ Fredrick wasn't interested in going over the details of Iowa's 104-68 loss at Purdue on Wednesday.
"You hate looking back," the Iowa redshirt freshman guard said.
It was the worst loss of the season for the 17th-ranked Hawkeyes, and as far as Fredrick was concerned, it was the worst defeat of his career.
"I don’t think I’ve played in a basketball game where I’ve been that embarrassed," Fredrick said on Friday. "I don’t think I’ve been ready to play a game as I am right now."
He'll get that chance on Saturday, when the Hawkeyes play Nebraska in a 5:07 p.m. (CST) game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Purdue shot 63 percent for the game on Wednesday, hitting 19 3-pointers. The Boilermakers' biggest lead was 39 points in the second half.
"It’s not fun," Fredrick said. "It’s not fun. We just didn’t do anything right. But we’re not going to look back. Just keep moving forward, it’s just another loss. But we’re definitely going to be ready to play Saturday."
"You just want to get out there and create a new narrative," center Luka Garza said.
It's not something coach Fran McCaffery wanted to dwell on, either. His emotions didn't change with the loss.
"It's like you play poorly, and the coach's responsibility is to go in and turn over every chair and scream at everybody," he said. "Somehow that is miraculously going to change what just happened.
"I think we all have to be more professional than that. We didn't have it. Credit (Purdue). They were better. So what you do, is you take a look at it, you take a look at yourself, coaches, players, what could we have done differently, what should we have done differently, what could they have done differently."
It helps that the Hawkeyes (16-7 overall, 7-5 Big Ten) get a chance to respond to one of their earlier losses in conference play. The 76-70 defeat to the Huskers had its own embarrassment when Nebraska's defense shadowed Garza all night and dared Iowa to shoot from the outside.
The Hawkeyes went 4-of-33 in 3-pointers on a night when Fredrick, who had made 48.2 percent of his 3-pointers this season, didn't play. Joe Wieskamp, who leads the Hawkeyes with 46 3-pointers, was 1-of-10 in 3-pointers.
"Extremely excited," Fredrick said when asked about getting his chance against that kind of defense. "They're going to have four guys or five guys all on Luka, so there's going to be opportunities for open looks."
Asked if he hopes the Huskers go with that strategy, Fredrick smiled.
"I mean ... yeah," he said. "Yeah, that would be nice."
"I definitely hope they play us that way," Garza said. "They can try that out, if they would like."
"I'm to the point now where we've seen it all," McCaffery said. "We'll probably see more than one thing from them, just like we see more than one thing from everybody else now.
"They're fronting, they're playing behind, doubling here, doubling late, doubling early, they're crowding him. They're guarding CJ a certain way, Joe (Wieskamp) a certain way, Joe Toussaint a certain way. The big lineup a certain way, the small lineup a certain way."
The Hawkeyes are two games out of first place in the Big Ten with eight to play. Looking back, they said, does no good because there is still a lot ahead.
"Show who we are," Garza said. "Make a statement."
