Iowa Basketball: Ben McCollum Reacts to Elite Eight Berth

Q. Big moment. It was 65-65 about five minutes to go. You guys got a pair of stops and then three consecutive missed threes by Kael, Bennett, and Alvaro. In some cases, that could be a dagger. You're looking back after the game saying, Boy, we had an opportunity there. What did it take to keep getting stops and of course then Bennett and Tate both hit a couple of threes there to take your first lead?

I thought we had two kind of not great shots, probably. Then I thought Kael's was a really good shot. We had the ball moving and popping, and it just found him at the top of the key, and he missed it short. But that's part of these games is you have to depend on your defense. I thought once we figured out the direction they were going offensively, we were able to at least keep it at bay. I thought we did a better job of making sure they couldn't get below us as much and not getting layups, etcetera. Did a better job with our hands. Our hand activity was much better. We boxed out.

Q. This is the lowest seeded Big Ten team to ever make the Elite Eight since seeding began in 1979. How do you feel about being called a Cinderella?

I guess there's Cinderella. You know, we were so close in a lot of games and I don't like to use that. We were right there. And then we lost some games we probably shouldn't have. I think part of that is it's just like those games where those teams get up, we don't have enough just complete talent to be able to overwhelm maybe the bottom tier teams in the Big Ten. 

Q. You were able to keep the game at just three points at halftime with how well Nebraska came out. How big was that just in the big picture the way Nebraska came out that you only had it down to a three-point lead by halftime?

That was huge because they were absolutely punishing us. I mean, it felt like it was a 50-point lead, to be perfectly honest. Like, we just made enough shots to hang in there, so then we were able to keep it close, and then we decided we wanted to guard that second half, which was good. And it slowed their tempo down a little bit, which was nice.