Jock 2 Jock Podcast with Patrick McCaffery - "One Pair Of Shoes May Be All You Need"

Thanks for joining us for the jock to jock podcast where we get a unique look at Iowa men's basketball from a player's perspective.

We'll be joined by Patrick McCaffrey after this from I'm on communications experience the I'm on difference.

Thanks for joining us this week.

The season is underway, so I figured we'd use this show to talk a little bit more about Patrick McCaffrey and his point of view on what's going on with the team.

From your point of view, how's the team looking so far?

Good.

It's a new team, and we're still gelling and growing together.

I think going overseas was helpful in that sense.

We got to have all those extra packages play those games, and so it's been good.

But playing against other people is always different than practice.

We're just kind of scratching the rust off playing in front of fans again.

So it's been it's been good.

I really like the way our team is set up.

And I think I'm excited for what we're able to bring moving forward.

You mentioned overseas play.

I don't think a lot of Americans know how people play overseas.

Can you tell me what's different or how they play differently in Europe or other locations that you have been to?

It's a different game.

The guys that we played against out there were very old, like they were like like older professional players.

So very experienced, smart guys.

They move the ball really well, and they run all these specific actions.

They play it like soccer in a sense.

It's all about creating advantages.

And not to say that we don't play it that way, but because we kind of do, they really go out of their way to try to create advantages.

And so I would say that's probably the best way to describe it.

They're very, very smart, very cerebral players, very physical, maybe not as athletic.

We probably don't have as many high flyers, especially now that those guys are a little bit older.

so that they then they have to counteract that with you know just pure physicality and smarts.

When a college student such as yourself or some of your teammates gets the chance to go to another country like that obviously you're representing yourself in the university do you get much time to explore the area that you're in?

Yeah yeah so that a lot of times like the only time we touch a basketball over there is the three games that we have so other than that where we're exploring we're a

have a lot of free time, being tourists, all that kind of good stuff.

So there's a lot of different stuff that goes into it and a lot of experiences and stuff that we are able to guard.

So that's really important.

Give me a road story, please.

You have to have something from overseas.

That's something that you had fun with, teammate.

Heard some stories from Connor, but what about for you?

Yeah, Tony Perkins disappeared one night, and they lost him.

I thought that was pretty funny.

Lost him right around the Eiffel Tower, and he eventually turned up.

But that was probably the best Europe story, was that they were all scooting around and lost Tony.

And then they eventually found him.

So he reappeared.

Tell me he didn't have to run extra laps or do anything extra afterward.

No, no, no.

It was just that night.

They were just hanging out and he just lost them.

But if you know Tony, that's not very surprising.

That's very par for the course for Tony.

You lead into my next thing.

Feel free to include yourself.

What are some of the strengths of your teammates this year that fans should be looking for?

I think we just play a very fun brand of basketball.

We move the ball, we share the ball, we run up and down, we play really fast.

chuckle out of threes.

We always get a lot of assists.

I think we play a fun brand of basketball that people can get behind and that's fun to watch.

We just, we play hard and we're going to, you know, come out and compete every night and try to, you know, just do, just do what we can to the best of our ability.

And we have a lot of different guys who can score the ball, a lot of different guys.

It's going to be very balanced.

I think this year, as opposed to the last couple of years where we had guys that kind of dominated and took most of the shots, I think we're going to be very balanced.

And I think that's going to be effective for us.

And I'm looking forward to it.

What do you think, I mean, if we're

Thinking like role-playing games or something like that.

What is your particular role on this team this year?

I

think I have a leadership role.

I think it starts there and turn it like off the court stuff or like, you know, kind of barking around the guys on the court.

I would say it starts there and then, you know, I think just kind of just be a good player as a scorer.

Be aggressive, you know.

score, pass, just be an aggressive offensive player and really, you know, try to take another step on the defensive end and be a bit of rebounder, defender, all that kind of stuff.

So that's kind of what I've been looking forward to and kind of working towards.

A lot of people don't realize how much time and effort goes into preparing for a game.

Can you talk a little bit about just the type of preparation that you guys go through?

Nothing in specifics, but how do you guys get ready for that next contest?

So there's certain teams that will look ahead, right?

They'll put in multiple scouting reports.

There's teams that are already putting in specific scouting reports for teams that are three, four games ahead of their schedule.

We don't do that.

We do it one game at a time.

We will not work on another team until we complete the other game, like the game prior.

I don't care who we're playing.

It's just not the way we do things.

So typically that starts two days before.

Like, you know, you have your scout team and they'll run plays that the other team might run.

They'll try to play defense the way the other team plays defense and try to give us, like, a look if that team will play zone and the scout team will play some zone.

We have very in-depth scout reports that are 20 pages long.

Wow.

In terms of tendencies, you know, for players and then teams, numbers, statistics, you know, a little blurb about every player.

you know play calls they're play cards so you can like look at it and see like what matched the play call with the play uh usually we'll watch film before and after practice about the team we're gonna play and then uh if we go on the road we'll watch road we'll watch film on the road before dinner after dinner like we that morning after shoot around like we watch a lot of film that would say that's probably the the way we prepare you know Wisconsin reports and then and then film

what kind of dinner you like to have around uh around film sessions

typically uh it'll be sometimes like so sometimes it'll just be like the hotel food depending on timing which will be like a wide variety of stuff right it'll be like uh they'll have some like pasta some chicken parm like some italian stuff maybe like some steak and chicken i like those uh like well sometimes we'll if we get there early enough we'll go to like some a steakhouse that's nice

I like steak that's good or like a nice Italian restaurant like so I'm good with all those things

nice Let's talk a little bit about your gear Do you have a particular affinity to a type of shoe or something that you like to wear as a part of your uniform your outfit

not specifically I So typically like my thing with shoes is I will wear a shoe Until I blow through it really like like I will not change my shoe

Unless like unless it like makes my feet hurt or something like like unless it just is not a good shoe for me like it's too heavy or whatever But like once I pick a shoe that I like I will wear it until I rip through it and so so like that's just kind of the way that I I'm superstitious in that way like I like doing the same thing every single day.

I wear the same stuff There's guys who like switch shoes every game

That's not me if I know I like a shoe I'm just gonna stay with it and wear that shoe until until the shoe is no longer wearable

Iowa is a help me with it.

I was a Nike Nike school if they change the model from year to year Are you saying well?

I have to figure out if I like this shoe or not or how do you do that from season to season?

Yeah, so I really like just for example the the original Yanis shoe like the Yanis one

I'd like loved it was like my favorite shoe ever I literally wore it until I blew through it like like they come like literally you could lift the shoe like up and like here would be the bottom of the shoe and here is like so I wore it to that point I love those shoes and so then I I kind of stuck with Yannis's but then I don't really like the look of the new Yannis this year so I started wearing the job they got us a couple pairs of John Marantz so I tried those and I was like I like the way these feel on my feet like

And I've worn a pair of Paul Georges that I also ripped through.

Last year, I wore the honest threes or whatever that I ultimately then ripped through.

So now this year, I'm going to stick with the jaws until I can't wear them anymore.

Besides the shoes, is there anything else that's an extremely important part of your uniform that you like that you need to have?

It's not like I have anything where it's like if I don't have this like I will refuse to play like no It's not it's not that deep like none of that stuff.

You're gonna get the same question I asked Connor the same question I asked Jordan will hand and why aren't you wearing a headband?

Um, I think I would look like an idiot

Simple and straightforward.

I appreciate that What feels better for you as you're getting into the season hitting a big three a big dunk on somebody almost posterizing them

or a clutch free throw set.

So I think it all depends on the time of the game, right?

Like it depends on when I were to posterize somebody or when, because like, if the free throw, like the free throws are probably the most boring out of those three options, but if they're to win the game, then they're no longer boring.

Right.

So you know, I think just in terms of general feeling when you do those three specific things, like take out the game winning part of the free throws, I think dunking on somebody feels the best.

But if the free throws win the game, then I have to pick free throws.

Do you ever look back at film and after something like that's happened, just can't remember what you felt like, what you saw in the moment, but you look and you go, oh, I did that?

Awesome.

Yeah.

Yes, that does happen sometimes.

I always try to be very in the moment, like when I'm playing, like that's kind of a mindset that I like to bring, you know, just like,

Because I'm not going to be able to play in CarverF forever.

So it's like, embrace those moments.

Appreciate them.

After you do something cool, look around.

See how other people are reacting.

But then, obviously, it's impossible to catch everything in that moment.

So you'll go back and you'll watch, and you'll see, and you'll try to pick up on specific things that happened or why that was able to happen the way that it did.

And that's something that I also try to do as well.

Are you doing that more so with this being the season that it is for you?

Yes, yes, for sure.

Definitely trying to embrace specific things and really enjoy.

For all intents and purposes, this is gonna be my last year, the way I'm looking at it right now.

So we're gonna try to enjoy it and just kind of keep pushing through and just try to enjoy the whole year.

We've been really basketball heavy so far, and I don't wanna always just talk about basketball, but I appreciate you doing that through these first two episodes here.

Talk to me about...

Not just this podcast, but you also have another podcast that you're a part of right now.

Talk to me about that.

Yep.

Two P's on a pod.

It's a great podcast with me, my teammate, my buddy Peyton Sanford.

I have a lot of really good guests, like Cooper Jean, Caitlin Clark, Ben Cricky, Tristan Spurlock.

So, you know, we have a lot of really good stuff.

Stellas is the sponsor of that.

Everybody go eat a Stellas.

Food's unbelievable.

They've been really good to us.

So I really appreciate Estela's.

And it's been great.

And I really love the opportunity they've given us with the podcast.

You must have an in somewhere because Caitlin Clark is not an easy get for an interview right now.

No, she's not.

I've been fortunate to be friends with Caitlin since I was probably a junior in high school.

And then now we talk every day.

She's obviously connected with my brother.

I think that's probably what you were getting at there.

So yeah, so we still talk every day in a group chat with me and her, my brother and one of my buddies, we always are in there talking.

So yeah, she was pretty easy to get.

When you're having a conversation, because I did hear this episode, it's a great one, where it just sounds like you guys are just talking like you guys have known each other for a long time.

And I think

a lot of

people, because of what has happened recently for the Iowa women's basketball team, her specifically,

really put her up on a pedestal, and I know that that's got to also weigh on her and everybody around her at the time.

Absolutely, yeah.

So, you know, I talked to Caitlyn the same way I would talk to anybody else.

You know, it's like I don't...

You don't want to treat her.

And I think that's why she appreciates, you know, our relationship.

And, uh, I think that's why she was willing to, you know, come on our podcast.

Cause you know, we weren't going to grill her and ask her anything like crazy or anything weird.

Like, you know, it was just going to be a conversation.

You know, we obviously weren't going to not talk about basketball, but the way we talked about it, I think was what she appreciated.

I think she liked, she's sitting there talking shop, talking about X's and O's, which is what we did along a lot of that podcast.

But overall, you know, I really, it was great.

And as she said it, she's like, this was, it's so much.

It's so much more fun to do these interviews with my friends, as opposed to just a different media member.

No disrespect to media members.

It's just kind of the way it is.

So it's a much more laid back, relaxed, comfortable environment for her.

And that's kind of what we try to provide for all of our guests.

I don't want it to be like an interview.

I want it to be like a conversation.

I'm not a journalist.

I'm not pretending to be a journalist, not pretending to be a media person.

You know, I have a have a personality.

I have a platform.

So let's use it and you know, I like to have conversations with people.

I'm a very curious person by nature So, you know, the podcast really works for me and I and it's been it's been great so far

That's what I'm hoping that we can have on this jock-to-jock podcast with you Patrick is kind of do the same thing is that yeah, we'll talk about some basketball things that you're passionate about Just having some fun kind of like what we did here here before so

Absolutely.

You did mention the weird stuff.

We have another weird segment, the double double dumbass for this this episode.

On our last episode, I read you two stories that involve people doing dumb things.

These stories are from states that have big 10 schools.

And after I read the story, give you three choices.

You'll choose the school that matches the state that the story comes from.

Two of the three choices will have will be associated with the stories.

One will not.

On the last one, you had them flipped around.

You had the schools right, but had them flipped around.

All right.

Customer went to access his safety deposit box in a vault at the World Diamond Tower.

Employees closed the door on the man.

He was locked inside for the night as the vault was on a timer.

The second story, officers conducted a traffic stop on a man parked in the middle of a county road.

Man told police that he was smoking marijuana.

He thought he was being followed.

He not only had weed, but allegedly 35 grams of meth in the car.

Oh, wow.

He was getting through it.

The schools for double-double-dumbass, Michigan, Nebraska, or Rutgers.

And like I said, two out of the three will be active in this double-double-dumbass today.

Okay.

So for the second one, I'm going to pencil that in for Rutgers.

That just really screams to me like a New Jersey thing to do.

Not necessarily linking it to Rutgers specifically, but more so just like a New Jersey thing that struck me as something that would happen there.

And it was Nebraska.

What was the other one?

Michigan, Nebraska and Rutgers were your three choices today.

The first one, give me Michigan.

Give me Michigan.

I think the Diamond Tower, I don't think that exists in Nebraska.

So I'm going to put that in Michigan.

So for that reason, that's why I'm going to pick Michigan.

Final answer on those?

Yes, Michigan,

Rutgers.

Patrick, you reversed them again.

Did I really?

Yes, you reversed them again.

Yeah, the guy that was in a county road was in Michigan and the other one, New York, New Jersey.

Damn it.

I'm sorry.

At least I'm on the right path,

though.

You said 19 of 28 on the first episode.

So there's a chance that you can come back much like Tori Taylor has on our other jock to jock podcast.

Featuring his dumbass or drongo segment.

Yes.

Okay.

I will I will be better

Episode two anything else that you wanted to add to the fans of the jock to jock podcast about what's going on for the season as we're underway right now

No, you know, just fill up carver excited to be here and you know, I'm ready for a fun year

Patrick.

Thanks again for the time.

Yep.

Thanks, Brian

That'll do it for this week's jock to jock podcast.

What's going on for next week's episode?

I thought we would dive a little bit into Garrett Johnson who's a forward at George Washington University

I had withdrawn from the school after a rare benign tumor was removed from his hip.

He had nine rounds of chemo.

I know that Patrick has dealt with his health issues in the past, so I wanted to see what his take was on this and how he dealt with adversity.

That'll be on the next jock to jock podcast.

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