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Hawkeye Aaron White says Coppin State good warm-up for Big Ten

Sports

December 25th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

Hawkeye Aaron White says he got his feet back under him this past weekend as Iowa cruised to a 30-point win over Coppin State. White had struggled a bit offensively in the previous two outings, but White wound up scoring 20 on Saturday, including six dunks. “It was good to get a game in like this right before we start Big Ten,” White says. Three freshmen are consistently part of the Hawkeye’s rotation this season and White – a sophomore — says the team “learned a lot” in their 13-game non-conference schedule.

“We beat some good teams. Iowa State’s a good team. UNI’s a good team and then, again, beat these teams that were on our schedule that you look at and we were supposed to be them,” White says. “…We weren’t perfect, but we had some slips that we came back from.” Iowa opens Big Ten play against Indiana. “You’ve got the previously number one ranked team in the country in Indiana and then you turn right around and a couple of days later you’ve got the number two team in the country,” White says. “…You’re just going to have to amp it up. You’re going to have to stay locked in and really buy into the game plan that our coaches are putting together for us you know. The whole staff has done great getting us prepared for every game this season and I think we’ve done a good job staying locked in, no matter what our opponent is, but it’s just going to be a little different challenge because we’re going again, you know, basically future NBA players…big, strong, experienced guys in the Big Ten.”

The Indiana game tips off at 3 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. They’ll play at Michigan on January 6th. White is from Strongville, Ohio. He played in all 35 of Iowa’s games last year, pulling down 199 rebounds and was named to the Big Ten’s All-Freshman Team.

(Radio Iowa)