But when McCaffery surprised them by throwing them onto the court to start the second half, things clicked into place. The second unit scored the first 14 points of the half with Sandfort firing in eight in a row in one stretch.

Then the starters came in and continued the onslaught, pushing the score to 71-20.

“I just think he was trying to get us in a rhythm,” said Sandfort, who finished with 12 points. “You could see the four new guys, none of us had played in front of fans for forever. So that was really all of our first game in college with fans. He wanted us to get ready to go and just threw us into that environment.”

McCaffery said he went to the 6-foot-7 Sandfort in particular prior to the second half and tried to settle him down.

“I just went over to him and put my arm around him and said ‘Just relax. Do what you do. Settle down. You’re a good player. Trust your talent,’” McCaffery said.

McCaffery said he liked the way his team played defense in both halves as it held Slippery Rock to 16.2% shooting in the first 20 minutes and 21.5% for the game.

Patrick McCaffery led the Hawkeyes with 18 points and eight rebounds despite the fact that he has been hobbled by ankle injuries for most of preseason practice.

The 6-foot-9 sophomore forward sprained one ankle, then almost immediately after he came back, he sprained the other one.