COLUMBUS, Ohio – Iowa men’s basketball picked up a first-round NCAA Tournament win with a 79-72 victory over No. 7 seed Cincinnati on Friday.

Outside of Nicholas Baer, it was the rest of the team’s first appearance in the Big Dance, and they made the most of it by coming back from an 18-5 deficit in the first half.

Now, the Hawkeyes will take on No. 2 seed Tennessee on March 24. But before facing the Volunteers, Iowa discussed what the tournament win meant to them.

Forward Tyler Cook

“It feels great. It was definitely a grind for us. It was tough. That Cincinnati team’s great. They came out and they started hot. They applied a lot of pressure on us, on our guards, on everybody really. But we just stayed the course, stuck to our game plan on both sides of the court. We played hard, we played together. We play as one unit, we’re hard to beat. I’m just super proud of the fight and the resolve in this group. We were never rattled, we never felt like we didn’t have control of the game. In the second half, everybody stepped up, made huge plays one after another, and we came out with the victory.”

Guard Jordan Bohannon

“That’s what it’s all about. That’s why I came here and why I wanted to put on an Iowa jersey, because we all knew we had the capability of doing this. We knew this freshman year, and it wasn’t what we wanted sophomore year, but we kept battling, worked hard in season, out of season, to get to this point. It keeps helping us reach new heights. I know we have a lot more to accomplish, and I know we are capable of that.”

Forward Nicholas Baer

“We understood that not a lot of people were going to pick us in their bracket. We look at this game, it felt a lot like a road game, but I was really proud of our perseverance, our resiliency. And we understood down 18-5, it’s now or never. We were able to make a run and in the second half, everybody stepped up and was able to knock down big shots, and we got stops when we needed to.”

Forward Ryan Kriener

“It’s awesome. I just want to say most of our team is lifetime 1-0, so we have a lot of tournament experience. A lot of undefeated tournament guys here. On this game, they got us quick. Once we were able to figure it out, we were able to come back. We showed a lot of fight today.”

Forward Joe Wieskamp

“Feels very good. Our goal was to get here. Once we got here, our first goal was to win one game. Then, we got to win the next one too. We’ve got to keep chugging along.”

Forward Luka Garza

“It felt amazing just to be out here. It’s just crazy. Throughout my whole career, to be here finally now, it’s great. But we’re not done yet. We want to keep making this thing go. We want to get a couple more wins and make a run out of it.”

Guard Maishe Dailey

“It’s a dream come true. I’ve always dreamed about winning a tournament game and going deep. It was pretty good. It was a relief. I think we’re probably done celebrating now and we’re ready to win.”

Guard Isaiah Moss

“It’s exciting feeling the way we won. We didn’t give up. We started off kind of slow. We got down early, but I’m proud of the team. We fought back and got the win, so I’m happy.”