Fran McCaffery isn’t happy with the state of Iowa basketball. Fans aren’t either following a  66-50 loss to Nebraska at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Thursday night.

Kris Murray has been one constant when on the floor offensively.

Murray, who was averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds per game, returned after missing four games due to a left foot injury. He finished Thursday’s loss against the Huskers with 17 points and 8 rebounds on 6-of-15 shooting in 35 minutes of action.

McCaffery said that due to the circumstance, Murray’s play was adequate in his return.

“Considering how much time he was out, I thought he did some really good things,” McCaffery said, via HawkCentral. “Seventeen and eight is a pretty good line. We wanted him to be aggressive. He got 15 shots up. He could have shot more as far as I was concerned.”

Murray said postgame that his game was a tale of two halves. During the first 20 minutes, he went 4-of-8 shooting and tallied 13 points, nine of which came from behind the arc for three-point plays. In the second half, he went  2-of-7 from the floor, and didn’t score his first basket until the final six minutes. At that point, the game was out of reach.

“It’s going to be tough coming off three weeks missed,” said Murray. “For me, it’s just finding that rhythm again, finding my shot because I obviously was a little bit fatigued not playing at all and going up and down for 36 minutes.”

The Hawkeyes will face Penn State on Sunday to kick off the new calendar year.