Fran McCaffery reflects on Patrick McCaffery reaching 1,000 career points

It wasn’t ever a given that Patrick McCaffery would play college basketball. Yet Tuesday night in a 90-81 victory against Penn State, the Iowa forward scored his 1,000th career point.

The son of Hawkeyes head coach Fran McCaffery, Patrick was diagnosed thyroid cancer in middle school. At that time, the focus was simply on surviving rather than thinking of any future in sports.

Patrick would go on to beat the cancer, but the health effects still follow him to this day. He fought hard to get back up to 200 pounds and also battled mental health issues from the pressure of the spotlight.

It hasn’t been an easy path by any means, but Patrick has inspired both his father and teammates with his resilience through it all. So to see his son become one of just 53 players in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark was an emotional moment for Fran McCaffery.

“His journey has been so unique,” the coach said. “We’ve talked about it a lot. But when you think about when he was 14 years old, would he get 1,000 points in the Big Ten? We didn’t know if he’d get two points. We didn’t know if he’d be able to play his high school career. So just really proud of his perseverance and his attitude. His leadership on this team has been impressive. I’m thrilled for him.”

Patrick McCaffery scored his 999th and 1,000th career points on a pair of free throws with 17 seconds remaining to seal the win for Iowa. He finished the victory with five points and two rebounds in 21 minutes.

The forward has played a key role for the Hawkeyes this season to average 8.9 points and 2.8 rebounds across 23.2 minutes per game. He poured in 21 points earlier this month against Minnesota while coming off the bench.

Patrick McCaffery is in his fifth season at Iowa after taking a redshirt in his freshman season to address his health. Not only is he a part of Hawkeye history after Tuesday night, but he also had an impressive high school career and is the all-time leading scorer in Iowa City West HS history.

Through all the hardships, McCaffery has carved out a place for himself in Iowa lore. Now he’ll aim to continue to close out the season strong as the Hawkeyes (17-12, 9-9 Big Ten) aim to make a push for the NCAA Tournament.

Iowa has two games remaining in the regular season, beginning with a matchup against Northwestern at 4:30 p.m. CT on Saturday.