Report: 'All indications' that Iowa will move on from Fran McCaffery

Iowa had its season end in a 106-94 loss to Illinois in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday. That also, based on expectations, will mean the end of the tenure for Fran McCaffery.

On ‘The Field of 68’, Jeff Goodman shared the latest on where it stands for the Hawkeyes with McCaffery. He reported that a decision to move on from him as their head coach is anticipated to come within the next few days.

“Yeah, they haven’t heard anything yet and, sometimes, a decision is made, an announcement is made right after the game. Nothing has happened yet but all indications are that Iowa will move on from Fran McCaffery after 15 years,” Goodman said last night.

In saying that, Mike LaTulip noted the moment where he also thought that was the case yesterday in Indianapolis. He said McCaffery getting ejected with two technical fouls felt like the moment that many, including some of the players, realized it was the end for him.

“It felt like that tonight. It felt like that in that arena,” LaTulip said. “Like, when he got tossed? I don’t know if they showed it on the broadcast but Payton Sandfort, like, fell to his knees. And, and not only just – and it was way beyond, like, ‘Ah, we just got two (technicals) and now Illinois is shooting four free throws’. It was a reaction that was, like – I’m not saying they knew it was his last game or they knew what was going on. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. So, it was more than just coach got tossed and, ah, you know, Fran got tossed again. There was a lot of emotion tied to that game for a lot of those players.”

With that, Goodman spoke on McCaffery’s resumé in his fifteen seasons in Iowa City. He gets that there was never a berth in the Sweet 16 as the Hawkeyes only ever made the Round of 64 or 32 in their seven berths over that time for the NCAA Tournament. Still, considering all things with the job, Goodman thinks McCaffery definitely passed with the 297-207 (.589) record he had, with winning finishes, including this season, in 13 of the 15 total, and what all else he did at Iowa

“Had a lot of success there,” Goodman said. “Never really got deep in the NCAA Tournament, didn’t get to the second weekend. They struggled the last couple years.

“I think Fran did a very good job. I saw somebody on, on Twitter, like, graded his, you know, tenure as like a C or something like that. Fran McCaffery did way better than a C at Iowa. He made them nationally relevant for a long time, for about a decade. He had pros come through there. He had National Player of the Year guys come through there. He had a lot of talent. And, again, no, he didn’t get deep into the tournament. That was the one thing that lacked. But Iowa is not exactly a, a state that produces a ton of talent. They produce some but not a ton…You know, again, I, I think maybe it’s run its course but I think Fran did one heck of a job at Iowa over the last, you know, 10, 15 years.”

It’s been about 12 hours since Iowa’s season ended in Indy. Sometime in the next couple of days, though, could be when Goodman is expecting a decision on McCaffery.

“It looks like that they will move on from Fran McCaffery,” Goodman concluded. “Again, I don’t know when it’ll happen here but it sounds like it’ll happen sometime in the next few days.”