Fran McCaffery is famous for angrily berating officials. That wasn’t going to change just because his Iowa career was potentially ending. (Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Fran McCaffery likely entered Thursday with the knowledge he could be coaching his final game with Iowa. If so, the Hawkeyes coach went out the way he lived.
Midway through the second half of a Big Ten tournament game against Illinois, the famously angry coach earned the fifth ejection of his career with a double technical foul. He received the first after making some sort of comment to an official during play, then got another after yelling and pointing at him.
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McCaffery was a bit more subdued than we’ve seen from a coach famous for how red his face can get on the court, but he was performing in line with his reputation nonetheless.
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Iowa proceeded to lose 106-94, ending its Big Ten tournament run and potentially its season. After the game, McCaffery disputed the idea he had just coached his last game with the program, saying he expects to remain head coach next season.
Illinois will face No. 2 seed Maryland on Friday. It’s possible the Hawkeyes could find their way to a consolation tournament, but it’s very possible they decide to just pack it up given how this season has felt.
McCaffery has spent much of the season on the hot seat after missing the NCAA tournament last year with a 19-15 record. This year was even worse, with a 17-16 record and 7-13 mark in Big Ten play. It has been four years since their last win in March Madness, and they still have yet to reach the second weekend of the NCAA tournament under McCaffery.
Until recently, the program was regularly respectable in the regular season, making the NCAA tournament in seven of 15 seasons under McCaffery, but their recent step back left many ready to shake up a program still looking for its first Final Four since 1980.
