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Fran McCaffery reportedly fired by Iowa following 17-16 season
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Fran McCaffery was reportedly fired on Friday after spending 15 seasons as the head men’s basketball coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The news was first reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, though it didn’t necessarily register as a surprise. McCaffery had been on the hot seat as the season wound down. Iowa opened the year 12-4 and closed it with 12 losses in its final 17 games. The Hawkeyes were bounced out of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday by Illinois.
During the 106-94 loss, McCaffery was ejected midway through the second half for arguing with the officials. Iowa trailed by 9 at the time of his ejection and never got closer over the final 13:33 of the game.
McCaffery was asked about the first of 2 technical fouls that led to his ejection after the game and said, “I didn’t think that was that egregious.”
When he was asked if he expected to return next season, he said plainly, “I do.”
Alas, when Iowa begins the 2025-26 season, it’ll be under the direction of someone other than McCaffery for the first time since 2010. The school’s all-time wins leader, McCaffery will depart with a 297-207 record across his 15 seasons. No coach has ever been at the school longer. And McCaffery will be remembered as an instrumental piece in transforming the Hawkeyes into a consistently relevant fixture in college basketball.
He coached Luka Garza to a National Player of the Year award in 2021 and then, a year later, guided Iowa to a 26-win season — the second-best by a Hawkeye team in school history. He coached 3 of the school’s 7 consensus All-Americans and saw 6 players drafted into the NBA.
But for all of McCaffery’s accomplishments at Iowa, there was a clear ceiling. The Hawkeyes never won a regular-season Big Ten title and only once won the Big Ten Tournament (2022). They are set to miss the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season and the seventh time overall in his 15 seasons.
Iowa has not won a game at the NCAA Tournament since 2021, and it hasn’t made it out of the opening weekend of the tourney since the 1998-99 season.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.