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Things got chippy between Iowa’s Fran McCaffery and Illinois assistants in postgame handshake line

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

A hard-fought B1G basketball game ended with some fireworks on Sunday afternoon, with coaching staffs from Iowa and Illinois exchanging a few words in the postgame handshake line.

Iowa defeated Illinois 72-65 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday, dropping Illinois to 8-3 in the B1G standings, back to a tie for first place in the conference. Iowa, however, improved to 7-4 and is now just one game back.

Following the game, Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery and Illinois assistant coaches got into a heated exchange in the postgame handshake line. After a few words back and forth, McCaffery called off the handshake line, and told his players to head back to the locker room.

It was unclear at the time what sparked the verbal altercation, but a dunk from Joe Wieskamp at the end of the game, with the contest already decided, is likely what caused the reaction from the Illinois bench.

Iowa and Illinois close out the season in Champaign on Sunday, March 8. It should make for an entertaining finale to the season.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB