Fran McCaffery has spent 15 seasons as Iowa men’s basketball head coach and has only missed out on the Big Ten Tournament twice.
Following the Hawkeyes’ 68-57 loss at Northwestern on Friday, their chances of losing out on the Big Ten Tournament for the third time are high, which made many college hoop fans believe that the long-time coach needs to go.
Is Fran McCaffery’s Time at Iowa Running Out?
A post on Reddit revealed that Iowa is almost eliminated from the tournament following the loss at Northwestern.
“Iowa is almost assuredly eliminated from the Big 10 Tournament now,” the post said.
Iowa is almost assuredly eliminated from the Big 10 Tournament now.
byu/Windows_66 inCollegeBasketball
The post sparked conversations, with many college hoop fans saying the veteran coach’s time at Iowa is up.
“I called this about halfway through the season and none of my family listened. Fran has got to go. Absolutely zero support from the fan base,” a fan wrote.
“Night night Fran,” another fan wrote.
“Fire/retire,” a fan commented.
“Lol, imagine being a loser who can’t even say they are guaranteed to have their season over soon!” another fan commented.
While agreeing that McCaffery needed to go, one fan said that Iowa fans needed to do better in supporting the veteran coach who saved the program years ago.
Fran McCaffery Reacts to Iowa’s Loss vs. Northwestern
Iowa men’s basketball is on the verge of missing out on the Big Ten tournament for the third time under head coach Fran McCaffery. The first was during the 2010-11 season when McCaffery newly took over from Todd Lickliter, finishing 10th out of 11 Big Ten teams that season.
Iowa missed out for the second time in the 2017-18 season, when the team was seeded 12th out of 14 teams in that year’s Big Ten Tournament.
KEEP READING: Big Ten Tournament Projections
The Hawkeyes lost 68-57 on the road to the Northwestern Wildcats on Friday, slumping to 15-14 this season. Following the loss, Mccaffery credited the Northwestern physicality and his team’s inability to run enough as the reason for the loss.
“They [Northwestern] were really physical,” McCaffery said. “I thought we quick shot the ball some. I don’t think we ran enough. We had some good break opportunities but we didn’t run enough. I don’t think we moved it side to side enough. We kinda got locked in on one side. And we shot some contested shots. If you shoot contested shots, you’re going to shoot a low percentage.”
Iowa has two regular-season games remaining against national title contenders Michigan State and Nebraska, respectively. Unless the Hawkeye team stages a remarkable comeback on both games, this could be the end of their season, which will be among the lowest points of McCaffery’s tenure with the program.
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