Brown: Connor McCaffery Delivers Clutch Dimes

Iowa Senior Sparked Hawkeyes' Winning Run Thursday Night

Iowa’s Connor McCaffery passes the ball around Northwestern’s Chase Audige on Jan. 31, 2023 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Fran McCaffery could handle the rock on a basketball court. His ball-handling skills earned him the nickname “White Magic” as a youngster in Philadelphia.

Years later, he had a 1.98 assist-to-turnover ratio in his final college season at Penn. But did he ever have 13 assists in a game?”

“No way,” the Iowa basketball coach said.

So his son, Connor, did something the old man never did on Thursday, dropping 13 dimes in a 92-75 victory against Ohio State.

Connor’s favorite assists were a one-handed bounce pass to his brother, Patrick, and a quarterback strike to Kris Murray for a dunk.

But to me, the three biggest assists came late in the first half. Ohio State had a 36-35 lead until Connor made a 3 at the 2:23 mark. It was followed by this sequence:

1:42 - Payton Sandfort 3-pointer, assist McCaffery.

1:06 - Murray 3-pointer, assist McCaffery.

:11 - Tony Perkins 3-pointer, assist McCaffery.

His 13 assists, three better than his previous career high, came without a turnover in 35-plus minutes. He also had two steals, seven points and six rebounds.

Fran McCaffery has looked at hundreds of post-game boxscores. Connor’s line caught his attention.

“I said to Connor after the game, ‘I have never seen that,’ ” Coach McCaffery said.

The big game increased Connor’s career assist-to-turnover ratio number to 3.59, head-and-shoulders better than the school record of 2.53 held by Andre Banks (1983-86). Connor leads the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio this season at 3.45. He led the nation in that category in 2019-20 and was fourth in 2020-21. Last season, he had 65 assists to just 13 turnovers, one every 44.6 minutes played.

His value to this team, now 9-6 in the Big Ten after an 0-3 start heading into Sunday’s game at Northwestern, is unmistakable. It starts with his court presence, groomed at a young age when he started to attend his dad’s practices. He plays like a coach on the floor. His defensive presence is another strength. And he’s hit more than a few clutch baskets in his career, none bigger than the conventional three-point play against Purdue late in last season’s Big Ten Championship game. Iowa has won 109 of 159 games with him in uniform.

Connor is also confident enough to suggest a different play than the one the head coach has called. Case-in-point came in a game in Columbus, Ohio, in 2021. Fran called a sideline out-of-bounds play in the huddle. Connor suggested something different. Fran yielded to Connor. On the play, Jordan Bohannon found Joe Wieskamp for a 3-pointer. Bohannon became Iowa’s career assist leader on the play.

Connor’s seen a lot in his 3,636 career minutes on the floor, and his experience has been invaluable to this team.

“He’s certainly been around, so he knows what we need,” Coach McCaffery said.

Connor’s big night ties him for fifth on Iowa’s single-game assist list. The NCAA started including assists on box scores in 1974-75. A year later, Cal Wulfsburg had 16 assists in a 78-67 victory over Ohio State on January 24, 1976 in Iowa Fieldhouse. That remains the school record.Wulfsburg had the previous mark of 11.

“I was definitely hoping to set a record for assists,” Wulfsburg told the Cedar Rapids Gazette after the game. “What’s the toughest pass? Well, one of them comes when you have to anticipate a teammate’s drive to the basket.”

Wulfsburg’s record night included “some spectacular long passes to Fred Haberecht, Dan Frost, Bruce King and Scott Thompson for drive-ins,” the Gazette reported.

Iowa’s next game was at home, against No. 1 Indiana. Asked if the Hawkeyes had a chance to win, Wulfsburg said, “You better believe it.”

Indiana won, 88-73. Then came a game at No. 15 Michigan. The Wolverines won, 104-95, but Wulfsburg had 13 assists.

B.J. Armstrong came an assist shy of tying Wulfsburg’s record in a Feb. 18, 1989 game against Minnesota. Armstrong, coming off a 12-assist game against Ohio State, brought the Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd to their collective feet with several of his passes in the 99-61 victory. On one play, he whipped the ball completely around his body and found Roy Marble for a basket.

“That was a Detroit move,” Armstrong, who was from Birmingham, Mich., told reporters after the game. “It just kind of happened. I know Coach (Tom) Davis was probably saying all kinds of bad things. But when the play was over he was clapping.”

Armstrong had just two turnovers to go with his 15 assists against the Gophers.

Bohannon and Ronnie Lester both had 14 assists in a game. Bohannon had no turnovers to go with those 14 assists, as well as 19 points, in an 86-71 home victory on Jan. 10, 1921.

Lester had 14 assists against Northwestern on Feb. 16, 1978, a 76-74 home victory.

McCaffery joined Wulfsburg and Bohannon, who also had 13 assists in a 94-92 home loss to TCU in the NIT on March 19, 2017.