Fran McCaffery Matching Dr. Tom's 13-Year Iowa Run

Hawkeye Head Basketball Coach Set to Tie Program's All-Time Mark Next Season

Iowa’s Fran McCaffery holds up the net after the Hawkeyes defeated Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament Championship game on March 13, 2022 at Gainbridge Field House in Indianapolis. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

IOWA CITY, Iowa - When Fran and Margaret McCaffery told their four young children they were leaving the comforts of Albany, N.Y., for Iowa and the Big Ten in March of 2010, it was not well received.

“I didn’t want to leave, absolutely not,” said Patrick. “I was so mad at him.”

The thought of a major move was unsettling to the 10-year-old.

“He was especially upset, because he was playing on teams, he loved his school and his friends, and he didn’t know where we were going,” said Iowa’s basketball coach. “He was in third grade. It was scary.”

Connor told his younger siblings this new adventure, leaving Siena for Iowa, would be great.

“But when we got to the airport he locked the doors of the car and laid on the floor,” Fran recalled. “He didn’t want to go.”

But he did, after some parental coaxing.

“I did not want to get on the plane,” said Connor, then 11. “Dad had to come get me.”

Marit, a first grader, fell in line with her brothers.

“She wasn’t excited about it, because the boys weren’t excited about it,” Fran said. “But she got out of the car at least.”

So off they flew to a new life. McCaffery was introduced as Iowa’s men’s basketball coach at a Carver-Hawkeye news conference on March 29, 2010. Patrick and Connor were in attendance.

“I remember sitting there, in my new Iowa stuff,” Patrick said. “I don’t remember much else.”

Patrick, now a junior, and Connor, a senior, are important pieces on Fran’s latest Iowa team, which opens the 2022-23 season against Bethune Cookman on Monday.

At 13 seasons, McCaffery matches Tom Davis (1986-1999) for longevity. Only Rollie Williams, who coached 14 seasons (1929-30 through 1941-42; 1950-51), has had a longer run at the school.

“Big Ten jobs aren’t stepping stone jobs,” said McCaffery, who needs 30 victories to pass Davis (271) as Iowa’s winningest coach. “You hope to one day have an opportunity to coach at this level.”

Marit is now a sophomore at Iowa. But McCaffery’s time in Iowa City really came into focus one day in July before the start of a team workout. His youngest son, Jack, who was 3 years old when the family moved to Iowa, was talking to Melsahn Basabe, McCaffery’s first recruit at Iowa. Jack, a sophomore at West High School in Iowa City, is nearly 6-9 and taller than Basabe. “Is that crazy?” McCaffery said.

Like his son, the Iowa program has grown under McCaffery’s watch. He inherited a program buried in apathy and three consecutive losing seasons. Two years later the Hawkeyes had a winning record and ended a five-year absence from postseason play with an NIT bid.

Iowa has won at least 20 games in eight of the last 10 seasons, including 26 last season when the Hawkeyes won their first Big Ten Tournament title since 2006.

McCaffery has coached the Hawkeyes to 22 victories over Top 25 teams the past five seasons, which ranks ninth nationally. Iowa has been ranked in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll in each of the last three seasons.

McCaffery’s reputation as a strong developmental coach has also been polished of late with the success of Luka Garza, a two-time all-American and the 2021 national player of the year, and Keegan Murray, a consensus all-American in 2022. McCaffery has coached a first-team all-Big Ten player in seven of the last nine seasons.

Having success in the Big Ten Tournament was one hurdle cleared. Getting to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and winning a conference regular-season title would elevate the McCaffery era even more.

“I’ve had great players and a great administration,” McCaffery said of his Iowa run. “I’m working for my third president now (Dr. Barbara Wilson), and all of them have been great. I’ve had one athletic director (Gary Barta) who has been terrific.”

It was Barta, with an assist from Parker Executive Search in Atlanta, Ga., who hired McCaffery away from Siena after three consecutive NCAA appearances. Seton Hall and St. John’s had also talked to him about their vacancies.

“My mother (Shirley) always said that convenience and opportunity rarely meet,” McCaffery said. “So you don’t always get to choose. It was like, “OK, I have three opportunities. Take one, right?’ Iowa was the one I wanted and the first one to offer the job.”

McCaffery, who spent 11 seasons in the Midwest as an assistant coach at Notre Dame under Digger Phelps and then John MacLeod, said he wanted to coach in the Big Ten.

“I wanted to be where there was football,” he said.

He’d brought his Lehigh and North Carolina-Greensboro teams to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for games, so he was familiar with the area.

“And I just felt like it was a perfect place to be and to raise a family,” he said.

McCaffery inherited a team that had gone 10-21 and finished ninth in the Big Ten while averaging 60.5 points and not scoring more than 50 on seven occasions.

“Style of play was discussed in my interview process,” McCaffery said. “I was very open about it. I said, “This is how we play. This is what we are going to do.’ ”

McCaffery’s teams have led the Big Ten in scoring the past four seasons, and were fifth nationally in each of the last two seasons.

It took awhile to get there, but Iowa attempted to push the ball back in 2010-11 as well.

“We had a couple of really good players in Jarryd Cole and Matt Gatens,” McCaffery said. “Eric May was ready to blossom. The key was keeping Devyn Marble and Zach McCabe. And with Melsahn Basabe and Bryce Cartwright coming in, those two guys were really key. We could put a legitimate starting five out there.”

Iowa finished 11-20 overall and went 4-14 in the Big Ten again in McCaffery’s debut season. But Gatens led the Hawkeyes to a winning record and postseason play as a senior in 18-17, and that team doubled its Big Ten victories (8-10).

It also opened the door to successfully recruiting center Adam Woodbury and guards Mike Gesell and Anthony Clemmons. That 2012-13 team won 25 games and reached the NIT title game. A year later, Iowa returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006.

“Woodbury, Gesell and Clemmons were ultimate winners,” McCaffery said. “They were character guys that knew how to win, were great in the locker room, and never got rattled on the road. Incredible people to work with, to coach and to mentor to help them grow and reach their potential.”

McCaffery said Woodbury never got proper credit for what he accomplished at Iowa.

“He was the best defensive center in the Big Ten, probably,” McCaffery said. “That’s a heck of a statement, but the guy was so valuable in so many ways. He was the toughest guy in the building. He could rebound, throw the outlet pass and we could run the offense through him because he could catch and pass and play ball screens properly. He wasn’t a great scorer, but he knew how to win. We won 89 games with him at the center position. That’s pretty good.”

Recruiting high character guys is a big reason why McCaffery has been successful at Iowa. Often, they’ve been guys like Aaron White who came without a lot of recruiting stars after his name and thrived in McCaffery’s system. Marble, Garza and Keegan Murray were the same way. And all four left the program with first-team all-Big Ten on their resumes.

There have been other highly successful players, like career assists leader Jordan Bohannon, who didn’t let a lack of college recruiters stop them from reaching their goals.

“Guys like that make it fun to come to work every day,” McCaffery said. “They want to be great, and they want us to help them be great. And there’s nothing about them that’s in any way selfish.”

McCaffery acknowledged that he’s had opportunities to consider other jobs during his Iowa run, but passed. And with 12 seasons in the rear-view mirror and a 13th rapidly approaching, McCaffery said that Iowa feels like home now.

“My coaching career has taken me to a lot of places,” McCaffery said. “I’ve enjoyed all the places that I’ve lived. But I’ve been here the longest, and we love it here.”

The best thing about Iowa?

“The people,” McCaffery said. “In Iowa, the people are genuine. And they love the Hawks.”

A dozen years later, Iowa feels like home to Connor McCaffery, too.

“I love it here now,” he said.

The same goes for Patrick.

“It was the right career move for him to come here,” Patrick said. “It’s worked out. And I’ve grown to love Iowa.”