Fran McCaffery and Tom Izzo: two names synonymous with Big Ten men’s basketball. The pair have held steady at respective programs for more than a decade each and will clash for the 24th time on Thursday evening at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
McCaffery’s Hawkeyes got the best of Izzo’s Spartans in their first meeting, a 20-point Iowa home victory, and 14 years later, a win for McCaffery won’t be an eye-opening first impression, but rather a final goodbye in what could be his final season in Iowa City.
Online rumors have swirled about McCaffery retiring or Iowa moving on from the coach at the end of the season. The 65-year-old coach will most likely miss his second consecutive NCAA Tournament as the Hawkeyes need at least a win and some help from other teams if they want to sneak into the Big Ten Tournament as the 15th and final seed.
Sitting at 15-14 overall, Iowa is in danger of having just the third losing season under McCaffery and its lowest win total since 2017-2018. Yet Izzo, who McCaffery called a caring friend and respected leader, doesn’t believe McCaffery would want to leave anytime soon.
The era of Name, Image, and Likeness and widespread transfer portal activity has soured longtime coaches like the University of Virginia’s Tony Bennett and Miami’s Jim Larranaga into premature retirements, but Izzo doesn’t view McCaffery as caving to change.
“He’s one of the good guys,” Izzo told reporters. “Fran ain’t going out with a season that isn’t superb, in my humble opinion. Nor do I think he should.”
Perhaps it was the constant exposure to McCaffery in their prior run-ins, but Izzo knows his fellow coach and quarter zip counterpart.
“I’m fully committed to the program to the players, with no intention of moving on,” McCaffery said at Tuesday’s media availability when asked about Izzo’s comments.
McCaffery mentioned he had “professional conversation” on multiple topics, but did not specify the audience. Even if the head coach wants to stick around, athletic director Beth Goetz can still force him out. McCaffery’s contract runs through the 2027-28 season. Should Iowa move on, it would pay McCaffery $4.2 million over three years, or about $1.2 million per year.
By comparison, a USA Today study in March 2024 found 13 Big Ten schools paid their men’s basketball head coaches an average yearly salary of just over $4 million. Izzo ranked the highest at $5.77 million. The 70-year-old has held his job for three decades and said he rebuked retirement earlier this season.
While Izzo and McCaffery claim they have no desire to leave the sidelines, their teams are travelling in opposite directions as the regular season nears its close.
Winners of five straight, four of which came against ranked foes, the Spartans sit atop the Big Ten with a 24-5 overall record and a 15-3 mark in conference play. Ranked No. 8 in the nation, Michigan State boasts the third-best rebound margin in Division I and sports the 44th-best defense, conceding 66.6 points per game to its foes.
Unlike previous iterations, this year’s Michigan State lacks obvious star power. Its leading scorer, Jaden Atkins, averages only 12.9 points per game and is one of two players averaging double-figures. Izzo’s rotation features 10 players averaging 15 minutes per game, 14 of whom average at least five points per game.
“They’ve got a lot of pieces,” McCaffery said of Michigan State. “They’ve got speed because they play fast. They’ve got size. Everybody understands and accepts their role.”
Senior Night
While Thursday evening might not be McCaffery’s last regular season game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, it will be for seniors Payton Sandfort, Drew Thelwell, and Even Brauns. The latter duo transferred to the program and before they found common ground, had to acknowledge their adversarial past.
Thelwell and Brauns played for Morehead State and Belmont, respectively. Their teams matched up often in the Ohio Valley Conference, and when Thelwell spotted Brauns in the locker room during his recruiting visit over the summer, his mind flashed back to memories on the hard wood.
“I was, like, ‘Hey, I don’t like you,’” Thelwell said with a grin.
Brauns, an Iowa City West High School graduate who returned home prior to the 2023-24 season, responded in kind. Bonding soon followed the playful exchange of barbs as the duo started this season coming off the bench.
While Thelwell earned a spot in the starting lineup by December, Brauns eventually saw more playing time after Owen Freeman’s injury. Over the last eight games, Brauns is averaging 5.3 points, including a 15-point outburst against Oregon. Prior to that stretch, he had 15 total points.
“It’s been amazing, you know, he could’ve put his head down, ‘Woe is me,’ but he doesn’t do that,” Thelwell said. adding that he celebrated Thanksgiving with Brauns and his family. “I’m so proud of him.”
Thelwell echoed this pride when discussing the Hawkeyes’ younger players. Battling an ankle injury that kept him out of three games this season, Thelwell said he sat out consecutive contests for the first time in his five-year career. The senior molded this adversity into a new perspective. If he couldn’t play, why couldn’t he help his teammates learn and grow?
“I think he’s going to be successful whatever he chooses to do,” McCaffery said of Thelwell. “I think he would make a great coach as well if he ever decided to stay in basketball.”
Sandfort has been a Hawkeye the longest out of the trio, forgoing a possible NBA future for a fifth and final season in the Black and Gold. This season hasn’t been what Sandfort hoped it would be, and in-the-moment frustration clouded his perspective at times, but five years down the line, the forward won’t remember the turbulent times nearly as much as the people who kept him afloat.
“You learn a lot about your character and yourself through failures,” Sandfort said. “I’ve learned a lot about myself.”