Following Michigan State’s 91-84 triumph over Iowa, longtime head coach Tom Izzo went down the line in his postgame press conference. He praised his players and staff for helping the program to the 11th Big Ten regular season crown under his 30-year leadership, and then shared what the accomplishment meant to him.
After giving a long answer, the rest of Izzo’s remarks focused on the opposition. Much of Izzo’s comments were directed towards the future of longtime Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery. Izzo gave McCaffery and players such as fourth-year forward Payton Sandfort credit for “outplaying us for 75 percent of the game.”
That sentence wasn’t a surprise, but Izzo’s closing remarks were telling.
“They [Iowa] don’t have the resources here,” Izzo said. “Everybody has different amounts of resources. They’re not on the middle or high end.”
Izzo was referring to the Hawkeyes’ ongoing struggles on and off the court. Iowa entered the 2024-25 season with expectations of returning to the NCAA tournament after barely missing it last season. But the result has been far worse this year.
The Hawkeyes currently sit at 15-15 overall and 6-13 in Big Ten play. A loss to Nebraska on Sunday not only means that Iowa will be eliminated from Big Ten Tournament contention, it also means the program will have a losing season for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign.
While the Hawkeyes’ on-court struggles have been well documented this year, Izzo’s statement about program resources brought light into a potential issue within the Iowa men’s basketball program. College athletics have been dominated by the new Name, Image, and Likeness era since 2021, a policy that allows student-athletes to earn compensation from their names.
NIL has produced plenty of positives and negatives since its introduction, but one of the possible cons of it could be the fact that Iowa men’s basketball has a lower NIL budget compared to other schools in the league such as Michigan State or Indiana. It seems like Iowa is trying hard to generate more money, but the popularity of the football, women’s basketball, and wrestling teams have left the men’s basketball program in a tricky financial spot when it comes to attracting players out of the transfer portal.
The Hawkeyes have won plenty of games under McCaffery since the change, including a Big Ten Tournament title in 2022, but the Hawkeye faithful have expressed their disdain with the program’s state under its longtime coach after consecutive down years. Fans have repeatedly called for McCaffery’s job during this losing stretch, but Izzo expressed his full support for McCaffery to remain as head coach.
“He’s one of my favorite guys because he does speak his own peace and his very smart,” Izzo said.
McCaffery wasn’t surprised with Izzo’s respectful comments.
“I’ve always admired him, and watched his program,” McCaffery said. “He said some very comforting things, that we’ve had some great games with that. I just appreciate how he respects what we do, how we do it.”
Despite his winning pedigree, Izzo himself has experienced the same thing. His Spartan squads struggled from 2020-2024, losing 10 or more games in each of those seasons and advancing to the Sweet 16 just once. Many Michigan State fans accustomed to deep NCAA runs and Big Ten championships grew impatient, arguing that Izzo’s advancing age and recent down years should signal a change.
But the Spartans stood by their 70-year-old coach, who continues to win at a high level. Iowa hasn’t experienced that same level of success under McCaffery, but there is never a guarantee that a replacement will automatically lift the Hawkeyes to consistent Big Ten and national contention.
Iowa has already attempted that once by removing Tom Davis and replacing him with Steve Alford in 1999. Alford went to the Big Dance only three times in eight seasons and came away with only one win in those three trips. Then came Todd Lickliter, a coach who had just won National Coach of the Year with Butler.
Lickliter never came close to recording a winning season and was fired after only three years at the helm. McCaffery was hired to rebuild the program, and has arguably done just that while navigating some tough obstacles along the way. Fifteen seasons later, the program may find itself in the same situation.
Izzo’s response to Iowa fans?
“Watch what you wish for,” Izzo said. “I’ve seen this happen to a couple of football programs close to us and people better appreciate.”