For the first time in 15 years, the Iowa men’s basketball team will be searching for a new head coach.
The Hawkeyes are set to part ways with Fran McCaffery, the program’s all-time winningest head coach, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Friday afternoon.
“Fran McCaffery has been an integral part of our Hawkeye family for the past 15 years,” Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz said in a statement announcing the change in leadership. “He is a tremendous coach and teacher, and we are grateful for the positive impact he has made on the institution and the community. We have a deep appreciation for his dedication to our student-athletes and his passion for the game that will have lasting impact on our program.”
Though McCaffery said that Iowa will participate in the postseason, the Des Moines Register reported that the Hawkeyes will not play in either the National Invitation Tournament or the College Basketball Crown due to the coaching change.
McCaffery compiled an 297-207 overall mark with Iowa, passing Tom Davis as the program’s all-time winningest coach in January 2024. The Hawkeyes finished fifth or higher in the Big Ten standings in seven of his last 11 seasons and won the Big Ten tournament in 2022.
McCaffery, 65, was one of the longest-tenured head coaches in the Big Ten, trailing only Purdue’s Matt Painter and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, who have coached for 20 and 30 seasons, respectively.
McCaffery was named the 22nd head coach in program history in March 2010. The Hawkeyes had fallen on hard times at the time of his hiring, but McCaffery had clawed Iowa back to the postseason by his second season in 2011-12.
After barely missing out on the NCAA tournament in 2013, the Hawkeyes finally ended an eight-year drought by qualifying in 2014. Iowa suffered a heartbreaking overtime defeat to Tennessee in the play-in game, but broke through in 2015 with a first round victory over Davidson. That triumph marked the Hawkeyes’ first March Madness win in 14 years, re-establishing Iowa as a tough competitor in the Big Ten and a player on the national scene.
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McCaffery guided the Hawkeyes to five additional NCAA tournaments after that, and would have added a sixth berth in 2020 if COVID-19 had not cancelled that season’s tournament.
McCaffery was well-respected among coaching circles for his strong player development at Iowa. Jarrod Uthoff, Luka Garza, Peter Jok, Keegan Murray, and Kris Murray all earned All-American honors under his leadership.
Garza was named the Naismith College Player of the Year for his performance during the 2021 season, and passed Roy Marble as the Hawkeyes’ all-time leading scorer during that same campaign. The Murray twins were both drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft after their All-American seasons, and join Garza as the three former McCaffery players that are currently playing in the NBA.
But McCaffery’s Iowa teams have regressed over the last two seasons, going only 36-31 and missing the NCAA tournament in both years.
The 2024-25 season was arguably one of McCaffery’s most disappointing squads in Iowa City. The Hawks entered the year with expectations of returning to the Big Dance, but consistent struggles in Big Ten play resulted in a dismal 17-16 mark. Iowa was the last team to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament, but was swiftly eliminated by Illinois in the second round.
Attendance inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena has drastically decreased as a result of these on-court struggles, with The Des Moines Register recently reporting that an average of only 5,000 tickets have been scanned at the gates this year — a number far below the arena’s capacity of 14,998.
While it was likely time for the Hawkeyes to go in a different direction, McCaffery’s impressive job rebuilding the struggling program will earn him a fond place in Iowa basketball history in due time.