With the Iowa basketball team coming off two poor losses, many in Hawkeye nation are calling into question Fran McCaffery. Here’s why we shouldn’t.
Iowa basketball fans are noticeably upset about this past week of men’s basketball. The Hawks blew a game that they were in control of against the #6 Michigan State Spartans and then blew a winnable game against the Minnesota Gophers by playing porous defense and looking lethargic for most of the game.
After a disastrous 2017 – 2018 season where the Hawks were one of the worst teams in the nation on the defensive side of the ball, these two losses, marked by spurts (or full games in Minnesota’s case) of atrocious defense have Hawkeye nation questioning whether Fran McCaffery is fit to be head coach.
While I fully understand the concern, and it’s completely valid to be upset about this past week of games, getting rid of Fran McCaffery is not the answer. Sure, I was mad Sunday when watching the Hawks, but that game had more to do with the players than it did Fran’s coaching, and personally, I loved how he took the starters out in the second half to send the message. He’s been playing the long game this whole season, and so far it’s paying off (just look at how he handled both Luka Garza and Tyler Cook’s injuries).
Instead of looking at the past week and saying let’s can him, let’s take a look at the body of work of Fran McCaffery. The picture becomes much clearer that this guy is, in fact, the right guy to lead the Iowa basketball program in the future.
Here are three reasons why Fran McCaffery is the right guy to lead the Iowa basketball team going forward.