Iowa basketball: Fran deserves respect and support despite suspension
By Andrew Wade
Iowa basketball head coach Fran McCaffery was suspended for two games following an incident last night at OSU. Here’s why he deserves support and respect.
If you are not a fan of Iowa basketball head coach Fran McCaffery then last night’s reported incident after the loss to Ohio State probably just infuriated you more and strengthened your concerns that he should not be the head coach of the Hawkeyes.
I can see how that would upset you, and for the record, this article in no way condones McCaffery’s post-game behavior, but hear me out for a second.
Let me tell you why I look at this as another reason why I love having Fran McCaffery as head coach of the Iowa basketball team.
First and foremost though, here’s a quick tidbit on the incident which I will be paraphrasing the tweet due to inappropriate language.
Kyle Rowland of the Toledo Blade reported that after the game in the hallway of Value City Arena, Fran McCaffery was heard screaming at an official, “You cheating ****! You’re a **** disgrace”.
This had Twitter fired up with many different opinions. One of which I found most often echoed this:
Fran isn’t a good enough coach to get away with the pile of bad stuff he’s done. It’s multiple episodes a year. It’s embarrassing. Iowa needs to do something about it.
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) February 27, 2019
I 100% disagree with Mr. Wolken though. The Iowa basketball team is in the midst of one of their best seasons in Fran’s tenure with the team. In fact, their 21 wins is tied for the most in the regular season under Fran McCaffery, and there are still three (pretty winnable) games left on the schedule. He also turned this team around from an extremely disappointing 14-19 season last to a true sleeper team in the NCAA Tournament, and even if the defense still stinks on occasion, it’s significantly better than last year.
It’s not all about winning though, it’s also about what Fran McCaffery represents, and that is his players. He will go to bat for his players every single team, and you better believe he was fired up after his son got charged with an unnecessary technical foul call late in the game after the Iowa basketball team couldn’t buy a foul throughout the second half.
Say what you want from the outside, but those players love Fran McCaffery. Just check out these tweets.
This one’s a quote from star forward Tyler Cook.
Iowa leading scorer Tyler Cook on Fran McCaffery: “He always has our back. He does that to protect us and fight for us. As a player, you always appreciate that. Whatever he does, I’m 100% with him. And the other guys are, as well.”
— Chad Leistikow🆑 (@ChadLeistikow) February 27, 2019
This one is from former Iowa basketball player and current G-League star Peter Jok.
One thing I’ve always loved about Coach McCaffery is he always had the players back no matter what and did whatever it took to protect us! I’d go to war with Coach any day and time!
— Peter Jok (@Jok_City14) February 27, 2019
If you don’t think that matters, than you probably haven’t played organized sports before. When a coach has your back unconditionally, you play extra hard for that coach because you don’t want to let him/her down.
Yes, does Fran have some anger problems? Certainly. I, however, will never hate on a guy for sticking up for his players, and despite Fran’s two-game suspensions, I think the Iowa basketball team can go 2-0 over the next two games in his absence purely because they want to do it for their coach.
Next. Recap of Iowa vs Ohio State game. dark
Now, more than ever though, head coach Fran McCaffery and the rest of the Iowa basketball team needs our support as they attempt to finish this regular season strong.