Iowa basketball: Fran McCaffery hires old colleague as assistant coach

The Iowa basketball team officially announced who is replacing long-time Fran McCaffery assistant coach Andrew Francis, and it’s an old colleague.

When Andrew Francis abruptly departed, it shocked Hawkeye nation. Francis’ departure marked the first Assistant Coach to leave Fran McCaffery’s side on the Iowa basketball team’s bench since he came to Iowa City nearly a decade ago.

As soon as Francis was gone, speculation swirled rampantly as Iowa basketball fans began wondering if there could be a few former Iowa basketball guys in the mix for the job.

While Iowa basketball fans were on the right track that Fran McCaffery would want to hire someone with program familiarity, I don’t believe any fans were expecting this announcement.

Coach McCaffery officially hired former Assistant Coach and Director of Basketball Operations Billy Taylor to be his third coach on the bench.

Taylor and McCaffery go way back so it makes sense with a tumultuous offseason and McCaffery’s penchant for fits of rage that he would hire someone he knows well.

Taylor and McCaffery were both assistants on Notre Dame’s staff in the late ’90s, and when McCaffery got his second head coaching gig at UNC-Greensboro, he brought Billy Taylor right along with him.

Taylor, a former Notre Dame basketball player, departed Greensboro to embark on a head coaching career that could be considered ho-hum at best. In five seasons at Lehigh, he compiled an 81-69 record and took the Mountain Hawks to the NCAA Tournament once. After moving on to Ball State, Taylor struggled as the Cardinals lost 99 games and won just 84. Our new Iowa basketball Assistant Coach was basically stuck in college basketball mediocrity.

After a few years in Iowa City helping the Iowa basketball team in arguably the best three-year span in the Fran McCaffery era, Taylor moved on to Division II Belmont Abbey.

Although I would have loved to see a more familiar name to the Iowa basketball program such as Matt Gatens or Dean Oliver, I think it is a solid choice for Fran. It gives him a guy with invaluable head coaching experience while providing a trustworthy option for Fran, which appears to be something Coach McCaffery values dearly.

If Taylor can help the Iowa basketball team improve their team defense, I’ll consider the hire a major success.