Breaking: Iowa Fires Fran McCaffery After Big Ten Tournament Loss
03/14/2025 02:16 PM
After Iowa's 2024-25 season came to an end this week, fans questioned if Fran McCaffery would return for another year. Well, they just got an answer.
McCaffery has been the head coach of the Hawkeyes since 2010. He's taken the program to the NCAA Tournament seven times over the past 15 years. However, he never made it past the Round of 32.
Unfortunately for McCaffery, this season didn't go the way he hoped. Iowa ended the year with an underwhelming 17-16 record. He was actually ejected from Thursday Nighy's Big Ten Tournament game against Illinois.
On Friday afternoon, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that McCaffery has been dismissed as Iowa's head coach
"Iowa is set to dismiss basketball coach Fran McCaffery after 15 seasons," Thamel said. "He reached seven NCAA tournaments in his 15 years and is the school's all-time leader in wins with 297. Iowa finished 17-16 this year."
This decision may come as a shock to McCaffery, who told reporters that he expects to coach Iowa next season.
McCaffery has received criticism for coming up short at Iowa, but college basketball reporter Jeff Goodman had the perfect description of his tenure.
"I think Fran did a very good job. I saw somebody on, on Twitter, like, graded his, you know, tenure as like a C or something like that. Fran McCaffery did way better than a C at Iowa," Goodman said. "He made them nationally relevant for a long time, for about a decade. He had pros come through there. He had National Player of the Year guys come through there. He had a lot of talent. And, again, no, he didn't get deep into the tournament. That was the one thing that lacked. But Iowa is not exactly a, a state that produces a ton of talent. They produce some but not a ton…You know, again, I, I think maybe it's run its course but I think Fran did one heck of a job at Iowa over the last, you know, 10, 15 years
McCaffery's contract with Iowa was set to run through June 2028. The school will owe him roughly $4.2 million.
