Fran McCaffery is no longer the head coach of the Iowa men's basketball program.
The Hawkeyes fell to Illinois in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday night and a little over 12 hours later, McCaffery is no longer the head coach in Iowa City.
McCaffery deserves a lot of credit for bringing the Iowa basketball program back to relevancy early in his tenure. Let's look at the highs and lows of his time as the head coach of the Hawkeyes.
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High: Digging the program out of a hole, 2015 win over No. 1 Michigan State and ascending to No. 3 that season
The Iowa basketball program was in a bad spot following the firing of Todd Lickliter.
The Hawkeyes were looking for an answer to be nationally relevant again and Iowa seemed to have found its answer with hiring Fran McCaffery from Siena.
McCaffery was coming off three straight NCAA Tournament appearances during his time at Siena, and was one of the hot names in the mid-major coaching ranks for a number of years.
McCaffery got hired in Iowa City and he knew he had a tall task ahead of him as the Iowa program had reached its lowest point in quite some time.
McCaffery went 11-20 in his first year at Iowa, but the regular season finale win over Purdue was a sign that momentum was coming for the Hawkeyes and things were going in the right direction.
Iowa then bounced back in McCaffery's second year as the Hawkeyes went 18-17 and made an appearance in the NIT. That season also included wins over four teams who finished in the top-25 on KenPom at the end of the year including Wisconsin on the road, and Michigan at home, and then back to back home wins over two top-ten teams in Indiana and Wisconsin.
The 2012-13 season saw the Hawkeyes make a deep run in the NIT, ending in a semifinal round loss to Baylor at Madison Square Garden.
Year four was the year that seemed like Iowa was going to break out and that's what the Hawkeyes did as they got up to No. 17 in the AP Poll once February came around. The Hawkeyes were in position to be a favorable seed in the NCAA Tournament, but 4-6 in the months of February and March, then losing to Northwestern in the first game of the Big Ten Tournament, ultimately earning a No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament and losing to Tennessee in the Round of 64 in a game where Aaron White and Roy Devyn Marble could not find anything offensively.
The next season started off with a bang as Iowa took down North Carolina in Chapel Hill in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Iowa went through a streak of wins and losses throughout the regular season, but finished the season strong, winning six straight regular season games to close out the year, but lost in the first game of the Big Ten Tournament to Penn State.
The Hawkeyes earned a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, took down Davidson in the Round of 64, before falling to Gonzaga by 19 in the second round.
The start of the 2015-16 season had the potential to be a magical one for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa had three tough non-conference losses, including at Iowa State, but then went on to win 12 of its next 13 games, including an upset win over No. 1 Michigan State in Iowa City at the end of December, then a road win over top-10 Purdue, and then another road win in East Lansing a few weeks later to put the college basketball world on notice.
Iowa was at the top of the college basketball world, even making the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, and Jarrod Uthoff was a contender for National Player of the Year.
Uthoff, Marble, White, Mike Gesseel, and Adam Woodbury were few of the many key players who had a pivotal role in this turnaround in making the Iowa program relevant on the national scene.
The Hawkeyes' program turned a complete 180 from the last year of Lickliter to what was now the McCaffery era in full swing in Iowa City, and things were looking bright.
Low: The infamous Fran Fades
The highs were great for Iowa in the 2010s as the Hawkeyes were turning things around and competing on a nightly basis as well as knocking off national opponents.
However, the narrative of the 'Fran Fades' started to emerge even with the success that the Hawkeyes were having.
The 2013-14 season was the season that started it all.
The Hawkeyes were 17-5 at the start of February following a big road win at Illinois. The Hawkeyes were a top-25 team and looked primed to have a chance of being a No. 5 or No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Hawkeyes fell at home to a good Ohio State team, won two games against Michigan and Penn State, and then lost five of their last six games in the regular season, then falling to a bad Northwestern team in the first game of the Big Ten Tournament then getting an 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Iowa fell multiple seed lines in a matter of a month.
The 2014-15 season had a strong end to the year, but the Hawkeyes had two crucial losses at home to Northwestern and then on the road at Minnesota at the start of February, then falling to Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.
The 2015-16 'Fade' for the Hawkeyes was the most well-known.
Iowa got all the way up to No. 3 in the AP Poll, were 19-4 and 10-1 in Big Ten play, before losing five of its last seven regular season games, then falling to a lowly Illinois team in the first game of the Big Ten Tournament, and having to face eventual NCAA Tournament Champion Villanova in the second round of the tournament.
Two separate three game losing streak hurt the Hawkeyes NCAA Tournament chances in 2016-17, Iowa went 1-6 in February in a disastrous 2017-18 campaign, lost five of six to close the regular season in 2018-19, still eventually making the NCAA Tournament and a few scores away from advancing to the Sweet 16, and losing three of four at the end of the 2019-20 regular season.
The month of February was not kind to Iowa's teams in the 2010s.
High: Landing Tyler Cook
Iowa was able to hit on a number of big targets out of high school in the 2010s, including the likes of Woodbury, Gessell, White, Marble, and Peter Jok, to name a few, but the Hawkeyes also struck out on a number of top targets that would've been program headliners
A few that that come to mind are Tyler Ulis, who ended up at Kentucky and Linn-Mar's Marcus Paige, who ended up being an All-American at North Carolina and was one of the program's best point guards.
Iowa needed a signature win on the recruiting trail through the high school ranks to capitalize on the positive momentum it had in the program.
That big win came in the 2016 cycle as the Hawkeyes landed a commitment from four-star forward Tyler Cook out of Chaminade High School in St. Louis, Missouri. Cook had a lot of eyes on him throughout the course of his career as he was teammates with five-star recruit and now NBA star Jayson Tatum.
The Hawkeyes beat out a slew of SEC programs in Florida, Missouri, and Arkansas to land Cook, who was a top-75 recruit in the nation.
Cook started every game for Iowa as a true freshman expect one. He averaged 12.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and shot 55.4 percent from the floor in his first season with the Hawkeyes, and went on to score over 1,100 points in his three-year career in Iowa City.
Cook followed it up with a great sophomore season despite Iowa's poor record. He finished with 15.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game and shot 57 percent from the field and entered the 2018 NBA Draft though he did not sign with an agent.
Cook decided to return to Iowa City for his junior season and after missing the NCAA Tournament his first two seasons, helped get the Hawkeyes back to the big dance as Iowa was a few buckets away from knocking off 2nd-seed Tennessee and going to the Sweet 16.
Cook was a signature win for the Hawkeyes on the recruiting trail as that helped Iowa expand its recruiting footprint in landing the likes of Luka Garza in the 2017 class as well as Joe Wieskamp and CJ Fredrick in 2018. Yes, Wieskamp was an in-state recruit who committed to the Hawkeyes early, but Iowa was able to get him in the fold early in the cycle.
Low: Poor defensive teams
Defense was a staple for Iowa's more balanced teams during the 2010's.
The Hawkeyes were in the top-40 in adjusted defensive efficiency in three of four seasons ranging from 2013-16, including three NCAA Tournament appearances. Iowa had two top-80 finishes on the defensive end of the floor at the start of the decade, but the last three seasons have been the worst stretch of the McCaffery era.
The last three seasons, the Hawkeyes have finished 168th, 157th, and 162nd in adjusted defensive efficiency. Iowa's offense has been a strong point for McCaffery's teams, but the Hawkeyes have also not had the offensive firepower in the last few years to manage having a horrific defense.
Sometimes, the offense doesn't travel or doesn't show up on your home floor. You have to find a way to combat that and especially as of late, that has not been an area of strength for McCaffery's teams.
Outscoring teams can only get you so far. Iowa has not been able to hang its hat on the defensive end during McCaffery's tenure and part of that was the lack of attention on the defensive end as most of the focus was on offense and pushing the tempo.
It only felt fitting that McCaffery's team gave up 106 points in his final game as the head coach.
High: The Luka Garza era, along with the development of the Murray twins
Luka Garza showed flashes of being a great player for the Hawkeyes earlier in his career as he averaged 12.1 and 13.1 points in his freshman and sophomore years for the Hawkeyes, but I don't think anyone was ready for the jump that he made from his sophomore to junior year.
With Tyler Cook off to the NBA, Garza had control of Iowa's frontcourt, and he turned into one of the most dominant players in college basketball his junior season as he averaged 23.1 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game, cementing All-American status and was a finalist for National Player of the Year.
Garza carried that over to his senior season as he averaged 24.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per game and helped the Hawkeyes stay inside the top-25 for most of the season, and get a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Garza won countless awards that season, along with All-American, and eventually winning National Player of the Year after a controversial second place finish the year prior.
Garza was a top-150 recruit in the 2017 class and was a big win for the Hawkeyes out of Washington D.C., but his development and improvement over the course of his college career turned into one of the most beloved Hawkeyes in the program's history, as well as becoming the program's all-time leading scorer and getting his jersey retired in the Carver-Hawkeye Arena rafters.
Garza is one of the most prominent college basketball players in the last decade, and the fact that fans weren't able to watch him live as a senior due to COVID remains a travesty and some wonder how the program would look today if a packed Carver-Hawkeye Arena was possible in the 2020-21 campaign.
In the middle of Garza's junior season, the Hawkeyes made a somewhat later addition to the 2020 recruiting class in adding Cedar Rapids Prairie alums Kris and Keegan Murray.
The Murray's, who are the sons of former Hawkeye standout Kenyon Murray, were playing a prep year at DME Academy in Daytona Beach, as they did not have much D1 attention coming out of high school, and were likely headed to Truman State had they not decided to go the prep school route.
It ended up being a great marriage for both parties as Keegan and Kris became Iowa's first first-round NBA Draft picks since Ricky Davis in 1998. Keegan was selected No. 4 overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 2022 NBA Draft following his sophomore season while Kris was taken No. 23 overall by the Portland Trailblazers the following year.
The Murray's were long, lanky shooters during their high school games, and no one saw Big Ten future in them until they fully started to grow into their bodies, and matured physically as well as their games. Both took that upside and continued to improve their skill in being great scorers and all-around players in the college game and then eventually getting selected in the first 20 picks of the NBA Draft.
Iowa got in early when these two were at DME Academy. There were 40+ other programs who were very interested in the Murray's when they heard about their development, but the Hawkeyes were able to swoop in early and reap the benefits of the type of players the twins became at the college level.
These were not as heavily sought after prospects who thrived in McCaffery's system and flourished because of that fit in Iowa City.
High: 2022 Big Ten Tournament
Iowa closed out the regular season on a high note in 2021-22 as the Hawkeyes won nine of their last 11 games going into the Big Ten Tournament.
The Hawkeyes were squarely in the NCAA Tournament picture, but a run in the Big Ten Tournament could've provided more momentum for this team going into March.
In a four-day span, Iowa rattled off four straight wins over Northwestern, Rutgers, Indiana, and then upset Purdue and Zach Edey and Jaden Ivey in the Big Ten Championship to take home the crown.
Not many people were expecting the Hawkeyes to make the run that they did, but they were playing great basketball at the right time and those wins from the end of the regular season were a nice momentum boost going into Indianapolis.
This was the first season removed from the Garza era in Iowa City, and there were a lot of question marks about how this team would respond given that Garza was such a reliable option in the paint.
The Hawkeyes answered the bell in the Big Ten Tournament, especially with beating Purdue, who ended up being a 3-seed in the NCAA Tournament that year. Iowa's Big Ten Tournament success had been underwhelming in previous years, but the Hawkeyes hoped that a run in the conference tournament could help set the tone for making a run in the NCAA Tournament.
Low: Despite talent, lack of March success, especially the Richmond loss
One of the big knocks on McCaffery's teams have been the lack of success in March.
The Hawkeyes haven't made the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 1999 and McCaffery had his chances to take his team there, but they have failed.
You don't want to measure a program solely on the performance in March as there is an entire body of work, but it does play a role as teams make it their goal to win the conference and also make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
McCaffery's teams have had potential to make runs, but they have been unable to knock off the higher seed in the Round of 32, specifically Gonzaga in 2015 and Villanova in 206, but the Wildcats did go on to win the NCAA Tournament.
The Hawkeyes were a few baskets away from upsetting 2nd-seed Tennessee in 2019, but fell short in overtime. The more frustrating performances in March were recent as the Hawkeyes fell to 7th-seed Oregon by double-digits when Iowa was a No. 2 seed in 2021, then in 2022, when the Hawkeyes were upset by 12th seed Richmond as Iowa was coming off a Big Ten Tournament championship and Dick Vitale had considered them a sneak Final Four pick with the momentum it had coming off that conference tournament title.
In 2023, Iowa got beat by No. 9 seed Auburn in a game where the score indicated a closer battle, but the Hawkeyes were handled for most of the game as the Tigers had the heavy advantage for most of the contest.
A run in the NCAA Tournament can go a long way for program momentum. The 2021 and 2022 teams looked primed to end that streak, especially with the likes of Joe Wieskamp, the Murray twins, Luka Garza, Connor McCaffery, and others.
Iowa just hasn't been able to make that run under McCaffery and it has definitely made his seat hotter as time has gone on.
Low: The 2024-25 seaosn
Iowa was in the NIT in the 2024 season, which was as expected considering it was going to be a rebuilding year.
Expectations were not sky high for this 2024-25 group, but NCAA Tournament was certainly a possibility.
Iowa returned two of the top three-point shooters in the Big Ten in Payton Sandfort and Josh Dix, Co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year Owen Freeman, brought in two highly-touted mid-major transfers in Drew Thelwell and Seydou Traore, and had a rising sophomore group in addition to Freeman that showed a lot of promise in their first year, along with a talented freshman in Cooper Koch.
The injury bug wasn't nice to Iowa at the beginning of the season as Sandfort and Dix were both dealing with nagging injuries in the loss to Utah State that would've an early Quadrant I win for this team.
Iowa also had chances to knock off Michigan on the road and took Iowa State to the final minutes of the second half before the Cyclones pulled ahead. Iowa went into conference play with a respectable record, but it still had work to do.
Then, a trend of blowouts, mainly on the road, started to ensue.
The Hawkeyes lost by 31 at Wisconsin, were down by 19 in the second half at USC, before cutting it to a seven-point lead with five minutes remaining, but ultimately losing by 10. The Hawkeyes were down by 36 at UCLA, losing by 24, and then fell to Minnesota at home in a game that seemed to shatter all NCAA Tournament hopes in mid-January.
Iowa then lost by 17 points on the road at Ohio State, picked up a big road win at Rutgers, and then got embarrassed in the second half at Maryland. Illinois and Northwestern then both beat Iowa by double-digits in Champaign and Evanston.
The inability to stay competitive on the road was frustrating for Iowa this season. Yes, the Hawkeyes have battled the injury bug and that has been an issue. Sandfort and Dix have been banged up, Freeman going down didn't help, and Koch could've been an impact player on this team.
Iowa had a 73.2 percent chance of going to the NCAA Tournament heading into the contest at USC, but those chances dropped down to 1.2 percent over the course of two weeks, according to Torvik.
That troubling trend of essentially being out of the NCAA Tournament picture at the end of January is not a position you want to be in along with the lack of competitiveness in road games that you need to win to improve your resume.
Iowa finished this season 2-15 in Quadrant I games. That's no where close to a worthy NCAA Tournament resume. Fan interest at Carver-Hawkeye Arena was also low this season.
The Hawkeyes' highlight of the season might've been the two game winning streak against Nebraska in Lincoln in the regular season finale and then the opening Big Ten Tournament round against Ohio State.
Per The Gazette, the Hawkeyes filled 33.6 percent of seats at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in 2024-25. Only four of Iowa's home games were more than half-full this winter. Iowa averaged 5,045 tickets scanned in its 18 regular-season games this season.
Fan interest is at an all-time low and that also plays into the fact that Iowa basketball's NIL is one of the worst in the Big Ten.