Tuesday Reading Room: Fran McCaffery Edition

Some of you Hawkeye fans who scoop up everything have seen some or all of the following. Don't feel insulted.

The headline on this blog post by Albany Times Union columnist Mark McGuire says it: "McCaffery to Iowa: It Just Fits." Excerpts:

The hope, at least among the overwhelming majority of Siena fans, had been that McCaffery's window of opportunity would close, that he wouldn't get the right job that met his demands, concerns and needs, that with each passing year he would become less desirable to the bigger-name schools. ...

All you had to do is be around the Siena program during his five-year tenure to realize that the McCaffery brood and wife Margaret are a constant presence around the team. You can't have that if you are, say, working in Queens and the family lives somewhere out in Nassau County. ...

His players graduate, he leaves behind no scandal, and his tenure branded Siena as a known player on the national basketball scene.

There isn't a Siena fan out there who should have a gripe with this departure, only gratitude for his time here. Period.

A USA Today blog questions if McCaffery is making a good move. An excerpt:

In three seasons at Iowa, (Todd) Lickliter was 38-58 while his former team plays in the Final Four this weekend.

Will McCaffery be different than Lickliter, Fran Fraschilla (Manhattan to St. John's) or Dan Monson (Gonzaga to Minnesota)?

It was Fraschilla who said to his wife when he left Manhattan that "we're about to leave the best job we've ever had."

But ESPN.com's Eamonn Brennan says McCaffery is making a good move in this blog. An excerpt:

Todd Lickliter wasn't just bad. The former coach's style was apparently so excruciating that he managed to bore Iowans. Think about that. (And yes, as an Iowa native, I'm totally allowed to make that joke. Nice try, angry Midwestern commenter. No East Coast bias here.) ...

Of course, had Iowa had the same success with that "boring" downtempo grind-it-out style that Brad Stevens and Lickliter's former program is currently having, I doubt Iowa fans would have minded. But there is a tradition, especially among the younger Iowa fan in their 20s and 30s, to feel particularly passionate about uptempo basketball. Dr. Tom Davis, the man who took over three years after the Lute Olson era ended, went to nine NCAA tournaments in his 11 years at Iowa by pressing his opponents for entire games and subbing a flurry of players in and out of the game to maintain a physical advantage. Davis also had fun little quirks in his style, like the fake-shot-alley-oop pass that fooled Iowa's opponents until the very end. (Why did this work? I have no idea. Theoretically, if the defense boxes out on every shot, it shouldn't matter whether the shot was a fake or the real deal. But it always worked.)

In other words, Fran McCaffery is on the right track here. Iowa basketball was interminable these past three years. If McCaffery can appeal to the Iowa fan who grew up in the Tom Davis era and make Iowa hoops fun to watch again, he can count on plenty of support in the Hawkeye State. Even if he doesn't win right away.

Tom Archdeacon of the Dayton Daily News says here that "Iowa dissed Dayton coach Brian Gregory for - of all things - being loyal to this team."

Archdeacon wrote:

Reports say Gregory was Iowa's first choice, but the Flyers coach wasn't talking to any suitors until after his team completed its season.

If the Hawkeyes wanted Gregory then Iowa would've had to wait until no earlier than Friday, the day after the NIT ended, to interview him. Instead Iowa hired Siena coach Fran McCaffery, a good choice, too.

What bothers me is the message Iowa is sending to college coaches: Loyalty is overrated. ...

I understand Iowa's dilemma. If Gregory wasn't talking it couldn't gauge his interest. And if they waited then their short list might have taken jobs elsewhere.

It still stinks.

And here's a bone for Northern Iowa fans: McCaffery gave your Panthers a big vote of respect a couple weeks ago, as this USA Today piece elaborates.

In the final regular-season ballot for the USA TODAY/ESPN coaches' poll, Siena coach Fran McCaffery made a strong statement for mid-major teams with his votes.

McCaffery voted three teams from outside the power six conferences into the top 10 in his ballot, including Butler (No. 4), Temple (No. 5) and Northern Iowa (No. 8).

After all the 31 coaches' votes were tabulated, Butler landed at No. 8, Temple at No. 13 and Northern Iowa at No. 24.

McCaffery's placement of Northern Iowa was six spots higher than any other coach. Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli had the Panthers at No. 14 in his ballot.

"I would not have voted them where I did if I had not played against them," McCaffery said Monday (March 15). "I have good knowledge of their program and know how good they are."

Northern Iowa defeated Siena last Dec. 12 in Cedar Falls, 82-65. Siena beat UNI 81-75 in Loudonville, N.Y., 10 months earlier.

I think this may be the most impressive thing I've read about Iowa's new coach. He had Butler No. 4 two weeks ago, and the fifth-seed Bulldogs are in the Final Four. He had UNI No. 8, and the Panthers came very close to an NCAA Elite Eight berth.

McCaffery was probably scorned for his ballot, but it showed a pretty good awareness. He had Temple overrated, if you go by the Owls' first-round NCAA flameout against Cornell. But he had another Philadelphia school, Villanova, at 20th when his peers placed the Wildcats ninth. And McCaffery is a Philly native.

Villanova proceeded to lose a second-round NCAA game to St. Mary's after squeaking past Robert Morris in the first round.