First thoughts on Fran McCaffrey: Iowa's next coach

This hire tickles me for one reason.

Nobody that I'm aware of saw this coming, nobody even was listing Fran McCaffrey of Siena as a top candidate.

Oh, there will be those who claim they did. But they sure kept quiet, didn't they?

This hire tickles me for two reasons, now that I think of it.

It comes from a mid-major, Siena University. How many times in the last two weeks did I hear people saying "No more coaches from mid-majors." As Cornell, St. Mary's, Northern Iowa and Butler stomped into the Sweet 16 with their victims including Kansas, Wisconsin and Villanova.

I'll have more on McCaffery and this hire this afternoon. Is this a good hire? If you say yes or no today, when did you make your first judgment on the Steve Alford and Todd Lickliter hires?

But I will say now that the guy likes to hug his players, which strikes me as a good thing. In searching for photos of McCaffrey, I came across all sorts of hugging shots.

See you in a couple hours.