First impressions carry weight with new Iowa coach

First impressions in personal relationships often remain a constant in lives filled with uncertainty.

The first step can be awkward or miraculous. In some ways, new Iowa men's basketball coach Fran McCaffery's first encounter with his wife, Margaret Nowlin, was a little of both. They knew of each other; McCaffery coached at Notre Dame for 11 years, which spanned Margaret's playing and assistant coaching career. Then one night, the two went from acquaintances to something stronger.

“I thought he was a very nice guy,” Margaret said. “Then he came in my office one night and we were telling stories. That was really fun. Then he asked me to diagram plays. We were talking about scouting, and he was doing all of that. It was maybe kind of a goofy, not really romantic first encounter. But it's sort of what brought us together.”

Within two years of dating, they were married. Now, 15 years later, their family has grown to six and they're preparing a move to Iowa City. McCaffery, 50, accepted Iowa's job offer on March 28, capping a lifetime of love for coaching college basketball.

McCaffery grew up watching Philadelphia's five Division I programs slug it out every weekend at the Palestra. His parents took him and his brother, Jack, for Saturday night doubleheaders, often staying up past midnight.

“We'd watch two games, and people don't do that anymore,” McCaffery said. “That's what we did and that's because my father, he loved the game. He'd take my brother and I and my mother and we'd go to games. In many ways that was our life.”

McCaffery himself became a Philadelphia basketball star as a prep in the mid-1970s. He often competed against Drake legend Lewis Lloyd in all-star tournaments, and both players had acquired nicknames from Philadelphia sportswriter Julius Thompson.

“Lewis was already Black Magic; they were comparing him to Earl Monroe,” McCaffery said. “Julius Thompson gave me that (White Magic). I was the only white player on the team, but I could go behind my back, between my legs, throw behind my back, behind the back alley oop passes … I could dunk the ball.”

McCaffery eventually landed at the University of Pennsylvania, where he played for three years. He also graduated from the Wharton School of Business and appeared set for a life on Wall Street. Instead, he took a career detour, opting to become Penn's junior-varsity coach. A year later, he became a full-time assistant at Lehigh and after two seasons, he was hired as Lehigh's head coach at age 26.

Within three seasons, he took Lehigh from a losing record to the NCAA Tournament and its most wins in school history, a mark which was eclipsed by one only this year. He got the itch to leave, so he interviewed for coaching vacancies at SMU and UMass. Neither one panned out.

So he called former Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps to become an assistant. At first, Phelps declined. Eventually, Phelps hired McCaffery, and he served as an assistant coach for 11 seasons. He landed NBA first-round picks Pat Garrity and Troy Murphy as recruits. The job solidified his reputation as a top recruiter.

“That's where I learned to recruit nationally, develop contacts throughout the country, sign lottery picks and understand what It was like to be involved with the greatest,” McCaffery said. “Some we got; some we didn't. It was the best move I ever made.”

He also became life-long friends with Phelps and his successor, John MacLeod. Both touted McCaffery's strengths as a recruiter and developing relationships with players.

Notre Dame is also where he met Margaret, one of Notre Dame's best-ever women's basketball players. Margaret served as an assistant for one season and nearly left for her native Minnesota to attend law school. But after she and McCaffery became closer, she chose to stay in South Bend. They married July 4, 1997.

The McCafferys have moved twice since Notre Dame. McCaffery coached North Carolina-Greensboro for six seasons, leading the school to the NCAA Tournament in his second season. He left for Siena in 2005 and took the Saints to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments. But it wasn't just basketball success that made McCaffery a beloved figure to Siena's players.

McCaffery had an open-door policy with his players and they almost became surrogate family members. Siena senior Edwin Ubiles said the players understood why McCaffery left Siena and hold no hard feelings against him.

“We all loved each other,” Ubiles said. “We looked after each other. We always had dinners at his house with his family. I definitely think we were a family. It was great to have him as a coach.”

McCaffery is the only coach to take three teams to the NCAA Tournament from one-bid leagues. He's turned heads at every stop, including ESPN analyst and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Dick Vitale.

“They're getting a guy that's certainly got great, great organizational skills,” Vitale said. “He's a teacher. He's a guy that's got a great background. He was at Notre Dame. He won at Siena. With the resources available now at Iowa, I think you're going to see a lot of positives happen.”

But like with his initial play-diagramming session with Margaret, it's all about first impressions for McCaffery. He understands the importance of retaining current players and recruits and winning over a hibernating fan base at Iowa. It won't be easy, but he's up for the challenge.

“I think the perception is we've got some work to do,” he said. “We all recognize that. But we all recognize we understand the job at hand. We look at the facility renovation, that's going to be exciting. We've got a pretty good core of young players, we know we've got to get some depth we've know we've got to get a little more size. We've got to analyze … just being step-by-step to becoming a championship contender again in a very difficult league.

“I feel pretty good that we're going to have a good team next year, but there a lot of really good teams in the Big Ten.”