It's official: Fran's the man

In a statement issued today, University of Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta has confirmed that Fran McCaffery will be named the new Hawkeye basketball coach. He'll be formally introduced at a press conference (tentatively set for 11 a.m.) to be held in Iowa City on Monday. Details of the press conference will be released later today.

Thirty-six years ago, University of Iowa Director of Athletics Bump Elliott went to the west coast to hire Lute Olson from Long Beach State in an attempt to resurrect the Hawkeye men's basketball program.

Today, current UI Athletics Director Gary Barta confirmed that his search for the 22nd head men's basketball coach at the UI was complete. This time, however, Barta found his man on the east coast, tabbing Fran McCaffery of Sienna.

The UI will introduce McCaffrey to the media tomorrow morning.

McCaffery has a 14-year coaching record of 251-177 with stops at Lehigh (49-39 in three seasons), North Carolina-Greensboro (90-87 in six seasons) and Siena (112-51 in five seasons). He has guided teams to winning records in 11 of those 15 seasons. Siena, located in Loudonville, N.Y., has won the last three championships in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The year before McCaffery took over, the Saints had a record of 6-24.

A former assistant coach for Digger Phelps at Notre Dame, McCaffery has made five trips to the NCAA tournament with three different programs. In 1988, he led Lehigh to the tournament, falling in the first round to Temple, 87-73. McCaffery and UNC-Greensboro fell in the first round to Stanford in 2001, 89-60.

While at Siena, McCaffery won first-round games in the NCAA tournament two of the last three seasons: in 2008 against Vanderbilt (83-62) and in 2009 against Ohio State (74-72). This season the Saints were eliminated in the first round by Purdue, 72-64.

McCaffery, a Philadelphia native, and his wife Margaret have four children: sons, Connor, Patrick and Jonathan and a daughter, Marit.