Fran McCaffery Looks Back at Season

IOWA CITY, Iowa - The Iowa men’s basketball program has a National Player of the Year finalist for the third season in a row.

Luka Garza was there the previous two seasons, and was the consensus choice in 2020-21. Now sophomore forward Keegan Murray is one of four finalists for the Naismith Trophy that Garza took home last season.

“And he should win it,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “I don’t know if he will, but he should. I’m just thrilled for him.”

Murray’s rise to college basketball prominence was a major reason why Iowa had an overachieving 26-10 season in 2021-22. The 6-foot-9 Murray went from averaging 7.2 points a game as a freshman to being a consensus all-American a season later. His 23.5 points and 8.7 rebounds a game have him destined for the NBA.

McCaffery would love to coach him for another season, but he knows that won’t happen. 

“He’s going to make $30 million,” McCaffery said this week. “He should go. He’s earned the right to be a lottery pick. And better than that, probably.”

Iowa won 12 of its final 15 games to have the second-winningest season in program history. That included a third Big Ten Tournament championship in Indianapolis, and first since 2006. That thrill of victory was followed by a crushing 67-63 first-round loss to Richmond in the NCAA Tournament.

“I really believe that no matter who you play in the tournament, they’re really good,” McCaffery said. “It’s all about matchups, and you have to have a good shooting day. We didn’t shoot it well. Shots we normally make didn’t go in. We fought. But when you shoot two for 22 from 3 when you take Patrick (McCaffery) out of there (four of seven), we don’t typically do that. We were open. The shots just didn’t go in. I feel bad for the kids.”

After a week to reflect on the season just past, McCaffery found plenty to be proud of. He said the 26 victories showed the kind of unselfish team he coached.

“You just keep trying to win the next one, and build confidence, get better, learn from your losses and learn from your wins,” he said. “Individually, you try to get everyone better and remain committed to winning. And I think that’s what was special about this team. Those guys just wanted to win. It wasn’t selfish in any way. It wasn’t about themselves. It was, “What do we have to do to win?’ It was a very connected group in that sense.”

Iowa was impressive in Indianapolis, winning four games in four days and claiming the championship with a 75-66 victory over Purdue. McCaffery won a Southern Conference Tournament Championship at North Carolina-Greensboro in 2001 and three straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships at Siena (2008-2010).

But the fact that his sons, Connor and Patrick, helped win the Big Ten title made it even more special.

“I remember when we cut the nets down three times at Siena they were there, and we were hugging at mid-court,” McCaffery said. “But to have them actually play and be integral parts of our ability to cut the nets down, there’s nothing better than that.We’d celebrated before, but not when they were wearing the jersey. That’s different.”

McCaffery moved Jordan Bohannon from off-guard to point guard, and inserted sophomore Tony Perkins into the lineup, starting with a Feb. 6 game against Minnesota. Iowa won 12 of 15 games from that point on. Those three losses were by a combined 11 points. Iowa won seven of eight games in February, the best run for a Hawkeye team since an 8-0 February in 1981.

Bohannon finished his career with a Big Ten-record 455 3-point baskets and a school-record 704 assists. Despite his success, Bohannon didn’t get the respect he deserved in some circles. “I think any intelligent person would clearly appreciate how great he was,” McCaffery said. “Anybody that sees it any other way has an opinion that is not worth listening to.” Iowa won 105 of the 169 games that Bohannon started over his career.

“He made more 3s than anybody who ever played in the league, and had more assists than anyone who has ever played at Iowa,” added McCaffery. “His ability to engineer victory, he’s done that as well as anyone who has ever worn the jersey. The people who understand the game and are true Hawkeye fans recognize how great he was, as I do.”

Iowa finished the season fifth nationally in scoring at 83.2 points a game. Despite the frenetic pace the Hawkeyes preferred, they led the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.74) and were fourth in fewest turnovers per game (9.2). Iowa had less than 10 turnovers in 20 games. “Especially with our pace of play, I think that’s what was impressive,” McCaffery observed. “This team understood how to move it, how to share it. But they also understood what a good shot was. A bad shot is like a turnover, and it leads to the other team’s fast break. Sometimes we shot it early in the shot clock, sometimes it was late, and we didn't turn it over in the interim. When you have a team that is innately unselfish, you’ve got a chance to win every time you take the floor.”

Iowa’s defense also improved as the season marched on.

“A lot of that had to do with the fact that we were committed to it,” McCaffery said. “We had a good group of players who had length and speed, but we also had depth. If you have fresh legs and fresh bodies out there, your ability to grind defensively and get consecutive stops is just going to be better.”

Depth also stepped up on the offensive side of the floor. Ten players averaged 10 minutes a game or more in 2021-22. And 10 players had at least one double-figure scoring game. Keegan Murray scored at least 20 points in 26 games. Also reaching the 20-point mark were Bohannon, Kris Murray, Tony Perkins and Payton Sandfort. Perkins improved dramatically as the season progressed, averaging 11.4 points over the final nine games.

“We had other players who were able to step up if somebody was injured or a little under the weather,” McCaffery said. “Everybody I went to played with confidence. And that’s what you want.”

Connor McCaffery, who has 410 assists to 118 turnovers for his career, was a steady force and a coach on the floor at crunch time.

“He had the uncanny ability to settle everybody down,” McCaffery said. “When he’s out there he’s constantly talking and communicating what we’re doing on offense, what we’re doing on defense, what we need.”

No one made bigger plays down the stretch of the Big Ten title game against Purdue than Connor McCaffery. After Iowa’s seven-point lead had shrunk to one late in the game, Connor scored while drawing a foul on the Boilermakers’ Trevion Williams, then added the free throw for a two-possession lead with 2:42 remaining.

And with :51 remaining and Iowa in front by six, Connor lobbed a perfect out-of-bounds full-court pass to Keegan Murray, who clinched the victory with a dunk.

“We knew it was going to work because they were up face guarding big time,” Coach McCaffery said. “So now you’ve got to have someone who not only can make that pass, but make it perfectly. I think that when that dunk went through, everybody knew it was over.” McCaffery hopes that as time passes, his 2021-22 team will be remembered for all they accomplished.

“I hope people remember them as champions, which they were,” he said. “I hope they talk about winning 26 games in a league that got nine teams in the NCAA Tournament. That’s pretty impressive. When we say our league is the best in the country, that doesn’t mean one of them can’t lose to Villanova or UCLA. What it means is we have more good teams than anyone else has good teams. And that’s a fact.”