The McCaffery family, not just Fran, have become synonymous with Iowa Hawkeyes basketball after the head coach’s 15-year tenure in Iowa City. However, the program has decided to move on from the McCaffery’s following Thursday’s second-round Big Ten Tournament loss to Iowa and Fran’s second-half ejection.
After the ejection, Connor McCaffery, who played six seasons for the Hawkeyes from 2017 through 2023, took to social media to voice his frustration and share his opinion on the decision. And he didn’t need words to do it.
In a since-deleted post on X, Connor, who averaged 6.5 points a game in his final collegiate season and is now most well-known for dating WNBA superstar and Hawkeye legend Caitlin Clark, posted three clown face emojis.
Connor is the oldest of Fran’s sons and was joined for four seasons by his younger brother Patrick. Patrick spent five seasons as a Hawkeye, averaging a career-high 10.5 points in the 2021-22 season, but in a surprising move transferred to spend his final year of collegiate eligibility playing for Thad Maata at Butler. This season, Patrick has averaged 11.3 points and 4.4 rebounds.
Despite the success of his sons at Iowa, Fran only led the Hawkeyes past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament once and will not qualify for March Madness after posting a 17-16 overall record and finishing 15th place in the Big Ten.
Fran’s anger boiled over on the sidelines in Indianapolis on Thursday, which led to the ejection, and his son’s social media post in the wake of the firing proves that a short fuse runs in the family.