Proceed with caution if you’re going to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall tonight.
There’s a FranCon Alert in the greater Bloomington area.
Just days removed from his latest episode of bizarre on the court behavior, Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery and his posse of Hawkeyes have rolled into town.
It’s a rematch Indiana fans have been anxiously awaiting.
Eight weeks ago at Iowa, McCaffery came over to the Indiana bench with less than a minute remaining in a tight game and was whistled for a technical foul.
But for reasons never explained publicly by the Big Ten, that technical was rescinded.
On Monday night, IU coach Mike Woodson said he’s moved on from the incident, although we’ll all probably still be watching the pair shake hands before and after the game.
“It should never have happened,” Woodson said when asked about the moment on his radio show by host Don Fischer. “It’s what it is. It’s behind us. I’m a professional man, I’m going to try to do everything right by the books and do what’s necessary to help our team win.
“What their coach did is what it is. I’ve moved on.”
McCaffery had already been called for a first half technical foul, so the second technical would have caused him to be ejected from the game. Indiana trailed 87-85 at the time the incident occurred, with 53.7 seconds remaining. The Hoosiers were already shooting two free throws. A technical on McCaffery would have given them two more free throws and possession. IU lost the game by two points.
Woodson was out of character angry when the incident happened in Iowa City in early January. After the game he called the situation “bullshit” and said McCaffery should have been thrown out of the game.
McCaffery’s son and Iowa player Connor also went over to the IU bench area and had to be restrained.
And the McCaffery antics weren’t over that evening after the final buzzer sounded.
Later Connor went on the Field of 68 podcast and mocked IU for their play against an Iowa zone defense.
“They didn’t know what to do against the zone. Their coaching staff was looking, they had no idea. Like I don’t know if they’d ever seen it before,” Connor said.
Lessons have apparently not been learned. Fran McCaffery is in Bloomington today fresh off perhaps his strangest moment as a head coach — and he’s set the bar pretty high in that regard.
Late in the second half of a game against Michigan State on Saturday, McCaffery stared down Big Ten official Kelly Pfeifer for at least 20 seconds soon after receiving a technical foul. With his team down 10 points with just 87 seconds remaining, McCaffery was likely trying to get ejected, but nothing was called.
Fran McCaffery thinks he's Heisenberg pic.twitter.com/AHjQ4tY8OL
— Kyle Boone (@kyletheboone) February 25, 2023
It was another moment when the lack of a call by an official against McCaffery completely changed the outcome. And amazingly, Iowa rallied and shocked Michigan State.
What will the McCaffery clan do tonight to top that performance?
You can watch when Indiana and Iowa tip at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
And if you’re in the Bloomington area, stay tuned for FranCon alerts.
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