By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa  – Fran McCaffery is known to lose his temper on occasion and Thursday’s game against Iowa State certainly provided the right environment for him to do that.

The game was physical and emotional from start to finish, and chippy at times, especially at the end when both teams had to be separated before leaving the court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

There was also a heated exchange in the first half involving McCaffery’s son, redshirt freshman point guard Connor McCaffery, and Iowa State forward Michael Jacobson. Iowa forward Cordell Pemsl also became involved in that exchange when he rushed to defend Connor McCaffery.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed in both cases and Fran McCaffery deserves part of the credit for that.

Iowa’s sometimes volatile head coach actually did a better job of keeping his composure than Iowa State head coach Steve Prohm, who is usually calm, cool and collected.

Prohm rushed on to the court during both incidents and drew the ire of Iowa fans for putting his hands on some of the Iowa players.

Prohm said he was simply trying to separate players from both teams to keep the incident from escalating. However, a member of the Iowa coaching staff apparently didn’t see it that way, because according to Prohm, the coach told him to keep his hands off the Iowa players.

Fran McCaffery, meanwhile, mostly just played the role of peace keeper.

He rushed on to the court after the game ended and grabbed star forward Tyler Cook, who was in the middle of the skirmish. McCaffery pulled the 6-foot-9, 250-pound Cook away from the Iowa State players and then ordered his players to head to the Iowa locker room.

McCaffery chose not to have his players participate in the post-game handshake line and who could’ve blamed him under the circumstances?

Some Iowa State fans did blame McCaffery on Twitter, but consider the source.

With emotions so close to boiling over, having both teams shake hands would’ve just been asking for trouble.

The Iowa State players were upset after losing 98-84 and the Iowa players were determined to stand their ground.

So there are times when it is better to not shake hands, and Thursday’s game was one of those times.

The circumstance on Thursday was different than when McCaffery refused to shake hands after a victory over North Dakota in 2016 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. McCaffery resented some of North Dakota's tactics late in the game and his refusing to shake hands was sort of a mini protest.

But against Iowa State, it seems that McCaffery was more concerned about the safety of his players and about keeping a bad situation from getting worse.

<iframe width="729" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k53IdUyvgic" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="729" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5AjkOPUxn84" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

McCaffery also said all the right things during his post-game press conference. He defended Prohm and praised Iowa State for having a good team, and that had a calming effect.

“It was a spirted game from the beginning and that’s what you expect,” McCaffery said. “I have tremendous respect for Steve Prohm, I really do. They’ve got a really good team. They’re going to win a lot of games.

“They’ve been terrific so far this season. I wish it didn’t happen. But it’s just competition and we’ll move on.”

There probably was more to it than just competition because competition sometimes gets personal when two instate rivals are competing.

That’s when the adults have to step in and act like adults.

It is easy to forget when you watch these players fly above the rim that they’re still just kids, some barely out of high school.

They need adult supervision and McCaffery was there to provide it.

He could’ve been resentful and combative during his post-game press conference and blamed Iowa State for causing tempers to flare, but McCaffery chose the high road instead.

And though it’s easier to take the high road when your team wins, McCaffery still deserves praise for taking it.

He deserves praise for keeping his temper in check and for watching over his players.

As for Prohm, his explanation that he was only trying to separate the players makes sense, but it still is unusual to see a head coach put his hands on a player from the opposing team.

Prohm was apologetic after the game, but it still seems fair to say that he didn’t handle his emotions as well as McCaffery did.

And isn’t that ironic.

McCaffery deserves praise for not overreacting to the overreacting that was occurring on the court.

It probably isn’t a coincidence that Connor McCaffery was involved in both of the heated exchanges. Connor is similar to his father in that he is a fiery competitor who often shows his emotions.

Connor is also the head coach’s son, so that could make him a target for opposing teams.  

One of the biggest misconceptions about Fran McCaffery is that he coaches angry and constantly complains to the officials during games when that really isn’t the case.

McCaffery doesn’t  complain or whine to the officials the way Tom Izzo or Mark Turgeon seem to do from start to finish of their games.

McCaffery’s problem is that when he does lose his temper, his face turns red and his rage is matched by few other coaches.

Getting tossed at Wisconsin and at Northern Iowa several years ago, and slamming the chair at Michigan State, were times when McCaffery’s temper got the best of him.

And it only takes two or three incidents like that to be saddled with an unfavorable reputation.

McCaffery will certainly lose his temper again because that’s just part of his personality and because his job is highly emotional and stressful.

But on a night when so many others lost their composure, Fran McCaffery mostly stayed cool and that kept a heated situation from over-heating.