A look at who might coach Iowa men’s basketball after Fran McCaffery
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Fran McCaffery is preparing for his 15th season as the Iowa men’s basketball coach.
In addition to being Iowa’s all-time winningest men’s basketball coach, Fran McCaffery is also tied with Rollie Williams as the longest tenured men’s basketball head coach in program history.
And though Fran McCaffery has shown no signs that he is thinking about retiring, that day probably will come sooner than later.
He will turn 65 on Thursday and his youngest child, Jack McCaffery, is nearing the end of his junior year at Iowa City West High.
Jack McCaffery is also a rising basketball star who has said publicly that he doesn’t plan to attend Iowa.
That has led to speculation about Fran McCaffery’s future.
However, as of right now it is business as usual for Fran McCaffery.
He has landed two players from the transfer portal this spring and is now waiting for Payton Sandfort to decide whether he will stay in the 2024 NBA Draft or return for his senior season.
At some point, though, Fran McCaffery will decide to move on, as Lisa Bluder recently did after 24 seasons as the Iowa women’s basketball coach.
So, in preparation for that day, here is a short list of six candidates that could be in the running to replace Fran McCaffery
Former Drake head coach Darian DeVries would have been on the list, but that changed when he was hired by West Virginia shortly after this past season.
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Chris Collins: Assuming Beth Goetz is the Iowa Athletic Director when Fran McCaffery retires, her first phone call should be made to Northwestern head coach Chris Collins to gauge his interest.
Collins is the only head coach to lead Northwestern to the NCAA Tournament, having accomplished it three times, including in each of the past two seasons.
There are unique challenges to coaching at Northwestern, namely having to overcome the high academic standards.
But on the other hand, Collins has set the standard for Northwestern, and he doesn’t really have anybody to live up to other than himself.
Northwestern also recently renovated Welsh-Ryan Arena as part of its ongoing facility upgrades.
Collins has a good thing going at Northwestern, and it might take an elite program such as his alma mater, Duke, to convince him to leave Evanston.
Goetz still should make the call, though, because the 50-year old Collins would fit nicely as the head Hawk.
The son of former NBA player and head coach Doug Collins grew up near Chicago and seriously considered attending Iowa before choosing Duke where he was a standout guard under Mike Krzyzewski.
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Steve Forbes: The Lone Tree native has certainly paid his dues while climbing the coaching ladder.
Forbes started as a junior-college head coach in 1995 and has been climbing ever since.
He has spent the past four seasons as the head coach for Wake Forest, compiling a 71-54 record and twice playing in the National Invitational Tournament.
Wake Forest is the 11th different school for which Forbes has coached, and his third different head coaching job.
He compiled a 130-43 record in four seasons as the head coach for East Tennessee State from 2015 to 2019.
It was his success at East Tennessee State that helped Forbes land the Wake Forest job.
Forbes is 59 years old, and he has yet to lead Wake Forest to the NCAA Tournament.
But he is also battled tested, a proven recruiter, who has been mentored by Bruce Pearl, and an Iowa native.
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Matt Gatens: He might not be ready for this big of a challenge if Fran McCaffery were to step down in the next year or two.
But at some point, the 34-year-old Matt Gatens will be a college head coach.
He helped rebuild the Iowa program in the early years under Fran McCaffery as a sharpshooting all-Big Ten guard.
Matt Gatens also grew up in Iowa City and committed to Iowa as a high school freshman.
His father also played basketball for Iowa in the 1970s.
So, you could say that Matt Gatens was born and raised to be a Hawkeye.
He worked previously under Bruce Pearl at Auburn and for Darian DeVries at Drake before joining the Iowa staff.
Matt Gatens was cerebral as a player and many of those same qualities have transferred to his coaching.
His day will come.
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Bruce Pearl: This would never happen, but it’s still fun to envision Pearl coaching the Hawkeyes.
Whether you like him or not, the guy is a winner, and an excellent recruiter, motivator, and strategist.
There is no doubt in my mind that Pearl would have success as the Iowa head coach.
He was an assistant coach for Iowa under Tom Davis, so Pearl knows the lay of the land.
But more than anything, he knows basketball and how to recruit great players.
Pearl has made some mistakes along the way, but the good still far outweighs the bad.
He has spent the past 10 seasons coaching Auburn, winning at least 25 games in five seasons. His 2018-19 Auburn squad also advanced to the NCAA Final Four.
Again, this is probably just wishful thinking, especially since Pearl is 64 years old.
Auburn could be his final stop.
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Niko Medved: The 50-year-old Minneapolis native spent one season as the Drake head coach in 2017-18 before taking the Colorado State job where his record is 117-75 over six seasons.
Medved has led Colorado State to two NCAA Tournament appearances, and that isn’t easy to do in the highly competitive Mountain West Conference.
Colorado State has won at least 20 games in four of six seasons under Medved, and twice has won 25 games.
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Shaka Smart: He has sort of reinvented himself at Marquette after having failed to turn Texas into a national power.
His Marquette teams have made the NCAA Tournament in each of his three seasons as head coach, including advancing to the Sweet 16 this past season.
Smart, 47, is from Milwaukee and Marquette has a lot to offer from a head coaching standpoint.
So, it could be hard for Iowa to convince Smart to make what might be perceived as a lateral move, especially if Iowa continues to struggle with raising money from name, image and likeness.
