Fran McCaffery stands alone in Iowa basketball history.
With the Hawkeyes’ 86-77 win over Rutgers on Saturday afternoon, McCaffery surpassed the great Tom Davis for the most all-time Big Ten wins in Iowa history.
McCaffery collected his 127th Big Ten win leading the Hawkeyes. That’s one more than Tom Davis’ 126 Big Ten wins over his tenure leading Iowa from 1986-99.
“I think the most important thing was getting the team ready to play today. Beat a really good team and getting our first Big Ten win this year. You know Rutgers is going to keep making runs back at you. You guys know me, I don’t think that much about wins. I find it interesting they talk about I have this many wins. I didn’t play anybody. Iowa won those games,” McCaffery said.
B1G W!
With today’s victory over Rutgers, head coach Fran McCaffery has 127 Big Ten Conference victories, the most in school history.#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/f5hc0fQrjF
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) January 6, 2024
McCaffery is now just one win away from tying Davis’ all-time overall wins mark in Iowa history as well. With two wins, McCaffery would become the Hawkeyes’ all-time winningest coach in Iowa men’s basketball history.
Davis ended his Hawkeye reign with 271 overall wins. With the Hawkeyes’ 9-6 start to the season, McCaffery now holds a 270-182 mark as Iowa’s head men’s basketball coach.
In Iowa’s 86-77 win over Rutgers, junior forward Payton Sandfort led the way with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 5-of-8 from downtown.
Three other Hawkeyes finished in double figures. Graduate forward Ben Krikke registered a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, freshman forward Owen Freeman added 15 points and four rebounds and senior guard Tony Perkins chipped in with 15 points and four steals.
Iowa limited Rutgers to just 39.4% field goal shooting and only 31.6% 3-point shooting.
The Hawkeyes return to play next Friday night on Jan. 12 at 8:30 p.m. CT versus Nebraska.
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