Moments after No. 12 Richmond defeated No. 5 Iowa 67–63 in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffery began trending on Twitter and it was not in a good way.
McCaffrey has coached Iowa to six appearances in the Big Dance. But each Hawkeyes appearance ended in a first weekend elimination.
Iowa has not earned a berth to the Sweet 16 during McCaffrey’s tenure. The Hawkeyes were held to 63 points in losing to Richmond, their lowest output since Jan. 19 against Rutgers.
The Hawkeyes entered this year’s tournament having won at least one game in each of their last four NCAA tournament appearances. The last time Iowa lost before the second round of the tournament was during the 2013–14 season, when the Hawkeyes suffered a 78–65 defeat to No. 11 Tennessee in a First Four game.
While there were several questionable calls in the final minutes of the game between Iowa and Richmond, this was not the way Keegan Murray—who led the Hawkeyes in scoring—wanted his sophomore campaign to end. But upsets like this are part of the beauty of March Madness.
