Iowa coach Fran McCaffery is known for having a bit of a temper, and it surfaced again on Sunday afternoon.
McCaffery and Illinois assistant Ron Coleman got in some sort of verbal altercation during the handshake line following Iowa’s 72-65 victory over the Illini on Sunday.
Little verbal confrontation between Fran McCaffery and Illinois assistant Ron “Chin” Coleman after the Iowa win. pic.twitter.com/YguUYJJeGO
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) February 2, 2020
Coleman seemed to be the first to yell. While there was no definitively clear word on why, the reasonable guess is that the Illini bench was unhappy that Iowa went for an exclamation dunk with ten seconds left instead of simply holding the ball and running out the clock.
That was intense.
No. 18 @IowaHoops takes down B1G leader and No. 19 Illinois. pic.twitter.com/foQdboQeI3
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) February 2, 2020
It doesn’t look like McCaffery started it, but this is a guy who’s had a few profane outbursts and was probably not shy about finishing it. The reactions of both men are actually understandable in this case.
The Illini and Hawkeyes meet again in the final game of the regular season on March 8. It will be interesting to see if there’s any carryover.
