Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery may have just started the next great sportsmanship controversy.
The Hawkeyes beat North Dakota 84-73 for their fourth-straight win Tuesday night, but the real story coming out of the game was how McCaffery pulled his team off the court instead of shaking hands afterwards, apparently in anger over the Fighting Hawks trying a shot at the buzzer:
North Dakota, down 11, tried to beat the buzzer.
Fran McCaffery wasn't a fan, so he had Iowa walk off the court. https://t.co/PLkItzgxq0
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) December 21, 2016
McCaffery was also not a fan of taking questions about the move afterwards:
"The game's over. Move on."
– @IowaHoops' Fran McCaffery, on North Dakota's play in final seconds. https://t.co/I4IdrVOldU
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) December 21, 2016
“I wasn’t pleased about how the game ended. Things happened. …It’s not the way to play. Were you at the game? Then you should know what I didn’t like.” That seems like a bit much in the way of outrage just over North Dakota playing to the final buzzer, stealing the ball when Iowa was trying to run out the clock and trying for a final layup that was too late. (Edit; however, it should be noted that there were other late hard fouls that may have been worth complaining about.)
However, getting too worked up over McCaffery’s actions here has the potential to be even more problematic. This is the sort of thing that can start a sportsmanship war, to very little end. Get ready for plenty of hot takes on both sides in the coming days.
[@BigTenNetwork on Twitter]
