Iowa coach Fran McCaffery would have preferred to bid farewell to his seniors in front of the crowd Thursday night. Instead, his second-half ejection forced that scene to play out in the privacy of the Hawkeyes' locker room.

In its second-round game of the 2025 TIAA Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament, Iowa head basketball coach Fran McCaffery received double technicals and was ejected with 13:33 remaining in the second half and the 15th-seeded Hawkeyes trailing No. 7 seed Illinois, 69-60.

With Iowa down by nine in the second half against Illinois, Hawkeyes head coach Fran McCaffery was ejected from the game. What started as a relatively calm interaction quickly escalated into more. McCaffery stood near the Hawkeye bench with his hands in his pockets,