Patrick McCaffery talks decision to join Butler basketball, leave Iowa
CHAD LEISTIKOW
DES MOINES REGISTER
April 17, 2024 at 8:11 AM
IOWA CITY − Now that transfer-portal dust has settled and decisions have been made, Patrick McCaffery is ready to clear the air.
Why did he choose to leave the Iowa basketball program coached by his father, Fran McCaffery, to pursue his final year of college eligibility?
There certainly has been easy-to-find, uninformed speculation on social media about why Patrick chose to leave and what it meant for the future of his father, the Hawkeyes' all-time winningest coach. Hence, Patrick McCaffery agreed to talk about his decision in a recent phone conversation with the Des Moines Register.
The answer to the very first question of the interview spoke volumes about McCaffery’s decision to leave Iowa and ultimately commit to Butler University and head coach Thad Matta.
“Believe it or not, we’re actually two separate people,” McCaffery said in relation to his high-profile father, with a chuckle. “I’m 24 years old; I can make a decision for myself that benefits my basketball career. It just was best for me. I’ve been in Iowa City the last 15 years. I need to go experience something else.”
To remind folks of the life experience that led to McCaffery seeking a new path – one that he said took his father by surprise – there is lots to unpack. His thyroid cancer diagnosis in early 2014 was a jarring and scary development, and his family wondered if he could even play high school basketball, let alone live his dream of playing college ball. He would become a four-star national prospect at Iowa City West, but he was always going to play for his father at Iowa, so he never truly experienced a traditional recruiting process. The other college coaches that reached out usually didn't get a return call or text.
He only played two games as a Hawkeye freshman while struggling with health issues that stemmed from his cancer medication. Gaining the weight necessary for the rugged Big Ten Conference was an early hurdle for the slender 6-foot-9 forward. But McCaffery's game and body did grow. In his third year at Iowa, he was a 32-game starter and averaged 10.5 points for the Keegan Murray-led team that won the 2022 Big Ten Tournament championship.
The following year, though, led to an in-season departure from basketball competition as McCaffery went public with his years-long battles with anxiety. Even before his fifth-year senior season at Iowa began, he knew internally it would be his last. Unfortunately for him, this past year was impacted by a series of injuries, including a sprained ankle that was slow to heal and pushed him from starter to sixth man.
A fan base can be especially tough on a coach’s kid. Connor McCaffery experienced that over six up-and-down years, and so did Patrick during his five years in Iowa City. The McCafferys’ youngest son, Jack, is a Class of 2025 prospect and has said he plans to play college ball for someone besides his father.
“Playing for my dad was not always easy. It’s a tricky situation,” said McCaffery, who leaves Iowa as a 1,000-point career scorer (1,044). “I loved every minute of it. But it’ll be good to play for somebody else and have a different set of pressures. When you’re the coach’s kid, you constantly feel like you have to prove yourself to everybody.”
McCaffery remembers first telling his mother and his biggest cheerleader, Margaret, about his desire to transfer to another school. She was instantly supportive. He then met with his father, in his office at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, sometime during the season in what he described as a very long conversation.
“Once I explained it to him, it made sense to him,” McCaffery said. “He said, ‘That’s absolutely what you should do.’ He understands what some people don’t.”
Now at 6-9 and 212 pounds (up from about 180 as a freshman), McCaffery, for the first time, felt the weight of a recruiting process after he entered the transfer portal on March 27. He received a ton of early Power Six contacts. Butler assistant Maurice Joseph was the first coach to call, and Matta followed within an hour of McCaffery's portal entry.
“Matta’s super cool. I really, really like him a lot,” McCaffery said. “Reminds me a lot of my dad, honestly. Very player-oriented, player-friendly.”
Given his family’s ties in the coaching community, McCaffery didn’t want to publicize other schools in the running for his services but was comfortable saying he chose Butler over NCAA Tournament teams from the ACC and the West Coast Conference.
McCaffery wanted to go somewhere that he could help a team that has NCAA Tournament potential, and he believes he found that in Butler, which went 18-15 last season and competes in the Big East (which includes two-time reigning national champion UConn). It’s a bonus that the Bulldogs are based in Indianapolis, where older brother Connor is currently working for the Indiana Pacers.
One McCaffery that isn't planning an Iowa City exit? Fran McCaffery. A coaching rumors account on X (formerly Twitter) had presented information that McCaffery, who will turn 65 in May, wanted out of Iowa City and was pursuing other jobs.
Patrick McCaffery, in his interview with the Register, weighed in on that brief mid-March circus.
“There’s no plan for him to go anywhere else. Those (rumors) were flat-out not true. Him or his agent didn’t talk about any other jobs, nobody wanted any other jobs," Patrick McCaffery said. "That stuff was all rumors. I don’t know where they came from. ... That was never on the table, to my knowledge. And I would assume that I would be in the know."
McCaffery isn't the only Hawkeye to pursue his final year of college elsewhere. All-Big Ten guard Tony Perkins announced on Monday that he had committed to Missouri.
And even though McCaffery will be gone − perhaps as early as next month, after he finishes his semester in Iowa City − he plans to continue to watch and root for the Hawkeyes.
“I love Iowa City. That’s my home. My family’s here. I love our coaches, my teammates, they’ve been nothing but amazing with all the struggles that I’ve had in terms of my mental health," McCaffery said. "(Leaving) had absolutely nothing to do with my dad.
"But it was just time, man. And that’s probably the best way I can put it. It was time for me to move on, and that’s what I did.”
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Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 29 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa.
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