Michigan State announced a couple of new non-conference games on Tuesday, and one of them happens to be against a familiar head coach who a lot of Spartan fans don’t have the fondest memories of.
The official Twitter account for MSU basketball shared a couple of new non-conference games for November and December and one of them happens to be against Fran McCaffery.
That’s right, the former Iowa head coach is no longer with the Hawkeyes (obviously) and now heads the Penn Quakers. Michigan State will host Penn on Dec. 29 which means the last opposing head coach’s face that Spartan fans will see in 2026 will be Fran’s, and surely it’ll be beet red (anyone who knows about the FranCon scale knows what I’m talking about.
McCaffery has had a long history with Michigan State considering he was at Iowa for 15 years, but the most infamous moment in his entire career against the Spartans came in February of 2023.
Unfortunately, this has to be brought up.
The infamous Fran McCaffery stare vs. Michigan State
In case you don’t remember (sorry for reminding you), that 2023 road game against the Hawkeyes in Iowa City stands out as one of the toughest moments in the entire Tom Izzo era.
Yes, it was just a regular-season Big Ten game, but it was critical at the time because Michigan State was on the bubble at 17-10 with a few games left in the regular season to really impress the committee. It would have also given the team a ton of momentum heading into the month of March which was needed after a roller-coaster of a Big Ten season.
Michigan State built an 11-point lead with about 90 seconds left and then Iowa went unconscious from the floor. The Spartans weren’t missing a ton of free throws, but Iowa just could not miss a shot, and when it did, the Hawkeyes were able to chase down the rebound for a second-chance opportunity.
Iowa would force overtime and then win after the most unfathomable comeback in recent memory.
It all started with infamous Fran stare-down of an official before the furious comeback in the final minute and a half of regulation.
Fran McCaffery back in the tournament
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) March 15, 2026
Penn is dancing
pic.twitter.com/OWGWrAMAxp
Reliving that is tough, but this is just to prepare everyone for the Fran antics that will be coming to the Breslin Center at the end of December. Like the good old days.
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