Iowa basketball assistant Kirk Speraw retires, creating another open on Fran McCaffery's staff

The Iowa men's basketball team has lost its second assistant coach of the off-season, this time by retirement.

Kirk Speraw will retire from coaching effective June 30, the school announced. Speraw played for Iowa's last regular-season Big Ten championship team in 1979. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant under hall of fame coach Lute Olson on Iowa's 1980 Final Four team and spent the last 12 seasons as assistant under head coach Fran McCaffery. 

A Sioux City Speraw is credited with the success of Iowa's perimeter players, including Jordan Bohannon, Peter Jok and Joe Wieskamp. 

“I was fortunate that Coach Olson gave me my start in coaching here at the University of Iowa and I am grateful that Coach McCaffery and Gary Barta brought me back to my alma mater to finish my coaching career with a Big Ten championship,” Speraw said in a press release via the university. “I want to thank my wife, Tracy, and our four kids (Drew, Brooke, Dustin, Bailey) for their support and patience throughout my coaching career. And I want to thank all the student-athletes that I have had the honor to coach throughout my career. Go Hawks!”

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Speraw previously enjoyed a long coaching career in the state of Florida. He served as an assistant coach at Florida from 1990-93 under coach Lon Kruger before taking the head coaching position at Central Florida in 1993. He was also a highly successful junior college coach in Florida. 

At Central Florida, Speraw won five Atlantic Sun championships (one regular season, four tournament), Conference USA Coach of the Year in 2007 (UCF switched conferences after 2005) and four NCAA Tournament appearances. His first A-Sun title in 1994 clinched UCF's first NCAA Tournament appearance. 

Speraw joins Billy Taylor, who accepted the head coaching job at Elon, as an off-season coaching departure. 

“Kirk has been the ultimate professional and an important part of our basketball program since I arrived in Iowa City," McCaffery said in the press release. "Kirk was well-respected by the players and was one of the key components of rebuilding the program. His knowledge of the game and relationships that he developed with the players, families and fans will be greatly missed. It has been an honor to work alongside Kirk all these years."

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Kennington Lloyd Smith III covers Iowa Hawkeyes football and men's basketball for the Des Moines Register. You can connect with Kennington on Twitter @SkinnyKenny_ or email him at ksmith@gannett.com.