By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

INDIANAPOLIS — His hands buried in his pockets, Iowa coach Fran McCaffery took a couple of steps toward official Brian Dorsey and said something that set off the first of the two short whistle blasts that would end McCaffery’s night.

Thirteen minutes and 33 seconds were left in the Hawkeyes’ Big Ten Tournament second-round game against Illinois, his team trailed by nine points, and McCaffery felt a point had to be made.

Whatever McCaffery said appeared calm, without any sort of gestures, but it led Dorsey to give McCaffery his first technical foul of the season.

McCaffery let that stew and churn for a moment, then he looked out at official Larry Scirotto, pointed at him, and then uttered a perfectly wedded couple of profanities that led to Scirotto giving the coach the second technical foul and an ejection.

And with that, McCaffery headed to the tunnel in the northeast corner of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, back to the Hawkeyes’ locker room and into a future that he thinks has some certainty, even if there are plenty of questions otherwise.

The Hawkeyes lost, 106-94, on Thursday night, and the combination of tears and the hugs in the locker room after the game was the catharsis to a difficult season that senior Payton Sandfort said would be hard for anyone outside the team to understand.

“It’s been a tough year,” Sandfort said quietly as he sat at his locker.

He didn’t need to say that. The tape on his shoulder told its own story.

“I look like an idiot with this tape on,” Sandfort said. “But if I didn’t wear it, I wouldn’t be able to play.

“It sucked, man.”

Then he went through all of his injuries — the fractured wrist suffered against Washington State, the dislocated shoulder he suffered against UCLA that he reinjured against Oregon.

“They told me my season was over,” Sandfort said. “No, I’m gonna keep going.

“Can barely walk. Got some shit going on with my elbow, I don’t know.”

“Payton’s been banged up all year,” McCaffery said. “So he just kept taping it up and playing. One of the toughest dudes I’ve ever been around.”

Sandfort scored 30 points on this night — 11 of 20 from the field, 8 of 13 in 3-pointers. Every shot, it seemed, was to add seconds onto a clock he’s heard ticking for a while.

“I will mention this — so much respect for Payton,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “He stayed four years. I love seeing guys cry when it’s over. That’s invested. That’s committed. That’s dedicated. That’s love for his university. That’s love for his coaching staff. That young man had just an unbelievable career.”

Sandfort was just one of the stars as the Hawkeyes and the seventh-seeded Illini put on quite the show. The final score was the highest point total in the tournament’s history, and Sandfort tied a tournament record for 3-pointers in the game.

Still, it was a painful farewell. Sandfort, when he exited the game for the last time, pulled his jersey over his face and began to cry.

“I never did anything for anything other than to do it for my brothers and do it for my team,” Sandfort said. “There were a lot of tough moments this year. There’s a lot of tough moments in my career, but there were so many good moments too. I’m just so blessed to be able to have done this.”

These Hawkeyes were tough, even with a 17-16 record scarred by an injury list that led to McCaffery pushing buttons he didn’t think he would need at the beginning of the season.

Leading scorer and rebounder Owen Freeman went through hand surgery that cost him the final two months of the season. Freshman Cooper Koch, a big part of the rotation early in the season, suffered through an undisclosed health issue that kept him out of all but one Big Ten game. Sandfort, Brock Harding and Ladji Dembele were the only Hawkeyes to play in every game.

“This is one of my favorite teams I’ve ever coached, and I mean that sincerely from a number of

different perspectives,” McCaffery said. “It starts with when you have some adversity, how do the other players respond? So it’s a challenge for the coaching staff, it’s a challenge for them.

To watch Ladji and Evan (Brauns) in particular and see Riley (Mulvey) play the way he did against Washington, but then also, when Drew (Thelwell) was out, to watch Brock (Harding) and Pryce (Sandfort) really thrive the way they have. To get quality minutes out of Carter Kingsbury who came in as a walk-on and earned the scholarship.

“It forces players into more responsibility, which as you know, is not easy in this league.”

When they needed to win, though, they won. They won at Nebraska in the final regular-season game to get the 15th seed in this tournament, and they won against Ohio State on Wednesday night just to get to this point.

“Getting the chance to go on this little run and give ourselves a chance down the stretch, it’s gonna be one of my greatest memories forever,” Sandfort said.

There was a similar fondness from McCaffery.

“So very proud of the leadership, very proud of the fight, very proud of the professionalism and focus of this group,” he said. “It was awesome coming to work every day with these guys.”

McCaffery thinks he will still be working with this team. The speculation about his future grew in the closing weeks of the season, but asked after this game if he planned on being Iowa’s coach next year, McCaffery said simply, “I do.”

Go back to his ejection. McCaffery said all he said to Dorsey was about the foul discrepancy at the time — Iowa had been called for five fouls, while Illinois had been called for one.

“I didn’t think it was that egregious,” he said.

Someone asked McCaffery if the ejection denied him a chance to be there at the end for his players, especially the seniors.

“I would want to be there, but I’m always going to advocate for my guys,” McCaffery said. “That’s my job, and I’m the only one who can do it. So I did it, and we had some very emotional moments in the locker room (after the game).”

McCaffery wants the Hawkeyes to keep playing — he said they’re in line to play in the College Basketball Crown, a new 16-team tournament in Las Vegas.

Yet, so much of this seemed like a goodbye, for a team and a coach that weren’t ready to say it was over.

“The chance to play for Coach and the chance to play with so many great Hawkeyes, it’s the honor of my lifetime,” Sandfort said. “I wish I could repay this place as much as it gave to me, but I gave it everything I had.”

Photo: Iowa’s Payton Sandfort gestures after making a 3-pointer in the first half of Thursday’s game. (Stephen Mally/hawkeyesports.com)