The Iowa Hawkeyes are trying to end an eight-year absence from the NCAA Tournament and coach Fran McCaffrey is looking to eliminate any and all distractions, mainly Twitter.

According to the Gazette, of Eastern Iowa, McCaffrey made his decision in light of his players interacting with fans, especially when the conversation is not productive. For example, senior guard Zach McCabe fired back at a fan who was critical of the Hawkeye for missing a three-pointer at the end of the team's Feb. 22 loss to Wisconsin.

"What I've done is I've told all the players to shut down their Twitter accounts until the season is over," McCaffery told reporters on a Big Ten teleconference. "They're not going to be on Twitter, they're not going to be tweeting or getting tweets, and I think that's probably the smartest thing to do. Focus on these last few games and the Big Ten Tournament and go from there. Then when the season's over, they can all put it back up."

With four games left to play, Iowa trails Big Ten leader Michigan by three games. The Hawkeyes also play second-place Michigan State before the season's end.

"You're going to have people who are upset after a loss and they're going to blame and normally they'd blame the coach, and that's what I'd prefer that they'd do," McCaffrey said. "Just blame me. We lose, just blame me. And when we win, let's cheer on the players and be happy for them and they were the reason."

Louisville coach Rick Pitino did not make the same declaration as McCaffrey did, but he did call social media "poison." Pitino was upset that his leading scorer and most of the rest of the team admitted to spending at least four hours per day on websites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

McCaffrey and the Hawkeyes are likely frustrated after losing two in a row and five of their last nine after starting their conference schedule 4-1. They rebound as well as any team in the nation and have a great offense, but have not been able to slow opposing scorers.