Iowa basketball players have been ordered to stay of Twitter. Hawkeye coach Fran McCaffery says he made the decision after senior Zach McCabe lashed out at Iowa fans on the social media site who were critical of his play in Saturday’s loss at Wisconsin. “I told all the players to shut down their Twitter accounts until the season is over,” McCaffery says. “So they are not going to be on Twitter, they are not going to be tweeting, they are not going to be getting tweets. And I think that’s probably the smartest thing to do, to focus on these last few games and the Big Ten Tournament.”

The Hawkeyes open a busy week on Tuesday at Minnesota. They have a rescheduled game Thursday at Indiana before hosting Purdue on Sunday.

McCaffery says they game against Wisconsin was hard fought and not they have to prepare for a busy week after a difficult situation that forced the rescheduling of the Indiana and Purdue games.

McCaffery believes the Hawkeyes can handle the extra game. “After the Wisconsin game we just get ready for Minnesota…we’ll go over there and play them, and then fly to Indiana after the game,” McCaffery says. He says they had already prepped for Indiana, so it’s not like they have to start from scratch.

McCaffery says the players prefer a busy schedule this time of the year as he says they are tired of practicing by the time you get to the end of February.

Minnesota is 17-11 after a lopsided loss at Ohio State and the Gophers are on the NCAA Tournament bubble. “The past is irrelevant, the future is irrelevant, we put ourselves in a good position right now with three games left,” McCaffery says.

The Gophers are 6-9 in the Big Ten. Iowa is 8-5.