Report: Iowa to hire Ben McCollum as next head basketball coach

[cigaretteman]

IOWA CITY — The Iowa men's basketball program will hire Drake head coach Ben McCollum as its next head coach per reports.
On Sunday, David Eickholt of 247Sports reported on X, formerly known as Twitter, Iowa was in the process of "finalizing a deal" with the Drake head coach.
On Monday, ESPN's Pete Thamel and Jeff Borzello also reported McCollum would be taking over as the successor to Fran McCaffery in Iowa City.

Update: Reports conflict on status of Ben McCollum, Iowa job

The Iowa men's basketball program has a new head coach. Ben McCollum will be the 23rd head coach in program history after leading Drake to a 31-4 record this season.

nonpareilonline.com

 

[TJ8869]

Does Iowa have anyone left on the roster?

 

[Scott559]

Does Iowa have anyone left on the roster?

Have seen reports Stirtz is coming with him, So we have one.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

Gary Barta recommended Ben get a 15 year contract

 

[95Hawk]

I’m over McCollum already. Show him the door.

 

[torbee]

Does Iowa have anyone left on the roster?

Ladji Dembele, Seydou Traore and the dude that transferred from Miami remain.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple portal entrants return - Pryce Sandfort in particular.

Will be an interesting roster. Could be another couple guys from that pretty solid Drake team, too.

 

[Hawki97]

About as good as we could have gotten at this point. Iowa Basketball is a bit of a mess. Not Lickliter mess, but a mess. Guy deserves some time to figure it out. If there's one thing we've proven with coaches it's that we're patient.

 

[TJ8869]

Ladji Dembele, Seydou Traore and the dude that transferred from Miami remain.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple portal entrants return - Pryce Sandfort in particular.

Will be an interesting roster. Could be another couple guys from that pretty solid Drake team, too.

Dembele announced last Thursday that he was entering the portal. Did he change his mind and return?

 

[torbee]

About as good as we could have gotten at this point. Iowa Basketball is a bit of a mess. Not Lickliter mess, but a mess. Guy deserves some time to figure it out. If there's one thing we've proven with coaches it's that we're patient.

Hey, this guy took 4 D2 transfers to Des Moines and won 30 games with a brand new roster, including a first round NCAA tournament win.

I DEMAND 25 wins and a second round appearance next year at Iowa!

 

[torbee]

Dembele announced last Thursday that he was entering the portal. Did he change his mind and return?

Ahh, maybe I got that one wrong then. Yup, it was Tadjo, Traore and the Miami kid. My bad.

 

[St. Louis Hawk]

Gary Barta recommended Ben get a 15 year contract

Funny. Too soon, but damn funny.

 

[CoachH]

Hey, this guy took 4 D2 transfers to Des Moines and won 30 games with a brand new roster, including a first round NCAA tournament win.

I DEMAND 25 wins and a second round appearance next year at Iowa!

This past Drake season should be recognized for how historical it was. He should get national coach of the year, but he won't.

Starting completely from scratch with a whole new roster. A lot never played Div I. And it's not like Drake has NIL money to throw around to help. And they go on to the best regular season Drake ever had, with the MVC conference and tourney championships, and a 1st round win in the NCAA's.

I hope he succeeds at Iowa, where a big challenge awaits too, but no matter what he'll always have 2025.