After leading Drake men’s basketball to an NCAA Tournament berth and a first-round upset of Missouri in his first season, Ben McCollum is headed to Iowa.
McCollum was named as the Hawkeyes’ new coach on Monday, succeeding Fran McCaffery, who spent 15 seasons in that role at Iowa.
He’ll take over a Hawkeyes program that finished with a 17-16 record this past season, tied for 12th in the Big Ten with a 7-13 mark in conference play. He’ll have to do an instant rebuild, with seven players on this season’s roster already entering the transfer portal — and two members of Iowa’s 2025-26 incoming class reopening their recruitments.
On the other hand, Iowa is getting one of the fastest-rising young coaches in college basketball.
McCollum, a former player at Northwest Missouri State, began his coaching career at his alma mater in 2009 and turned it into a national Division II power. After getting off to a slow start, McCollum led the Bearcats to 13 consecutive winning seasons and four national titles — compiling an overall record of 394-91 in 15 years at the helm.
He was hired by Drake last year and quickly revamped the Bulldogs program. McCollum turned over more than half of the roster, bringing some players with him from Northwest Missouri State, including star Bennett Stirtz (who still has a year of eligibility remaining).
Under McCollum, 43, Drake set a school record with 31 wins, which included the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles.
In the NCAA Tournament, the 11th-seeded Bulldogs knocked off No. 6 Missouri in the opening round before being eliminated on Sunday by No. 3 seed Texas Tech, 77-64.