Ben McCollum’s first year with Iowa men’s basketball exceeded all reasonable expectations. Now, Hawkeyes fans hope that he, unlike so many great college basketball players over the last few decades, won’t be one-and-done.
McCollum got his start in coaching at Northwest Missouri State, the Division II program at which he played in the early 2000s. He served as the Bearcats’ head coach from 2009 to ‘24, winning four national championships. That impressive run vaulted him into Division I, and he hit the ground running, leading Drake to a 31–4 record and an NCAA tournament upset of No. 6 seed Missouri in 2024–25. After one year in the Missouri Valley Conference, McCollum hit the road once again, taking over at Iowa after the Hawkeyes let Fran McCaffery go at the end of his 15th season with the program.
