IOWA CITY, Iowa– Ben McCollum has been one of the busiest men in Iowa throughout the past few months. He’s had to do it all from shaking hands, giving press conferences and attending I-Club events to rebuilding an entire roster. His phone has unquestionably one of biggest call logs since taking over the job.
Cooper Koch was the only scholarship player to return to the McCollum-led Hawkeyes, but the first-year head coach has managed to put together a competitive team. It helps that he brought some of his stars like Bennett Stirtz over from Drake, but he’s had to gain commitments from several others.
CBS Sports has been busy analyzing all of the first-year head coaches and how they’ve done at rebuilding their roster. McCollum was widely-praised by David Cobb. The Iowa native received an A- grade.
“McCollum is bringing five rotation players with him from a 31-4 Drake team that beat Missouri in the NCAA Tournament. None is more significant than Bennett Stirtz, the Missouri Valley Player of the Year who averaged 19.2 points and 5.7 assists for the Bulldogs.
Horizon League Player of the Year Alvaro Folgueiras from Robert Morris will bring some toughness to the frontcourt and stretch the floor. Brendan Hausen is a 3-point gunner (38.8% on seven attempts per game) from Kansas State. But this roster all centers around Stirtz, who will be in his third season (and third different uniform) playing under McCollum. He closed the cycle as the nation’s No. 3 ranked transfer and will be appearing on preseason All-American lists.”
McCollum was one of the biggest coaching hires across the country. After spending years at the D-II level, Drake finally managed to get him to take the jump to D-1. A wildly-successful first-year led Iowa to giving him an offer that he couldn’t refuse.
It can be difficult to establish culture with all of the moving parts in today’s college game. That’s also why it was a big plus for McCollum to bring over some of his big-time leaders from Drake. Stirtz will likely be an all-American while several others have showcased potential and toughness, which are two of the things that McCollum preaches to his teams.
“Tough kids win. Connected groups win. Groups that serve each other win,” McCollum said. “Kids that work with a level of humility win. And that hasn’t changed. So with the portal you have to make sure you can identify those intangible talents very early, because the physical gifts are pretty easy to identify.”
There’s no consensus about where the Hawkeyes should wind up in year one under McCollum. As the roster continued to take shape, there are a lot of outlets that believe they are just outside the top-25. Others believe that they can be a tournament team in year one, especially due to the coaching and Stirtz factor.
One thing is for sure though, Iowa is set to be one of the most intriguing teams across college basketball. For McCollum, he expresses unwavering confidence in his staff and what Iowa can do for its players.
“I want them because I see their talent, and I feel like we can make it that much better. So choose a school that does the most for you. And Iowa offers that with our coaching, with the university itself. Like we can change kids’ lives. And so we want them to choose, essentially selfishly, by coming to the University of Iowa.”
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