IOWA CITY — When Iowa and Ben McCollum agreed to make him the school’s next men’s basketball coach, just a few scholarship players remained on the Hawkeyes’ roster.

Four to be exact, as of Monday morning. Carter Kingsbury, Seydou Traore, Isaiah Johson-Arigu and Chris Tadjo.

McCollum, the former Northwest Missouri State and Drake head coach, is replacing Fran McCaffery as the leader of the Hawkeyes program. The development comes shortly after McCollum’s Drake Bulldogs were bounced from the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.

McCollum takes the reins of an Iowa roster that has mostly dwindled. It’s difficult to blame Iowa players for examining their options when there literally wasn’t a head coach in place.

As John Calipari quipped after taking the Arkansas job in 2024, “I met with the team, there is no team.”

Iowa isn’t quite in that territory. But McCollum does have a significant amount of work ahead of him to get Iowa’s roster intact for the 2025-26 season. 

Iowa is tasked with reconstructing the roster in a way that the program hasn’t been accustomed to. It will likely be much more reliant on the transfer portal — whether that be via Drake, re-recruiting Iowa players, or adding firepower from elsewhere.

Iowa’s philosophy under McCaffery was pretty clear. The Hawkeyes would build the foundation of the program through the high school ranks and filled holes through the transfer portal when needed.

Here’s a look at Iowa’s (scholarship) transfer portal additions in recent years:

• One ahead of the 2021-22 season (Filip Rebraca)
• Two ahead of the 2023-24 season (Ben Krikke and Even Brauns)
• Two ahead of the 2024-25 seasons (Drew Thelwell and Traore)
• One during the 2024-25 season (Johnson-Arigu)

In the modern landscape of roster movement, Iowa was able to maintain a fairly high level of roster stability. The Hawkeyes have no choice but to take a different approach now. 

Before any additional departures, the Hawkeyes were already set to lose a few players who had exhausted their college eligibility. That trio came in the form of Payton Sandfort, Thelwell and Brauns, all of whom played roles on Iowa’s 2024-25 team to varying degrees.

As of Monday morning, seven Iowa players had decided to enter the transfer portal since the departure of McCaffery — Owen Freeman, Brock Harding, Pryce Sandfort, Riley Mulvey, Josh Dix, Cooper Koch and Ladji Dembele.

Sandfort, Koch and Dembele have publicly left the door open for a return to Iowa.

Joshua Lewis and Dezmon Briscoe, two members of Iowa’s 2025 high school class, have re-opened their recruitments. Lewis was one of the top high school prospects to commit to the program in the modern recruiting era.

Drake men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum reflects on job rumors

Drake lost to Texas Tech, 77-64, in the second round of the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball March Madness tournament. Drake coach Ben McCollum has been a popular name for college basketball coach openings.

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Iowa had seen roster turnover under McCaffery. But not to this degree. This is a new dilemma for the program, which was able to navigate the uncertain waters of an evolving landscape with the stability of a long-tenured head coach.

That changes now. 

Hawkeye fans can find some solace in the fact that McCollum has been in a very similar situation. Roughly one year ago, in fact.

This is uncharted waters for the Iowa program, yes. But not for McCollum.

McCollum took over at Drake in 2024 and revamped the Bulldogs’ roster. More than half of the players on Drake’s 2024-25 squad (active or not) started their college careers at a different school. McCollum brought some from his previous home at Northwest Missouri State, including star Bennett Stirtz (who has a year of eligibility remaining). McCollum also landed transfers from Wyoming, Indiana State and Northwest Florida State College.

McCollum showed he could make that formula work. The Bulldogs finished the season 31-4 and were one of college basketball’s feel-good stories after making it one step short of the Sweet 16. Drake went 4-1 against power conference programs — with the lone loss coming to Texas Tech on Saturday.

“It’s a lot of work to get it to this point,” McCollum said after Drake’s loss to Texas Tech in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32. “It’s a lot of sleepless nights. Lot of phone conversations trying to get players. And then trying to get guys to buy into something. Just have a level of blind faith. It’s hard.”

There could be at least some level of familiarity for those who choose to join the Hawkeyes’ 2025-26 roster. Whether that be with McCollum as a head coach or the University of Iowa. But as a unit, it won’t be the same level of continuity that the program has experienced in the recent past.

At least for one season, Iowa’s roster-building process will likely be more reflective of the modern times.

Follow Tyler Tachman on X @Tyler_T15, contact via email at ttachman@gannett.com

Remember back in November and December when the Iowa State men were steadily climbing the Top 25? 

While the 2024-25 season did not end with a deep run in the NCAA Tournament as many wanted, it was filled with plenty of memorable moments and memories.

The Cyclones rose to the No. 2 spot in the AP and Coaches Polls earlier this year before an injury to Milan Momcilovic resulted in a mid-season swoon. Once Momcilovic returned, Iowa State got back on track before another injury caused trouble.

Keshon Gilbert missed time at the end of the season and into the Big 12 Conference Tournament before seeing his year come to a conclusion before stepping foot in the NCAA Tournament.

Gilbert, the conference tournament MVP last year, was too much of a loss to overcome. Without his ability to break defenses down, the Iowa State offense looked out of sorts. Nate Heise and others did all they could to overcome it, but the skill level of Ole Miss was too much in the second round.

Curtis Jones made a name for himself, rising from out of nowhere to become the top sixth-man in the country. He led the Cyclones in scoring and was instant offense off the bench.

Momcilovic had a career game in his return to Wisconsin, Tamin Lipsey continued to show why he is one of the best players to come from Ames High School and put on the Iowa State jersey and Joshua Jefferson developed into a do-everything big man.

You can bet TJ Otzelberger will once again look to find hidden gems in the transfer portal as he did last year to pair with the players set to return in 2025-26.

The Iowa Hawkeyes are close to finding their next men’s basketball coach. Ben McCollum, who was previously the head coach of the Drake Bulldogs, is working to finalize a deal to lead the Hawkeyes program, according to David Eickholt.

Ben McCollum would replace Fran McCaffery who had been at Iowa since 2010. During that time, the Hawkeyes were able to the NCAA Tournament seven times. That includes three times in the past four seasons and they never made it past the Round of 32. The decision to move on from McCaffery also came following a season where they finished tied for 12th in the Big Ten standings and had a 17-16 overall record.

For his part, Ben McCollum has been seen as a rising name in the college coaching ranks. From 2009-2024, he led Northwest Missouri State, a Division II program. While there, he had a 395-91 record, which is a .813 winning percentage to go along with four national championships. Those came in a six-season stretch that included a pandemic-impacted season in which his team was a favorite once again. Prior to that, McCollum was an assistant coach at Emporia State and Northwest Missouri State.

McCollum is an Iowa native, having been born in Iowa City and growing up in Storm Lake. As a player, he began his career at North Iowa Area Community College before making the jump to Northwest Missouri State. So, he has plenty of clear ties to the region.

With that Division II success, Ben McCollum was able to land the Drake job for the 2024-25 season. He’s led the Bulldogs to a 30-3 record and won the Missouri Valley Conference in both the regular season and conference tournament. He had taken over for Darian DeVries at that job.

For its part, Drake made the NCAA Tournament as an 11-seed. On Thursday, the Bulldogs are scheduled to take on the Missouri Tigers. Now, that game has had an extra layer of interest added to it, as does every game Drake plays as they go on their run through the NCAA Tournament, which they’ve been described as being primed for a Cinderella run in. Then, Bennett Stirtz, who followed Ben McCollum from Northwest Missouri State to Drake, is also regarded as one of the best players in the entire tournament.

It will be interesting to see if Ben McCollum is active in the Transfer Portal and, if so, how many players he’s looking to bring in from Drake, should the deal be completed with Iowa. The portal opens following a coaching change and will open for all players on March 24th.