Iowa
Iowa basketball: New coach Ben McCollum tasked with replenishing depleted Hawkeyes roster
Ben McCollum on Drake basketball’s loss to Texas Tech in NCAA Tournament
Ben McCollum breaks down Drake basketball’s loss to Texas Tech in the NCAA Tournament and reflects on his 31-win season with the Bulldogs.
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.
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
IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – Andrew McKeever is hard to miss at an Iowa practice. The St. Mary’s transfer and center stands 7 feet, 3 inches tall and averaged 8.2 points and 9.2 rebounds per game last season.
‘Nothing like I’ve seen in practice’
Teammates have taken notice of McKeever’s size. Forward Trey Thompson said the center’s hands alone drew a reaction.
“Yeah, he’s big. That’s for sure. I saw him looking at his phone and it looked like a tiny, little iPod in his hand. I was like, ‘Geez, man,’” Thompson said.
Forward Joey Matteoni said McKeever’s presence in the paint stands apart from what he has seen in recent seasons.
“He controls the paint for sure and nothing like I’ve seen in practice the last couple of years. No offense to Cam (Manyawu), but I mean 7′3” is just different,” Matteoni said.
McKeever on why Iowa made sense
McKeever said the decision to transfer to Iowa was straightforward.
“It was a pretty obvious choice for me,” McKeever said. “Their team was so good last year, making an Elite 8 run. I was maybe a key piece that they needed with a little bit more size, even though their bigs were good, but they just didn’t have the height as some of the other teams did in the Big Ten. So I figured I could help in that way.”
From baseball to basketball
McKeever was not always a basketball player. He stood around 6 feet, 2 inches early in high school before a significant growth spurt changed his trajectory.
“I was like 6′2” during COVID and then I grew to 6′10″ when I was out of COVID. I was playing baseball at the time, and I was like, yeah, I got to go to basketball. I locked in during my sophomore season,” McKeever said.
His high school coach pushed him to make the switch permanent.
“My high school coach who I had been with growing up said, ‘You need to stop playing baseball and just focus on basketball.’ That’s kind of when it flipped the switch for me,” McKeever said.
Adjusting to his own size
Even after committing to basketball, McKeever said adapting to his own frame took time.
“Maybe a little uncoordinated and slow for my size. But I kind of worked on it a lot when I was at St. Mary’s and I got better at it,” McKeever said.
McKeever now joins Iowa’s program under head coach Ben McCollum.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – World War II veteran Laverne Severson turns 100 years old on July 14. On Thursday, family, friends and fellow veterans gathered at the Freedom Foundation in Cedar Rapids to honor and celebrate the milestone birthday.
The National World War II Museum says fewer than 1% of World War II veterans remain alive.
Laverne served as a line medic during the war and was stationed in the Philippines.
“As soon as I turned 18, it didn’t take me about a month until I was going overseas,” Laverne said.
His son, Boyd Severson, recalled stories his father shared about life at his base.
“His base over there, he told me they would get air raids every morning. The Japanese would do an air raid and they’d have to run and jump into their foxholes. And this is stuff you see in movies, and he actually lived through this,” Boyd said.
Eric Parker, assistant director of the Freedom Foundation, said veterans like Laverne deserve recognition.
“As long as we are allowed to still be graced with their presence, then we need to just soak that up and just be really thankful,” Parker said. “There needs to be a remembrance and there needs to be a legacy there that we can honor.”
Boyd said the number of surviving World War II veterans in Iowa underscores the importance of events like Thursday’s celebration.
“Slowly but surely we’re losing this generation that, from what I’ve seen, there’s 250 to 275 surviving World War II veterans remaining in Iowa, and my father’s one of them and they all should be recognized. It all should be honored,” Boyd said.
And we had to ask…what’s the secret to a century of life?
“Crackers and peanut butter in the morning for breakfast!” Laverne said.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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