Iowa

Iowa basketball: What’s next for Hawkeyes after Indiana hires Darian DeVries?

Published

9 months ago

March 18, 2025

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Iowa basketball: What’s next for Hawkeyes after Indiana hires Darian DeVries?

Indiana basketball has hired Darian DeVries as its next head men’s basketball coach, the program announced Tuesday.

DeVries will leave his post as the head coach at West Virginia for the job with the Hoosiers.

DeVries had been viewed as a potential replacement for Fran McCaffery at Iowa.

McCaffery spent 15 seasons as Iowa’s head coach and is the program’s all-time winningest head coach. But one day after Iowa’s loss to Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament, Iowa decided to move in a different direction, ending McCaffery’s tenure at Iowa. The Hawkeyes missed the last two NCAA Tournaments.

DeVries has ties to Iowa — both the state and the university. He is an Iowa native, attended Aplington-Parkersburg High School and played basketball at Northern Iowa. DeVries’ brother, Jared, was a consensus All-American for the Hawkeye football program.

DeVries took his first head coaching job at Drake in 2018. DeVries spent six seasons as Drake’s head coach, where he led the Bulldogs to an NCAA Tournament three times, including in each of the last two seasons at the helm. DeVries won at least 20 games in each of his six seasons with the Bulldogs.

DeVries tallied a 150-55 overall record during his time as Drake’s head coach.

In 2024, DeVries left for the opening at West Virginia.

In his first season at West Virginia, DeVries led the Mountaineers to a 19-13 overall record. He helped West Virginia to multiple marquee wins, knocking off Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas and Iowa State.

In an unexpected turn, West Virginia did not make the NCAA Tournament this year. The Mountaineers were among the first four teams left out of the field of 68.

Combined between his Drake and West Virginia tenures, DeVries holds an overall record of 169-68 (.713). He has been to the NCAA Tournament three times.

DeVries to Iowa would’ve made sense on multiple levels. But that won’t come to fruition.

He will instead take over at a Big Ten foe. Indiana has featured a revolving door of head coaches as the program tries to revitalize the winning ways it achieved under Bob Knight. DeVries will try to be the solution to that.

So where could Iowa go from here?

It’s important to note that coaching searches are not an exact science. If you have been following the developments around Iowa and other college jobs over the last few days, it’s likely you get a sense that the public narrative can change rather quickly. That is the nature of this business.

The two names that have generated the most public buzz for the Iowa opening are DeVries and Drake’s Ben McCollum.

Like DeVries, McCollum has ties to the state of Iowa. McCollum was born in Iowa City and raised in Storm Lake. He started his playing career at North Iowa Area Community College.

In 15 seasons as the head coach at Division II Northwest Missouri State, McCollum tallied an overall record of 394–91 (.812). He helped lead Northwest Missouri State to four Division II national titles in his 15 seasons at the helm.

And McCollum has continued to win at Drake.

This is his first season with the Bulldogs. After the departure of coach Darian DeVries to West Virginia, McCollum hasn’t missed a step. At 30-3 overall, Drake won both the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships and is in the NCAA Tournament. Drake plays Missouri in the round of 64 on Thursday.

There is basically one major hole in McCollum’s resume. He has been a head coach at the Division I level for just one season. He has never been at a power conference program.

McCollum proved his winning ways translate from Division II to Division I, but would it also translate from mid-major to high-major?

Few things are guaranteed in coaching searches — if any at all. This means that it’s not certain that Iowa will be able to land McCollum. Or for director of athletics Beth Goetz to throw a curveball. The unknown is the beauty — and danger — of the coaching carousel.

It’s not like there aren’t other intriguing options out there. But the bigger question is how realistic it would be for them to end up at Iowa.

Mississippi State’s Chris Jans has ties to the state of Iowa. Utah State’s Jerrod Calhoun took the program to the NCAA Tournament in his first season at the helm. There is a litany of names that could fit, as we outlined last week.

We’re not going to speculate what might be going through Goetz’s mind at this moment. Because, as history has proven, there isn’t an excess of certainty floating around. Not just at Iowa, but for jobs across the country.

DeVries is out of the equation now. At least on paper, McCollum is a logical target. Beyond that, it gets murkier.

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

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Iowa

Iowa Supreme Court overturns doctor’s child sex abuse conviction

Published

7 hours ago

December 23, 2025

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Iowa Supreme Court overturns doctor’s child sex abuse conviction

The Iowa Supreme Court overturned the sexual abuse conviction of a West Des Moines doctor.
The court ruled that allowing the child victim to testify via one-way video violated the Iowa Constitution.
This decision is one of several that has set Iowa apart from other states on the issue of remote testimony.

The Iowa Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a West Des Moines doctor found guilty of sexually abusing a child, ruling that allowing the victim to testify via one-way video violated the Iowa Constitution.

The court on Tuesday, Dec. 23, reversed the conviction of Lynn Melvin Lindaman, a longtime central Iowa surgeon who practiced at the Lindaman Orthopaedics clinic in West Des Moines before he was charged in 2023 with second-degree sexual abuse. The case was remanded for a new trial.

The decision is the latest in a string of rulings that have set Iowa apart as the only state in the country whose highest court has barred one-way video testimony in criminal trials, even in cases involving child victims.

Those decisions already have begun reshaping prosecutions across the state and have prompted lawmakers to launch the process of amending the Iowa Constitution. The change would ultimately require voter approval.

Lindaman, now 75, was convicted after a jury trial in Polk County. Prosecutors alleged that on June 26, 2023, he committed a sex act in Ankeny against a child under the age of 10. A second count of sexual abuse was dismissed prior to trial. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of 42½ years because of a prior sexual predatory offense in 1976. He also faced a separate and now-dismissed civil lawsuit from an Iowa woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her in 1975.

The Iowa Offender Search still lists Lindaman as in custody of the Iowa Medical & Classification Center.

On appeal, Lindaman argued that his constitutional rights were violated when the district court allowed the child to testify from another room via one-way closed-circuit television, rather than from the witness stand in the courtroom.

“Today’s decision from the Iowa Supreme Court is an important win for Lynn Lindaman and a major step toward a fair result,” said Lucas Taylor, the attorney representing Lindaman. “Although the court did not rule in our favor on every issue, this ruling recognizes serious errors in the prior proceedings and gives Mr. Lindaman the chance to present his defense to a new jury.”

In a 4-3 ruling issued earlier this year in State v. White, the Iowa Supreme Court agreed with that argument, holding that one-way video testimony violates the confrontation clause of the Iowa Constitution. Writing for the majority in that case, Justice David May said that “when the accused and the witness are prevented from seeing each other, there is no face-to-face confrontation, and the Iowa Constitution is not satisfied.”

The ruling came despite U.S. Supreme Court precedent allowing such testimony and laws in many other states permitting it. Under the Iowa statute the court overturned, judges had been allowed to authorize remote testimony by minors, or witnesses with mental illnesses or disabilities, if a judge found that “trauma caused by testifying in the physical presence of the defendant … would impair the minor’s ability to communicate.”

The White decision arose from an Osceola County case, but its effects have since spread and courts across Iowa have begun hearing challenges from defendants convicted in cases where one-way video testimony was used.

Following the ruling, Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the Polk County Attorney’s Office, said at least five Polk County defendants convicted under similar circumstances could be entitled to new trials.

One of those defendants, Michael Dunbar, already has received a new trial. Dunbar was resentenced after the victim testified in person from the witness stand, and the court again imposed a life sentence.

Dissent fuels push to amend Iowa Constitution

The State v. White ruling has drawn sharp criticism from prosecutors and state leaders, including Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, who has argued the decision unnecessarily traumatizes child victims.

Bird has proposed a constitutional amendment to allow children to testify remotely in certain cases. The measure has passed both chambers of the Legislature once and must pass again before going to voters in a statewide referendum.

“Children shouldn’t be forced to testify at arm’s length from their abusers, and many kids can’t. This opinion shows how important it is to restore protections for a child victim to testify remotely,” Bird said in a Tuesday statement to the Des Moines Register. “Our office will continue to fight for a constitutional amendment to ensure kids are protected and abusers are brought to justice. We are grateful our effort has received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Iowa Legislature.”

Justice Thomas D. Waterman, writing in a dissent in the opinion issued Tuesday, rejected the majority’s historical interpretation of the confrontation clause.

“Thunder comes during rainstorms; it does not follow that thunder requires rain. That video testimony was not used in 1871 tells us more about technology than it does about constitutional interpretation,” Waterman wrote.

He also said there is “no historical evidence that the framers of the Iowa Constitution intended a different meaning for confrontation rights than the Sixth Amendment,” and warned that the majority was reading requirements into Iowa’s Constitution that do not exist in its text.

Nick El Hajj is a reporter at the Register. He can be reached at nelhajj@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @nick_el_hajj.

This story was updated to add new information and to correct an inaccuracy.

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Iowa

States including Iowa, Nebraska reach $150M settlement with Mercedes-Benz

Published

19 hours ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

States including Iowa, Nebraska reach 0M settlement with Mercedes-Benz

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – A coalition of states including both Iowa and Nebraska reached a nearly $150 million settlement with Mercedes-Benz.

The states allege over 200,000 diesel vehicles were illegally equipped with devices designed to cheat on emissions tests between 2008 and 2016.

Mercedes allegedly hid the existence of these devices from regulators and people purchasing the vehicles.

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Iowa

See where Iowa State basketball ranks in the AP and coaches polls

Published

1 day ago

December 22, 2025

Press Room

See where Iowa State basketball ranks in the AP and coaches polls

Iowa State basketball is now ranked in the top three.

The Cyclone men improved to 13-0 this week after obliterating Long Beach State on Dec. 21 at Hilton Coliseum.

With the holiday week, Iowa State is off before returning for a home game Monday, Dec. 29, against Houston Christian at 7 p.m.

Here is a look at where the Cyclones stand in the latest college basketball rankings:

Iowa State rankings update

Iowa State moved up one spot to No. 3 in both the AP and Coaches Polls. The Cyclones were previously at No. 4.

USA TODAY Sports men’s college basketball coaches poll

Here is a look at the new USA TODAY Sports men’s basketball coaches poll.

Michigan
Arizona
Iowa State
UConn
Purdue
Duke
Gonzaga
Houston
Michigan State
BYU
Vanderbilt
North Carolina
Nebraska
Louisville
Alabama
Texas Tech
Kansas
Arkansas
Illinois
Tennessee
Virginia
Florida
Iowa
Georgia
USC

Others receiving votes

St. John’s 32; Kentucky 32; Seton Hall 20; Utah State 15; Auburn 10; California 9; UCLA 8; Saint Louis 8; LSU 6; Yale 4; Oklahoma State 3; Saint Mary’s 1; Indiana 1; Clemson 1;

AP Poll

Here is a look at the new Associated Press poll.

Arizona
Michigan
Iowa State
UConn
Purdue
Duke
Gonzaga
Houston
Michigan State
BYU
Vanderbilt
North Carolina
Nebraska
Alabama
Texas Tech
Louisville
Kansas
Arkansas
Tennessee
Illinois
Virginia
Florida
Georgia
USC
Iowa

Others receiving votes

Kentucky 78, Seton Hall 49, Auburn 39, St. John’s 23, California 19, LSU 17, UCLA 13, Clemson 9, Miami (Ohio) 6, Utah St. 5, Arizona St 5, Indiana 4, Miami 4, Saint Louis 3, Belmont 2, Baylor 1, Oklahoma St. 1, UCF 1, NC State 1.

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