Iowa
Mazahir Salih sworn in early for Iowa City council’s final two 2023 meetings
Mazahir Salih made her return to the Iowa City council a tad early thanks to an obscure procedural rule.
Salih was victorious in Nov. 7’s At-Large election and because of state provisions, she’ll assume her seat for Tuesday’s council meeting in place of Andrew Dunn.
Dunn was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Janice Weiner at the beginning of this year after she was elected to the Iowa Senate. Candidates appointed by the council are eligible to serve until the next council meeting following an election and completion of the county’s vote canvass, according to state law.
“If the vacancy is on a multimember body to which more than one nonincumbent is elected for the succeeding term, the nonincumbent who received the most votes shall be deemed elected to fill the remainder of the unexpired term,” according to Iowa Code 69.12.
In this case, voters selected Salih and Moe for the At-Large seats currently held by Bergus and Dunn. Bergus first joined council in 2020 and will serve in her At-Large seat through the end of 2023 before moving to council District A, where she beat two-term incumbent Pauline Taylor.
Dunn’s appointment aides Salih’s early arrival
Because Dunn was appointed by the council, not selected by voters, he has been forced to forgo his seat for the last two meetings of 2023. Dunn will assume the District C seat currently held by retiring long-time councilor John Thomas at the council’s first meeting of the new year on Jan. 2, 2024.
More: Iowa City council: Bergus bests Taylor, Salih returns, Moe and Dunn secure seats
This quirk in Iowa state law allows Salih to jumpstart her second go-around on the Iowa City council. She was sworn into her new position on Friday at city hall.
Salih is familiar with Iowa City government
Salih spent four years on the council between 2017 and 2021 but opted not to run for reelection to focus on her role as the executive director of the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa. She told the Press-Citizen she always knew she would be back.
More: ‘A beacon of hope’: Mazahir Salih is the Press-Citizen Person of the Year 2017
She will continue to advocate for underserved communities in Iowa City, she told the Press-Citizen on election night. That starts with advancing affordable housing efforts.
On Nov. 28, the council will continue discussions and vote on the second consideration of changes aimed at helping produce affordable housing in the area. The first consideration of the area’s Accessory Dwelling Unit codes passed through the council unanimously.
More: Iowa City Council’s affordable housing-based code changes, explained
Peterson also set to take over early for Jones in Coralville
In Coralville, councilor Keith Jones will also yield his seat to top vote-getter Royce Peterson. Jones was appointed to the council in the summer of 2021 and vowed not to run for reelection, allowing residents to choose his successor.
Coralville’s race was an uncontested two-person race for two seats, with Peterson and Rich Vogelzang earning victories. Both will begin their proper four-year terms at the council’s first meeting of the new year on Jan. 9, 2024. Peterson is expected to be sworn at the council’s final meeting of 2023 on Dec. 12.
Jones was in his normal seat Tuesday, Nov. 14, because the auditor’s office could not yet notify all parties that election results had been finalized.
Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.
Oklahoma 96, Iowa 62: OUtmuscled
NORMAN — Sixth-seeded Iowa fell in the round of 32 on Monday, losing 96-62 to third-seeded Oklahoma in Norman to close the 2024-25 season. In what was a physical contest from the tip, the Sooners were the aggressor against the Hawkeyes.
Oklahoma’s size, strength and speed were simply too much for Iowa, who didn’t have the physical prowess to matchup with the Sooners. OU not only out-rebounded Iowa, 64-33, but the Hawkeyes couldn’t match Oklahoma’s shooting. OU shot 33-of-81 (40.7%) from the floor and 19-of-27 from the free throw line to Iowa’s 24-of-66 (36.3%) from the field and 4-of-7 (57.1%) from the free throw line.
“They’re really good. They’re athletes. They hit the portal hard,” head coach Jan Jensen said following the loss. “They’re bigger, faster, stronger. I told you yesterday the degree of difficulty to guard all that.”
The rebounding margin was the strongest indicator of the difference between the two teams.
“I think going into the game, that was definitely something we knew was going to be a key. They definitely got a majority of the second-chance points. That was from the rebounds,” said Kylie Feuerbach, who finished with 14 points and six rebounds. “They did a great job at positioning. We probably could have done a little better. But we knew going into the game their box-outs and rebounds would be really important.”
Sydney Affolter, Iowa’s leading rebounder against OU with nine, added that the game was more physical than the Hawkeyes were used to.
“The refs definitely let us play,” she said. “They have some big girls, big posts and big guards all around. We could have done a lot better on the boards. I thought we did a little bit better in the second half. They crashed pretty hard.”
“We knew going in that SEC teams are really physical — a lot more than the Big Ten,” starting center Hannah Stuelke said. “They’re just an amazing rebounding team. That’s something they hang their hat on.”
The boards weren’t the only place the Hawkeyes had a disadvantage.
Though it certainly wasn’t all at the hands of the officials, — and no one on Iowa’s roster will tell you it was — Stuelke and the Hawkeyes definitely didn’t benefit from the officiating on Monday evening.
The most glaring call came in the beginning of the second half, when Stuelke made a reverse layup and inadvertently made contact with Raegan Beers‘ face with her off hand. The officials went to the monitor and handed Stuelke an “intentional foul” that not only gave the Sooners two free throws (which were made by Payton Verhulst, who finished with 16 points) and the possession, but shifted momentum heavily in the favor of OU.
“It was an accident,” Stuelke said after the game. “I have no control over that, so I don’t know. I’ve never been called for an intentional before. That was my first one. I elbowed her in the face on accident.”
Stuelke added that the officials didn’t explain the reasoning for the call to her. Jensen was disappointed with the decision by the officials for several reasons.
“I didn’t have a chance to see it,” she said. “I just asked some unbiased people at the scorer’s table, and I don’t know if they were NCAA [officials], one was an Oklahoma [official]. I said, ‘What’s your gut on that?’ They were like ‘We’re a little surprised it got upgraded.’ … I think our players were pretty frustrated. I was trying to calm them down, but I thought that was a big swing in the game.”
OU shot 20 more free throws than the Hawkeyes, who shot a total of 11 between Monday night’s game and their matchup with Murray State on Saturday.
“Oklahoma, they’re going to win. When it’s called like that — and it was not why we lost the game; let that be clear — but 27 to seven,” Jensen said. “So I think that’s part of it. I don’t think we thought about it much at the time. I don’t think the players did. I think we were really hitting. I don’t think you can really — without some bigs, really big bodies, you can’t really slow or stop Oklahoma. You’ve got to score with them.”
Looking into the future of the Iowa roster, though they won’t be able to control the problems with officiating, Jensen plans to adjust and address the issues that faced them against the Sooners.
“I think it has to be a change now,” Jensen said. “I think we have a lot of great pieces, but they’re young. … I love our pieces. I think we can develop them, and that will always be my model. We’re graduating Syd and we don’t have a lot of depth at the one. We have Aaliyah Guyton. Addie Deal plays off the ball and on. You’re going to look and see what we need.”
The transfer portal opens tomorrow.
“We’ll be really busy,” Jensen added. “I love the pieces we have coming back, I just think we need a little more size. You saw them — Beers changes the game. Then you’ve got 24 [Skylar Vann], 34 [Liz Scott], 0 [Beatrice Culliton] who are all big bodies, and then you add Sahara Williams. We’ll look in the portal.”
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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
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.
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