Ben McCollum Agrees To Be The Next Head Coach of Iowa

Ben McCollum Agrees To Be The Next Head Coach of Iowa

The 2025 March Madness bracket has been mostly chalk, with only a few Cinderella teams making it past the first round. However, one of those teams was the 11-seed Drake Bulldogs. The Bulldogs, led by head coach Ben McCollum and star player Bennett Stirtz, upset 6-Seed Missouri in the first round. Drake would lose in the second round to Texas Tech but it appears the one tournament win is all McCollum needed. Now, Iowa has agreed to terms to make Ben McCollum, who is an Iowa native, the next head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes. 

Welcome Home, @CoachMcCollum 🐤

Ben McCollum named head coach of the Iowa Men’s Basketball program.#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/zjRrOAMMJK

— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) March 24, 2025

McCollum has had an extensive head coaching career, but a lot of people might not be familiar with him. His first head coaching job was at Northwest Missouri State, a Division II school. He racked up a vast amount of accolades coaching the Bearcats program from 2009-2024. McCollum was a 5x NABC Division II Coach of the Year. Furthermore, he led Northwest Missouri State to 4 NCAA Division ll Tournament Championships and an overall 426-95 (8.18) record. He built a dominant program that was virtually unstoppable from 2017 to 2024.

This level of domination led to McCollum getting the Drake Bulldogs head coaching job. In his first year with the program, with some help from his Bearcat players, he made the 2025 NCAA tournament. Drake finished with a 31-4 record and achieved Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament Championships. He capped off the amazing first season with the aforementioned upset over Missouri. Now, McCollum will try to keep up his winning ways at his third program in three years with a step up into Big Ten competition. 

Iowa Hawkeyes Basketball

Iowa basketball had a disappointing 2024-2025 season as they ended with a 17-16 overall record. The Hawkeyes finished 13 out of 18 in a tough and competitive Big Ten Conference. However, the program has been going downhill the past couple of years. They made March Madness four years straight from 2019-2023 (no 2020 tournament). However, after two straight first-round wins, they were upset in the first round in both 2022 and 2023. 

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It will be interesting to see if Ben McCollum can get Iowa back to being top five seed in March Madness. Although first-year Washington head coach Danny Sprinkle finished with a 13-18 record this season in the Big Ten. Moreover, Bennett Stirtz can transfer to Iowa and give McCollum a great building block for his new tenure. Finally, Ben McCollum will have his work cut out for him next year as he takes the reins of the Iowa basketball program. 

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