The Iowa men’s basketball program has featured plenty of different styles over the last three decades.
The relentless pressure defense under Tom Davis, the snail-paced offense under Todd Lickliter, and the up-and-down, high-octane offense under Fran McCaffery.
Ben McCollum has witnessed all of that. Hailing from Storm Lake, Iowa, he quickly immersed himself with the Hawkeyes, watching notable players such as BJ Armstrong, Acie Earl, and Chris Street.
“Some of these former players were my idols growing up,” McCollum said. “Like the NBA I didn’t watch. I watched the Iowa Hawkeyes.”
McCollum always hoped to follow in the footsteps of his idols and play for Iowa, but in his words, he “was never good enough.” After playing college ball at North Iowa Community College and Division-II Northwest Missouri State, the coaching profession called his name.
Twenty-two years later, McCollum made his return to Carver-Hawkeye Arena, a place where he spent much of his childhood in the stands cheering on his beloved Hawkeyes. Only this time he’s not in the seats, he’s being introduced as the next Iowa head coach.
“I was born here [in Iowa City]; I lived here for four, five, six years of my life and have cheered for the Hawkeyes for a long time, and now I get to be a part of their success, and I couldn’t be more excited. And we want to bring this back to the championship culture that we think we can build here at the University of Iowa.”
Building a championship-caliber team is far from easy, but McCollum hopes his passion and love for the Iowa program can translate into just that. He already has the winning pedigree on his side with four Division II national championships at Northwest Missouri State to his name, but the Big Ten is a different animal.
But McCollum has already shown what his squads can do on the big stage. His Drake squad blasted through the Missouri Valley Conference in 2024-25, winning a school-record 31 games and advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1971.
National audiences quickly began to notice the Bulldogs, but it was the way they won that really caught the attention of the college basketball world. On paper, many of Drake’s opponents were taller, faster, and stronger, but the Dogs never let that bother them.
One reason? Offensive efficiency.
McCollum’s teams at Northwest Missouri State were known for routinely featuring shooters all over the court. Drake didn’t have that this year, but what it did have was opportunistic shooting. The Dogs played at a slower pace as a result of this, but McCollum didn’t mind. All he cares about is winning.
“I would say the greatest plaque that the NCAA used to send you is these statistics plaques,” McCollum said. “They used to send you effective field goal percentages, fewest turnovers and these big plaques, and one year I got the greatest plaque of all, and it was a plaque of “led the NCAA in wins.” That’s what I always felt. Your team is trying to win.”
Iowa was known for its frantic, fast-paced offense under McCaffery, a pace that McCollum’s Hawkeye teams won’t completely duplicate. The coach wants to play faster in Iowa City, but prefers that his pace of play fits his roster.
“Shot selection and the ability to get quality shots equals efficiency, which allows your defense to set, which allows you to play good defense.
Iowa has struggled to defend over the last few seasons, but McCollum’s enthusiastic statement about defense will likely bring a large boost of energy to the Hawkeye fanbase. McCollum’s last two teams he has coached — Northwest Missouri State in 2023-24 and Drake in 2024-25 – both held their opponents to only 58.9 points per game, numbers which ranked at or near the top of their conference.
Finding the right pieces to build a team in the Name, Image, and Likeness era has proved to be a stiff challenge for coaches. McCollum plans to attack the transfer portal, but still focuses on developing high school talent, specifically the point guard position.
Northwest icons such as Trevor Hudgins, Justin Pitts, and DeShaun Cooper come to mind, but the most prominent name of the bunch is still playing college basketball — Bennett Stirtz, the reigning MVC Player of the Year who will follow his coach and play for the Hawkeyes.
McCollum raved about his point guard play during his press conference, crediting them for their humility.
“They’re able to understand that they’re not that special unless they have people with them, so the people with them allow them to be great, and vice versa,” McCollum said. “Bennett would prefer to score zero points and have everybody else score 20. That’s his mentality. And that’s never changed. And that’s how all my point guards will operate.”
That mentality translates right back to McCollum’s motto – “impose your will.” McCollum developed the signature line from an unnamed Big Ten football program, and will now bring the phrase to the hardwood, where he hopes to guide Iowa back into the national spotlight.
“We just put one sheet in their little binders, and it was “impose your will,” McCollum said. “Our intention is to impose your will on everything that we do. Defensively we want to tell you what to do. Offensively we’ll try to tell the defense what to do.”