As Fran McCaffery stepped up to the podium following Iowa’s 106-94 loss in the second round of the Big Ten tournament on March 13, he had to be prepared for some tough questions.
Immediately after McCaffery positioned himself in front of the microphone, a difficult question on many Hawkeye fans’ minds was indeed tossed his way.
“Do you expect to be the coach at Iowa next year?” Scott Dochertman of The Athletic asked.
“I do,” McCaffery responded with a sigh.
But McCaffery likely knew his incoming fate, and sure enough, he was relieved of his duties the following afternoon by athletics director Beth Goetz. Iowa would be searching for a new head men’s basketball coach for the first time since 2010.
The weeklong search resulted in Drake head coach Ben McCollum getting tapped as Iowa’s 23rd head coach on March 23. The news broke just two days after McCollum’s Bulldogs lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to Texas Tech.
The hire has already brought new life to a disgruntled fanbase, who hope that McCollum’s tough style of play can lead the program to the second weekend of March Madness for the first time since 1999.
The position was likely a dream opportunity for McCollum, an Iowa native, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy to win with the Hawkeyes. He will be Iowa’s first new men’s basketball coach in 15 years.
The possibility of a new coach brought much enthusiasm to the disgruntled Hawkeye fanbase, but many have forgotten the wild twists and turns that come with a coaching search.
Life was different back in 2010. “Despicable Me” was still months away from its theatrical release, the iPhone 3GS was the newest iPhone model available, and the Chicago Blackhawks were just about to set off on a legendary playoff run resulting in the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship in 49 years.
Fifteen years later, the world continues to evolve. There are four “Despicable Me” movies and multiple “Minions” spin-offs, the iPhone 16 is here, and the Chicago Blackhawks haven’t secured the Stanley Cup championship in 10 years.
Changes to college athletics have also followed suit.
The introduction of Name, Image, and Likeness in 2021 has allowed college athletes to make money off of their image. The issue has resulted in many benefits for college athletes, but some have questioned the supposed competitive disadvantages that come with it.
Those drawbacks have already come back to bite the Hawkeyes in the early part of their coaching search.
With McCaffery’s firing practically imminent with how poorly the 2024-25 campaign went, Iowa fans turned their attention to the one man they felt could bring their team back to their expectation levels: West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries.
On paper, it seemed like a match made in heaven. DeVries, an Aplington, Iowa, native, grew up a Hawkeye fan and watched his other brother, Jared, star on the Iowa football team and later on in the NFL.
While the DeVries name excited Iowa fans mostly due to Jared’s football stardom, DeVries had built up a healthy reputation of his own on the hardwood. After a successful playing career at Northern Iowa, he made the trek west to Omaha and took a job as a graduate student manager under then-Creighton head coach Dana Altman.
DeVries was promoted to a full-time assistant coach position in 2001 and remained in the role for 17 seasons until taking the head coaching job at Drake in 2018. The struggling Bulldog program had made only one NCAA tournament since 1971, but DeVries brought respectability instantly.
Drake won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season crown in his first season, and would go on to lead the Bulldogs to three NCAA tournaments under his watch.
DeVries bolted for West Virginia after the 2023-24 season, but rumors of him leaving for another job, specifically Iowa, began to swirl despite a solid 19-13 inaugural campaign in Morgantown.
He did leave, just not for a reunion in his home state.
DeVries’ new residence would feature a similar backdrop of cornfields and picturesque sunsets, but the destination caused many Hawkeye fans to become sick to their stomachs – Big Ten rival Indiana.
The decision caught many by surprise. The Hoosiers are one of college basketball’s most historic programs but have qualified for the NCAA tournament only twice since 2016, a number far below the school’s “blue blood” expectations.
On the flip side, Iowa has made the Big Dance four times in that same nine-year span, and it would have been five berths if COVID-19 hadn’t cancelled the 2019-20 postseason.
The Hawkeyes are arguably the better program right now despite missing the last two NCAA tournaments, but the Hooisers have one of the most important winning factors to succeed in this new landscape of college sports – NIL money.
In that same press conference, Dochterman later asked McCaffery how much NIL funding Iowa needs in order to attract top talent and compete at a championship level.
McCaffery’s response?
“You would probably need 6 million,” McCaffery said. “We’re nowhere near that. If you know that those numbers are going to go north of that when that [House] settlement is completed, the fair share number is what it is. We’ll know what that is. But I think it’s safe to say the collectives aren’t going away, and those are the numbers that exist already. So we can only imagine what’s going on.”
Iowa’s total NIL payroll in 2024-25 was estimated to be around $1.5 million, far below that recommended threshold McCaffery discussed. In fact, Pete Nakos of On3 reported Indiana spent a hefty sum of $5 million on its roster this season, while West Virginia allotted $3 million for its squad.
“Iowa opened and the best players were making $300,000. That’s bottom, bottom, bottom of the Big Ten,” a source told Nakos.
The Hoosiers promised DeVries an even higher budget of $7 million for 2025-26, making his decision to jump ship to Bloomington much easier.
Indiana’s heavy NIL support probably played a big role in swaying DeVries to town, but the Hoosiers will always have a large fan following no matter how poorly they play. Iowa has fan support, but that support only seems to come when it is good.
Men’s basketball used to be the hottest ticket in town, but the rise of the football, wrestling, and women’s basketball teams since the turn of the century have hurt the team’s popularity. Carver-Hawkeye Arena just experienced its lowest attended men’s basketball season in 60 years, a poor sign when it comes to attracting talented players.
These attendance issues and the overall lack of interest in the program likely was a deciding factor in Goetz’s decision to sack McCaffery, but it will be intriguing to see if the fanbase will return to Carver-Hawkeye under McCollum.
Before McCollum’s hiring was announced, both the Swarm, Iowa’s NIL collective, and its founder, Brad Heinrichs, each posted a message on their respective social media accounts encouraging Hawkeye fans to pour their donations in for the men’s basketball team.
It appears that the response from the fanbase was positive, signaling an uptick in donor funding could be on its way.
Transfer trouble
The strong culture that McCaffery built at Iowa over the course of his 15 years allowed him to retain most of his talent during those wild transfer portal cycles. But after his dismissal, the floodgates opened.
Seven Hawkeyes have entered the portal in the week since the firing, including notable players such as Josh Dix, Pryce Sandfort, Owen Freeman, and Brock Harding.
Each announcement was expected, but they have still caused worry for Iowa fans.
Hailing from Moline, Illinois, Freeman was Iowa’s leading scorer, rebounder, and blocker during the 2024-25 campaign before he underwent a season-ending finger in January. The sophomore will likely be a highly-coveted option for many high-major teams, as he won Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Year in 2024 and is known for his inside scoring and rim protection.
Harding, Freeman’s high school teammate, saw a big jump in production this past season. The 6-foot point guard posted 8.8 points, 5.3 assists, and 2.3 rebounds per game in both a starting and backup role. His outside shooting also saw a huge leap, evidenced by his clutch triple in the waning seconds against Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament.
Hailing from Council Bluffs, Iowa, Dix emerged as one of the Big Ten’s most valuable scorers in 2024-25. The 6-foot-6 guard netted 14.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game, and he took the role of the team’s second fiddle behind Payton Sandfort after Freeman’s injury.
Sandfort, Payton’s younger brother, enters the portal after an incredible sophomore season that saw him become one of Iowa’s most reliable scoring options off the bench. The second-year posted 8.8 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per contest. He finished in double figures in each of the last four games of the season, including his first career double-double against Nebraska on March 9.
The absence of these players will impact the Hawkeyes next season and beyond. Including the graduations of Payton and fifth-year guard Drew Thelwell, these losses cause Iowa to lose 80 percent of its scoring from 2024-25.
Even with all of that uncertainty, it’s still possible for the Hawkeyes to regain some of that talent. Pryce and first-year forward Cooper Koch, who entered the portal on March 19, have both said that they will continue to monitor Iowa’s coaching search and consider returning if they fit in the new head coach’s system.
Anyone who follows the Hawkeye program probably isn’t surprised by those messages of loyalty. Both players grew up Iowa fans, and each has family ties to the program.
Though Pryce quickly rose to stardom at Waukee High School, the opportunity to play with his brother, Payton, proved to be an easy decision. The choice to wear the Black and Gold was also a no-brainer for Koch, whose father, J.R, played for the Hawkeyes in the late 1990s.
If Iowa can’t retain those homegrown players, McCollum will have plenty of options to choose from in the transfer portal. In fact, ESPN reported that over 1,900 college basketball players entered the transfer portal after the 2023-24 campaign, a statistic that will likely skyrocket to over 2,000 when the new cycle opens on March 24.
There’s no question that there are plenty of players to choose from. But without NIL funding, McCollum will likely have a tough time finding some of the best talent. There are still under-the-radar options available, but McCollum has a tough challenge in front of him.