Drake transfer Kael Combs has committed to Iowa men’s basketball, per an announcement on his social media pages on Wednesday afternoon. The sophomore guard is the second player to follow Ben McCollum to Iowa City. 

The 6-foot-4 Combs appeared in 31 games for the Bulldogs last season, averaging 3.8 points and two rebounds on 51 percent shooting in 12.9 minutes per game. His best performance of the season came in a 13-point, five-rebound, three-assist effort in the 77-64 loss to Texas Tech in the second round of the NCAA tournament on March 22. 

Hailing from Nixa, Missouri, Combs was an unranked prospect coming out of high school. He began his collegiate career at Wyoming where he played a limited role in 27 games played before joining McCollum and the Bulldogs. 

After one season at Drake, he entered the transfer portal on March 26 — two days after McCollum was hired as Iowa men’s basketball’s next head coach — and made the swift decision to commit to the Hawkeyes, joining junior guard and Missouri Valley Player of the Year Bennett Stirtz in the move from Des Moines to Iowa City. 

Along with Combs and Stirtz, former Drake assistants Josh Sash and Bryston Williams were officially hired by the Hawkeyes on April 1. McCollum also retained freshman forward Cooper Koch, who originally entered the portal following former Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery’s firing on March 14. 

Koch, Combs, and Stirtz are the lone players on Iowa’s roster at the moment. Those monitoring the situation expect more former Drake players to follow their head coach.