Still an impressive run by Iowa…

Libertylover

All-Conference
Dec 17, 2020
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Getting to the Elite 8 with no size and mostly MVC talent is an amazing feat.

(Hopefully this doesn’t age well 😝)
Think they said during the game that Koch was the only player on our roster that had even one offer from a team in a power conference. The rest had low level D1 offers or no D1 offers. This was a Cinderella team in the tournament this year, especially after losing 7 of our last 10 games. I think if we can get legit big ten talent that buys in, we could get back to the top of the big ten and high seed at the ncaa tournament.
 

RagnarLothbrok

Heisman
Jun 11, 2025
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Think they said during the game that Koch was the only player on our roster that had even one offer from a team in a power conference. The rest had low level D1 offers or no D1 offers. This was a Cinderella team in the tournament this year, especially after losing 7 of our last 10 games. I think if we can get legit big ten talent that buys in, we could get back to the top of the big ten and high seed at the ncaa tournament.
Exactly right.

From top to bottom, there was minimal P4 talent on this Hawkeye roster. With that said, plenty of those kids have developed into decent P4 players. And it appears Tate Sage might follow the Aaron White path. So, yes, the talent on the roster isn’t elite per se, but it wasn’t exactly chock full of Maishe Daily/Austin Ash type hoopers either.

If BMC can land 1-2 bigs (6’10 +) in the portal and find an elite point guard to replace Stirtz, Iowa will be able to compete with anyone next year, especially if Trey Thompson is as good as advertised. The kid from out west who picked Iowa over Gonzaga could have a Tate Sage type impact as well.

Future looks bright.
 

r_desihawk

All-Conference
Jul 3, 2025
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right after he was hired i read (mostly on this board) about mccollum and the type of coach he is. based on that, well before season started and we even knew who would populate the roster, the vibe i got was that this guy would take us to the final four his first year. sounds outrageous but that's what i felt. that said the players he managed to finally put together was underwhelming on paper. in summary, bmac fell short of expectations but i think we should give him at least another year to right the ship. :) :) :)
 

TampaHawkFan

All-Conference
Aug 6, 2025
527
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It was an Elite 8 run that saw us get there the hard way. There weren’t any big upsets ahead of us that allowed us to play a double digit seed to get there. Illinois was the only “off seed” we played (since they upset the #2 as a #3). Completely legit run.
100% and even drawing the 3 instead of a 2 seed in the E8.. The difference between the two is really pretty negligible.
 
Nov 29, 2021
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right after he was hired i read (mostly on this board) about mccollum and the type of coach he is. based on that, well before season started and we even knew who would populate the roster, the vibe i got was that this guy would take us to the final four his first year. sounds outrageous but that's what i felt. that said the players he managed to finally put together was underwhelming on paper. in summary, bmac fell short of expectations but i think we should give him at least another year to right the ship. :) :) :)
So what’s your vibe for next year? 😉
 

DukeSlater

All-Conference
Jul 2, 2023
1,744
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It was an Elite 8 run that saw us get there the hard way. There weren’t any big upsets ahead of us that allowed us to play a double digit seed to get there. Illinois was the only “off seed” we played (since they upset the #2 as a #3). Completely legit run.
Yah, defeating a #1 seed and defending nationall champion does sound pretty legit. :cool:
 
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