Ben McCollum defines success for year one at Iowa

For the first time in a decade and a half, Iowa has a new tenure starting with their hiring this offseason of Ben McCollum. That means there’s much to do, both on and off the court, to prepare for his first season coaching the Hawkeyes.

McCollum defined what he wanted to accomplish in his debut year at Iowa during an interview with Jon Rothstein at CBS Sports. His answer first started on the court, as he wants the Hawkeyes to have a program that their fans can be excited about and have pride in.

“You know, we want to generate some enthusiasm, you know, for Iowa Basketball. And, we want to be out. We want to make sure that Iowa City embraces it, we want to make sure the University of Iowa embraces us,” McCollum said. “Just have them have a program that they’re very, very proud of with the kids we bring in and the effort that we play with is probably the main thing.”

Then, on the court, winning is the natural answer as far as their goals for ’25-’26. That starts now, though, as McCollum said the Hawkeyes will be getting better and better this offseason in order to do so come tip-off.

“And then, you know, obviously, ultimately, you want to win as many games as you can,” McCollum said. “And so, how do you do that? You focus on your process of getting better and that’s what we’ll do throughout the summer and into the fall, and hopefully have a good season.”

Iowa is coming off of two of its worst seasons out of 15 total under Fran McCaffery, going 36-31 (.537) overall and 17-23 against the Big Ten. Iowa did not make the NCAA Tournament in either. That led to his firing in mid-March, as the Hawkeyes would announce their hiring of McCollum less than two weeks later.

Now, if early energy and success are the aim, McCollum can do that based on what he did in one year at Drake. Coming up from Division II to take the place of a successful run under Darian DeVries, McCollum led the Bulldogs to their all-time best season at 31-4 (.886), winning the regular season and conference tournament in the Missouri Valley, and winning a game in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1971 with their upset of No. 6 Missouri as a No. 11 seed.

Iowa projects to have a competitive team as well, led by seven additions from the NCAA Transfer Portal, five following their head coach from over in Des Moines, for the No. 20 class per On3’s 2025 Team Transfer Portal Rankings. That has the Hawkeyes in very early predictions to return to March Madness, including the latest brackets by On3’s James Fletcher as well as ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.

The Hawkeyes have had fine finishes in each of the past three years at just over .500. However, McCollum is looking to do more, with his team and for the fanbase, in his first year on the sidelines at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.