Ben McCollum gives early impressions of Iowa's roster for '25-'26

Iowa, following the coaching change from Fran McCaffery to Ben McCollum, has an all-new team following 18-plus portal transactions, plus a pair of incoming freshmen. That, for now, leaves little to deduce about what the Hawkeyes’ roster could be come next season.

McCollum tried to share some impressions about his debut team with the program in an interview with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein. If anything, McCollum knows what they’ll have at the point guard spot with Bennett Stirtz, the No. 2 overall transfer and No. 1 PG per On3, following him there in the portal from Drake.

“We’ve got a good point guard. I know that,” McCollum said with a smile.

Beyond that, though, McCollum isn’t yet sure what he’ll have in year one with the Hawkeyes. Technically, in his opinion, nearly no team does, especially those which had to use the portal much. That’s because of the emphasis he has on connectivity when it comes to his teams, even though half of their incoming transfers are following him from his previous program with Drake.

“You know, I don’t know. It probably remains to be seen,” McCollum said. “I think that you don’t know until you play a game.

“So, you know, I don’t know. Because when you see all these teams in our league sign these, you know, great rosters and stuff like that, it’s like, yeah. But sometimes, when you see that, you really don’t know if they’re going to be any good or if they’re going to be connected because basketball is a game of like, the deeper connection and that’s where I think we miss a lot of it in the excitement of the transfer portal and talent. I think that people miss that, like, there’s a cohesion that goes with it and basketball is one of the greatest sports in regards to cohesion. If you’re not connected, it’s not going to work…The connectivity in basketball matters a lot and the players wanting to serve each other matter a lot.”

With double-digit transfers leaving Iowa City, seven others took their place from the portal in committing to McCollum. Stirtz, along with Tavion Banks, Cam Manyawu, Isaia Howard, and Kael Combs, followed him from the Bulldogs last season.

Alvaro Folgueiras (Robert Morris) and Brendan Hausen (Kansas State) also transferred in, making up a Top 20 portal class per On3 and a Top 10 portal class per ESPN for the Hawkeyes with Stirtz, Folgueiras, and Hausen all being rated as Top 75 additions by On3. Trevin Jirak and Tate Sage are also joining as their duo in the recruiting class for 2025.

Generally speaking, though, McCollum seems to like what he has size-wise on the wings and down low. He’s also a fan of the character of the players they’ve brought into the program over this spring.

“We’ve got size. We’ve got really skilled bigs…We’ve got good length on the wing,” said McCollum. “We’ve got great kids. We’ve got tough kids.”

It remains to be seen, even by their staff, what this team will be at Iowa for ’25-’26. Still, there’s something exciting about that as they await to tip off this winter at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.