After 15 years as the head coach of Iowa basketball, Fran McCaffrey was dismissed after the 2024/25 season. This led to a relatively quick coaching search, which concluded this morning. The next coach of Iowa basketball will be Ben McCollum, who just finished his first season at Drake, a fellow Iowa school.
Iowa Basketball Finds Its New Coach
McCollum was heavily linked to the Iowa job. He is from Iowa City and has coaching experience in the state. This was his first year as a Division 1 head coach as he led the Drake Bulldogs to a Missouri Valley Conference Championship and won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 1971. Before coaching at Drake, he was at Division 2 Northwest Missouri State for 15 years. While coaching the Bearcats, he won 4 D2 National Championships. This year in March, Drake upset 6-seed Missouri and played a close game against 3-seed Texas Tech. The Bulldogs were led by Bennett Stirtz who scored 42 points in March. If he follows McCollum to Drake, this will be a huge boost for a rebuilding roster.
After years of a high-flying fast-paced offense under McCaffrey, Iowa basketball fans will have to learn to love defense under McCollum. This Drake ranked 364 in tempo, which is dead last in the country. According to Kenpom, they were the 40th best defense. This style change will be a better fit in the Big Ten, which typically plays a much slower game than the rest of the country. This will take some time to adjust, but should ultimately end positively for the Hawkeyes.
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