Iowa basketball fired longtime head coach Fran McCaffery after a disappointing 204-25 season, and now the Hawkeyes have found the new man that is going to be leading their program. Former Drake head coach Ben McCollum is finalizing a deal to become the next head coach at Iowa, according to David Eickholt and Sean Bock of 247 Sports.
McCollum was one of the names on the radar for Iowa ever since the position came open. The Iowa City native has a long history of winning at the college level and did an excellent job in the state of Iowa at Drake in 2024-25.
The news comes less than a full day after McCollum's Bulldogs were bounced in the second round of the NCAA Tournament by No. 3 seed Texas Tech 77-64 on Saturday night. Drake did get a very impressive first round win over sixth-seeded Missouri on Thursday.
Iowa fans will be hoping that McCollum's success translates into the Big Ten, but there's no indication that it wouldn't based on his current resume. He spent 15 seasons at Division II Northwest Missouri State, finishing with a 395-81 record there and winning four national championships.
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McCollum spent just one season at Drake in 2024-25, but he wasted no time making his mark at the Division I level. The Bulldogs finished with a stellar 31-4 record, including Missouri Valley Conference Championships in both the regular season and the conference tournament. Drake pulled a stunning upset of Missouri in the first round before bowing out at the hands of McCollum's good friend, Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland.
Iowa fans will have plenty of offense to look forward to with McCollum at the helm. He has consistently coached highly-rated offenses from an efficiency standpoint that operate at an amazing rate in the half court. While Drake didn't play very fast this season, it consistently ran a ton of complex sets that were hard to guard and helped generate open looks.
McCollum will get right to work in the transfer portal and on the recruiting trail, which will surely include getting some of his top players at Drake to come up to Iowa.
