Iowa works with Drake’s McCollum as hoops coach
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Jeff Borzello Close Jeff Borzello ESPN Personnel Writer Basketball recruiting insider. Signed up with ESPN in 2014. Graduate of University of Delaware.Mar 24, 2025, 08:48 AM ET Iowa
- has worked with Drake’s Ben McCollum
- as its next men’s basketball coach, the school announced Monday.McCollum simply completed his first season at Drake, leading the Bulldogs to a 31-4 record and the program’s first look in the NCAA competition’s round
of 32 given that 1971. They won the Missouri Valley Conference’s regular-season and tournament titles before beating 6-seed Missouri in the preliminary of the NCAA competition. Drake lost to Texas Tech in the second round on Saturday.McCollum won Missouri Valley Coach of the Year honors and was called a semifinalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year award.McCollum, an Iowa City native, replaces Fran McCaffery, whom Iowa
dismissed previously this month after 15 seasons as the Hawkeyes ‘head coach. He was the school’s all-time wins leader with 197 and led the program to
7 NCAA tournament appearances.Iowa hasn’t advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA competition considering that 1999. Prior to taking over at Drake, McCollum was among the most successful college basketball coaches in the country at Department II Northwest Missouri State. He led the Bearcats to 4 Division
II national championships and a 394-91 record during his 15 seasons at the helm.Under McCollum, Northwest
Missouri State won 11 straight MIAA regular-season titles to end his tenure(and 12 overall ). Before he was named head coach, the program had actually won just 4 MIAA titles over the previous 62 seasons. The Bearcats went 38-0 in 2018-19 and suffered simply one loss in both the 2016-17 and 2019-20 seasons.