IOWA CITY — More than a month removed from season’s end, Iowa men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum still has not been able to enjoy his team’s run to the Elite Eight much, if at all.
That’s hardly a surprise for someone who is stubbornly process-focused. If you’re trying to catch him straying away from that frame of mind, good luck. But that also can help explain why McCollum has been so successful in his coaching career.
“I think it was pretty cool to make it to the Elite Eight,” McCollum told the Register. “Obviously, we’d like to go further. But it is unique. It’s one of those things that you probably watch as a kid, and then you make the run, and you’re in it, and it’s like you don’t really get to enjoy it from the outside. You don’t get to watch TBS and TNT and truTV and CBS and all those different things. So it’s like, you don’t get to see it from that lens that you used to see it with. You are what people are watching. So it’s a little bit unique. Maybe I’ll get to sit back and enjoy it at some point, but I haven’t probably got to enjoy it yet.”
It’s a different sensation actually being inside the storm of one of the greatest spectacles in sports.
“You’re just in the fight,” McCollum said. “That’s what you are. You’re in the fight. You don’t pay attention to anything. You don’t pay attention to the outside. You’re sitting in your hotel and you’re just getting ready for the next fight.”
The result was a run that went down in the record books.
McCollum’s inaugural season at Iowa checked quite a few boxes. It was the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2023, first NCAA Tournament win since 2021, first Sweet 16 since 1999 and first Elite Eight since 1987.
One of the phrases in McCollum’s bank of psychological tools is the “sense of arrival,” which can create a dangerous feeling of satisfaction and complacency. This is a trap that McCollum does not want himself or his team to fall into.
How Iowa deals with the effects of success is relevant heading into season two of McCollum’s tenure. The vibes around the program are overwhelmingly positive. The program is coming off its best March Madness run in roughly four decades.
So how does McCollum make sure that his team doesn’t feel like it has “arrived?”
“We’ve done this for years at Northwest (Missouri State), where we actually finished first in all of it,” McCollum said. “So, I think it’s pretty easy because you didn’t get to where you wanted to get. You didn’t win your last game and you didn’t finish as high as you wanted to in the Big Ten. You didn’t go as far in the conference tournament as you wanted to go … We’re pretty focused on making sure that process is good. Hey, yeah, we’re getting there, but we’re not even close. So, we’ll make sure to have their attention this summer.”
McCollum explained further: “We’ll make sure that they understand that we’re about it and we’re going to get guys to compete, and what happened last year is irrelevant for anyone coming back.”
Revitalizing fan interest was a narrative woven into McCollum’s first season at the helm. After apathy rose in the final stages of the Fran McCaffery era, McCollum was tasked with reinvigorating the fan base, which he worked diligently to do.
It was already trending in the right direction before the NCAA Tournament, but Iowa’s thrilling run took things to an entirely different level. Alvaro Folgueiras’ game-winning 3-pointer to stun the reigning national champion and 1-seed Florida Gators was followed by knocking off rival Nebraska in the Sweet 16.
For a program haunted by March Madness demons, it’d be difficult to script a much better way to bring fans back than a deep NCAA Tournament run.
But McCollum does not want to stop there.
“I think if you say, OK, we’ve created a buzz and an excitement and enthusiasm, now what are you going to do with that enthusiasm?” McCollum said. “Rather than we’ve created this enthusiasm, let’s take a break and let that enthusiasm just work itself out. And so for us, we’ve got this. Now we actually want to go even further with it. Because we’ve got the excitement. We’ve got the enthusiasm. All right, now what are you going to do with it? It’s just like getting the job at Iowa. It’s great that you got the job and everybody’s excited, but at the end of the day, what are you gonna do with that opportunity? For us, at the end of the day, it’s great, but what are you going to do with that opportunity into the next season?”
Iowa is losing at least two of its three leading scorers from last season, and possibly all three, depending on what Tavion Banks’ future holds (he could be granted another year of eligibility). Trying to replace the production of Bennett Stirtz, a projected first-round pick in June’s 2026 NBA Draft, will be a prevalent storyline heading into the 2026-27 season.
But despite what Iowa lost, there is optimism for next season.
The Hawkeyes are returning at least 10 players from last season’s Elite Eight roster, including Cam Manyawu, Kael Combs, Cooper Koch, Tate Sage, Isaia Howard, Trey Thompson and Trevin Jirak. To have only two players enter the transfer portal — Alvaro Folgueiras and Banks — is an impressive showing of retention in this day and age. And Banks, who entered the portal to keep his options open, stated his desire to return to the Hawkeyes if he has the ability to do so.
Four newcomers have signed with the program. Ethan Harris and Jaidyn Coon, both four-star high school prospects according to the 247Sports Composite, will give the Hawkeyes more foundational pieces for the future. Iowa filled its glaring transfer-portal needs with the additions of dynamic guard Ty’Reek Coleman and 7-foot-3 big man Andrew McKeever.
It will be a different dynamic next season without Stirtz, but Iowa has the pieces to have another successful season.
“We’re not trying to replace Bennett Stirtz,” McCollum said when asked about Coleman. “We’re not going to. You’re trying to be what we’re supposed to be next year, not what we were last year. So every year is unique to every situation, and if you try to replace and say this guy’s got to be Bennett, (former Northwest Missouri State star Trevor Hudgins), this, this — it just doesn’t work like that.”
Perhaps somewhat overshadowed by the attention of the Elite Eight run is the fact that McCollum suffered the most losses in a single season since his second campaign leading Northwest Missouri State, which was all the way back in 2010-11. The Hawkeyes certainly had growing pains last season, highlighted by road losses to Maryland and Penn State, who finished the regular season at the bottom of the Big Ten standings.
Iowa’s 13 losses last season are not the norm for McCollum, a four-time Division II national champion who lost only four games in his lone season at Drake.
What he learned from losing more than he typically does is not shocking for someone who possesses a fiery competitiveness.
“It’s not very fun,” McCollum said. “That’s about it. It’s not very fun.”
He continued: “I learned the league a little bit more. For two years, you don’t ever really have like a grip on things because you’re kind of just hustling for two years. Because with Drake, you’re trying to create that program, so you’re kind of in a hustle mode — like get this thing going. And then you’re here, and you’re trying to hustle. So you don’t really have your feet underneath you. And now, it feels like we’re starting to get our feet underneath us and know exactly what we want, know exactly how to get there and really trying to move that direction consistently.”
Follow Tyler Tachman on X @Tyler_T15, contact via email at ttachman@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: After Elite 8 run, what’s next for Ben McCollum and Iowa basketball?
Reporting by Tyler Tachman, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
