How good will new Iowa basketball transfer pickups Ty’Reek Coleman and Andrew McKeever be next season? Any definitive statements made today would be pure speculation.
Coleman started 12 of Illinois State’s 33 games as a freshman last season.
McKeever has started 10 of his 53 career games over two seasons at Saint Mary’s.
Expecting either player to be as refined as, say, Bennett Stirtz would be ridiculous.
But what we can definitively say is that in Year 2 under Ben McCollum, Hawkeye men’s basketball is starting to look how the head coach wants it to look long-term.
Throughout his first season at Iowa, which as we know ended in a thrilling Elite Eight run that exceeded all expectations, McCollum spoke about wanting to build his program around development and player retention. Ultimately, McCollum would like to portal-proof his roster — in other words, not rely on the NCAA transfer portal year after year.
McCollum did what was needed in Year 1, bringing in familiar faces from Drake (including an elite point guard in Stirtz) and acquiring big-ticket transfers Alvaro Folgueiras and Brendan Hausen (who mostly underperformed their high price tags but contributed in their own ways to McCollum’s early Iowa build).
Year 1 at Iowa was about establishing the team’s “Impose Your Will” culture and restoring enthusiasm from a fan base that became apathetic in Fran McCaffery’s final years as coach. Done and done.
Now, Year 2 and beyond at Iowa will be about player development and building toward even bigger achievements than the program’s first Elite Eight since 1987.
That became completely obvious with the weekend acquisitions of the 6-foot-2 Coleman and the 7-3 McKeever.
In adding both, McCollum addressed the roster’s two biggest needs — point guard and big man — while allowing both still-raw players the time in his system that will be required to push the program higher.
Of the 13 scholarship players on the Hawkeyes’ 2026-27 roster, nine are freshmen and sophomores. Let’s take a brisk look at the roster breakdown.
The freshmen (4)
One of the most underrated things that McCollum did in Year 1 was redshirt 6-8 forward Trey Thompson, an exceptionally skilled and athletic wing. It had to be tempting to play Thompson at times, but patience by the coach and player will now be rewarded. Also redshirted was 6-2 guard Peyton McCollum, the coach’s son, and he’s a good little player. Don’t sleep on his potential impact.
And now they get to blend with incoming athletic, versatile four-star forwards Ethan Harris (6-9 from Camas, Washington) and Jaidyn Coon (6-7, from Storm Lake), neither of whom will have pressure to make a major early impact. It’s an ideal on-boarding scenario for both.
The sophomores (5)
Ty’Reek Coleman will have time to grow into what McCollum hopes will be the point guard of the future.
Just look at Iowa’s NCAA Tournament run to capture a window into the growth that was shown from 6-8 forward Cooper Koch and 6-7 forward Tate Sage. Koch buried seven gigantic 3-pointers in the wins over No. 1 seed Florida and No. 4 seed Nebraska, while Sage’s career-high 19 points off the bench vs. the Huskers was the pinnacle of a strong developmental campaign.
Closer to the rim, intriguing 6-11 big man Trevin Jirak will have a much larger opportunity, and 6-9 Joey Matteoni remains a depth piece. Jirak has a tremendous inside-outside skill set and, like Thompson, mostly got to learn and develop as a Hawkeye rookie.
The juniors (3)
The return of 6-5 Isaia Howard gives McCollum that bulldog mentality in the backcourt, but he’s not really the 3-point shooter that can extend the defense.
And then there’s Andrew McKeever, whose most important contribution next season will be to increase Iowa’s ability to hold serve (or win) on the glass. That sizable lesson was reinforced after 24 games against Big Ten Conference competition (regular season plus postseason). McKeever ranked No. 2 nationally in offensive-rebound percentage, per KenPom.com, at 19.8%.
Iowa’s third junior is 6-2 Jacob Koch, who returns as a walk-on depth piece. Scholarship or not, rosters are capped at 15 players.
The seniors (2)
Getting 6-4 guard Kael Combs to return became a massive bridge piece for McCollum to target a developmental point guard like Coleman in the portal. Combs is very capable at handling the point, as he showed when allowing Stirtz to play more off the ball when needed this past season, and can provide the structure and guidance to bring Coleman along with the idea that he can take over completely for his final two seasons.
And with the excitement over McKeever, it’s easy to overlook the return of 6-9 Cam Manyawu, who had to play as an undersized center so often last season. Manyawu allows Iowa to play small (at the 5) or play big (if he’s at the 4), depending what McCollum needs.
The Hawkeyes have one roster spot remaining, so they can smartly hold that in case Tavion Banks is granted a waiver to return, or if they find another portal piece they like (perhaps a shooting guard?).
McCollum’s major portal work this cycle is done.
Now the developmental work continues. That was always the plan for McCollum, and it’s clearly coming into focus. Obviously, getting back to the NCAA Tournament should be the bar for this 2026-27 team at least until we see the full potential of the group next November and December.
But squinting ahead to 2027-28, if McCollum’s roster plan of developing and retaining comes to fruition, there’s a lot of roster firepower (in both quality and quantity) worth being excited about.
Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 31 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad’s text-message group at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ben McCollum’s Year 2 Iowa basketball plan becoming clear | Leistikow
Reporting by Chad Leistikow, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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