Ben McCollum adds Jesse Shaw and Xavier Kurth to his coaching staff

Iowa Men's Basketball Head Coach Ben McCollum continues to rebuild the Iowa program after the 2024-2025 season. This also includes rebuilding the coaching staff.

McCollum has brought over multiple coaches who were with him at Drake, including Josh Sash, Bryston Williams, and Connor Wheeler. He also added an elite recruiter, Luke Barnwell, to his staff from Texas Tech.

On Wednesday, McCollum rounded out his staff with two more assistant coaches he worked with at Drake.

Jesse Shaw (chief of staff)

Jesse Shaw reunites with Ben McCollum after coaching with him at Drake last season. Shaw and McCollum were also teammates at Northwest Missouri State. Shaw began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for Emporia State University from 2006 to 2008.

While working at Emporia State, he worked with McCollum, a full-time assistant coach.

Shaw also made stops as a head coach at Pratt Community College (2011-2016) and Maryville (2020-2024) and as an assistant coach at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (2016-2020).

As the head coach of Pratt Community College, Shaw elevated a last-place program to championship contenders. He accumulated a 92-69 record, coached 15 All-Jayhawk Conference and 8 professional basketball players.

He was named NJCAA Region IV Coach of the Year and the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association Junior College Men's Coach of the Year.

While at Maryville, Shaw accumulated the second-highest winning percentage in program history.

Xavier Kurth (director of player development)

Xavier Kurth joins the Hawkeyes after coaching with Ben McCollum at Northwest Missouri State and Drake. Kurth was also a player for McCollum when he was the head coach at Northwest Missouri State.

As a player at Northwest Missouri State (2014-2018), Kurth helped guide the Bearcats to a 35-1 record and their first National Title during his junior season

Kurth was a part-time assistant coach under McCollum at Northwest Missouri State (2018-2022) before becoming a full-time assistant at Northwest and Drake (2022-2024).

Head Coach Ben McCollum has completed his coaching staff with the additions of Jess Shaw and Xavier Kurth. Shaw and Kurth will look to provide the same help they gave to McCollum at Drake when the team finished with a program-record 31 wins.