At both of his previous stops before the University of Iowa, Head Coach Ben McCollum was known for rebuilding his teams from the ground up.
During his first stop as head coach with Northwest Missouri State, it took a few years for McCollum to establish his culture and get the players he wanted in the door, but once he accomplished those feats, he never looked back.
After a combined 22-31 record during his first two seasons with Northwest Missouri State (2009-2011), McCollum established a winning culture and won 20-plus games in every season until he took over at Drake for the 2024-2025 season.
Before taking the head coaching vacancy at Drake, McCollum built a dynasty at Northwest Missouri State, compiling a 395-91 record with four Division II National Championships (2017, 2019, 2021, 2022)
In his first and only season at Drake, he brought multiple players from Division II with him, and guided them to a 31-4 (17-3 Missouri Valley Conference) record, the MVC regular season and conference tournament titles, and a an NCAA Tournament berth.
McCollum and his "DII Drake" squad dominated the MVC and put the program in the national spotlight.
After guiding Drake to one of the most successful seasons in program history, he took the head coaching vacancy with Iowa Men's Basketball following the firing of long-time Head Coach Fran McCaffery.
McCollum had to rebuild a program's roster once again and has earned recognition for the job he and his staff did to rebuild the Iowa roster through the transfer portal.
Coming in at No. 🎱 in the team transfer rankings! #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/Z1asrPaWKt
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) August 1, 2025
247 Sports ranked Iowa's transfer class as No. 8 overall following the eight talented players the program added to the roster.
Three of the transfers, including Bennett Stirtz (No. 3 overall), Alvaro Folgueiras (No. 49 overall), and Brendan Hausen (No. 127 overall), were ranked in the top 150 of all transfers in the 2025 transfer portal rankings.
Ben McCollum and Iowa Men's Basketball have come a long way since McCollum first stepped on campus, and the talented transfers that he was able to add are a good start to rebuilding the program.