Ben McCollum has an obvious answer to Illinois's size, and it's already proven to work

There are two main reasons Cinderella stories have essentially disappeared from the NCAA Tournament, at least in the past few years. First, there is the obvious culprit: NIL and the Transfer Portal, which are systematically funneling talent upwards to the richest Power Conference programs. Then, there’s the way those programs are spending that money. 

The best teams in college basketball all seem to have one thing in common this season: size, and a lot of it. Rather than living in the high-variance world of five-out offense and nearly 40 threes a game, top contenders have upset-proof their teams with multiple bigs and a physical style to dominate the rim on both ends of the floor. 

Florida won a national championship with that philosophy last season, and this year, despite flaws in a rebuilt backcourt, the Gators, with their three-big lineup, ranked first in the country in rebound differential and fifth in paint points differential. Yet, with only one player over 6-foot-9, Alvaro Folgueiras, who came off the bench and eventually hit the game-winning three, Iowa matched Florida with 27 rebounds and outscored them in the paint 32-30. 

That took a heroic effort from Iowa’s front court, but also a brilliant game plan from Ben McCollum, who has quickly cemented his place as one of the best single-game coaches in the country through two years in Division I. Now, he’ll need to do it again in the Elite Eight against an Illinois team that gave his Hawkeyes trouble in Iowa City earlier this year. 

Iowa stumbled into the right recipe with Bennett Stirtz in foul trouble

Against Florida, McCollum didn’t try to match the Gators’ size; he used a meticulously crafted motion offense to pull that size away from the rim. Against Illinois, that will be difficult. The Illini are just as big as Florida, boasting multiple seven-footers in a deep front-court rotation, but judging by Brad Underwood’s game plan against Houston, pulling them away may not be an option. 

Luckily, this won’t be McCollum’s first time seeing Illinois. The Hawkeyes lost to the Illini 75-69 in the regular season, but even that loss revealed an effective formula for Iowa to lean into. 

Bennett Stirtz has played every minute of the NCAA Tournament so far, but in the regular season, he wasn’t logging 40 minutes every night. Against Illinois, he found himself in foul trouble, sending him to the bench for seven minutes, and during that stretch, Iowa was +7, relying on a big wing-heavy lineup with Kael Combs, Tavion Banks, Tate Sage, Cooper Koch, and Folgueiras (per CBBanalytics.com). 

The Hawkeyes’ best lineup with Stirtz on the floor replicated that recipe with Stirtz, Combs, Sage, Koch, and Manyawu, which posted a +5 in just four minutes. That same group with Folgueiras in for Manyawu went -2 in 12 minutes, essentially playing the Illini to a stalemate. 

Iowa has its principles. McCollum is going to play at a deliberate pace, and his team is going to value possession and force turnovers. Aside from those tenants, McCollum can be something of a chameleon, and since he already knows which appearance his team needs to take on Saturday, you can be sure he’ll be ready for it.