After his introductory press conference on March 25, new Iowa Men's Basketball Head Coach Ben McCollum has been feverishly working to rebuild the Iowa roster. The roster was depleted after long-time Head Coach Fran McCaffery was fired last month.
McCollum is attempting to navigate the transfer portal to rebuild the roster. He added five transfers from the portal (all from Drake) and an elite recruiter, Luke Barnwell, to his coaching staff in an attempt to bolster the roster.
McCollum sat down with 106.3 KXNO radio in Des Moines, Iowa, to discuss his plans regarding the roster and the transfer portal.
Ben McCollum expects to add 'four or five' more transfers to Iowa basketball roster https://t.co/80EVGQISA7
— Hawk Central (@hawkcentral) April 8, 2025
On Thursday, McCollum detailed his goals for the Iowa roster and how he wants to use the transfer portal to accomplish those goals.
The 30-day transfer portal window opened on March 24. According to Front Office Sports, as of April 10, 2,033 players entered the transfer portal. That equates to about 35 percent of the total players in college basketball.
In the interview with KXNO, McCollum stated the transfer portal is a lot of hit-and-miss. He said you can go for two to three days talking to a lot of people, and no one commits. Then, during a "dead period," you will get several commits.
McCollum is optimistic the program will add four to five more players via the transfer portal before the season begins. He noted Iowa needs more bigs, shooting, and shooting from the wing. Bigs and wing shooters are key in the Big Ten due to the physicality in the paint.
McCollum also noted losing Josh Dix (transferred to Creighton) and Pryce Sandfort (transferred to Nebraska) to the transfer portal will hurt, but they were in tough positions after McCaffery was let go.
The biggest point McCollum reiterated was his desire for the community to be involved in the rebuild. Community involvement was a key part of his introductory press conference, and he re-stressed that during the interview.
It remains to be seen what the 2025-2026 Iowa roster will look like, but McCollum is relying on the transfer portal to complete it.