The Iowa Men's Basketball season has finally arrived! Well, almost. Over the past few months, Iowa hired new Head Coach Ben McCollum, rebuilt the depleted roster, and hit the court for some offseason workouts.
When McCollum took over the program at the end of March, Iowa had one scholarship player on the roster (Jacob Koch). After convincing Cooper Koch to return, McCollum still had to replace most of the roster.
McCollum and his staff relied heavily on the transfer portal to fill the roster. They added six former Drake players, Alvaro Folgueiras (Robert Morris), and Brendan Hausen from the portal.
The program also added Trevin Jirak, Tate Sage, and Peyton McCollum from the 2025 recruiting class.
After the dust settled, the roster was finalized at 13 players. The Hawkeyes hit the weight room and the court for the first time this week and released some of the footage.
McCollum is getting his guys ready, and a few things stood out from the video. 2024 Missouri Valley Player of the Year Bennett Stirtz was carving up the defense and had a great lob to a teammate for a basket.
What also stood out was the chemistry on day one. It will be easy with six transfer players from the same program, but the guys already look locked in.
The fans also noticed and took to social media to share their first impressions.
We are all cautiously optimistic that Iowa will improve over last year's 17-16 (7-13 Big Ten) record, but the confidence in Iowa to be really good is amazing.
So are we, Tanner, so are we. If McCollum's speech does not make you want to run through a wall, check your pulse.
Time will tell if the Men's Basketball program is back, but we love the confidence (and the George Kittle GIF) ahead of the 2025-2026 season.
A furious clapping GIF adequately describes how most Hawkeye fans are feeling ahead of the college basketball season.
McCollum and the Iowa Men's basketball program have a long way to go, but day one is in the books.