Iowa hires former D2 national champion Ben McCollum after season at Drake

IOWA CITY, Iowa. (KCTV) - Former Northwest Missouri State head coach Ben McCollum is headed to a power conference job after just one season at Drake. On Monday, McCollum was named the head coach for the University of Iowa’s men’s basketball program.

McCollum, 43, went 31-4 at Drake after departing from Northwest Missouri State last spring. On Saturday, he and the Bulldogs were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament in the Round of 32 in a 77-64 loss. It came after the 11th-seeded Bulldogs defeated No. 6 seed Missouri on Thursday.

At Northwest Missouri State, McCollum won 81.3% of his games over 15 seasons, including four national championships.

This season, he brought several players from Maryville with him to Drake where he was named Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year and became one of 10 coaches nationally named as a semifinalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year.

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He coached Liberty, Missouri, native Bennett Stirtz, who was named the Larry Bird Missouri Valley Player of the Year, and Kansas City, Missouri, native Tavion Banks, who was named MVC Sixth Man of the Year. Stirtz and Banks were part of a group of McCollum’s players with ties to the Kansas City area. Seven of the top eight players in the rotation for McCollum’s Drake team were either from the Kansas City metro area or the state of Missouri.

“Returning to Iowa City as the head coach of the Hawkeyes is a dream come true for me and my family,” McCollum said in a release from the University.

McCollum is an Iowa City native as well.

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