Drake's McCollum headed to Iowa
MBB: In his first year with the Bulldogs, McCollum led Drake to the NCAA Tournament
After one season in Des Moines, Iowa, Ben McCollum will take I-80 east 114 miles to Iowa City for his next coaching stop.
The University of Iowa officially announced the hiring of the now former Drake head coach on Monday morning. McCollum will replace Fran McCaffrey, who was dismissed earlier this month after 15 seasons with the Hawkeyes.
McCollum looked to casual observers to be an overnight sensation at Drake, but he was far from it. The 43-year-old spent 15 seasons as the head coach at Division II Northwest Missouri State, where he had an overall record of 395-91. McCollum led the Bearcats to at least a share of a conference championship in his last 11 seasons there, making the Division II national tournament in each of those 11 years, while winning four national championships in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022.
When Darian DeVries left Drake for West Virginia after leading the Bulldogs to a pair of NCAA Tournament trips in 2023 and 2024, McCollum stepped in and Drake never missed a beat.
The Bulldogs started this season 12-0, highlighted by wins over Vanderbilt, Miami (FL) and Florida Atlantic. After losing back-to-back conference games to UIC and Murray State in early January, Drake would win 18 of their next 19 games on their way to winning Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament championships.
After beating Missouri in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, Drake’s season came to a close on Saturday with a 77-64 loss to Texas Tech.
With McCollum leaving, there is natural speculation that Drake’s Bennett Stirtz, the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year that came from Northwest Missouri State with McCollum, will join his coach at Iowa. On the day the transfer portal is opening, there has been no announcement yet about what Stirtz plans to do.
"We are grateful to the student-athletes, coaches, staff, and fanbase that helped make this historic year possible," Drake Director of Athletics Brian Hardin said in a statement today. "Certainly, we hoped for more than 12 months together with Coach McCollum, but Drake fans will always remember the feelings that were generated from this magical season. I wish Ben, Michelle, Peyton, Tate, and Grace well in Iowa City."
In the news release, Hardin said Drake will begin a nationwide search for their next head coach.