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Iowa Finalizing Deal to Hire Drake's Ben McCollum
Iowa appears to have its replacement for Fran McCaffery.
On Sunday, news broke that the Hawkeyes were finalizing a deal to hire Drake's Ben McCollum as their next men's basketball coach. McCollum and the Bulldogs lost their second-round NCAA tournament game on Saturday, falling 77-64 to Texas Tech.
McCollum was in his first year at Drake and led his team to a 31-4 record and the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament titles. Before that, he spent 15 seasons at Northwest Missouri State, where he won four Division II national championships. Overall as a head coach, McCollum carries a record of 426-95 (.818).
Drake will be replacing a head coach for the second consecutive season. Darian DeVries left the program for West Virginia last year and has since gone on to take the Indiana job.
McCollum will replace McCaffery, who coached the Hawkeyes for 15 seasons, posting a record of 297-207 (.589) while reaching the NCAA tournament seven times. McCaffery was fired at the end of the 2024-25 season after going 17-16.
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Ryan Phillips is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in digital media since 2009, spending eight years at The Big Lead before joining SI in 2024. Phillips also co-hosts The Assembly Call Podcast about Indiana Hoosiers basketball and previously worked at Bleacher Report. He is a proud San Diego native and a graduate of Indiana University’s journalism program.