Ben McCollum Says Iowa Ready for Conference Play

After having just won 17 games in the entirety of Fran McCaffery's last season on the Iowa Hawkeyes' sideline, the team has already managed to chalk up 11 prior to conference play in their first year under head coach Ben McCollum. Not only has the program's latest leader turned things around, but a new standard has been set in Iowa City for men's hoops; at least, ahead of the team's toughest stretch of schedule all season.

That has the potential to complicate things. Yet, as the Hawkeyes continue their analytical rise (now ranked No. 25 in the AP Poll), stacking blowout win after blowout win, confidence in the team's ability to weather the incoming conference-wrought storm has only rightfully risen.

Following the team's latest victory - a 90-62 rout at home against the UMass Lowell River Hawks - McCollum spoke about his team's non-conference encounters thus far, detailing how they've prepared the group for bigger challenges down the road.

Not only is it about knowing what you're capable of, but who you are as a team.

An Indelible Mark

"I think it's prepared us," McCollum said of Iowa's non-conference schedule. With that portion of the season concluded, the Hawkeyes officially went 10-1 in such games, setting an indelible, positive mark on the coach's first season at the helm.

"I think we've gotten better, I think guys have really improved. They've grown."

Ben McCollum talks about Iowa's win over UMass Lowell. @HuesmannKyle
WATCH: Ben McCollum, Hawkeyes talk win over UMass Lowell: https://t.co/BeHPfwqVJa
— HawkeyeReport.com (@HawkeyeReport) December 30, 2025

"We know what it is," he continued, apparently in reference to both the strength of his team and the schedule that they'll soon have to endure. "Our two road games were fantastic games for us to play... got us ready. And now we just have to carry it over into B1G play."

Success Carrying Over

Thus far, if Iowa has ground an identity in anything, it's slow, smash-mouth basketball with senior guard Bennett Stirtz leading the charge. If Stirtz notches 30+ minutes and Iowa's opponent scores around or below the 70-point mark, you may as well chalk it up as an Iowa victory.

The team's two lonely losses, both coming against ranked teams, are outliers for a squad that needed to be shaken before such games are being played on a regular basis.

With the UCLA Bruins coming into town next - a team that has flirted with a consistent national ranking of their own - what Iowa has learned about themselves thus far will have to be applied under the microscope of B1G relevance.

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