Ben McCollum Wants to Make Iowa a Basketball School

The Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball program has, in recent years, seen middling success as a result of their own self-imposed mediocrity. Under former head coach Fran McCaffery, the boys in black and gold were steadily becoming regular bottom feeders in the B1G, floating just above .500 (McCaffery finished his final season 17-16 overall) and proving to be little more than a buffer for actual conference competitors to test themselves with.

Something had to change, and with the firing of McCaffery and subsequent hiring of head coach Ben McCollum, change came in Iowa City. Now 9-2 in the latter HC's first season at the helm, and Hawkeyes hoops is looking more promising than it has in years, at least on the men's side of things.

Yet, while the team is performing at a high level, the fanbase hasn't fully matched their commitment by showing up in the stands. As the Hawkeyes keep winning - their latest being a 91-51 home rout over the Western Michigan Broncos - calls for the Iowa faithful to respond with their presence are growing more and more dire.

Why Not Here?

Following his group's home win over the aforementioned Broncos, McCollum spoke on this discrepancy, challenging the idea of any school being relegated to one sport and promising to fill Carver-Hawkeye arena in the future.

"I think sometimes, you have to be careful to not accept, like, okay, there's these basketball schools that are there. There's these football schools or whatever. Why can't you do something like that here?" McCollum asked, following yet another blowout win at Carver-Hawkeye arena in front of a semi-present crowd.

Ben McCollum: "I think sometimes, you have to be careful to not accept, like, okay, there's these basketball schools that are there. There's these football schools or whatever. Why can't you do something like that here? Why can't you? I think sometimes you may accept it and it's… pic.twitter.com/qTTr529Epy
— Tyler Tachman (@Tyler_T15) December 14, 2025

"Why can't you? I think sometimes you may accept it and it's like, okay, well, this is just how we're going to show. And it's not how we're going to," he assured.

"We're going to get (Carver-Hawkeye Arena) full. Like, that's what we're going to do. We're going to fight for it until we can't anymore."

Iowa has their 9th win by December 14th. Something they haven’t done since 2014.
— Ben Stan (Fran Stan) (@HawkeyeBBFan) December 14, 2025

As Iowa continues to make positive history with McCollum working towards a high-win season behind the wheel, it appears to be a question of when fans will show up in droves, rather than if they will at all.

On the back of the HC's promise to procure just that, men's basketball in Iowa City is trending towards one of their most memorable seasons in recent memory. McCollum continues to prove that his hire was the right one, and (hopefully) sooner rather than later, black and gold fans will fully show out in response to his rapid success.

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