Iowa's Ben McCollum Could Be College Basketball's Curt Cignetti

All Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Ben McCollum does is win.

Mar 25, 2026; Houston, TX, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Ben McCollum speaks during a practice session press conference ahead of the south regional of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Is Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Ben McCollum becoming the college basketball equivalent of Indiana’s Curt Cignetti?

That’s a particularly bold query. For one, Cignetti is coming off an extraordinary run to a national championship at a school that had almost zero history of success in college football. What he’s done with the Hoosiers in two years is unfathomable and will almost certainly never be replicated at that magnitude ever again. On many other levels, however, McCollum and Cignetti match up fairly well, making this discussion extremely interesting.

Let’s start at the most basic level. Both coaches dominated the Division II ranks — McCollum won four national titles at Northwest Missouri State before making the move to Division I at Drake and Iowa, while Cignetti, who didn’t actually win a national championship until he arrived at James Madison, was able to make the postseason three times, making it as far as the quarterfinals in 2012.

But the level of winning doesn’t really matter. The similarity lies in the fact that both coaches started at one of the bottom rungs of college athletics, found success and then parlayed that success into fantastic future opportunities.

Ben McCollum is the Curt Cignetti of College Basketball pic.twitter.com/Ug02Ah4GvI

— Onyx (@OnyxOdds) March 27, 2026

Perhaps the most glaring parallel is the fact that no matter the school, McCollum and Cignetti just win. Cignetti said it best himself back in 2024 when he arrived in Bloomington and proclaimed to the world that he “just wins.” While McCollum hasn’t exactly made that same exaltation, his persona and gravitas exude that same confidence. McCollum just flat-out wins, no ifs, ands or buts.

McCollum and Cignetti Share the Same Confidence

Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti during Indiana University spring football practice on Thursday, March 26, 2026. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

That same confidence defines his rise.

It’s now McCollum and Iowa’s job to make the comparison between them and Cignetti justifiable. If the Hawkeyes can somehow take down the Illinois Fighting Illini in the Elite Eight and move on to the program’s first Final Four since 1980, then there will be no doubt in anybody’s mind that McCollum has what it takes to become the next Cignetti, this time in college basketball.

Even then, there will be some who won’t feel the need to heap praise on the Iowa men’s basketball coach. That’s understandable — it is just his first year on the job, after all. But don’t get it twisted: Ben McCollum has done more for Iowa basketball than Fran McCaffery ever did in 15 years in Iowa City.

The Hawkeyes are in the Elite Eight, for crying out loud. Just like with the Hoosiers, no one in their right mind believed that such a feat was possible. With McCollum, though, everything seems possible.

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