Iowa Hawkeyes Land Stunning Take Amid Tumultuous Offseason

The Iowa Hawkeyes have undergone a whole lot of change this offseason, starting with firing Fran McCaffery after he spent a decade-and-a-half as head coach of the team.

McCaffery's firing resulted in a mass exodus of Iowa players departing via the transfer portal, as eight Hawkeyes decided to take their talents elsewhere for next season. Iowa also lost some recruits, as well.

But Iowa has replaced McCaffery with upstart Ben McCollum, who just led the Drake Bulldogs to a 31-4 record and an NCAA Tournament win. McCollum has been utilizing the transfer portal himself, bringing in a handful of his former Drake players to fill out the roster.

While the Hawkeyes went just 17-16 this past year, including a pitiful 7-13 mark in Big Ten conference play, some already have high hopes for McCollum and Co. heading into the 2025-26 campaign.

In his way-too-early top 25 rankings for next season, college basketball expert John Fanta has actually incuded Iowa, placing the Hawkeyes 25th.

Presenting my way too early Top 25. What do you guys think??? pic.twitter.com/oNSH7qQxnO
— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) April 8, 2025

Considering how tumultuous the last several weeks have been for Iowa, this is truly a surprising take, especially given how rough of a season the Hawkeyes just had.

Iowa actually got off to a solid start in 2024-25, going 12-4 and losing some close games to good teams over the first couple of months of the campaign.

However, in mid-January, things came off the rails for the Hawkeyes, as they endured a stretch where they lost eight of 10 games to tumble in the Big Ten standings. They managed to upset the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of their conference tournament, but were eliminated by Illinois a day later.

We'll see if McCollum can get Iowa's basketball program back on track.

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