IOWA CITY — Ben McCollum landed his first transfer portal commitment less than a day after his official hiring as the 23rd men’s basketball coach at Iowa last Monday.
Bennett Stirtz, who followed McCollum to Drake from Northwest Missouri State last offseason, announced his intentions to follow McCollum to Iowa City while pursuing potential NBA opportunities.
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Ben McCollum hypes up the crowd during his introduction as head coach of the Hawkeye men's basketball team Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. ETHAN PETRIK, Quad-City Times
With one commitment in his pocket and a roster with only six players remaining and no incoming freshman, McCollum laid out the rest of his plan to remake the Hawkeyes’ roster during his introductory press conference last Tuesday. He also explained what he learned during a similar process at Drake last season when only one scholarship player — Nate Ferguson — returned to the Bulldogs after Darian DeVries’s departure.
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“Positively first, tough kids win. Connected groups win. Groups that serve each other win. Kids that work with a level of humility win,” McCollum said. “And that hasn't changed. So, with the portal, you have to make sure you can identify those intangible talents very early, because the physical gifts are pretty easy to identify. But as you see throughout the portal, some of the teams that may spend the most money or, on paper, may have the most talent don't necessarily win because they're not a connected group.
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Iowa forward Cooper Koch lines up a shot during an exhibition between the Hawkeyes and Minnesota Duluth at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Friday, Oct. 25. ETHAN PETRIK, Quad-City Times
“What I've learned from Drake is that don't overthink, just because somebody is getting a lot of money here, that he's a better fit for what you do. We continue to trust our own eyes at Drake, took people that we thought could really help build and sustain a culture so that we can continue success into the future.”
According to McCollum, the lessons learned at Drake apply the same to Iowa but at a higher level.
“You do have to take certain transfers, but again, that goes with Hawkeyes making sure that we try to retain some of the kids that are wanting to go into the portal right now and do it quickly,” McCollum said. “… You know, it's the same thing that I learned at Northwest Missouri State. You can't complicate winning. Like it is what it is. It's the same thing, kids that serve each other love each other.”
McCollum’s plan started with three Iowa players in the transfer portal who McCollum wants back.
“One thing we can start with -- I don't see a ton of the players -- is see if we can get Pryce (Sandfort), Cooper (Koch), Josh (Dix), see if we can get them some support as well,” McCollum said. “Maybe just text them or tweet them or anything like that and get them excited about coming back to the University of Iowa and making this thing grow. That would be good support to start.
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Iowa's Pryce Sandfort, right, draws a foul during a game against South Dakota at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Tuesday, Nov. 12. ETHAN PETRIK, Quad-City Times
“…How cool would it be for some of them to be a part of -- obviously they finished towards the bottom, but now moving up towards the top, and they're the reason for the change. Like that to me is as cool as it gets. And that's our sell to them. And we're going to continue down that path, and we're going to fight for them to maintain and be, because they're loved here. We love our Hawkeyes. We love Iowa. And we want them to stay. I feel like it's going good, but I don't know. We'll find out here.”
After Koch’s recommitment to the program on Sunday, McCollum refocused his efforts on Sandfort and Dix.
“We need to continue to push the envelope with Josh (Dix) and Pryce (Sandfort) to let them each know how important they are to Hawkeye Nation,” McCollum said.
Sandfort visited Nebraska, according to a report from On3’s Robin Washut, last week and set up a visit to Illinois, according to a report from 247Sports’ Derek Piper, early this week.
According to On3’s Joe Tipton, Dix visited Creighton and Indiana on Monday. Dix also reportedly visited Illinois last week per Piper.
After Stirtz, Koch, Dix and Sandfort, McCollum’s strategy for the offseason took on an approach akin to an NFL general manager attempting to extract the most value out of a draft pick — pick the best player available.
Be it through the transfer portal or via last-minute high school recruiting in the class of 2025, McCollum said his program will take a look at anybody in the portal and anybody it feels can help the program.
“You probably take the best players,” McCollum said. “… I think to be a great program here at Iowa, I think it lends itself to building a culture, and so I think retention is probably your most important thing. And I also think making sure that your 15th, 14th, 13th, even 12th guy are guys that are developing and continuing to grow and get better so that they can become your one, two, three, four, five guys.
“…I'm not sure we're going to red shirt a bunch of people, but I am saying you do need to have some good quality high school kids in the program. Specific to 2025, we're going to take the best players.”
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Ethan Petrik is a University of Iowa beat writer for the Lee Enterprises network. Follow him on X or send him an email at ethan.petrik@wcfcourier.com.
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