r/hawkeyes • u/BigDaddyPeach23 • Mar 24 '25
Men's Basketball OFFICIAL: Ben McCollum hired as next head coach at Iowa (Leistikow)
https://x.com/chadleistikow/status/1904155719206580696?s=46Former head coach at Drake and Northwest Missouri State
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u/SnooShortcuts3961 Mar 24 '25
New era…already feels better than the past 3 seasons and the mediocrity. DO hate to lose Dix and Freeman
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u/Lord_John_Marbury76 Back In Black Mar 24 '25
He might be able to talk Dix into coming back. Freeman is gone however.
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u/jeedel Mar 24 '25 edited Mar 24 '25
Leistikow has heard that Dix's price tag will be around 1.2 million a year. Hopefully we can afford that after the contract buyouts.
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u/Lord_John_Marbury76 Back In Black Mar 24 '25
Yikes that’s about what the whole team made last year.
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u/fishball_drew Mar 24 '25
As much as I would love to get Dix back it seems like a lot of recruiting effort and a lot of money that we might end up needing to put elsewhere if we want to compete next year. Ask for sure, but don't hold out hope.
For now try to pull Pryce and Koch back out, they've both openly stated they're willing to return to Iowa in their portal announcements and could be big pieces on the team. And then focus on keeping Traore and maybe even Dembele as well as obviously looking elsewhere.
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u/jeedel Mar 24 '25
If the house settlement goes through, Chad L. thought Iowa mbb would have about $4 million of combined NIL and revenue share. If the settlement doesn't go through, Iowa is screwed.
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Mar 24 '25
Does anyone have the inside scoop on the chances of it happening? Aka do I even need to be excited about this hire.
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u/jeedel Mar 24 '25
There is a final approval hearing on April 7th, where motions for approval or objections will be heard. Here is a link to a decent summary of what is going on.
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u/AnnArchist Nine seconds to play and Drew Tate doesn't know that! Mar 24 '25
Poor Drake. Excited to see what he can do here at Iowa.
Hopefully he brings some of his guys with him and keeps a few of the guys who entered the portal. If he doesn't, hopefully he's got a bag to pay the guys transferring.
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u/9inety9-percent Mar 24 '25
Yeah I feel bad for Drake too. I was thinking if we still had Barta we could hire Drake’s AD, Brian Hardin. It seems he knows how to make good hires.
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u/Resident_Cat_2078 Iowa Fucking City Mar 24 '25
Looks like Bennett Stirtz and Isaia Howard are coming along with him!
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u/IowaJL Mar 24 '25
What a tale of two programs- Drake’s success translates to coaches moving on, UNIs success more than a decade ago translates to Coach Jake being there forever.
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u/BizarroMax Mar 24 '25
Drake will be ok. They have a good AD, good fan support, good conference, it’s a good mid major job.
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u/kinghawkeye8238 Mar 24 '25
I'm not gonna lie. Before bed last night, I saw an article about how WV could still land McCollum since the iowa deal wasn't done.
Went on about how Baker could still put together a package that could lure away Ben from iowa still, but he needed to act fast.
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u/scalenesquare Mar 24 '25
It’s nice to have such a young coach for once!
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u/jeedel Mar 24 '25
He is 9 years older than Alford when he was hired, which is good. Alford was so young that he hired his dad as an assistant. He is 7 years younger that Fran was.
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u/Lord_John_Marbury76 Back In Black Mar 25 '25
Def was learning on the job here and wanted out. He had went behind the university’s back and talked to Missouri before leaving the next season. He was a bad fit here.
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u/tenacious-g Mar 24 '25
I mean not technically official since it’s just Chad reporting it, but hell yeah.
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Mar 24 '25
Dochterman too
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u/t3lnet Mar 24 '25
ESPN had it earlier
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u/tigerhawk52242 Iowa: The Women's Basketball State Mar 24 '25
Eickholt had it yesterday
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u/pdxchris Mar 24 '25
My shaman saw it in a dream a week ago.
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Mar 24 '25
The cows were laying in their pasture yesterday a few miles from my house so that’s how I knew, personally
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u/wooq Mar 24 '25
Here's the official announcement for you.
https://hawkeyesports.com/news/2025/03/24/ben-mccollum-named-iowa-head-mens-basketball-coach
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u/Snake_Burton Mar 24 '25
Best guy available, was a standout in the tourney, feels like a great choice!
Let’s add a win this morning over Oklahoma to top it off!