One of the most common topics in Ben McCollum's introductory press conference as Iowa's new head coach was the roster and how he would assemble a team for the 2025-26 season. It's an understandable question -- Iowa has had seven players from the current team enter the transfer portal since Iowa parted ways with Fran McCaffery and two incoming recruits in the 2025 recruiting class have decommitted.
McCollum had a lot to say about how he'll go about constructing his first roster in Iowa City. He started by noting in his introductory statement that he was interested in retaining -- or bringing back -- some of the current Hawkeyes who have entered the portal, singling out Pryce Sandfort, Cooper Koch, and Josh Dix in particular.
"See if we can get Pryce, Cooper, Josh, see if we can get them some support as well, 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," McCollum said.
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He noted that he had already been in contact with some of the players and spelled out part of his pitch to them -- to be the driving force behind restoring Iowa basketball to success.
"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," McCollum said.
"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."
McCollum has recent experience with rebuilding a roster quickly -- he had to do the exact same thing when he took over the Drake job a year ago. He discussed some of the lessons that he learned from that experience as well.
"Tough kids win. Connected groups win. Groups that serve each other win. Kids that work with a level of humility win. And that hasn't changed," McCollum noted. "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."
"What I've learned from Drake is that [you] don't [need to] overthink, just because somebody is getting a lot of money here, that he's a better fit for what you do," McCollum added. "And so 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."
McCollum also discussed how he would pitch the Iowa program to other players in the transfer portal, singling out a handful of key themes.
"You know, one, it's the University of Iowa. Like I think it's a big deal," he said. "I think it's pretty cool to be here. I love the campus. I love everything surrounding it. I love the support. I love the fans. I've been around it my whole life. So you sell that, number one."
"Two, the relationships that we're going to have with them is a dig deal," he added. "So we sell the people. So we'll sell the people that -- my assistants, my staff. We'll sell anyone that's in the program at that point."
"And, three, just making sure that they understand we've won a lot, and if you want to be infected with some of those winning characteristics that we can bring to the table, this is where you should be," he noted. "And if you want to go somewhere else for a certain amount of whatever, then go do that. But we're going to make you better."
McCollum also addressed the question of recruiting high school players, particularly in the current class of 2025. He emphasized that Iowa would cast a wide net to try and find talented players and wouldn't close off any avenues and that he was very open to adding high school recruits if they were a good fit for what he wants to do at Iowa.
"Honestly, you probably take the best players. So if there's a 2025 that's available and is one of the best players, then we're going to sign him. I'm not afraid of that," McCollum noted.
Beyond 2025, McCollum underlined the importance of recruiting high school players and, crucially, not just recruiting them to the program -- but also retaining them in the program and developing them year after year. Player development has been a key element of McCollum's success in his previous coaching stops and that won't change at Iowa.
"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," McCollum explained. "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," he added. "Specific to 2025, we're going to take the best players."
Finally, McCollum expanded on his thought process in recruiting and developing point guards. Strong point guard play has been a key factor for nearly all of his past teams and that won't change at Iowa. He talked about what he looks for in a point guard.
"You gotta have an unselfish kid, I think first and foremost," he said. "And all my point guards have been very unselfish. They've always averaged more with me than they have in high school. And so I kind of force them to be great, essentially."
Bennett Stirtz, who is planning to transfer to Iowa for next season and was McCollum's point guard at Drake this season (and at Northwest Missouri State before that), serves as an excellent example of what McCollum looks for in a point guard.
"Specific to Ben, I mean, he's probably, if he's not the best point guard in the country, he's top two or three. So that's pretty good fit right there," McCollum said.
"All the guys that we've had operate with a level of humility, meaning they're able to be coached at a high level," McCollum added. "They don't think they're bigger than the program itself. They understand the value of other people, and that allows to have elite amount of success. And obviously they're good basketball players as well."
"But for [Stirtz] specifically, more importantly, is his level of humility. And the other guys that I coached at Drake, exact same," McCollum explained. "Like just they're humble people that want to serve and want to grow and get better. Bennett would prefer to score zero points and have everybody else score 20. That's his mentality. And that's never changed. And that's how all my point guards will operate."
