On Tuesday afternoon, Iowa and new head men's basketball coach, Ben McCollum held his introductory press conference in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The former Drake and Northwest Missouri State head man, McCollum shared his plans and goals for the program as he is set to lead it in a new direction.

With quite an undertaking ahead, McCollum has a long task list to check off. Knocking the press conference out of the park, the Hawkeyes' new head man addressed several key issues the program has faced and that he plans to address in leading the program.

Five quotes from the presser stood out most regarding McCollum's plans for Iowa.

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The attendance at Iowa men's basketball games in Carver-Hawkeye Arena has rapidly declined for the last several years. Fans have grown apathetic, and the 2024-25 season saw some of the worse attendance the program had faced in three-quarters of a century.

McCollum clearly wants to change that, referencing his desire to fill seats in Iowa's home arena several times during his introductory presser.

"We want to create that home court advantage, which is something that we have done before," McCollum said in his opening statement. "We want to do that here and create a level of excitement for everybody at Iowa and get it to what I remember when I walked into Carver, and loud, full crowds -- get it to that point."

In addition to winning games, McCollum has a vision that includes fan and student engagement in order to put butts in seats.

"Our players are going to connect with the students," he said. "I need to connect with the students, and our whole program does. .. You've just got to be out, man. It's Iowa. Like you've got to shake hands. When you're in the grocery store and they come up to you, you've got to say 'Hi.' Like, what do they say, 'Iowa Nice' It's God's country, as we say. So just do little things like that, and I think it goes a long way."

A lifelong Hawkeye fan that was born and raised for the first few years of his life in Iowa City, McCollum's fandom directs him to connecting to former players, as well.

"Some of these former players are, again, they were my idols growing up. Like the NBA I didn't watch. I watched the Iowa Hawkeyes. Like those are my guys," he said. "Getting them involved, too, and just creating this awesome environment like that throughout the summer."

One thing fans -- potentially those that have checked out of attending games -- have clamored for over the last 15 years of the Fran McCaffery era is for the Hawkeyes to play more consistent defense.

As we've previously laid out, McCollum's teams have done a whole lot of that in his days as a head coach. He plans to continue to emphasize that side of the ball in Iowa City. Interestingly, McCollum's said emphasis on defense was illustrated when discussing his offensive philosophy.

"I think from an offensive perspective, you want to be efficient. Why do you want to be efficient? Because you can set your defense," McCollum began. "So, if I put the ball in the basket more times and you have to take it out of bounds, I can set my defense. If I take a good shot and get you in rotation, I can get an offensive rebound. So, shot selection and the ability to get quality shots equals efficiency, which allows your defense to set, which allows you to play good defense."

With that answer, McCollum clearly illustrated his main offensive philosophy -- efficiency. In his days at Northwest, the Bearcats routinely ranked top five nationally in offensive efficiency -- not in just D2, but every college basketball program between D1, D2, D3, NAIA and JUCO. While at Drake, the Bulldogs weren't ranked last in the country in offensive tempo for fun, it was simply their best strategy to win.

"I would prefer to play faster," McCollum said. "I would say probably middle of the pack is usually where our teams would sit. But we're going to make sure that we play the best way that our personnel has success, and that's just what it was this year. But we'll always play defense."

Before McCollum took a single question, he shouted out several players from last season's roster he wants to stay with the program.

"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."

With a very different basketball philosophy and demeanor than McCaffery (at least so far), it won't be more of the same under McCollum. Things are going to change -- but he values what those players bring to the table, and he's got his own recruiting pitch to keep them in black and gold.

"I think we just need to make them understand that it is home and that we're coming back out to support them and we're going to fight for it," he said. "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."

Maybe the best pitch of all, McCollum's teams have won on a regular basis wherever he's been.

"[We're] 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 said. "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 and his staff have yet to add any former Hawkeyes that entered the portal back onto the roster, but they're not going down without a fight.

"We're going to continue down that path, and we're going to fight for them, 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."

In addition to recruiting former Hawkeyes, one of McCollum's former players in Maryville and Des Moines plans to join him in Iowa City. Bennett Stirtz, an AP Honorable Mention All-American, led the Bulldogs in points (19.2), assists (5.6), steals (2.1) and minutes (39.4) this season en route to earning the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Player of the Year Award. He also added 4.3 rebounds per contest for the MVC regular season and tournament champion Bulldogs.

Though McCollum couldn't spell out the fact that Stirtz is planning to follow him to Iowa because, well, Stirtz hasn't even entered the transfer portal yet, he did discuss what Stirtz meant to his team at Drake this year.

"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 laughed. "[What makes him a fit] is his level of humility. The other guys that I coached at Drake, exact same. Like just they're humble people that want to serve and want to grow and get better."

Stirtz embodies what so many of McCollum's previous point guards have brought to the table.

"He's long and he's athletic, and he's got a competitive fire as much as there is," McCollum said. "Bennett would prefer to score zero points and have everybody else score 20. That's his mentality, and that's never changed. That's how all my point guards will operate."

With his four D2 national titles, 13 regular season conference championships and nine conference tournament championships between NW Mo. St. and Drake, McCollum has taken plenty of trophies home in his days as a head coach.

"The reason we went to Drake was because we felt like we had an opportunity to win the Missouri Valley Conference Championship and get to the NCAA Tournament," he said. "We felt like they were resourced enough to be able to do that."

In taking the position at Iowa, one of his main focuses was joining an administration that had a similar vision.

"It was important through the conversations with Beth (Goetz) that she was on the same page as me," McCollum said. "She might have even been on a further page ahead in regards to wanting to bring championships here. ... I've always felt like you needed to take a job that you can win championships and compete for them on a consistent level. Beth has given me that opportunity and given resources to make sure that we can do just that."