Inside Iowa's basketball roster: How Ben McCollum used transfer portal to build March Madness contender

Inside Iowa's basketball roster: How Ben McCollum used transfer portal to build March Madness contender originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . Ben McCollum’s first season with Iowa has been a remarkable success, as he’s led the Hawkeyes to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999.

McCollum has had a ton of success as a head coach, winning four Division II tournament titles with Northwest Missouri State. He then left Division II to coach Drake last year, where he led the Bulldogs to the NCAA tournament in his only season at the helm. When McCollum took the Iowa job, it became clear he wanted to hit the transfer portal to build his team.

The 44-year-old relied on landing a few of his players from Drake, which became the nucleus of his team in Des Moines this season. Here’s how McCollum built the 2025-26 Iowa Hawkeyes. MARCH MADNESS HQ: Live NCAA bracket | TV schedule | Latest news and more Iowa basketball depth chart 2025-2026 PG SG SF PF C Bennett Stirtz Kael Combs Tavion Banks Cooper Koch Cam Manyawu Jacob Koch Isaia Howard Tate Sage Alvaro Folgueiras Trevin Jrak Peyton McCollum Brendan Hausen Joey Matteoni Trey Thompson Ben McCollum completely overhauled Iowa’s roster this season, as just two players on this year’s team also played for the Hawkeyes last year.

Those players are Cooper Koch and Jacob Koch, and both were largely depth pieces in 2024-25. Cooper Koch played in 10 games last year, averaging 13. 6 minutes per game, and has taken a huge step forward this season, starting 35 games while averaging 27.