Ben McCollum shuts down reports linking him to other jobs after leading Iowa to Elite 8 in first season
It's no surprise that Ben McCollum's name is coming up after his run in his first season with the Hawkeyes.
Ben McCollum isn’t going anywhere. The Iowa head coach shut down any reports of him taking a different high-profile job opening this offseason on Friday, one day before the Hawkeyes are set to play in their first Elite Eight in decades. “Yeah, those are all lies,” McCollum said in Houston, laughing.
“The only person that would ever know [about my plans] would be, well, three people, would be my athletic director, my wife, and that’s about it. I guess two people. ” It’s easy to see why McCollum would be a target for a top program with a coaching vacancy this cycle.
He was hired to replace Fran McCaffery in Iowa City last summer, and he’s already led the Hawkeyes to the Elite Eight after massive NCAA tournament wins over No. 1 Florida and No. 4 Nebraska.
Iowa hasn’t been to the Elite Eight since the late 1980s. He’s had plenty of success elsewhere, too, with a remarkable and rare coaching path. McCollum spent more than a decade at Northwest Missouri State, where he won four Division II national titles.