As No. 25 Iowa gears up for a marquee Saturday evening showdown against No. 12 Purdue at a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena, head coach Ben McCollum is preaching something that’s not always easy to come by in college basketball circles: patience.
With an 18-6 record (8-5 in Big Ten play), the Hawkeyes are in the thick of the conference race, but McCollum’s focus isn’t just on the here and now. It’s on building something sustainable. And that means trusting the process of player development-even if it doesn’t always deliver instant gratification.
“Year two, year three, year four in our program, guys will shockingly get better,” McCollum said this week, offering a glimpse into his long-term vision for Iowa basketball.
He pointed to Bennett Stirtz as a prime example. Stirtz didn’t just arrive in Iowa City as a finished product.
His journey has been about steady, measurable growth-from a second-team All-Conference pick in the MIAA, to an MVP in the Missouri Valley Conference, to now being one of the top guards in the Big Ten. That kind of trajectory doesn’t happen overnight-it’s the result of time, reps, and belief in the system.
But here’s the challenge: Iowa’s current roster leans heavily on transfer portal talent, and the team’s top two scorers-Stirtz and fellow senior guard Tavion Banks-are both playing out their final season of eligibility. So naturally, the big question becomes: Who’s next?
Which underclassmen are going to take the leap? Who’s going to step into those scoring roles, those leadership roles, once Stirtz and Banks move on? McCollum knows those answers won’t come overnight, and he’s not pretending otherwise.
That’s not to say Iowa won’t dip back into the transfer portal. In today’s game, it’s a tool every program has to use. But McCollum’s vision clearly centers on development from within-on building a culture where players don’t just show up ready-made, but grow into their roles over time.
“You’ll see that guys get better and better and better and better in our program,” McCollum said. “And unfortunately, it does take some time.”
That message might not be what every fan wants to hear, especially in a sport where the pressure to win now is relentless. But McCollum’s betting on the long game-on a system that turns raw talent into refined production.
Still, there’s a big opportunity in front of this team right now. On Wednesday, the Hawkeyes get another crack at Purdue-one of the Big Ten’s best and a team that already handed them a 79-72 loss in West Lafayette back on Jan.
- This time, it’s on Iowa’s home floor, with a raucous Carver-Hawkeye crowd behind them and a chance to show just how far they’ve come in the past month.
Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. CT, with the game broadcast nationally on FOX. It’s a chance for McCollum’s squad to make a statement-not just about where they are, but where they’re headed.