Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - EXCLUSIVE: Iowa Basketball Coach Ben McCollum Joins the Show - Andrew McKeever & Tyreek Coleman IGNITE Elite Eight BUILDING Blocks-

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Iowa Hawkeyes men’s basketball target a return to national prominence after last season’s Elite Eight breakthrough. Head coach Ben McCollum discusses building on momentum, fresh roster additions like 7’3” Andrew McKeever and Tyreek Coleman, and the fierce pursuit of a dynamic 2027 point guard. Will McKeever’s prowess in the pick-and-roll and Coleman’s versatility unlock new levels for the Hawkeyes’ offense? Host Trent Condon presses on high-stakes non-conference scheduling—including marquee showdowns with Creighton and Iowa State—while exploring how the analytics-driven approach could boost Iowa’s NCAA tournament resume. Player development updates spotlight Tate Sage’s emergence, Trevin Yurok’s improved three-point shooting, and what to expect from sharpshooter Trey Thompson. Can McCollum’s adaptable style and relentless scouting help Iowa repeat its postseason magic and deliver unforgettable moments for Hawkeye Nation? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome into a special edition of Lockdown Hawkeyes. I'm Trent Condon, joined today by the head coach of Iowa men's basketball, Ben McCollum, who joins us here today as we talk all things Hawkeyes. Coach, good to see you once again. We had this conversation in the same spot about a year ago. And things feel, I'm sure, a little bit different than you getting your feet wet last season leading into year number one. How's everything this summer? It's been great.

You know, it's nice to not move. So that's been good. And to have a full roster at the specific school that you're, you're at this time of year has been has been really nice and fairly refreshing. So, you know, hopefully that refreshing feeling will, will lead to some more wins next year. Absolutely. Well, a successful season culminating in the elite eight appearance, I was able to make my way down to Houston for that one. And 12-2 felt like, here we go, eight minutes to play. You're eight minutes away from a final four.

You know, as you reflect back to that way the season ended, so many great moments, obviously the wins against Clemson, Florida, Nebraska in the NCAA tournament. But when you look back at that Illinois game, have you popped in the tape? Have you gone through it again and looked and thought, well, outside of maybe adding a little bit more size that you guys have done, what else could have been different those final eight minutes? Yeah, you know, I probably haven't watched it enough at this point. Sometimes it just, I need a little time to do that. I've watched other games, and I did watch the game passively, but not to an evaluation standpoint quite yet.

but will before we started our gym workouts. You know, my guess is, is, you know, when I watch it passively, a lot of the offensive rebounds that we gave up were not from their size. It was from their guards. You know, I thought our game plan was actually pretty good. You know, I think just how we defended them, we forced low percentages, et cetera, but then they were just able to get offensive rebounds a little bit too easy, specifically from their guard spots.

So then we weren't able to score enough, you know, down the stretch. So, you know, I think we've addressed some of that. And, you know, hopefully, hopefully we can get one step further next season. Let's talk a little bit about when you look back at year number one, highs, low is definitely some disappointing else in there and some great highs that you guys had throughout the course of the season. How would you say year number one went overall for the program? Yeah, I mean, I think when you're building, I think you really have to, just from an internal perspective you really have to stay process focused and that's what we try to do you try not to get

high and low i know you lose a game you shouldn't lose and it's the end of the world um you know from a fan's perspective and not from an internal perspective necessarily because that's that's sometimes a part of the process unfortunately and if you allow that roller coaster to impact your moods and the way you coach i think so often you can't see that good trajectory because the trajectory doesn't just go nice and smooth straight up. It's still up and down, but it continues to trend the right direction. And I thought this year we did trend the right direction in a lot of ways, specifically just getting people more involved in the program, creating a place for people to be proud of, you know, proud of, proud of the kids that we have. And then obviously, I think we got a lot of kids returning that

gave a lot of effort and understand the program now. you look back upon the season and of course it's still about building you're losing Bennett Sturts who'll be a first rounder coming up here in just a few weeks in the NBA draft tavian banks still waiting a decision but doesn't seem likely I guess at this point that he's going to be back for an extra season of eligibility you went into the portal though and one thing that definitely jumped out to me is you know I started to dig into synergy a little bit and I don't know it nearly as well as you guys do over there but just seeing both McKeever and his ability, not just as a rebounder, but him in the pick and roll game.

And you guys don't ask a whole lot out of your centers. You know, traditionally you have a 7 foot three guy now. Are you going to be traditionally posting him up a little bit more? Or is it playing to the strength that he has? And that was definitely in the pick and roll game. Yeah, I think so often people assume because he's tall, you just post him up. I think you, the reason you would post up is to get layups right underneath the rim, not necessarily to back somebody down per se.

usually you back people down with, you know, a 6-7, 6-8 guy, you know, where it's a little bit more agile, physical, that kind of thing with Andrew. He's really good passer, like elite passer, elite screener, obviously really good offensive rebounder. And, you know, from a statistic standpoint, I think his post-ups were points per possession were like 0.6 or 0.7 somewhere in that range. but his finishes on rolls was around 1.4 or somewhere around there. I guess I'd probably have to see it to be sure, but it was pretty high. And then on top of that, his ability to pass out of those situations is high level. And so just using some of those things the right way is something that we've really looked to. And then defensively being able to guard, you know, just being able to guard defensively

from, you know, whether it's being in a show in ball screen coverage or being in some type of drop, whatever that may be. You know, I think you could be really impactful for us. Tyreek on the other side, Tyreek Coleman comes in from the NBC. Obviously, you knew the Missouri Valley after you're at Drake and a guy that, you know, I heard somebody kind of relay it this way, that, you know, if we go back five years ago, 10 years ago, he would have been a Big Ten kid coming out of high school. He might have been at Michigan State or something like that. But the way recruiting has changed, the transfer portal has changed.

he had to start out in the NBC. Another guy, though, that seems to work really well in the pick and roll game. Yeah, I mean, he's a good player. You know, I think he's got good length. You know, I think I always say, like, sometimes you got to get one step ahead of the kid that everybody wanted. Like, so, for instance, if he spends another year at Illinois State, does his market become almost impossible to get him? You know, does he then go average 20?

Or are you one step ahead, one year ahead of exactly, you know, where he should be? And now he's able to develop in your own program, develop those relationships and continue to grow and get better. And, you know, we're hopeful that it was the second part of that. That's how we evaluated him, even throughout this season. Just the way we play in our style, sometimes it's a different kind of fit for a kid like him. Do you see him and Kail being able to play together, that they complement each other in the back court? We see both those guys on the floor together a bunch? I mean, you just, I don't know until the season starts who's going to be on the floor.

So we, you know, we kind of, you know, I, you hope that all 13 guys or 14 guys can play. You know, I mean, it's one of those deals. So I don't really think too much into that. I do know that we've played, over the years, we've played two point guards together pretty consistently, and we're not afraid of that. So it can be that or can you go super big and play, you know, play somebody else at the point. Do you have to play a true point? You know, can you be more NBA style and play a wing that brings the ball up and play through splits?

Like you can do a variety of different things. I don't think we necessarily need to be exactly what we were last year. We're going to, you know, we're going to change and adjust some things and hopefully for the better. Well, you're not moving at this time as you were a year ago, but you're still traveling a bunch with AAU terms. tournaments happening across the country. And point guard recruiting has definitely been a big one. I know you can't speak individually about any players or anything like that. But just overall, how you feel it's going and kind of looking at that class of

2027 and trying to find a point guard. Yeah. I mean, we're identifying those and, you know, really any position that can play at this level is kind of our thing. But obviously, we've really put an emphasis on a point guard and then obviously put an emphasis on a few big guys or even just, you know, or big wings, if you will, and just play a little bit different.

So, you know, we think we're, we feel pretty good about where we're at with quite a few, but it remains to be seen. And it'll tell us more once our team gets here in June just to see exactly what we have. And that'll help with the recruiting process as well. Well, as you learned a year ago when we first spoke, you know that I'm a huge scheduling nerd.

I absolutely love that stuff. and I asked you when I saw you over in West Des Moines a couple of weeks ago about it on conference scheduling and how that's going. I got the Creighton game in the books. Of course, Iowa State. A few of the buy games that are there also. There's been a lot of rumblings about you potentially maybe locking up a either home and home or even neutral court affair with an SEC program. Can you break some news for us today, coach? No, no, I can't break news. We've got a good schedule.

We've got, I think we're pretty close to finishing our, you know, we'll probably have around five or six power fives and then the rest will be by games. And I think we've done a really good job of trying to identify what we need from an NCAA tournament perspective, but also try to excite the whole state of Iowa. You know, sometimes it's difficult to get home and homes. The neutral floors sometimes are a little bit better. But if you go play an MTE and a neutral floor in California, your fans, can't come watch you. So, you know, obviously we played a neutral floor. We're playing a neutral

floor in Des Moines versus Creighton. You know, I think that allows the fans to see us. It allows a good power five, you know, competition. Obviously, I think Creighton will be, you know, a top, top 25 team. They generally are. And so, you know, that's a good deal for the state of Iowa. And so we've tried to place an emphasis on that with our neutral floors and then still try to get a home at home. They still try to consistently get those, but those are few and far between. When it comes to scheduling the buy games, we know the net system in the way that I don't think manipulate maybe is the correct terminology for it, but you can definitely game it a little bit, go out there, a beat a bottom rung team and beat them by 40.

That's going to help you out in the net rankings. When you're looking at that, is it a specific number that you're looking for for those by games? We're going to take on a team that's probably going to be ranked in the 320s, as opposed to maybe somebody in the 150s? Yeah, I don't know that there's really an exact science to it. I probably thought there was more of an exact science going into last year. And I think my opinion's probably going to change every season for the next 10 seasons until it's like just this clean little process of how to make the NCAA tournament.

But as we learn, okay, what factored into last years, why did that work? and how can we try to accomplish what some of those other teams did. As we learn that stuff, we'll adjust our schedule based on those things. And so, you know, I do think there's a good mix of Power 5 competition.

I don't necessarily think, you know, last year I probably would have been complete Quad 4. I don't necessarily think I'm totally there right now in regards to that. I do think you have to make sure you're careful not to schedule somebody that's, you know, a 75 in the net. You know, those are dangerous games because they're good enough to beat you, but it's also a game that you have to win.

And so, but it's also a game that maybe you guys aren't quite excited about. So, like, there are some things that you're thinking about there, but, you know, we've dove into the analytics of it. So, you know, a lot of our scheduling will reflect that. we're trying our best right now. But part of that, too, is you have to convince guys to play you. So it's not like you can just go schedule exactly like Duke can schedule. Like they get a pick who they schedule every single season.

But, you know, I think we've been able to schedule a little bit better this time around. I think more people are excited to play us, which is helpful. You know, and I think our schedule should be as good as it can be. I want to ask you about a couple other guys going into next season, including a couple of guys that played as freshmen. Start with Tate Sage, a guy that, you know, you just heard his name a couple of times. I know during the summer last year, and he kept popping up. He was the last guy that made the flip over from Drake.

And we're just kind of waiting. All right, we'll see. Maybe this is a developmental guy. Boy, his growth throughout the course of the season, the link that he has. And first time I saw him go up, go baseline and dunk, I said, ooh, there's a little juice to that guy. Tate Sage now going forward. What kind of players are he going to be?

Yeah, hopefully a good one. No, he's, uh, it. Obviously, he really came on down the stretch. You know, he came in big games in particular. I think there's a few things going into next year that'll be interesting to see. You know, I think guys that saw a lot of minutes, you know, particularly Tate Sage or whoever it may be, there's also a transition of we need you to get better because it could be a slightly different role. Or it could be the same depending upon how you improve or what,

happens with the rest of our personnel. And then there's guys that probably didn't play at all. Or, you know, we had a couple kids redshirt, had a couple freshmen coming in. How are those guys going to acclimate and how quickly that'll happen? So every year is a new year. And every year's unique in how we're going to play. And so, you know, with Tate or just anybody else, it's, okay, so how much better can you get? What are some things from your game that you can eliminate that might have hurt you?

And then, you know, what else can we improve on? And I have to ask you about Trevin Yurok, got to know the family, live in the West Boyne District and call a lot of high school basketball here. You told me back a couple of weeks ago that Trevi was looking different. What can you expect out of him? He just has such a unique offensive skill set for a big guy. I mean, he's been excellent, particularly offensively. He's been really good in this postseason, really shooting it at a high level from three.

He obviously has a really good ability to pass. He's a quick processor, all those different things. Now just trying to figure out from a defensive perspective, can we get him as good defensively as he is offensively is our biggest thing now. And he's put a lot of work into it. You know, he's been in the weight room. He's been conditioning.

He's completely changed his diet. His body is changing. He's pretty motivated. So I'm excited to see what happens with him. And finally one more, Trey Thompson. After the redshirt season this year, a lot of questions about, you know, how he acclimated in year number one,

not being able to play, had the illness that took him down for a while. And a guy that he let it slip, I know, during the NCAA tournament, that he was shooting over 43% during practice from three. So that excited some people with his size, his skill set, and now going into his redshirt freshman campaign,

where you are with Trey Thompson. Yeah, I mean, Tray's ball goes in, meaning, you know, when he shoots it, it goes in a lot. and that's a big deal at our level. Obviously, very bouncy. Again, same concept with any really good offensive player. Can we defensively get him to where he's that good?

And he's shown a lot of flashes and a lot of signs of that throughout the, throughout last season, into the postseason and whatnot. And, you know, it obviously works. We were excited when we signed him and we're really excited right now about him coming into next season and just gives us a different kind of look, different kind of weapon and, you know, we're hopeful that he has a great summer as well. Final thing for you, Coach. We're the same age.

We've talked about this before. We grew up, huge Hawkeye basketball fans, what have meant in the state, and to deliver what you guys did in year number one, getting the Sweet 16 for the first time since 99, getting to the elite eight for the first time since 87, those memories that I don't live with both of us, and seeing the fan base the way that they jump back in and getting into it. I look back to the Nebraska game and just that environment that you had a carver for that night and that great victory that you had, you know, being an Iowan and

having that kind of success and doing things that haven't been done for men's basketball. What does that mean for you personally? I mean, it's, it's, it's cool to hear some of the stories of where people were watching those games. You know, I think the whole goal of being a college basketball coach

is to have a platform to try to change people's lives. If it's even just give them two hours of joy where they're not thinking about all the random stuff that goes in on a in our society, you know, it's, if it's just that, then it's awesome. If it's bigger than that, like, hey, these are how my kids act, my players act, this is how the world should act, that kind of thing, then that's great too. Or if it's just me simply going out in the community

and shaking people's hands and trying to make their days, you know, that's, all those things are a big deal. And to hear some of those stories of, of, you know, hey, this was one of the better years of just college basketball because we were able to see this. That's a pretty cool deal. And those are memories that those people will have for the rest of their life. And we're excited to be able to provide as many as we can. Coach, you've had a lot of success in those one and done tournaments throughout the years. A D2, Drake winning a game.

And of course, this year to the elite eight. What is it about the program and the program that you build year after year that you guys have had that success come NCAA tournament time and the quick turnaround time that comes along with it? Yeah, I think we're able to scout really quickly. We're able to turn scouts around really quickly because we don't change our defense a ton. We'll just adjust little nuances. And then from an offensive perspective, same things. We just complicate a few things and we're able to perform.

But I think most importantly, we have a level of fight. And it's winner go home. And when that happens, you've got to have fighters out there that are able to compete and be able to take these games home. Ben McCollum, head coach of the Iowa men's basketball team, getting ready for year number two. Coach, appreciate the time as always good catching up and we'll try it again here before the season begins. Yes, sir. Thanks a lot. That's Ben McCollum joining us here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for being with us.

As always, I'm making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day, your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Until then, go Hawks. Boom. Awesome.