Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - REVOLUTION: Iowa's NEW ERA Begins with DOMINANT Victory as McCollum IGNITES Carver Arena | Defense and Pace REDEFINE Hawkeyes

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Iowa Hawkeyes basketball enters a new era with Ben McCollum's explosive 101-69 debut victory. Can this coaching savant finally restore the program to national relevance?Trent Condon breaks down the Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team's dominant season opener against Robert Morris, highlighting the dramatic cultural shift under new head coach Ben McCollum. The discussion covers Bennett Stirtz's All-American caliber performance at point guard, Iowa's elite 1.53 points per possession offensive efficiency, and the defensive intensity that's been missing from Carver Hawkeye Arena for years. Key topics include surprising starting lineup decisions featuring four Drake transfers, the team's 21 assists on 29 made field goals, and how McCollum's coaching philosophy differs fundamentally from the previous regime.McCollum became just the third Iowa coach to score 100+ points in his debut, joining Ralph Miller and Lute Olson. With upcoming tests against Western Illinois and Xavier on the horizon, the Hawkeyes' trajectory under their new leader takes center stage.Discover why this isn't just another season opener—it's the beginning of Iowa basketball's transformation.Follow Trent Condon on X: https://twitter.com/trentcondonLISTEN TO THE PODCAST: APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-hawkeyes-daily-podcast-on-iowa-hawkeyes-football/id1441592240SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/0GTyz5ygevcGXdTF6QSoEoYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnHawkeyesSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashWith DoorDash Streaks, you save every Saturday you order — stack it up all season and you could save up to $250. Order this Saturday. Keep the streak alive. Fuel your gameday — only with DoorDash. Terms apply. Promo period through 11/18.SupplyHouseJoin the free TradeMaster program today and score serious perks like priority shipping, lower prices, and a dedicated support line. Visit SupplyHouse.com to sign up for free and use promo code SHCOLLEGE5 for 5% off your first order.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ben McCollum's Hawkeye era has officially begun, and what a debut it was. Iowa drops 101 on Robert Morris, cruising to the win. Fast, sharp shooting, a lot of defense, and a whole new energy in Carver Hawkeye Arena. You are Locked-on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked-on Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We are your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast as we come to you after Iowa's big win against Robert Morris

in the Ben McCollum era. Glad to have you aboard with us. I've been covering the Hawkeyes for over 20 years on the radio here in the state of Iowa, multitude of different shows throughout the years. Currently, I'm on the Iowa Sports Radio Network, and you can hear me each weekday from noon to two. Cover the Hawkeyes and a whole lot more with stations in Des Moines, Sioux City, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and the Quad Cities.

Let's get into it, Iowa, 101, 69 over Robert Morris, Iowa easily covers the 22.5 point-point spread, dominating performance out of this squad. And it starts, obviously, with the man at the top. Ben McCollum. So when he's hired, going back to April, and the decision has made that I was moving on for Fray McCaffrey, it was the right choice. You saw a fan base that had checked out on the headhawk.

You saw, even with all the accomplishments of Fray McCaffrey, it felt like they had just hit a ceiling as a program. And breaking through that ceiling, at times, seemed impossible. Even in a crazy place like the NCAA tournament, getting to that second weekend is something that couldn't be attained. Todd Licklater obviously couldn't do it. Steve Alford couldn't do it before him. It's been a long time as we've talked about a ton.

And you every day, or as you certainly know about that, as we've talked about, reminiscing about the past and what Iowa basketball was. Iowa has the guy that can bring this back. Iowa has the guy that can get them back to a level, not yearly, not every single year. But this is a basketball savant. When people talked about Ben McColl,

before I even made the transition to 2D1 last year at Drake, when he was at Northwest Missouri State and winning national championships. And if you ever watched any of those national championship games, just talk to people in the community. Ben McCollum is known as just one of those guys that is wired differently. And when it comes to basketball,

he has that passion. And that passion showed up again this evening in an opener against Robert Morris. We're going to see the gold ties are going to be handed out. And as we saw, they were. And one of my buddies got a handle one. of them in fact saw a couple of pictures floating around on that this is going to be a thing and he is going to connect with this fan base he is going to be exactly what iowa basketball needs

to get them back to relevancy we've had good teams we've had good years but we're waiting for that breakthrough moment honestly i was disappointed less than 10,000 people in the stands I was among the people that didn't show up. Now, my son also had a basketball game last night, so that had something to do with it. But I'll tell you I'm going to be getting to Carver a lot. The energy is returning. And though it wasn't a packed house in the debut, it was a passionate group. And to see Ben McCullough multiple times imploring the fan base to get on their feet,

to change what Iowa men's Iowa basketball has become, this is what they need. Now we get to the game and the defensive intensity, just the absolute want, not the skill, the want on the defensive end of the floor. Because so many times during the previous 16 years under Fray McCaffrey, wasn't that they weren't athletic enough? Like we've seen less athletic teams than what I was had to be able to play defense. It was they weren't coached. They weren't given the skill set necessary.

That's not going to be a problem with Ben McCullum. He is going to do everything possible to get those guys in there to have that one, to dig deep, to go out there and do the things that aren't very fun. That's what you get out of Ben McCullum, and you do it by getting guys to buy in. And that is a group that has bought in. And we talked about the two secret scrimmages against St. Louis University and against Texas Tech. I will loss both those games. But McClems also told us he was his exhibition a little bit. different. And this is a Robert Morris team that was an NCAA tournament a year. Excuse me.

It was an NCAA tournament team a year ago. Now, they lost Alvaro Fulgaris. They lost all their starters from a year ago. Still, coach that have been there for a long time. Has had a lot of success. They've transitioned a bunch of different leagues. They're in the Horizon League now. But this is a almost perennial tournament team. Good program. I mean, you ran him out of the gym. I mean, just racing out to the start that they did. Carver, a little energy back behind one of the baskets at least. And that will be the dentist that, excuse me, that'll be the basket that we see that is going to go with the opponents that we'll be going to in the second half of games.

I'm fired up. I really am. I just, I look at this group. I look at this squad. I look at high level basketball. Getting that energy back. Yes, It's important. But just seeing them do those little things, the extra passes. I mean, how many times? When you go through and look at this game in Iowa, what, gets an assist on 21 of their 29 made baskets, they get to the free throw line and not just get there, knock them down, 36 of 44.

Yeah, 21 assists in 29 field goals. This might have been my favorite note from the great James Allen, the sports information director for Iowa men's basketball. How about this one? I mean, it's just one of those notes that it put a huge smile on my face. 101 points. People talk about pace, how things are going to look and a little different. Well, this team, efficiency-wise, was through the roof.

But this is the note in this one. Iowa opens with the win. McCollum is the third Hawkeye head coach to register 100 or more points in their debut, joining Ralph Miller and Lude Olson. Yeah, yeah, I get it. The opponent, not great. Friday night against Western Illinois, they're going to be even worse.

Next Friday, a week from Friday, though, against Xavier, things are going to start to ramp up. Here we go. We talked about the coach. We talked about the program. Let's talk a little bit about the players. We'll do that as we come back here. Rapid Reaction after Iowa's win,

one-one-69 over Robert Morris, as Iowa gets the debut win for Ben McCullum. We'll talk about All-American Pennants starts. What a performance out of him. I think an eye-opener for a lot of people that didn't see him a season ago at Drake. We'll talk about the players. We'll talk about the performance here.

Rapid reaction. Also coming up on Wednesday, we will have a full episode. This one's going to be a little bit shorter today than our normal episode. Todd Bromelcamp is going to join us. That'll be coming into your feet a little bit later on on Wednesday. Just wanted to give you a heads up here.

This one, a little quicker podcast as we react to the Iowa victory. Stay right there. We continue with more locked on Hawkeyes. Mazda crafts cars for those who do more than simply move. Mazda delivers with every ride. With more I-IHF-S top safety pick plus awards than anyone else as of August 2025. From footwork to breathwork, athletes sweat all the details. Mazda brings this same attention into how they craft every model. Look, your car, it is a part of, you. You're in it every day. You're taking the kids. You're taking the family. You're doing different things. Maybe you're solo. Whatever it is, though, it is a part of who you are. And

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And another thing that is great now, the swivel screen, an absolute game changer, you can go from running on the Tread Plus to strength training without missing a beat. Absolutely love that with Peloton. Set yourself up and let yourself do what you want to do. do to push yourself forward. Run, lift, flex, all there. Explore the new Peloton cross-trading tread today at OnePeloton.com. That's OnePeloton.com. Trent, kind of back with you once again, rapid reaction after Iowa gets the win against Robert Morris 101.69. Thanks for joining us here. Let's talk a little bit about the players as we go through

and I'll break down what we saw in this one. Obviously, I think we all know what we have to do and the way we have to start things up. And that was a play of Bennett starts. Another just incredible performance. And I know there are plenty of people that didn't watch a lot to drink basketball last year. I get it.

I'm here in Des Moines, part of what we do also. So they're always part of the mix. Watch more drink basketball, I'm sure, than a lot of people. That is just more of a casual. watching him at the beginning of last season you could tell there was something special with the guy just something that did look different he controls the pace of the game so well

he's not going to be rushed he's not going to be hurried he's not going to get in tough situations he is going to play the game the way he wants to play the game and he is the embodiment now the other part so the dunk which was amazing

right throwed up keel combs with the alley-up boom two-hand flush and at the game on we're putting away laundry i mean again domesticated life right putting away laundry upstairs as the game's on and my wife kind of turns her head yeah that's that's the point guard this is a different type of point guard than what we've been used to recently he's six four he's stronger than you think the shooting ability You saw the stepback three as he lost to the defender. But he also goes in the post and he'll bully there. There's going to be some smaller defenders this season that are going to learn. He's so good.

And, you know, when you see a guy that started as a D2 player, hasn't played power conference basketball, showing up as he did on the NBA draft list. And not because of the upside of an 18, 19-year-old kid, But as a guy in his early 20s, it's something you don't see. But there's something special. And that's why we go back and we talk about those expectations, right? Why my expectations are so high. Iowa hasn't had a point guard like this in an incredibly long time.

And if he plays at an all-American level, we're not just talking about getting to the tournament. Our sights are going to be a whole lot higher than that. Just saw 13 minutes out of Canmanua as he was out there, got involved right away. They went to him a ton, and he showed what he's going to do. Let's see, what else? Starting lineup. Oh, that was another thing.

Starting lineup was a surprise. I thought Fool Gareth was going to be in there. He wasn't. He played 18 minutes. I thought we were going to see Brendan Housson. And he was not out there. In fact, he didn't make his debut until late in the first half. Tate Sage played a little bit more, I think, that a lot of people saw.

But you had Manmoa, Koch, Tavian Banks, Bennett Sturts, and Isaiah Howard. That was your starting lineup. Four of those guys, great guys, understand exactly what McCollum wants. And they got Cooper Cotch to the loan holdover of the scholarship guys as the other player that was out there. This team has got different pieces. Yurok got out there. Every day, as you know, my affinity for Trev and watching so many of his games, getting to know his family here in West Des Moines over the last three seasons.

And he's going to have to help. he's going to have to be a big body that they're going to have to rely on at times. Fowl trouble hits, those kind of things. Shot the ball much better. But that was, I think, also, you saw them making that extra pass. You're doing the things that Ben McCollum coach teams do. 7 to 15 shooting the ball from the outside. That was eye-opening.

Isaiah Howard, I think you saw a little bit of his athleticism. Kale Combs, too. Watching him last year as the backup point guard to Drake, nice piece. and there's not a ton of minutes because, as we saw, I mean, Sturts didn't leave the game until there was five minutes left, and it played every minute up until that. He doesn't want to leave the floor, and I don't think coach wants him to leave the floor very often either.

But Kail Combs is very competent. And when he comes in, he can put Sturts then off the ball a little bit and do some different things. And that's another thing that McCollum's going to do. He's going to be pushing a lot of buttons. The team is incredibly efficient. Speaking of those efficiency numbers, so I was looking at this after the game.

I want to see if I can still find. find that number that I had popped up here. Oh, yeah, here we go. So you will hear me talk a lot during basketball season about efficiency numbers. I am a disciple of Ken Pomeroy and Bart Torvik and the analytic sites that are out there. I try not to bog things down too much for you. But points per possession, very simple, right? Points per number of possession.

One is average. I was been very good at this metric. And a lot of people were concerned, well, it's going to be the slowdown pace. what's this going to look like? I was scored last night 1.53 points per possession. That's elite. Regardless of what kind of defense you were playing,

that is an elite level. And if they play an elite level offensively, yeah, you might not be scoring 85 points a game. It might be in the 70s. But guess what? Winning basketball, coupled with what you do on the defensive end, that makes it so different. Just watching that team.

Rotate, hedge, screen, hand up, all the things that you look for in a defensive basketball team, and they were absolutely able to do that. So there we are. Iowa gets the win. Told you a little bit shorter here. We got more coming up for you on the feed. Make sure you hit and subscribe if you watch us on YouTube.

That'll let you know whenever there is a new episode coming out for you. We are your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast here. Quick one, rapid reaction as Iowa gets the win over Robert Morris. We'll talk to again later on Wednesday. Until then, go Hawks. Thank you.