Last Saturday, No.19 Iowa men's basketball pulled off a lopsided 74-61 win over UCLA. Three days later, they failed to capitalize and lost 70-67 to Big Ten rival Minnesota.
Afterward, head coach Ben McCollum didn't beat around the bush when describing Iowa's performance, per Ethan Petrik of The Courier.
“We just didn't show up,” McCollum said to the Hawkeye Radio Network. Additionally, he went on to say that there is some “sickness going around, but made it clear that it was no excuse for losing.
At the end of the first half, the Hawkeyes trailed the Golden Gophers 31-24. They managed to come back in the second half after outscoring Minnesota 43-39, but it wasn't enough.
In the end, guard Bennett Stirtz led Iowa with 21 points. Lately, Stirtz has been the go-to guy to rise to the occasion for the Hawkeyes. Guard Kael Combs finished with 14 points, and Isia Howard came away with 10 points. Forward Cam Manyawu finished with a team high of eight rebounds.
Cooper Koch had a complete game of 9 points, six rebounds, and three assists. With 1:13 left in the game, Koch drove the ball into the paint to give Iowa a 64-63 lead.
On Sunday, Iowa will head back home to face Illinois. In 2025, McCollum was hired as head coach to replace Fran McCaffery, who had retired. Before that, he coached at Drake University (2024-2025) and Northwest Missouri State (2009-2024).
While at NMS, he led them to four NCAA Division II championships. Additionally, he was a five-time NABC Division II National Coach of the Year. Plus, McCollum received nine MIAA Coach of the Year Awards.
