Ben McCollum won’t have to move very far for his next job.
Iowa agreed to a deal to hire the Drake men’s basketball coach Monday morning, according to multiple reports, after he led the Bulldogs to a 31-win season and the second round of March Madness in his first season in Des Moines.
Now McCollum, a 43-year-old Iowa native, will make the short trip to Iowa City to try to turn around a Hawkeye program that hasn’t seen a Sweet 16 since 1999.
Iowa fired Fran McCaffery earlier this month after 15 seasons and a program-high 297 victories. They went 17-16 this season, including a 7-13 Big Ten record, and missed the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year.
The Hawkeyes defeated Ohio State in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament before falling to Illinois in the second round.
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Before his lone season with Drake, McCollum coached Division II Northwest Missouri State for 15 seasons, winning four national championships and earning five national Coach of the Year awards along the way.
McCollum replaced Darian DeVries at Drake when DeVries left for the West Virginia job; DeVries just replaced Mike Woodson at Indiana after only one season in Morgantown.
As a No. 11 seed after winning the Missouri Valley conference title, Drake took out No. 6 Missouri, 67-57, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to No. 3 Texas Tech, 77-64, on Saturday in the second round.
Drake was led on the court by junior guard Bennett Stirtz, who averaged 19.2 points, 5.7 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game.
