Change has been the name of the game for the Iowa Hawkeyes men’s basketball team this offseason. From a new head coach to a roster revamped by the transfer portal, the Hawkeyes will look vastly different from the way they have for the past decade.
Ben McCollum, a proven winner, takes over as head coach and has brought some of the best transfer portal talent in the country with him. How that talent meshes will be a big factor in Iowa‘s success.
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The roster that McCollum has built is an upgrade from last year when Iowa missed the NCAA Tournament. Is it enough to get the Hawkeyes back dancing?
CBS tiered the entire Big Ten, placing each program into one of five tiers:
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Tier 2: Top 25 caliber club
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Tier 3: NCAA Tournament team
Iowa finds its way into CBS and Isaac Trotter’s NCAA Tournament team tier.
Projected Starting Lineup:
G Bennett Stirtz (Drake transfer)
G Brendan Hausen (Kansas State transfer)
G/F Cooper Koch
F Alvaro Folgueiras (Robert Morris transfer)
F Cam Manyawu (Drake transfer)
Top bench options: G Isaia Howard, F Tavion Banks, G Kael Combs, F Trevin Jirak
The scoop: Iowa’s Big Three of Stirtz, Folgueiras and Ben McCollum isn’t one to be trifled with. Stirtz instantly gives Iowa one of the elite point guards in the Big Ten, and Folgueiras’ secondary playmaking and off-movement shooting helps make him a snug fit in McCollum’s scheme. Toss in another remarkable movement shooter in Hausen paired next to excellent cutters like Manyawu and Banks, and the bones of a tough-to-guard offense is in place.
There are some faults to pick at. The guard depth isn’t great. Iowa could use another late-cycle addition. Who is the answer on the wing? Can Koch or Howard take leaps as sophomores? While many are concerned about the interior defense, does Iowa have a real point-of-attack defender that it loves? That’s maybe a bigger concern for me. But McCollum has earned the benefit of the doubt as a talent-elevator who will play a style that best fits his team’s chances. His teams are so well-schooled defensively and refuse to allow easy buckets which could mitigate some of the warts. Plus, when a coach and a point guard are in lockstep like McCollum and Stirtz, you have a chance to do damage. This is another tournament-caliber squad, but I’d be surprised if Iowa is in the thick of it to win the Big Ten regular-season title with some of the holes. – Isaac Trotter, CBS Sports
Should Iowa want to be dancing come March, their depth is going to be the greatest question mark that they have to answer all year. The top-heavy lineup features scoring, talent, and shooters, but if Iowa gets into injury or foul trouble, things look a bit more bleak.
McCollum has won with less talent, as he proved last year in the NCAA Tournament, leading No. 11 seed Drake to a victory over No. 6 seed Missouri in the first round. With a bevy of talent at Iowa, McCollum and the Hawkeyes have the pieces in place to make a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2023.
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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: CBS shares Iowa basketball Big Ten tier ranking
