Heading into the summer months, Iowa Hawkeyes basketball inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena and across the Big Ten is still months away, but the work never stops in today’s college basketball world.

A much more newsworthy offseason in Iowa, following the departure of Fran McCaffery and the hiring of Drake head coach Ben McCollum, has only continued to gain momentum as the Hawkeyes have been active in the transfer portal.

As is the norm in today’s world, head coaching changes have a domino effect on rosters, creating mass departures on the heels of the news, which are followed by a roster revamp through the transfer portal. Iowa saw both of those and relied on Ben McCollum to rebuild the roster with external talent.

McCollum has done that, and his roster rebuild grades among some of the best for first-year head coaches in college basketball, per CBS Sports.

Iowa, Ben McCollum

McCollum is bringing five rotation players with him from a 31-4 Drake team that beat Missouri in the NCAA Tournament. None is more significant than Bennett Stirtz, the Missouri Valley Player of the Year who averaged 19.2 points and 5.7 assists for the Bulldogs. 

Horizon League Player of the Year Alvaro Folgueiras from Robert Morris will bring some toughness to the frontcourt and stretch the floor. Brendan Hausen is a 3-point gunner (38.8% on seven attempts per game) from Kansas State. But this roster all centers around Stirtz, who will be in his third season (and third different uniform) playing under McCollum. He closed the cycle as the nation’s No. 3 ranked transfer and will be appearing on preseason All-American lists. Grade: A- – David Cobb, CBS Sports

Iowa’s starting lineup is nearing solidification, headlined by Bennett Stirtz and a handful of other transfers. The biggest question mark that still looms is who will fill in the other guard spot by Stirtz and Hausen, or if Iowa will lean on a bigger lineup using multiple bigs.

Whatever the route is, the Hawkeyes are preparing for a new-look offense that will slow things down and play a much more calculated offense, as opposed to the high-scoring track meet offense that fans had become accustomed to.

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