By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Since 1970, the University of Iowa has hired eight men’s basketball coaches, including now Ben McCollum, whose hiring was announced on Monday.

McCollum was born in Iowa City in 1981 and now returns to his birthplace with a reputation for winning at an exceptionally high rate.

He led Drake to a 31-4 record this season, setting a program record for most wins in a season. The Bulldogs also won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 1971.

Prior to his one season at Drake, McCollum was the head coach for 15 seasons at Division II Northwest Missouri State where he won four national titles.

His teams are known for being fundamentally sound and connected on offense and for being relentless and connected on defense.

He by all accounts recruits good kids and he believes in building a culture in which winning is the result of doing things the right way on a daily basis. with no short cuts.

McCollum probably wasn’t on Iowa’s radar when when he replaced Darian DeVries as the Drake head coach.

But as this season progressed and it became apparent that McCollum had something special brewing in Des Moines, Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz had to take notice, especially when Darian DeVries was hired by Indiana after having spent just one season as the head coach for West Virginia.

There was a false and silly narrative claiming that Iowa was Darian DeVries’s dream job apparently just because he grew up in Iowa and is the older brother of former Iowa All-America defensive tackle Jared DeVries.

As it turns out, Iowa is Ben McCollum’s dream job.

“Returning to Iowa City as the head coach of the Hawkeyes is a dream come true for me and my family,” McCollum said in a release “The passion of Hawkeye fans is unmatched, and I am incredibly excited to get started on this new journey together.”

Pardon me for disagreeing with Iowa’s new head coach so soon after being hired, but to say that the passion of Hawkeyes fan is unmatched is a reach.

That might be the case for the Iowa women’s basketball team, and for the Iowa football team.

But when it comes to Iowa men’s basketball, there is a growing disconnect with the fans, and that’s one of the reasons Fran McCaffery was fired as head coach after 15 mostly successful seasons.

Iowa barely averaged 5,000 fans for its 18 home games this season, meaning Carver-Hawkeye Arena was two-thirds empty for the most of the games, which was unacceptable.

And then when Iowa failed to make the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season, Goetz was convinced that a head coaching change was the best plan moving forward.

As is usually the case with every head coaching change, the hiring of McCollum has helped to energize the fan base, at least on social media.

Whether it leads to a massive increase in ticket sales remains to be seen, though, it’s likely that just having a new head coach will put more fans in the seats.

Iowa’s track record in hiring men’s basketball coaches since the hiring of Dick Schultz in 1970 has been hit and miss.

Schultz was certainly a big miss as Iowa finished with a losing record in three of his four seasons as head coach.

Schultz had been an assistant coach under Ralph Miller, so it made sense to promote Schultz to head coach after Miller took the Oregon State job.

Iowa was coming off an undefeated Big Ten championship season and Schultz was in the right place at the right time.

He still would prove to be the wrong hire, though.

Up next was Lute Olson and this time Iowa got it right as Olson would go on to rebuild the program and lead Iowa to the NCAA Final Four in 1980.

Prior to coming to Iowa, Olson was highly successful as the head coach for Long Beach State, but he hadn’t proven himself at the highest level.

Former Iowa Athletic Director Bump Elliott took a chance on Lute Olson and that decision would go on to pay huge dividends for both of them.

George Raveling was hired to replace Olson after the 1982-83 season, but Raveling would only last three seasons in Iowa City as he bolted for the USC job.

Iowa finished with a losing record in Raveling’s first season as head coach and also failed to win an NCAA Tournament game in his next two seasons.

Raveling was one of the few black head coaches at the time and he was considered a master recruiter.

But he still chose to leave after just three seasons and despite having a roster that was loaded with prize recruits that he had recruited to Iowa City.

So, it would be hard to say that hiring Raveling was a success or a failure.

But Raveling certainly gave his replacement, Tom Davis, a rock-solid foundation to build around as Davis would go on do.

Davis coached the Hawkeyes for 13 seasons and made the NCAA Tournament nine times.

He was easily more of a hit than a miss as the head Hawk.

However, Iowa’s next two head coaches after Davis weren’t as successful as Steve Alford failed to make the NCAA Tournament in four of his seven seasons as head coach, and also rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with his self-absorbed personality, while Todd Lickliter finished with a losing record in each of his three seasons as head coach.

Lickliter also never seemed comfortable in Iowa City as he was distant and aloof.

Fran McCaffery inherited a mess when he replaced Lickliter in 2010, but by year two, McCaffery had Iowa playing in the National Invitation Tournament.

Fran McCaffery would go on to lead Iowa to seven NCAA Tournament appearance in 15 seasons as head coach and to 11 Big Ten upper division finishes in his last 13 seasons.

Fran McCaffery in many ways had similar success as Davis, though, Davis inherited a much better situation from a talent standpoint.

It’s impossible to know what McCollum has from a talent standpoint because right now the Iowa roster is almost non-existent with seven players currently in the transfer portal.

Hawkeye fans are hoping that McCollum would bring some of his Drake players with him to Iowa City, and that could be happening as there is at least one report on social media saying that star point guard Bennett Stirtz, who was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year this season, and forward Isaiah Howard will both follow McCollum to Iowa.

McCollum did a masterful job of assembling Drake’s roster prior to this season, and he did so by bringing four of his starters with him from Northwest Missouri State, including the 6-foot-4 Stirtz.

Rebuilding the Iowa roster, on the other hand, will present a different challenge for McCollum due to the level of competition and due to Iowa’s NIL shortcomings.

McCollum wouldn’t have taken the job if he felt that Iowa’s lack of NIL resources was too much to overcome, or something that couldn’t be fixed.

Time and performance will ultimately determine if the 43-year-old McCollum is a hit or a miss.

It could be argued that three of Iowa’s previous seven hires in men’s basketball – Olson, Davis and McCaffery – were hits for the most part, while the other four – Schultz, Raveling, Alford and Lickliter – were misses.

Those seven hires were made by four different athletic directors as Forest Evashevski promoted Dick Schultz to head coach in 1970, while Bump Elliott hired Olson, Raveling and Davis.

Bob Bowlsby then hired Steve Alford in 1999 and then Gary Barta hired Todd Lickliter in 2007 and Fran McCaffery in 2010.

And now Beth Goetz has put her faith and trust in Ben McCollum being a hit for the Hawkeyes because how well McCollum performs his duties will go a long way in shaping Goetz’s legacy.

My only suggestion, or request for McCollum as he starts his new job is to get Drake and Northern Iowa back on Iowa’s nonconference schedule.

Two of my biggest issues with Fran  McCaffery were his team’s inability to play defense and his decision to drop Drake and Northern Iowa from the schedule. It just seemed petty and selfish.

The Iowa women’s basketball team still plays Drake and Northern Iowa on an annual basis, and so should the men.

Hopefully, Ben McCollum agrees and will show Drake his gratitude by getting the Bulldogs and Northern Iowa back on the schedule because it’s the right thing to do.

McCollum, who grew up in Storm Lake, will be the first Iowa native to coach the Hawkeyes since Dick Schultz over a half century ago.

Iowa fans had better hope that this hire works out better than the Schultz hire.