By Hawk Fanatic

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Cooper Koch and Kyle Denning are about all that is left from the Fran McCaffery coaching era at Iowa.

Koch, a 6-foot-8 freshman forward, entered the transfer portal shortly after Fran McCaffery was fired as the Iowa head coach in mid-March, but Koch has since decided to stay at Iowa and play for new head coach Ben McCollum.

It was also announced recently that McCollum has decided to retain Denning and will have Denning serves as the director of operations, which is similar to the role Denning had with Fran McCaffery.

As for Fran McCaffery, it didn’t take long for him to find a new job as he was hired earlier this month as the new men’s basketball coach for the University of Pennsylvania, which is his alma mater and is located in his hometown of Philadelphia.

Tristan Spurlock also has followed Fran McCaffery from Iowa to Penn. Spurlock has been hired as an assistant coach for Penn after having served as Iowa’s director of player development.

Iowa’s decision to fire Fran McCaffery opened the flood gates to the transfer portal with junior forward Owen Freeman the first to enter barely 24 hours after Fran McCaffery was let go.

Freeman, the 2023-24 Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Year, has since signed with Creighton, as has former Iowa guard Josh Dix. Freeman has two seasons of eligibility, while Dix has one.

Here is the current status of each of the scholarship players on Iowa’s 2024-25 roster:

Name, position, year, new school

Owen Freeman, forward, junior Creighton

Josh Dix, guard, junior, Creighton

Pryce Sandfort, forward, junior, Nebraska

Brock Harding, point guard, junior, Texas Christian University

Riley Mulvey, center, graduate, Siena

Ladji Dembele, forward, junior, UNLV

Chris Tadjo, forward, sophomore, Santa Clara

Seydou Traore, forward, junior, Utah

Carter Kingsbury, guard, senior, TBD

Other departures

Payton Sandfort, forward, senior, eligibility exhausted

Even Brauns, center/forward, senior, eligibility exhausted

Drew Thelwell, guard, graduate, eligibility exhausted