By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – While it could be argued that the Iowa men’s basketball team, under first-year head coach Ben McCollum, is sort of backing into the NCAA Tournament with four losses in its last five games; just being invited to the Big Dance in year one under a new head coach deserves appreciation.

Because only one other Iowa head coach, besides McCollum, has made the NCAA Tournament in his debut season and that was Dr. Tom Davis 39 years ago.

So even though this current skid is certainly cause for concern heading into the NCAA Tournament where Iowa, as a No. 9 seed, will play eight-seed Clemson Friday in the South Region in Tampa, Florida; it still doesn’t change the fact that this Iowa team has joined very select company.

The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee obviously felt that Iowa accomplished enough to make up for the struggles down the stretch.

And now if Iowa could win two games in the NCAA Tournament, it will have gone where no Iowa men’s team has gone since 1999 when Davis led Iowa to the Sweet 16 as a lame-duck head coach due to his contract not being extended.

Iowa hasn’t made it past the second round since then.

But of course, first things first, which is trying to survive the first round, which has only happened five times for Iowa since 2000; once under Steve Alford and four times under Fran McCaffery.

Should Iowa prevail on Friday, waiting in the second round would almost certainly be No. 1 seed and defending national champion Florida.

Tom Davis made it all the way to the Elite Eight in his first season as the head Hawk in 1986-87; taking a talent-filled roster that was mostly recruited by previous head coach George Raveling and building it into one of the best teams in program history, finishing 30-5 overall.

Davis also finished 9-0 in first-round games at Iowa, but was just 3-6 in the second round, often losing to the No. 1 seed

The current Iowa team is nowhere close to the 1986-87 Hawkeye squad from a talent and depth standpoint.

But it does have a star point guard in 6-foot-4 senior Bennett Stirtz who has  gift for making tough shots and for controlling tempo, and a head coach who makes defense a priority, and who is willing to play at a slower pace depending on matchups.

That sometimes is a recipe for an upset as anything can happen in March.

And speaking of Fran McCaffery, who coached the Hawkeyes for 14 seasons from 2010 to 2025, he also achieved a rare milestone on Sunday by leading his alma mater, Pennsylvania, to the Ivy League tournament championship. He is now one of just five head coaches to lead five different Division I programs to the Big Dance.

Penn  is also in the South Region as a No. 14 seed and will face No. 3 seed Illinois in the first round.

In fairness to all the Iowa head coaches that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament in their first season, it used to be far more difficult to make the cut.

In 1970 for example, the NCAA Tournament only had 25 teams, while by 1980 the field had expanded to 48 teams, which still is 20 fewer than the 68 teams that now make the cut.

Success or failure in the Big Dance often comes down to matchups, some luck, and of course, talent and experience.

Clemson finished 12-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season and is 24-10 overall.

Iowa is among nine teams from the Big Ten Conference that made this year’s NCAA Tournament field.

This will mark the fourth time that Iowa and Clemson have faced each other in men’s basketball, and the first time in the NCAA Tournament. Iowa leads the series, 2-1, defeating Clemson 106-92 in 2004 and 74-71 in 2022 at the Emerald Classic.