By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – When third-year forward Cooper Koch looks back at the Iowa men’s basketball team’s 2025-26 season, of course, he sees with great pride the three wins in the NCAA Tournament that completely changed how the season was perceived.

He also sees how much he improved as the season progressed, and especially down the stretch.

And he sees a team that stayed the course and that stayed unified under first-year head coach Ben McCollum while going where no Iowa team had gone since 1987, which is to the NCAA Elite Eight.

It truly was a special run by Koch and his cohorts, but not without its share potholes and rough spots, as evidenced by Iowa only finishing 10-10 in the Big Ten.

Some of the lowest points were road losses at Penn State and Maryland as they would go on to finish last and next to last in the Big Ten standings, respectively.

Koch also sees the not-so-good parts of last season when he looks back because to ignore it would paint an inaccurate picture of what really happened.

“We definitely lost a lot of games that we should have won down the stretch,” Koch said Monday at Iowa’s annual media day event. “Maybe it hurt us or maybe that was fate saying, ‘hey, you guys are going to play the one seed in the tournament.’

“It worked out in the end.”

Iowa would go on to play a one-seed in the NCAA Tournament as it defeated No. 1 seed and defending national champion Florida 73-72 in the second round.

Iowa also defeated Clemson (67-61) in the first round and Nebraska (77-71) in the Sweet 16 before losing to Illinois 71-59 in the Elite Eight.

“That’s all they remember from last season,” Koch said of the three NCAA Tournament victories. “But we remember all the losses in the Big Ten regular season and we hope to fix that this year.”

“I think ways we can improve is the regular season for one; I mean we finished ninth in the Big Ten. It’s something that we remember, and we hope to get first.”

The Big Ten media also has provided some motivation by picking Iowa just 10th in the preseason standings.

The loss of All-Big Ten point guard Bennett Stirtz to the NBA probably has some taking a wait-and-see attitude with the current Iowa, and understandably so, since Stirtz was such a major factor in Iowa’s success.

The challenge of replacing Stirtz won’t fall on just one player, but rather on several players in what McCollum calls a point guard by committee.

McCollum was asked on Monday how different the team will look without Stirtz, who was picked 16th overall in the 2026 NBA Draft and now plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“Some days it’s going to look really good, and some days it’s going to look really bad if it’s like practice,” McCollum said while laughing. “I mean, when you play four shooters at a time it’s a lot different with the spacing. That certainly helps you there. You’re able to play like drive, kick, swing a lot more, meaning when you drive, you’re able to kick out and swing and get a shot; whereas a lot of our threes had to come off direct kick-outs because we didn’t have a second guy there to be able to shoot a second shot — or a swing shot.

“With that you can create more rotation. When you get more rotation, you’re able to offensive rebound a little bit better, plus you’re able to shoot better shots, which gives your transition defense a chance. That’s if we do everything we’re supposed to do without a No. 16 draft pick in the NBA Draft. If all things go well, we should have enough paint pressure to be able to get those drive, kick, swing threes and lay-ups, which, again, allow for all the other things.

“I don’t know how we looked last year. I know how it looks to me, but I don’t know how it’s going to look different to the outside, I guess.”

Fourth-year guard Kael Combs and second-year guard Ty’Reek Coleman both are expected to handle the bulk of the point guard responsibilities, while second-year guard Tate Sage also could see some action at point guard, along with McCollum’s son, Peyton McCollum.

“I think one of the aspects of being a leader is just being ready to go every day and bringing a level of injury and effort,” Combs said. “And that’s something I’ve continued to work on. I think that was something that Bennett was really good about last year is he was going to compete every time he stepped on to the court.

“So just trying to match that and then, obviously, just being a better shooter and being a better player when it comes to decision making and being able to have a level of composure with out team and kind of calm us down.”

Stirtz had a knack for controlling tempo and for making pivotal shots, many of which came from 3-point range as he led Iowa with 90 3-point baskets last season.

Combs, on the other hand, only attempted 54 threes last season and made 18.

Asked if 3-point shooting has been an emphasis this offseason, Combs said:

“Of course, of course. Always in the gym, on the gun, doing individual workouts before practice or after practice or shooting after practice. I know it’s going to be key for me to be able to stretch the defense out.

“So yeah, it’s been something I’ve been working on since the spring.”

There were numerous times last season when Iowa would let the shot clock nearly expire before Stirtz would take a shot, and sometimes a difficult shot.

However, Iowa won’t have that luxury this season, so other players swill have to step up.

“I wouldn’t say we have that yet,” Combs said of closer on offense. “It’s going to be a collective effort like coach McCollum has said and that other players have said.

“We’re going to try and not have so many of those shots where we kind of have to get bailed out in the last seconds of the shot clock. We’re going to try and play a little bit more efficiently offensively and play a little but faster.”

Iowa will have a different look in the post where 7-foot-3 Saint Mary’s transfer Andrew McKeever will protect the rim.

McKeever, who is the tallest player in program history, averaged 8.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists last season for Saint Mary’s. The California native also had 28 blocks and 18 steals, finished with a .500 field goal percentage (105-of-210) and led the West Coast Conference in rebounding.

Second-year player Trevin Jirak, who’s listed at 6-11, will also give Iowa another option in the post.

But there’s also the possibility that Jirak could play alongside McKeever at power forward.

“We have really good passing bigs,” McCollum said. “Like really good passing bigs. Might be our best passers; is all of our bigs can really do that, which is a big deal. Then if you get teams into rotation, they can make decisions very, very quickly.

“Obviously the size of Andrew presents some serious issues for an opponent. With drives down the lane, have you to pay attention. So there’s gravity there.

“Trevin’s ability to shoot and pass, there’s gravity there. Then obviously our wings, and they’ve got good size to be able to shoot over the top of people.”

Iowa is loaded at the wing positions; a group that includes the 6-8 Koch, 6-7 Tate Sage and 6-5 Isaia Howard, all of whom played key roles last season.

Cam Manyawu also played a key role last season as Iowa’s 6-9 under-sized center.

Manyawu still will be available to play that role this season, but with McKeever now on the roster, Manyawu is also expected to play some at power forward.

“I think it’s been a good challenge just trying to figure out different things that I don’t typically do and just trying to learn the different nuances of getting through a switch or getting through a ball screen, stuff like that, or the different spots to be in,” Manyawu said. “So just a lot of learning and trying to grow and just get better,”

Iowa recently had a closed scrimmage against Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas in which McCollum was able to use all of his players.

“We played our whole team, which is good, so you’re able to see a lot of players,” McCollum said. “I thought the first one, we passed to the other team a lot, which isn’t good. Then the second one we didn’t pass to the other team as much, which is good.

“Nothing spectacular outside of just like little things that you’re trying to work on, meaning did you defense rebound. Technically we did, but I didn’t think we boxed out very well. Offensively were you able to get to your stuff? Not really. There was a lot of game slippage. It took us a while to get trigger and get going.”

Koch, meanwhile, described last season as surreal in how it played out in the NCAA Tournament.

As the son of former Iowa player J.R. Koch, Cooper Koch has been cheering for the Hawkeyes for as long as he can remember.

The younger Koch was asked Monday at media day if he truly believed that a trip to the Elite Eight would be possible in year one under McCollum.

“I definitely wouldn’t have shied away from it,” he said. “But it’s not something that I would be like, ‘oh, yeah, that’s going to happen.’ But it was kind of a surreal moment to see it finally come to fruition.”

The only way Iowa could improve on last season postseason run would be to make the Final Four for the first time since 1980, long before Cooper Koch was even born.”

“We definitely think about it, but I don’t feel pressure,” Cooper Koch said.

Cooper Koch

Ethan Harris

Cam Manyawu