By Hawk Fanatic

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum has a tough act to follow heading into year two – his own.

McCollum had a historic debut season as the head Hawk, leading Iowa to the NCAA Tournament Elite for the first time since 1987. The post-season success has injected a massive amount of energy into a program that needed a pick-me-up, while also building on McCollum’s reputation as a winner.

Ticket sales have risen since McCollum was hired, as have expectations heading into year two under McCollum, which will start on Tuesday against Lipscomb in the season opener at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“It’ll be good to get back in front of the home crowd and get to compete,” McCollum said Monday at a press conference.

Lipscomb is picked to finish third in the ASUN Preseason Coaches Poll behind Queens and Jacksonville. The team has three preseason all-league selections in Mateo Esmeraldo, Titas Sargiunas and Takai Simpkins. Esmeraldo averaged 9.9 points and 3.8 boards with a team high 223 assists and 45 steals in 2025-26, Sargiunas averaged 9.7 points with 15 double-digit scoring games, and Simpkins started all 31 games at Oregon, averaging 12.5 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists.

The Bisons finished 19-13 overall and 12-6 in ASUN play during the 2025-26 season.

“I think they present a lot of problems,” McCollum said. “They’ve got five guys that can shoot, and offensively, they’re just something we don’t see and won’t see a ton.

“They’re good, well coached, just a little bit unique on offense and something we don’t see very often. So we’ll have to be prepared.”

Iowa, meanwhile, only finished 10-10 in conference play last season, but that was all but forgotten by fans just from winning three games in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 39 years.

The Iowa players, haven’t forgotten about it, though, as they are using last season’s ninth-place finish in the Big Ten as motivation for this season.

“That’s all they remember from last season,” third-year forward Cooper 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 6-foot-8 Koch started in the 88-64 exhibition win over Division II Illinois-Springfield last Thursday at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

He was joined in the starting lineup by 6-4 guard Kael Combs, 6-7 guard/forward Tate Sage, 6-5 guard Isaia Howard and 7-3 center Andrew McKeever, who transferred from Saint Mary’s this past summer.

Iowa also has played two secret scrimmages against Texas Tech and Saint Louis, and according to McCollum, his team made 20 threes against Saint Louis.

One of the big storylines heading into the season is the challenge that Iowa now faces without having Bennett Stirtz as its point guard anymore.

Stirtz in his only season as a Hawkeye was the driving force behind last-season’s team, and he would go on to be selected in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft and now plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Stirtz was McCollum’s starting point guard in each of the past four seasons at three different schools: Northwest Missouri State, Drake and Iowa.

Combs and Illinois State transfer Ty’Reek Coleman are expected to handle most of the point guard duties, along with McCollum’s son, Peyton McCollum.

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Lipscomb (0-0) vs. Iowa (0-0)

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Carver-Hawkeye Arena

TV: Big Ten Network

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network

Series history: Tuesday’s game is the first meeting in the all-time series between Iowa and Lipscomb. The Hawkeyes are 4-1 all-time against current members of the Atlantic Sun Conference.