Ben McCollum Off Board, Taking Over Iowa

After a brief period of discrepancy, Iowa ends up with Ben McCollum as their next head coach. On Sunday, 247 Sports was first to say McCollum is leaving Drake to stay in the state and take over at Iowa.

The initial news came a day after Drake’s exit from the NCAA Tournament.

WV Sports had previously heard McCollum was a top candidate for West Virginia along with Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun.

While there’s a debate on which job is better between WVU and Iowa, it became easier for McCollum to stay in Iowa for his first opportunity to lead a Power Four program.

More about McCollum

McCollum has only been a Division-I coach for one season, but he would shoot to the top of the any watchlist for two reasons. First, he was highly successful in his first year at this level, leading Drake to the NCAA Tournament with a 30-3 record.

Second, his familiarity with Baker. McCollum spent 15 seasons as the head coach of Division-II Northwest Missouri State, where he overlapped with Baker for four years from 2010-13. Baker did not hire McCollum to NWMS — McCollum started there in 2009 — but the two did overlap. Baker has already hired a coach at WVU with ties to his old job as current WVU women’s basketball coach Mark Kellogg was hired by Baker at NWMS in 2012.

Ben McCollum was on WV Sports Now’s initial coaching candidate hot board.