By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – A report surfaced recently that Ben McCollum was seen eating at Monica’s in Coralville.

Not sure if was lunch or dinner, but Iowa’s new head men’s basketball coach was doing something besides assembling a roster, if only for a few precious minutes.

Roster building is never-ending in this age of the transfer portal, but at least for the 2025-26 season, Iowa’s roster appears mostly set.

There is always a chance another player could be added or subtracted, but summer workouts started Monday, and right now Ben McCollum’s debut roster has 13 players, highlighted by 6-foot-4 star point guard Bennett Stirtz, one of six former Drake players that followed McCollum to Iowa.

Stirtz is widely regarded as one of the top point guards in college basketball, and he is coming off a junior season in which he was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year.

Drake also finished 31-4 last season in what would prove to be McCollum’s first and only season as head coach. The Bulldogs also won an NCAA Tournament game last season for the first time since 1971, making McCollum a head coach in demand.

Fran McCaffery was fired as the Iowa head coach in mid-March and the day after this past season ended.

Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz then zeroed in on McCollum, who was hired as the new Iowa head coach barely a week after Fran McCaffery was let go.

McCollum has since spent the past two months building his roster, meeting with fans at I-Club events and making arrangements to move his family from Waukee to the Iowa City area.

It has been a whirlwind for the 44-year McCollum, who is now coaching at his third different school in a little over two years.

McCollum was born in Iowa City and grew up in Storm Lake as a huge Iowa men’s basketball fan. To say that Iowa is his dream job is not overstating it.

Prior to coaching at Drake, McCollum was the head coach for Northwest Missouri State for 14 seasons, winning four Division II national titles.

He recruited Stirtz out of high school when most college coaches passed on the Missouri native.

And now Stirtz is preparing to be McCollum’s starting point guard for a fourth straight season, and for a third different team. They have built a relationship on and off that court that rarely happens at the college level anymore.

The challenge in building a roster almost literally from the ground up was made easier by adding six players from Drake since McCollum obviously had an advantage with each one.

But it’s also easy to envision almost all of the Drake transfers having significant roles next season.

Senior forward Tavion Banks was the Sixth-Man of the Year in the Missouri Valley Conference this past season as he averaged 10.1 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. He also shot 52 percent from the field, but only made 2-of-22 shots from 3-point range.

The 6-7 Banks, who started his career at Northwest Florida State Junior College, has a solid mid-range game and uses his athleticism to create shots, and get to the basket.

Facing Big Ten opponents on a regular basis will certainly be a step up in competition, but Banks has shown that he can hold his own against Power 4 opponents as Drake had wins over Miami (Fla.), Vanderbilt, Kansas State and Missouri last season.

The 67-57 victory over Missouri came in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Stirtz scored 21 points in the win over Missouri, while Banks finished with 15 points, nine rebounds, three blocks and three steals in 25 minutes off the bench.

Junior forward Cam Manyawu started his career at Wyoming before transferring to Drake where he was McCollum’s starting center last season. Manyawu averaged 7.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game last season. He also led the Bulldogs with 24 blocks and was third on the team with 45 steals despite only playing an average of 18.8 minutes per game.

Banks only averaged 20.1 minutes per game last season, showing that he and Manyawu were both very efficient.

Former Drake guards Isaia Howard and Cael Combs will provide depth in Iowa’s backcourt next season, and there is always a chance that one or both of them could develop into a starter.

Howard, a 6-5 sophomore, and Combs, a 6-4 junior, averaged 15.4 and 13.0 minutes per game last season, respectively.

Neither shot well from 3-point range, however, as Howard only made 14-of-45 attempts (31.1 percent), while Combs was just  3-of-15 from behind the arc. Howard also shot just 48.8 percent from the free throw line last season, making just 13 of 29 attempts.

So, obviously that part of his game has to improve.

Howard made perhaps his biggest contribution last season on defense where he had 33 steals and nine blocks in limited playing time.

McCollum took a significant step in addressing 3-point shooting by landing former Kansas State guard Brendan Hausen, who truly has Caitlin Clark shooting range.

The 6-4 Hausen, who started his career at Villanova, made 90-of-202 shots from 3-point range last season, with many coming from well behind the arc.

The Amarillo, Texas native also started all 33 games for Kansas State last season, averaging 27.6 minutes and 10.9 points per game.

McCollum also has added a key piece with the addition of 6-9 forward Alvaro Folgueiras, who was named the Horizon League Player of the Year as a sophomore this past season.

A native of Malaga, Spain, Folgueiras averaged 14.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game while leading Robert Morris to a 26-9 overall record and to the Horizon League regular season and tournament titles. He started all 35 games, scoring in double figure 27 times with five 20-plus point contests.

He shot 54.8 percent (176-of-321) from the field, 41.3 percent (45-of-109) from 3-point range and 78.4 percent (98-of-125) from the free throw stripe. He also posted 14 double-doubles and had 10-plus rebounds in 17 contests.

With Stirtz, Hausen and Folgueiras Iowa will have three reliable 3-point shooters, and that should help to space the floor and make it harder for defenses to smother Stirtz. Iowa will also have one of the most experienced backcourts in the Big Ten, and could have a starting lineup with five players ranging in height from 6-4 to 6-9.

And don’t forget about 6-8 forward Cooper Koch, who is the only scholarship holdover from the Fran McCaffery era.

Koch only appeared in 10 games last season due to an undisclosed medical reason. But when healthy, the son of former Iowa player J.R. Koch has shown that he can score at all three levels and guard multiple positions.

Iowa also has added redshirt freshman forward Joey Matteoni to the 2025-26 roster, along with three incoming freshmen, including 6-11 center Trevin Jirak from West Des Moines Valley, who had previously signed with Northern Iowa.

Jirak might get a chance to contribute early just because of size alone.

The other two incoming freshmen are 6-7 guard Tage Sage, who is from Weatherford, Oklahoma, and 6-2 Peyton McCollum, who is Ben McCollum’s son.

The 6-8 Matteoni was redshirted at Drake this past season.

Barring injuries, it seems unlikely that Iowa’s three true freshmen would have to be pressed into duty, though Jirak’s size makes him unique.

The freshmen should have the opportunity to develop at their own pace.

But if any of the three freshmen show they’re ready, then Ben McCollum would find a role for them, and likewise for Matteoni, who has a year of college under belt.

A lot will depend on who meets the challenge on defense where McCollum’s teams are known for asserting their will and for being well connected.

Defense always has been and always will be a priority for Ben McCollum regardless of his roster makeup.

Former Florida International University guard Ashton Williamson was briefly committed to Iowa in May and was expected to provide depth at point guard.

But he has since moved on, possibly leaving Iowa without a true backup point guard.

But on the other hand, Stirtz will likely play pretty much from start to finish in most games, so there might be little need for a true backup point guard.

And while Iowa still has a ways to go from an NIL resources standpoint, this roster couldn’t have been built without NIL having played a key role.

Fran McCaffery reportedly only had about $1.4 million in NIL resources to work with annually.

That number has reportedly increased significantly, though it’s hard to know an exact figure.

One thing is certain; Bennett Stirtz didn’t come cheap, nor should he given his credentials.

Some media pundits like what McCollum has built enough to already have ranked Iowa in their preseason top 25 for next season.

That seems overly optimistic, but so did Drake finishing 31-4 last season.

Of course, this is all guesswork. But that’s all we have right now.

Iowa men’s basketball 2025-26 roster

name, height-weight, position, class, hometown

Cooper Koch, 6-8, 215, forward, redshirt freshman, Peoria, Illinois

Jacob Koch, 6-2, 180, guard, sophomore, Iowa City

Bennett Stirtz, 6-4, 180, guard, senior, Liberty, Missouri

Cam Manyawu, 6-8, 230, forward, junior, Kansas City, Missouri

Cael Combs, 6-4, 190, guard, junior, Nixa, Missouri

Isaia Howard, 6-5, 200, guard/forward, sophomore, Plattsburg, Missouri

Tavion Banks, 6-7, 200, forward, senior, Kansas City, Missouri

Trevin Jirak, 6-11, 250, center, freshman, West Des Moines

Alvaro Folgueiras, 6-9, 215, forward, junior, Malaga, Spain

Brendan Hausen, 6-4, 205, guard, senior, Amarillo, Texas

Joey Matteoni, 6-9, 215, forward, Overland Park, Kansas

Tate Sage, 6-7, 200, guard/forward, freshman, Weatherford, Oklahoma

Peyton McCollum, 6-2, 170, guard, freshman, Waukee, iowa