Per a report from 247 Sports, Ben McCollum will become Head Coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes. The 43 year old just finished his first year with the Drake Bulldogs, who he led to a 31-4 record and a first round upset of Missouri in the NCAA Tournament. The Iowa native will replace Fran McCaffery, who was fired after the season. McCollum spent the first 15 years of his head coaching career at Northwest Missouri State, where he won four Division II national titles. McCollum’s overall career head coaching record is 426-95.
McCollum was said to be one of Wren Baker’s top choices to take over for Darian DeVries as the head coach of WVU basketball. The two go back to their days at NW Missouri State, where Baker was the AD for four years during McCollum’s run.
Now, Baker will turn to one of his other candidates. One name to keep a close eye on is former WVU assistant, Jerrod Calhoun, who just completed a successful season at Utah State. He led the Aggies to the NCAA Tournament in his first year. He has also had successful runs at Division II Fairmont State and Youngstown State.
Calhoun left his assistant role at West Virginia in 2012 to become the head coach of Division II Fairmont State. In five seasons there, he led the Falcons to an overall record of 124-38 and was National Runner-Up in 2016-17.
After his Fairmont State run, the 43 year old coach took his first Division I job at Youngstown State. After a rough couple of seasons in Ohio, Calhoun finished his tenure strong with two straight 20+ win seasons. His overall record at YSU was 118-106.
After seven years at Youngstown, the Huggins protege landed his first major college job with Utah State prior to last season. Just like McCollum, he got his team into the NCAA Tournament in his first year. However, unlike McCollum, his Aggies lost their first round matchup to UCLA. He led USU to a 26-8 overall record on the season. His overall career head coaching record is 268-151. Calhoun has also reportedly interviewed for the Iowa job.
There are other candidates who Wren Baker is also reportedly considering. They include, but are not limited to: Niko Medved (Colorado State) and WVU Associate Head Coach, Chester Frazier.
Photo Credit: We Are Iowa Local 5 News
4 Responses
This is not a good sign for WVU basketball.
How so? Iowa is his home state and he has said verbally he doesn’t like to move. That’s not an indictment on WVU.
come on you know everyone hates us and our staff and executives dont want to win. LOL
I’m not sure if you are being serious or sarcastic, so I don’t know how to respond. Lol