It’s a fresh fight for Iowa men’s basketball, with a coach who likes discomfort

IOWA CITY — The announced crowd at the Iowa men’s basketball game against Xavier Friday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena as 11,678.

There was over a quarter-century when people would wonder why that number wasn’t larger. Now, after years of growing indifference about the men’s program by the Iowa fan base, 11.6K was a good total in November. It was a gathering that made noise in support of the Hawkeyes in their 81-62 win.

This was Game 3 of the Ben McCollum era, and while Iowa is 3-0, there will be bumps ahead this season. The Big Ten has some very good teams, and many others who certainly are competitive.

However, this program needed freshness. It has it. A new coach, a new roster, a new way of playing, a seating area for students behind one of the baskets, just a lot of new in general.

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McCollum has made a point to not only thank the fans at the start of each of his three postgame press conferences, but has led his players around the edge of the court after games to slap hands with fans and thank them for their support.

“I think we're starting to slowly build a crowd,” McCollum said. “It's a build for everybody, you know, the whole community of Iowa City and the state of Iowa and the University of Iowa, obviously.

“We’ve got to do this together, because it's going to take time and it's not always going to be perfect.

“Whenever you take over something and you build it from kind of scratch, essentially, a lot of people are excited. Which I am, too. … There’s a long game to it too, where it’s like there's going to be ebbs and flows to all of this. And that's the really fun part of it.

“If everything is just good, the good doesn’t seem as good because there’s never any bad, if that makes any sense. It is going to be hard. And being good is hard. That’s what makes it fun. But if we don’t have everybody invested in this thing, we can’t get it to where we want to get it to, and I’d love to be able to do that.”

The fire McCollum brings to games isn’t uncommon for basketball coaches at any level, but he really brings it. He lets his players hear it during games. They don’t seem to get hurt feelings from it.

“I think over time, people get used to me,” he said, “because I’m half-nuts. Fully nuts if you ask my wife.

“I coach with a lot of intensity. It’s not telling people ‘Hey, you made that mistake, don’t do that.’ It’s really telling them what to do.”

Senior guard Bennett Stirtz is McCollum’s coach on the floor and his best player. McCollum was harder on Stirtz than any of his players Friday, and the player said he didn’t mind it a bit.

“It keeps me humble,” Stirtz said. “It keeps me focused, too. And I need that.

“I need someone to push me throughout the season. He does that, and it makes me better.”

During one timeout, McCollum jawed at Stirtz about something and the player’s response was a little laugh.

“If you’re going to be a point guard for me, you’re going to hear it,” said McCollum. “A lot of people get on the 12th player on their bench. I get on the player that’s supposed to be the best player. Because I know if I can get him going I can get the rest of them going.

“But they’ll come back at me. They’ll talk back. It doesn’t bother me. … I do want their feedback if they feel like they’re right. I don’t want them to make excuses, but I want them to say ‘Coach, da-da-da-da.’ ‘... Because sometimes I’m wrong.”

McCollum has worn and will continue to wear the same clothing combination to each game. A white dress shirt, a gold necktie, black pants, black shoes. He said he began doing so — though the color of tie reflected wherever he was coaching at the time — for many years.

“I got to where I didn’t want to make another decision on game day,” he said about going with the same attire every time.

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Since the 2020-21 COVID season, college and pro coaches have been allowed to dress down, in athletic apparel. McCollum eschews that, saying “there’s an old-school professionalism” to the shirt and tie.

"Everybody started to wear the comfortable stuff,“ he said. ”I don't like to feel comfortable during the game, I like to feel really uncomfortable and uptight.

“I just like the edginess of it. I just like to fight. But not actually fight. I like the fight of it.”

Iowa’s won-lost record come season’s end is impossible to accurately predict right now. We do know there will be 40 minutes of fight per game.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com