How much video of an opponent does Iowa men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum view?

IOWA CITY - You ever wonder how much film college basketball coaches look at it when it comes to putting together a game plan for an opponent?

OK, it’s not film anymore. That’s the archaic term.

It’s video that can be spliced into specific areas of interest and downloaded to a laptop or other device incredibly easily.

At any rate, Iowa men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum was asked Friday morning at a media availability how much film/video/whatever he views on an opposing team. The Hawkeyes host Northwestern pre-Super Bowl on Sunday afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena (2 p.m. tipoff/FS1).

“I mean, some are quicker than others,” he said. “But obviously this year, we've had to watch more.”

McCollum and his staff were at Drake last season. With a whole new list of opponents this winter goes a whole lot more video study.

“You probably watch just to start, you’ll probably watch their four best offense and four worst offense performances,” he said. “Then you probably watch their four best defensive, four worst defensive (performances). Or three-ish, then you'll kind of get your base.

“Then after that, you would probably watch all their personnel clips. So each individual personnel clip. Then after that, you find the games that you really want to hone in on, and you identify those. Then after that, then you should be fairly ready.”

Under some staffs, including the previous Iowa one with Fran McCaffery, a specific assistant coach is assigned to a particular game and comes up with a scouting report and plan. McCollum said earlier this season that he doesn’t operate that way.

Regardless, he and his coaches watch a ton of video, a ton of different games involving an opponent. A ton.

“It takes a long time, a lot of events,” McCollum said. “Sometimes it could be 10 games. I mean, I'll have probably 12 games of each downloaded, roughly just the offensive and defensive sections and then all the individual personnel. So all their clips from the whole season, their assists and their points, you just kind of go through it.”

He said sometimes the process goes quickly for him, sometimes not so quickly. Sometimes he won’t watch all of the videos provided.

“It just depends on the opponent,” he said. “The hardest ones are the ones that are the most simple. Because you always feel like you're missing something. You're like ‘Man, that took me, like, (only) a couple of hours. That shouldn't take me a couple hours.’

“So then you spend another 20 hours that you didn't need to spend, and you just waste your time. But it makes you feel good inside, I guess.”

Iowa takes a five-game win streak into Sunday’s game. The Hawkeyes are 17-4 overall and 7-4 in the Big Ten.

Northwestern is 10-13 and 2-10. The Wildcats have lost two games in a row and eight of 10.

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