A new coach brings renewed excitement.
Iowa fired head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffrey after 15 years in Iowa City and all I can say is, it was time. I have been out on Iowa men’s hoops for a few years already and judging by attendance at Carver for the games, many of you are right there with me. When you can’t get a team that has Luka Garza, Joe Wieskamp, and the Murry twins out of the first round of the NCAA tournament, you’re done. Iowa was never going to have more talent than that team under Fran and he was unwilling to change his coaching. It’s entertaining to watch your team go out and score 80-85 points a game, unless your team routinely gives up 90 and gets beat. Fran made his bed when he refused to even acknowledge the team needed to play defense. But hey, I’m done talking about Fran, lets get to the fun part. Who’s next?
I’m going to list some guys here and give you a little idea of why they may be on the list, why they may get the job, why they may not get the job and what I think. To be clear, the job is almost certainly Darian DeVries’ if he wants it. The current West Virginia coach has ties to the state, ties to Iowa, and is a really good coach. Ben McCollum from Drake is almost certainly the back up to DeVries if something goes wrong and I can’t see him turning it down. I’m good with either of these two simply because they aren’t Fran and I’ve been ready to move on for a while. I’ll list some others I think Iowa should check on but probably won’t.
It’s his job, he just has to say Yes
Darian DeVries – West Virginia Head Coach
DeVries is from Aplington, IA and is the brother of former Hawkeye football legend Jared DeVries. While Darian played his college ball at UNI, they are a Hawkeye family and it has been widely reported the Iowa job is his dream job. He was a long-time assistant to Greg McDermott at Creighton and then had a great six year run at Drake that got him the West Virginia coaching job.
Why he’s the right guy:
West Virginia hasn’t had the best year but they are a likely NCAA tournament team and he pulled that off with his best player, his son Tucker, missing the season with an injury. Instead, he turned a different transfer player, Javon Small, into an All-Conference player at guard. Iowa is going to lose guys in the transfer portal and they need a coach who can recruit the portal to replace those losses. DeVries did it last year at West Virginia and he would likely bring Tucker with him as he should get a medical redshirt season for this year. One place Fran McCaffrey often had trouble in recruiting was getting elite guards to come to Iowa. DeVries just proven he can get a guy and make him an All-Conference player in a very good basketball conference.
Why he might not happen:
Iowa has been lagging behind in NIL money for the basketball program. Beth Goetz has to be able to show DeVries that Iowa donors are going to support the NIL program because he has NIL support at West Virginia and NIL is far more important in college basketball than any other sport, including football. The biggest thing going for Goetz is that Fran had been losing fan support before NIL even was a thing and she can hopefully sell the fan base and donors on the excitement of a new coach and a new direction. To me NIL is the only thing standing between Iowa and DeVries, he’s a smart coach who understands how important it is to being successful in college basketball and he may not come to Iowa if they can’t deliver.
The Guy on deck if DeVries doesn’t happen
Ben McCollum – Drake Head Coach
McCollum is also an Iowa native, born in Iowa City and graduated high school in Storm Lake. He was a ridiculously successful Division II head coach at Northwest Missouri State winning 4 National Championships. With all his success he was able to wait to take a coaching job he wanted and took the Drake job this last year. All he did in his first year was go 30-3 and win the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament titles.
Why he’s the right guy:
This guy just wins. Once he got things rolling at Northwest Missouri State, he was a juggernaut. He knows how to coach a team and win. He’s young, ambitious, and wants to be great. He’s from Iowa so this could be a destination job for him and he proved his loyalty staying at his own alma mater for so long even though he had other opportunities to move up. His energy and enthusiasm would play well with an Iowa fanbase that had grown tired of McCaffrey and he might be the polar opposite of McCaffrey when it comes to his personality. McCaffrey was always a bit curmudgeonly and could be a bit surly. McCollum is much more engaging and personable. That is going to be a major part of the turnaround at Iowa because the next coach has to win back the fan base.
Why it might not happen:
The question with McCollum comes from two things, he’s only been a Div. I head coach for a year. He was really successful this season but a lot of that was due to him bringing in his best players from Northwest Missouri State. It’s not a reach to think the best players from the best Div. II program could step up into the Missouri Valley Conference, be coached by the same coach, run the same system and be great there. It’s a different ballgame when you’re talking about stepping into the Big Ten. Can McCollum get the type of athletes and players to compete at this level? That’s a big question.
The other issue might be his style of play. Drake did the same thing Northwest Missouri State did which was slow the pace, play great defense, and grind out wins. It’s not the most exciting brand of basketball. I’m not someone who thinks this will matter as much to the fans, if the team is winning. If the team struggles at all, McCollum will immediately be compared to Todd Lickliter and no one wants that. One place this could be a problem is in recruiting the type of basketball players it takes to compete in the Big 10. I think this is a lesser issue but it’s still something to consider.
The Guy Iowa should seriously consider but won’t
Will Wade – McNeese State Head Coach
Why Iowa should give him a look:
I’ll get right to it with Wade, this guy just wins wherever he goes. He won at Chattanooga, VCU, LSU, and now at McNeese St. He just really knows how to coach and he can recruit to his style too. He’s still only 42 and he’s been a successful head coach at various levels of Div. I including in the SEC at LSU. By the time you read this, he may be the head coach at NC State.
Why Iowa won’t do it:
First, by the time you read this, he may be the head coach at NC State. Second, Will Wade got fired at LSU when he got caught up in the recruiting scandal where the FBI had wiretaps of some coaches talking to various go-betweens with recruits about money they were going to be paid. This was just as NIL was starting to happen but the rules were still against it. LSU fired him to save face because the NCAA accused him of fraud and bribery. Three years later what he did would be called negotiating with an agent about an NIL payment. It’s a bit of a gray area right now but when the House settlement takes effect over this next summer, this will just be called contract negotiations. The NCAA is such a joke. Beth, go hire Will Wade!
Guys I could get behind if they get the job for some reason
Niko Medved – Colorado State Head Coach
Why Iowa will look at him:
Medved is the third guy on this list to coach at Drake. He was only there one season before he left for Colorado State and DeVries took over the Bulldogs. He did well enough that season to get the promotion to Colorado State and he’s been pretty solid there. He’s mostly coached in the Midwest and he’s originally from Minneapolis.
Why it won’t be him:
He went to college at the University of Minnesota and was an assistant there for a short time and Minnesota just fired their head coach Ben Johnson. Unless Iowa seriously outbids the Gophers for Medved because they strike out on other candidates, he’s going to be Minnesota’s head coach next year.
Chris Collins – Northwestern Head Coach
Why him?
Collins has been at Northwestern for a decade and he may have maxed out what that program could be. He took them to an NCAA tournament, something they had never done. He’s a Chicago guy after growing up there when his dad Doug Collins was coaching the Bulls. He’s well respected in the Chicago area and it would be awesome if Iowa could get some Chicagoland recruits to consider the Hawkeyes from time to time. He is only 50 years old so if he wants to make a change, now would be the time.
Why if won’t be him:
Rarely do coaches move from one conference team to another, although that may change as conferences keep growing and excluding coaches from your own conference might really limit your choices. He is probably higher on Beth Goetz’s list than I have him but I’m not sure she gets this far down the list.
Ryan Odom – VCU Head Coach
Why him?
He’s a little outside the box since he’s more of an east coast guy but he can coach some ball. VCU just won the Atlantic 10 title in his second year. He has the pedigree, his father was a long-time college coach Dave Odom who had a lot of success at Wake Forest. Ryan was also the head coach at UMBC when they were a 16 seed in the NCAA tournament a few years ago and beat #1 seed Virginia. The irony now is that he is the leading candidate to take over Virginia this off season after Tony Bennett, the National Championship winning former coach, left before the season because he was over coaching college basketball.
Why it won’t be him:
He’s almost certainly going to just take the Virginia job, he knows the area really well. Geographic knowledge helps when it comes to recruiting and Odom is well known and respected in the area. If Beth has time, he’s worth a call.
The Dark Horse Candidate
Alan Huss – High Point Head Coach
Why him?
He’s a rising name in college basketball at a school no one knows. He has a very tangential connection to Iowa but more so he’s connected to the Midwest area. He’s originally from Kansas and played basketball at Creighton under Dana Altman. He also later retuned to Creighton and was an assistant under Greg McDermott. Before that is where his very loose Iowa connection comes in. He was an assistant coach at New Mexico under Craig Neal who was an assistant at Iowa and New Mexico under Steve Alford. How’s that for six degrees of separation.
Why if won’t be him:
He’s been a head coach for two years at High Point. This would take a serious leap of faith on the part of Beth Goetz and she would be putting her job on the line with this hire.
This would be Iowa really settling for a guy just because he’s not Fran
Chris Jans – Mississippi St. Head Coach
Why him?
Mostly because he’s a Loras College graduate and an Iowa native. He’s been pretty successful at Miss St. and that makes him a guy with success at the highest level of college coaching in the SEC. If Iowa gets this far down the list, he’s not the worst choice.
Why it won’t be him:
In 2015 he was fired as head coach at Bowling Green after an incident in a bar where he was seen making “lewd and inappropriate behavior” towards some women at a campus bar. It’s been ten years and he’s had two head coaching jobs without incident since then so maybe it shouldn’t be disqualifying, but for Iowa, it probably is.
Steve Forbes – Wake Forest Head Coach
Why him?
He’s a native of Lone Tree, IA and has had some success as a college head coach at places like East Tennessee State and a little at Wake Forest. Mostly he’s been a high-level assistant under some good head coaches like Bruce Pearl and Gregg Marshall.
Why it won’t be him:
If he was from some small town in any of the 49 other states, he wouldn’t be mentioned for the job. I’m sure Iowa would be a dream job for him, I can’t imagine he’s high on Beth Goetz list and if Iowa hires Steve Forbes, people may rethink the firing Fran McCaffrey.
The NBA guys that aren’t real candidates:
Nick Nurse, Nate Bjorkgren, and Ryan Bowen
All three of three of these guys are Iowa natives so I am required by law to include them. And I’ve literally received texts or messages asking about each of them from different people.
-Nick Nurse hasn’t coached in college since the mid-90s except for the four days he was a Greg McDermott assistant at Iowa St. before McDermott left for Creighton, didn’t take Nurse with him and the new Iowa State coach then didn’t retain him. He’s coached in Europe, the NBA G-League and been an assistant and now a two-time head coach in the NBA. He won an NBA title as coach of the Raptors and is currently the coach of the 76ers. He’s likely going to get fired after this season as Philadelphia has been awful this year and someone has to take the blame. He’s 57 years old and something tells me he’s not taking the Iowa job.
-Nate Bjorkgren has been a long-time assistant coach in the NBA and he’s from Storm Lake, IA. Weird that two coaches on this list have ties to Storm Lake. He was Nurse’s assistant in Toronto when they won the NBA title together. He has never coached in college so this would be a strange move. He had a one-year stint as an NBA head coach with the Indiana Pacers and it did not end well so he’s the longest of longshots.
-Ryan Bowen would be the most likely of these three as he is not only an Iowa native but was also a really good player for the Hawkeyes before his nine year NBA career. His coaching experience is mostly as an assistant with Mike Malone in both Sacramento and Denver. He was an assistant with the Nuggets when they won the NBA title a couple of years ago. He did spend one year as the video coordinator for Fran McCaffrey at Iowa between stints as an assistant in the NBA. He’s worth a call for Beth Goetz if for some reason DeVries, McCollum, and a couple of others turn down the job.
Should I throw in the obligatory BJ Armstrong mention? One of the most famous and recognizable Hawkeyes of the past 40 years and he played with Michael Jordan in the NBA. Sorry, people but BJ is 57 years old and has never coached. He’s not starting now, let it go.
The Hott Read 