Ben McCollum And Iowa Continue To Poach Drake Bulldogs

Ben McCollum is the new head coach in Iowa City after capturing the attention of the college basketball world this past season at Drake. Not only did he lead the Bulldogs to the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and conference titles, but his No. 11-seeded team beat No. 6 Missouri in Round 1 in a massive upset.

When the Iowa Hawkeyes fired Fran McCaffery they immediately pivoted to bring McCollum back home, and since then he's done everything he can to make himself comfortable in his new digs.

McCollum has brought a ton of firepower with him from Drake, and the latest on that is forward Cam Manyawu. A 6-foot-8, 228 pounder from Kansas City, Missouri, Manyawu committed to the Hawkeyes on Wednesday via the transfer portal.

Manyawu is the latest Drake deflection to join the Hawkeyes. The biggest of the bunch was undoubtedly reigning MVC Conference Player of the year Bennett Stirtz, who averaged 19.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game last season for the Bulldogs.

Stirtz has the potential to be a superstar for Iowa, but he was promptly joined by several others who decided to follow McCollum.

Earlier on Wednesday, guard Kael Combs announced his transfer to Iowa after spending last season at Drake. Perhaps just as important as any of the players McCollum has brought in, two assistants from Drake — Josh Sash and Bryston Williams — were hired by the Hawkeyes as well.

McCollum is quickly building the Iowa program in his image, and you can count on Manyawu to be a big part of things heading into the future. He averaged 7.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game last season for Drake. He has two seasons of eligibility remaining.