Why Iowa’s NCAA Tournament success can lead to regression

Why Iowa’s NCAA Tournament success can lead to regression originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Iowa is playing in their first Elite Eight since 1987. If the Hawkeyes can pull off yet another upset against Illinois in Houston, it will be the program’s first Final Four appearance since 1980. That came before the expansion of the tournament to 64.

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This success, including 21 wins before selection Sunday, has been engineered by Ben McCollum. The first-year coach, who came over from Drake after leading the Bulldogs to a 31-4 record and a first round tournament win over six-seeded Missouri by a score of 67-57. After the success at Drake, which followed four Division II National Championships at Northwest Missouri State, McCollum was hired as coach of Iowa for the 2025-26 season.

McCollum brought with him his best players from Drake. These players played a key role in Iowa’s success this season. Scoring 65 percent of the Hawkeye’s points.

McCollum’s teams are not exciting on offense. They only score 75.0 points a game. Which is good for No. 202 nationally. But they make up for it on defense where they allow an average of 66.1 points which ranks No. 18 in the country. The Hawkeyes are efficient and can clamp down on teams. This is the way Iowa was able to pull off upsets over Clemson, Florida, and Nebraska to make the Elite Eight. Florida, who scored 114 points in their first round game, managed only 72 against Iowa. This success is wonderful for this team and this season. But it may turn out to be sad news for Iowa soon.

UNC just fired Hubert Davis on Tuesday night after five mediocre seasons in Chapel Hill. Davis was supposed to be the next North Carolina man up and was hand selected by Roy Williams to take over. This despite the fact he had never been a head coach before. Even so, Davis was handed the keys to a Bugatti Veyron and crashed the $1.6 million vehicle while pulling out of the…

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Publish date : 2026-03-28 21:12:00

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