Indiana has been fortunate to be in the position of having the top job opening in college basketball since the retirement of Mike Woodson was announced in early February.
Nothing changed in that regard this week with the news that Minnesota’s Ben Johnson and Iowa’s Fran McCaffery have both been fired, creating three openings in the Big Ten so far.
But nothing happens in a vacuum, and there are connections to the Iowa job opening and Indiana’s search process.
In fact, two of the five coaches we included on Tier 1 of our latest hot board released on Wednesday are Iowa natives. And both are thought to be favorites to take over for the Hawkeyes.
But just yesterday there were reports that Iowa City, Iowa native Ben McCollum had become a leading candidate for the IU job. That was interesting timing, because today the news of McCaffery’s firing was reported by multiple outlets.
Will the Hawkeyes pursue McCollum? Will he be interested?
Well, that’s interesting too, because West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries is also from Iowa (Aplington). His younger brother was an All-American football player for the Hawkeyes.
Coincidentally, McCollum replaced DeVries at Drake. Both McCollum and DeVries are believed to be IU targets, and both have been rumored to be top prospects to replace McCaffery in Iowa City. CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander named them as the two at the top of Iowa’s board.
Neither McCollum nor DeVries attended Iowa. So their ties and interest in taking that job might be somewhat embellished, similar to the Brad Stevens to Indiana scenario. Iowa isn’t exactly a top tier job at this point. While clearly a major step up for McCollum, it’s a lateral move at best for DeVries, who is just one year into his tenure at West Virginia.
But it certainly won’t come as a surprise if one of DeVries or McCollum become the next Iowa head coach. Could the other end up in Bloomington?
MULTIPLE SUGGESTIONS BROWNELL AND McCOLLUM AT THE TOP FOR IU JOB
A third name that was placed in Tier 1 of our hot board earlier this week was Clemson head coach Brad Brownell. He was asked about the IU position this week and of course declined to talk about it.
But both Brownell and McCollum seem to be gaining steam as the top candidates for the IU job.
ESPN’s Jeff Borzello reported earlier this week “the two names who have come up the most in conversations about Indiana are Drake’s Ben McCollum and Clemson’s Brad Brownell.”
And on Friday, WDRB’s Rick Bozich, who broke the news of Mike Woodson’s hiring in 2021, provided the same two names on X as the top two he’s hearing.
Both Brownell and McCollum will be coaching in next week’s NCAA Tournament.
For complete coverage of IU basketball’s 2025 coaching search, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- You can follow us on Twitter: @daily_hoosier
- Find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
