Iowa men's basketball's improbable NCAA tournament run is over, but Hawkeye fans will never forget March of '26. The state of Iowa is beaming with pride.
HOUSTON - Disappointment is a natural reaction to losing.
Just look at the faces of Iowa men's basketball players after their season ended at the hands of rival Illinois in the Elite Eight in Houston Saturday. Even Bennett Stirtz, who rarely shows emotion on the floor, walked back to the locker room with his jersey pulled over his likely tear-filled eyes.
It happens. We all hate seeing a season come to an end, but at the end of the day, you will always look back on it later and crack a big smile. I didn't want to use the classic phrase "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened," but you get where I'm going here.
Just simply getting to the NCAA tournament and winning one game was the consensus ruling for a successful first season under Ben McCollum, but the Hawkeyes did that and more.
Win an NCAA tournament game? Check.
Upset No. 1 Florida to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in the 21st century? Check.
Dethrone rival Nebraska's best season in school history to secure a spot in the Elite Eight for the first time in 39 years? Check.
No Iowa coach since Tom Davis has come close to achieving a resume like that, and McCollum just did all of this in his first season in Iowa City. Yes, Davis also reached the Elite Eight in his first year on the sidelines (1986-87), but he inherited a talented young core of two average joes named B.J. Armstrong and Roy Marble.
The landscape of the sport has completely changed since then, but minus rising star Cooper Koch, McCollum didn't inherit anything. The Hawkeyes' NIL and overall program situation last year made it nearly impossible to attract to any players, so McCollum went the in-house route and plucked most of his roster from his 31-win Drake worked.
It wasn't always pretty and the lack of a true big man is what ultimately ended Iowa's season, but what this team accomplished will make the state of Iowa proud until the end of time. Some of the most loyal men's basketball fans that were disgusted with the program by the end of the Fran McCaffery era have completely bought in to the new regime.
McCollum still has to prove he can recruit at the highest level, but when you have Bennett Stirtz, that's the best sales pitch you'll ever have. The momentum this program has is something we haven't seen since the storied teams of the late 1980s, and it's probably not a hot take that this could be one of McCollum's worst teams (on paper) to reach the second weekend.
Would it be a shock to see McCollum's Hawkeyes cut down the nets someday? With the way he's coached this group, it's definitely possible with the right personnel. A moment like that would send Iowa fans into a never-ending frenzy, but once the celebration subdues, the first thought that would come to mind? The 2025-26 team that nearly reached the Final Four as a No. 9 seed.
Don't be disappointed in Saturday's loss, be proud of what this team accomplished.
As Barry Alvarez once said - "They better get season tickets right now, because before long they probably won't be able to."
March of '26 won't ever be forgotten.
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