Iowa's first-year head coach has won nine conference tournaments in his career, including the Missouri Valley crown with Drake last year.
Iowa basketball's postseason run begins on Wednesday, and for the first time in a few years, the Hawkeyes enter the Big Ten tournament in Chicago with something to play for.
A 20-11 campaign under first-year head coach Ben McCollum has Iowa likely on the right side of the bubble and in position to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in three seasons.
Though they're likely in the NCAA tournament regardless of what happens in the Windy City, going into the Big Dance losing four straight games isn't something the Hawkeyes want to do.
"They've [the players] responded as well as you can. I think they want to win ultimately, and I think you can fall in love with close sometimes on accident, because it's,'oh, they're this team, they're that team.' And ultimately our objective is to be that team, or to be better than that team," McCollum said.
The No. 9-seeded Hawkeyes won't find out their opponent - either No. 16 Oregon or No. 17 Maryland - until Tuesday evening, which adds another wrinkle to the preparation. While McCollum's assistants prepare the scouting reports for both potential opponents, his job is to get his team playing at a high level.
"[Just need to stay] focused on yourself, until we know 100%. The assistants scout some of those teams in the in the early season. We'll scout them and then we'll be ready to rock," McCollum said.
But McCollum and his team are no stranger to having success in conference tournaments. McCollum has won nine tournament crowns in his college career, winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament last season with Drake.
Many of the players from that Bulldogs roster - including leading scorers Bennett Stirtz and Tavion Banks - now don the Black and Gold. The biggest lesson McCollum has learned from these tournament triumphs is taking the luck factor out of it.
College basketball's postseason is unique in many ways, but rarely does any other sport feature Cinderella teams as much as college basketball. Michigan came out of nowhere to win the 2017 Big Ten tournament as the No. 8 seed, and Iowa won four games in four days to win the 2022 title.
Winning this tournament will require five Hawkeye wins in five days. Luck is naturally an aspect of succeeding in March, but McCollum's key to winning postseason games is one that he's preached throughout his career - fundamentals.
"We tried to take as much luck out of the equation that we could," McCollum said. "And the best way to do that was to focus on offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding, turnovers, etc, and then eventually we're able to win some of those games."
Scouting Maryland
McCollum didn't reveal his preferred matchup on Wednesday, but the team Iowa has the most familiarity with in this scenario is Maryland (11-20, 4-16). The Hawkeyes split both meetings with the Terrapins this year - winning in Iowa City on Dec. 6 and losing in College Park on Feb. 11.
Maryland won just one game after upsetting Iowa, and features the league's worst offense in terms of points per game (69.9) and the third-worst defense in the Big Ten (77.2).
Pharrell Payne was the Terps' hot transfer portal acquisition - following head coach Buzz Williams from Texas A&M to College Park - but he hasn't played since December because of injury. Senior David "Diggy" Coit has stepped up in Payne's absence, averaging 13.5 points per contest (19 against Iowa on Feb. 11).
Scouting Oregon
Iowa handled Oregon with ease in Eugene on Feb. 1, but the Ducks have looked like a completely different team since. Senior big man Nate Bittle returned from injury the following weekend against Purdue, and he nearly engineered an upset inside Mackey Arena.
Oregon won four of its final seven games to close the regular season as a result, which included a surprising 14-point win over Wisconsin. Bittle leads the Ducks with 16.8 points per game, giving Kwame Evans Jr. (13.3 PPG) some space to work with on the outside.
Game Information
Game time: 11 a.m. CST
TV: Peacock (YouTube TV subscribers can watch for free on NBCSN)
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Arena: United Center
Tickets: Ticketmaster.com