It didn't take long for Ethan Harris to find out that he had made the right choice. 

The 6-foot-8, 202-pound guard out of Camas, Washington probably surprised some people in his hometown when he decided to play for Ben McCollum and Iowa men's basketball over in-state powerhouse Gonzaga, but Harris soon realized that Hawkeye Nation extends far beyond the state of Iowa and the Midwest. 

Whenever Harris would work out at his local gym, hearing a "Go Hawks!" from a friendly Iowa fan would almost be a guarantee, despite the fact that Camas (a suburb of Portland, Oregon) is 1,883 miles away from Iowa City (27 hours of driving). 

"There's a lot of people in the area who are already Hawkeye fans, and I think it was pretty neat to see that after I committed, just the the community that's even out there," Harris said at Iowa basketball media day on Oct. 12 

The strong Hawkeye contingent in the Pacific Northwest became even more crystal-clear to Harris when thousands of Iowa fans packed Husky Stadium to watch Hawkeye football defeat Washington on Oct. 9, but Harris was already long on the UI campus by that point. 

The event that affirmed Harris' commitment to Iowa was watching the ninth-seeded Hawkeyes embark on a Cinderella NCAA tournament run to the Elite Eight. Despite the long odds Iowa faced of advancing out of the first round, Harris was confident his future squad would take down No. 1 seed and defending national champion Florida in the second round. 

Though he was expecting a Hawkeye win, Harris' reaction to Alvaro Folgueiras game-winning triple mimicked the feeling that every Iowa fan across the globe had that night. 

"It was me by myself on the couch watching the game, and I was never been so pumped. I probably got a noise complaint from our neighbors type of stuff. So it was pretty cool," Harris said. 

But the celebrations are long over now. Harris and the Hawkeyes are just 21 days away from kicking off their 2026-27 regular season. Harris is thrilled about the opportunity to play Big Ten basketball in front of what appears to be a packed Carver-Hawkeye Arena each night, but the chance to play for McCollum is what excites him the most. 

McCollum is the reason Harris is wearing black and gold, after all. The coach immediately impressed Harris with his meticulous attention to detail during the recruitment process, and that high level of involvement is what separated McCollum from the rest of the head coaches recruiting Harris. 

And it hasn't stopped since Harris' arrival in Iowa City, either. Harris says McCollum's schemes are unlike anything he's played in before, and he credits strength coach Logan Ogden for helping fuel his on-court performance. 

"They've [the coaching staff] really shown me what hard work is. I mean, we come into the summer and we get we get busy, we do our thing, and it's been pretty spectacular to see," Harris said. 

But what kind of a role could Harris play this season? Iowa has a talented cast of established guards, but McCollum didn't hesitate to point out the improved depth of his roster this year. The buy games in non-conference play will give the Hawkeyes an early read on how they could use Harris, who averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds a game in his senior year of high school, this season, but he's not worried about his role right now. 

For Harris, finding a role on the 2027 Hawkeyes is about what he can control. 

"I can only really work on the controllables. The controllables are my effort, my attitude, and like maybe how hard I work," Harris said. "And so all these different things are going to come into play, and that's going to dictate my role on this team." 

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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at [email protected]