Iowa players find motivation in Ben McCollum’s fiery demeanor

HOUSTON — Iowa star Bennett Stirtz mentioned head coach Ben McCollum’s screaming match with Florida‘s Todd Golden in the second spherical of the NCAA event gave the Hawkeyes a lift of confidence that they’re going to carry into their Sweet 16 matchup in opposition to Big Ten rival Nebraska in Houston on Thursday.

“He’s a lead-by-example dude, and if you see him getting intense and trying to fight the other coach, you’re going to want to do the same thing to the players,” mentioned Stirtz, who’s averaging 19.7 factors per sport this season, at Wednesday’s pregame information convention. “So we just follow his lead and he does a great job.”

McCollum needed to be held again by his employees after Golden obtained upset and approached him with a demonstrative demeanor after Iowa’s Alvaro Folgueiras appeared to throw a punch at Alex Condon throughout a scrum in the 9-seed Hawkeyes’ upset of the 1-seed Gators on Sunday. Both players got technical fouls.

With Iowa getting ready for its first Sweet 16 sport since 1999, McCollum mentioned he shortly moved on from that dustup with Golden however added that the depth was essential.

“I didn’t understand what was going on, and then [he] just kind of started yelling at us, and so then I yelled back and that was that,” McCollum mentioned. “I have kind of moved on from it, moved on from it five seconds later, to be honest. You’re also not going to, you can’t just let people do that either. So there is a fine line between the two. But you can’t sit there and get into arguments with other coaches all the time either, so I need to make sure that I use a little discretion. In that situation, I felt like it was appropriate, but I’m not going to get into a habit of that.”

McCollum added that his depth is inherited from his mom, who’s a retired decide and is “very competitive, psychotically competitive, worse than me, to be perfectly honest.”

In Houston, Iowa and Nebraska are acquainted foes. They break up their collection 1-1 in Big Ten play. In their most up-to-date sport, Nebraska received 84-75 in extra time in the regular-season finale for each groups. Stirtz completed 4-for-10 that night time.

Last week, Nebraska received the primary NCAA event sport in faculty historical past and is subsequently in the Sweet 16 for the primary time too. Iowa is making its first Sweet 16 look in 27 years. This has change into a pattern for McCollum and Stirtz.

The duo has superior in the NCAA event for the fourth consecutive season collectively. At Division II Northwest Missouri State in 2023 and 2024, they are going to win a number of NCAA event video games. They additionally orchestrated an upset over Missouri in the primary spherical final season at drake earlier than Stirtz adopted McCollum to Iowa.

Stirtz mentioned McCollum by no means holds again, which has helped him earn the belief of his players.

“He never lies to anyone on this team, including me. He shoots it straight. Even when it’s tough and even when it’s hard,” Stirtz mentioned. “He pushes you past your limit and I think that’s where the trust comes in and he cares about you a lot and wants to make you a better person. Even in the wins that he’s had throughout his career, he doesn’t get complacent. So that’s what we need to do and continue to do is even though we beat a 1-seed, we can’t get complacent.”

For McCollum, Stirtz represents him on the court docket at Iowa, which makes his job simpler.

“You see him on the floor and then you see me on the sideline, it’s polar opposites in personalities. Not polar opposites in values,” McCollum mentioned. “He’s super competitive. I’m super competitive.”

McCollum’s feelings on the sideline are proof of that aggressive spirit and in keeping with his players, it is also encouraging. McCollum’s trade with Golden exemplified the perspective Iowa has had all season, as he prepares to chase historical past on Thursday, mentioned Cam Manyawu.

“Our thing is we’re all fighters and he’s the main one,’ said Manyawu, a junior forward. “I imply he’ll go down swinging, we’re all going to go along with him. So figuring out that we’ll observe him wherever he goes. He’s our chief. “We’re going to follow him to where he’s trying to take us and he’s trying to take us to the top.”