Editorial: Coach Mac the Hawk

The old hometown is proud of Storm Lake St. Mary’s alumnus Ben McCollum, 43, who was named head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes men’s basketball team this week. We’re deflated for Drake, where McCollum this year led the Bulldogs to a 31-4 record and a Missouri Valley Conference Championship.

The son of Mary Timko, a retired juvenile court judge, McCollum proved himself a brilliant coach in racking up four national championships at Northwest Missouri State, where he played as a student. He was loyal to the Bearcats over many years. When the Drake job came along, it was a natural move. He said he wanted to be at Drake.

But the cupboard was bare by the time McCollum found the Knapp Center in Des Moines. The team fled after Coach Darian DeVries left for West Virginia. McCollum solved that problem by bringing four starters with him from Maryville, including the astonishing point guard Bennett Stirtz, who has a year of eligibility left. Those former Division 2 players dominated the Valley and won their first game in the NCAA Tournament.

McCollum’s departure stings at Drake, where fans dressed up in white shirts and blue ties as Coach Mac did. They thought they had a winner who would stick.

Then Fran McCaffery got fired in Iowa City after a solid but not spectacular run.

The brass ring only comes around so often. This is the dream job for someone born in Iowa City. Plus, it’s a big payday. Who can begrudge that in America?

But it was just one year in Des Moines. We had hoped he might stick around awhile and take Drake somewhere. We’re romantics that way. College athletics is a different game these days. You develop a player at Drake and he flees for West Virginia. How are you supposed to build a culture when the door keeps hitting you in the face? You get your shot, you take it. That’s the way it is.

Hearing the news, we thought about McCollum’s late stepfather, Roger Timko, who would be so terribly proud he would light up a fresh fat cigar. Benny made it to Carver Hawkeye. The Big 10. The kid has what it takes. He proved it at Maryville and Des Moines. He’s a winner.

There is, however, something wrong with a system that drives a winner out of Des Moines after just one year, following a successful but too-short tenure with DeVries. The timing was rotten but so is the NCAA, where the object is not so much about scholarship or athletics per se but about money, the transfer portal and concentrating power and prestige among the elite leagues. Coach Mac cannot control any of that. He understands a cynical system. He can only be realistic enough to reach when the brass ring is about to hit you in the face.