Notes: Season Opener vs. Robert Morris

 

OPPONENT	Robert Morris at Iowa
DATE	Tuesday, Nov. 4
LOCATION	Iowa City, Iowa | Carver-Hawkeye Arena (14,998)
KICKOFF	7:30 p.m. (CT)
TELEVISION	BTN
RADIO	Hawkeye Radio Network

 

ON THE AIR
Radio: Games are broadcast on the Hawkeye Radio Network with Gary Dolphin (play-by-play) and Bobby Hansen (color) on the call.  The network includes more than 40 stations that blanket the state of Iowa and includes portions of Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin.  The Hawkeye Radio Network includes a 60-minute pregame show.
TV: Tuesday’s game will be televised on BTN with Jeff Levering (play-by-play) and Jess Settles (color) on the call.

OPENING TIP
• The Hawkeyes open the regular season Tuesday, hosting Robert Morris in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.  Iowa has won its last 13 regular season openers.
• Iowa is receiving votes in both the preseason Associated Press and Coaches’ rankings.  The Hawkeyes are 37th in the AP poll and 39th in the Coaches’ poll.
• Transfer Alvaro Folgueiras played for Robert Morris under Andrew Toole for two seasons from 2023-25.  He scored 663 points and grabbed 461 rebounds in 67 games for the Colonials.
• Tuesday’s game is the team’s first in the public eye; the Hawkeyes played two closed scrimmages prior to the opener against Saint Louis and Texas Tech.
• Iowa has 12 newcomers on its 14-player roster under first-year head coach Ben McCollum.  Six of the players followed McCollum to Iowa City from Drake where they posted a 31-4 record, won the MVC regular season and tournament titles and advanced to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament.
• The Hawkeyes’ transfer portal class was ranked eighth nationally by 247Sports, headlined by Bennett Stirtz, one of the nation’s top point guards.
• Two players -- Stirtz and Folgueiras -- were named to the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year and Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year preseason watch lists.  Both players were their conference player of the year a season ago in the Missouri Valley and Horizon League.
• Stirtz is a preseason All-American by CBS Sports, Field of 68, Jon Rothstein and Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook and he’s on the NABC Division I National Player of the Year Watch List.
• Iowa will play its first five games of the season at home on Mediacom Court inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

SCOUTING ROBERT MORRIS
• The Colonials finished the 2024-25 season with a 26-9 overall record and a 15-5 mark in the Horizon League.  Robert Morris won the Horizon regular season and tournament titles.
• Robert Morris has three returnees on the 2025-26 roster.
• The Colonials have 12 newcomers on the roster with transfers from Arkansas State, Cal State Fullerton and Chipola College.
• Transfer Jeremiah Littlejohn spent the 2022-23 season playing at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids.
• Guard Ryan Prather, Jr., is the team’s top returning scorer at 8.3 points per game.  
• Andy Toole is in his 16th season as the program’s head coach.  

SERIES HISTORY
• Iowa leads the all-time series against Robert Morris, 1-0.  The Hawkeyes downed the Colonials, 73-51, in Iowa City during the 2006-07 season.
• The Hawkeyes are 15-0 all-time against opponents that are current members of the Horizon League.

 

NOTABLES
• The Hawkeyes have been projected to place seventh in the Big Ten by Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook and ninth by the USA Today Network.
• Assistant coach Luke Barnwell is in his first season on the coaching staff following a two-year stint at Texas Tech.  The Red Raiders advanced to the Elite Eight during the 2025-26 season.
• Director of basketball operations Kyle Denning is the lone holdover on Iowa’s staff.  Denning is in his 11th season with the program and fourth in his current position.

MAC IS HOME
Head coach Ben McCollum was born in Iowa City, grew up in Storm Lake and played two seasons of college basketball at North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City.  McCollum’s mother, Mary Timko, earned her undergraduate, master’s and law degrees from the University of Iowa.
• McCollum is the first Iowa native to lead the men’s basketball program since Dick Schultz from 1970-74.

MAC NOTABLES
• Ben McCollum coached four NCAA Division II National Championship teams at Northwest Missouri State, winning titles in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022.  The 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled because of COVID.
• McCollum has led his team to 20+ victories in 14 consecutive seasons, dating back to the 2011-12 season (his third at Northwest Missouri State).
• Since winning his first NCAA title in 2017, McCollum’s team’s have lost a total of 25 games over the past nine seasons.  His teams have gone 284-25 (.919) since the start of the 2016-17 season.
• No McCollum-coached team since his first team in 2009-10 at Northwest Missouri State has allowed more than 70 points per game in a season.

THE BEST HIRE?
CBS Sports posed a question in its Candid Coaches series spotlighting relevant topics and issues in men’s college basketball. One of the questions -- who is the best hire of the 2025 hiring cycle?  Twenty-five percent of the nearly 100 coaches answered Iowa head coach Ben McCollum.

BOB COUSY POINT GUARD OF THE YEAR WATCH LIST
Senior guard Bennett Stirtz was named to the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Preseason Top 20 Watch List.  Stirtz is the fourth Hawkeye all-time to be named to the list along with Jeff Horner (2006), Mike Gesell (2016) and Jordan Bohannon (2018).
• Stirtz is one of four players from the Big Ten named to the initial watch list along with Purdue’s Braden Smith, Michigan’s Elliot Cadeau and Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton.

KARL MALONE POWER FORWARD OF THE YEAR WATCH LIST
Junior Alvaro Folgueiras has been named to the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Preseason Watch List.  Folgueiras is the third Hawkeye named to the list, joining Keegan (2021) and Kris (2022) Murray.
• Folgueiras is one of five Big Ten players named to the watch list along with Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg, Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn, UCLA’s Tyler Bilodeau and Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli.

STIRTZ PRESEASON HONOR ROLL
• NABC Division I Player of the Year Watch List
• Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Watch List
• Preseason second-team All-America (CBS Sports, Field of 68, Jon Rothstein)
• Fourth-team All-America (Blue Ribbon CBB Yearbook)
• Honorable mention All-America (Jay Bilas)
• Preseason All-Big Ten (Blue Ribbon, USA Today, Big Ten)
• Ranked as the third-best player in the nation by On3... named third-best PG in nation by SI.com... No. 8 best transfer in nation by ESPN.com.

BIG AL(VARO)
After two seasons at Robert Morris, junior forward Alvaro Folgueiras makes the transition to the Big Ten. The Spain native was the Horizon League Player of the Year and a first-team all-league selection after averaging 14.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 steals.  Folgueiras led the Colonials to a Horizon League regular season and tournament title and to the NCAA Tournament.
• In the Round of 64, Folgueiras finished with a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double to go along with four assists against top-seeded Alabama.
• Ranked as the 84th-best player in the nation by On3 entering the 2025-26 season.

SNIPER B
Senior Brendan Hausen is a sniper with the basketball in his hands.  The 6-foot-4 guard has made 178 3-point field goals in his collegiate career in stops at Villanova and Kansas State.  
• Of his 178 of Hausen’s 208 field goals -- 85.5 percent -- have come from 3-point range.
• Last season in Manhattan, Hausen enjoyed the best season of his career, averaging 10.9 points and 2.5 rebounds.  He made 90 3-pointers, which were the sixth-most in a single season in K-State history.

IT’S IN THE NAME
Senior guard/forward Tavion Banks is endearing himself to Hawkeye fans with his name alone. He shares a name, although a different spelling, with former Hawkeye running back Tavian Banks, who was an All-American and the Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Year in 1997.
• Iowa’s current Tavion Banks was the MVC Sixth Man of the Year during the 2024-25 season at Drake after averaging 10.1 points and five rebounds.  

COOOOOOP
Redshirt freshman Cooper Koch is the lone scholarship player returning to the Hawkeyes in 2025-26.  The Peoria, Illinois, native played in 10 games as a true freshman before being sidelined with a medical condition.  The former top-100 recruit averaged 4.6 points and 2.1 rebounds, while shooting 48.4 percent from the floor and 42.9 percent from 3-point range.