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Thanks everyone and thanks to athletics for the little step up. I'm always appreciative of the height adjustments that I need. This is an exciting day for the University of Iowa. We are so thrilled to be welcoming Ben and Michelle and their children. I don't know if we call them children still, young adults and children. Uh, just *** great, great moment for us. Um, I've talked with Ben, I've talked with Michelle. They're excited about joining the Hawkeye family. They are. We care about here at the University of Iowa laser focused on the student athlete and the success of their academic pursuits. An incredible commitment to community and we all know that's what the Hawkeyes are about and of course *** desire to elevate the fan base and elevate the University of Iowa across the country and maybe even across the world. I don't know, we'll throw that in there as *** as *** little challenge uh so great day today, very excited. Please give Ben *** big welcome and *** Gohawks. Thank you. You don't think I need that? Just *** moment, please. Well thank you, President Wilson. We are so grateful for your continued leadership support of our students, and your engagement in this process that ensured we find the right leader for the Hawkeyes. I also have to share my gratitude with the team that worked alongside me in the process this process. They are absolutely the best. It is truly *** special day for Hawkeye men's basketball and the start of *** new opportunity to build on tradition, inspire success, and ignite the passion of the loyal black and gold. First, let me thank you all for being here today to help me welcome head coach Ben McCullen. I want to first recognize Ben's family, his wife Michelle, their kids Peyton, Tayton and Grace, and his mom Mary. We are thrilled to have your family be *** part of ours. As quickly as I becamevinced that Ben was the guy we were looking for, I think it was the time with the family that sealed the deal. Um, your, uh, your team at home is certainly as wonderful as your team in the locker room. *** shout out to our amazing students who are here in *** show of support and my gratitude to our alums, fans, and generous supporters whose passion allows us to build programs that inspire, excite, and make you proud to be *** Hawkeye. Ben has an exceptional mind for the game, *** relentless competitiveness, *** commitment for truly developing young men on the court and off. I first spoke with Ben almost 4 years ago in another search at *** different moment in his journey and mine, but the same things being shared with about him and about his ability to build culture and success. Before his name was known outside smaller coaching circles, people were taking notice of what he was able to achieve on the court and the way he was going about it. It was impressive then and it's well known now. We can talk about the numbers and who else regardless of sport holds *** winning percentage of over 80%. His 12 straight conference titles, the 4 national championships, the 31-4 season with *** program in transition, the list of household names from successful coaches like Shaka Smart, Buzz Williams to Grant McCausland, they call him for advice to help identify gaps in their system. An efficient offense that empowers athletes to be creative and looking for opportunity couple coupled with *** suffocating defense. Ben is an outstanding coach and is an innate ability to identify and develop talent. He sets high standards for his teams and tailors his system to meet the strengths of his athletes. Ben was born right here in Iowa City, and both he and Michelle called called Storm Lake home. Ben idolized Chris Chris Street, attended Hawkeye basketball camps, and he can list almost every Hawkeye starter for the last 3+ decades. And he even accompanied his mom, as I understand it, to law school right here on our own campus. Ben has roots here and to be sure that's *** special, *** special part of this story, but not why I thought Ben was the perfect leader for this program. Coach is *** proven winner, *** teacher of the game. He creates teams that are defined by their hard work and culture. In the short time I have gotten to know him, he is *** person of character, *** man with values that align with those we hold so close. He is committed to developing his athletes to reach peak performance on the court, but more importantly, prepare them for *** lifelong success outside of sport. I am confident that under Ben's leadership I will add to the legacy of teams and athletes that embed themselves in the memories of this loyal Hawkeye fan base. Stay in the moment, coach. Enjoy the process and know that Hawkeye Nation is going to be behind you the whole way. Please join me in officially welcoming coach Ben McCollum. Awesome, love the ties look great. wear those for games? Yes, uh, hey, thanks *** lot first off for, for everybody attending thanks to the Hawk's nest for, for, uh, the cheers out there. We taught them, you know, hey, it's not just we can't just clap, we gotta stand up. We gotta, we gotta get it lit, so we gotta make sure we do that at, at, uh, games and Carver. uh, first off, I wanna thank, um, Beth for, for taking the chance on me essentially and. And uh giving me the opportunity to come home to the University of Iowa, uh, you know, Iowa City. I was born here, I lived here for 456 years of my life, and, and have cheered for the Hawkeyes for *** long time and now I get to be *** part of their success and, and I couldn't be more excited. My family's excited, um, and we wanna bring this back to, um, the championship culture that that we think we can build, um, here at the University of Iowa. I also wanna thank President Wilson. Um, I, I was fortunate to kind of meet her via Zoom for *** split second and she happened to turn the camera around and, and she had *** bunch of fishing poles. Her husband's *** fisherman, so hopefully he'll, he'll take me fishing, but, uh, I, I certainly appreciate her, uh, allowing, uh, Beth to, to come out and hire the coach that she wanted, uh, and be patient with that process as well. Uh, my family, uh, my, my wife, you know, *** *** long time ago I got into this profession. I actually went to school. To get *** finance degree and was supposed to go to Kansas City to to work with my wife and at the time we were engaged and uh I can remember I had *** semester left and she had moved to Kansas City to be with me and I called her about I was probably about *** month into that first semester well the the last semester of school and I said, man, I, I don't know if I wanna go into the financial world. I, I think I wanna be *** coach. Oh really? Uh, she said, so you're not moving to Kansas City right now? I said, no, I think I want *** coach. She goes, OK, well, as long as it's your passion and, and so I spent two more years as graduate assistant, but she stuck with me through all that and you know, look where we're at now, um, and she's been *** big part of that. Um, my 3 kids, obviously, um, Peyton, Tate, and Grace, uh, this has been *** long journey. Uh, coaching is *** very difficult profession. And it's very difficult on your families, but it's very rewarding on top of it and they've stuck with it obviously *** second move in in *** year and uh I couldn't appreciate them more um so thank you to my family, uh, specific to. Um The, the, the past schools that I had, uh, Drake University, obviously I came from there. uh, Brian Harden gave me my first chance at Division One and I'm forever grateful to Drake and everything that they've done, the fans, the support, felt like we poured our heart into that place. Uh, Northwest Missouri State gave me my start, uh, Doctor Bob Borichter, uh, and, and all the people there that's that's, uh, really supported everything in our journey. So, uh, thankful for them as well, you know, our. Also to to the people of the past that have grown the program, I grew up in the, uh, Tom Davis days when they used to press, uh, get up and down. You saw Chris Street on the ball flying around. They get steals and I can rattle off half their team's names, uh, and, and go to Hawkeye camps, uh, you know, there's *** lot of great coaches that have helped grow this, uh, Lude Olsson, Tom Davis, obviously George George raveling and, and, and Fran on top of that. Uh, and so I certainly appreciate everything they've done for the University of Iowa and, uh, hopefully it's, it's in good hands right now and we can kind of bring championships to the University of Iowa and, and, and Hawkeye Nation. To the past players, uh, you're who I idolized. I mean, that's, that's who I watched growing up. I was the past players for the University of Iowa, uh, all the way back from BJ Armstrong. I, you know, I could rattle off. I'm just like Wade looking Bilal Barnes, Monte Glasper. These are just the random names AC Earl, um, obviously Chris Street, and so you know I could just rattle off, uh, uh, *** bunch of them and obviously the ones that just came, you know, I always dreamed of, of playing for the Hawkeyes and. Uh, I just wasn't good enough, uh, so I did get to play for him, uh, but now I get to coach him and, and hopefully bring success here. How are our teams gonna look? You know, I, I, I was just talking to, uh, I think I was talking to Beth and, and. You know, I, I, I recall and it's, it's vivid in, in my mind, uh, and most of you have seen it. I grew up seeing it and have you ever seen Chris Street play like just with the intensity, the energy, the effort, the enthusiasm, the joy, the servant mentality, the toughness, everything that Iowa stands for is what our team is going to look like from an Xs and O standpoint, you know, obviously I think we'll be good there too. But most importantly, when you watch our team and we go on the road, uh, in the Big 10 and we go on the road to other games, I want you to be proud of how our kids act, how they compete, uh, how they love each other, how they serve each other that to me has still and will remain the most important thing. My objective is to make better husbands, better fathers, better citizens, and. That's what I'll do here at the University of Iowa, uh, through the game of basketball and, and try to make the state of Iowa proud. In taking this job. I've always felt like you needed to take *** job that you can win championships and compete for them on *** consistent level. Beth Goetz has given me that opportunity and given resources to make sure that we can do just that. And that's our goal is to get Carver Hawkeye filled back up to create an environment where other fans want to come and to be the best venue in the state of Iowa and, and we're gonna fight for that we're gonna compete for that uh we've done that in other schools and hopefully we can do that here. We do need Everyone else. So when we walk in and, and we see the hawk's nest, um. I appreciate everyone that came. We want even more and we want it louder and we want you to be *** part of building this thing just myself, just *** few players, just *** few coaches that's not, that's not what it takes. It takes everybody in here it takes everybody in Iowa city it takes everybody in the state of Iowa, and we want you to be *** part of that build, and we want to fight for that every single day, uh, and we want to see you out supporting. One thing we can start with I don't see. Uh, *** ton of the players is, is see if we can get, uh, Price, Cooper, uh, Josh, see if we can get them some support as well, uh, maybe just like text them or tweet them or anything like that, get them excited about coming back to University of Iowa and making this thing grow. That would be good support to start. Uh, we wanna create that home court advantage which is something that we've done before. Uh, we wanna do that here and, and, um, create *** level of excitement for everybody, uh, at Iowa and get it to what I remember when I walked into Carver and, and again loud, um, full crowds and, and get it to that point, um. Again, I'm blessed, man. I, I appreciate everything. I appreciate the people that are taking, taking *** risk on me. I, I'm thankful for that every single day. I'll make sure to not take this for granted. I'm gonna fight for Iowa, uh, and we're gonna get this thing going again. So Coach, uh, um, Tom Kaker with Hawkeye report and uh welcome. I wanted to ask you about how um you're gonna build this team what you learned last year from having to build from scratch the lessons of portaling and and such these days and how what do you, what do you learn positively and negatively from that experience? Uh, positively first. Tough kids win. Connected groups win. Uh, groups that serve each other win. Kids that work with the level of humility win and that hasn't changed. So with the portal, you have to make sure you can identify those intangible talents very early. Because the physical gifts are pretty easy to identify, but as you see throughout the portal, some of the teams that may spend the most money or on paper may have the most talent don't necessarily win because they're not *** connected group so for us what I've learned from Drake is that don't overthink just because somebody's getting uh you know *** lot of money here that he's *** better fit for what you do. And so we continue to trust our own own eyes at Drake, to people that we thought uh could really help build and sustain *** culture so that we can continue success into the future. Um, here at Iowa, same concept I think it's obviously at *** at *** higher level, uh, you do have to take certain transfers but again that goes with, you know, Hawkeyes making sure that we try to retain some of the kids that are, are wanting to uh go into the portal right now and, and do it quickly again so I've said everybody it takes everybody takes everybody to get those kids back like that's what it's gonna take and that's what we want, um, because they're tough kids and they're Iowa and they, they, you know, they'll be great for us but. Uh, you know, I, it's the same thing that, that I learned at at Northwest Missouri State. you can't complicate winning. Like it's, it is what it is. It's, it's, it's the same thing kids that serve each other about each other. Hi, uh, Scott Doman with the Athletic. Ben, I wanted to ask you about how, uh, Steve Tapmeyer shaped you as *** coach in your coaching philosophy and what you took away from him when you played for him at Northwest Missouri State and maybe what you learned about leadership from Mel Churchman when you worked under him when he was the athletic director and football coach at Northwest Missouri State. Yeah, *** lot, *** lot of people don't know those names here, but those are, those are D2 legends right there. Uh, Coach Tatma I played for him. Uh, it was funny. I, I went to, I played for *** guy at Nyack, and I should have mentioned him his name. He's the one of the only players to ever play in two, *** Final Four with two different teams. Does anybody know the answer to that? Yeah, Special K. Steve Kraft said. So I played for him at junior college, awesome coach, went to Northwest Missouri State. This is answer your question, Steve Tapmeyer, and I walked into, I, I always was like 2nd and 3rd place my whole career, couldn't, couldn't get to 1st, and I'm like, man, I'm close, I'm close, I'm close. I just couldn't get over that hump. I walked into one of their weight sessions and conditioning sessions, and I, I'm looking around and I'm like, this is first place. This is what it feels like. And he taught me the shocking difference between 1st and 2nd, and you know 2nd to 10th, it's right there, but 1st place cultures and 1st place people are way up here and he taught me the culture. He taught me how to be ready every single day. Um, and, and you know, from next is no standpoint defensively he taught me that, uh, and he remains *** mentor as well and you know Mel Church, uh, uh, he won *** lot of national titles in football and from *** leadership perspective, uh, again, short story, but I, I remember one day he came in and, and, uh, said, man, I'm really having trouble with this, and I had *** lot of anxiety about it and the young coach, yeah, I don't really worry about it. I said I'm really worried about it. Are you crazy? And he said, hey, let me tell you something, Ben, we are both wired different. It doesn't make you any better or worse than me. And so it was kind of profound advice that, hey, the way you do things is the way you need to continue to do things just because I'm this way doesn't mean you should be that way and so both of them have have had *** big impact on my career. Hey Ben Elliott Clough Hawkeye Beacon first of all, congrats, um, secondly, regarding the, the way you guys played this year, I know it it's been different with with all of your teams regarding how you approach tempo and and such like that but what I'm curious about is, is how you get players to buy in to to playing. Good defense but also not high tempo. I mean *** lot of, *** lot of teams like to emphasize tempo maybe as opposed to efficiency like I know is it's important for you, yeah, so efficiency is number one. I, I think, I think from an offensive perspective you wanna be efficient. Why do you want to be efficient because you can set your defense. So if I put the ball in the basket more times. And you have to take it out of bounds, I can set my defense. If I take *** good shot and get you in rotation, I can get an offensive rebound. So shot selection and the ability to get quality shots equals efficiency, which allows your defense to set, which allows you to play good defense. Why this year we didn't have the shooting that our teams at Northwest Missouri State had. So for instance, some of those teams would have 5 guys on the floor at *** time that were 40+% and 1 or 2 that could shoot 50% from 3. And so from an efficiency perspective we were always top 5 in the country at all levels consistently. um, do we want to play. Uh, slow. I, you know, slow to me is, is not as low possession games would be better cause it's popping, it's moving. We just didn't have enough shooting to get *** good shot that quick. Um. But I tell you what we did win, um, is, yeah, I would say the greatest plaque that NCA used to send you these statistics, um, plaques, right? So they used to send you like effective field goal percentage, fewest turnovers, and these big plaques in one year I got the greatest plaque of all and it was *** plaque of led the NCA and wins and that that's, that's what I always felt like you should coach your team too is, is trying to win. But from an offensive perspective, yeah, I would prefer to play. Play faster I would say probably middle of the pack is usually where our teams would sit, um, but we're gonna make sure that we, you know, we play the best way that our personnel has success and that's, that's just what it was this year, but we'll always play defense. Hi Ben, uh, my coloss Cedar Rapids Cassette. I read, and if I'm wrong, just shoot me down right away, but I read that that you uh were impressed by the Art of War. And that you're *** big believer in imposing your will, if that's so, could you describe, could you expound on that? That's *** deep question. Uh, it is impose your will is, is, uh, every program that we've had is, is our motto. So I think our first or second year at at Northwest I had these huge packets that actually was stolen from *** team in the Big 10 and won't name names, uh, from their football program, and I thought, man, this is like all this cool stuff and. I kind of realized about two seasons in that they weren't paying attention to any of it because it's just too much information so I'm like, what's my favorite, like what can permeate the whole program? So we just put one sheet in their little binders and it was impose your will and so our intention is to impose your will on everything that we do so defensively we want to tell you what to do offensively we're trying to tell the defense what to do and so more importantly though. Imposing your will also trends towards like an official's call. So if, if, if I get upset with an official making *** bad call, right, that call is imposing its will on me. But if I continue to play and move on to the next play, now I'm imposing my will on that call and just continuing to that next play. So, um, we try to have it permeate our whole program. Everything that is just an attack mentality creates that level of urgency that we need and in the weight room impose your will on those weights, uh, and conditioning, impose your will in that and that's, that's us kind of that I don't know if it's not, it's not bully mentality because we say bully the bullies, but, um, that's impose your will. The, the short version. Coach Corey Brada from the Hawkeye of the storm, congratulations on the higher. Um, I wanna ask you about scheduling. So obviously first time at *** high major program, what is your approach to non-conference scheduling, um, November tournaments, and then having coached at Drake for *** year, is there any interest in resuming the you and IDrake rivalries? Uh, good question. I would say scheduling wise, you want to put yourself in the best position one, to have the, have your team be at their best in March. So if you need. That specific team, if they need to play *** top tier team, then you schedule that. If you need to play, uh, *** bunch of teams that are not quite as good to build confidence, then you do that. So you schedule with that in mind first. The second part of that is you need to schedule to make the NCA tournament. And so obviously there's the net rankings and there's *** lot of mathematics that go into that. And so you're obviously your quad 4s is, is, you know, you beat *** bunch of quad 4s by *** lot of points going on the road versus quad 3 or quad 2 doesn't make *** lot of sense just from an analytics standpoint to be able to make that NCA tournament specific to Drake or you and I. Uh, good question. I don't know on that, you know, it probably depends on if that allows us to make the NCA tournament better. Now there are some unique situations that you will play just because it's fun for the fans and, and that might be number 3 as well. I'm not afraid of those either. Ben Jeff Dubrough, ����vlog back here. Uh, you mentioned some of the transfers that are in the portal right now. Curious to know if you've made contact with any of those and what your confidence level is about getting those guys to return to the team. I have, um. Depends on if we can get some of these Hawkeyes on them too, you know, I, I think we just need to make them understand that it is home and that that we're coming back out to support them and we're gonna fight for it and you know how cool would it be. For some of them to be *** part of. You know, obviously they, they finished towards the bottom, but now moving up towards the top and, and they're the reason for the change like that that to me is as cool as it gets and that's that's our sell to them and we're gonna continue down that path and we're gonna fight for them to, to maintain and be because they're loved here like they, you know, we love our hot guys we love Iowa and and uh you know we, we want them to stay up. Feel like it's going good, but I don't know, we'll find out here. Uh, Blake Hornstein Hawker headquarters. Ben, congratulations. I, I know you got the sport coat on right now, but typically on, on the court you're, you're going dress shirt and tie. Uh, could you remind me why that's the choice of fashion for you and just seemed like it was *** medium for you to connect with the fan base at Drake. So how did that all come together? I used to wear different colored ties and shirts and pants, and then I realized I was terrible at matching. And so I went to the white shirt and tie and then when everyone else. Kind of went to the like casual look. I always thought in every other profession and and like our level of coaches we you know make *** lot of money, right? And other people in professions have to dress with *** level of professionalism and I'm not saying other coaches are unprofessional, uh, because my assistants don't wear that and I think they're very professional, but I've always thought that that's what I needed to wear to to act like *** pro and and. Just my thought, my theory, uh, just because everybody else has to do the same thing that's in other professions. So that's, that's why I do it. And then it just becomes comfortable and then you get superstitious and then, then you wear the same color every day and then it's *** problem, but um. Yeah, but it looks good so. Hey coach, Matt McGowan with the Daily Iowan. um, for players who aren't, who weren't on the Iowa roster and are in the portal right now, what's your recruitment pitch to them? You know, here, um, the big recruitment pitch to them one, it's the University of Iowa like I think it's *** big deal. I think it's pretty cool to be here. I, I love the campus. I love everything surround it. I love the support. I love the fans, uh, I've been around it my whole life, so you sell that number one to the relationships that we're gonna have with them is, is *** big deal. So we sell the people so we'll sell the people that. Uh, my assistants, my staff will sell anyone that's in the program at that point. And, and 3, just making sure that they understand. We've won *** lot and if you want. To be infected with some of those winning characteristics that we can bring to the table, this is, this is where you should be and if you want to go somewhere else for *** certain amount of whatever then then go do that but but we're gonna make you better um the last thing is is. With our recruiting pitches. I always tell kids like, don't necessarily go to the school that always wants you the most, and this may not make sense. Meaning some schools recruit differently than others some people just surround the kids and, and, and they'll just like I want you, I want you, I want you I want you. Well, you want them for their, their talent, which yeah, that's true there's certain people that I want for their talent as well but more importantly. I want them because I see their talent and I feel like we can make it that much better so choose *** school that does the most for you and Iowa offers that with our coaching with the university itself like we can change kids' lives and so we want them to choose essentially selfishly uh by by coming to the University of Iowa. Ben Todd Ram 1600 ESPN in Cedar Rapids. I know you were pretty deliberate in waiting to make the move to Drake last year in Division One. I'm wondering if there's anything that you learned about yourself in your one year at the Division One level. I learned that I could move, you know, our family did from *** personal perspective. I think it was really difficult, you know, when you, you put roots in the ground at, at, at Northwest Missouri State, have *** lot of success there, you know, I felt like I continued to give to that community consistently, um. You know, from *** division one perspective, what did we learn? Uh, the same thing wins, man, it's just, it is, it's, it's the connectivity of your group and it's, it's toughness. It's all those things we didn't win *** lot of warm up contests, uh, you know, *** couple of kids that started probably couldn't even dunk, uh, they could actually, but I like to make fun of them, um, but we were the most connected group out there. We were the toughest group and, and we're able to win basketball games, so I learned quite *** bit. And *** lot of it was just uh making it was just me understanding that that does still happen at these levels right at at Drake it's not like we have to get this earth shattering, yeah, you need talent. I got talented guys, but it doesn't need to be earth shattering and does every position need to be the same in regards to talent? No, you need connectivity, toughness, and, and great kids. Ben Tyler Tashman with the Des Moines Register, nice to meet you. Um, what's your, you touched on it *** little bit, but your vision for what you want to build this program to be? I mean, I mean, you, I mean your objective is to win championships. Like, uh, the reason like we went to Drake was because we felt like we had an opportunity to win Missouri Valley Conference championship and get to the NCAA tournament. We felt like they were resourced enough to be able to do that, uh, and it was important to the conversations with Beth that that she was on the same page as me, and she might have even been on *** further page ahead in regards to to wanting to bring championships here and. So you know that that's obviously uh what we're trying to build. I, I would like to see *** full carver like like I would like to see fans out there. I've seen full other sports. I wanna make sure that we put *** good product out there so that fans enjoy it and, and you know we show what Iowa is like. So, um, that would be my vision similar to what we did at Northwest Missouri State for that 15 years, uh, build it into that kind of contender. Pat and LA Clough Hawkeye Beacon one more time, um, regarding your staff, are you planning on bringing guys from Drake and then filling in the gaps or what are you thinking as far as approaching that? Yeah, we'll, we'll bring *** few from Drake. Uh, *** lot of the guys, *** couple of them have played for me, um, 3 of them played for me actually. Uh, one of them was my first recruit ever. Uh, he wasn't very good though. He's here, so I wanna make sure that he knows. Still can't play, but um he's got great energy, uh, you know, *** staff, I I always tell people that the best way to hire staff and uh Grant McCaslin, one of my good friends told me this. He said, here's how you hire your staff find guys that you want to do life with and usually it's gonna work out pretty good. And, and what that means is just get good people, uh, and you know if you surround yourself with enough good people, uh, other people want to join as well and so we'll get the best of the best people obviously for the Power 4 level we need to make sure that we have *** certain skill set as well which, which we'll get, um, and, and then you know there's there's your video guy and stuff like that but we just want great people and guys that we want to do life with so to answer your question, yes, and then we'll fill in *** couple as well. Scott Doman again with the athletic, um, as you mentioned you want *** full Carver and it's been *** while since Carver was consistently full is there obviously bringing in *** *** quality and *** good program will, will bring up the attendance, but is there anything externally that you are thinking about doing or wanting to do in the summer or in the fall to help facilitate that beyond, um, what's going on on the court? Yeah, I mean we we're gonna connect like our players are gonna connect with the students. I need to connect with the students and and our whole program does and and again though it's, it's not us uplifting this program it's the whole university it's, it's the students helping as well and and it's the, the, this community of Iowa City, um, as well so, um, it's former players, you know, again like some of these former players are. Like, uh, again, they were my idols growing up. Like this is, uh, NBA. I didn't watch. I, I watched the Iowa Hawkeyes like those are my guys and, and getting them involved too and and just creating this, um, awesome environment like that throughout the summer and just you gotta be out man it's Iowa like you gotta shake hands, you gotta when you're in the grocery store and they come up to you, you gotta say hi. Like that's when I say Iowa nice it's God's country as we say so, um, just do little things like that and I think it goes *** long way. I coach over here Chris Maley with the Daily Island um it was reported that Bennisters gonna follow you here uh I just wanna, and you know *** little bit about the Hawkeye culture. I just want you to explain uh why he fits the Iowa culture and what he could do for this program. Yeah, if you know if, if that happens, um, why would, would those guys fit um specific to to Bennett I mean he's. You know, it's probably if he's not the best point in the country, you know, top 2 or 3, so that's *** pretty good fit right there. uh, he, uh, all the guys that we've had operate with *** level of humility, meaning they're able to be coached at *** high level. Uh, they don't think they're bigger than the program itself. They understand the value of other people and that allows to have *** lead amount of success and obviously they're good basketball players as well, but for him specifically more important is his his level of humility and and the other guys that I coached at uh Drake exact same like just they're humble people that that want to serve and and want to grow and get better. Coach, how are you doing? John Sears, WHOTV in Des Moines. Uh, we've heard other coaches describe you as just like *** relentless worker, competitive. Where does that come from and how is that some way that you would describe yourself as just uber competitive? Yeah, I would say I was probably the kid that had the, uh, the temper tantrums when I was, you know, in grade school because when you lose *** game, you know, and you wouldn't shake hands and stuff like that. So, uh, no, I'm, I'm, I find my, I'm just *** fighter, you know, that's what I've always thought, um, I, I. I've always been competitive and, and I always wanna find *** way to be relentless enough to take it *** little bit further, you know, I think it probably comes from my upbringing, um, just my mom, uh, my, my grandparents, uh, you know my stepdad, you know, I just, just growing up in that environment I was never really allowed to be. *** victim, you know, you would always try to control your own circumstances and you'd always have to fight and, and I learned that, you know, just, just being around my family essentially and, and how much fight they have. No, it's interesting there there was ***. One of the Northwest Iowa, and I've told this story before, one of this, the Northwest Iowa camps they used to come to Storm Lake and Jerry Strom used to put him on and he was the best, uh, but. But one year, it was my first year that I went, I think it was like 4th or 5th grade and Uh, uh, it was my first camp ever, and, uh, the first day it was like 4, I think it was 4 days, 3 hours *** day, and the first day I won the Hawkeye Hustler, which is like the coolest one's *** little medal and I still have it to this day I'm sure, and, and got through the camp and I got done on, on, on the Thursday, um, we ended up getting the awards and. I remember I, I got the MVP of the award and or the MVP of the camp and and the coach went up to my mom and said, Man, he reminds me *** lot of, *** lot of myself just from *** competitive perspective and the coach was Bruce Pearl. He's my coach for the for the camp and, uh, I, I, it's *** cool story. I never knew it until later in life. It was like, yeah, Bruce Pearl was your coach and then he man that was fiery and so, um, we work with *** little bit of fire as well, so it, it'll be fun. Hi, coach, Scott Rice for ����vlog over here, there, *** lot of faces back here. Uh, congratulations on getting the job first off. I know it's been probably *** crazy two days, day, whatever it has. Uh, could you kind of break down how it all played out, you know, ever since Drake was eliminated into the point where you're standing here in front. Of us and also how long does the plane ride take from Joaquie to Iowa City out of curiosity. It took longer to get to the airport, so it was like 20 minutes and it was like you get up and then you get down. So, uh, it took long enough for my son Tate to, to lean his chair back and and relax. That's about it. Uh, so the process went like this, so most years and every year for the last 9 there's been these processes of, of schools reaching out and you know, generally they reach out to an agent and the agent handles *** lot of the stuff and and then you go through it. I've always been the type that really wants to focus on the team that I have and so I try to set boundaries in regards to that so. Uh, I, I think, I think the first contact might have been, um, *** Saturday before our conference or no before our NCA tournament, uh, which would have been, you know, the day after the announcement, and, and, uh, I had no idea that that that was gonna happen, um. And and then we had *** conversation then and then we had *** conversation on Monday. On Monday I um told Beth, who was phenomenal through this process and, and I said, hey, I, I really need to focus on my team like I, I can't I can't be divided and and I can't be in decision making mode while I'm coaching. Um, I have to put as much energy as I can into that, and she respected that as much as any athletic director can respect that, um, you know, maybe *** text of, hey, good game, good luck, you know, that kind of thing, um, you know, simple stuff but no like hey you're gonna do this? hey do you wanna do this? hey do you are you know trying to negotiate all that stuff with me. On that Sunday we got back. Then, then, um, then it was on, uh, and then obviously because uh I was so patient and I certainly appreciate every part of that that's, that's what you know pros do and uh I ended up, uh, making the trip to out of city, uh, Sunday and then Monday morning I think maybe 6:30 a.m., 6:45 a.m. uh. I, I signed the papers and commitment, so, um, that was it, but no, it was ***, you know, it was kind of *** short process because of how long, uh, Beth allowed me to to coach my team and again I, I can't say that I mean that's as as I appreciate that about as much as anything and that also says what kind of athletic director she is is is, you know, she's trying to build something bigger than just *** transactional conversation so um we're gonna fight for her we're gonna fight for the University of Iowa because of *** lot of that. Ben, uh, Tom Kaker Hawkeye report again I wanted to ask you about point guard play. It's been *** hallmark of your teams. What do you look for in *** point guard, uh, when you're recruiting them and how you develop them? You, you gotta have an unselfish kid, you know, I think first and foremost, and, and all my point guards have been very unselfish. They, they've always averaged more with me than they have in high school. Uh, and so I kind of forced them to be great, essentially. You have to trust your own eyes in regards to their talent, athleticism, etc. Most coaches will, will watch and they'll get *** visual of what he's supposed to play like because of what he looks like, and they won't actually watch how good he is, like, like Bennett, for instance, you know, it, it looks like you should be mowing your lawn, right? You know, it's just *** 64 sandy haired and. Um, you know, but he's long and he's athletic and he's, he's got *** competitive fire as much as there is, and he actually has his own lawn mowing business, um, ironically, um, you know, and, and then my point guard before that, Trevor Hudgins point guard for that Justin Pits Dehaan Cooper, um, all of them had that, uh, that level of humility on top of it, so they're able to be coached consistently and they're able to understand that. They're not that special unless they have people with them, so the people with them allow them to be great and vice versa, you know, Bennett, Bennett would prefer to score 0 points and have everybody else score 20. I mean that's his mentality, and that's never changed, um, and so that's how my point guards will operate more questions. Hey coach, congratulations, uh, Joey Daa from KWQCTV in Davenport. I just wanted to ask you if there are any of your former players at Drake who, if they opt to go into the portal, who you're hoping will follow you here to Iowa other than Bennett? Yeah, if they, if they go on the portal and they opt in, um. You know, you always look at everybody's in the portal. So, um, to not be too specific or detailed because I'm not sure who's in and who's out. So I don't wanna, uh, actively recruit somebody like that right now, so. You know, I, I, we'll look at anybody that goes to the portal, to be quite honest. Hey Ben, LA Cl Hawkeye Beacon, um, regarding going forward with *** 2025 class, I know it can be *** little bit difficult to bring *** freshman into *** situation like this, and I know you're looking in the portal and looking and possibly bringing guys who were on the roster last year, but I guess, uh, what's the plan to approach maybe bringing in somebody in the 25 class looking at who you had at Drake, maybe, uh, Iowa has *** signee. I, I, I'm curious what your plan is there. Yeah, no, I, I think you need. Honestly, you probably just take the best players. So if there's *** 2025 and that's that's available and is one of the best players, then we're gonna sign it. So I'm not afraid of that. I think to be *** great program here in Iowa, I think it lends itself to building *** culture. And so I think retention is probably your most important thing and I also think making sure that you're, you know, 15th, 14th, 13th, even 12th guy are guys that are developing and continuing to grow and get better so that they can become your 12345 guys. Uh, two of my point guards actually red shirt. Um, one one's gonna play in the highest level in Europe and actually signed *** two way initially, uh, and then the one before that was Player of the Year in division 2, and he redshirted as well. So I'm not saying we're gonna red shirt *** bunch of people, but I am saying, uh, high school kids, you do need to have some good quality high school kids in the program specific to 2025 we're gonna take the best players. All right, thank you, coach. Thank you.