Inside Ben McCollum's "process warrior" mind, which gives Iowa basketball unlimited possibilities

The soft chink of the rod against the boat’s metal rail is the only thing that breaks the silence, until Ben McCollum breaks it again by stepping on a squeaky floorboard. The water is still. The air seldom moves. McCollum picks up the rod, flicks it, and listens as its whooshing tone dominates the airwaves.

He has effectively escaped. His phone is away. The weight of expectation surrounding him is on the back burner. His team has dispersed. McCollum loves fishing because it detaches him from the tight grasp his profession tends to have on its occupants. The only other comparable activity in McCollum’s life is running.

McCollum finds that fishing allows him to be fully present with his three children and whichever friend he chooses to head to the lake with. McCollum has fond memories of a legendary trout fishing trip he once took with Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland and then-Wyoming coach Jeff Linder, although McCollum is more of a crappie guy himself. His best catch ever was a 16-inch crappie he caught in Missouri, but he also caught walleyes and smallmouth bass on a trip to Canada over the 2026 summer.

Fishing makes sense to McCollum, perhaps more than to the average casual fisherman. It’s a microcosm of the way he thinks about life. McCollum doesn’t care if he catches a fish. He has a lot more fun when other people do. Casual fishing is more about the journey and the peace than the big catch. When McCollum talks about fishing, he talks more about his love for the activity itself and the memories he’s seen others make on the boat–particularly a leaking one with his former athletic director–than his line connecting with any crappie.

As he enters his second year as Iowa’s head coach, McCollum talks the same way about basketball. He has since 2017.

McCollum placed his net-garnished hat on the table beside him and looked around the empty room that spring. His staff had seen him truly let loose for the first time after a big win, but McCollum snapped back into form quickly. He’d just reached the highest point of his career to date, but his team had scattered, the congratulatory messages had slowed, and he was left with a relatively unchanged life.