No. 4 Iowa State (9-0) returns home to Hilton Coliseum for the annual CyHawk game against the Iowa Hawkeyes (8-1) on Thursday night (7:00 p.m., FS1).
The Hawkeyes arrive in Ames under new leadership and with a dramatically retooled roster. After Iowa parted ways with longtime head coach Fran McCaffery in March, the program hired Ben McCollum—fresh off a successful one-year stint at Drake and multiple Division II national titles at Northwest Missouri State—to steer the 2025–26 rebuild.
McCollum’s first month in Iowa City has been really encouraging. The Hawkeyes are 8–1 and fresh off an 83–64 win over Maryland that doubled as his first Big Ten victory. The Hawkeyes also claimed the Acrisure Classic with wins over Ole Miss and Grand Canyon. Iowa State is entering the game unbeaten at 9–0 and ranked No. 4 in the country after a 23-point demolition of then-No. 1 Purdue.
Iowa State has won two straight in the series and three of the last four, including a 90–65 rout in Ames in 2023 and an 89–80 road win in Iowa City last season. This season’s meeting adds layers: it’s McCollum’s first Cy-Hawk, and, remarkably, no one on Iowa’s current roster has logged a minute in the rivalry.
Iowa’s 2025–26 team is led by senior point guard Bennett Stirtz, who followed McCollum from Drake after also playing for him at Northwest Missouri State. Stirtz entered the year on national watch lists (Cousy, Wooden, Naismith) and early top 100 rankings, and he’s met all of the hype. He is averaging 18.8 points, 4.9 assists, 50.5% from the field and a blistering 45.1% from three through nine games, including 25 in the Maryland win and 29 vs. Ole Miss.
He plays marathon minutes and toggles between scoring in ball screens and quarterbacking McCollum’s office. National and local outlets have pegged him among the Big Ten’s best point guards to date, and Iowa’s own notes underscore how his usage fuels a team that ranks top 20 nationally in field-goal percentage.
Around Stirtz, Iowa’s rotation pieces have emerged with complementary roles. Cooper Koch, a 6–foot-8 redshirt freshman who stayed through the offseason overhaul, gives Iowa a floor-spacing forward who’s trending up; he posted a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double against Ole Miss and has reached double figures in four of the last five, offering pick-and-pop that fits McCollum’s offense. Cam Manyawu brings much-needed interior heft and activity. He tallied 12 points and seven boards vs. Maryland and a burst to start the second half that helped Iowa put the game away.
Isaia Howard has toggled between starting and sixth-man duties; he delivered 19 off the bench to secure the Acrisure title, and his downhill driving and energy on the glass give Iowa a different gear. Kael Combs is a sturdy two-way wing who chips in across the box score, and Robert Morris transfer Alvaro Folgueiras offers length at the 5 position with touch and shooting.
If you’ve never seen Iowa under McCollum, the offense is slow but efficient. The ball finds Stirtz early in actions through screens, side pick-and-rolls, and he hunts good looks as the floor widens. Iowa wants to hit early threes and flow into middle-third attacks where Stirtz can snake to midrange where he can find the open man. Efficiency has been their calling card (51.7% FG and a top 25 assist rate), and their turnover profile is respectable, but the offense can flatten when opponents cut off dribble penetration much like Iowa State likes to do.
Defensively, Iowa has surprised relative to its preseason questions. They’re allowing just 62.6 points per game—second-best in the Big Ten and they’ve leaned into pressuring the ball at all times. Against Grand Canyon, their ball pressure created 19 turnovers, and they scpred 22 points from those miscues; against Maryland, they strung together several stops to build a big lead that Maryland could not recover from. The stress point remains defensive rebounding and interior size—Michigan State exposed that with a 37–18 edge on the glass and 21 second-chance points, a blueprint the Cyclones bigs will try to exploit.
