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2026-27 Iowa Men's Basketball Preview: Forwards/Centers
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- 2026-27 Iowa Men's Basketball Preview: Forwards/Centers
(USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
Andrew McKeever speaks to the media at media day.
Iowa basketball returns to action in just 10 days for its exhibition game against Illinois-Springfield on Oct. 27 .
As head coach Ben McCollum makes his final tweaks in practice, it's time to continue preview season by looking at the Hawkeyes' forwards and guards. This was an area Iowa struggled with last season, but McCollum feels a lot more confident in this group in 2026-27.
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Here's a look at each player along with our thoughts on what role each could play this season.
Likely Starters
Cam Manyawu
Year:Fourth
Height:6-foot-9
Weight:255 pounds
After playing as a severely-undersized five last season, the addition of Andrew McKeever will allow the 6-foot-9 Manyawu to move to the four. We're not going to see the true impact of this until the season tips off, but Manyawu's game has a chance to be so much better considering he can actually go up against players his own size. Manyawu may not give the Hawkeyes a major scoring punch (6.6 points per game last year) this season, but he's doing to be the type of player that McCollum loves - high energy and solid rim protection.
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"I think for him, he can create value through offensive rebounding, through defensive rebounding, through physicality, through his experience, through his elite personality," McCollum said at media day. "Can I add value through that? That's what we're asking him to do, but that will be the toughest task for him to figure out how he's going to do that with the group that we have."
Cooper Koch
Year:Third
Height:6-foot-8
Weight:228 pounds
Koch is one of two holdovers from Fran McCaffery's final team (walk-on Jacob Koch is the other), and it's safe to say his decision to stay in Iowa City and play for McCollum has been a good one. The Hawkeye legacy recruit started all 37 games last year, and though there was some inconsistency for most of the regular season, Koch was one of Iowa's best players at the end of the year. The Hawkeyes might not have upset Florida without Koch going 4-of-6 from behind the arc, and it's clear the confidence never wavered.
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Not only can Koch shoot it well from distance, his 6-foot-8, 228-pound frame allows him to be a factor on the glass. It's probably too easy to declare Koch a breakout candidate at this point, but he is going to be a major X-factor for this offense in 2027, especially since he's now one of the leaders of this basketball team.
"I think one of the biggest jumps [for me] is the leadership, because Bennett [Stirtz] was a big leader last year. Tavion was a big leader last year, and now we kind of need people to step up and fill that role. So I think I could be one of those guys," Koch said.
Andrew McKeever
Year:Fourth
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Height:7-foot-3
Weight:300 pounds
Iowa's main Achilles heel last season was its rebounding, and McCollum knew it. The coach expressed his concern with his team's work on the glass by mid-January, and sure enough, it was the primary reason why the Hawkeyes fell short of the Final Four.
We knew for months that McCollum would try to get a big in the transfer portal, and his search yielded 7-foot-3 Andrew McKeever. He instantly becomes the tallest player in Iowa basketball history and gives the Hawkeyes a major boost in the frontcourt. Just being tall is one thing - knowing how to use it is another. McKeever comes to Iowa from one of the nation's top mid-major programs in Saint Mary's and posted 9.2 rebounds per game - the best mark in the West Coast Conference.
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Don't expect McKeever to score a ton of points, but you can definitely expect him to be a major rim protector for Iowa this season. Remember this, too: this will be the first time in McCollum's coaching career that he has a true center to work with. That's dangerous.
Bench
Trevin Jirak
Year:Second
Height:6-foot-11
Weight:249 pounds
While McKeever is the headliner at center, don't forget about Jirak as well. The 2025 Iowa Mr. Basketball honoree played sparingly for the Hawkeyes last year, but he did show raw potential when he did touch the floor, especially against Purdue. Jirak simply wasn't quite ready for Big Ten basketball in 2026, but he looks like he's ready to play the part in 2027. He impressed me with his versatile game - shooting, passing, rim protection - over the summer, and that's really the difference between him and McKeever. McKeever is a true rim protector, but Jirak will be able to stretch the floor with his jumper. Iowa probably won't play the duo on the court together very often, but it now has the luxury of using both against some of the league's tallest teams.
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Big things ahead for the West Des Moines native this season.
Trey Thompson
Year:Second
Height:6-foot-8
Weight:228 pounds
Thompson came to Iowa City as a highly-anticipated four-star prospect after reclassifying to the Class of 2025, but McCollum and Co. chose to redshirt the Tennessee native. He would've had four years of eligibility left because of the NCAA's new five-year rule, but either way, letting the 18-year-old learn McCollum's system for a year should be huge for Thompson's development.
Thompson played very well in the portion of practice open to the media at media days on Monday. One things Hawkeye fans should watch for this year is his shooting ability. That's what will keep him on the floor and give this Iowa team a great scoring punch off the bench.
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Jaidyn Coon
Year:First
Height: 6-foot-6
Weight:220 pounds
Iowa received a major boost when Coon decided to flip his commitment from Creighton to Iowa in the spring. Coon has already earned praise from Hawkeye fans because he and McCollum are from the same small town in Iowa (Storm Lake), but if there's one thing I can say about Coon's game right now - it's his incredible athleticism.
McCollum called Coon a "freak" athlete at media day, and it's easy to see why he says that. It feels like Coon is looking to dunk the basketball every time he has the ball in his hands, and he just moves so fluidly out there. It's hard to foresee what role Coon could carve up this year because he's only a freshman, but McCollum will probably want him to improve his three-point (29%) and free-throw (64.1%) percentages from high school. It feels like Coon could join Isaia Howard as one of the "enforcers" off the bench.
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Joey Matteoni
Year:Third
Height:6-foot-9
Weight:236 pounds
Matteoni played in just 11 games last year, so it will be interesting to see if that increases this year. Iowa already has plenty of experienced players above Matteoni, but that doesn't mean McCollum won't completely leave him out of the equation. He is 6-foot-9, after all, and has played under McCollum for two seasons.
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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at bradschultz@roundtable.io
