By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

It was the perfect ending for Iowa’s search for a new men’s basketball coach.

Drake’s Ben McCollum was hired Monday to take over the program, and in the end Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz made the best choice.

West Virginia’s Darian DeVries was everyone’s favorite for the Iowa job last week before Indiana snared him, and while the loss upset some Hawkeye fans on social media, once the timeline was laid out of how DeVries went from the Mountaineers to the Hoosiers, it was clear that wasn’t much chance that he was coming to Iowa at all.

Once DeVries was gone, McCollum was the best choice, and Goetz didn’t take long securing him. The Bulldogs were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night, and by Sunday night, a deal was reached with McCollum.

He is the right fit for a program beset by fan apathy. Iowa fans not acquainted with his style of play got to see it in the NCAA Tournament win over Missouri and in the second-round loss to Texas Tech. The Bulldogs rank second nationally in scoring defense at 58.9 points per game, and were efficient offensively.

There are no blemishes on McCollum’s resumé. He won four NCAA Division II national championships at Northwest Missouri State, and in his one season at Drake went 31-4, winning the Missouri Valley Conference’s regular-season and tournament titles. His career winning percentage of 81.8% is fifth best among men’s basketball coaches.

McCollum will face a rebuilding project at Iowa, in some ways not quite as extreme as the one McCaffery inherited back in 2010. Some of McCollum’s players are expected to come with him from Drake, and he might be able to lure back a few Hawkeyes who are already in the NCAA’s transfer portal. That should give him a good base to work with as he begins portal shopping.

It’s a job that seems to have been built for McCollum for a while. He was born in Iowa City and raised in Iowa — Iowa’s men’s basketball social media accounts posted a photo on Monday of a young McCollum with legendary Hawkeye coach Tom Davis.

Now comes the hard part — coming up with the NIL resources to help compete in the Big Ten.

Money isn’t a guarantee of roster success — Indiana, for example, burned through a pile of cash this season and got nothing in return — but still, the Hawkeyes must remain competitive within the conference when it comes to resources. McCaffery, in his press conference after the Big Ten Tournament loss to Illinois two weeks ago, estimated he would need $6 million in NIL money to be competitive next season, and McCollum will certainly need something close, if not more, once he knows what he needs.

Iowa’s resources when it comes to men’s basketball is going to be a big topic of conversation when McCollum is introduced at a Tuesday press conference, and it will be interesting to see Goetz’s response.

There has been a positive response on social media from Iowa fans to the McCollum hiring, but now it will have to translate into ticket sales. A half-empty Carver-Hawkeye Arena like the one seen in a vast majority of games the last two seasons proved to be unacceptable, and while the hiring wins the week, the bigger key is keeping that momentum into next season.

McCollum wins. That’s clear from his resumé. His hiring is the right choice, the best choice.

The next goal is giving him the resources he needs. How that will be accomplished remains to be seen, and is now the biggest question to be answered.

Photo: New Iowa coach Ben McCollum looks like the perfect fit, but he’ll need the resources to win in the Big Ten. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)