By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

New Iowa coach Ben McCollum made his best pitch to keep Josh Dix and Pryce Sandfort.

It wasn’t good enough — the two former Hawkeyes announced on Friday where they were going to be playing next year.

Dix, who will be a senior next season, is transferring to Creighton. Sandfort, a junior next season, is transferring to Nebraska.

Two more Hawkeyes — forward Seydou Traore and guard Isaiah Johnson-Arigu — have also entered the NCAA transfer portal. Traore announced his entrance on Thursday, and Johnson-Arigu, who transferred into the program from Miami at midseason, announced his departure on Friday.

Iowa’s roster has been emptied since the firing of coach Fran McCaffery and the hiring of McCollum. Forward Cooper Koch is the only player with eligibility from last season to announce he’s staying.

Four players have followed McCollum from Drake — guards Bennett Stirtz and Kael Combs, along with forwards Cam Manayawu and Isaia Howard.

Koch, Dix and Sandfort were prime retention targets for McCollum when he was hired.

“One thing we can start with … is see if we can get Pryce, Cooper, Josh, see if we can get them some support as well, maybe just text them or tweet them or anything like that and get them excited about coming back to the University of Iowa and making this thing grow.,” McCollum said. “That would be good support to start.”

Dix averaged 14.4 points last season, ranking second on the team with 65 3-pointers. He joins former teammate Owen Freeman, who committed to the Bluejays last week.

Sandfort averaged 8.8 points, ranking third with 56 3-pointers.

Traore averaged 5.9 points and 3 rebounds.

Photo: Iowa guard Josh Dix announced on Friday that he would be transferring to Creighton. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)