By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Ben McCollum is working to make Iowa’s men’s basketball nonconference schedule for next season, and beyond, a little heavier with power conference teams.

The Hawkeyes close the nonconference schedule in McCollum’s first season as their head coach with Monday’s game against UMass Lowell at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and McCollum said on Saturday he’s been working on next season’s schedule.

“We want to play more power conference teams next year than this year,” McCollum said. “It’s our goal. It doesn’t always happen that way, but it’s our objective.”

Iowa’s nonconference schedule ranks 236th in the NCAA’s NET. The schedule included a road game against Iowa State, a home game against Xavier, and a neutral-court game against Ole Miss in the Acrisure Series event in Palm Springs, California.

That schedule, McCollum said, figures to be strengthened next season, but finding power conference teams isn’t as easy as it sounds.

“We’re trying to get some of our Power Fives dialed in earlier than normal,” McCollum said. “We’re trying. The scheduling is tricky. You can be as honest of a guy as you are, and then all of a sudden it gets to the schedule, and everybody lies to everybody. So we’re trying to piece that all together.”

Asked for a specific number, McCollum caught himself.

“I was going to say six or seven,” he said, smiling.

There might be some creativity to the schedule as well. Iowa was originally scheduled to play Saint Louis at the Casey’s Center in Des Moines, but the Hawkeyes played Bucknell instead because McCollum didn’t want to go against close friend Josh Schertz, who coaches the Billikens.

McCollum hinted at more neutral-court events — the Hawkeyes have played in Sioux Falls, S.D., and Moline, Ill., as well as Des Moines, in recent seasons.

“We kind of have a plan for it,” he said. “We’d like to stay fairly local with some cool neutral floors, but we’re still a work in progress there as well.”

It’s not going to be a schedule completely loaded with power conference teams, though.

“I would say you probably want to play enough of the ‘buy’ games to build your confidence and to get more bodies in,” McCollum said. “So you don’t want to eliminate those because you can play your depth.”

The Hawkeyes, 10-2 overall, are 9-1 in nonconference games this season, including a 3-0 record on neutral courts.

“You would have liked to win the other game (the 66-62 loss at Iowa State),” McCollum said. “I think that we’ve improved. I think that we faced a lot of different challenges, even in wins where teams ran different things, or maybe they played a little faster, little slower, or they rebounded better. And so you start to get used to those actions. I think we’ve built a level of confidence through our work.”

The Hawkeyes are situated comfortably in the NCAA NET, where they are ranked 12th overall. Iowa is 0-2 in Quad 1 games — losses at Michigan State and Iowa State — and 2-0 in Quad 2 games. Those numbers will change once the Hawkeyes get back into Big Ten play next Saturday against UCLA.

“Obviously your statistical rankings are good, and so that that’s good,” said McCollum, whose team is ranked 22nd defensively and 29th offensively by KenPom.com. “So now you go into Big Ten play, and all you do is play Quad 1s. So now it’s on.”

Photo: Iowa coach Ben McCollum is working on next year’s nonconference schedule. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)