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Manyawu follows McCollum to Iowa

AP FILE PHOTO - Drake’s Cam Manyawu, right, drives to the basket past Bradley’s Zek Montgomery during the first half of the championship game of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on March 9 in St. Louis.

IOWA CITY — The fast track from Des Moines to Iowa City is officially open.

One day after Bennett Stirtz officially announced his transfer from Drake to Iowa, two more Bulldogs made their intentions known to follow suit.

Cam Manyawu and Kael Combs both used their social media accounts to announce their plans to transfer from Drake to Iowa, becoming the second and third Bulldogs to do so behind their former head coach Ben McCollum.

The Hawkeyes hired McCollum two days after the Bulldogs were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by Texas Tech in the round of 32, replacing Fran McCaffery after his 15-year run in Iowa City was terminated.

One week later, McCollum has already started to replenish the Hawkeye roster by bringing over three of his former players from Drake.

Manyawu is the biggest addition of the day for the Hawkeyes, as the 6-foot-8, 230-pound sophomore forward started all 35 games for Drake during its record-setting 31-4 campaign. He averaged just 18.8 minutes of playing time per game, but put up 7.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals per contest. He shot 57.8 percent from the field (100-of-173) but was a sub-par performer at the free-throw line (47-for-95; 49.5 percent).

He’ll be called upon to make an instant impact on the interior for the Hawkeyes, who lost 6-10 forward Owen Freeman to Creighton in the transfer portal.

Combs is a 6-4 sophomore guard who played in 31 games off the bench for McCollum this past season, averaging 3.8 points and 2.0 rebounds per appearance. He averaged 13 minutes of playing time and shot 51.1 percent from the field.

The Hawkeyes continue to await for the future plans of a pair of standouts as Josh Dix and Pryce Sandfort have entered their names in the transfer portal, as well as Ladji Dembele. Dix, a junior guard, averaged 14.4 points per game and was billed as Iowa’s top returner. Sandfort, a sophomore swingman, put up 8.8 points per game.

Dembele, a 6-8 sophomore forward, added 4.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game, starting in 21 of 33 games this season.

McCollum has plenty of flexibility on his roster, as Iowa graduated Even Brauns, Drew Thelwell, leading scorer Payton Sandfort and Luc Laketa from this year’s lineup. Freeman (Creighton), Brock Harding (TCU) and Riley Mulvey (Siena) have already transferred out after the firing of McCaffery.

Freshman forward Chris Tadjo (6-8, 240) entered the transfer portal on Tuesday.

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