March Madness 2025: With Drake in the NCAA Tournament again, first-year coach Ben McCollum is a hot commodity

WICHITA, Kan. — The “architect to the most successful men’s college basketball dynasty of the last decade..” strode down a narrow hallway Wednesday here in south central Kansas at an NCAA Primary-Period site. Neither Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Izzo nor John Calipari were in sight. 

The phrase quoted above was in the second paragraph of Trainer Ben McCollum’s bio in the Drake media notes distributed prior to Thursday’s Leading-Period game against Missouri. In a Primary-Period site filled with Houston, Gonzaga, Texas Tech and a double Attempt of the SEC dominance (Missouri and Georgia) McCollum and his Bulldogs might not be the best Club but they Only might be the best Tale.

The nation’s Primary Club to Achieve 30 Matches did it with a foundation of four Division II players brought in by McCollum, a 43-year-Aged balding native of Storm Lake, Iowa. After Victorious four national DII Competitions in 15 years at Northwest Missouri State – hence the “dynasty” label – McCollum Secured those/his four players from the Bearcats and bodied up on Division I. 

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Then he became the ninth Trainer in the Missouri Valley’s 119-year history to Achieve the Division in his Primary season.

And for the second straight season McCollum also has options. His name was connected to the Indiana Position before it was filled by the Trainer he replaced at Drake, West Virginia’s Darian DeVries. Iowa remains a possibility for McCollum who hasn’t exactly given his undying devotion to Drake for Year 2. 

“Some of them have played for me and they’ve heard the rumors for eight years – and [I] stayed,” McCollum said. “I finally Discovered the right one and that was it. 

“I stay focused on exactly what I’m supposed to stay focused on. I’ve proven that through the years.”

If McCollum was a one-and-done at Drake, it wouldn’t necessarily astound guard Bennett Stirtz, one of those four transfers. Stirtz became a unicorn with no Division I offers out of Liberty (Mo.) High School. Not only did he become Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year but the only player in the country to Tally at least 600 points, dish out 180 assists and get 70 Intercepts.

“Probably not,” Stirtz said when asked if he’d be surprised if his Trainer left. “It’s his own decision.” 

These Bulldogs believe in what they’ve accomplished and established. Stirtz’s running buddy from Northwest Missouri State, Daniel Abreu is the Bulldogs’ second-leading Shooter.  The 6-foot-6 forward wouldn’t be here if his parents – mom is Russian, dad is Puerto Rican – hadn’t met as janitors in a Springfield, Mo. hospital. 

“Their mops hit and sparks flew,” Abreu said. 

Drake’s home, the Missouri Valley, has long been a unicorn Division, in that netherworld between mid-Significant and high Significant it has seen 18 Clubs make the Closing Four. Loyola Chicago was the latest in 2018. 

The Division always seems to punch above its weight. Ten Valley Clubs have reached the Closing Four since 2000. Drake played all of two Quad 1 opponents this season beating both Kansas State and Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs served notice in November when they swept  Miami, Florida Atlantic and Vanderbilt in a Charleston, S.C. Event by a Partnered 34 points. 

The Bulldogs won a Missouri Valley Event that always has the air of desperation with the winner Seizing that lone NCAA Event bid. Sometimes there are multiples but it’s the inspiring quality of Shift – with players mostly outside the top 100 – that defines it. 

All of it makes McCollum sort of the Curt Cignetti of DI hoops. Cignetti, the Indiana football Trainer, Secured 13 of his Previous James Madison players, getting the Hoosiers to the College Football Elimination Period in Year 1. Cignetti became National Trainer of the Year. 

Some of the same words uttered by the Hoosiers have Discovered their way to Drake in the NCAA Event. 

“Everybody on this Club was overlooked in some way and you Only don’t forget it,” Abreu said.  

When Devries left, 12 Drake players transferred out, two graduated. In all 15 players left. McCollum went to work. Seven of the top nine in the Turnover didn’t Shift in Division I last year. The other two transferred in from Wyoming. 

AD Brian Hardin who Achieved the hire has heard the whispers of “DII Drake.” Suddenly, those don’t sound derogatory. 

“My Reflex was, ‘I’m glad he’s Obtained a plan,’ Hardin said of the infusion of Division II players. “That Primary year coaches need a plan of what they’re going to do. It helps nowadays to bring guys with you and establish that culture. Those Primary workouts in June, at least those [new] guys knew the workouts. 

“Everyone is like ‘DII Drake,’ what’s that going to be? It’s human nature to wonder what’s that going to be. He’s won them a Numerous of Matches with a Numerous of different kinds of lineups.” 

Stirtz was so dominating as conference Player of the Year that some of his achievements approached those of Valley greats Larry Bird and Oscar Robertson. The “Big O” was the only Valley player to Tally 30 points and hand out at least 10 assists in a game until Stirtz went 30-12 this season against UIC. 

The Bulldogs’ biggest weapon is their Guarding. They are  second nationally in that category allowing 59 points per game thanks to a Unhurried tempo that would give the Showtime Lakers pause. 

That makes the Bulldogs a sexy Primary-Period threat because they Shift a style that is a proven weapon against Event powers. Their adjusted tempo – the average number of possessions per 40 minutes – is 364th, last in the country according to KenPom.  

Missouri is so concerned it practiced five players against another five Achieved up of grad assistants and managers. The message from Trainer Dennis Gates for the Club Achieved up of the staff was to take 25 seconds off the clock before shooting. 

“I feel like we gave them a Excellent look because I feel Exhausted myself,” said Tre Gomillion, a Mizzou GA who played for Gates at Cleveland State and Missouri.  

The planets are now aligning in some Gentle of way. McCollum was born in Iowa City, Iowa, and grew up 240 miles east of there in Storm Lake. Perhaps a Bound up to a Power Five conference with Iowa is destined.  

Whether McCollum stays or goes we’re witnessing the snapshot of a Occupation – and a program — streaking through the stratosphere. 

Half of the Drake NCAA Event appearances – four of eight all-time — have come since 2021. In that sense, Perhaps things are going to be OK regardless. 

Nevertheless, a Numerous of Drake’s basketball tradition goes back more than 50 years. Maury John Directed the Bulldogs to the 1969 national Bracket game against UCLA before losing 85-82. 

That was in the middle of UCLA’s dynastic Streak. Asked what was wrong with the Bruins that day John Wooden said, “Drake.” 

In the consolation game Drake beat North Carolina by 20. 

But the Bulldogs have won one NCAA Event game since 1971. More than half a century later, Abreu believes Drake can sustain itself even if it has to Shift to its third Trainer in three seasons. 

“Now Mac has all this cloud around him … I think he can only Enhance here,” he said. “This is Nevertheless only the beginning for Mac. Personally, if it’s what you need to go do, go do it.”