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 first-round site. Neither Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Izzo nor John Calipari were in sight. 

The phrase quoted above was in the second paragraph of coach Ben McCollum’s bio in the Drake media notes distributed prior to Thursday’s opening-round game against Missouri. In a first-round site filled with Houston, Gonzaga, Texas Tech and a double shot of the SEC dominance (Missouri and Georgia) McCollum and his Bulldogs might not be the best team but they just might be the best story.

The nation’s first team to win 30 games did it with a foundation of four Division II players brought in by McCollum, a 43-year-old balding native of Storm Lake, Iowa. After winning four national DII championships in 15 years at Northwest Missouri State – hence the “dynasty” label – McCollum took those/his four players from the Bearcats and bodied up on Division I. 

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Then he became the ninth coach in the Missouri Valley’s 119-year history to win the league in his first season.

And for the second straight season McCollum also has options. His name was connected to the Indiana job before it was filled by the coach 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 found 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 score at least 600 points, dish out 180 assists and get 70 steals.

“Probably not,” Stirtz said when asked if he’d be surprised if his coach 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 scorer.  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 league, in that netherworld between mid-major and high major it has seen 18 teams make the Final Four. Loyola Chicago was the latest in 2018. 

The league always seems to punch above its weight. Ten Valley teams have reached the Final 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. tournament by a combined 34 points. 

The Bulldogs won a Missouri Valley Tournament that always has the air of desperation with the winner grabbing that lone NCAA Tournament bid. Sometimes there are multiples but it’s the inspiring quality of play – 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 coach, took 13 of his former James Madison players, getting the Hoosiers to the College Football Playoff in Year 1. Cignetti became National Coach of the Year. 

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

“Everybody on this team was overlooked in some way and you just 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 rotation didn’t play in Division I last year. The other two transferred in from Wyoming. 

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

“My reaction was, ‘I’m glad he’s got a plan,’ Hardin said of the infusion of Division II players. “That first 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 first 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 lot of games with a lot 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 score 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 defense. They are  second nationally in that category allowing 59 points per game thanks to a slow tempo that would give the Showtime Lakers pause. 

That makes the Bulldogs a sexy first-round threat because they play a style that is a proven weapon against tournament 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 made up of grad assistants and managers. The message from coach Dennis Gates for the team made up of the staff was to take 25 seconds off the clock before shooting. 

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

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

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

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

Still, a lot of Drake’s basketball tradition goes back more than 50 years. Maury John led the Bulldogs to the 1969 national championship game against UCLA before losing 85-82. 

That was in the middle of UCLA’s dynastic run. 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 Tournament game since 1971. More than half a century later, Abreu believes Drake can sustain itself even if it has to move to its third coach in three seasons. 

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