No, not that Drake.
As you may have noticed, we’ve been intrigued by Ben McCollum for several years. At Northwest Missouri State, he was putting up Woodenesque numbers. He got the Bearcats to four D-II national championships and over his last six years there, lost just 16 games and won 191.
As we said, Woodenesque.
This year though he finally moved to D-I and is now the head coach at Drake. And while it’s still early, the Bulldogs are 10-0 including a tremendous win over Kansas State Tuesday night.
Drake built an early 29-9 lead but the Wildcats rallied and the game ended up in overtime, where Drake won with a dramatic three by Bennett Stirtz with 3.4 on the clock.
Look how cold-blooded he is: he is no hurry as he brings the ball up, He’s not worried about the defenders, or, judging from his calm, assured follow through, about missing either.
Conference play is just beginning so Drake’s flaws and weaknesses will be exposed and exploited, just like everyone else’s will. However, this game has a feel of March and it won't surprise us if Drake gets there. And since McCollum apparently took several of his NWMS players with him, they already have cohesion. We’d keep an eye on Drake.
