Drake Basketball’s Underdog Story
The Drake basketball program has been successful for many years, and this year is no different. The Bulldogs have started 13-2 with wins over Miami, Florida Atlantic, Vanderbilt, and Kansas State. This year though, the Bulldogs have a different coach, Ben McCollum who previously coached at Division II school Northwest Missouri State where he won four national titles. McCollum brought four players from Northwest Missouri State who are now integral to Drake's success. That means Drake basketball started in the year 13-2 with a new coach and four starters who played Division II basketball last year. This isn’t to diminish Northwest Missouri State as they have dominated Division II basketball for a long time now, it’s the fact the winning has translated immediately over to Division I.
Drake’s best player this year has been Junior Bennett Stirtz, who I believe has been one of the best point guards in the entire country. He has completely taken control of several games this year including hitting a game-winner against Kansas State. This success isn’t new for him. At Northwest Missouri State, he received honors, including MIAA Freshman of the Year, Freshman Steals Leader, two-time second-team All-MIAA selection, and a national championship.
Drake’s second-leading scorer this year is Mitch Mascari, who, before the season, was an asset manager for a company in Chicago. McCollum convinced Mascari to leave his job and join him, and now Mascari is thriving in his role this year. The other two Northwest Missouri State transfers include Daniel Abreu and Isaiah Jackson, who both won two National Championships with coach McCollum before coming to Drake. Other notable players include Tavion Banks, who previously played for Northwest Florida State, Cam Manyawu, a Wyoming transfer, and Nate Ferguson, the lone returner from last year's Drake team.
If you haven’t been paying attention to this Drake team this year, you should start. Ben McCollum’s style of basketball has translated right over to Division I. His teams are always disciplined on both ends and whenever they struggle on the offensive end, they make up for it by swallowing teams up on the defensive end. They have one of the best stories in college basketball this year and have a chance to become America’s sweetheart in March.
