Shaka Smart. Buzz Williams. Mark Adams. Grant McCasland. What do these four names have in common? First of all, they each are either current or former head coaches of Division I men’s basketball programs. All four have won at least one game in the NCAA Tournament in the past three years. All are well-respected, established names in the landscape of college basketball.
The four have one more thing in common: They all agree that Ben McCollum, the new Drake men’s basketball head coach, is a college basketball savant.
“If I was an athletic director at the Division I level, I would hire him yesterday,” Smart said. “I’m just telling you, this guy’s as good as anybody.”
Williams’ answer when asked for the best current X’s and O’s coach in college basketball: McCollum.
From a statistical perspective, it’s hard to disagree with their assessment. At Northwest Missouri State, McCollum’s win percentage was an astounding .812, good for a total record of 394-91. McCollum won four Division II national championships in his time with the Bearcats, including a flawless 38-0 season in 2018 and back-to-back titles in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.
Before his time as a coach, McCollum played for the Bearcats and was a member of the 2002 team that made it to the program’s first Elite Eight in the Division II NCAA Tournament.
After graduating with a master’s degree in athletic administration from Northwest Missouri State, McCollum worked as an assistant coach at Emporia State University in Kansas from 2005 to 2009 before making his return to Maryville as head coach.
His first two years with the Bearcats were forgettably average, wrapping up with a total record of 22-31, good for ninth and 10th in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA). It is in this time, however, that McCollum learned one of his greatest coaching lessons.
In an interview with The Athletic, he details the story of one of his lowest moments as head coach of the Missouri institution: a 15-point loss to Truman State, a fixture near the bottom of the MIAA standings in his second year coaching.
Following the loss, McCollum called his mother, telling her he intended to quit. He had drawn up, in his mind, a great gameplan. His players couldn’t execute it, playing frustrated. Until this conversation, McCollum couldn’t figure out why.
Upon some gently prodding questions from his mother, McCollum realized the issue: He was frustrated as well. His own frustration bled into his players, creating an air of negativity that the team was simply not able to overcome. In the next few days, McCollum decided that if the program was going to be successful, it had to be positive, and that positivity had to start with him. Since that moment, the Bearcats have not had a losing season, making the DII NCAA Tournament 11 out of 12 possible years.
McCollum has long been a potential target for DI schools in need of a coach. In many cases, the Iowa native wasn’t interested; He had built something special at Northwest Missouri State and wasn’t going to leave it unless a perfect opportunity came across his desk.
Drake turned out to be that opportunity. In Des Moines, McCollum inherits a program from Darian Devries which has made the NCAA Tournament in three of the past four years, a six-point loss to Loyola Chicago away from making it in four consecutive years.
It will not be easy to continue and potentially improve this level of success, particularly considering the departure of almost the entirety of the roster into the transfer portal this offseason. McCollum understands this.
In comments provided to Drake athletic communications, McCollum said, “We have seen the transition Drake has made over the past few seasons to become one of the most successful mid-majors in that span. My family and I are very excited to continue that tradition.”
For both McCollum and Drake, this is an exciting new era, one that is poised to elevate their respective programs to new heights.
