Ben McCollum had a job offer from Drake in hand last spring and was close to taking it when he stopped himself and decided he should sleep on it.
Clarity came to him at 3 a.m.
“I woke up,” he said, “and I'm like, ‘Man, I want to make the NCAA Tournament. They’re Division I.' So I took the job, and now we're there.”
The Bulldogs sure are, and the pieces are in place for them to become one of those lovable March Madness underdogs.
It's not because Drake doesn't have history in the tournament. This will be the eighth appearance for the 4,700-student school in Des Moines, Iowa, the fifth since 2008 and the third in a row. Darian DeVries, now at West Virginia, was coach for the last two.
Enter McCollum, the Iowa native who won four Division II national championships in 15 years at Northwest Missouri State. No one doubted his coaching chops, and he didn't blink while making the transition to Division I.
What makes Drake so intriguing is that four of McCollum's starters came with him from Northwest Missouri, and they didn't blink, either.
Do-it-all man Bennett Stirtz is the face of the program. He was Missouri Valley Conference player of the year and the most outstanding player in the league tournament. A year ago at Northwest Missouri he didn't even make the all-conference first team, and neither did any of his teammates.
Naturally, expectations were not high for the Bulldogs entering this season. They were picked fifth in the 12-team Valley and received no first-place votes.
They ended up winning the regular-season championship by two games with 17 conference wins, their most ever. Then they won the Valley tournament to run their overall win total to a school-record 30 in 33 games.
Seeded No. 11 in the West Region, they'll carry a seven-game win streak into their matchup with Missouri (22-11) in Wichita, Kansas, on Thursday night.
“We've got more to do,” said Mitch Mascari, who had graduated from Northwest Missouri and accepted a job in finance in the Chicago area before he changed his mind and decided to use his remaining year of eligibility with McCollum at Drake.
Proving doubters wrong has fueled the Bulldogs from the start.
"Yeah, the preseason pick, we could start with that, and just having that label as being D2 guys," Stirtz said. “No one believed in us.”
McCollum coaches a grinding style. The Bulldogs' tempo is slowest in the nation. Offensive rebounding is emphasized, and Wyoming transfer Cam Manyawu and junior college transfer Tavion Banks excel at it. The defense allows 58.4 points per game, fewest in the nation. Just over 1 in 5 opponent possessions ends with a turnover.
“Death by a thousand paper cuts,” McCollum said. “It's just one little thing after one little thing, and eventually it turns into big things. Our guys have the mentality to be able to do that and not try to throw haymakers. Come out and jab, jab, jab all game long and then hope that it works out at the end.”
It's been a winning formula. The Bulldogs knocked off Miami, Vanderbilt and Kansas State on their way to a 12-0 start. Stirtz's 3-pointer with 4 seconds left in overtime produced Drake's 73-70 win over K-State at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
"That helped me and the team a lot, just knowing we can hang with Power Five teams," he said. "That was a special game for me, and a lot of our team is from KC, so to do that in Kansas City was pretty special.”
Drake dropped back-to-back games before reeling off 11 straight MVC wins. The Bulldogs' only other loss came at home against Bradley, which they avenged in the Valley tournament title game.
“Winning is hard, and sustaining that is the hardest part when you’re a team that usually wins,” Isaiah Jackson said. “We get everybody’s best shot every night.”
Stirtz, who had no Division I offers when he was coming out of high school in Liberty, Missouri, is the only player in the nation with more than 600 points (631), 180 assists (188) and 70 steals (71). The only player in Valley history to also achieve those numbers was Indiana State great Larry Bird.
Stirtz averages 19.1 points, 5.6 assists and 2.2 steals per game — all significantly better numbers than when he was in Division II last season.
“I think it’s just having another year under my belt,” he said. "I think I’ve grown a lot as a player and as a person, just helping my guys out on the floor. Me being more confident out there and just knowing I can play with anyone in the country.”
Stirtz's fellow Northwest Missouri transfers — Mascari, Jackson and Daniel Abreu — also have proved they can have success in Division I.
“From day one,” Abreu said, “I knew what we were capable of at the D2 level, and I didn’t think it was going to be that big of a difference. Nor did the coaches. They were like, ‘Hey, we can compete at this level, too. Just bring it like you did at D2.’ "
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AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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