Ben McCollum officially introduced as Drake’s basketball coach in press conference
By Calvin Silvers
The past two weeks may have seemed unreal for Northwest Missouri State basketball fans, as legendary head coach Ben McCollum recently announced he’d be leaving the Division II program to make the jump to Division 1 at Drake University.
On Tuesday, everything was finalized as the university held a press conference introducing the newly hired coach, and the McCollum era in Des Moines begins now.
Drake and McCollum have had history as university president, Marty Martin, sat down with McCollum a few years prior. However, on this search, despite not talking x’s and o’s, Martin knew they had their guy.
“You look at his record, you look at the people who rely upon him for advice and counsel, and you know this man knows basketball,” Martin said. “He knows how to take a player and make them better on that court. Most important is how he treats these people, these young people who are on his team.”
As mentioned, Drake passed over McCollum in 2018, hiring Darian Devries, who led Drake to six consecutive 20 win seasons.
McCollum would keep in touch with director of athletics Brian Hardin, and Hardin kept attention to McCollum and he couldn’t pass up the opportunity this time around.
“Ben had numerous other opportunities to become a Division I head coach over the past few years, but he waited for this position to open, he didn’t want to be just any Division I head coach,” Hardin said. “He wanted to be the Drake head coach, and that matters, and that’s why he’s a tremendous fit for our campus and our community.”
McCollum, who spent the last 15 seasons at Northwest Missouri State, compiled a 394-91 record while guiding the Bearcats to four national championships.He was also named an NABC Division II National Coach of the Year five times.
Always wanting to make that jump to Division I, McCollum knows his perspectives don’t change.
“The jump to Division I is something that from a challenge perspective I wanted to make, but we’ve always kept the first thing first,” McCollum said. “The reason I got into college coaching is to make a difference on people’s lives and the community surrounding it.”
One of the main factors was inheriting a team that would benefit McCollum’s jump, and Drake was the right fit. As of late, Drake has three Missouri Valley Conference titles and three NCAA Tournament appearances, and McCollum is ready to carry on the success.
“Coach Devries and his staff did an unreal job of building this thing,” McCollum said. “Now you have to build on the momentum and don’t get stalled out. Now it’s about kind of keeping it going, building on that leverage on some of the success that they’ve had.”
