Drake will win at least one game during the upcoming NCAA Tournament. While many nationally have blasted the Missouri Valley Conference as being down this year, there is no denying that this Drake basketball team is a threat to do March Madness damage.
As one of the very first qualifiers for this year’s NCAA Tournament the Drake Bulldogs have had a week to rest, work out, catch up on classes, and receive congratulations from their friends. Now the Bulldogs must dig in a prepare for the Big Dance.
Drake (27-7) finished second in the Valley race and then earned the league’s automatic bid with a convincing win over regular-season champion Bradley in last week’s Arch Madness title game. The Bulldogs defeated projected NCAA Tournament teams Mississippi State and Louisiana during the regular season and took two of three games with Valley champion Bradley.
Before the power conference fans thumb their noses at the Missouri Valley Conference, remember that since 2012, Valley teams are 21-15 in the Big Dance and have sent two teams to the Final Four during that time period.
Drake has played post-season basketball three of the past four seasons and owns a post-season record of 2-3. Coach Darian DeVries’ teams have eclipsed the twenty-win plateau during all five of his seasons in Des Moines and have accumulated at least 25, in the past three years.
Drake’s credentials are solid and those filling out their March Madness brackets would be wise to consider the Bulldogs as a prime candidate for what will likely be a five-versus-twelve upset special matchup.
The Bulldogs have won three straight games and thirteen of their last fourteen. Nine of those victories have come by double digits. Drake is playing its best basketball at the very right time. Here are three reasons the Drake Bulldogs will advance.
1. One of the top head coaches in the NCAA Tournament
Darian DeVries is a winner. Pure and simple, this guy doesn’t get outcoached, out-thought, or confused. His coaching staff’s attention to detail is second to none, and his players love to play for him.
During his twenty years on the Creighton staff, the Bluejays were amazingly successful. DeVries helped Creighton to 19 postseason appearances and twelve NCAA Tournament appearances. While working for both Dana Altman and Greg McDermott, Creighton averaged 23 wins per season.
DeVries’ 122-47 record at Drake (.722) is a product of five straight, twenty-win seasons. Drake had accumulated five such seasons in its entire competitive history before DeVries arrived. It is clear from his time at Creighton and more recently at Drake that he is a proven winner.
Since taking the Drake reins, the Bulldogs have won with ‘bigs’ like Nick McGlynn and Liam Robbins, or with a waves of perimeter players like Nick Norton, the Murphy twins and current guards Roman Penn and D.J. Wilkins. Now they are winning with their most balanced team.
Outstanding guard play from Wilkins and Penn also makes room for ‘Swiss-Army-Knife’ Garrett Sturtz and the Valley’s Player of the Year, Tucker DeVries. 6’10 senior center Darnell Brodie brings the thunder down low for this very well-balanced team.
DeVries knows how to match his players and his schemes against his opposition as well as anyone in the game. During the championship game, he played the 6’3 Schurtz against the Valley’s best big man, Rienk Mast, and completely neutralized the Bradley star. While the Bulldogs are shorter than most opponents the head coach knows when to post his smaller players down low to create other types of mismatches.
This is the first March of DeVries’ career that he’s had a healthy team in March. As a master tactician, he will know how to use each of his players to the fullest.
2. Quality player in Tucker DeVries
Tucker DeVries is the Missouri Valley Conference’s ‘most outstanding player’ and he is its most dangerous one. DeVries is a rare MVC performer that can simply take over games. While the 6’7 sophomore has always had an outstanding shooting touch he has turned into a lethal scorer.
He knows when to assert himself and when to let the game come to him. He has matured as a player and as a leader. This current version of Drake basketball doesn’t need him to score twenty-five points for it to win, but he can go get two dozen points on a moment’s notice.
When teams back off he can be back-breaking from deep (87 triples this season). If they guard him too closely, he rarely misses from the charity stripe (.838) and he can still score in traffic. During the three games of Arch Madness he rang up 27 points in the quarterfinals, twelve in the first half of the semifinals and then was content to prefer his teammates from then on. The younger DeVries then finished with 22 in the final. Sixteen times he reached the twenty-point plateau and produced back-to-back 32-point games in early February.
The Valley tournament brought out the best in Tucker DeVries. While being named the tournament MVP, he never took more than 14 shots in a game and made eight of 19 shots from deep. In just two seasons, the Waukee, Iowa native has accumulated 1,130 points, 350 rebounds, 162 triples and 198 made free throws.
Coming out of high school there were great expectations surrounding DeVries. He was a Top 100 recruit and was the State of Iowa’s ‘2021 Mr. Basketball’. He hasn’t disappointed and now is stepping on to the national stage for the first time.
3. A ton of experience in the rotation
There is no more experienced team in America. Kenpom.com calls the Bulldogs the 28th most experienced team, but statistics only tell a small part of the story. Drake’s veterans have been together and been through so much together that they intrinsically know what to do and when to do it.
Roman Penn is the best point guard you’ve never heard of. The grad student is playing in his fourth season at Drake and fifth overall. He is Drake’s all-time leader in assists (613) and recorded 69 more at Siena. Penn is a four-time all-MVC player (2 first-team and two third-team mentions) and is widely regarded as the Valley’s gold standard at the point.
His 118 Drake starts seem like a lot until you compare him to some of his teammates.
D.J. Wilkins made use of his covid eligibility and has started 160! Wilkins is the program leader in career three-point baskets with 305. He is a lockdown defender and remarkable (.842 for his career) from the free throw line. The 6’2 Wilkins missed last year’s conference tournament and postseason play with a knee injury.
Penn has scored 1,638 Division 1 points, with 1,415 of them coming at Drake. Wilkins has scored 1,559. The Merrillville, Indiana native has also handed out over 300 assists and grabbed over 300 rebounds.
Former walk-on Garrett Sturtz has played in more games (166-161) than Wilkins but has started just 73. As a member of the Valley’s ‘all-bench’ team for two straight years, he became a fixture in the starting lineup last season. Sturtz is playing his fifth season in Des Moines and is the program record holder for rebounds with 916. The 6’3, 180-pound Sturtz is the master of getting to where the ball will be once someone misses a shot.
While scoring is not Sturtz’s main job, he has accumulated 1,392 points and he too, rarely misses a free throw.
Senior center Darnell Brodie has played just 101 games with Drake.
This team will not beat itself and it plays cohesive basketball on both ends of the floor. They are not tall, nor physical, but led the Valley in defensive rebounds. The Bulldogs were last in steals, but third in overall defense. These veterans led the conference with the best turnover margin.
This Drake team will win at least one game during March Madness and don’t be surprised if you see them the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.