After years of success at Drake, Darien DeVries leaped to a high-major job. He is now the head man at West Virginia and with his departure a bevy of players left along with him, including conference player of the year and son Tucker who followed his father to Morgantown. DeVries had helped build standards in Des Moines that have made the Bulldogs one of the quintessential mid-major powerhouses in the country.
In order to continue that legacy, Drake would need a strong replacement for DeVries. Likely not in a position to lure a notable name from the power five ranks, the Bulldogs got creative and dipped into the Division II pool and hired the head coach of arguably the most dominant program at that level, Northwest Missouri State. There’s bound to be some apprehension among supporters of a program when someone with little to no experience at the highest level is picked to take over.
It has taken Ben McCollum less than two months to turn those doubts into full-fledged exuberance. He has his 11-0 Bulldogs as one of the four remaining undefeated teams in the country as we look towards the New Year and the only one that isn’t in the SEC. Programs, teams, and players alike have varying levels of difficulty adjusting to Division I basketball life, but McCollum and the players he’s brought with him have shown little of those types of struggles. How has the first-year headman and his players adjusted so quickly and been so successful in doing so?