Drake “Bearcats” 2024-2025

[NWFanatic]

I hope Ben and Bennett stay at Drake next year. We’ve really enjoyed watching Drake in person this year(4 times in DSM, vs KSU and at MO St.)

[Gorilla John 92]

McCollum jumping to Indiana is not a good thing. The days of Indiana glory are long past and the fan base will never be satisfied. I immediately thought of McDermett at Creighton. Had a great run at UNI, went to Iowa State and things never materialized with his style of play. Leaves the 'Clones goes to Creighton and has been successful pretty much every year. IMO, this is the path that McCollum needs to stay at, a mid-major like Drake. He can recruit the kids that he wants and the fan base will not run him out of town the first bad year or when players with egos play "The Portal Shuffle", ie who is going to pay me the most each year is where I am going to play. Watched some of the St. Mary's vs Gonzaga game last night and its a great example of what Drake could become.

[Thunder]

McCollum jumping to Indiana is not a good thing. The days of Indiana glory are long past and the fan base will never be satisfied. I immediately thought of McDermett at Creighton. Had a great run at UNI, went to Iowa State and things never materialized with his style of play. Leaves the 'Clones goes to Creighton and has been successful pretty much every year. IMO, this is the path that McCollum needs to stay at, a mid-major like Drake. He can recruit the kids that he wants and the fan base will not run him out of town the first bad year or when players with egos play "The Portal Shuffle", ie who is going to pay me the most each year is where I am going to play. Watched some of the St. Mary's vs Gonzaga game last night and its a great example of what Drake could become.

Completely agree with this, but man it would be tough to turn down all those $$$ that a place like Indiana would throw at you. Plus, I think every really good coach believes they can be the guy to make it work any place they go. The odds of winning a national championship will always be higher at a place like Indiana that it will be at a place like Drake (or St. Mary's, etc.). Dealing with the extra (largely unreasonable) fan pressure at Indiana would be a pain and would not mesh well with McCollum's current style. On the other hand, a place like Indiana would give him the ability to recruit top level athletes. If he could get them to buy into his way of doing things it would be great. As long as he waited to make the jump from NWMSU, I would be surprised if he jumps at the first available option here.

[Alfred33]

McCollum jumping to Indiana is not a good thing. The days of Indiana glory are long past and the fan base will never be satisfied. I immediately thought of McDermett at Creighton. Had a great run at UNI, went to Iowa State and things never materialized with his style of play. Leaves the 'Clones goes to Creighton and has been successful pretty much every year. IMO, this is the path that McCollum needs to stay at, a mid-major like Drake. He can recruit the kids that he wants and the fan base will not run him out of town the first bad year or when players with egos play "The Portal Shuffle", ie who is going to pay me the most each year is where I am going to play. Watched some of the St. Mary's vs Gonzaga game last night and its a great example of what Drake could become.

Completely agree with this, but man it would be tough to turn down all those $$$ that a place like Indiana would throw at you. Plus, I think every really good coach believes they can be the guy to make it work any place they go. The odds of winning a national championship will always be higher at a place like Indiana that it will be at a place like Drake (or St. Mary's, etc.). Dealing with the extra (largely unreasonable) fan pressure at Indiana would be a pain and would not mesh well with McCollum's current style. On the other hand, a place like Indiana would give him the ability to recruit top level athletes. If he could get them to buy into his way of doing things it would be great. As long as he waited to make the jump from NWMSU, I would be surprised if he jumps at the first available option here.

I don't predict he'll make that jump, but it's wild to see how much the Indiana faithful are posturing for him now. I agree, the salary (current coach is over $4M) , the available NIL, and a chance at coaching in the actual big leagues would have to at least be worth a listen. I think coaching at a mid major is getting harder... it's really no different than a juco anymore. Gonzaga doesn't have this problem, because they've done it long enough to have the support, but if you're good, there's a good chance you may have to replace your top 2 or 3 players every year. It's an unknown if McCollum will be able to keep kids in his program like these Northwest kids that have been with him for 4-5 years. Drake doesn't have that kind of NIL money available (yet). I don't know that it's that important to him, or do I think he'd leave Mac at this point, but it would be hard to blame Bennett Stirtz if he entered the portal and collected a very large check from somebody. I know Drake is putting together some money to retain him, but he would command way more than they can offer if he were to do that. The other problem with being at Drake, is the MVC is considered a 1 bid league... it's not considered a good basketball conference and even though Drake tried to play some good teams in the non-con, Drake's strength of schedule sits at 108th. There were legitimate concerns about missing the tournament at 29-4.

I hope he stays, and is able to build what John describes at Drake, but he's going need support to do that. Drake is still an afterthought in Des Moines. It's taken most of the season before even the Des Moines Register started giving them the coverage they deserved.

[Alfred33]

Side note... Would McDermott have stayed at Creighton this long if they hadn't moved to the Big East? It's been 11 years since they joined. The Big East has won 4 out of the last 8 National Championships... that's national visibility, big TV contracts, conference profit sharing, He's also making about $3M a year... that's a pretty good job. Fwiw, there's a lot of talk about Drake eventually leaving the MVC and many think the Big East would make sense... Mac could wait that out.

[southside]

I don’t think he’ll leave that quick either but….who could blame him for essentially winning the lottery every year. That would take care of his kids kids… even if it doesn’t work.

[NWFanatic]

How cool is it that Peyton’s starts on an IA 4A team(Waukee NW) that plays for the State Championship his 1st year in DSM & Ben makes March Madness his 1st year. Both are winners

[Alfred33]

How cool is it that Peyton’s starts on an IA 4A team(Waukee NW) that plays for the State Championship his 1st year in DSM & Ben makes March Madness his 1st year. Both are winners

Drake has offers out to 2 kids off of the Waukee Northwest team. Both juniors… 6’7” Colin Rice and 6’8” Landon Davis. Probably doesn’t hurt to have that inside connection.

[Alfred33]

I don’t think he’ll leave that quick either but….who could blame him for essentially winning the lottery every year. That would take care of his kids kids… even if it doesn’t work.

For sure. At bare minimum, without some embarrassing controversy, he’d probably get at least 3 years… $10-$12 million later, probably more when you add in a buyout, he could do whatever he wanted. If it did work out and he got it turned around there, the sky would be the limit for him and that program. Indiana would still be Indiana had Kelvin Sampson not gotten in trouble over impermissible phone calls. He was 22-4 when he was fired.

Drake is private so it doesn’t have to publish what it pays their coaches, but based on what I’ve found, in 2021, Devries was making around $338K… I’ve also read somewhere that his last year, he was paid 600+K. Someone may know better than I do, but I’d guess Ben is making somewhere between those two numbers, $350 - $500K. Whatever it is, Indiana (or any other Power 4) would be life changing money and it would have to be hard to walk away from if the opportunity is really there.

I was pretty bullish on him being at Drake next year and I still lean that way, but seeing the real interest from the actual fans at a place like Indiana has added some trepidation. There were a lot of Drake fans that didn’t like the McCollum hire and were emailing the AD with less than positive comments… in 1 year, thats changed. He’s definitely put himself in a good position.

[Thunder]

I was confident McCollum would have success at Drake, I didn't know if he would have this much success this early, but I thought he would eventually. I'd be less confident in the immediate success at Indiana, but still believe he could get there eventually...IF the school and fanbase would have some patience. I think McCollum will be selective if and when he decides to move again, but if someone offered any of us 10x our current salary it would be tough to say no.

[Purple Mav Man]

Drake has offers out to 2 kids off of the Waukee Northwest team. Both juniors… 6’7” Colin Rice and 6’8” Landon Davis. Probably doesn’t hurt to have that inside connection.

Probably doesn’t hurt to have that kind of size/talent on the same HS team. Dang.

[DapperDan]

Maybe Minnesota will look at Ben now that they’ve fired Johnson and they likely can’t attract a big name coach. The programs a mess, they don’t compete with NIL money and their arena is a dump but it is the Big 10.

[Alfred33]

Probably doesn’t hurt to have that kind of size/talent on the same HS team. Dang.

For real… The team is loaded. They have another senior guard that was on the preseason Iowa Mr. Basketball watch list, Bode Goodman. He’s the leading scorer… Peyton is second. I haven’t seen that Drake has offered him, but he also has some D1 offers. If Ben stays a while, there seems be good talent in the Des Moines area… not a bad time for Drake to be relevant.

[Gorilla John 92]

The quality/size of Waukee NW doesn't surprise me. Waukee is growing like crazy (that school is also outside of Polk County) and they can offer amenities that other's can't. Couple that with Iowa's open enrollment, anyone can transfer to a different school without cause and not have to sit out a year, and one can easily stack a team especially in a sport like basketball. My sister is a teacher/coach in the Des Moines area and open enrollment has been a challenge. Kids who you have coached and developed coming up through your school district and aren't happy for any reason (insert parents here) just move on to perceived greener pastures or a "super team". She states that the recruitment/retainment of athletes by kids/coaches is a year round endeavor and only getting worse.

[Alfred33]

The quality/size of Waukee NW doesn't surprise me. Waukee is growing like crazy (that school is also outside of Polk County) and they can offer amenities that other's can't. Couple that with Iowa's open enrollment, anyone can transfer to a different school without cause and not have to sit out a year, and one can easily stack a team especially in a sport like basketball. My sister is a teacher/coach in the Des Moines area and open enrollment has been a challenge. Kids who you have coached and developed coming up through your school district and aren't happy for any reason (insert parents here) just move on to perceived greener pastures or a "super team". She states that the recruitment/retainment of athletes by kids/coaches is a year round endeavor and only getting worse.

Yeah, the Goodman kid is a transfer in. Obviously, so is McCollum… it’s interesting to think about how that went. Were there actually recruiting visits? Did he send tape? Both Waukee schools were good this year. I know when they met earlier in the season, Waukee was ranked higher than Northwest.