Primarily a collection of news links about all 12 Missouri Valley League teams on a daily basis, culled from online newspapers, school athletic websites, the conference website, and school newspapers, plus some other content from time to time.
After reaching
its eighth conference tournament championship game in 10 seasons, the
Belmont women’s basketball team has received an at-large bid to the 2025
Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT). The Bruins have been
selected as the No. 3 seed in the upper right quadrant of the WBIT
bracket and will host familiar mid-state foe Middle Tennessee in the
first round Thursday evening.
Tipoff time from the Curb Event Center in the Music City and ticket information will become available Monday.
Belmont
will make its second consecutive WBIT appearance after also earning an
at-large bid last March in the inaugural year of the NCAA postseason
tournament.
The Bruins hosted the Lady Raiders in non-conference
play on Dec. 7 and earned a 65-52 triumph. Thursday night will be the
36th all-time meeting between the two programs with Middle Tennessee
holding a 19-16 lead in the series. Belmont is 5-4 against the Blue
Raiders since joining the Division I ranks and eighth-year head coach
Bart Brooks is 5-1 versus Middle Tennessee.
Drake
will be a popular Cinderella in bracket pools, and trendy upsets too
often don’t pan out. Still, I can’t resist a team that defends and
rebounds as well as Drake, which beat tournament qualifier Vanderbilt.
Four Drake starters, including star guard Bennett Stirtz, smoothly
transitioned from Division II after previously playing for coach Ben
McCollum at Northwest Missouri State. If Drake dictates the deliberate
tempo it prefers, that could bother Missouri.
Another interesting SEC team in the bracket is Missouri, which looked like a
Final Four threat in mid-February with wins over Kansas, Florida, both
Mississippi schools and Alabama on their resume. The Tigers cooled off
significantly down the stretch, dropping six of their last eight games to
drop to the 6-line in the dance.
The committee rewarded the
Tigers with a very dangerous 11-seed in Drake, which won 30 games out of the
Missouri Valley and was a legitimate at-large candidate if they had fallen
to Bradley in the final of Arch Madness. The Bulldogs also have a bona fide
star in guard Bennett Stirz, who averaged 19.1 points per game and 5.7
assists per game during the regular season.
Simply put, the
Bulldogs are a battle-tested side that has plenty of experience in crunch
time and plays tremendous defense, allowing just 58.4 points per game.
Missouri's defense is also a weakness, which could allow Stirz to put Drake
on his back and march on to the Round of 32.
Two close-range teams to the state of Kansas will go to battle, with Bennett
Stirtz and the Drake Bulldogs hoping to end the program’s 54-year drought
without an NCAA Tournament win. Ben McCollum’s snail-page offense (59.4
possessions per game is slowest in the nation per KenPom) looks to take down
the nation’s No. 5 offense in a slugfest in Wichita.
We’re coming to understand why Ben McCollum, Drake’s first-year coach, had
massive success at the Division II level before arriving in Des Moines: He
had star-caliber Division I players on those rosters at Northwest Missouri
State. Stirtz followed his coach up the college hoops ladder and thrived,
putting together a Missouri Valley Player of the Year campaign in which the
6-4 junior averaged 18.9 points, 5.9 assists, 2.2 steals and 39.3 minutes
per game during the regular season — all league-bests — while shooting 56.2
percent from 2-point range and 38.1 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. As
of Selection Sunday, Stirtz led the nation in Win Shares with 8.6. This
program has been a consistently threatening mid-major for the past seven
years, making three NCAA Tournaments in that span, but it also hasn’t won a
game in this event since 1971.
Coach: Ben McCollum (First NCAA Tournament) Player to watch: Bennett Stirtz (MVC Player of the Year) BetMGM title odds: +50000 Sweet 16 projected chance: 12.2% Final Four projected chance: 1.3%
Similar in style to the Houston Cougars, Drake blankets the hardwood in the
half court, leaning on its exceptional defense and rebounding. The patient
Bulldogs are extremely disciplined in their execution. Having upended Kansas
State and Vanderbilt in nonconference play, they won’t be intimidated by the
name emblazoned on the opponent’s jersey. Advancing multiple bracket lines
isn’t unfathomable. — Evans
As for who could potentially replace Woodson, some information has come out on that front. According to longtime college basketball insider Jeff Goodman, Drake head coach Ben McCollum emerged as a candidate for the vacant Indiana head coaching position.
Goodman further outlined how McCollum has “really impressed” Indiana
AD Scott Dolson with the job he has done this season at Drake. The other
candidate, in what is reportedly is a two-candidate race at this point,
is Clemson head coach Brad Brownell according to Hunter Cookston of Sporting News.
Both Brownell and McCollum of course find themselves in great
positions at their respective programs, leading them to NCAA Tournament
births this season.
McCollum is of course in his first year at Drake, which makes the
team’s 30-3 record even more impressive. Prior to signing on at Drake,
McCollum won four Division II National Championships at Northwest
Missouri State.
After just one season at Drake, head coach Ben McCollum has gained a
reputation as a wunderkind. The former D-II skipper led the Bulldogs to a
program-record 30 wins on the back of a pressure-heavy defense and the
stellar play of point guard Bennett Stirtz (19.1 ppg, 5.7 apg, 4.4 rpg). As Indiana rumors swirl around the 43-year-old, can he tune out the noise and help Drake stack a couple of wins?
When Josh Schertz left for Saint Louis and took Robbie Avila with him, Drake
turned to Ben McCollum, who built a D2 powerhouse at Northwest Missouri
State.
McCollum brought plenty of D2 talent with him, and it didn’t take long for those players to assimilate to the D1 level.
McCollum’s point guard, Bennett Stirtz immediately blossomed into the
Missouri Valley Player of the Year averaging 19.1 points, 5.7 assists, and
4.4 rebounds with 49/39/80 shooting splits.
The Bulldogs landed a No. 11 seed in the West Region and are a nightmare
first-round matchup for Missouri. The Tigers are one of the best stories in
college basketball, undergoing a total transformation in their second season
under Dennis Gates. Knockdown shooter Caleb Grill leads a high-powered
offensive attack, but Mizzou will be frustrated by Drake’s infuriating
methodical pace and relentless aggression on the offensive boards.
The Bulldogs steal extra possessions with a 96th-percentile offensive
rebounding rate, which will give Mizzou problems, and if they get through
the first round, they’ll be a tough team to prepare for with a quick
turnaround. Texas Tech and JT Toppin likely await in the second round, but
keep an eye on Drake to sneak through to the Sweet 16.
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