ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

When Ben McCollum took over at Drake last spring after 15 years and four national championships at Division II Northwest Missouri State, he turned to good friend Josh Schertz for some advice.

McCollum and now-St. Louis University coach Schertz, once rival coaches at Division II powers who first met while on opposite sidelines in a national semifinal game, have built a strong relationship over the years.

Schertz made a similar jump three years earlier, from Division II titan Lincoln Memorial to Indiana State. He wasn’t going to let McCollum make the same mistakes he did.

Looking back, Schertz said he should’ve brought more of his Lincoln Memorial players with him. The Sycamores went 4-14 in conference play in Schertz’s debut season.

"We talked a lot about when I transitioned from, from Lincoln Memorial to Indiana State and how that went, areas that I wish I knew then that I know now,� Schertz said. “And the one biggest thing was, man, we I really wish I would have taken more of the guys from LMU with me.

"Having those guys understand your culture, understand how you want to operate can provide leadership day-to-day, not just in terms of how you want to play, but in terms of really how you want to operate, drills, culture. It's so good when you have that regenerative leadership of players coaching players."

Those sage words are a big part of the reason Drake (27-3, 17-3), powered by four starters who followed McCollum from Northwest Missouri State, won the league by two games, earned the top seed in this weekend’s Missouri Valley Conference tournament at Enterprise Center and helped McCollum earn MVC coach of the year honors.

The coaches chat regularly throughout the season. Schertz picks McCollum’s brain on reading ball screens and defensive approaches. McCollum may ask Schertz about how to handle a team that switches all screens or employs a junk defense.

But the decision to bring more players up from Division II may have been the most consequential piece of advice.

“The thing that him and I have talked about is … there's three or four players on every Division II team that can play mid-major basketball,� McCollum said. “The biggest difference is that every mid-major team has eight of those same players. … Your top three, four players from the best teams in Division II can definitely transfer here, and obviously have a lot of success. And it helps your culture right away. It helps you build some continuity.�

What began on the court has blossomed into a much deeper connection.

They first crossed paths in 2017 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when Schertz’s Lincoln Memorial team and McCollum’s Northwest Missouri State squad met in the national semifinals.

Lincoln Memorial, which earlier that season lost one of its best players to a season-ending injury, led at halftime, one of just two NCAA Tournament games of 23 during McCollum’s four title runs that the Bearcats trailed at the break.

Northwest Missouri State began using double-high ball-screens Schertz said “gave us fits� as the Bearcats pulled away then won the title game for McCollum’s first national championship.

“If they weren't the best team that I've seen at Division II, they were one of the most talented teams that I've seen,â€� McCollum said of Schertz’s team. “ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were enormous, had good athleticism. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were obviously very, very well coached.â€�

That strong first impression led to a blossoming respect and eventually the two becoming "true friends," as McCollum put it.

They agreed to a neutral-site game, a rarity at that level, the following season. McCollum’s team again prevailed, perhaps part of the reason Schertz doesn’t sound eager to schedule a McCollum-led team again.

“We'll never play my friends unless somehow it works out that I have to,� Schertz said when asked about a SLU-Drake matchup. �So hopefully we don't have to play anytime soon. But if we do, I hope it's in the NCAA Tournament and very deep into it.�

A game between the two for a national championship nearly did happen in 2021. Schertz’s team was a fingertip away, up two in the waning seconds of a national semifinal it had led throughout when a loose ball deflected off the fingertips of two Lincoln Memorial players and out to an open West Texas A&M player for a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Despite the defeat, Schertz's offensive approach helped McCollum's Bearcats beat that team two days later for the national championship.

Their Division II pedigree helps both men maintain flexibility in adapting their approach to their team’s strengths. Even at a Division II power like Northwest Missouri State, recruits can be lost when even the most lowly Division I school offers a scholarship.

"We never really got to pick our personnel" at Division II, McCollum said.

That ability to tailor an approach has helped Drake become a great rebounding group. The Bulldogs are in the top 25 nationally in rebounding margin even though no player averages more than 5.4 per game.

“Rebounding is a simple, simple thing, and people try to overcomplicate it with size. It's not really size necessarily gets you rebounds. It's the want to go get the ball. And our team’s just built like that,� McCollum said. “We've had to adjust to offensive rebound more, defensive rebound more, trying to increase our possessions. … That's the benefit of Josh and I being at Division II for so long was we had to adapt to the personnel that we had.�

Though his success has come quickly, McCollum's Bulldogs, the nation's slowest team, are anything but. That's less a preference than part of the flexibility that drives his success.

“It's certainly not intentional, but it's just how you have to win this year," McCollum said, adding that some of his previous teams with more shooting were able to play at a faster pace. "And every year is a little bit different. So that kind of goes back to that the reason we're able to adapt to our personnel is because we've never really got to pick our personnel.�

McCollum, much like Schertz, keeps his focus on the smallest of details, something he said his teams really began to master in 2017, which began a run of four titles in five NCAA Tournaments.

“We wanted to take as much of that luck out of the equation,� said McCollum, whose team is 5-0 in overtime. “And the best way to do that was just the small, minute details, and see if we could get two points here, four points there, six points here.

"Every single thing that we do just became exponentially detailed."

The detail-focused Bulldogs are led by junior point guard Bennett Stirtz, who began at Northwest Missouri State under McCollum’s tutelage, then followed his coach to Drake. Stirtz, who had no Division I offers out of high school, is the only player in the country to lead his league in scoring (18.9 points per game), assists (5.9) and steals (2.2). He was named the MVC player of the year and newcomer of the year.

Despite having one of the nation's best records, Stirtz and the Bulldogs are on the bubble, a familiar place for a Missouri Valley champion.

After his Indiana State team lost in the Arch Madness title game a year ago, Schertz sounded certain his team would receive an at-large berth. Then the parade of bid-stealing upsets came in the week that followed, relegating the Sycamores to the National Invitation Tournament. Indiana State advanced to the NIT title game, and Schertz is hopeful that performance helps his friend McCollum and Drake earn an at-large berth this season if needed.

“I would hope they're in. They've had such a good year,� Schertz said. “You just watch them play. It boils down to are you going to take a 6-12 team from the SEC or are you going to take a team that was 17-3 in the Missouri Valley, and a team that in the non-conference showed they could beat multiple Power Five teams.

“I do think they deserve it. I hope that us not getting in and going to the NIT championship gives the tournament pause just to jump and take whatever this year’s Virginia would be,� Schertz said, referencing a Cavaliers squad that caused many fans to pillory the NCAA selection committee with its pitiful First Four showing.

Regardless of how the final chapters of Drake’s spectacular season play out, McCollum knows Schertz will always be in his corner.

“It's probably deeper than basketball in a lot of ways,� McCollum said “There's a lot of struggles that people don't realize, that you go through in this profession. And it's always good to have friends in this profession that go through it with you and have your back.�