Under first-year head coach Ben McCollum, Drake has made it difficult for opponents to score, giving up an average of 58.4 points per game. However, the first-round matchup against Missouri was its stiffest test yet. Missouri averaged 84.5 points per game − ninth-best in Division I − and was sixth in KenPom offensive rating.
But the Bulldogs made Missouri play their style of basketball; a slow, grind-it-out game with nearly every possession ending as the shot clock expired. The Tigers couldn’t get a rhythm going.
Missouri took a brief lead in the first five minutes of the game, but Drake jumped ahead and the struggles began for the Tigers. Mizzou only made seven field goals in the first half and had nine turnovers. While the Tigers couldn’t buy a bucket, Missouri Valley player of the year Bennett Stirtz got Drake going. The iron man of college basketball as the nation’s leader in minutes per game, he scored 12 of Drake’s first 18 points and finished with a game-high 21 points.
Missouri trailed by seven at the break, and it only got worse from there. It missed its first eight shots and committed four turnovers, allowing the Bulldogs to jump out to a game-high 15-point lead with less than 13 minutes to go.
The Tigers’ offense woke up midway through the second half and cut the deficit to one point with four and a half minutes left. Drake didn’t crack, and Missouri’s shooting struggles continued; it finished the game 2-for-6 from the field in the final six minutes. The 55 points were the second-lowest total Missouri scored this season.
The win adds to McCollum’s impressive record in his first season coaching Division I. He won four Division II national championships at Northwest Missouri State from 2017-22 and was hired after Darian DeVries left Drake to become the head coach at West Virginia.
Tasked to replace a 28-win NCAA Tournament team that had mostly transferred out, McCollum brought four players from Northwest Missouri State, including Stirtz. The Bulldogs won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament for the third straight year and set the school record for wins at 30.
Thursday’s win was Drake’s first NCAA Tournament victory since 2021’s First Four game, and it’s the first in the first round since the tournament expanded in 1985. The previous win was in the 1971 25-team NCAA Tournament.
Meanwhile, first-round struggles continue for Mizzou. The loss marked the sixth time in the last seven appearances it lost in the first round and the second straight tournament game the Tigers lost to a double-digit seed as a single-digit seed. As a No. 7 seed in 2023, the Tigers lost to 15th-seeded Princeton in the second round.