Randy Peterson
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March 20, 2025
I don’t know how many times the TV announcers Thursday night told us that Bennett Stirtz had zero Division-I offers to attend college. Zero. Zippo. Man, did they ever jump on that storyline.
Well, ya know what? He worked hard for, and deserved, all the praise he got during Drake’s 67-57 victory against Missouri in the opening round of an NCAA Tournament Regional in Wichita.
He’s played superior ball all season – and Thursday, that included doing it on his biggest college basketball stage ever.
All he did in his first trip to the Big Dance was score 21 points and played a full 40 minutes of high-energy ball, and let me repeat: In his first NCAA Tournament game.
Take that, high and mighty SEC. You call yourself the best men’s basketball conference in the land, and you lose against a one-bid conference team?
You may be the best conference in America, with Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas A&M – and the nine others SEC’s that were selected for the NCAA’s Big Dance.
In Auburn or Florida, you may have the eventual national champ amongst you, even if you can’t beat Des Moines’ Hometown Team – or figure out a way to successfully defend its best player.
That’d be Drake. That’d be Stirtz, who like his coach and a plethora of his teammates, were playing high-level ball at Division II power Northwest Missouri State at this time last season.
And that’d be Ben McCollum, whose 31-3 first-season team won Thursday night in Wichita, despite a swirl of chatter about the coach going here, the coach going there, and the coach going everywhere.
He’ll have a buffet of seekers, including (but not limited to) West Virginia, Iowa, Virginia, Villanova, Minnesota, Texas and wherever else opens before Drake’s NCAA Tournament run is complete. He might even take someone up on their $4 million contract and the $5 million of NIL money promised the players. He might not.
Regardless, Thursday night, belonged to Bulldogs and not Tigers.
Drake’s win wasn’t exactly a shot across the bow of college basketball; that’d be McNeese over Clemson. It probably wasn’t a 100% bracket-buster, either, because McCollum’s team has played impressively throughout a wonderful season that included losses only against UIC, Murray State and Bradley.
What Drake did was downright affirmation that there’s a team just a few blocks from downtown Des Moines that can make noise in a room full of college basketball’s presumed best.
Stirtz’ runner in the lane beat the 3-point clock and gave Drake a 50-39 lead 8 ½ minutes left. He did it again for a 54-51 advantage, then came the dagger:
Stirtz threw press-breaker alley-oop for a dunk and 64-55 lead with 55 seconds to play.
Game.
Set.
The Bulldogs’ first NCAA Tournament regional win since 1971.
(Award-winning columnist Randy Peterson can be, and has been, reached at randypete4846@gmail.com or at any Okoboji-area beverage/food establishment between the hours of open and close.)