Success For Ben McCollum Opens Opportunity At The Next Level

Photo above: Ben McCollum (second from the left) poses for a team picture after claiming a second consecutive MIAA Tournament title in 2018.

By Ian Echlin

The same year Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum moved up from being an assistant coach of the Bearcats, I was arriving on campus as college freshman.

From my point of view, McCollum has built men’s basketball at Northwest into an elite NCAA Division II program.

The long list of accolades that McCollum’s program has collected in his ten seasons as a head coach provides a good explanation as to why the current team is undefeated (32-0) going into the NCAA Division II Tournament with a chance to win a second championship in three years.

A championship in 2019 would be McCollum’s magnum opus. The team he coached to a national championship in 2017 was one loss away from perfection. The only blemish was a regular season road loss to Missouri Southern.

The loss was a reality check, but motivated to the Bearcats to finish the season 11-0 en route to the title.

The National Association of Basketball Coached recognized McCollum as the Division II Coach of the Year, and his star junior guard Justin Pitts of Blue Springs, Mo. was selected as National Player of the Year.

Pitts was also elected to the All-American team that season, the second player under McCollum to earn the honor after DeShaun Cooper in 2014.

Senior Joey Witthus, a transfer after two years at Minnesota State, earned the MIAA Player of the Year award, like Cooper and Pitts, and figures to add more post-season honors.

“Joey Witthus is just a big-time college basketball player,” Washburn coach Brett Ballard said. “He can pick-and-pop. He can post. He can drive.”

But at this point in the season the most important award for Witthus and the rest of the Bearcats is a national championship.

If McCollum and the Bearcats finish with a perfect season and second national championship job offers from the next level seem inevitable. As the hiring season starts McCollum’s stock couldn’t be higher.

Check the track record of Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard, the Big 12 Coach of the Year. He spent a few seasons at the Division II level before he was hired by mid-major Arkansas-Little Rock.

Beard’s network and experience under the legendary Bob Knight might’ve created a bigger blip on the radar for a shot to coach Division I because Beard never had a chance to build a resume at the DII level like McCollum. But Beard was only at Arkansas-Little Rock for one season before he got on offer from a power-5 program.

However, McCollum’s roots are deep with Northwest Missouri as an alumnus, and being close to home as an Iowa native.

2013 Bearcats — Adam Dorrel accepts his first title trophy as head coach of the Bearcats in 2013 at Braley Stadium in Florence, Ala.

McCollum’s prospects in the future are reminiscent of former Northwest football coach Adam Dorrel. Dorrel grew up in Maryville, so his roots were real deep in the community. After his second consecutive NCAA Division II Championship, and third as head coach, Dorrel took off to lead the FCS program at Abilene Christian.

Which brings to mind another question: What if the late Henry Iba never left Maryville?

Though McCollum has constructed his legacy at Northwest, and it would be interesting to see if he stays or takes the path of Iba who went to become a coach of a two-time national champion at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) and a U.S. Olympic coach.