Drew takes a look at what the Drake Bulldogs bring to the table tomorrow night
Drake University: 9-0 – KenPom #73
Basic Information
Location: Des Moines, Iowa
Type of School: Private
Mascot: Spike (costumed) and Griff II (a real bulldog)
Head Coach – Ben McCollum
Seasons at Drake: 1
Drake Record: 9-0
Other Head Coaching Jobs:
Northwest Missouri State: 395-91
Overall Record: 403-91
Accomplishments
Division II National Championships: 4 (‘17, ‘19, ‘20, ‘21, ‘22’)
Regular Season Conference Championships: 12
Division II Tournament Record: 32-7
Kenpom Style of Play
() = National Ranking per Kenpom
Offense
Adj. Efficiency: 109 (127)
Avg. Poss. Length: 21.3 (362)
Defense
Adj. Efficiency: 98.5 (45)
Avg. Poss. Length: 16.2 (28)
Tempo
Adj. Tempo: 64 (348)
Kenpom 4 Factors
() = National Ranking per Kenpom
Offense
Effective FG%: 54.1 (73)
3 Point %: 32.8 (189)
2 Point %: 57.4 (42)
Turnover %: 22.6 (352)
Off. Reb. %: 37.9 (19)
FTA/FGA: 50.1 (6)
Defense
Effective FG%: 48.9 (124)
3 Point %: 29.1 (37)
2 Point %: 52.2 (210)
Turnover %: 22.4 (21)
Off. Reb. %: 23.9 (15)
FTA/FGA: 40.9 (314)
Personnel
Drake on Offense
Welcome to the Bennett Stirtz show. Drake’s dynamic, indefatigable point guard was the tournament MVP of the Charleston Classic after leading the Bulldogs to the tournament championship, despite Oklahoma State, Seton Hall, Vanderbilt, and Miami populating the field. Get to know the name, folks, because a P4 school is going to break the bank for him next season (if he decides to transfer, of course).
The offense isn’t complicated, but it’s deadly efficient. They put their shooting guard and small forward on the wing, lift either the power forward or center to provide a high middle ball screen, and use the big man at the “dunker” position on the low block. It’s basic 4-out basketball, but they run it to perfection.
If you love the middle ball screen, prepare for your personal Valhalla, because Drake runs it to death. They constantly attack the “1” side of the court (the side with the dunker on the block) and look for an advantage on the back side. They make wing defenders decide if they want to tag the diver or stay with the shooter. If they tag, Stirtz hits the shooter. If they stay, he either looks to score or draws the defense for a dump to the dunker or a shot for himself.
Four of the five starters for Drake played for Coach McCollum at Northwest Missouri State last season. Needless to say, their offensive continuity is far superior to that of a team cobbled together from the transfer portal. These guys not only know how to play but also how to play together. Drake is going to be patient, run their sets, and won’t be bothered by the shot clock. They count on the defense making a mistake at some point in the allotted 30 seconds—they don’t care if that mistake comes in the first 5 seconds of the shot clock or the last.
As a team, they’re not particularly good at shooting from behind the arc. This isn’t one of those mid-majors that needs to hit 20 3s to win. That said, guard Mitch Mascari is an assassin from the perimeter. He’s currently shooting 50% from 3 on 23-46 shooting and, along with Stirtz, makes this offense work. They constantly force help-side defenders to make decisions. Opponents either help off Mascari to stop Stirtz and leave one of the best shooters in the country open, or they stay with Mascari and let Stirtz gut the defense with straight-line drives to the basket. It kills teams that rely on help defense, and that’s the majority of college basketball.
My suggestion for the ‘Cats is to make Stirtz a scorer. Don’t get me wrong—he can score. He put up 29 on Valpo on December 12th and 21 on Miami. Still, that’s better than what he did against Vandy when he put up 16 points and 11 assists. I’d like to see K-State switch the (multiple) middle ball screens, hug Mascari on the perimeter, and see if the Bulldogs can beat you two points at a time. Valpo did just that and gave them a better game—despite a 6-point loss—than Vandy and Miami did by playing traditional help defense and allowing Stirtz to both score and set the table for his teammates.
Drake on Defense
The Bulldogs are an interesting team. They’re slow and methodical on offense and aggressive on defense. Their average length of possession is 362nd in the nation (the higher the number, the slower the offense), but their average length of possession on defense is 28th.
They stick to shooters and make teams beat them two points at a time. They don’t let teams get into their drive-and-kick game that relies on defensive rotation. They would rather give up a contested two than an open three. You can see that in their defensive numbers. Teams are shooting 29% (37th nationally) from behind the arc but hit 52% (210th) from inside the arc.
Another key to the Drake defense is forcing turnovers while limiting assists (you can do that when you guard your own guy). Miami limited their turnovers to nine but still couldn’t crack a positive assist-to-turnover ratio because of only eight assists. Vandy fared worse, turning the ball over 15 times with only eight assists. Vandy’s point guard, Jason Edwards, went off for 26 points but had five turnovers and no assists. Nijel Pack (can’t believe he’s still playing college basketball) had a good game against them, putting up 17 points, five assists, and only one turnover, but the rest of the Miami team combined for three assists and eight turnovers.
Drake wants to see if your best player is good enough to beat them on his own. Edwards and Pack, despite both having exceptional individual games, couldn’t do enough to win because Drake shut everyone else down.
K-State needs to be smart on offense and wear down the Bulldogs. That’s the way forward for the ‘Cats. Drake plays eight, but their subs essentially rotate in at two positions (shooting guard and center). Against Miami, Stirtz, Mascari, and Abreu combined to play 119 of the possible 120 minutes. If the ‘Cats move the ball and pass up decent looks early in the clock for good looks late, they can wear down the Bulldogs. You’ve got to make them work on defense because they’re going to make you work on defense. Nothing is more demoralizing in basketball than defending for the entire shot clock, watching one of your teammates chuck the first available shot on offense, and then having to run down the court for another 30 seconds of defense.
Drake will work to find a great shot on every offensive possession, and they will entice you to take the first decent shot available when you’re on offense. Great shots tend to go in at a higher rate than decent shots, and the more you make the other team play defense, the less they want to play defense.
Another way forward is to get Bennett Stirtz in foul trouble. I’d mention that earlier, but no one has been able to pull it off yet this season. He committed three fouls against Miami and three against Valpo but still managed to play the full 40 minutes in both games. Stirtz has missed one minute of action this season against teams not named York (NE) and St. Ambrose. Not sure why he slacked off on the bench for an entire minute against Stephen F. Austin, but he hasn’t done that since. If I were Jerome Tang, I’d see if I could be the first team to put Stirtz on the bench by going at him in the first half, regardless of who he’s guarding. If he’s guarding Hausen (which I assume will be the matchup), then Hausen needs to holster the 3-point machine gun, put the ball on the court, and see if he can draw a foul on Drake’s star. The goal for the first half should be to get Stirtz in foul trouble by any means necessary. When he’s not on the court, in theory, this is a different Drake team, but I can’t say that for certain because no one has managed to put him on the bench this season.
Overall
I haven’t written much about K-State basketball yet this season, but I’ve been watching, and… oooooof. I’m a connoisseur of good basketball, and I enjoyed watching Drake film more than anything I’ve seen from K-State this season (against a team with a pulse).
Drake does the little things at an elite level. Meanwhile, the ‘Cats aren’t proficient enough with the big things to even talk about the little things.
They have more on-paper talent than Drake, but Coach Tang has yet to prove he can get his players all reading out of the same book, much less on the same page. This will be K-State’s fourth game of the season against a team in the KenPom top 100. They’re currently 0-3 in those games. This would be the absolute perfect time for the Wildcats to pick up their first win of the season because they’ve got nothing but top-100 games the rest of the way (Wichita State is desperately holding onto the top 100 at 98).
Prediction
KenPom
Kansas State – 69
Drake – 67
Drew
Kansas State – 65
Drake – 77
Pessimism is my new optimism. I don’t like this matchup for Kansas State. They’re essentially a pick-up team playing against a group of guys that have played and won championships together (granted at the DII level).
My fear is that Drake is going to frustrate K-State with their offense, and the ‘Cats don’t have enough cohesion not to fall into the quick shot trap on the other end. I hope I’m wrong.