By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Northwest Missouri State men's basketball coach Ben McCollum is finally answering the call to go Division I.
McCollum, a Storm Lakes, Iowa native, will become the next men's basketball coach for the Drake Bulldogs, per multiple reports Monday.
Drake is located in Des Moines and is a member of the Missouri Valley Conference. McCollum's deal is for five years, per ESPN reporting.
McCollum has spent the last 15 seasons as the head coach at Northwest, winning four national titles, 13 MIAA regular season titles, and eight MIAA tournament titles.
In those 15 seasons, McCollum compiled a career record of 394-91, including a 241-63 record in MIAA conference play and a 32-7 mark in NCAA Tournament play.
McCollum, who will be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame on May 19, was named MIAA Coach of the Year nine times and national coach of the year five times.
McCollum succeeds Darian DeVries at Drake. DeVries got the head coaching job at West Virginia in March.
McCollum played college basketball for the Bearcats and returned to his alma mater in 2009 after a four-year assistant coaching stint at Emporia State.
Under McCollum, Northwest won 25 or more games in 12 straight seasons − the longest active streak among all NCAA men's programs. The Bearcats posted records of 30-plus wins in five seasons, including a perfect 38-0 season in 2018-19.
McCollum's name had been in discussions for other Division I jobs in the last few years, including Buffalo, UNC-Greensboro, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Missouri State most recently.