Ben McCollum

[JSHoosier 21,325]

Kind of crazy there were only 3 years in DII where he didn't atleast tie for 1st in conference and 6 times where he didn't get to atleast the DII Sweet 16.

[Ryno6284 3,354]

3 minutes ago, JSHoosier said:

Kind of crazy there were only 3 years in DII where he didn't atleast tie for 1st in conference and 6 times where he didn't get to atleast the DII Sweet 16.

Dude is a winner!

[Magnanimous 4,754]

On 2/2/2025 at 4:25 PM, Ryno6284 said:

Dude is a winner!

21-2 with a D2 roster. 

[TheWatShot 14,772]

He's about 4th or 5th on my list, so it'll probably end up being him. 

[Lebowski 2,965]

Coaching matters. Wherever he ends up he's probably going to succeed. Because this guy is just getting started at D1. And whatever Dolson decides to do, his Cig hire helped him make the "non conventional" decision. 

 

I'll say it again, coaching matters.

[Magnanimous 4,754]

Drake is hosting Bradley today on ESPN2 (2 pm ET). #1 vs. #2 in the MVC.

[Stuhoo 84,592]

Utah State (22-3) is playing New Mexico (21-4) in a Mountain West showdown tonight. Very similar records to Drake and in a much tougher conference.

Between three head coaches? McCollum is the oldest, has over 200 less D1 wins than Pitino (and one less B1G coach of the year award), and has over 100 less wins than Calhoun. McCollum is the only one that has never been part of a P5 program.

Tell me again why McCollum would be a better choice than Pitino or Calhoun?

By the way… Utah State is mid-pack pace of play, Drake is dead last nationally 

AND RICHARD PITINO’s NEW MEXICO TEAM IS #5 NATIONALLY IN PACE.

[Magnanimous 4,754]

7 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Utah State (22-3) is playing New Mexico (21-4) in a Mountain West showdown tonight. Very similar records to Drake and in a much tougher conference.

Between three head coaches? McCollum is the oldest, has over 200 less D1 wins than Pitino (and one less B1G coach of the year award), and has over 100 less wins than Calhoun. McCollum is the only one that has never been part of a P5 program.

Tell me again why McCollum would be a better choice than Pitino or Calhoun?

[Lebowski 2,965]

4 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

Tell me again why McCollum would be a better choice than Pitino or Calhoun?

They don't win like McCollum.  Neither have any rings, notice the plural, at any level.  IUBB's next coach should have a resume with championship experience. Every fan should expect that.  

[Magnanimous 4,754]

Tough loss, but he drew up a good play at the end for the final shot. Players just didn’t execute. 

[Home Jersey 11,557]

1 minute ago, Magnanimous said:

Tough loss, but he drew up a good play at the end for the final shot. Players just didn’t execute. 

That he is doing all this in a pretty good conference with essentially a D2 team makes this year’s performance very impressive to me. 

[Lebowski 2,965]

6 minutes ago, Magnanimous said:

Tough loss, but he drew up a good play at the end for the final shot. Players just didn’t execute. 

Yep, close games like that can be picked apart with what ifs.  Make a free throw here, stop an easy bucket there, etc. etc.  

 

Bottom line, his team is still 1st in the conference.  

[Alford Bailey 12,742]

This guy is intriguing. He’s a winner

[BA47591 451]

Helluva x's and o's guy. Very bright and he'd be starting from scratch here. He's no Paint Samptino though. That's the name of my imaginary coaching candidate based on the qualities that I want in a coach. 

[Old Friend 8,474]

On 2/16/2025 at 11:21 AM, Stuhoo said:

Utah State (22-3) is playing New Mexico (21-4) in a Mountain West showdown tonight. Very similar records to Drake and in a much tougher conference.

Between three head coaches? McCollum is the oldest, has over 200 less D1 wins than Pitino (and one less B1G coach of the year award), and has over 100 less wins than Calhoun. McCollum is the only one that has never been part of a P5 program.

Tell me again why McCollum would be a better choice than Pitino or Calhoun?

By the way… Utah State is mid-pack pace of play, Drake is dead last nationally 

AND RICHARD PITINO’s NEW MEXICO TEAM IS #5 NATIONALLY IN PACE.

I'll take a shot at this.

We've seen what Richard Pitino can do in the Big Ten. (Giving him credit for "200 more D1 wins" seems a lot like Woodson taking a lot of credit for winning his cupcake games against the likes of Army, Jackson State, and a 4 point win against Eastern Michigan)  I'm not saying McCollum's the guy, but I AM saying Richard Pitino isn't.  He was at Minnesota for 8 seasons and won 36% of his conference games, finishing higher than 7th place just once.   That reason alone says a guy with 4 national titles who has won 81% of his games over his career is a better choice than Pitino.    D1 experience is valuable, but even at New Mexico, Pitino has never finished above 6th in the Mountain West.   The MW isn't that much better than the Valley.  MW is projected to get 2 NCAA Tournament teams.  Valley will get 1.  Of the 31 conferences, both are ranked in the top 10.  Talking about "pace" feels like Tom Crean talking about deflections.

Calhoun...barely won 50% of his games in the Horizon League.  In case everyone isn't familiar?  In this league they feature :  Ft,. Wayne, Oakland, IU-Indy, Northern KY, and Green Bay whose head coach also hosts a national sports talk show.  Calhoun won just 55% of his games in that garbage conference over 7 seasons.  5 year D2 coach with nowhere near the resume McCollum has.  We've been down the "one season wonder" trail (which he will be regardless of how USU finishes) with both Crean and Archie and both of those guys did it with far bigger programs and in far better conferences than Utah State.  Both he and McCollum are 43.  You're factually accurate but I think age is irrelevant given they're technically exactly the same age. Pitino is 42.   I guess I don't understand why "McCollum is the oldest" matters.  We're talking about days and weeks older.  Not years.

I'd take McCollum over both of those guys 100 times out of 100.

[JSHoosier 21,325]

I don't particularly want McCollum, IU isn’t in a position to take a risk on a person with exactly 1 season of D1 experience. I'd take him over little Pitino though; Woodson has got the bar buried for him to start looking like an option.

McCollum's D2 record is impressive, I'll admit that.

[Stuhoo 84,592]

6 hours ago, Old Friend said:

I'll take a shot at this.

We've seen what Richard Pitino can do in the Big Ten. (Giving him credit for "200 more D1 wins" seems a lot like Woodson taking a lot of credit for winning his cupcake games against the likes of Army, Jackson State, and a 4 point win against Eastern Michigan)  I'm not saying McCollum's the guy, but I AM saying Richard Pitino isn't.  He was at Minnesota for 8 seasons and won 36% of his conference games, finishing higher than 7th place just once.   That reason alone says a guy with 4 national titles who has won 81% of his games over his career is a better choice than Pitino.    D1 experience is valuable, but even at New Mexico, Pitino has never finished above 6th in the Mountain West.   The MW isn't that much better than the Valley.  MW is projected to get 2 NCAA Tournament teams.  Valley will get 1.  Of the 31 conferences, both are ranked in the top 10.  Talking about "pace" feels like Tom Crean talking about deflections.

Calhoun...barely won 50% of his games in the Horizon League.  In case everyone isn't familiar?  In this league they feature :  Ft,. Wayne, Oakland, IU-Indy, Northern KY, and Green Bay whose head coach also hosts a national sports talk show.  Calhoun won just 55% of his games in that garbage conference over 7 seasons.  5 year D2 coach with nowhere near the resume McCollum has.  We've been down the "one season wonder" trail (which he will be regardless of how USU finishes) with both Crean and Archie and both of those guys did it with far bigger programs and in far better conferences than Utah State.  Both he and McCollum are 43.  You're factually accurate but I think age is irrelevant given they're technically exactly the same age. Pitino is 42.   I guess I don't understand why "McCollum is the oldest" matters.  We're talking about days and weeks older.  Not years.

I'd take McCollum over both of those guys 100 times out of 100.

Pitino is 14-1 in the Mountain West (the #7 conference in the country) this year. His team will likely be ranked this week.

Calhoun was over .500 at Youngstown State. That is an serious revelation for that place; not quite Dusty May level, but outstanding. 

But my point is more about McCollum. Yes; he runs some great stuff and certainly gets the max out of his players. HE IS EXCELLENT.

But

• He now has 26 games at the D1 level - that's total as a player, graduate assistant, assistant coach, head coach, video coordinator, manager; everything. That's it.
• He's currently winning with players that he already recruited years ago - brought them with him.
• He has never managed a large budget;
• Never recruited a higher-level kid.
• He has never played or coached against a ranked team;
• Never beaten a team that is top 50 in the NET.
• Never dealt with a crazed fan base or hyper-critical media; never had to guide his team through that.
• Never dealt with NIL in any real way.

Those other two guys I mentioned are just as young and have done all of that. They were also mentored by Huggins (Calhoun) and Billy Donovan and Rick Pitino (Richard) in extensive stints at P5 schools as assistants.

So McCollum is absolutely doing great. If IU hired him I'll give him my full support and hope that people in the know have identified him as inordinately special. But he sure as hell doesn't seem ready for a job the magnitude of IU to me.

[Demo 21,380]

25 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Pitino is 14-1 in the Mountain West (the #7 conference in the country) this year. His team will likely be ranked this week.

Calhoun was over .500 at Youngstown State. That is an serious revelation for that place; not quite Dusty May level, but outstanding. 

But my point is more about McCollum. Yes; he runs some great stuff and certainly gets the max out of his players. HE IS EXCELLENT.

But

• He now has 26 games at the D1 level - that's total as a player, graduate assistant, assistant coach, head coach, video coordinator, manager; everything. That's it.
• He's currently winning with players that he already recruited years ago - brought them with him.
• He has never managed a large budget;
• Never recruited a higher-level kid.
• He has never played or coached against a ranked team;
• Never beaten a team that is top 50 in the NET.
• Never dealt with a crazed fan base or hyper-critical media; never had to guide his team through that.
• Never dealt with NIL in any real way.

Those other two guys I mentioned are just as young and have done all of that. They were also mentored by Huggins (Calhoun) and Billy Donovan and Rick Pitino (Richard) in extensive stints at P5 schools as assistants.

So McCollum is absolutely doing great. If IU hired him I'll give him my full support and hope that people in the know have identified him as inordinately special. But he sure as hell doesn't seem ready for a job the magnitude of IU to me.

I think the chances that it’s Ben McCollum are slim and none and slim’s gone home. But this thread is kind of interesting as sort of a Rorschach test of risk tolerance. Though in fairness, none of us are actually risking anything, but we’re asking Dolson to risk his job and I see no chance he’s doing that on a guy who 10 months ago was coaching in a pretty innocuous gym by Indiana High School standards. I’m with you, if they go there I’m down and it would be a great story and a fun watch. But they’re not. If the dude ends up at someplace like Iowa and turns into Dean Smith, so be it.  I’m willing to be against that result and on a track record at a high major. 

[Stuhoo 84,592]

34 minutes ago, Demo said:

I think the chances that it’s Ben McCollum are slim and none and slim’s gone home. But this thread is kind of interesting as sort of a Rorschach test of risk tolerance. Though in fairness, none of us are actually risking anything, but we’re asking Dolson to risk his job and I see no chance he’s doing that on a guy who 10 months ago was coaching in a pretty innocuous gym by Indiana High School standards. I’m with you, if they go there I’m down and it would be a great story and a fun watch. But they’re not. If the dude ends up at someplace like Iowa and turns into Dean Smith, so be it.  I’m willing to be against that result and get on a track record at a high major. 

McCollum's career tracks pretty darn closely to Ray Harper's career.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harper_(basketball)

Now maybe he won't end up being Ray Harper (because most definitely no two people are alike).

But maybe he will.

[Lebowski 2,965]

We get it @Stuhoo, you're concerned about his D1 experience. Totally makes sense. I'm here to tell you though he'll end up somewhere else other than Drake and will be someone's thorn in their back. I promise you. This guy just coaches and coaching matters. I'd be extremely comfortable IU hiring this guy. That doesn't mean he'll be successful in the Big Ten. And yes, it would be an "experience gamble" giving this guy the keys. But like I said, I'll be really comfortable knowing he's driving the IUBB bus just like I was when Dolson finally got serious about hiring a proven winner for IUFB. Coaching matters. There's like only one coach "in the market" (Mark Few) with this kind of win percentage. Coaching matters.