The 11th-seeded Drake Bulldogs stunned the No. 6-seed Missouri Tigers on Thursday night, winning 67-57 in the First Round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect this,” said first-year Drake head coach Ben McCollum after the Bulldogs picked up their first NCAA Tournament win since 2021.
“… I expected exactly this. I expected [my players] to compete. I brought winners with me. That’s what I brought. I guess my superpower is finding winners, finding tough kids and believing in them. So I kind of expected this. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. “I know I try to be humble in other words. But man, I believe in these kids.”
THAT WINNING FEELING FOR @DrakeBulldogsMB 🤩#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/m9q1pKGirI
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 21, 2025
No. 11 Drake entered the First Round of the NCAA Tournament as a 5.5-point underdog against No. 6 Missouri. Junior guard Bennett Stirtz, one of four Drake starters who played Division II basketball last season, scored 21 points.
McCollum’s undersized Bulldogs held Missouri to its lowest first-half point total of the season, and they held off a late charge to land their 31st win of the season.
“For our guys, I think we just fought,” McCollum said. “That’s kind of what we have to do is just continue to fight and continue to grind and continue to compete. We’ve got guys that want to do that, that want it hard. They were able to do it.”
Drake Is Aiming To Reach Sweet 16 For First Time Since 1971
Drake led 30-23 at halftime, and the Bulldogs’ lead expanded to as many as 15 points in the third quarter before Missouri cut its deficit to 52-51 with 4:28 left on the back of a 12-2 scoring run.
A 15-6 response from the Bulldogs over the final 4:02 was enough to close out the victory. Tavion Banks, a junior college transfer who earned MVC Sixth Man of the Year honors, scored seven of his 15 points over that stretch.
McCollum praised Stirtz for his performance after he kicked off the closing run with a step-back jumper.
Drake fans with an “Overrated SEC” chant in the final seconds of the NCAA Tournament win over Missouri. #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/1hB66QDi0p
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 21, 2025
“He’s been in a lot of big games,” McCollum said. “Obviously, just from a personality perspective, that’s probably why we match so well. I’m a little more intense, we’ll use. Some people would call it crazy. He’s very calm. We just kind of fit each other when he’s on the floor. He can evaluate exactly what I’m saying, so we can get it corrected.”
McCollum won four D-II national titles at Northwest Missouri State before taking the Drake job last April. Under his leadership, the Bulldogs snapped a four-game losing streak in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.
Drake can reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1971 with a Second-Round win against No. 3 seed Texas Tech on Saturday. Bulldogs fans were heard chanting “Overrated SEC” in the final seconds of Thursday’s win.
