Kansas State Basketball: Drake Preview

Drake University: 9-0 – KenPom #73

Basic information

Location: Des Moines, Iowa

School type: Private

Mascot: Spike (in costume) 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

Achievements

Division II National Championships: 4 (’17, ’19, ’20, ’21, ’22’)

Regular season conference championships: 12

Division II tournament record: 32-7

Kenpom play style

() = National Ranking per Kenpom

Crime

Adj. Efficiency: 109 (127)

Avg. Possibly Length: 21.3 (362)

Defense

Adj. Efficiency: 98.5 (45)

Avg. Possibly Length: 16.2 (28)

Pace

Adj. Pace: 64 (348)

Kenpom 4 factors

() = National Ranking per Kenpom

Crime

Effective FG%: 54.1 (73)

3 points %: 32.8 (189)

2 points %: 57.4 (42)

Revenue %: 22.6 (352)

Off. Rope. %: 37.9 (19)

FTA/FGA: 50.1 (6)

Defense

Effective FG%: 48.9 (124)

3 points %: 29.1 (37)

2 points %: 52.2 (210)

Revenue %: 22.4 (21)

Off. Rope. %: 23.9 (15)

FTA/FGA: 40.9 (314)

Staff

Drake on the offensive

Welcome to the Bennett Stirtz Show. Drake’s dynamic, tireless 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, bring up either the power forward or center to provide a high center ball screen, and use the big man in the “dunker” position on the low block. It’s basically 4-out basketball, but they run it to perfection.

If you love the center ball screen, prepare for your personal Valhalla, because Drake is running it to death. They constantly attack the “1” side of the court (the side with the dunker on the block) and look for a backside advantage. They make wing defenders decide whether to tag the diver or stay with the shooter. If they mark, 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 better than a team cobbled together from the transfer portal. These guys know not only how to play, but how to play together. Drake will be patient, run their set and won’t be bothered by the shot clock. They expect the defense to foul at some point in the allotted 30 seconds – they don’t care if that foul comes in the first 5 seconds of the shot clock or the last.

As a team, they are not very good at shooting from behind. This isn’t one of those mid-majors that has to hit 20 3s to win. That said, guard Mitch Mascari is a perimeter assassin. He is currently shooting 50% from 3 on 23-46 shooting and along with Stirtz make this offense work. They constantly force defenders on the help side to make decisions. Opponents either help Mascari stop Stirtz and leave one of the nation’s best shooters open, or they stay with Mascari and let Stirtz defend with 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 played 29 at Valpo on Dec. 12 and 21 at Miami. Still, that’s better than what he did against Vandy, when he put up 16 points and 11 assists. I want to see K-State switch between the (multiple) middle ball screens, hug Mascari on the rim and see if the Bulldogs can beat you two points at a time. Valpo did just that, giving them a better game – despite a 6-point loss – than Vandy and Miami did by playing traditional help defense and letting Stirtz both score and set the table for his teammates.

Drake on defense

The Bulldogs are an interesting team. They are slow and methodical in attack and aggressive in defence. 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 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 hitting 52% (210th) from inside the arc.

Another key to the Drake defense is forcing turnovers while limiting assists (you can do that when you’re guarding your own guy). Miami limited their turnovers to nine, but still couldn’t reach a positive assist-to-turnover ratio due to just eight assists. Vandy underperformed, turning the ball over 15 times with just eight assists. Vandy point guard Jason Edwards had 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 just 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 their own. Edwards and the Pack, despite both having exceptional individual games, couldn’t do enough to win because Drake shut everyone else down.

K-State must be smart on offense and wear down the Bulldogs. This is the way forward for the ‘Cats. Drake plays eight, but their subs essentially rotate into two positions (shooting guard and center). Against Miami, Stirtz, Mascari and Abreu together played 119 of the possible 120 minutes. If the ‘Cats move the ball and give decent looks early on the clock to look good late, they can wear down the Bulldogs. You have to make them work on defense because they will make you work on defense. Nothing is more demoralizing in basketball than defending the entire shot clock, watching one of your teammates make 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 good shot on every offensive possession and they will bait you into taking the first decent shot available when you are 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 will play defense.

Another way forward is to get Bennett Stirtz in foul trouble. I wanted to mention it 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 a minute of action this season against teams not named York (NE) and St. Ambrose. Not sure why he got benched for a full minute against Stephen F. Austin, but he hasn’t since. If I were Jerome Tang, I’d see if I could be the first team to bench Stirtz by going after 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 up the court, and see if he can foul 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 another Drake team, but I can’t say for sure because no one has managed to bench him this season.

Overall

I haven’t written much about K-State basketball yet this season, but I’ve been watching, and… ooooof. 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 good enough at the big things to even talk about the little things.

They have more talent on paper than Drake, but Coach Tang has yet to prove that he can get all of his players 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 are currently 0-3 in those games. This would be the absolute perfect time for the Wildcats to get their first win of the season because they have nothing but top-100 games the rest of the way (Wichita State is desperately holding on to the top 100 at 98).

Forecast

KenPom

Kansas State – 69th

Drake – 67

Drew

Kansas State – 65th

Drake – 77

Pessimism is my new optimism. I don’t like this game for Kansas State. They are essentially a pick-up team playing against a group of guys who 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 to not fall into the quick shot trap on the other end. I hope I’m wrong.