The best college basketball coach you've never heard of is from Storm Lake, Iowa

Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball players Trevor Hudgins and Diego Bernard remember one snowstorm during the 2018-19 season well.

Over three years later, small details, like how many inches of snow fell, are fuzzy. But, still, that blizzard left an impression. Classes were canceled. Bernard recalls playing video games while waiting for a message saying that basketball practice was off too.

That text never came.

Instead, one telling players to get ready because head coach Ben McCollum would be picking them up did.

“In a blizzard," Hudgins said. "You can’t even see the road.”

But, yep, it's true. Bernard said McCollum picked up a few people at a time, dropped them off at the gym and then went back out until all his players were at practice. And the Bearcats did practice that day. McCollum ordered food for the team, and they had what essentially amounted to a shoot around, Hudgins said.

When McCollum says something is going to happen, it usually does. He tells recruits that they'll win if they come to Northwest Missouri State, a Division II program in Maryville, Missouri, and he has the record to back that up.

In 13 seasons as the Bearcats’ head coach, McCollum, who was born in Iowa City and grew up in Storm Lake, has compiled a 334-83 record. He ranks fourth among all NCAA basketball coaches — with a minimum of 10 years head coaching experience — in win percentage. He has led Northwest Missouri State to four Division II national titles, first in 2017 and then three straight from 2019-22. (The 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.)

McCollum is a five-time Division II national coach of the year and has won the award in each of the past four seasons.

“When somebody’s doing something unique in coaching, I tend to pay attention,” Fran Fraschilla, a college basketball analyst for ESPN, told The Register. “To watch what Northwest Missouri State has done in the last 10 or so years is remarkable, so I’ve definitely paid attention to coach McCollum.”

Three years later, that snowstorm practice stuck with Hudgins, and especially Bernard, who was in his freshman season at Northwest Missouri State at the time.

“I was thinking, ‘Man, this is crazy. What am I getting myself into?’” Bernard said. “But that’s just the dedication that he has to get better every day, to get the best out of us. He’ll go to any (length) to make sure that we’re getting the best out of every day.”

That of-course-we're-practicing-in-a-blizzard mindset has turned Northwest Missouri State into something historic. Nothing short of a dynasty — that’s how Fraschilla described what McCollum has created with the Bearcats.

But McCollum's story doesn't begin in Missouri.

It starts with a sub-6-foot high school player from Storm Lake.

Humble beginnings in Storm Lake, Iowa

McCollum was born in Iowa City. Mary Timko was a single mother to McCollum and his brother, Joey, at the time, while also earning her law degree and master’s degree and working her way to a career as a judge. She also won a battle with breast cancer, after her diagnosis in 2003.

So, while Timko describes her son as tough and ultra-competitive, McCollum is quick to point out he inherited those traits from his mother.

“She believes that everything that happens to you, good or bad, is because of the things you do,” McCollum said. “And you have to own all those things.

“I think a lot of my competitiveness, a lot of that edge, a lot of the chip on the shoulder does come from her. Being a woman in more of a male-dominated occupation, you have to have that chip on your shoulder and be a fighter. That’s what she is.”

So, McCollum can trace parts of his personality back to growing up with a single mother. As for the basics of basketball, Timko and McCollum disagree on the origins, but it all leads back to Storm Lake.

“He does not agree with this, but I actually taught him how to shoot,” Timko said. “He thinks somebody else did, but it was me.”

The family moved to Storm Lake when McCollum was in second grade, and Timko put him in every sport she could. He tried baseball, soccer, basketball and even wrestling. One thing held true, regardless of the sport, and it was that McCollum didn’t like to lose.

“And if he did lose," Timko said, "he would make sure that he figured out why.”

That was probably one of the first signs that McCollum was destined to be a coach, focusing on the analytical side of the game, determined to break down how to be a better player.

But to be a good coach, he first needed to be a good player.

Iowa men’s basketball hosted a camp in Storm Lake every year when McCollum was growing up, and he recalls one year — when he was in third or fourth grade — when Bruce Pearl coached his group. He remembers the energy that year was infectious.

It was there that McCollum thinks he really caught the basketball bug. He worked his way through the ranks until he played high school ball at St. Mary’s. Basketball wasn’t as much of a year-round sport back then like it is now with AAU, and McCollum knew that, to get better than everyone else, he had to do it on his own in the offseason.

That meant going out to Buena Vista, a Division III school in Storm Lake, and playing against its players as much as possible, getting in reps with college athletes before he’d played a college game himself.

“I was fairly obsessed with basketball,” McCollum said. “I would work out 1-3 hours every day. I’d never miss a day. I’d bring a ball with me on vacation and get my work in. Just really worked at trying to be as good as I could possibly be.”

That led him to North Iowa Area Community College, where he began his college career. He stayed close to home to be by his grandma, Timko said, but eventually basketball led him to Northwest Missouri State, first as a player, then as a graduate assistant before he returned as head coach ahead of the 2009-10 season.

Even as basketball took him out of Iowa, McCollum held onto what his home state taught him. He thinks it helped get him to a head coaching position before his 30th birthday.

“We always call Iowa ‘God’s country,’” McCollum said. “But you have that kind of chip on your shoulder as a small-town kid. I always carry that with me. That’s what you do.

“The values you learn from growing up in the state of Iowa, it’s amazing how they shape how you coach, how they shape how you care about people, how they shape how you lead. All that comes from growing up in Iowa.”

What makes McCollum's team such an unbeatable force

The first couple of seasons as head coach were rocky, with Northwest Missouri State posting losing records in 2009-10 and 2010-11. That’s to be expected when you take over the reins of a college basketball program at 28 years old.

But the Bearcats' poor records didn’t last long. In fact, Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball hasn’t had a losing season since going 10-16 in 2010-11. McCollum and his team have lost just 52 games in the past 11 seasons.

So, how exactly has McCollum transformed the Bearcats from an average Division II program to a perennial powerhouse producing some of the top talent in the nation?

Fundamentals.

“There’s nothing fancy,” Fraschilla said. “No fancy trick plays, no fancy Xs and Os. What they do is very subtle. They’re a very intelligent team and it’s really about smart players playing fundamentally sound basketball.”

That type of basketball — or, more specifically, what McCollum has created — would make Northwest Missouri State competitive in Division I, Fraschilla said. But all the program's success has happened in relative obscurity, solely because it isn't Division I.

Fraschilla looks at coaches on a bell curve, where there’s 10% that aren’t that great, 80% that are doing a reasonably good job and 10% that he describes as “just special coaches.” McCollum is in that top 10% for Fraschilla.

“He would never be out-coached in any power conference in the country,” Fraschilla said. “Now, recruiting is a different deal in the Big 12 and Big Ten, but he seems to have figured out a way to find good players and develop good players.”

McCollum credits his players for Northwest Missouri State’s success, but the players credit their coach. Look no further than Creighton’s Ryan Hawkins — who transferred from Northwest Missouri State — and Hudgins for recent examples of how McCollum develops his athletes.

After a four-year career at Northwest Missouri State that ended with first-team All-American honors and a national title, Hawkins transferred to Creighton and started all 35 games this past season. He averaged 13.8 points per game and helped the Bluejays to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where they lost to eventual national champion Kansas.

Hudgins has a lot of titles attached to his name. Three-time national champion. Back-to-back NABC Division II Player of the Year. Ranked first in the nation this season in total points (897) and 3-point field goals made (168). The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association's all-time leading scorer with 2,829 career points.

Hudgins is the best player in Division II basketball. Some, like Fraschilla, would argue he’s one of the best players in the country, right now.

“If not for (McCollum’s) coaching acumen and his player development and his eye for talent, Hawkins and Hudgins would not be the players they are today," Fraschilla said. "One who’s gone on to have success in the NCAA Tournament and March Madness this year. And another guy in Trevor Hudgins who could play in any program in Division I, including the top 10 programs in the country. Trevor Hudgins could play at Kansas today.

“I think these kids get a lot of credit for their own sweat equity. We’ll never know the contribution coach McCollum has had, but it’s safe to say it’s been enormous with both and other players who’ve had success at Northwest Missouri State.”

Ask Hudgins the secret to his success, and he’ll point to McCollum, who took a chance on the Manhattan, Kansas, native over four years ago.

“I feel like the majority of my success is from him,” Hudgins said. “It just goes back to …that trust and the work we put in together. I feel like my game has elevated a whole lot just being here.

“In high school, I didn’t really shoot a lot. I’ve always been a pass-first point guard. Now, I’m hitting a bunch of 3s. It’s crazy just to think where I’m at now and where I started. And all credit goes to coach Mac and the coaching staff just believing in me.”

Loyalty goes both ways

While it may be a bit more unspoken, loyalty is a big deal to those in the Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball program.

On the player side of things, that shows when someone like Hudgins sticks around, even though he could go play at probably any program in the country.

Nearly 1,000 athletes have either entered the transfer portal from Division II schools or transferred to Division II programs this season. Yet, there are no players leaving Northwest Missouri State. Only one Bearcats player, Hawkins, has even entered the portal since 2019.

With McCollum’s consistency, it’s obvious to his players that their coach is loyal to them and the program, even as his coaching stock continues to rise.

“That means the world, honestly,” Hudgins said. “He has loyalty, and that’s another reason why I stayed for my last year here."

Bernard agreed.

“Just the loyalty aspect of it, it shows the character of the man that he is,” he said.

McCollum’s name is one that echoes in the ears of athletic directors across the country when the end-of-season coaching carousel picks up. So, after 11 straight winning seasons and three national championships, it's fair to ask why McCollum is still at Northwest Missouri State.

“As a coach, you always have confidence in yourself to be able to pursue (Division I opportunities),” McCollum said. “Can I be a good coach at that level? I think I can. But at Northwest, we get good crowds, people care about basketball, they care about the kids. It’s a neat environment."

Yeah, McCollum’s name comes up quite a bit in coaching conversations. Sure, he’s fielded phone calls and head coaching offers from other programs. And yet, he’s still at Northwest Missouri State, because nothing has been good enough to take him away from the Bearcats.

At least not yet.

“Obviously, if the right (job) comes along, then the right one comes along," McCollum said. "But it hasn’t at this point.”

Alyssa Hertel is a college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Inside Ben McCollum's Division II dynasty at Northwest Missouri State