By KIRK HARDCASTLE, NIACC Sports Information Director
Stubborn, quirky and driven.
That’s three words that were used to describe the newly hired University of Iowa men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum by former NIACC men’s basketball coach Steve Krafcisin.
First the stubborn.
“A word that comes to mind is stubborn and it was a good thing for him,” said Krafcisin, who coached McCollum at NIACC from 1999-2001. “Ben loved attacking the basket.”
“I can close my eyes and remember telling him ‘Ben, you can’t go into the forest every time.’ That’s kind of what he had to do in high school. We definitely encouraged him to shoot the three. He was very determined.”
Krafcisin, who was the NIACC men’s basketball coach from 1997-2005, recruited McCollum out of Storm Lake St. Mary’s High School in 1999.
“When we recruited him, he was very talented and very skilled,” Krafcisin recalled. “He had to do it all in high school. He had to rebound, dribble it up, shoot it, play defense. I just thought he was a multi-talented guy that could play the point (guard).”
McCollum was a two-time all-region performer during his two seasons at NIACC. McCollum ranks 47th on the school’s career scoring list with 692 points and is ninth on the school’s career 3-point list with 115.
After NIACC, McCollum played at Northwest Missouri State from 2001-03 and helped guide the Bearcats to a record of 51-12 and a berth in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in the 2001-02 season.
“Since the beginning of the year, I’ve wanted to go to Northwest (Missouri State) because one of my buddies goes down there and he liked it down there,” McCollum was quoted as saying in the Globe Gazette in 2001.”
Krafcisin recalls that McCollum was dead set on attending Northwest Missouri State.
“I certainly didn’t want to talk him out of it,” Krafcisin said. “He was very determined and pretty matter of fact. It worked out incredibly well for him.”
It certainly did.
McCollum eventually became the head coach at Northwest Missouri State where he won four NCAA Division II national championships (2017, 2019, 2021, 2022).
During his 15 years at Northwest Missouri State, McCollum posted a record of 395-91 (81.3 winning percentage) and he earned five NABC Division II national coach of the year awards, the most for a single coach in NCAA Division II history.
During McCollum’s one and only season at Drake, he led the Bulldogs to a record of 31-4 en route to being named the Missouri Valley Conference coach of the year. The Bulldogs won the MVC regular season and tournament titles and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Now the quirky.
“I don’t know about the white shirt and the tie,” Krafcisin said jokingly of McCollum’s traditional coaching attire, but it certainly works for him.”
“It was so great how the Drake fans took to it – kind of like (St. John’s) Lou Carnesecca sweater (of the 1980s). It’s way cool.”
Krafcisin attended the Drake/Belmont game in Des Moines on Dec. 29, 2024 with a friend of his and they were nearing the Knapp Center.
“We’re driving to the game and Ben’s jogging down the street. It’s 11:30 and the game is at 1.
“We’re like ‘OK.’ It was amazing to see and he had a lot of faith in his assistants. All coaches are kind of quirky. They are kind of different.”
And the driven.
Krafcisin also recalled visiting with McCollum a few years ago when he brought his Northwest Missouri State team to the DMACC campus for a preseason scrimmage against Minnesota State-Mankato.
Krafcisin, who stepped down as the DMACC’s women’s basketball coach after the 2021-22 season, remembered McCollum as the same type of person he was a player at NIACC from 1999-2001.
“He was just intense,” Krafcisin said. “The only other person that I can remember like that is (former Iowa State and Chicago Bulls coach) Tim Floyd.
“You have their attention for awhile but then they started thinking about out of bounds plays or something. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. They are just so driven.”
Now, McCollum moves from the Missouri Valley Conference to the Big Ten Conference and his former coach, who helped lead the Hawkeyes to the 1980 Final Four, is extremely proud of his former player.
“It’s hard to believe,” Krafcisin said. “To be at Iowa, I’m very proud. I’m trying to get out around Boone as much as I can and say ‘that Ben McCollum played for me (at NIACC). It’s pretty neat.”
