Gentri Staten

[Jess @FeverBandwagon]

“Double Tech” by Michelangelo

[Mike Bales 🫡🇺🇸 @MikeBales]

UPS: “Your package is in your city, on a truck driven by Mike. It will arrive on your doorstep at 6:27 p.m. today.”

FedEx: “Your package is coming. You’ll get it when we get there.”

USPS: “What package?”

Amazon: “We are already inside your apartment. Check the bathroom.”

Facebook: “We know you were thinking about getting a toaster yesterday. Here are 20 ads for toaster ovens.”

[Jordan Philpott @MrRTF]

If you attended @NWMOSTATE during the Ben McCollum coaching era, none of this is a surprise to you. Coach Mac is elite because he wants others to be at their most elite! NW Mo St stays growing true game changers! #oabaab

[Eliot Clough @EliotClough]

What did McCollum say to his team when they were down 10?

“He slammed his white board and broke his marker on the floor. Ink everywhere. … He was just telling us we sucked, and we were soft.”

[Jeff Goodman @GoodmanHoops]

Bennett Stirtz IS Cinderella.

Two D-2 offers out of HS. Goes to NW Missouri State.

Follows Coach to Drake, leads Bulldogs to NCAA tourney.

Coach goes to Iowa, he doesn’t go to NBA Draft, instead takes millions less to follow McCullum to Iowa.

Leads Hawkeyes to Elite 8.

[Greg Berge @GregBerge]

Serve first. Win later.

Most people want it the other way around.

“Your job is not to be here for yourself. It is to be here for everybody else.”

- Ben McCollum GOLD 🥇

[Pat McAfee @PatMcAfeeShow]

“Florida getting knocked off was a big surprise to me..

Iowa was more physical in that basketball game”

Coach K #PMSLive

[JuJu Gotti @JuJuGotti]

“Say Cathy…”

[Jamie Bambrick @j_bambrick]

My dear American friends,

We British Christians would get excited when, once a year, Queen Elizabeth would make a mild but sincere reference to the love of Jesus Christ in her Christmas address.

In Charlie Kirks' Memorial service, watched by tens of millions, I just heard:
- Multiple clear presentations of the gospel from men like @robmccoyus and @DrFrankTurek with clear calls to repentance and faith
- Worship songs full of Scripture sung by tens of thousands live and millions at home
- Personal testimonies of lives transformed by the work of Christ and the witness of believers
- Demonstration and explanation of the value of marriage, child-rearing and family
- Calls to Romans 13 for the government to bear the sword for the protection of good and punishment of the wicked
- Declarations of spiritual warfare on the forces of evil and promises to endure no matter the cost
- Calls to be prophets and call the nation to repent
- More Scripture references and Bible readings than I can count
- And a widow publicly forgiving her husband's killer because Christ forgave his killers on the cross.

All of it done before, and by, the most powerful people in your nation and the world.

You guys should be on your knees thanking God for your country. It is a light to the world.

Never stop fighting for it.

[Pardon My Take @PardonMyTake]

Wild

[NBACentel @TheNBACentel]

ANGEL REESE FASTBREAK SLAM. 🤯🔥

[Joe Schad @schadjoe]

Caitlin Clark had 20 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, 4 blocks and 2 steals to lead the Indiana Fever to a 93-58 defeat of the Chicago Sky. Clark is one of the most exciting, talented and impactful sports stars in America.

[Annie Wu (all socials: @annie_wu_22) @Annie_Wu_22]

the body and blood of Christ

[Coach Mudrikadem @CoachMudril2z]

Paint me like one of your French girls 😂

[Bennett Stirtz @bennett_stirtz]

🐤

[Iowa Men's Basketball @IowaHoops]

Welcome Home, @CoachMcCollum 🐤

Ben McCollum named head coach of the Iowa Men’s Basketball program.

#Hawkeyes

[Patrick Moorehomes @1912jayhawk]

KU fans will legitimately tell you that Bill Self needs to wear a suit on the sidelines again in order to bring Kansas back to greatness. And they’re right.

[Craig Doty @CoachDoty]

I coached against Ben McCollum across six seasons. We built our roster and our defensive system with the goal of taking them down. While we beat them three times in a row, they always flexed greater winning four D2 National Championships and beating us a large majority of the time. There is no team we studied more as a staff than McCollum’s teams. Here is what he does better than most coaches in the country:

*Point guard development: Ben McCollum is to college basketball what Andy Reid is to NFL football. Reid is widely considered the best QB coach developing Donovan McNabb, Alex Smith, and Pat Mahomes. If you think Bennett Stirtz is good for Drake, you should have seen McCollum’s point guard Trevor Hudgins (2x National POY) who signed and played with the Houston Rockets. Before Hudgins was National POY Justin Pitts. Simply put, McCollum always has the best point guard in the country. He develops them and they play the entire game. Stirtz leads the country at 39.4 MPG; Hudgins was at 37.7 MPG. McCollum’s methodical and controlled style of play protects them from injury and their team defense protects them from foul trouble. Stirtz was a second team all-conference player in our D2 league last season. He is now one of the best players in the country in NCAA D1 and a serious NBA prospect. No one develops PG’s better than McCollum.

*Team Defense: No one gets players, who shouldn’t be able to guard, to be better on D than McCollum. Mitch Mascari should get blown by every possession. Daniel Abreu shouldn’t be able to guard 6’10+ big men. Bennett Stirtz should be attacked off the bounce constantly to wear him out and get him in foul trouble. Opposing coaches know these things and try them. But it doesn’t work well. McCollum’s best, and most underrated strength, is coaching team defense. His guys are tough, physical, legal, smart, play for each other in the gaps, take pride in winning their individual defensive matchup, and they don’t get tired. Plus, he always has one bona fide elite on-ball defender on his roster (see Isaiah Jackson and Diego Benard) to shut down elite guards.

*Shot developer: Many college coaches don’t develop or change their player’s jump shots. Shots typically get worse for months at a time before they get better and most players are stubborn and/or not there long enough before transferring to their next school. McCollum develops shooters. One example is Mitch Mascari. Here is his shooting splits over the past five seasons:
*Fr: 7/27 3PT - .259
*So: 20/60 3PT - .333
*Jr. 56/120 3PT - .466
*Sr. 82/171 3PT - .480
*Gr. 87/214 3PT - .407 (vs. D1 closeouts)
It isn’t just Mascari either. A key reason Stirtz went from second team all-conference at the D2 level to the Larry Bird MVP of the Missouri Valley Conference is because of his improved perimeter shot. His last season in D2, Stirtz was 36/110 from 3PT (.327). This season at Drake he is 62/156 3PT (.397). He is perhaps shooting 80% from 3PT on “big shots” too. For perhaps McCollum’s best shot development job, see Ryan Hawkins, who starred for four years at NW Missouri State before transferring and being All-Big East at Creighton his final season.

*Master in-game manipulator: As Ben’s former assistant Austin Meyer says, “You’ll play the game the way Ben McCollum wants you to play.” I’ve never seen, or coached against, someone who manipulates pace the way that Ben does. He can play his point guard the entire game as a result. Most players don’t want to play this way. It’s slow, sometimes boring, it’s controlled, there isn’t a lot of freedom, and the point guard usage rate is amongst the highest in the country (I.e. the PG gets to create in this system while others don’t). However, McCollum’s innate ability to identify selfless, no-ego players during the recruiting process allows him to get the buy-in needed to operate this way and at his pace. “Press them.. just speed them up”… Good luck with that.

[Clark Report @CClarkReport]

Caitlin Clark and the Fever will have more nationally televised games than any NBA player this year 🤯