Drake's Division II transfers are proving they can win in March Madness

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Drake's Division II transfers are proving they can win in March Madness

2025-03-21 13:00 Last Updated At：13:11

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Bennett Stirtz understood time was winding down on him Thursday night. Ben McCollum was frantically waving his arms at him on the sideline, and the Drake fans sitting behind the Bulldogs' coach were doing the same thing.

They were imploring Stirtz to shoot, so he did — a 25-foot teardrop 3 as the shot clock expired that hit nothing but net.

“I don't really know what I was doing there,” Stirtz said with a sheepish grin afterward.

Oh, but the boys from Drake know exactly what they're doing.

They proved that in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, when a team full of Division II transfers including Stirtz, and led by their old D-II coach from Northwest Missouri State, beat back a stiff second-half challenge from Missouri for a 67-57 victory.

The win pushed the No. 11 seed Bulldogs (31-3) into a second-round showdown Saturday against third-seeded Texas Tech, and within one win of reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1971.

“The reason you do this is the stage, it allows you to pass a message, which is tough kids, connected kids, kids that love each other, can still win,” said McCollum, who bypassed several Division I offers while leading the Bearcats to four national titles, only to finally accept the monumental task of replacing Darian DeVries at Drake last April.

“I get a lot of joy out of just me seeing it, to be honest,” McCollum said. “I'm pretty selfish about it. I love seeing these guys every day. I love going to practice. There's a level of memories and things you go through that nothing can replace.”

The Bulldogs are all about making some March memories.

Given where they came from, who could blame them?

Stirtz was the kid from Liberty, Missouri, that none of the big schools — including the Tigers — wanted out of high school. So, he headed up the road to Maryville and Northwest Missouri State, where McCollum was busy building a juggernaut, and became a Jimmy Chitwood-like star who seemed to do just about everything on the hardwood.

Stirtz was joined by Isaiah Jackson, who grew up not far from Liberty in Independence and was similarly overlooked. And by Daniel Abreu, who grew up in Springfield, Missouri, and Mitch Mascari, who found his way there from Geneva, Illinois.

“When I signed my little contract,” Abreu recalled, “I thought that was it. I’m a D-II athlete. And I was OK with that.”

Yet things were unfolding at Drake last year that changed all their lives. DeVries left for West Virginia, and McCollum bit on the opportunity to replace him. And when 15 players left the program, the new coach began to fill the holes by calling up some of his old players, giving those outcasts and misfits the opportunity to join him in D-I.

“I brought winners with me. That's what I brought,” McCollum said. “I guess my superpower is finding winners, finding tough kids and believing in them. I know I've tried to be humble, but man, I believed in these kids.”

They're paying back that belief in a big way.

The Bulldogs already have set a school record for wins. They swept the regular- and postseason Missouri Valley Conference titles. And with a raucous crowd behind them Thursday night, they ended Drake's four-game skid in first-round NCAA Tournament games.

“It's hard to put into words, because personally, I was in Division II and now I'm here, in a tournament I've dream of playing in. To get even just one win is insane,” Jackson said. “It even tops it off when you play a team from your home state.”

Nobody from Drake seems content with just one win, though. There is a genuine belief that a program that relies so heavily on D-II transfers can beat anyone in D-I, and it has earned another chance to prove it on Saturday night.

“We can go as far as we want to,” Jackson said. “As long as we stay together, believe in each other, and we do the little things, we can make a run and surprise a lot of people in the nation.”

AP freelancer Avery Osen contributed to this report.

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Israel warns of severe response to strikes from Lebanon after vowing to intensify operations in Gaza

2025-03-22 17:45 Last Updated At：17:51

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Israel said it would respond “severely” to an attack from Lebanon after rockets were fired into northern Israel Saturday morning, a day after it vowed to increase the intensity of its operations in Gaza.

Israel's army said the intercepted rockets were targeting the Israeli town of Metula. This is the second time rockets have been fired from Lebanon into Israel since December, sparking concern about whether the fragile ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah would hold.

Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. The Israel-Hezbollah conflict boiled over into an all-out war in September as Israel carried out massive waves of airstrikes and killed most of the militant group’s senior leaders. The fighting killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced about 60,000 Israelis.

Under the ceasefire reached in November, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January. The deadline was then extended to Feb. 18 by agreement between Lebanon and Israel.

But since then, Israel’s remained in five locations in Lebanon located across from communities in northern Israel and has carried out dozens of airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, saying it attacked Hezbollah targets. Lebanon has appealed to the U.N. to pressure Israel to fully withdraw from the country.

On Saturday, Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said the country will not allow Lebanon to fire into Israeli communities. “We promised security to the Galilee communities and that is exactly what will happen,” he said.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

In a statement, Lebanon's Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, asked the Lebanese military to take all necessary measures in the south, but said the country did not want to return to war.

The strikes come a day after Israel said it would carry out operations in Gaza “with increasing intensity” until Hamas frees the 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed alive.

Israel's military said Friday its forces were planning fresh assaults into three neighborhoods west of Gaza City and issued warnings on social media for Palestinians to evacuate the areas.

Also on Friday, Israel blew up the only specialized cancer hospital in the war-torn territory. The Israeli military said it struck the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, accusing Hamas militants of operating on-site. Turkey, which helped build and fund the hospital, said Israeli troops at one point used it as a base.

Around 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel relaunched the war earlier this week. Israel had already cut off the supply of food, fuel, and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians, aiming to pressure Hamas over ceasefire negotiations.

The international community has condemned the resumed attacks. In a statement Friday, the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France and Germany called Israel's strikes in Gaza a dramatic step backward. “We are appalled by the civilian casualties and urgently call for an immediate return to a ceasefire," they said in a joint statement.

The attack by Hamas-led militants in 2023, killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Most of the hostages have been freed in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 49,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were militants but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press reporter Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war