Ben McCollum
Benjamin M. McCollum is the current men's basketball head coach at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri.
McCollum was born in Iowa City, Iowa and grew up in Storm Lake, Iowa where he graduated from St. Mary's High School in 1999. He played basketball for two years at North Iowa Area Community College before transferring to Northwest in 2001 where he played for Steve Tappmeyer as the school made its first Elite Eight appearance. He graduated in 2003 from Northwest with a degree in business finance and then received a masters in athletic administration from the school in 2004. He was an assistant coach at Emporia State University from 2004 to 2008 when he came to Northwest as head coach in 2009.
McCollum's teams struggled the first two years with records of 12–15 in 2009–10 and 10–16 in 2010–11. In the 2011–12 season his teams dramatically turned around as the team completed a 22–7 record, won the regular season MIAA crown, and played in the first round of the NCAA tournament. In 2012, he was honored for the turnaround with the Clarence Gaines Award for best NCAA Division II coach.
