Drake basketball advances to Arch Madness semifinals with win over Southern Illinois

Posted by author March 7, 2025 Basketball

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Mark Emmert
| For the Register

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Isaia Howard entered Friday’s Missouri Valley Conference tournament quarterfinal game averaging one 3-pointer for every 46 minutes he spent on the court.

The true freshman didn’t even play in five early-season games for Drake, as coach Ben McCollum rode his veteran players through an undefeated nonconference slate.

Look who’s all grown up now.

McCollum summoned Howard from the bench in the opening three minutes against Southern Illinois at the Enterprise Center for the biggest moment of his young career. Howard missed his first three shots and was whistled for a foul when he was caught out of position.

But neither he nor his coach ever wavered. Howard’s first 3-pointer tied the score; his next two put the top-seeded Bulldogs in the lead to stay. By the time it was over, he had a career-high 21 points, along with six steals, an exuberant blocked shot and one weary smile.

Drake had a comfortable 70-53 victory.

“I don’t think there’s a difference in any game,” Howard said after he was the biggest difference in this one. “The crowd’s the same. Basketball’s the same. Just a bigger stage, really. The lights were brighter. It felt good, more energy. So I was ready to play today.”

The win, the Bulldogs’ seventh straight in this event, ran the team’s record to 28-3, with a 2:30 p.m. semifinal awaiting Saturday against Belmont. It came about because Drake forced 15 turnovers and held the eighth-seeded Salukis (14-19) to a season-low point total.

Howard, who played a season-high 36 minutes, had both of his pesky hands in that effort, collecting five of his steals in the opening half. A two-time all-state performer from tiny Plattsburg, Mo. (population 2,200), he was lightly recruited out of high school but turned down a chance to go to North Dakota State to follow McCollum to Drake, meaning coach and player debuted in NCAA Division I at the same time.

“We knew that he had a level of energy and juice to him,” McCollum said of the trust he displayed in the only freshman he played Friday. “He just came in and hooped. That’s what he does. And then he’s going to fight everybody in the gym. He’s going to fight me sometimes. It’s what he is. It’s what he does. I never don’t trust his competitiveness ever.

“And that’s what his greatest strength is, is his ability to compete.”

Tavian Banks came into Friday’s game at the same time as Howard, and his impact was also meaningful. The 6-foot-7 junior is considered a “big” on a Drake team that overcompensates for being undersized. Banks, at just 200 pounds, exemplifies that attitude. He scored 10 points and snared 11 rebounds, seven of them on the offensive end, to help the Bulldogs accumulate a 36-24 advantage in points in the paint.

“I’m one of the connectors for the team,” said Banks, who has learned to embrace his reserve role so well that he was named the Valley’s Sixth Man of the Year.

“I don’t feel undersized. I would say I’m a big dog. You can’t back down just because other players are taller than you. You’ve got to go at them with all you’ve got.”

Banks did that for 25 minutes Friday, another backup player getting starter’s minutes. The Salukis, playing a second game in 24 hours, couldn’t hold up.

“You can’t really overthink it,” Banks said of getting accustomed to not starting for the first time in his life. If you overthink it, you’re just messing with your game.

“It’s not about me. It’s about the team. And what we want to do, our goal as a team.”

That goal includes winning a third consecutive Valley title. And, thanks to Howard and Banks, the quest continues Saturday.