There's a men's basketball resurgence at long-suffering Drake and it includes a huge splash of Florida SouthWestern State purple and aqua.

Drake, a Des Moines school that has had only five 20-win campaigns in 113 seasons and went 17-17 last year, is 12-5 despite having just three scholarship players when first-year coach Darian DeVries took over.


Very soon after accepting Drake's offer, the 17-year Creighton assistant called then-FSW coach Marty Richter, another Iowa native who grew up just 20 minutes from him. They'd been friends since Richter helped work a Creighton camp long ago.

Richter, 42, had been a gaudy 56-10 at FSW after building the program from scratch, but he was more than willing to listen to his old friend. During the courting, former Drake coach Dana Altman, who leads Oregon, told DeVries that Richter had some slam-dunk players, including rising junior All-American forward Tremell Murphy, whom he was recruiting.

"(DeVries) liked those guys and it took off from there," Richter said.

Boy, did it. After Richter committed to the Bulldogs, Drake signed three Bucs — Tremell, a 6-foot-6 forward, his 6-5 twin guard brother Anthony and freshman guard DJ Wilkins, who had redshirted at FSW because the Bucs "were loaded."


A starter, Wilkins is third on the team with an 11.1-point average and he's shooting a team-high 42.9 percent from behind the 3-point line. Also a starter, Tremell averages 8.9 points and 5.7 rebounds (second on the team). Anthony has started two games, but mostly comes off the bench and is averaging 18.1 minutes, 5.1 points and 3.4 rebounds.

"Just great kids to coach," DeVries said. "Come with a great attitude and play hard. Like everybody, they've gone through ups and downs, growing pains, making that transition (from junior college). But their approach every day has been awesome. I think they're just going to get better and better for us."


A native of Waterloo, Richter is one of three homegrown Drake assistants. Although he said he forgot how cold the Midwest can get, he has loved the move back to his home state. He's 90 minutes from his parents and aunts and uncles and his sister's house is three miles from the one he shares with wife Brynn and their three small children.


Richter, who took the Bucs to the junior college Elite Eight last season, also really digs his new gig. He works mostly with post players and Drake divvies up the scouting reports. The assistants have a good bit of say, which isn't always the case.

"(DeVries) has been awesome to work for," Richter said. "You give him your input, he takes it and does what he wants to do with it like every boss I've ever worked for, which is great. He's willing to listen to you and give you a voice, which is all you want as an assistant."


DeVries said there were four names that leaped to mind when he got the job, one of them Richter's.

"He's awesome," DeVries said. "High energy. Loves to coach. Passionate. When you're taking over a program and you're trying to inject some life into it, it starts with your staff. So he's a big part of that."


A big Drake selling point to the Murphys and Wilkins, of course, was the chance to continue the relationship with and the grooming under Richter. They also believed Richter when he told them DeVries would treat them right. And DeVries believed Richter when he told them the trio would fit right in.

"They were good kids," said Richter, who has particularly helped his former players with the different verbiage for the same things at Drake. "They were part of my family. They always came to the house. It was an easy transition."

The Murphys, who are from Griffith, Indiana, feel like they're at home and get frequent visits from their parents.

"Everybody is buying into Coach and we believed in him and things started working out," Tremell said. "Coach said good things would happen if we came here and it's happening."

Said Anthony: "There's a lot of excitement. We have very good players on the team who aren't selfish, so that's a great thing."

So is the fact that, like FSW under Richter, the Bulldogs keep their feet on the gas pedal.


"It's been a great fit from that standpoint," DeVries said. "Really getting out in the open floor and letting them kind of do their thing, attack the rim and shoot 3s. We give them a lot of freedom so they can play fast."

Nobody is surprised at what the Murphys have done. But some — not former or current Bucs — are blown-away by the emergence of Wilkins, also an Indiana product.

"DJ's has been great," DeVries said. "Played really well. He has probably exceeded expectations coming into the year. Shooting the daylights out of it."


After his team dusted off Victory Rock 109-64 at home on Saturday, first-year FSW head coach Eric Murphy (no relation to the twins) said he's not exactly taken back by anything the former Bucs are doing.

"No, I'm not surprised at all," he said. "Tremell Murphy wasn't a JUCO All-American for nothing. He's a really good player. Tone, his brother, with the effort he plays at, I don't think you can find guys better than that. Then a surprise to a lot of people, but not a surprise to everybody on our team is DJ Wilkins. We all knew how good of a player DJ Wilkins is. We got to see him in practice every day."


Junior college transfer guard D.J. Wilkins discusses the diagnosis that almost ended his basketball career, and getting an offer from Drake. Matthew Bain, Sports writer

The former Bucs are keeping a close eye on FSW, which is 18-1 and ranked second nationally. They like what they see via ESPN+. Tremell reeled off team and individual stats and said he's still in touch with lots of his former teammates.

"I like what (sophomore guard) Charles (Manning, an LSU signee) is doing, but everybody is actually buying in now," Tremell said. "Everybody's not selfish. They play for each other. That's what I like about them."

Richter, who recommended Murphy to take his place, said he's "thrilled" for his former assistant.

"He's put his own little twist on it, which you need to do as a coach," Richter said. "He was part of the blue print when we started building the program and now the team is taking his personality, which is good.

"I'm very proud of him. I can't say that enough."