When Tate Sage made his official visit to Drake University in July 2024, a pickleball match against then head basketball coach Ben McCollum and assistant coach Bryston Williams was on the menu.

That doesn't sound like the standard recruiting activity for prospective student-athletes seeking their future home, right? Well, in this case, it really was the perfect choice.

So, how did it happen?

"During my recruiting process, they’d always FaceTime me, and Coach Bryston called me one night and I was out playing pickleball at my home courts here in my hometown, and he was like ‘Oh, we play pickleball, too. As soon as you get up here for your visit, we’re going to run it up. We’re going to play against each other,’ and I was like ‘Alright, let’s do it!’ recalled 18-year-old Sage with a laugh. "We got up there, and sure enough they took us to get food and then we played pickleball for about an hour-and-a-half. It was me and my brother, Ethan, versus Coach Mac and Coach Bryston."

The match provided Sage with valuable insight into his potential basketball mentors, especially McCollum, whose resume in the collegiate ranks boasts a long list of achievements.

Needless to say, the youngster enjoyed everything about the experience.

"One thing that stood out for me, the biggest green flag I saw was, usually when you play a pickleball match against friends, you kind of just goof off and have fun, but it was different because me and Coach Mac were competing," emphasized Sage. "He was trying to talk a little smack, so even though it was just a little pickleball game, it just showed me how much we competed against each other and we’re both competitors, and I just really loved it. He was sweating. I was sweating. It was so much fun."

While hitting the court wasn't necessarily the clincher when Sage ultimately committed to Drake just a couple of months later, it definitely helped move the needle in the right direction.

The 6-foot-7 guard, who starred at Weatherford High School in Weatherford, OK, was bound for Des Moines, IA to ply his trade for the Bulldogs under McCollum's tutelage - and proud of it.

"When I took my other visits, it was kind of very similar to the normal visit - see campus, go eat, and just hang out with the staff - but Coach Mac and Coach Bryston wanted to do something that they were good at, that I was good at, and we got to compete, so I just fell in love with it," explained Sage. "There’s a long list of things that I looked for in my recruiting process, but on top of all that, that match showed me that he’s a competitor. If I go there, I can trust in him to compete. He’s going to do what he’s supposed to do, and we’re going to win games."

Sage isn't heading to Drake anymore, though, because McCollum and Williams are now pursuing their respective careers at the University of Iowa, and invited him to come along and join the Hawkeyes in Iowa City.

It was an easy decision.

"Knowing how Coach Mac is, I believe in him, and I believe in myself that I can compete at the highest level, so when I heard that he was going to Iowa and they gave me a call and wanted me to go with, I didn’t have to think about it. It was an immediate yes," stated Sage, who confirmed the commitment on April 30. "I was talking to my family and it’s kind of like ‘Why don’t you want to play for the best coach in the country right now?’ I truly do believe that he’s the best in the country right now, so there was no doubt about it."

Interestingly enough, McCollum and Williams haven't forgotten about that battle on the 20x44 from last summer.

It actually came up over the weekend when Sage was on campus.

"When I showed up to Iowa City last Friday morning, we had breakfast and the first thing the coaching staff said after walking in was ‘Tate, I want my get-back game. I want to play pickleball again.’ All of them," he concluded. "They were like ‘We’ve got pickleball. I want to run it back. I need my revenge right now.’"

That should be entertaining.