IMHO, they need a guy who can go into place like Chicago and STL, recruit low end 3 star players who have been overshadowed by high end recruits and then develop them into cornerstone players. I'm thinking of guys like Moss who had interest from good D-Is but was obviously overshadowed by the stars at Simeon. For us, he is a developing star IMHO but mostly because we have other good players around him. At a place like Drake, he would have a rough year or so but have the ball in his hands a lot regardless of his youth and be a cornerstone player for them with lots of ability.
A team with four or five Moss-type players would at minimum get Drake out of the basement of the MVC. From there, you build a roster full of those kinds of players who are consistently developing on a rotation. For a school like Drake, this is the only way IMHO because they simply are not going to get the big time recruits other schools do to be good. This isn't far from what UNI does but at this point, Drake will have a tough time getting the in-state kids because the cupboard will be pretty bare after Iowa and UNI have their picks so going to the cities where there are more diamonds in the rough is necessary.
