maly, too: 3,273 Watch Drake Open With 96-66 Cruise Past William Jewell. 'Now We've Got a Lot Of Work To Do,' Phelps Says. ''We've Got To Get Better' [With Detroit On the Horizon]

Saturday, November 10, 2012

3,273 Watch Drake Open With 96-66 Cruise Past William Jewell. 'Now We've Got a Lot Of Work To Do,' Phelps Says. ''We've Got To Get Better' [With Detroit On the Horizon]

Drake's basketball team opened the 2012-13 regular season with a 96-66 romp past William Jewell Saturday before 3,273 fans at the Knapp Center. Ben Simons (Cadallac, Mich.) led all scorers with 25 points, 18 of which came in the second half. Richard Carter (Detroit, Mich.) had a big game in his debut, scoring 19 points, including going 4-of-4 from three-point range.

“We’re happy to get our first win and certainly have a lot of work to do,” Drake coach Mark Phelps said. “The competition gets a lot tougher next week with Detroit. We’re going to have to get better, but that’s what is supposed to happen to get better each week.”

The Bulldogs were hot from the field the entire game, shooting 55.9 percent on 33-of-59 accurac, as well as 15-of-24 from three-point range for a 62.5 percent clip, the ninth highest single-game percentage in school history. At one point in the second half Drake had made 12 of its 15 three-point attempts. Additionally, Drake’s 15 three-pointers tied for the sixth most in program history behind nine total three-pointers from Simon and Carter.

“He can do that, he hasn’t shown that so far, but he can knock down three’s,” Phelps said of Carter’s performance. “He’s a scoring point guard and he’s shown some of that. We want him to play in attack mode all the time. When he plays aggressively he plays better and he needs to be consistent at being aggressive.”

William Jewell was paced by two players in double-figures as Dillon Deck scored 16 points with seven rebounds while Ricky Tisdale added 14 points. As a team, the Cardinals shot 35 percent from the field and 13.3 percent from three-point.

Drake continued its focus of pushing the tempo and applying defensive pressure, which Bulldog fans saw Saturday afternoon. The strategy came to fruition midway through the second half when Kori Babineaux (Sacramento, Calif.) stole the ball, tossed it up court to a streaking Jordan Clarke (Rockville, Md.) who threw Simons a nice bounce pass he converted to a lay-in plus the foul. Drake scored a total of 14 points in transition and 18 off of turnovers.

“He [Clarke] made hustle plays and those are the type of plays we need from him,” Phelps said. “He’s become a better passer that’s able to drive the floor and find teammates. He’s a big key for us.”

Drake also showed the outstanding depth it hopes to employ this season as every available Bulldog got into the game on the afternoon. Line-ups included a mix of experienced veterans and newcomers. The team’s bench scored 38 points led by 12 from Joey King (Eagan, Minn.) and nine from Micah Mason (Allegheny, Pa.), who was 3-of-3 from three-point range.

Drake led at halftime 40-32 after erasing an early deficit and leading for most of the half. The visitors opened the game hitting four of their first five shots, to take an 8-4 lead. Simons scored his first basket of the season to kick off an 8-2 run in which Carter hit two of his three first-half three-pointers.

Drake shot a blistering 57-percent in the first half including 6-of-9 from the arc (66.7-percent). Carter was six of seven from the field for 15 points and Simons added seven and three assists in the half.

Simons, a preseason all-Missouri Valley Conference selection, took control in the second half. After a few William Jewell baskets Simons scored eight points in just over a minute to extend the Drake lead to 15, 58-43. The Cardinals’ defense couldn’t contain the senior as he orchestrated a 12-0 run that was capped by back to back three-pointers by Mason and extended the lead to 25.

Drake’s largest lead came when Joey King hit a free throw to make the score 94-60 with a 1:49 to play.

The Bulldogs will have a week of practice before they begin a challenging slew of non-conference games on the road. They are next in action Saturday at Detroit. Tipoff will be 6 p.m. CST against the Titans, who won the Horizon League tournament and made the 2012 NCAA tournament before falling to national runnerup Kansas in the first round. The game is a return game of the 2011 Bracketbusters Series. Drake defeated Detroit, 84-76, at the Knapp Center on Feb. 19, 2011.

[This story was written for Ron Maly by Ty Patton, Drake's assistant athletic director for communications; photo courtesy of GoDrakeBulldogs.com].

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.