maly, too: 12-1 Wichita State Next for Bulldogs

Monday, December 31, 2012

12-1 Wichita State Next for Bulldogs

Drake Men's Basketball Weekly Update – Dec. 31

Upcoming Events This Week

Competition

Wednesday, January 2 – vs. Wichita State (Des Moines, Iowa/Knapp Center) – 7:05 p.m.

Television: Metro Sports (Kansas City)

Radio: 1350 AM – KRNT

Promotions: Bankers Trust Trading Cards

Saturday, January 5 – vs. Missouri State (Des Moines, Iowa/Knapp Center) – 7:05 p.m.

Television: Mediacom MC22/ESPN3

Radio: 1350 AM – KRNT

Promotions: Bankers Trust Camper Reunion

Teleconferences

None

Coaches Shows/Luncheons

None

This Week’s Opponents

Wichita State

Wichita State is 12-1 on this season and heads to Des Moines with three straight wins following the team’s lone loss at Tennessee. On Sunday, the Shockers opened MVC play with a convincing 66-41 win over UNI in Wichita. Defensively, WSU is only allowing 57.2 points per game and no team has reached the 70-point mark against WSU with opponents shooting just 38 percent from the field. Additionally, the Shockers have outrebounded opponents by an average of 12.8 boards per game. However, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, Carl Hall (13.9 ppg/7.6 rpg) has not played the last three games as he recovers from a thumb injury. Cleanthony Early is the team’ top active scorer at 13.3 points per game.

The Series vs. Wichita State

Drake and Wichita State meet for the 142^nd time with WSU holding a 94-47 advantage in the series. Drake leads the series, 34-33, in games in Des Moines and 11-9 in the Knapp Center. The teams have split the last 10 meetings. The last meeting in Des Moines saw Drake prevail, 93-86, in triple overtime.

Missouri State

Missouri State is 3-10 this season but opened the conference season with a 70-59 win over Southern Illinois on Sunday to snap a seven-game losing skid and earn the team’s first win over a Division I opponent. The Bears also play at Evansville on Wednesday evening prior to traveling to Des Moines. Anthony Downing leads the Bears with 13 points per game for an offense that is scoring 58.4 points per game while shooting .385 from the field. Defensively, MSU is giving up 62.8 points per game while opponents are shooting 44.1 percent and outrebounding the Bears by more than five boards per game.

The Series vs. Missouri State

Saturday’s game is the 46^th between the two programs with Missouri State holding a 35-10 advantage in the series. The Bears have won seven of the last 10 games, including five straight over the Bulldogs.

Last Week

Dec. 29 – at Bradley – L, 67-57

Cold shooting and turnovers combined to hamper the Drake University men’s basketball team in its Missouri Valley Conference opener as the team fell at Bradley Saturday evening, 67-57. Drake was second in the nation in three-point shooting coming into the game but managed just 18.5 percent (5-of-27) against a stingy Bradley defense that forced 18 Drake turnovers and scored 23 points as a result of Bulldog miscues. Ben Simons led Drake with a double-double thanks to 13 points and a career-high 10 rebounds while Seth VanDeest and Chris Hines added 10 and 11 points, respectively. Simons 10 boards helped contribute to the team’s season-high 46 rebounds with the Bulldogs holding a 12-rebound advantage over Bradley. The Braves were paced by Dyricus Simms-Edwards’ 20 points and eight steals while Walt Lemmon, Jr. added 23 points.

Team Notes

- The Bulldogs, who had scored 70 or more points in all previous 11 games, were held to a season-low 57 points in the loss at Bradley.

- Despite shooting a season-low 18.5 percent from three-point range, the Bulldogs remain among the most accurate three-point shooting teams in the nation at 41.0 percent to tie for sixth nationally and second in the MVC.

- Ben Simons hauled in a career-high 10 rebounds for his first career double-double. His performance is the seventh double-digit rebounding performance for the Bulldogs this season.

- As a team, Drake had a season-high 46 rebounds with 14 of them coming off the offensive glass, also a season-high.

- Jordan Clarke remains the MVC’s top rebounder at 8.7 per game.

- Drake’s 18 turnovers matched a season high as the team turned the ball over on 23.3 percent of its possessions.

- Seth VanDeest has scored in double figures in four straight games.

- Drake remains one of the top teams in the MVC at getting to the line with 23.8 attempts per game to rank second in the league.

- 61.7 percent of Drake’s baskets have come via assists, the third highest rate in the MVC and the 33^rd highest nationally.

Player Notes

0 – Kori Babineux – DNP – Coach’s Decision

1 – Jordan Clarke – Had eight rebounds, three offensive, with three points in 31 minutes. Is the MVC’s top rebounder at 8.7 per game.

2 – Gary Ricks, Jr. – Scored seven points in 13 minutes. Averaging 6.3 points in the last three games.

3 – Richard Carter – Came off the bench to play 28 minutes and rack up a game-high five assists.

4 – Chris Hines – Was 3-of-6 from the three-point arc for 11 points with three rebounds. Is averaging 11.2 points in the last five games.

10 – Jeremy Jeffers – Was scoreless in one minute of action.

11 – Karl Madison - DNP – Injury (Knee)

21 – Robert Puleikis – DNP – Coach’s Decision

22 – Micah Mason – Was scoreless with three assists in 12 minutes.

23 – Mitch McLaughlin – DNP – Coach’s Decision

24 – Joey King – Had four points with four rebounds in just 14 minutes due to foul trouble.

25 – Matt Bowie – DNP – Coach’s Decision

34 – Ben Simons – Struggled from the field, but ended up with 13 points and a career-high 10 rebounds for his first double-double.

40 - Daddy Ugbede – Continued to contribute solid minutes with a career-high seven points and five rebounds in 17 minutes.

45 – Seth VanDeest – Had 10 points and seven rebounds for his fourth straight game in double figures. Also added a pair of blocks in 17 minutes.

[This story was written for Ron Maly by Ty Patton, Drake's assistant athletic director for communications].

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.