RON MALY HAS BEEN WATCHING THE PARADE GO BY FOR A LONG TIME. THIS IS ONE OF HIS WEBSITES.

Friday, December 28, 2012

First Valley Assignment for Bulldogs: Bradley On the Road


Drake Basketball at Bradley 
Game 12 • at Bradley • #DUvsBU
Dec. 29, 2012 •  7:05 p.m.
Peoria, Ill. • Carver Arena

Television                                                                   None                                                          

Radio                                                          KRNT 1350-AM
Play-by-play                                                     Larry Cotlar
Analyst                                                          Dolph Pulliam

Streaming Video                     www.BradleyBraves.com

           Drake                     Team                    Bradley
Des Moines      Location               Peoria, Ill.
        Bulldogs               Nickname                 Braves
             6-5               2012-13 Record               8-4
             0-0            Conference Record            0-0
           NA/NA                  Ranking                   NA/NA
     Mark Phelps          Head Coach           Geno Ford
        68-74/5th        Record at School        15-29/2nd
        68-74/5th           Career Record             134-98
             76.2                Points/Game                 71.2
             72.1            Opp. Points/Game            61.7
             +4.1              Scoring Margin               +9.6
             .465                       FG%                        .447
             .439                  Opp. FG%                   .398
             .435                      3FG%                       .274
             .312                 Opp. 3FG%                  .344
             .691                       FT%                        .722
             30.0             Rebounds/Game              35.6
             35.5        Opp. Rebounds/Game         36.2
             -5.5           Rebounding Margin           -0.7
             15.3                Assists/Game                14.3
             13.4             Turnovers/Game              12.0
             +1.9             Turnover Margin              +5.8
              6.3                  Steals/Game                 11.3
                2.2           Blocks/Game         2.9

• The Drake University men’s basketball team opens Missouri Valley Conference play Saturday night at Bradley.
• Drake begins conference play with a 6-5 record after defeating Eastern Illinois, 74-56, in its last outing before the holiday break.
• That game saw Micah Mason, in his second career start, explode for a career-high 19 points on 5-of-6 three-point shooting with six assists.
• The Bulldogs shot 59.1 percent from the three-point arc in the win and are second in the nation in three-point shooting at 43.5 percent.
• Bradley begins conference play at 8-4 after falling to Portland Sunday evening as part of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic.
• The Braves are 6-1 on their home court this season with the lone loss coming to a top-10 program in Michigan.
• Walt Lemon, Jr. and Tyshon Pickett lead the Braves with approximately 12.5 points per game each with Pickett adding 7.2 rebounds per game.
• Drake is averaging 76.2 points per game to rank 50th nationally in scoring.
• Ben Simons leads Drake with 15.2 points per game after hitting three three-pointers in the last game. The senior continues to move up the Drake career scoring ranks with 1,089 points to rank 16th.
• In head coach Mark Phelps’ five seasons on the Drake bench, the Bulldogs have shot a combined 37 percent from the three-point arc with an average of 7.5 three-pointers per game. All four of Phelps’ seasons rank in the top six for most three-pointers in a season at Drake.

A victory would ...
• Make Drake 7-5 on the season and 1-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference.
• Make the Bulldogs 3-4 away from campus this season and 2-1 in true road games.
• Be the team’s third straight.
• Make Mark Phelps 69-74 at Drake.
• Be the 1,156th in program history.
• Be Drake’s fourth straight in over Bradley.
• Make the Bulldogs 8-24 at Carver Arena.

A Loss would ...
• Drop Drake to 6-6 on the season and 0-1 in the Valley.
• Snap Drake’s three-game win streak over Bradley.
• Make Bradley 25-7 against the Bulldogs in Carver Arena.

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