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

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Drake's Missouri Valley Conference Home Opener

Drake Basketball vs. Wichita State
Jan. 2, 2013 •  7:05 p.m.
Des Moines • Knapp Center

Television                              MetroSports (Kansas City)
Play-by-play                                                     Mark Ewing
Analyst                                                                   Bob Hull

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

Streaming Video               www.GoDrakeBulldogs.com


           Drake                     Team               Wichita State
Des Moines, Iowa        Location            Wichita, Kan.
        Bulldogs               Nickname               Shockers
             6-6               2012-13 Record              12-1
             0-1            Conference Record            1-0
           NA/NA                  Ranking                   RV/RV
     Mark Phelps          Head Coach       Gregg Marshall
        68-75/5th        Record at School        121-62/6th
        68-75/5th           Career Record        315-145/15th
             74.6                Points/Game                 70.0
             71.7            Opp. Points/Game            57.2
             +2.9              Scoring Margin              +12.8
             .454                       FG%                        .451
             .437                  Opp. FG%                   .380
             .410                      3FG%                       .313
             .321                 Opp. 3FG%                  .294
             .692                       FT%                        .675
             31.3             Rebounds/Game              38.9
             35.3        Opp. Rebounds/Game         29.6
             -4.0           Rebounding Margin           +9.3
             15.0                Assists/Game                14.1
             13.8             Turnovers/Game              14.2
             +0.9             Turnover Margin              +1.2
              6.0                  Steals/Game                  8.5
              2.3                 Blocks/Game                  4.6

• Drake's basketball team welcomes Wichita State to the Knapp Center Wednesday night for the Bulldogs’ Missouri Valley Conference home opener.
• Wichita State travels to Des Moines with a 12-1 record and a 1-0 start in the Valley after a 66-41 cruise past UNI on Sunday to open the conference season.
• Drake dropped its league opener at Bradley, 67-57, to fall to 6-6 on the season.
• The Bulldogs are one of the most accurate three-point shooting teams in the nation at 41 percent to rank second in the Valley and sixth nationally.
• Drake has made 10 or more three-pointers in a game five times this season and twice in its last three games.
• Ben Simons leads Drake with 15 points per game and has scored in double figures in all 12 games this season. In the loss at Bradley, he hauled in a career-high 10 rebounds to go along with a team-high 13 points for his first double-double.
• The Bulldogs were also extremely active on the boards at Bradley with a season-high 46 rebounds. Fourteen of those came off the offensive glass to allow for 13 second-chance points.
• Jordan Clarke has led that rebounding effort for most of the season as the senior leads the Bulldogs and Valley in rebounding with 8.7 per game.
• Wichita State is holding opponents to just 57.2 points per game and less than 40 percent shooting with no opponent having scored 70 points against the Shockers this season. Meanwhile, Drake has scored at least 70 points in 11 of its 12 games.
• Cleanthony Early is WSU’s top active scorer with 13.3 points per game on 44.9 percent shooting.

A victory would ...

• Make Drake 7-6 on the season and 1-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference.
• Make the Bulldogs 5-1 in the Knapp Center this season.
• Be the team’s third in its last four games.
• Make Mark Phelps 69-75 at Drake.
• Be the 1,156th in program history.
• Be Drake’s second straight home win against Wichita State.
• Make the Bulldogs 12-9 against WSU in the Knapp Center.

A Loss would ...

• Drop Drake to 6-7 on the season and 0-2 in the Valley.
• Be Drake’s second home loss of the season.
• Make Drake 11-10 against the Shockers in the Knapp Center.

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