maly, too: Eric May Earns Hawkeyes' Chris Street Award

Friday, April 26, 2013

Eric May Earns Hawkeyes' Chris Street Award

Senior guard Eric May has been named the recipient of the Chris Street Award for the 2012-13 Iowa men’s basketball season. May received the award Thursday night at the team’s banquet at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Coralville.

The Chris Street Award is presented annually to a Hawkeye player, or players, who best exemplify the spirit, enthusiasm and intensity of Chris Street. Street was an Iowa basketball player who died in an auto accident in 1993, midway through his junior year.

May (6-5, 219) was Iowa’s lone scholarship senior, playing in all 38 games. May played in 133 career games, one shy of the school record of 134 held by Roy Marble (1986-89). He posted his best offensive rebounding average (1.1), assists (1.8), and free throw percentage (.737) of his career his senior campaign.

The Dubuque native was a leader on-and-off the court, serving as a two-time team co-captain, earning Academic all-Big Ten recognition three times and being named the Iowa men’s basketball Big Ten Sportsmanship honoree.

May was also co-winner of the team’s Defensive Player of the Year Award. The senior was routinely assigned to defend one of the opposition’s top perimeter players and led the team in steals nine times, and rebounding and assists five times.

Other Hawkeyes recognized at the banquet included Mike Gesell, Roy Devyn Marble, Gabriel Olaseni, Aaron White and Adam Woodbury.

Marble (6-6, 194), who earned third team all-Big Ten, NIT all-Tournament and Cancun Challenge all-Tournament laurels, was named the team’s Top Playmaker. The team co-captain became the first Hawkeye to amass 1,100+ points, 350+ rebounds and 275+ assists as a junior. Marble was the team’s leading scorer (15.0) and also paced the team in assists (3.0), free throw percentage (.810), and 3-pointers (49-of-150). The native of Southfield, Mich., averaged 20.6 points, 2.4 steals and four rebounds in five NIT games, and became the first Hawkeye since Adam Haluska in 2007 to score 21+ points in four consecutive games (Indiana State, Stony Brook, Virginia and Maryland). Marble was one of only three Big Ten players (Michigan’s Trey Burke and D.J. Newbill of Penn State) to average 15 points and three assists this year.

White (6-8, 218), who was recognized on the All-Big Ten third team and Cancun Challenge All-Tournament squad, was named the team’s Best Rebounder for the second consecutive year. The Strongsville, Ohio, native ranked first in team rebounding (6.2), becoming the first Hawkeye to lead the team in rebounding as a freshman and sophomore since Michael Payne in 1981-82. White started 38 games, sharing the school record for most starts in a season with Woodbury. He ranked second on the team in scoring (12.8) and steals (41). White made (193) and attempted (258) the most free throws of any sophomore in school history, with 39.5 percent of his scoring production coming from the foul line, which ranked fifth-best in the country. White finished his sophomore campaign with 877 career points, 123 shy of 1,000.

Olaseni (6-10, 229) received the team’s Most Improved Award. The native of London, England, posted personal best numbers in every statistical category as a sophomore, seeing action in 19 more games than the previous year. He rejected 36 blocks this season, the second most on the team and 12th-most in the Big Ten. The 36 blocks are the third-most ever by a Hawkeye sophomore. Olaseni’s career-high seven blocked shots in Iowa’s win over Illinois not only equaled the seventh-most in a game in school history, but helped Iowa set a school single-game record in blocks (13).

Gesell (6-1, 185) earned the team’s Academic Award and was named co-Freshman of the Year. Gesell became the first Hawkeye freshman to amass 295+ points, 85+ assists and 85+ rebounds. Despite being slowed by a foot injury the final six weeks of the season, Gesell was Iowa’s third leading scorer (8.7), finishing in double figures 14 times. The South Sioux City, Neb., native collected 40 steals and shot 31.7 percent from 3-point range, which rank as the sixth and ninth-best by a Hawkeye freshman, respectively.

Along with earning co-Freshman of the Year honors, Woodbury was awarded co-Defensive Player of the Year accolades. Woodbury (7-1, 235) started all 38 games at center, establishing a school record for most starts in a season with White. The native of Sioux City, Iowa, ranked third in team rebounding (4.8) and blocked shots (29). The 29 blocks rank seventh-best by a Hawkeye rookie, while his 181 rebounds are the sixth-most by an Iowa freshman. Woodbury led the team in blocks 10 times and rebounding six times.

2013 IOWA MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM AWARDS

CHRIS STREET AWARD: Eric May

TOP PLAYMAKER: Roy Devyn Marble

CO-FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Mike Gesell, Adam Woodbury

CO-DEFENSIVE PLAYER AWARD: Eric May, Adam Woodbury

MOST IMPROVED: Gabriel Olaseni

BEST ROUNDER: Aaron White

ACADEMIC AWARD: Mike Gesell

[This story was written for Ron Maly by Iowa's sports information staff].

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.