maly, too: 'One game isn’t going to make or break anything,' coach Ray Giacoletti says after Drake's 83-66 loss to Iowa.. 'We are trying to build a program here, teach fundamentals, and it’s going to take time. We are going to do the best we can this year, and take it one day at a time and get better'

Saturday, December 7, 2013

'One game isn’t going to make or break anything,' coach Ray Giacoletti says after Drake's 83-66 loss to Iowa.. 'We are trying to build a program here, teach fundamentals, and it’s going to take time. We are going to do the best we can this year, and take it one day at a time and get better'

Spurred by a late run in the first half, No. 23-ranked Iowa charged past Drake's basketball team, 83-66, Saturday night in the Big Four Classic at Wells Fargo Arena.

After closing the first half on a 10-0 scoring run, the Hawkeyes (9-1) seized control of the game early in the second half, taking a 16-point lead with just over 15 minutes remaining. Drake (6-2) momentarily pulled within nine-points at the 12 minute mark, but could not get any closer as its shooting cooled in the second half.

“They have four different guys that can push it in transition,” Drake coach Ray Giacoletti said of Iowa. “Their transition offense is as good as I’ve seen in a long time.”

Although he set a career-high with 21 points, junior Chris Caird’s (Daventry, England) efforts were not enough to spark the Bulldogs past Iowa. Senior Richard Carter (Detroit, Mich.) was the other Bulldog to score in double-figures, tallying 18 points along with four assists. Seniors Gary Ricks, Jr. (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Aaron Hawley (Rogers, Ark.) added nine and seven points, respectively.

The Hawkeyes dominated the boards, using their size advantage to lead the category, 47-28, and they scored 29 second-chance points compared to just five for Drake. Iowa finished with 42 points in the paint, while Drake was limited to just 12.

“It all came down to rebounding,” Carter said. “We had good first shot defense, but we couldn’t get rebounds and second-chance points really hurt us tonight”.

Iowa had four of its players finish in double-figures as Melsahn Basabe led the attack with 15 points. Roy Devyn Marble and Peter Jok each added 14 points, while Jarrod Uthoff nearly recorded a double-double with 13 points and nine boards. Basabe and Jok grabbed eight and seven rebounds, respectively.

Iowa was the first team to find an advantage in the first half, closing the half on a 10-0 run and holding Drake without a field goal for the final 3:17, to lead 49-40 at the break. The Bulldogs shot particularly well from the perimeter, sinking 14-of-29, and held the scoring advantage for the majority of the half before the Hawkeyes went on their run. Caird led all scorers at the break with 14 points behind four three-pointers. He finished with a career-best five three-pointers.

For most of the first half, the teams remained neck-and-neck, with the 11 score ties and seven lead changes. The big difference in the half was on the glass as Iowa outrebounded Drake, 23-13, and scored 19 second-chance points.

Both teams shot well in the first half as Drake sank eight three-pointers, which set a season-high for a single half. Overall, Drake was 48.3 percent from the floor and 50.0 percent from the perimeter. Iowa was 50.0 percent from the field, but just 12.5 percent from beyond the arc.

Iowa started to distance itself and take control of the game at the beginning of the second half. Taking a double-digit lead at the first official timeout and then extended its lead to 16 points with 15:02 on the clock, putting the pressure on Drake.

Carter engineered a 7-0 run to lead Drake back into the game, scoring five quick points for the Bulldogs, to pull within nine, 62-53, at the under-12 media timeout in the second half. Drake would not get any closer as the Hawkeyes regrouped and charged back to take a double-digit lead, forcing Drake to call a timeout with 7:29 left in the game facing a deficit of 76-56.

“One game isn’t going to make or break anything,” Giacoletti said. “We are trying to build a program here, teach fundamentals, and it’s going to take time. We are going to do the best we can this year, and take it one day at a time and get better.”

Drake takes a week off for final exams before returning to action next Saturday, Dec. 14. as the Bulldogs host New Mexico State. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at the Knapp Center.

--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.