maly, too: ''Whatever it Takes' and 'Survive & Advance' Were the Fighting Words Of Underdog Valley, Which Took a 15-8 Record Into Its Class 4-A Quarterfinal Round Boys' State Tournament Game Tonight Against Top-Ranked 22-1 Dubuque Senior. But Don't Pay Any Attention To the Numbers [And Certainly Not the Records] At This Stage Of the Season. Valley Didn't Play As Well As It Did In a Victory Over Ankeny Centennial In the Substate Final [Missed Free Throws Drove Tiger Fans Crazy Throughout the Game], But Performed Well Enough to Knock Off Heavily-Favored Dubuque Senior, 42-41, In a Stunning Game. Some People Were Calling It a Controversial Finish Because a Foul Was Called On Senior With Less Than a Second To Play, and Valley's Carlo Marble Made the Ensuing Free Throw To Win It for Valley. Hey, Listen, I'm a Guy Who Spent a Lot Of Years Covering Controversial Things and Controversial Finishes In Basketball and Football Games. One of the Officials Called a Foul On Senior In the Last Second, So It Must've Been a Foul. Bottom Line: Valley Stood Up To Senior All Night. The Tigers Certainly Weren't Intimidated By a Team With a Better Record. Indeed, Senior Appeared To Be the Team That Was Intimidated. Senior Was Never Able To Show Any Domination, and the Longer Valley Stayed In Contention, the Greater Confidence the Tigers Had That They Could Win. And Win They Did, Controversy Or Not.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

''Whatever it Takes' and 'Survive & Advance' Were the Fighting Words Of Underdog Valley, Which Took a 15-8 Record Into Its Class 4-A Quarterfinal Round Boys' State Tournament Game Tonight Against Top-Ranked 22-1 Dubuque Senior. But Don't Pay Any Attention To the Numbers [And Certainly Not the Records] At This Stage Of the Season. Valley Didn't Play As Well As It Did In a Victory Over Ankeny Centennial In the Substate Final [Missed Free Throws Drove Tiger Fans Crazy Throughout the Game], But Performed Well Enough to Knock Off Heavily-Favored Dubuque Senior, 42-41, In a Stunning Game. Some People Were Calling It a Controversial Finish Because a Foul Was Called On Senior With Less Than a Second To Play, and Valley's Carlo Marble Made the Ensuing Free Throw To Win It for Valley. Hey, Listen, I'm a Guy Who Spent a Lot Of Years Covering Controversial Things and Controversial Finishes In Basketball and Football Games. One of the Officials Called a Foul On Senior In the Last Second, So It Must've Been a Foul. Bottom Line: Valley Stood Up To Senior All Night. The Tigers Certainly Weren't Intimidated By a Team With a Better Record. Indeed, Senior Appeared To Be the Team That Was Intimidated. Senior Was Never Able To Show Any Domination, and the Longer Valley Stayed In Contention, the Greater Confidence the Tigers Had That They Could Win. And Win They Did, Controversy Or Not.


State tournament tickets


Valley poster

Valley T-shirt front

Valley pulls off a stunning 42-41 victory

And made these Tiger fans happy.

*

Cedar Rapids Gazette story on the game:

DES MOINES – No one was paying attention.

Not coaches:

“I didn’t see it, I wasn’t looking. I was watching the ball go in the hoop,” said Dubuque Senior Coach Wendell Eimers.

“I didn’t see the play, if it was a foul or if it wasn’t,” said West Des Moines Valley Coach Jeff Horner.

Or most players:

“I didn’t see it, I was watching (Kyle) Haber, I was trying to put the rebound back in if he missed it,” said Senior forward Luke McDonnell.

Everyone was paying attention to Senior guard Kyle Haber, who tied last night’s Class 4A quarterfinal in the final seconds with a running jumper from the elbow, seemingly sending the game to overtime at 41-41.

But under the basket, Rams’ forward Lucas LeGrand was called for an away-from-the-ball foul for a push-off of Valley’s Carlo Marble.

The foul put Marble on the line with 0.5 seconds left – referees conferred to put time back on the clock, as the buzzer sounded after Haber’s make – where he made one of two and sent the Tigers into the semifinals, 42-41.

“They said LeGrand, after the shot was made, gave the kid a shove,” Eimers said. “I know Kyle Haber made a heck of a shot. Unbelievable shot.

“It’s a tough way to lose. Very, very tough way to lose for my guys.”

As for the man who was fouled?

Marble and LeGrand may have been the only two people paying attention to their play in all of Wells Fargo Arena. He, of course, agreed with the call.

“I went to box my man out,” Marble said, “and he pushed me in the back.”

Horner acknowledged Eimers’ viewpoint after the game, saying he’s only ever seen a game end that way once before, “when Glen Worely was playing (against) Des Moines Hoover in the state championship, and I think I was about a freshman in high school. They won the state championship that way.”

But that doesn’t mean he won’t take the win. His Tigers played stout defense on the No. 1 team in Class 4A the entire game, and frustrated a Rams team used to having its way offensively to keep themselves in the game in the first place.

“It’s definitely tough to win that way and lose that way,” Horner said. “But our kids battled, and fortunately it went that way for us.

“We really went into a press and man to man, and were trying to wear them down with our depth. Our kids did a very good job of battling in the post, too.”

The Rams were forced to play away from the basket for much of the night, a departure from most of the season, when their 6-foot-9, 6-foot-9 and 6-foot-5 front line in McDonnell, Seth Bonifas and LeGrand could dominate the paint.

The Tigers also were able to stifle Senior’s leading scorer, Haber, who finished with 11 points on 3 of 9 shooting after averaging 19.7 coming in.

“We just couldn’t get anything going. It seemed like when we did get the ball inside, we couldn’t finish,” Eimers said. “My point guard, Kyle Haber, he just couldn’t get anywhere. It seemed like (Valley’s Tyus Mason) was just in his face. He couldn’t cut, he couldn’t move anywhere.

“It seemed like we were a step slow tonight. They definitely came out and played the better game tonight.”
Haber didn’t shrink from anything post-game, and acknowledged his opponent’s success defensively in a hard-fought game.

He also didn’t deny how hard it was to end his high school career in such a brutal fashion after appearing to extend the game with a clutch shot.

“They really changed up defenses a lot. Every time down the court they were in a different defense – always having a guy on me,” Haber said. “We just couldn’t finish tonight. A couple missed layups (hurt us). We needed a better night offensively.

“It’s pretty hard. You never want to see a loose-ball foul at the buzzer, but if it was a foul, it was a foul. I didn’t see it, I was on the ground."

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.