The way I look at it, Drake's women's basketball team is the biggest sports story in central Iowa. The Bulldogs improved their Missouri Valley Conference record to 8-0 last night behind Lizzy Wendell's 43-point display that paved the way to a 94-89 overtime victory over Missouri State at the Knapp Center. Consequently, Drake's 1:05 p.m. game Sunday against Wichita State at the Knapp Center is huge. The Shockers are also 8-0 in the league, but their 17-3 overall record is better than Drake's 13-6. “This one was really fun to be on this side … I mean, it could have easily gone either way,” Drake coach Jennie Baranczyk said of her team's success against Missouri State. “Missouri State did a really, really nice job. I thought NiJay Gaines coming home to Des Moines really put on a performance – she had a great game. They rebounded the ball well and they turned us over a little bit too much. What I’m really proud of is the way that when they made their runs, we came back every time… we stayed poised, we stayed steady. For a young team to be able to do that I think that’s really important for today and also for the years to come.” Wendell's 43 points matched her career high. “Lizzy just had another really, really outstanding night in terms of scoring and what I liked the most is she started out great, kind of went a little bit cold and then came back really strong,” commented Baranczyk. There was plenty of other stuff going on last night. We attended the Valley Vocal Jazz Summit Concert at which groups from Dallas Center-Grimes and Norwalk joined Valley and Valley Southwoods in producing an evening of excellent sounds. We made it to the nearby Bill Coldiron Fieldhouse in time to watch Valley's boys' basketball team beat Dowling, 64-60, in front of the largest crowd of the season. Second-ranked Dowling, the state's No. 2-ranked girls' team, was too much for Valley, 69-57, in the preliminary game. I'll be resting the remainder of the weekend.

If you ask me, this Drake women's basketball deal is getting pretty darn serious. And spectacular. Imagine this: A Bulldog team that went a none-too-sizzling 5-6 in the non-league season, suddenly has a 7-0 record in the Missouri Valley Conference. Coach Jennie Baranczyk certainly isn't doing it with mirrors. She's getting some extraordinary contributions from players such as freshman Maddy Dean, who had a sensational 23-point, 16-rebound performance in today's 79-62 victory at Evansville; sophomore Lizzy Wendell, who had 20 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals, and freshman Becca Jonas, who had 18 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two steals. Those are outstanding numbers by some very young players. Today's game marked the 31st in a row that Wendell scored 10 or more points. She leads the Valley with 13 20-plus games this season. Drake plays Missouri State at 7:05 p.m. Friday at the Knapp Center in Des Moines. I don't know how long the Bulldogs can keep up this pace, but I'd advise fans to enjoy the ride while they can. This kind of stuff doesn't happen that often. Seven-and-0 in the Valley is looking impressive to me.

Maddy Dean

Valley's Girls Improve Their Record To 14-1 By Handing Iowa City West Its First Loss, 65-56. It Was the Tigers' Fifth Victory Of the Season Over a Ranked Opponent. 'We Get Battle-Tested Every Night In the CIML,' Valley Coach Joe Sigrist Says. 'We Have Five Of the Top Six teams In the State In Our League, and It Seems Like One Of Them Is On the Schedule Every Night.'

Iowa City West's Ali Tauchen (10) attempts to keep possession of the ball as West Des Moines Valley's Hannah Fuller (35) and Courtney Carr (33) defend during the first half of play in Iowa City on Saturday, January 24, 2015. Valley won the game 65-56. (Photo: Justin Torner/For the Press-Citizen)

The Des Moines Register was in its typical form today--publishing nothing--not one word--on a Valley High School girls' basketball victory. And this one was a huge victory. It was another example of horrible newspapering by the Register. Thank goodness the Iowa City Press-Citizen, like the Register, a Gannett Co., paper, sent reporter Ryan Murken to Saturday's game. Here's his story:

West Des Moines Valley came to Iowa City for a top-five showdown with West High Saturday, sharpened by a daunting CIML conference schedule.

The Tigers left with a win.

Class 5-A No. 5 West Des Moines Valley (14-1) used some hot early shooting and a key third-quarter run to slip past third-ranked West High, 65-56, in a non-conference matchup at West High.

The win was the fifth this season over a ranked opponent for Valley and capped an eight-day stretch where the Tigers played three consecutive games against teams ranked in the top eight of 5-A.

"We just get battle-tested every night in the CIML," Valley coach Joe Sigrist said. "We have five of the top six teams in the state in our league and it seems like one of them is on your schedule every night, so I'm glad we got these guys because that is a heck of a team too."

Grace Vander Weide had a game-high 16 points to lead three Valley players in double figures as the Tigers shot 48 percent from the floor.

West High kept up with a torrid offensive pace early, trailing by a point after the first quarter and 39-35 at the half.

However, 3-for-14 shooting in the third quarter let the Tigers pull away as West High dropped its first game of the season.

"They are really aggressive, and they have to be like that in their conference," West High senior Dani Craig said. "Our conference is good but their conference is really, really tough, so they have to be strong and we are going to take it as a learning experience and use it to our advantage."

West High trailed just 44-39 after a Rachel Saunders basket with 6:03 left in the third quarter, but Vander Weide and the Tigers had an answer.

Valley rattled off a 6-0 run that started with a Vander Weide basket and ended with a Emily Smith layup off a Vander Weide feed that made the score 50-39.

Vander Weide's layup with a minute left capped the third-quarter scoring and gave Valley a 10-point cushion entering the fourth.

"They threw a punch at us in the second half and we weren't exactly ready for it," Craig said.

West High got as close as five points in the third quarter, pulling to within 59-55 on a pair of Emily Halverson free throws with 2:52 left.

However, Vander Weide again had an answer, scoring four points during a 5-0 Valley spurt that pushed the lead back to 10 points.

After shooting 52 percent in the first two quarters, West High was just 7-of-30 from the field in the second half, including 0-of-7 from beyond the 3-point line.

"In the second half we didn't really do much offensively and we were in a five-point game in the middle of the fourth quarter," West High coach BJ Mayer said. "It was one of those nights where we didn't make any shots and you have to give them a lot of credit because I thought they played pretty well."

Mikaela Morgan led West High with 14 points while Craig added 11 for the Women of Troy.
Lexi Merritt hit 4-of-5 3-pointers and had 12 points for Valley while Courtney Carr finished with 10 for the Tigers.

"They are a very good team," Craig said. "All five players they had on the court all the time were really good."

Reach Ryan Murken at 319-339-7369 or rmurken@press-citizen.com and follow him on Twitter at @rmmurken.

West Des Moines Valley (65) –Whitney Fuller 2-8 3-9 8, Jackie Feldt 2-2 0-0 5, Grace Vander Weide 6-10 2-4 16, Emily Smith 2-4 4-4 8, Courtney Carr 5-8 0-0 10, Hannah Fuller 1-9 4-6 6, Lexi Merritt 4-5 0-0 12, Team 22-46 13-23 65.

West High (56) – Bella Lozano-Dobbs 2-5 0-0 4, Grace Tafolla 2-6 2-2 6, Ali Tauchen 4-8 1-2 9, Rachael Saunders 2-7 0-0 4, Dani Craig 5-17 0-0 11, Logan Cook 0-0 0-0 0, Jessie Harder 0-1 0-0 0, Mikaela Morgan 6-12 0-0 14, Emily Halverson 1-2 6-8 8, Team 22-58 9-12 56.

WDM Valley	19	20	14	12	— 65
West High	18	17	8	13	— 56

3-point field goals –WDM Valley 8-15 (Vander Weide 2-2, Feldt 1-1, W. Fuller 1-4, H. Fuller 0-3, Merritt 4-5), West High 3-18 (Lozano-Dobbs 0-1, Tafolla 0-1, Saunders 0-2, Craig 1-8, Harder 0-1, Morgan 2-5). Rebounds – WDM Valley 29 (Vander Weide, C. Carr 5), West High 38 (Morgan 11). Turnovers – WDM Valley 14, West High 15. Total Fouls – WDM Valley 11, West High 19. Fouled Out – Lozano-Dobbs (ICW). Technical Fouls – None.

The Right Time To Discover Mullet's

By RON MALY

My first-ever visit today to Mullet's restaurant at 1300 SE 1st Street in Des Moines came at the right time.

3-Egg Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese Omullet

Four of us had spent most of the morning watching a bunch of talented high school thespians perform at North High School.

So, at 11:30 a.m., all of us were hungry. 

Like really hungry.

Mullet's was the place we chose to take care of that hunger.

The restaurant was full, and there was a waiting list when we arrived.

So, obviously, plenty of other people had discovered Mullet's before I found it.

If there's smoked salmon on the menu at any restaurant, I'm in business.

And there was smoked salmon for breakfast at Mullet's.

The three-egg Canadian smoked salmon cream cheese omelet [Mullet's calls it an omullet]  I chose came with red pepper and onion, country potatoes, wheat toast and lots of coffee.  All for $9.99.

The breakfast was great, and so was the service.

I'll be back very soon.

Mike Swan Writes About 'The Perfect Season'

By RON MALY

Mike Swan, a former Iowan and a good friend of my columns and websites, has published a book titled The Perfect Season, which chronicles the accomplishments of the outstanding softball program at Harlan [IA] Community High School in 1979-1980.

Swan is an excellent journalist and teacher of journalism. He is a professor of mass communications and student sports media at Butler Community College in El Dorado, KS, which is located 20 minutes east of Wichita.

Mike sent me a copy of his 32-page book, I have read it, and it's a good one.

The book "looks back at a softball program that was ranked No. 1 during the summer and went  into the state tourney undefeated," Swan tells me via email.  He adds he "was fortunate to land a job as Harlan Newspapers sports editor right out of college. They run a great operation there."

For the book, Swan says he "interviewed the former coach and several of the players in the last couple of years to help put this together. This is definitely a niche publication...At the state tournament in Fort Dodge, one of their games included a 2-1, 16-inning loss to Charles City, the longest state game ever at the time. 

"Ironically, the previous fall, Harlan lost the state championship game to Charles City, 2-1, in the first-ever extra-inning game in the state tourney. Harlan's pitcher was Marcia Jacobsen, who had a 174-22 record in high school, before playing at Creighton. 

"In the fall tourney, they got past powerhouse Ankeny, which you would probably be most familiar with.  The Cyclonettes won, 2-1, against the likes of all-staters Connie Yori, Karlin Hayes, Cheri Andersen, Wendy Turner, Deb Schneider and Coach Dick Rasmussen. 

"This was, as you know, in the days when we would drive back to the newspaper office to complete our work. We would write the stories and headlines, develop and print the photos, lay out the pages, and turn around and do it all over again. A team like this made all that a lot easier. " 

Swan said, "The 1979-80 teams I wrote about were involved in three games that would qualify as 'historic' in Iowa high school girls' softball.  It's a niche story, but one that would perhaps be of interest to a few groups.  I contacted several of the former players and coaches in the last few years for interviews.

"In my office, I have a framed cover of a special supplement we did when I was sports editor of Harlan Newspapers back in 1980. On that front, there is a team photo I took after their 16-inning marathon loss to Charles City in the consolation game at the 1980 summer state tourney in Fort Dodge. That game had lasted close to 3 hours, at the time the longest state tourney game ever. 

"Harlan had gone into the state tourney as the only undefeated team in the state at 33-0. They won their first two in state play, then suffered a close upset, which led to the third-place game against Charles City.  Ironically, they were coming off the fall 1979 season, when they lost in the state championship contest [also to Charles City], 1-0 in nine innings, in the first-ever extra-inning state tourney game.

"Perhaps their biggest accomplishment was getting past Ankeny in that Fall tourney, 2-1. That was no easy task, as Ankeny had a half-dozen all-staters. And again, ironically, Ankeny took the summer, 1980 title, in a game that had to wait due to the Harlan-Charles City marathon.

"There's more, but that's the gist of how things went on the field.

"After all this, you would think there would be some long faces in that team picture as there were seven seniors in the group. They had played together for a long time. To my astonishment, after we made the drive back to Harlan and developed the film early in the morning, I saw everyone was smiling.

"The team had an outstanding Hall of Fame pitcher in Marcia Jacobsen [now Currie], who finished with a 174-22 record. In the booklet, one of her former teammates explains that Marcia's dad would spend countless nights in their barn catching her. Every time [the coach] would teach Jake a new pitch she would practice it until her fingers would literally bleed.

"The team also had to undergo a coaching change [the first for this group] before the summer 1979 season. That led to Russ Gallinger taking over, someone who was a taskmaster and served as an assistant on all those Harlan state championship football teams.

"As you know, Ron, covering a team through a season or seasons leads you through many ups and downs.  I've found the framed front provides a good conversation piece with students and others.  You can talk about the skill of athletes, how to handle interviews in different situations, and the sometimes grueling process of covering a team.

"But I really wondered about the people in that photo. I thought their story might resonate with some today. So, over the last few years, I've contacted at least seven of them and, of course, they are all over the country.  I also found that Gallinger, after many years in Harlan, lives in a town near here. I showed up unannounced one day, and a couple of hours later we had finished our journey down memory lane, with conversation over scrapbooks. 

"The booklet has been well-received by some of the former team members and others and has been advertised in the Harlan paper.

"I'm selling it for $15, and I can be contacted at:  mlsclone@hotmail.com or at 1403 Park Ave., El Dorado, KS 67042."


The  book was printed by Mennonite Press, 532 N. Oliver Road, Newton, KS 67114.

Laughingstocks

Headline writers at the paper are obviously slow learners. 

They're certainly becoming masters at cranking out R-rated stuff. 

While doing so, they're turned into the laughingstocks of sports journalism.

I pointed out earlier in the week that some knucklehead got this headline in the paper:

Pats face investigation
into use of deflated balls


If that wasn't goofy enough, the paper came back this morning with this ridiculous headline:

Deflating balls may not 
be as easy as it seems

I'm wondering who it was that said it's easy to deflate balls.

Something Tells Me That Dan Dakich Of ESPN Won't Be the Guest Speaker At Iowa's Basketball Banquet When the Season Is Over. Something Also Tells Me That Hawkeye Center Adam Woodbury and His Family Won't Be Sending a Christmas Card to Dakich

Dan Dakich