maly, too

Sunday, November 15, 2015

'This Is a Big Win for Us,' Drake Women's Basketball Coach Jennie Baranczyk Says After the Bulldogs Open Their Season With a 74-70 Victory Over Iowa State In Front Of 4,251 Fans At the Knapp Center. It's the First Time They've Beaten the Cyclones Since 2009

Some people spent this November afternoon raking leaves.

Others didn't.

Indeed, 4,251 folks [I wasn't one of them, and I didn't rake leaves either] went inside the Knapp Center on the Drake campus to watch a women's basketball game.

Take your pick on who got the best deal.

Following exhibition victories over Grand View and Simpson, Drake opened its season for real with a 74-70 victory over Iowa State.

Drake Communications emailed me the box score of the game. GoDrakeBulldogs.com told me all I needed to know.

The website said: "Drake led by 10 points with 2 minutes 42 seconds to go after Caitlin Ingle of Runnells , IA, made a layup.

"But the Bulldogs had to fight off a late charge from Iowa State to earn their first victory over the in-state rival since 2009.

“'This is a big win for us,” said Drake coach Jennie Baranczyk. 'Everyone stepped up, did their part and played together. I’m so proud of our team today.'”

"The Cyclones pulled within two points with 6 seconds left, but Drake freshman Nicole Miller of Walker, IA, made a pair of free throws to stretch the lead to 74-70."

In the event you were wondering, one of my sons mulched my leaves and mowed my lawn this afternoon.

Iowa State 70 - 1-1

			Total	3-Ptr		Rebounds
No.	Player	S	FG-FGA	3PT FG-FGA	FT-FTA	Off Reb	Def Reb	Tot Reb	PF	TP	A	TO	Blk	Stl	Min
11	BUCKLEY,JADDA	g	5-14	2-6	6-6	1	1	2	4	18	6	6	0	3	38
12	JOHNSON,SEANNA	g	7-22	0-3	2-2	7	9	16	1	16	2	3	0	0	36
15	BLASKOWSKY,NICOLE	g	4-13	4-13	0-0	0	4	4	4	12	0	0	0	1	31
21	CARLETON,BRIDGET	g	4-14	2-8	1-2	4	8	12	1	11	1	1	2	0	36
32	BURKHALL,MEREDITH	f	1-4	0-0	0-0	1	1	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	11
03	DURR,EMILY		1-4	0-3	0-0	0	2	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	8
22	STARKS,TEETEE		4-4	0-0	1-1	4	2	6	1	9	3	2	0	1	24
30	RICKETTS,CLAIRE		0-1	0-0	0-0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	6
44	FERNSTROM,BRYANNA		0-2	0-0	0-0	1	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	10
	TEAM					0	1	1	0			1
	Totals		26-78	8-33	10-11	19	30	49	12	70	12	13	2	6	200

FG %	1st Half:	14-34	41.2%	2nd Half:	12-44	27.3%	Game:	26-78	33.3%	Deadball
3FG %	1st Half:	5-13	38.5%	2nd Half:	3-20	15.0%	Game:	8-33	24.2%	Rebounds
FT %	1st Half:	2-2	100.0%	2nd Half:	8-9	88.9%	Game:	10-11	90.9%	1,0

Drake 74 - 1-0

			Total	3-Ptr		Rebounds
No.	Player	S	FG-FGA	3PT FG-FGA	FT-FTA	Off Reb	Def Reb	Tot Reb	PF	TP	A	TO	Blk	Stl	Min
03	WENDELL,LIZZY	f	7-16	2-8	0-0	0	4	4	3	16	3	2	0	4	27
05	DONAHUE,EMMA	c	3-7	1-1	0-0	3	5	8	2	7	4	1	4	0	26
20	DEAN,MADDY	g	4-14	2-8	0-0	3	8	11	4	10	6	2	1	2	28
21	BACHRODT,SAMMIE	g	1-3	1-3	0-0	1	1	2	4	3	0	1	1	0	17
22	INGLE,CAITLIN	g	1-5	0-2	0-0	0	6	6	3	2	6	5	0	1	31
15	GREINER,PAIGE		2-5	2-5	0-0	0	2	2	0	6	0	0	0	0	14
24	MILLER,NICOLE		3-8	2-6	5-6	1	1	2	1	13	2	2	1	0	21
34	RUSH,CORTNI		1-2	0-1	0-0	0	2	2	0	2	2	1	0	0	11
50	RHINE,SARA		6-8	1-1	2-2	2	2	4	0	15	0	0	1	0	25
	TEAM					0	1	1	0			0
	Totals		28-68	11-35	7-8	10	32	42	17	74	23	14	8	7	200

FG %	1st Half:	14-35	40.0%	2nd Half:	14-33	42.4%	Game:	28-68	41.2%	Deadball
3FG %	1st Half:	6-17	35.3%	2nd Half:	5-18	27.8%	Game:	11-35	31.4%	Rebounds
FT %	1st Half:	2-2	100.0%	2nd Half:	5-6	83.3%	Game:	7-8	87.5%	1,1

Officials: Ann Schroeder, Jon Garrow, Ty Bills
Technical Fouls: Iowa State- None. Drake- None.
Attendance: 4,251

Score by periods	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
Iowa State	21	14	13	22	70
Drake	20	16	21	17	74

Last FG - ISU 4th-01:36, DU 4th-02:42.
Largest lead - Iowa State by 5 3rd-07:34; Drake by 12 3rd-00:28
ISU led for 5:12. DU led for 33:09. Game was tied for 1:39.

	In	Off	2nd	Fast
Points	Paint	Off T/O	2nd Chance	Fast Break	Bench
ISU	32	20	10	6	11
DU	28	13	10	11	36

Score tied - 0 times
Lead changed - 8 times

Saturday, November 14, 2015

West Des Moines, the capital city of high school football in the state of Iowa, sent thousands of fans to Cedar Falls for a semifinal round game Friday night in the class 4-A division of the state high school playoffs in the UNI-Dome. Dowling Catholic and Valley, whose campuses are just a few miles apart in West Des Moines, have dominated large-school football in Iowa for longer than a lot of people in other parts of the state care to remember. Dowling, the state 4-A champion the past two seasons, and Valley, which has won five state championships under coach Gary Swenson, teed it up again last night. Dowling was clearly the better team this time, winning 24-6 and advancing to the championship game next Friday night against Kennedy of Cedar Rapids. Unbeaten Dowling is on a tremendous run under coach Tom Wilson, and I'm picking the Maroons to bring home the 4-A trophy again next week. Valley finished the 2015 season with a 10-3 record, which would be superb at most places. But when a team like Valley loses twice in the same year to its city rival [the Tigers were beaten by Dowling 38-21 during the regular season], fans who were smiling before the game made the trip home discussing what went wrong and what might have been. But, looking at the big picture, it was great entertainment for a family, being among all of those other West Des Moines folks for another Valley-Dowling playoff game in November. It doesn't get any better than that. Congratulations to the Maroons, and good luck to them next week.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

No Reunion At Drake for Bob Ortegel and His 1975 NCIT Champions

By RON MALY

In my newspaper years, I wrote a lot about Bob Ortegel.

Ortegel was a good guy, a fun-loving guy and a hard worker.

Bob Ortegel

I enjoyed being around him.

He was Drake's basketball coach from 1975 through 1981. He was in charge of the university's only national championship men's basketball team.

In Ortegel's 1974-75 break-in season, he coached his Bulldogs to a 19-10 record and won something called the National Commissioners Invitational Tournament at Louisville, Ky.

I covered many of the Bulldogs' games that season, including the victories over Southern California [80-70]; Bowling Green [78-65] and Arizona [83-76] in the NCIT, an event put together by the NCAA in an attempt to kill the National Invitation Tournament in New York City.

The NCIT lasted only a few seasons, and the NIT is still going, and now it's run by the NCAA. Go figure.

Anyway, I've written about Ortegel a number of times recently, wondering what it was going to take to get him back to the Drake campus so university officials and the city could honor him after 40-plus seasons.

I then heard that Ortegel and the players from the 1974-75 Drake championship team would be coming back to Des Moines for a reunion this month.

The idea was to introduce them to the crowd at the Knapp Center during the Nov. 21 game against Missouri-Kansas City at the Knapp Center.

Now I find out it's not happening.

No reunion.

Ortegel isn't coming back, and neither are the players from the team that won the NCIT championship.

Evidently, not enough players could make arrangements to make it back for a reunion. Hopefully, Ortegel and the players were receiving cooperation in the planning of the event from Drake's present administration.

Sad, that's what it is.

I was looking forward to seeing and talking with Ortegel and players such as Terry Benka, Ken Harris, Larry Haralson, Terry McKissick and Andy Graham 40 years after they brought back the NCIT trophy.

I've still got one of the tournament wristwatches Ortegel gave me after the victory over Arizona.

Thanks again, Bob. Nice watch.

It still keeps time, too.

Oh, well. Maybe they can arrange a reunion next season.

If they do, I'll be there.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

I'm very happy 66-year-old Dusty Baker has found another major league baseball managing job to screw up. And I'm equally as happy that his new job is with the Washington Nationals. That means the Nationals, a team with a lot of on-the-field talent but lousy leadership in the front office and dugout, will be a non-factor in the National League again next season. Baker has managed the Giants,Cubs and Reds in past seasons, and has never won a World Series. This is his last go-around, and count on it to end badly. Nothing personal, though, Dusty.

Monday, November 2, 2015

My Neighbor Al, the Health Nut came over for a cup of Italian Dark Roast an hour ago. "While reading the paper at Hy-Vee, I noticed that Rekha Basu wrote that she's about to turn 60," Al said. "That shocked me. I thought she had her 60th birthday 15 years ago."

I guess 99 cents doesn't go as far as it once did. Des Moines-area newspaper readers found that out this morning when this message was at the top of the top of page 1 in the sports section: "Kansas City stormed back from 2-0 down in the ninth inning to force extra innings Sunday in Game 5 of the World Series. The game was not complete when the Register went to press...." Hell, it was only about 11 p.m. when the Kansas City-New York Mets game went into the 10th inning. The game was over a minute or two past midnight. In the old days [there's that term again!], things were just starting to roll in the sports department at 11 p.m. and midnight. Now the understaffed place closes up shop at 11 p.m., and everybody apparently heads to his or her favorite watering hole. The paper has been advertising that a family [evidently folks without a cell phone, an iPad or a TV that can't get Fox Sports] can get a 3-month subscription for 99 cents a week for three months. I'd call that desperation. I'd also call it a piss-poor investment. For your 99 cents, you can't even get a score on the final game of the 2015 World Series [K.C. won the game, 7-2, and the series, 4 games to 1]. Horrible deal and horrible newspapering.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Today will be the last day in the pulpit at Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Des Moines for Rev. Kendall Meyer. Kendall will become the new pastor at a Lutheran church in Quincy, Ill., and he'll be missed here by a number of people, including me. After all, Meyer has been the longtime Official Pastor Of This Column. People have asked if Meyer will retain his Official Pastor status after he moves to Illinois. I tell them, yes, he will by all means continue as the Official Pastor. And, for those who are wondering, Mike Gartner of Des Moines will remain the Official Asshole Of This Column. He has been the perennial winner of that award. Unfortunately for the scores of people who regard Gartner as an asshole, he is not leaving town.

Rev. Kendall Meyer

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.