I Don't Need Electricity Or Coffee When I've Got Skywalks On My Mind

When I woke up this morning, the electricity was off in my home. No problem. I couldn't make any coffee, but who needs coffee after what I read yesterday in the paper? I mean, I didn't need a caffeine overdose to alter any of the excitement I was feeling about how the skywalk system in downtown Des Moines [pictured at the left] would enhance the city's chances of getting NCAA regional basketball tournaments in the future. But before I get to that, let me say a thing or two about this year's men's tournament, which has now reached the Final Four stage. Memphis and UCLA. North Carolina and Kansas. No. 1-seeded teams, all of them. Wow, what a magical show they'll put on next weekend at San Antonio. No Drake, no Davidson, no George Mason. And that's too bad. Just bigtime basketball schools with bigtime players. A year from now, some of those same players will be multi-millionaires plying their trade in the NBA, a league that puts me to sleep. By the way, I'm picking Memphis to beat UCLA and North Carolina to beat Kansas on Saturday, and Memphis to win the national championship game over North Carolina a week from tonight. Count on it.

*

LIFE WITHOUT ERIN ANDREWS

Nobody talks about it, but the NCAA touurnament telecasts on CBS survive without sideline reporters such as Erin Andrews [pictured at the right], Holly Rowe, Stacey Dales and Doris Burke. There couldn't be an ESPN telecast during the regular season without people talking about Andrews' chest and other body parts, and Rowe's dumbness. I still remember Rowe interviewing former Kansas City Royals baseball player George Brett during a regular-season Kansas basketball game. She admitted she was so jittery that she told viewers, "I'm nervous because George Brett is one of my all-time favorite players." Now, that's real journalism. I don't know how CBS has survived all season without such riveting TV.

*

TOO MANY BUD LIGHTS AND NOT ENOUGH SENSE

Now back to my segment about the skywalks in Des Moines, and how they play such a large role in the city's NCAA basketball tournament future. I don't go downtown much anymore, so maybe I've been missing something. I'm wondering if maybe the old Office Lounge has reopened across the alley from the newspaper. The reason I say that is because it seems a few of the boys from the newsroom have been popping a few extra cold ones during the old 11 a.m.-to-2 p.m. lunch break. Otherwise, why would they be writing that the recent women's NCAA basketball tournament at Wells Fargo Arena was a smash hit and that chances are good that a men's regional tournament could be held in the 16,110-seat building in the future? Actually, I wrote about that the other day in a segment titled, "Well, So Much for That: I see Wells Fargo Arena was about half-full for the Iowa State-Rutgers game. The attendance was called 8,379 in the 16,110-seat building. That's not good enough, my friends. They could almost have played the thing at the Knapp Center. It's sure a good thing Iowa State was assigned to the tournament. Had the Cyclones not made it, the only people in the place would've been the popcorn vendors and janitors." So, yesterday, the paper was jacking off over what a great thing the women's tournament was for Des Moines, and how people are frothing at the mouth over the thought of having a men's first- and second-round tournament at Wells Fargo Arena. For the life of me, I can't figure out why that white elephant of a building would appeal to the NCAA men's tournament. And don't give me that crap about the Des Moines skywalks being an attraction. That's like saying the freight trains that run through Omaha are why that city was picked for a men's tournament this year. There hasn't been a capacity crowd at Wells Fargo Arena for any kind of basketball game yet. Drake played the very first men's regular-season game there, and doesn't want to go back. Iowa State's men played twice there, drew poor crowds and doesn't want to return. So why would the NCAA men's tournament want to set up shop there? Beats me. Actually, I think trying to arrange a love affair between Wells Fargo and the men's tournament is another try by the paper to peddle warm, fuzzy "good news" stories like the July bicycle trip, the Saturday downtown farmers market, Jordan Creek Mall, the summer arts show, Court Avenue and downtown condominiums. Then there's what Missouri Valley Conference commissioner Doug Elgin said when asked about Des Moines and basketball tournaments. Conference commissioners are in the business of telling people what they want to hear. They're masters at talking out of both sides of their mouths. Hell, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany came to Des Moines, walked into the paper's newsroom and told reporters the league might add a 12th team [evidently with a straight face] -- all in the interest of promoting the Big Ten TV network. The paper swallowed what Delany said hook, line and sinker. Once he got back to Chicago, Delany said he had no plans at all to add a 12th team to the Big Ten. What he said in Des Moines was a lie. So don't believe anything a commissioner says. And don't believe an NCAA men's regional will be a big deal at Wells Fargo Arena. Try holding one of those things when Drake, Iowa State or Iowa aren't in it and see how many empty seats there'll be.

*

AND ANOTHER THING....

There will be NCAA women's sub-regional games in 2009 at Iowa City and first- and second-round women's tournament games in 2010 at Ames. But none of that was mentioned in the paper's story about Wells Fargo Arena. I'm wondering if the reporters even knew about those games.

*

EMMENECKER AN HONORABLE MENTION ALL-AMERICAN

Drake senior guard Adam Emmenecker, who earlier was named the Missouri Valley Conference's player of the year, has been chosen to the honorable mention Associated Press all-America team. Emmenecker, who came to Drake without a basketball scholarship, was the catalyst of a team that had a school-record 28-5 record.

Look At the Bright Side: At Least the Big Ten Managed To Keep Its Basketball a Secret Most Of the Season

I sure wish people would quit bad-mouthing the Big Ten TV network.

After all, everything worked out the way it should have in the 2007-2008 basketball season.

Nobody had to watch any of the league's games.

So give commissioner Jim Delany credit already.

The guy managed to keep the conference a secret most of the winter.

It wasn't until the NCAA tournament started that everybody saw how bad it was.

Take last night, for example.

Davidson College, a team representing a school with 1,700 students in Davidson, N.C., absolutely buried Wisconsin -- the best team in the Big Ten -- 73-56 in the Nidwest Region at Detroit.

And Memphis -- a team with more NBA talent than the New York Knicks -- put Michigan State out of its misery, 92-74, in the South Regional at Houston.

Unfortunately for Delany, those games had to be on CBS-TV for the entire nation to see.

I think the Big Ten network -- which is unavailable to most of the world's working stiffs -- was showing a women's basketball rerun or an instructional video on field hockey.

*

If there's a better story in this tournament than Davidson, I'd like to know what it is -- especially now that Drake's season is over.

I mean, it can't get much better than Davidson's board of trustees offering to pay the bus fare and the cost of game tickets and hotel rooms for students who wanted to make the 11-hour trip from the campus to Detroit.

I'd have to think twice about wanting to go to Detroit for anything, but quite a few brave kids from Davidson took advantage of the offer and made the trip.

When they got to Detroit, they knew Jimmy Hoffa wasn't the only dead guy there. So were Bo Ryan and his Wisconsin players.

The Badgers were horrible.

Indeed, the only team worse was Michigan State, which trailed by 30 points at halftime.

I guess nobody should have expected much more. One of the teams Michigan State lost to during the regular season was Iowa.

*

CHRISTIAN ATTITUDE

It can't get much better than this: Texas Christian is hiring a guy named Jim Christian to be its new basketball coach. He replaces Neil Dougherty, a former Drake assistant who was fired earlier this month.

Keno Said To Be 'Worth a Call' At California

We all knew it would happen.

Keno Davis' name being connected to basketball coaching jobs other than Drake's, I mean.

No sooner had Ben Braun been fired after spending a dozen seasons at California than Davis' name, as well as others, was being mentioned among the possible successors.

So far, it's just a newspaper list. And the newspaper in this case is the Mercury-News in San Jose, Calif., where Dennis Ryerson once worked -- which immediately calls its credibility into question.

But the bad thing for fans of Davis and Drake is that Keno's name is now being tossed around whenever there's a Division I vacancy.

The paper said the front-runner at California is Randy Bennett of St. Mary's.

Bennett "is believed not to be interested in overtures from Oregon State, but likely would jump at an offer from Cal," Jeff Faraudo writes. "He has guided the Gaels [who beat Keno's Drake team, 72-66, early in the 2007-2008 season] to a 103-55 mark with two NCAA tournament appearances the past five seasons."

Faraudo lists Davis among the list of coaches who are worth a call.

"The son and successor at Drake to former Stanford coach Tom Davis was an immediate hit in his first season," Faraudo writes. "He guided the Bulldogs, picked to finish near the bottom of the Missouri Valley Conference, to a 25-8 record and No. 5 NCAA tournament seeding."

Actually, Faraudo is wrong. Drake finished with a 28-5 record that included a 21-game winning streak. So, with that type of accuracy, maybe he and his paper don't know what they're writing about.

^

I'm starting to think more of Kirk Ferentz's abilities all the time.

They called a press conference at Iowa, and the Hawkeyes' football coach sold reporters more on the fact that he'd like to hire a life-skills person than a new offensive coordinator.

The fact that the reporters bought it shows that Ferentz has them in the palm of his hand.

He succeeded in getting peoples' minds off the 2007 football team, which wasn't very good, and the 2008 team, which probably won't be either.

But that life-skills guy or girl -- now that's big stuff.

I can't wait to see who's going to get the job.

Well, maybe I can.

*

Another place that's still trying to get it right is the newspaper here.

One morning this week, this appeared on the paper's website:

Radio: Barnstormers name announcer | DesMoinesRegister.com | Scott Casber has been named as the radio announcer of Iowa Barnstormers arena football broadcasts on KBGG-AM (1700).

The next morning, the paper said:

Barnstormers pick voices for broadcasts

from register news services • March 27, 2008

The voices of the Iowa Barnstormers for this season have been determined.

Calling the games on KBGG-AM (1700) will be play-by-play radio announcer Joe Stasi and analyst Gary Fletcher.

Scott Casber will serve as the public-address announcer at home games in Wells Fargo Arena.

Give 'em a little more time on this.

There Are Some Things I Understand, Some Things I Don't

I'm not sure how much TV my friend Larry Eustachy is watching these days in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Actually, knowing Larry, he's probably got more important and more interesting things to do.

Hopefully, trying to recruit better basketball players for his Southern Mississippi team.

But if he was tuned into a CBS channel during the NCAA men's tournament, I'm sure he noticed something that looked familiar.

In the regional at Anaheim, Calif., Stanford coach Trent Johnson was ejected from his team's victory over Marquette.

In the 82-81 victory, Johnson was guilty of the same thing as Eustachy eight years ago in an Elite Eight game his Cyclones lost to Michigan State, 75-64, at Auburn Hills, Mich.

Both Johnson and Eustachy gave enough verbal garbage to the officials that they were kicked out of the game.

And the same zebra -- Curtis Shaw -- was a member of both officiating crews.

[Eustachy is shown barking at Shaw in the Associated Press photo at the left. Michael Nurse, one of Eustachy's players, is trying to intervene].

The Midwest Regional game that saw Eustachy get tossed was emotional all night long.

"I didn't even comb my hair today," Nurse told reporters afterward, "because I knew it would be a dogfight."

Actually, Eustachy wasn't the first coach to get a technical foul. Izzo drew one with 5:49 left, when Michigan State was trailing, 59-52.

Soon afterward, the Cyclones' Paul Shirley had a shot waved off by the officials. Adding insult to injury, Shirley was charged with his fifth foul.

Eustachy screamed. Michigan State rallied.

With 9.9 seconds remaining, Iowa State was behind, 69-64. Nurse was called for his fifth foul.

When that happened, Eustachy went into a rage. He screamed at Shaw, Frank Basone and Lonnie Dixon. Dixon gave Larry a "T."

Then Eustachy was on the court, and some thought he made physical contact with Basone. Another "T."

Our man Larry was gone.

"The first technical foul was for excessive demonstration and cursing," Shaw told reporters afterward. "The second technical was for coming on the floor and being outside the coaching box. We don't have any choice. It was done strictly by the book."

Eustachy later issued a public apology for getting tossed out of Iowa State's most important basketball game in many years.

That, of course, wasn't the last time he made national headlines. The next time, though, his problems involved liquor and young women -- and it cost him more than a basketball game. It cost him his job.

Johnson was more fortunate in Stanford's game at Anaheim last weekend.

Late in the first half, the coach who works for athletic director Bob Bowlsby at Stanford was warned by the officials to cool it.

But he couldn't. He got two quick technicals and was ejected by Shaw.

Fortunately, Johnson's assistant coaches were able to rescue Stanford, and the team is in this week's Sweet Sixteen.

I just thought you might want to know that, Larry.

*

I HOPE SOMEBODY EXPLAINS THIS

I'm trying to figure out just exactly what it was Brandon Cleaver was trying to write in the paper about the NCAA women's tournament at Wells Fargo Arena.

Buried in the story about Rutgers' 69-58 victory over Iowa State was this paragraph:

"There's only so much you can do," Lacey said. "They are completely different body types than us."

I'm pretty sure Cleaver was referring to Alison Lacey, an Iowa State player.

And I guess the "they" Cleaver was referring to were Rutgers' players.

I don't know if the quote Cleaver used was a racial comment or what.

Of course, Cleaver may not know either. He's the guy who went an entire school year without knowing if the University of Northern Iowa is in Cedar Falls or Cedar Rapids.

Whatever, Cleaver should have clarified the "body types" quote, or not used it at all.

It provided fodder for smart-asses who regularly sound off anonymously on the paper's website.

I'm wondering how soon Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer [shown in the AP photo at the right] asks what Lacey and Cleaver meant, too.

After all, it about a year ago that women's basketball went through the mess that saw Don Imus get fired from his radio job after calling Rutgers' players "nappy-headed hos."

Imus questioned the players’ looks, describing them as tattooed “rough girls.”

*

BETTER RECRUITING NECESSARY

Here's what I think:

Bill Fennelly gets a lot out of the players he recruits at Iowa State, but until he starts recruiting more like Stringer recruits, he's never going to get beyond the second round of the tournament.

*

WELL, SO MUCH FOR THAT

I see Wells Fargo Arena was about half-full for the Iowa State-Rutgers game.

The attendance was called 8,379 in the 16,110-seat building.

That's not good enough, my friends.

They could almost have played the thing at the Knapp Center.

It's sure a good thing Iowa State was assigned to the tournament. Had the Cyclones not made it, the only people in the place would've been the popcorn vendors and janitors.

*

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF TIM FLOYD, USC

I'm wondering if there was a bigger flop in the NCAA tournament than Tim Floyd and his USC team. They were supposed to march through Omaha. Instead, they limped back to Los Angeles.

*

SPRING WHAT?

There have been years when I've been pumped up about the start of spring football practice. This isn't one of them.

The Honors Continue Rolling In for Drake's Keno Davis: He's Named National Coach Of the Year By Basketball Times

Drake's Keno Davis is being named the men's national coach of the year today by Basketball Times, a publication that's been familiar to fans of the sport for nearly 30 years.

I know Davis is getting the award because John Akers, managing editor of Basketball Times, hired me to write the story.

When told he was Basketball Times’ coach of the year, Davis said, “That’s quite an award. I couldn’t have imagined something like this would happen in my first season. It’s been quite a rewarding year, that’s for sure.”

The Basketball Times honor is the third national award Davis, 36, has won in his first season as a head coach.

He won similar honors from Sporting News and the U. S. Basketball Writers Association. He also is a finalist for other national coaching awards.

"Our award came down to Keno and Matt Painter of Purdue," Akers told me. "We decided to go with Keno after the outstanding job he did this season."

Davis' Bulldogs finished their season with a 28-5 record after losing to Western Kentucky, 101-99, last week in a first-round NCAA West Regional game at Tampa, Fla.

Drake won both the regular-season and postseason championships in the Missouri Valey Conference, and was the league's only representative in the Big Dance.

Akers and his wife, Ann, are Iowa natives.

"I was named managing editor of Basketball Times in September, 2001 (11 days before 9/11), about one year Larry Donald's death," Akers told me. "The magazine (or publication, I'm fine with either) is approaching its 30th year.

"With guys like Bob Ryan, Dick Vitale, Dick 'Hoops' Weiss and a group of the nation's finest regional writers, we like to think we have the best group of writers of any single-sport publication in the nation (allowing for the Sports Illustrateds and ESPN the Magazines). We are the only year-round magazine focusing primarily on college basketball.

"WIth a subscription base of about 5,000 subscribers, we only need more readers. Send your folks to www.basketballtimes.com. It's just $40 for 12 issues. Less than a ticket to some games. Long before BT, I graduated from tiny Dows High School (which for a time became CAL-Dows, which was not to be confused with CAL-Berkeley) near the Iowa Falls-Hampton-Clarion area.

"I attended Iowa State and spent four years covering the Cyclones for the Ames Tribune before joining Gary Richards at the San Jose Mercury News, where I spent much of my 16 years covering the likes of Jason Kidd, Steve Nash and Final Four and No. 1-ranked Stanford teams as their primary college writer.

"I spent one dreadful year as AP's primary sports writer in Minneapolis. My wife Ann is indeed a Valley High graduate, and her mother, Kay Gramlich, still lives in West Des Moines."

*

Here's the story on Keno Davis that I wrote for Basketball Times:

There are a lot of smart guys around the Drake University basketball program.

One is Adam Emmenecker, a 6-1 senior guard who has compiled a 3.97 grade-point average in his first 3 ½ years at the school and just happened to become the Player Of the Year in the Missouri Valley Conference and the most valuable in the league’s 2008 postseason tournament.

Another is Keno Davis, Emmenecker’s first-year coach.

“Keno is still in his mid-30s, but he’s wise beyond his years,” Emmenecker said of the man who is Basketball Times’ national Coach Of the Year. “Being the nation’s top coach is a tremendous honor, and he deserves it.”

Keno, the 36-year-old son of longtime collegiate coach Tom Davis, was smart enough to make Emmenecker his starting point guard for a Drake team that became something special.

After being picked in a preseason poll to finish ninth in a 10-team league, the Bulldogs won the Valley’s regular-season championship for the first time since 1971 and grabbed the league’s postseason title for the first time ever.

When told he was Basketball Times’ Coach Of the Year, Davis said, “That’s quite an award. I couldn’t have imagined something like this would happen in my first season. It’s been quite a rewarding year, that’s for sure.”

Drake shot three-point baskets from everywhere in the arena, won the Valley title with a 15-3 record, then surpassed the program’s record of 26 victories during the weekend it streaked to the league’s postseason championship in St. Louis.

“Did I think Keno had it in him to be a very good coach? There’s no question in my mind I did,” said Drake athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb. “The success we’ve had this year is remarkable and fun to watch.”

When Keno’s team was in the midst of a 21-game winning streak, Clubb said his success was “no fluke. People ask me all the time, ‘Did you ever believe things could be this great at Drake?’ I answer, ‘Absolutely.’ And there’s no reason we’re not going to stay at the top and compete regularly for the championship.”

If this wasn’t the best team in Drake basketball history, it was one of the top two. The only one that might want to argue about it would be the 1968-69 squad coached by Maury John that went 26-5 and won 12 straight regular-season and NCAA tournament games before losing to UCLA 85-82 in the Final Four.

In those days, the Valley was better than it is now because such schools as Louisville, Memphis State, Cincinnati and St. Louis were among the members. And the 1968-69 Drake team had guard Willie McCarter, a first-round NBA draft choice, future ABA standout Willie Wise and defensive whiz Dolph Pulliam.

This season’s team didn’t have a stopper to match Pulliam, now a commentator on Drake’s radio broadcasts. But Pulliam became so attached to the present program that Davis talked him into wearing an $800 blue leather suit to the Bulldogs’ games early in the season – and the suit quickly became the team’s good-luck charm.

When McCarter came to the sold-out Knapp Center to receive an award at halftime of a game in February, he said he was amazed at how good Keno’s Bulldogs were.

“Enjoy this ride because, 40 years from now, everybody will be shaking your hand,” he told Emmenecker after the game.

Paul Morrison, Drake’s 90-year-old athletic department historian, recalls the ’69 team well, and said, “In many ways, this year’s squad is a repeat of that season. That was a great team and so is this one. . Keno did an unbelievable job, and deserves to be Coach Of the Year.”

The Bulldogs’ 79-49 victory over Illinois State in the Valley’s postseason title game was their 28th in a season in which they were predicted to go nowhere.

“I thought being picked ninth was a little low,” Davis said of the preseason league vote. “But I guess it didn’t shock me that people didn’t think we were better. I picked us for sixth, and I thought that might be a shade optimistic.”

After losing a Nov. 10 game to Saint Mary’s 72-66, Keno’s team took off like a shooting star.

The Bulldogs, whose starters include Emmenecker, leaper Leonard Houston and three-point ace Josh Young at guard and Klayton Korver and Jonathan “Bucky” Cox at forward, didn’t lose again until Feb. 13 at Southern Illinois 65-62. They won 21 consecutive games and, by then, had a firm grasp on first place in the Valley.

As the victories piled up, it developed into a story right out of Hollywood. Drake, after all, is a university of 5,617 students known more for its business and pharmacy schools than its basketball teams.

Maury John took three consecutive Bulldog squads to the NCAA tournament from 1969-1971. But John went to Iowa State after the 1970-71 season and Drake’s basketball program pretty much went to sleep.

Bob Ortegel’s 1974-75 team won the old National Commissioners Invitation Tournament and Gary Garner’s 1985-86 squad played – and lost its first round game – in the NIT, but there wasn’t much else.

A stream of coaches came and left. Some blamed the lack of success partially on the university’s difficult academic standards. Whatever the reason, fans didn’t exactly flock into the arena, and men’s basketball became something to watch only when there wasn’t anything else to do in Des Moines.

Longtime followers of the program, who remembered the Maury John days, wondered about the future of the program.

Tom Davis ended some of the pessimism when he gave Drake its first winning season in 20 years with a 17-15 record in 2006-2007. Tom had been Iowa’s winningest coach from 1987-1999, and came out of retirement to see if he could inject some life into Drake’s program.

He made Keno his top assistant, and the kid showed that he was a good learner.

Keno, who had been what he called “kind of an undergrad assistant” to his dad at Iowa, was an assistant on Bruce Pearl’s staff at Southern Indiana and was on Gary Garner’s staff at Southeast Missouri State when Drake approached Tom Davis about its job,

“When I came to Drake to be on my father’s staff it wasn’t with the understanding I would become the head coach,” Keno said. “It wasn’t until my dad’s second-to-last season as coach here that I was told by Dave Blank (a former Drake athletic director) that I’d be the next coach.”

Tom Davis, who is a special assistant to the athletic director, watched practice occasionally throughout the season and talked to his son, the coach, after every game.

“It helps to have another set of eyes,” Keno said.

When asked if he can believe the success Drake had in Keno’s first season, Tom Davis said, “I think it’ll take a while for it to sink in. The significance of this year has been struck us. It’ll take a while for people to appreciate just how special this team is.

“There are so many things working against Drake that people are well aware of. Then to achieve this under those conditions is pretty spectacular.”

Throughout the regular season, Tom Davis was on hand for only the home games.

“I don’t want to be the story,” he explained. “After another year, I’ll just be a guy in the stands. Now, though, some people come up to me and ask what I’m doing and things like that. I’d rather have the team and staff get the attention.”

Emmenecker said Keno “put us in a position to succeed. He’s done a great job of relating to his players and getting as much out of us as he can. This turned into a real special year that, never in my wildest dreams, did I expect.”

And when something catches Emmenecker by surprise, it’s unusual. After all, the kid had four majors at Drake–management, finance, business and entrepreneurial management—on his way to being named college basketball’s Academic All-America Player Of the Year.

Tenacity and Heart

Right down to the end, Drake’s basketball team fought with the same tenacity and heart it displayed all season. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs and their legions of fans, Western Kentucky’s Ty Rogers was on-target with a 26-foot three-point basket that ended their season prematurely. 101-99, when the 5-minute overtime expired today at Tampa in the NCAA first round. Drake had nothing to be ashamed of in its first trip to the NCAA’s Big Dance in 37 seasons. Keno Davis’ Bulldogs – known as a team that never left a basketball court without a fight – scrambled back after falling behind by 16 points, only to have it all go for naught against an opponent that’s much better than its No. 12 seed. I was afraid of this game all week. At our Wednesday sportswriters’ lunch, when most of the others were picking Drake to win, I said, “This game scares me. I think Western Kentucky is going to win.” I was hoping there was a method to my madness. I’d felt pessimistic before other games throughout the season — specifically the games at Iowa, at Wichita State, at Bradley, at Illinois State and even heading into the championship game of the Missouri Valley Conference postseason tournament against the Redbirds. But Drake won all of those games [indeed, by 30 points over Illinois State at St. Louis], and I figured the Bulldogs could succeed today – but I knew they’d need to play very well. They did play well. But, for a long while, Western Kentucky played better. Still, Drake’s fans knew their team would come back. When you’ve got Bucky Cox, Klayton Korver, Leonard Houston, Josh Young and Adam Emmenecker, you know you’ll come back. They did. But, in a sea of 3-point baskets, Western Kentucky was the team that advanced and Drake was the team that was sent home. What a game Cox had, scoring a career-high 29 points and snaring 16 rebounds. In all, the Bulldogs attempted 43 3-pointers and made 16. Western Kentucky was 14-of -27 from the stripe and beyond. Rogers’ 3 that was the winner was the 30th of the game—an NCAA record. The 70 attempts by the two teams broke the old NCAA record of 66 by UCLA and Cincinnati in 2002. It was the final game in Drake uniforms for seniors Emmenecker, Korver and Houston – but they have left an unbelievably strong legacy at a university whose dedication to major-college basketball had been questioned during a 20-year period when there wasn’t a winning season. That streak ended in Tom Davis' final season in 2006-2007, and now his son, Keno, is in charge of a program that has reason to be proud. You know how I feel. Drake needs to keep this 36-year-old coach -- who already has won two national coach of the year awards and will grab another early next week -- and I know president David Maxwell and athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb will do everything they can to make sure he stays.

It's Finally An Official Big Dance

Whenever Drake's basketball team is preparing to play an NCAA tournament game, I make it a point to consult my friend Bob Modersohn about it.

I mean, it's not an official "Drake In the Big Dance" unless I talk to Modersohn.

What that means, of course, is that I went a long time without being able to talk with him about the NCAA.

Like 37 years.

I think Modersohn got so tired of waiting for the Bulldogs' men's teams to go back that he began attending the women's games.

When I got hold of Modersohn prior to Drake's 1971 Midwest Regional appearance in Wichita, Kan., I'm pretty sure he predicted the Bulldogs would beat Notre Dame in overtime in the first game, but lose a close one to Kansas in the championship game.

It turned out he was correct.

The way I remember it, Modersohn was also right on target when I talked to him before Drake played in the 1969 Final Four at Louisville.

He said Rick Wanamaker would block one of Lew Alcindor's shots and Drake would come up just short against UCLA on opening night.

Modersohn had amazing insight. John Wooden's Bruins escaped Drake's huge upset bid, 85-82. And, sure enough, Wanamaker blocked one of Alcindor's shots.

Bob is, and always has been, one of the best news and sports photographers in the nation. Quite possibly the whole world. Later in his career, he branched out to become a very talented writer -- specializing in writing about recreation and the outdoors.

He's no longer with the paper now, having moved to greener pastures a number of years ago.

I'll tell you more about him later in this column but, first, let me share with you what he told me in an e-mail when I asked him about Drake's regional game tomorrow against Western Kentucky at Tampa, Fla.

"Bob, how do you feel about the game, and why?" I asked him.

"Ron, I'm sure that the average Drake fan looks at the seeding and sees a lopsided 5 playing a 12 [or whatever are the Hilltoppers]. I imagine the game could be close, with Drake having an edge in overall team scoring balance. When Drake needs a score, it seems like they can go to any one of five players and get it, and they've proven that. On paper, the Hilltoppers look like they get their big points from Courtney Lee and the other guard."

I could tell Modersohn has been doing his homework.

Of course, that didn't surprise me. He's always been a basketball junkie.

I can tell you this. He's the only photographer with whom I went to the old Ak-Sar-Ben horserace track in Omaha, then played him in a one-on-one basketball game on the trip back to Des Moines.

I think we figured out a return route that was...well, a bit off the beaten path.

One of us brought a basketball, but now I can't remember if it was him or me.

On the trip back, we spotted a vacant outdoor basketball court at a school close to Highway 6.

We had what both Maury John and Keno Davis would have called a "spirited" game that lasted the better part of an hour. Modersohn had a great jumpshot and went to the boards well. I could shoot, especially when nobody was guarding me.

I think we also got a fantastic text-and-photo story for the paper at Ak-Sar-Ben. I looked it up the other day and saw that the track closed in 1995, so it was a while back that we were there.

By the way, the trip to Omaha, wasn't anything like the one I made to the Clay County Fair in Spencer for another horserace project.

I made that journey with Dave Finch, who then was also taking pictures for the paper. I'm pretty sure we were doing the story for the old "Picture" magazine, and I think it was supposed to be an upbeat sort of deal.

The trouble was, a horse died when we were there. Finch, always a pro, rushed to the area where the dead horse was sprawled on the track and started taking pictures.

The guy running the event threw up his arms and said he didn't want any pictures taken of a dead horse. Finch got into an argument with him and continued snapping the shutter.

Obviously, the story turned out differently than all of us planned, and I haven't been invited back to the Clay County Fair since.

I'd ask Finch about it now, but he died a while back, so he's not bothering with e-mails.

Of course, Modersohn and I showed our versatility plenty of other times on road trips.

Through the magic of e-mail, I re-lived the working trip we made a number of years ago to Balltown in northeast Iowa.

The idea was to go to Balltown when the nation's major league players were on strike so we could find out if they were still playing ball in Balltown.

They were, and one of two of the players there could hit the four-seam fastball pretty well.

Modersohn and I made a trip to Truro, Ia., a number of years ago because I wanted to find out what it was like to live in a town where Interstate 35 High School was located.

We ran into the right guy immediately.

"That's a dumb name," the guy said about the school.

They don't mince their words in Truro.

Modersohn has always been interested in recreation and the outdoors, and I recall us going to Backbone State Park to do some kind of story a while back. I think we won a couple of prizes for it. If we didn't, we should have.

Before most of those trips, we'd stop for breakfast at the old Boswell's restaurant in Des Moines.

On Tuesdays, I'd have buckwheat pancakes and coffee. On Thursdays, it was hashbrowns-with-jalapenos and coffee. I've forgotten what Modersohn used to order.

I do remember, though, that the cook -- who was frying hashbrowns in a vat of grease at the time -- once kicked a guy out of the place because he was running a business from one of Boswell's pay phones.

That was so long ago that cell phones hadn't yet been invented.

Now Boswell's is gone, and that's a shame.

The one thing I never got to do, though, was practice pole vaulting in Modersohn's backyard.

He had always told me he had a pole vaulting pit at his home, and that he worked on his jumping form whenever the weather allowed it.

In one of my e-mails to Bob the other day, I asked if he still had the vaulting pit in his backyard.

If so, I said I'd bring my pole over so I could do some practice jumps.

"No backyard at this Oak Park home," Modersohn said. "I put it in the front, Ron."

Sounds good to me.

Keno Davis Says Drake Has a Spirited 75-Minute Practice After Mid-Afternoon Arrival In 81-Degree Tampa Weather

Less than 46 hours before making its first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1971, the Drake basketball team arrived at its destination city.

The 134-person Drake party flew a Boeing 737 chartered plane, landing in Tampa at 3:15 p.m. (EDT) today, greeted by sunny skies and 81-degree weather.

After checking into their hotel at the Renaissance International Plaza, the Bulldogs conducted a spirited 75-minute practice at Hillsborough Community College.

Keno Davis, who was named the Henry Iba National Coach of the Year Tuesday by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, was pleased with his team's effort.

"It was an extremely focused practice," said Davis. "But that doesn't surprise me. This team has been focused all year and I wouldn't expect it to be any different now that we are in the NCAA Tournament"

The No. 5 seeded Bulldogs will play No. 12 seed Western Kentucky in an 11:30 a.m. Central time tipoff Friday at the St. Pete Times Forum.

Members of the traveling party included school president Dr. David Maxwell, Drake athletics director Sandy Hatfield Clubb, along with former players Rick Wanamaker and Dolph Pulliam who were key members of the 1968-69 Final Four team.

"The best part is seeing the excitement in the student-athletes faces," said Maxwell. "This is about 14 guys living a lifetime dream. It is fun to watch them fulfill their dream come."

Ninety-year old Drake historian Paul Morrison reflected on the 1969 Final Four held in Louisville, Ky., and Drake's first-round appearance in the West Regional on Friday.

"It's a lot different," said Morrison. "There were only 16 teams playing in the entire NCAA tournament back in 1969. The media surrounding this trip is much greater than it was when we played in the Final Four. But there are some similarities in that both teams had great individual players."

Pulliam, who serves as a Drake radio analyst, and Wanamaker took pride in reading an extensive article in the Wednesday edition of the USA Today, chronicling the 1969 NCAA Final Four semifinal round game between Drake and UCLA.

The Bulldogs gave national champion UCLA all it could handle before dropping an 85-82 decision.

"While reading the story I became emotional that we were coming to play in the NCAA tournament," said Pulliam. "The expectations on our part were great, but nobody gave us a chance at winning the [Midwest] Regional."

"This team is so similar to our 1968-69 group because they're good friends off the court, which translates to good chemistry on the court and they play so hard."

*

[This story was written for Ron Maly's website by Drake sports information director Mike Mahon, Paul Morrison is pictured at the right. Pictured at the left are Ron Maly and Dolph Pulliam].

You Can Always Turn Down the TV Sound and Listen To Cotlar and Pulliam On the Radio

For all of the Tim Brando fans out there -- both of you -- I've got news from the front.

Your pal Tim [pictured at the right] will be the play-by-play announcer for CBS's telecast at 11:30 a.m. Friday of the Drake-Western Kentucky game in the NCAA basketball tournament at Tampa.

His broadcast partner will be analyst Mike Gminski, who can probably be excused if he pulls a Curt Gowdy and calls Drake "Duke" at some point during the game.

It was Gowdy who referred to Maury John's Bulldogs from Des Moines as "Duke" during their 85-82 loss to eventual national champion UCLA in the 1969 Final Four at Louisville.

Gminski, 48, [pictured at the left in his collegiate days] played at Duke from 1977-1980, leading the Blue Devils in scoring as a junior and senior. The 6-11 center was a first-round NBA draft choice of the New Jersey Nets, then went on to play for the Philadelphia 76ers, Charlotte Hornets and Milwaukee Bucks.

Gminski's jersey No. 43 was retired by Duke -- an honor that hasn't come the way of any members of Drake's 1969 team, which finished with a 26-5 record.

Brando, 52, has had a habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong times on the air more often than not.

Wikipedia says, during the 2002 collegiate football season, Brando told the Sporting News that Ohio State was a bad 12-0 team, adding, "When they lose to Michigan they'll be a bad 12-1 team."

Instead, the Buckeyes eat Michigan, 14-9. Despite that, Brando picked Miami to thrash the Buckeyes, 48-10, in the Fiesta Bowl. However, Ohio State beat the Hurricanes in overtime to win the national championship.

Brando lives in Shreveport, La., and is called "an LSU homer" by "The Road From Bristol" website.

That same website says Brando:

* Like so many of these guys, has bad hair, though it's probably a rug.
* Has worked for everyone, apparently because he gets fired a lot.
* Turns his national radio show into Golf Chat way too often.
* Is a useless studio guy.

*

GAS WAS 35.9 CENTS A GALLON IN 1971

Thanks to Drake sports information director Mike Mahon for this:

WHERE WERE YOU IN 1971?: So, what were the top news headlines back in 1971 which was the last time Drake competed in the NCAA tournament? In case, you forgot, "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night was the top 40 single of 1971, making its first chart appearance on March 27, 1971...Joe Frazier beat Muhammad Ali in Madison Square Garden in New York to retain the heavyweight boxing championship...Fiddler on The Roof won the Oscar for best movie of 1971...All in the Family was the top-rated television show...A gallon of gas cost 35.9 cents.

[RON MALY'S COMMENT: That 35.9-cent gas went a long way in my 1970 yellow Ford LTD].

*

STILL LOOKING FOR THE FACTS

Drake's Keno Davis is the 2008 Henry Iba/United States Basketball Writers Association Of America coach of the year.

People keep saying that Drake's Maury John won the award in 1969.

However, USBA records shown below say John Wooden of national champion UCLA won the 1969 award, as well as the next four.

On page 40 of Drake's 2007-2008 basketball press guide, John is pictured with a trophy the university says is the USBWA award.

I called 90-year-old Paul Morrison, Drake's athletic department historian, to ask about this matter. Morrison knows every basketball fact since the peachbasket days.

He says university records show that John, indeed, won the award in 1969.

So, until someone comes up with information that the USBWA records are wrong or that John won a different coach of the year honor in 1969, I'll keep wondering.

Here are the USBWA coach of the year records:

HENRY IBA AWARD WINNERS

2008 Keno Davis, Drake
2007 Tony Bennett, Washington State
2006 Roy Williams, North Carolina
2005 Bruce Weber, Illinois
2004 Phil Martelli, St. Joseph's
2003 Tubby Smith, Kentucky
2002 Ben Howland, Pittsburgh
2001 Al Skinner, Boston College
2000 Larry Eustachy, Iowa State
1999 Cliff Ellis, Auburn
1998 Tom Izzo, Michigan State
1997 Clem Haskins, Minnesota
1996 Gene Keady, Purdue
1995 Kelvin Sampson, Oklahoma
1994 Charlie Spoonhour, St. Louis
1993 Eddie Fogler, Vanderbilt
1992 Perry Clark, Tulane
1991 Randy Ayers, Ohio State
1990 Roy Williams, Kansas
1989 Bob Knight, Indiana
1988 John Chaney, Temple
1987 John Chaney, Temple
1986 Dick Versace, Bradley
1985 Lou Carnesecca, St. John's
1984 Gene Keady, Purdue
1983 Lou Carnesecca, St. John's
1982 John Thompson, Georgetown
1981 Ralph Miller, Oregon State
1980 Ray Meyer, DePaul
1979 Dean Smith, North Carolina
1978 Ray Meyer, DePaul
1977 Eddie Sutton, Arkansas
1976 Johnny Orr, Michigan
1975 Bob Knight, Indiana
1974 Norm Sloan, N.C. State
1973 John Wooden, UCLA
1972 John Wooden, UCLA
1971 John Wooden, UCLA
1970 John Wooden, UCLA
1969 John Wooden, UCLA
1968 Guy Lewis, Houston
1967 John Wooden, UCLA
1966 Adolph Rupp, Kentucky
1965 Bill Van Breda Kolff, Princeton
1964 John Wooden, UCLA
1963 Ed Jucker, Cincinnati
1962 Fred Taylor, Ohio State
1961 Fred Taylor, Ohio State
1960 Pete Newell, California
1959 Eddie Hickey, Marquette

Drake Men Are Going To Tampa, Fla., and Iowa Women Play In Norfolk, Va. With Omaha and D.M. Available, Does That Make Sense? Not To Me It Doesn't

The NCAA can say all it wants about trying to keep basketball teams close to home for tournament games.

I don't believe any of it.

Drake's men's team will be going to Tampa, Fla., to play Western Kentucky, and Iowa's women's team is being sent to Norfolk, Va., to meet Georgia.

Omaha was available to send the Bulldogs, and Des Moines was available to send the Hawkeyes.

Just a tank of gas away.

Now fans of both teams have to scramble to find expensive flights and hotel rooms.

It makes no sense.

*

ONE BASKETBALL PROSPECT MAURY JOHN KNEW HE'D RECRUIT

Bud Appleby writes:

"I recall that someone once asked Maury John how his recruiting was going and he said he was pretty sure of getting one player from Des Moines because, he said, 'I've been sleeping with his mother.'

"I also recall that Maury John was criticized for wasting a scholarship on his son because John John was not a good enough player to earn it."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: John John was a reserve on Iowa State teams coached by, first, his dad, Maury John, and, later, Ken Trickey.]

*

CALL 'EM ALL NO-NAME STADIUM AND NO-NAME ARENA


Also from Appleby:

"Drake's NCAA game in Tampa will be played at the St. Pete Times Forum. That would be like the arena in Des Moines being named the Omaha World-Herald Arena. The Tampa Tribune just calls it the Forum."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Naming rights are an awful thing when it comes to arenas and stadium. Take it from a guy who writes a lot about No-Name Ballpark in Des Moines. Now they're talking about changing the name of Wrigley Field in Chicago. But, to me, it'll always be Wrigley Field].

*

'RUMORS SWIRL' THAT SOME IOWA MEN'S PLAYERS MAY LEAVE PROGRAM

Pat Harty [pictured at the left] writes in the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

"Rumors are swirling about some of the current players [on Iowa's men's basketball team] either transferring or leaving the team for personal reasons or because they will no longer be on scholarship. The season wasn't even a half-hour old when freshman point guard Jeff Peterson was asked if he felt he belonged in the Iowa program and in the Big Ten. Peterson played well at times early in the season, but struggled against Big Ten competition, especially with turnovers and with his decision-making. He finished the season with 94 turnovers and 92 assists, and it's never good to have more turnovers than assists under any circumstance. 'I know I can play in this conference,' Peterson said. 'I think I'm going to sit down with coach [Todd Lickliter], and we're going to talk.'"

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Just wait'll they get that new practice court at Iowa. That'll turn a 13-19 season into 14-18 real quick for Peterson [pictured at the right] and the other Hawkeyes].

Keno Says Western Kentucky Standout Lee 'A Pro, In My Mind, But I Don't Want Him To Beat Us Single-Handedly' In Friday's NCAA Game At Tampa

I asked Keno Davis today if he was concerned that his Drake basketball team, heading into Friday's NCAA first-round game against Western Kentucky, hasn't played in more than a week. "Your team has maintained its focus all season long," I said, "so I'm wondering if you're worried about the sharpness it will have Friday." Drake hasn't played a game since thrashing Illinois State, 79-49, a week ago yesterday in the championship game of the Missouri Valley Conference postseason tournament at St. Louis. "The layoff is a concern," said Davis [pictured at the left, courtesy of the Internet], "but I think, when you look at our schedule, we've gone through this a couple times before -- most recently after our [Dec. 14] game at Iowa before our conference season started." After Drake won for the first time in 40 years at Iowa, 56-51, it had a 15-day layoff before starting the Valley schedule with a 62-54 victory at Wichita State. "What it allowed us to do the other times was to have fresh legs," Keno said. "We had a pretty good practice Saturday, where we had more of a scrimmage situation -- [somewhat] like a game. We'll try to work up to that point on Friday. The Bulldogs take a 28-4 record into an 11:30 a.m. game against Sun Belt Conference champion Western Kentucky [27-6] at Tampa, Fla. "There might be a little rust, but I think that will be the case for both teams. After the first 4 or 5 minutes, both teams will be back in their midseason form." Davis feels his team is playing its best basketball of the season. Lee, a 6-5 senior who is projected as a likely first-round NBA draft choice, is averaging 20.9 points -- 15th in the nation. After Davis learned who and where Drake would be playing in its first NCAA appearance since 1971, he said he didn't leave his office until 2 o'clock this morning. "When Western Kentucky was announced as our opponent, I think we had two tapes on them, but by the time I left the office I think we had seven or eight. We'll take all that information and give our team a glimpse of it today, and give them more each day. It's been busy, but as a coach you can't be complaining about being busy at this time of year. It's a nice problem to have." As for Western Kentucky, Davis said, "Obviously, we drew a very tough opponent. I think they mirror us somewhat in that they want to play an up-tempo, fast-breaking style. They use a lot of pressure defense and they have a very talented player in Courtney Lee [pictured at the right, courtesy of the Internet]. We're going to need to play our best basketball to try to have a chance to win." Davis called Lee "a pro, in my mind. The little tape I've seen from last night to today, he's an incredible talent. We're going to have our hands full trying to contain him, understanding that you just can't take that away but you don't want him to be the difference in the game. You don't want him to beat you single-handedly. We'll want to know where he is on the court at all times."

5th-Seeded Drake Plays Western Kentucky At Tampa In NCAA; CBS Guy Says Trip To Sweet 16 Possible For Dogs, and I Hope He Knows What He's Talking About

It was starting to seem like an early version of "60 Minutes." Actually, it was only 40 minutes, but to Drake's players, coaches and fans it seemed like an eternity late this afternoon. Finally, they learned on CBS's Selection Sunday show that the Bulldogs will be headed to Tampa, Fla., for Friday's first-round game in the West Region against Western Kentucky in the 65-team NCAA basketball tournament. Drake takes a 28-4 record and a No. 5 seed into the game against a Western Kentucky team that is seeded No. 12 and has a 27-6 record. It's the Bulldogs' first NCAA tournament since 1971, and I'm hoping they can win at least a couple of games to add even more glitter to what has been a spectacular season in Keno Davis' first year as coach. When I say I'd like to see Drake advance to the Sweet 16, I'm not coming across as the only dreamer in the building. Indeed, Seth Davis, the Sports Illustrated writer who moonlights as a CBS basketball analyst, seems to know what he's talking about during the network's march to the Final Four. "I think Drake can get by [Connecticut] and go to the Sweet 16, if UConn can get by San Diego," Davis said. "That's how much I love Drake." The Drake-Western Kentucky winner plays the Connecticut [24-8]-San Diego [21-13] winner Sunday. Actually, how can anyone named Davis be wrong about Drake basketball? The Bulldogs have three Davises on the coaching staff -- head coach Keno, associate head coach Chris and assistant coach Rodell. Then there's Tom Davis, Keno's dad who coached the Bulldogs for four seasons and now is a special assistant to athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb. Fellow CBS analyst Clark Kellogg said, "Drake has been outstanding--freewheeling and fun to watch." Sixteenth-ranked Drake won the Missouri Valley Conference's regular-season and postseason championships. Thousands of Drake fans [pictured on my TV during CBS's coverage of the Selection Sunday show] were in the Knapp Center for the announcement.

Face It, the People Who Run Our State Are Dumb

Face it already. Iowa politicians are among the dumbest anywhere. For this state to not pass a law that bans smoking in all restaurants is insane. People can't smoke at places like Home Depot, Lowe's, Younkers and Dillard's, but they can smoke in the most expensive restaurants in the state. The last thing I want to do is spend a lot of money for a meal, then have my clothes and hair smell like smoke when I walk out of the place. To say nothing of what that same smoke is doing to my lungs and everybody else's lungs.

*

Editors in the sports department at the paper continue to want you to believe that the photograph of Maury John [right] they keep publishing was taken when he was in his heyday at Drake. However, longtime Drake fans claim the photo was taken on the day John was told he had inoperable cancer of the esophagus. He then was coaching at Iowa State. John was Drake's coach from 1959-1971, and the photo of the obviously much happier man at the left was taken when he was there.

*

Another thing you may not know: John John, Maury John's youngest son, enrolled at Iowa State after his dad became the Cyclones' coach. He was a member of the Cyclones' basketball team -- appearing in 17 games in the 1972-73 season, nine in 1973-74 and 17 in 1974-75. He had scoring averages of 0.2, 0.6 and 1.5. After playing on two of his dad's Iowa State teams, John briefly quit the 1974-75 team when Ken Trickey was the coach. When news leaked that the son of the famous coach was quitting the squad, Trickey quickly tried to smooth things over. I remember fielding a call in the office in which Trickey said he didn't want John John to leave. Trickey was a likable guy, but lasted less than two seasons at Iowa State. His 1974-75 team had a 10-16 record, but his 1975-76 squad lost its first 13 games. He was soon ousted, and the team finished 3-24. These days, they'd say, "It wasn't a good fit." Iowa State hired Trickey because people in the athletic department thought he'd bring a wide-open offense to the program that fans would like. Athletic department brass didn't care for it that I asked Trickey in his first appearance at Ames about a drunk driving charge filed against the coach in Tulsa, Okla. Trickey had been the coach at Oral Roberts University, and there was a rumor going around that Oral Roberts himself alerted police to the fact that ol' Ken was driving a car while impaired while returning from a postgame party. Despite Iowa State's efforts to attract more people to Hilton Coliseum in the pre-Hilton Magic days, the attendance average at the 14,092-seat building in Trickey's second season was a paltry 5,858. Trickey tried to be the friend of sportswriters -- at least this one -- and even invited me to sit on his bench during a game. I did just that, and wrote a story about it for the old "Picture" magazine, complete with photographs. I was amazed at how little Trickey told his players during timeouts. No magic there, either. Trickey always liked to have fun. He even had one of his preseason press days at a Greek restaurant in Ames called The Palmas. The press day came complete with plenty of great food for reporters. I was doing a weekly TV show for Iowa Public Broadcasting in those days, and Trickey agreed to appear with me on it even after he was fired. As the song says -- those were the days, my friend.

*

Drake's Keno Davis is a finalist for another coaching award -- this time the Atlanta Tipoff Club's Naismith Men's College Coach Of the Year. The winner will be announced during the 2008 NCAA Final Four in San Antonio. Davis joins John Calipari of Memphis, Matt Painter of Purdue and Bruce Pearl of Tennessee as finalists. Davis was on Pearl's staff at Southern Indiana from 1995-1997.

'What Keno Has Done Amazes Me,' Says Proud Dad, Who Will Stay Away From the Knapp Center On Selection Sunday, and Won't Go On the Bulldogs' NCAA Trip

Tom Davis, my buddy from press row at the Knapp Center, was on the phone.

I had called "The Proudest Father At Drake -- [At Least The One Named Tom Davis]" -- to tell him about yet another coaching honor that had come Keno Davis' way in this wonderful 2007-2008 basketball season.

Keno [pictured at the left], Tom's 36-year-old son, has become a huge force on the national scene in his first season as the Bulldogs' coach.

He's been named coach of the year by the Sporting News, and count on it that another national honor will soon be coming.

I sat next to Tom Davis on press row [photo at the right] during most of Drake's home games. It was fun listening to him dissect the game of basketball generally, and his son's team in particular, in a season that has seen the Bulldogs streak to a 28-4 record.

I had left a phone message for Tom. When he got back to me, I enjoyed telling him about Keno's latest coach-of-the-year honor -- which I'll be documenting in print nationally very soon.

"Oh, that's terrific," Tom said. "What Keno has done has amazed me because there are so many difficult things when you become a head coach for the first time. The ease with which he has moved into the head coaches' spot, and the decisions he's made have been truly remarkable.

"So I appreciate it even more, knowing the inside workings of the business. How hard it is to do what he's done has been amazing, so I'm really proud of him."

*

Tom was on hand at the Knapp Center for all of Drake's home games this season, but didn't attend any road games -- including the Dec. 14 game at Iowa City, in which Keno and his players gave Drake its first victory there in 40 years.

Tom even stayed away when Drake swept to the Missouri Valley Conference's postseason tournament championship with three impressive victories in St. Louis last weekend.

With the Bulldogs two days away from learning where they'll play in the 65-team NCAA tournament, I asked Tom if he plans to go on the road.

Forget it.

"I think I'll stay the course," he told me. "I had some doubt about whether it was the right thing to do, but I think -- as I see this media crush, which you've observed some of -- it's best to let Keno find his own way.

"He's doing such a good job of it that I think I'll just stay out of the way. By next year, this will be old hat and I'll feel free to go and do whatever I want to do. But this year I'll stay back and watch it on TV--as painful as it might be."

*

Tom said he doesn't even plan to be at the Knapp Center when Drake holds a public celebration on Selection Sunday.

Drake officials are hopeful the national TV cameras show the Bulldog players, coaches and fans when they learn their assignment in the Big Dance.

"I'll pass on being there for that, too," Tom said.

By the way, Tom said he has no idea where Drake will be assigned to play in the NCAA tournament.

He, of course, went through this plenty of times during his 32-year career as a collegiate coach -- including 13 at Iowa and four at Drake.

Nine of his Hawkeye teams were chosen for the NCAA field. Two of his five Boston College teams made it to the Big Dance.

"I don't think even the selection committee members know yet where Drake will be assigned," Davis said. "So many variables have to be worked out, even in the seeding process."

Omaha is certainly a possibility. Denver, too.

"Omaha would be good for our fans," Tom said, "but it's only a possibility. It's just the luck of the draw."

*

Drake officials learned today that CBS-TV will cut away to the Drake Knapp Center during its live presentation of the NCAA selection show to get reaction from the basketball team being selected to play in the NCAA tournament.

The public is invited to join in the celebration at the Knapp Center with fans encouraged to wear blue. The Bulldogs will learn which regional they will be playing in when the NCAA tournament brackets are unveiled at 5 p.m. on CBS.

Members of the Drake team will conduct an autograph session from 4:15 to 4:45 p.m. The session will be for posters the athletic department will be providing to each individual. One poster per person.

It's Been a Long Winter -- In Some Places

It's been a long winter. So long that I hear officials at the University of Iowa are thinking of giving students a day off from classes because the men's basketball season is finally over. At Iowa City, they'll look for any way possible to celebrate the end of the season.

*

No similar deal at Iowa State. The students at Ames knew the men's season was over the day practice began in October.

*

Iowa State figures it's too bad Drake's Adam Emmenecker [pictured at the right] can't petition the NCAA for more eligibility. There are a number of people in Ames who'd like to see Emmenecker become the Cyclones' playing-coach next season so he can major in four more areas of study at Iowa State. That would give him eight majors, counting the four he already has at Drake.

*

I wonder if that Drake professor who gave Emmenecker a "B" -- the only one in his collegiate career -- would like to give him a mulligan.

*

Kristen, not her real name -- the 22-year-old who got New York's governor fired -- says her favorite pasttime is music. Sure.

*

By the way, Kristen [pictured at the left] wonders why guys in Des Moines are so interested in Drake basketball when there are so many other things to do.

*

Speaking of Drake basketball, I hope they're talking seriously in the athletic department about giving Keno Davis a sizable pay raise. After all, about 75 major-college teams will be looking for news coaches very soon.

*

Kristen says she likes to ride trains, especially to anywhere the governors hang out.

'Good Gravy!' -- Plus Other Morsels

Scott Pierce, the play-by-play radio announcer for Drake's women's basketball team -- as well as the Bulldogs' football team -- writes an e-mail titled "Can You Believe the Sunday Register?" in which he questions the news judgement of the folks who put out the sports pages:

"I have no problem with the story about a local person qualifying for the Olympic rifle (I think) team. But to put it on the front page on a Sunday? You've got to be kidding me.

"Granted, they got one part right with the Drake men's basketball team preview at the top of the page. But the women's team tying for the conference championship was buried on about page 5 (maybe 7). Taking my bias out of the equation, you have Iowa and Iowa State men closing out their regular seasons, the Iowa women in the Big Ten tournament. Good gravy!!

"I know nothing about the newspaper business---layouts, etc. I'm just a sports fan who reads the sports page. It seems to be Sunday and Monday are your days when your choice of stories, placement, etc. is at its highest. Is that the day you do an Olympic rifle qualifier?"

Scott Pierce

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Scott, those people who put out the sports section have been told many times that they're not supposed to show up for work with their crayons and coloring books sticking out of their backpacks. Most of them don't listen. Unfortunately, the Drake women's basketball story was on page 7. Then they wonder why circulation keeps falling. Thanks for writing].

*

From Jay Davidson, who also sent the photo at the left in this column:

"Tammi Blackstone and Carla Bennett, shared the post position at Drake during the 1999-2000 season. Tammi Blackstone, a senior, was Drake's all-American candidate, and Cheryl Burnett, coach of archrival Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) had been calling her "the best post in America." But Tammi's chronic knee problems would limit her to no more than 14 minutes a game, and Carla Bennett, 18-year-old freshman from Omaha, became first her understudy and then her successor during that 1999-2000 season.

By all accounts, Tammi was a gifted mentor and Carla a capable student, as Bennett was Freshman of the Year and first team All Valley, and Drake went 23-7 and advanced to the NCAA tournament in 2000. With characteristic modesty, Blackstone says now, "She would have played a lot anyway. She was very good." Tammi had been MVC Freshman of the Year in 1996-97, a three-time first team All Valley, MVP of the 1998 conference tournament, and helped Drake to three conference regular season and three tournament titles in her four years. Even with limited minutes, she was a vital part of the Drake team, the last to be coached by Lisa Bluder, which swept the Valley her senior season.

The subsequent Drake teams on which Carla Bennett played would not duplicate Drake's MVC dominance of 1997-2000, but Carla was a key member of the Bulldog team which beat Baylor on its home court to emerge as a Sweet 16 qualifier in the NCAA tournament in March 2002. Playing 39 minutes against the Bears, Bennett scored a game high 29 points and pulled down seven rebounds as the Bulldogs, coached by Lisa Stone, won 76-72. When her career ended the next season, Bennett was the second player in Valley history to be a first-team All Valley selection all four years. (The other one is Jackie Stiles, for whom the league MVP trophy is now named.)

Tammi Blackstone and Carla Bennett remain No. 1 and No. 2 in career blocks for the Bulldogs. Each was a multiple year Scholar-Athlete, and each was a Kodak All-American honorable mention. Bennett picked up other All-America honors and was a Wade Trophy finalist. Blackstone also starred in track and field, where she set a Drake record in the discus.

After their playing days at Drake were over, these two friends stayed in touch. Blackstone, who graduated with a degree in sociology-anthropology in 2000, spent two years working for the Iowa Department of Public Health. Bennett took time off from classes at Drake to play basketball in Portugal, earned her degree in 2005 and was employed by the Iowa Department of Public Health. Bennett, who took time off from classes at Drake to play basketball internationally, earned a degree in journalism in 2005, and was employed by the Iowa Department of Public Health. About the time Blackstone earned her law degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Bennett was seeking enrollment to Notre Dame Law School in Indiana, where she is now finishing her second year. Between her second and third years in law school, Tammi Blackstone served a summer internship with the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia. This summer Bennett will also intern, in Philadelphia.

After completing law school at the University of Colorado in 2005, Tammi Blackstone returned to Iowa (she is originally from Cherokee in northwest Iowa) and is an associate with Gaudineer, Comito & George in West Des Moines. She is in general practice and specializes in the area of family law. She also teaches preparation classes for students seeking entry to graduate business and law schools, and finds that teaching these evening classes sometimes prevents her from using her season tickets to Drake women's games. At Notre Dame, Bennett, whose Drake degree is in magazine journalism, is on the staff of the university's law journal. She still follows the Bulldogs, and has called her experiences at Drake unforgettable.

The two were fan favorites at Drake and even among their rivals because of their good will and amiability. They went to many university events and would talk to everyone who approached them. And it's hard not to love someone who lists her hobbies as "Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and frequent naps," as Carla did one year. They're also great citizens and take an interest in many things.. For Blackstone, one of these interests is music. A talented musician, she always played the piano before games, to relax, and she says she still relaxes at the piano today, perhaps before an appearance in court. While in law school, she began teaching a few piano students ("It's fun!" she says) and she continues that as well.

At one of coach Amy Stephens' Fast Break luncheons last season, Tammi Blackstone was a featured speaker and talked about her playing days at Drake, about her teammates and fans. She held up some notes that people had written to her during her playing days and said how much they meant, and still mean, to her. And I have the feeling that these two women, one back in central Iowa, the other a bit farther away, will be intent on following the Bulldogs--their Bulldogs--in the MVC tournament which begins this week. They, along with Rick Wanamaker, are "three for the century."

Pictured from left, on the evening they were among the former Drake student-athletes recognized by the Missouri Valley Conference as "Athletes of the Century," are Tammi Blackstone, Rick Wanamaker and Carla Bennett. Wanamaker, honored for his achievements in track and field, also is remembered for playing on Bulldog basketball teams of 1968-70, and the women were each honored for their outstanding contributions as women's basketball players. The picture was taken by an "innocent bystander" with Rick Wanamaker's camera.

Sporting News Names Drake's Keno Davis National Coach Of the Year

The magic continues.

Keno Davis, Drake's first-year basketball coach, today was named national coach of the year by the Sporting News.

"When Keno took over for his father, Tom, as the Bulldogs' coach after the 2007 season, the roster included two of the top five scorers from a team that finished 6-12 in the Missouri Valley Conference," the publication said.

"If that didn't portend a league title, a top 25 ranking and certain NCAA tournament bid, what would?

"The Bulldogs were picked to finish ninth in the Valley, but clinched the title with two weeks left. Using a spread-the-court style emphasizing teamwork and perimeter shooting, they got a road win at Butler and, at one point, rode a 21-game winning streak.

"In the Sporting News college basketball yearbook, Tony Jimenez wrote "filling his father's shoes and working with the scattered pieces left• behind" would be a 'monumental task' for Davis. A monumental task -- and a monumental achievement. Sounds about right."

Davis, whose Bulldogs take a 28-4 record into the NCAA tournament, were guided masterfully by Keno and didn't lose from Nov. 14 through Feb. 9. They'll take a 28-4 record into the Big Dance.

Tom Davis was the Associated Press national coach of the year following the 1986-87 season, which saw his Iowa team go 30-5.

Emmenecker's Job At Principal Might Have To Wait . 'I'm Up for Anything,' the Drake Guard Says As He's Being Compared To NBA Standout Steve Nash

All right, you know I've written plenty about Adam Emmenecker already in this spectacular Drake basketball season that is far from finished.

I've told you about how smart he is both on and off the court. You know that he has a brilliant 3.97 grade-point average, which means he's had only one "B" in his more than three years of attending classes at the university.

He's gotten "A" grades in the rest of his courses.

[And shame on the prof in that management course who gave him the "B" last year. It still bothers him.]

You know by now that the 6-foot 1-inch point guard, who came to Drake without a basketball scholarship, has four majors -- management, business, finance and entrepreneurial management.

You also know that the pleasant young man from Saginaw, Mich., has already accepted a job in Des Moines with the Principal Financial Group, a Fortune 500 company, where he'll participate in the leadership-development rotation which produces managers within the company.

What you haven't heard is this: Where does all of this leave his basketball career, or will there be a basketball career when Drake's season is over after the NCAA tournament?

I made it a point to ask Emmenecker about that.

"Would you consider playing basketball somewhere after you leave Drake?" I asked him.

"I'm up for anything right now," he told me. "It's hard to believe that, after 22 years of my life and with my life being consumed with sports, it's going to be over soon.

"So, yes, I'll listen to anything -- any potential basketball opportunity. Right now, the best thing would be to finish the Drake season, then talk more about it."

*

I asked Emmenecker if he'd consider hiring an agent.

"I guess I'd see what the possibilities are of playing at another level," he told me.

Pursuing a professional basketball career, of course, would mean Emmenecker would have to talk to the people at Principal who have already hired him. His job there would likely start in early-June.

He'd have to weigh the advantages of delaying his entry into the business world, if there are any.

Emmenecker has been the poster child of this Drake team, which has won a school-record 28 games [with only four losses] in a season that has seen the Bulldogs win both the Missouri Valley Conference's regular-season and postseason championships.

After starting only two games in his first three seasons, Emmenecker [shown in the photo at the right, courtesy of the Associated Press] was named the player of the year in the Valley's regular season and the most valuable player in the postseason tournament.

So it would be natural for him to be thinking about whether he has a future as a professional basketball player.

Indeed, Bob Wenzel, a former coach who was the commentator on CBS-TV's coverage of the Valley's title game Sunday, told a nationwide audience that "Emmenecker is starting to remind me of Steve Nash."

Pretty gaudy compliment, I'd say.

*

Steve Nash is earning $11.3 million this season to play point guard for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA.

At 6-3, he's taller than Emmenecker. He leads the NBA in assists with an average of 11.4 per game, and he's trying to be the No. 1 player in assists in the league for the fourth consecutive sason. He's also averaging 17.5 points.

Nash, [shown in the photo at the left, courtesy of the Suns] who played at Santa Clara, was a first-round pick and the 46th overall of the Suns in the 1996 draft.

Nobody knows yet if Emmenecker has what it takes to be another Steve Nash. But you can be sure he'd like to give it a shot.

And he certainly wouldn't be the first player who came to school in this area without a basketball scholarship who'd like to test the waters in the NBA.

Don't forget about Jeff Hornacek, who walked on [that's the strange term they use for not having an athletic scholarship] at Iowa State in 1982, then was a second-round draft choice of the Phoenix Suns in 1986.

The 6-4 Hornacek played from 1986-2000 as a shooting guard in the NBA, and he made a comfortable living.

So it can be done.

And we'll see what happens in Emmenecker's case.

But first we'll find out how far Emmenecker and the rest of the Bulldogs get in the NCAA tournament. They'll find out Sunday where they go and who they play in the first round.

Take Fans and Fun Out Of the Game and You've Got No Game. Also, Drake Coaching Legend Maury John Would've Gone Wild Over Keno's Amazing Bulldogs

As we all know, there are dumb things in the paper every day. Among the dumbest was a "Further Reflections" piece in Sunday's opinion section headlined "Rabid fans suspended in perpetual adolesence." In the third paragraph, the writer says, "After 60 years, I have found that many, even most, sports fans never grow beyond the fan-club type. For some, personal identity is nowhere to be found except as a sports fan." Later, the man writes: I used to go to college basketball games. That was years ago when Maury Johns was coach of the Drake University Bulldogs. Basketball was fun in those days. Recently I went to a Drake game where the league lead was on the line. It turned out to be a very good game. The problem was, I couldn't see or hear the game because of the entertainment getting in the way. Noise was king...." First of all, I don't think the guy knew Maury John, Drake's coach from 1959-1971, as well as he thought he did. Notice, I spelled John's name the correct way -- Maury John. The writer spelled it Maury Johns. There's no "s" at the end of the late coach's name. Obviously, the editors of the opinion page didn't know it either. They didn't change the spelling of the name "Johns." Now back to more of what what was written in the piece. I mean, where has this guy been? The term fan, of course, is short for fanatic. When did fans of any team make sense? Rarely. They're in the arena or the stadium for a reason. They want their team to win and they don't mind being entertained in the process. They go there to have fun. The "Further Reflections" piece was critical of the way Drake was constantly entertaining fans, but I can certainly remember when people weren't showing up at the Knapp Center, or Veterans Memorial Auditorium before that, for Drake games because nothing was going on -- mainly on the basketball court. Fans got in the habit of showing up at the Knapp Center this season in droves. Overflow crowds in the 7,002-seat building were the norm. The Bulldogs' fantastic success on the court was the main reason they were there, but the fact that Drake's athletic department saw fit to have the cheerleaders throw T-shirts into the crowd was a bonus. Rudy Washington and Tom Abatemarco wish Drake would've thrown more T-shirts into the stands when they coached. Maybe they wouldn't have quit, or been told to quit. By the way, Maury John was an entertainer himself. He was a master showman who would have been proud of the job Keno Davis is doing with this Drake team, and would have been happy that the Bulldogs are attracting huge crowds to their games. I spent a lot of time around the man's teams and games. He was always looking for an edge -- to the point where he once had the team benches moved to the other side of the floor at the downtown Auditorium, in front of the student section, for a game against Marquette. The Drake students were rowdy in those days, and used the opportunity to throw coins at Al McGuire, Marquette's legendary coach. John had the benches moved back to their usual place. And John was much more active on the Drake sideline than is Keno now. Indeed, even Tom Davis -- Keno's dad and the man who spent four seasons as Drake's coach, walked up and down the sideline more than Keno. All I've got to say is, the day you take fun out of going to a collegiate basketball game is the day you might as well close the doors to the arena.

*

DRAKE'S RANKINGS: 6TH, 16TH, 18TH

Drake improved in all of today's national rankings. The Bulldogs are 6th in my ranking, 16 in the Associated Press poll and 18th in the coaches' poll.

*

'THE BULLDOGS ARE PURE BASKETBALL'

In an e-mail headlined "An Amazing Performance," Mark Robinson writes:

"Hi, Ron;

"I talked with my son in Austin as the game transpired. In the second half, I told him that it seemed like Drake was imposing their will on Illinois State.

"The night before, Creighton tried to bully Drake in the second half; physically push them around, to no avail.

"This Drake team, certainly after this national TV exposure, will capture the imagination of basketball purists.

"And to me, the Bulldogs are pure basketball. I really will hate to see it end.

"Keep writing,"

Mark Robinson

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: You're right, Mark, Iowans and everyone else who is a Drake fan had better enjoy this every moment of every day. These kinds of things -- championships in both the Missouri Valley Conference's regular season and postseason -- don't come along all that often. This is an amazing basketball team Keno Davis has coached at Drake. There haven't been many defeats this season -- just four -- but it's sad to think that the next one [if, indeed, there is one] will end the season. So continue having fun in this fantastic winter].

*

CLIMBING THE LADDER -- AGAIN

Jay Davidson writes:

"Hi Ron,

"I'll be back in a while with a few observations on the MVC tourney, but thought I'd pass this information on about the Drake women. Amid all the hoopla in St. Louis, it may have escaped some folks' attention that the Drake women won two highly-contested games this past weekend to wind up in the three-way tie [with Evansville and Illinois State] for the regular-season MVC title at 13-5. In celebration of that, the Drake Knapp Center will open at 3:30 today for a 4 p.m. event that will include net-cutting and other festivities honoring the Drake women. Everyone is invited to come and share in the Bulldogs' celebration!

"The Drake women are the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Valley tournament in St. Charles, MO, and will play Indiana State at 8:35 p.m. Friday in their opening game."

More from Davidson:

"Ron, your column today drove me to read the Opinion section of yesterday's paper, of which I had read only the sports after returning from St. Louis late last night. I know the writer of the letter which Register editors placed under the "Further Reflections" heading. Before his retirement a few years ago, John Hicks was professor of art education at Drake, which means, principally, that he helped students learn to become art teachers. By all accounts, he was a very good one. He has remained active and I see him frequently at events at Drake. I think he makes some good points in his piece.

"Notice that Dr. Hicks does not say he was good friends with, or even knew, Maury John (to whom he apparently referred as "Maury Johns" and an editor left it that way). He merely says that he attended games when the late coach led the Drake program between 1958-59 and 1970-71 and that games were fun for him then. Then he says he had less fun attending a Drake game this season and tells why.

"I am sure John Hicks is not alone in noticing, or disliking, the number and noise level of the many activities which now punctuate most sporting events including Drake basketball. While some find these enjoyable, many of us would say that they are at least sometimes a distraction from the main event, the games, and that in some cases they may rise to a higher level of irritation. But there is probably no turning back from them any more than there is from the advertising (oral and visual) that accompanies practically all such revenue-generating sports events. For instance, every three-point goal by a Drake player at the Knapp Center this winter was followed by a brief commercial for McDonald's from the PA announcer. McDonald's is of course paying for this. Just a fact of life in 2008.

"The more salient point that John Hicks makes, I think, is his mild criticism of fan behavior. In full disclosure, I must admit to participating in some of this, until just recently I noticed how ridiculous others seemed. My only less than positive comment on the MVC tourney just past is that fan behavior in a few cases did not match the excellent manner in which the Drake team comports itself. I am not talking about Drake students, who in my view behaved appropriately. I'm talking about people who neglect to remember to 'act their age,' as one of their critical peers put it. Drake fans can always be proud of their team, but I wonder whether the players could say the same thing about the fans. In this context, we all need to remember the power of peer pressure--for good or for ill--at all ages.

"Just wanted to offer a few words of response to your column and the letter you quoted from. All the best,"

Jay Davidson

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: It just seems like yesterday [actually, it was nine days ago] that the Drake men's players were cutting down the nets in the Knapp Center after winning the Valley's regular-season championship. So, obviously, those new nets haven't been up there very long. I'm sure they'll be able to find a ladder so the women can climb up the steps and cut down the nets, too].

*

AND FINALLY....

What a shame it was that the TV network carrying the boys' high school state tournament games cut away several times from the Hall of Fame members and their families who were lined up and waiting eagerly to be introduced to fans at Wells Fargo Arena.

'You Couldn't Sell This Script To Hollywood'--Unbelievable Bulldogs Win Valley Postseason Title In Record Fashion. Now the NCAA Big Dance Awaits Them

I've been watching this Drake basketball team all season, and today's performance in the Missouri Valley Conference postseason championship game was its best yet. The 79-49 rampage past an Illinois State team had had won 24 games was incredible. The only game that would have come close to today's show of strength was Drake's 35-point blowout of Iowa State in early-December. The reason I'm saying that today's game was even more impressive was that Illinois State is a much better basketball team that Iowa State was in December, or is now. The Redbirds, who lost three times to Drake this season, might still get an NCAA tournament invitation, but -- as Seth Davis said in the CBS-TV studio after Drake had taken a 40-19 halftime lead -- "it's going to be a long seven-day wait." What he meant was that Illinois State certainly can't be sure of being chosen for the 65-team Big Dance a week from this evening after being smacked around by Drake. Indeed, I'll be surprised if any team other than Drake, which won both the regular-season and titles in the Valley, is picked for the NCAA. The game was televised by CBS, and I've been trying to think what appearing on the network on a Sunday afternoon in March will mean to Drake University in terms of promotion and advertising. Many thousands of dollars, I'd say. Indeed, some serious numbers. Prospective students and prospective basketball players saw the telecast. They heard play-by-play announcer Dick Enberg and commentator Bob Wenzel [pictured at the left] continually rave over Drake's players and their accomplishments in what has been a fantastic 2007-2008 season. The network even showed a few seconds of the 1969 Final Four game between Drake and UCLA, in which Maury John's Bulldogs nearly upset John Wooden's Bruins. I'd never seen that piece of tattered tape myself, so I'm glad I was watching. The only glitch in the telecast came when CBS' coverage of the Kentucky-Florida game cut into the start of the Drake-Illinois State game. The network finally got to the Drake game at about 1:20 p.m., with 5 minutes 11 seconds gone. Illinois State was ahead at the time, 9-4. But Drake obviously was saving its best shot for when it was on the tube. The Bulldogs went on a 19-0 run that propelled them to their 21-point halftime lead. The teams still had to play 20 minutes, but the game was over for all intents and purposes. Drake kept wowing the crowd in St. Louis, the TV viewers and the announcers by making ridiculously-long three-point field goals and playing strong defense with its matchup zone. The 30-point margin of victory was the biggest in a title game in the 32-year history of the tournament. The previous high was Creighton's 80-56 romp past Southern Illinois in 2003. Drake's Adam Emmenecker, the Valley's regular-season player of the year, was named the tournament's most valuable player after scoring 16 points and having six assists today. The Bulldogs shot a torrid 55.6 percent from the field, with Bucky Cox leading the scoring with 20 points and rebounding with seven. He also had three steals. "Emmenecker is starting to remind me of Steve Nash," Wenzel said of the outstanding NBA guard. Emmenecker came to Drake without a basketball scholarship, and didn't receive one until just before practice began last October. When the game ended, Drake fans flooded the court [shown in the Associated Press photo at the right] and later Bulldogs took time to pose for the cameras in the AP photo at the top of the column. "Think about these Drake guys when you're filling out your NCAA tournament brackets next Sunday evening," said Wenzel, a former coach who has been working as a commentator five years. "They can play against teams from the power conferences, and they'll be one of the tough outs in the tournament." Wenzel said at least twice that he thinks Drake will be a No. 5 seed in the Big Dance when the 65-team field is disclosed next Sunday. Dick Enberg, the CBS play-by-play announcer, is eight months older than me -- which means he's seen plenty of basketball games in his lifetime. He's the guy who used to say, "Oh, my!" a lot when an athlete did something specacular in a game. He could've said, "Oh, my!" dozens of times today as Drake manhandled an Illinois State team that has a 24-9 record. "If you haven't seen the Drake Bulldogs, now you know why they're the story of the year in college basketball," Enberg said when the Bulldogs took their 40-19 halftime lead. Enberg added, "You couldn't sell this script to Hollywood," referring to the fact that first-year coach Keno Davis had two starters [Emmenecker and Cox] who came to school without basketball scholarships, and now the team has won more games [28] than any previous squad at the university. The highest previous total was 26 by the 1969 Final Four team. Fantastic? You got it. Fantastic!

Record 27th Victory By Phenomenal Drake. Now the Bulldogs Are Playing Like They Want To Keep the Valley's Big Dance Action All To Themselves

Coaches keep saying the Missouri Valley Conference deserves to have more than one team in the NCAA tournament. Ain't gonna happen. Not as long as Drake keeps up this phenomenal habit of knocking down every opponent in its way. The Bulldogs, who are my 7th-ranked team but only No. 20 in the Associated Press poll and No. 21 in the coaches' poll, rolled to another victory today in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis. This time they decked Creighton, 75-67, for the third time this season. So now Keno Davis' team has won 27 games -- more than any previous Drake squad. The 1968-69 team coached by Maury John went 26-5 and finished third in the NCAA Final Four. This Drake squad is going to the Big Dance, too, and if it wins one more game it will be the only one there from the Valley. Drake dominated the regular-season schedule so much -- winning 21 straight games and streaking to a 15-3 conference record in Davis' first season as coach -- that no other team could come up for air. If Drake wins tomorrow's championship game from Illinois State -- a 56-42 winner today over Northern Iowa -- it will be the only Valley team in the Big Dance. The only way another team could go would be if Illinois State, which has already lost twice to Drake this season, upsets the Bulldogs in the title game. Today's victory was led by -- who else -- guard Adam Emmenecker, who scored 20 points and had a career-high 11 assists. Emmenecker survived a hard fall to the floor in the last half and played yet another tremendous game. Don't forget -- and how could anyone forget? -- he came to Drake without a basketball scholarship and didn't get one from Davis [shown in the Associated Press photo] until last October. Josh Young scored 16 points and Bucky Cox had 11 points and 11 rebounds as Drake advanced to the championship game of the postseason for the first time ever. Don't forget, Drake brought a lot of bad teams to St. Louis for other postseason tournament. This one is amazing -- like something I haven't seen for decades at a university that was known more for its pharmacy and business schools than its basketball programs before, first, Tom Davis showed up, then when he turned the program over to his son Keno for the 2007-2008 season. Just think, before today no Drake team had ever won two straight games in the 32-year history of the Valley tournament. Never say miracles can't happen.

Making Sure Your Stream Is Strong. Also, Hopefully, Your Urologist Uses Just One Hand for THAT! Exam

I was talking to a guy I know about his recent visit to a urologist.

"It was time for my yearly prostate exam," the guy explained.

"It's something I hate to have done, but I know I have to do it."

"How'd it go?" I asked.

"Well, my urologist is a funny guy. When he told me to bend over and drop my pants, I said, 'Haven't they figured out a better way to do this test?'

"The only alternative is for me to use both of my hands," he said.

*

Even though his doctor's humor didn't make him feel any better, the guy got good news from the urologist's office three days later.

Blood work always is part of the prostate exam, too, of course.

"Your bloodwork came back very good," the nurse said.

"What were my numbers?" asked the guy, who thought he was impressing her by letting her know there were some PSA numbers involved.

"Well, let's see. You had 0.86, which is outstanding."

[For all of you non-mathematicians out there, 0.86 is less than 1.]

I looked up on the Internet what PSA stands for, and found out that it's short for prostate specific antigen, which is a protein produced by the prostate cells. A PSA of 1.5 or higher indicates that you a man could have an enlarged prostate.

The main fear, of course, is that an enlarging prostate could be a sign of cancer. If you're like me, you always seem to be hearing about guys who have developed prostate cancer.

So it's a good thing -- if you're over 40 years of age -- to see your urologist once a year so he [or she] can do the manual exam [which, in medical terms, is called digital rectal test] as well as the bloodwork.

But make sure you tell the doctor to use only one hand when he [or she] does the manual exam.

^

Sometimes a urologist will ask a guy about his stream.

That might seem like a personal question, but a weak stream is not something anyone brags about.

The guy I know who went to his doctor said his stream was strong.

I told him I didn't need to know any more about that.

*

DEAD OR ALIVE

Scott Pierce wrote to me after I had fun with the correction in the paper that said a man wasn't really dead.

Someone in the sports department of the paper had written about a guy, and said he was deceased.

It turned out the man was very much alive.

"I saw that in the Register, too," Pierce wrote. "Did you ever see the John Wayne movie Big Jake with The Duke as Jacob McCandles?

"Why, Mr. McCandles, I thought you wuz dead," says a soon-to-be dead bad guy.

"'Not hardly,' replies The Duke."

[RON MALY'S COMMENT: I still want to know if the guy who the paper said is dead was the person who called in the correction].

*

[Cartoon courtesy of Noel Graham/Left Field Cartoons. Phoro of John Wayne courtesy of the Internet].

Toto Wasn't In the Building, But the High-Flying Bulldogs Were Somewhere Over the Rainbow In 68-46 Romp That Gives Them a Record-Tying 26th Victory

If you ask me, Drake's basketball team did all of the things this afternoon that have made it one of the nation's very best. In their 68-46 cruise past Indiana State in the quarterfinal round of the Missouri Valley Conference's postseason tournament at St. Louis, the Bulldogs got the most superb performance yet from conference player of the year Adam Emmenecker, got another show-stopping slam-dunk from high-flying Leonard Houston, got a whole lot of scoring balance and got a lot of strong defense. And, oh, yes, the mastermind of all of this unbelievable stuff -- first-year head coach Keno Davis -- continued adding to his resume. The 36-year-old Keno is already the Valley's coach of the year, he'll be announced as the winner of one, if not several, national coach of the year honors in a matter of weeks, and other unbelievable things just keep happening for him. Now Keno's team -- No. 7 in my rankings, No. 20 in the AP poll and No. 21 in the coaches' poll -- has a 26-4 record, and the 26 victories match the school record Maury John's 1968-69 team piled up. All the 68-69 group did was advance to the NCAA Final Four, almost upset eventual national champion UCLA [the Bruins won, 85-82] and wallop North Carolina, 104-84, in the third-place game. "If there was any shred of doubt that Drake belongs in the NCAA tournament, there no longer is any doubt," play-by-play announcer Mitch Holthus [pictured at the left] said on Fox Sports Midwest TV. Well, I know I wasn't doubting the Bulldogs would go to the Big Dance. The only questions I have are, how high will they be seeded and where will they play? I know they'll play Creighton tomorrow in the Valley semifinals, but there's definitely a Big Dance on the horizon for them. A couple of signs hoisted by Drake fans in the arena said, "KENO FOR COACH OF THE YEAR" and "SHALL WE DANCE?" -- as in 65-team NCAA Big Dance. Emmenecker, who came to Drake without a basketball scholarship and wasn't awarded one until last October, was sensational two days after being named the Valley's player of the year. He scored 13 points, had a career-high 10 rebounds and five assists. The young guy stands only 6-1, so he's not supposed to get all those rebounds, but he joked after today's game that his teammates must have boxed out so he could get to the ball. Houston scored 16 points -- all in the last half. He performed another of those high-wire acts that got him on ESPN's SportsCenter a couple of times late in the season. On what started out looking like a monstrous three-point field goal try ["you'd get a hernia shooting from that far out," TV commentator Charlie Spoonhour joked], Bucky Cox alley-ooped the ball to Houston, whose head was shown well above the rim on TV while making a slam-dunk. The basket raised Drake's lead to 38-25 with 2:18 gone in the last half. Houston is in the Associated Press photo at the right on another offensive maneuver. Klayton Korver -- who scored 11 points -- launched a three-point try from the corner in the last half that Holthus called "a Judy Garland shot." His explanation: "Toto is not in the building, but that shot was somewhere over the rainbow." Goodness gracious. All these superlatives on a Friday afternoon. I wonder what my old buddy Tom Abatemarco was doing today.

An Afternoon Of 1-A and 2-A Fun At Wells Fargo Arena

 

 

 

 

 

I wrote last week about how I was driving near the Wells Fargo Arena/Veterans Memorial Auditorium complex, and recalled how things used to be. Before Wells Fargo Arena was even a dream in an architect's head, I mean. So, on a day when nothing else was going on, I made it a point to go to the big new arena and see for myself how the boys' state basketball tournament looks. I saw that HLV of Victor [and also Hartwick and Ladora] was putting its 25-1 record on the line in a 12:45 p.m. Class 1-A game against Northern University of Cedar Falls. I know some people who live in Victor, or have lived there. In my working days, I covered a championship game at the Auditorium in which Tom Goodman's HLV team was playing. The Warriors lost. I wondered if Danny, Don, Judy, Jazelle and the others with HLV connections would be at yesterday's game. I didn't see any of them. Indeed, I didn't see anyone I knew among the red-clad HLV fans. I noticed the T-shirts a lot of the kids and adults were wearing. The message on the back said, "Who Are We? HLV." I got one person to stop long enough so I could take the picture shown at the top of the column. Sadly, HLV's fans were better prepared for Northern University than the team. When I got to the arena, Northern University was leading, 10-7. But it didn't take long for the Cedar Falls kids to run up the score. They won, 70-51. In the old days, you'd have told you buddies that your team "got skunked." I don't know if they talk that way anymore or not. Maybe they have a different way of describing a 19-point drubbing. I saw three afternoon games, and the best one was between Western Christian of Hull and Pella Christian in 2-A. "This will be the championship game," a guy sitting behind me said. He could've been right. It was a heckuva game played between kids with names like Zeutenhorst, Van Maanen, Groenendyk and Welterstorff. You and I have both had Dutch letters -- the wonderful bakery they serve at the Pella Tulip Festival -- haven't we? Well, those names of the Hull and Pella players are the real Dutch letters. I'm glad I wasn't a radio announcer or a headline writer for that game. Anyway, Pella Christian took a 24-0 record into the game against 24-3 Western Christian. I sat among the Western Christian fans for a while, but it was a mistake. They stood up the entire game. So I moved to a place in the arena where fans were sitting, not standing. Anyway, Western Christian rallied to knock off No. 1-ranked Pella Christian, 67-61. Indeed, maybe it was the championship game. But I'd say St. Edmond of Fort Dodge might have something to say about that. St. Edmond brought an impressive green-clad crowd [pictured] to the arena, complete with a pep band and cheerleaders. I thought it was an early version of St. Patrick's Day. All that was missing was the green beer. St. Edmond was 23-1, Solon [whose crowd is pictured right above this column] was 22-1 in the 2-A semifinal. I'd heard a lot about how well Solon was playing, but St. Edmond didn't seem to care. Solon couldn't stop John Engler, who scored 34 points to send the Gaels into the title game. Solon's Matt Morrison scored 23 points and is back next year, along with some other talented underclassmen, so look for the Spartans to be tough again. It was an interesting afternoon. One team [St. Edmond] had a band and cheerleaders, some teams had cheerleaders and no band [Northern University, Pella Christian and Western Christian], some had no band and no cheerleaders [HLV and Solon]. It was interesting that the 2-A semifinals had two Christian schools [from Pella and Hull], a Catholic school [St. Edmond] and a public school [Solon]. I'll have to ask my friend Paul Delger of Kanawha if there's any difference between Western Christian and Pella Christian when it comes to spiritual teaching. Something I noticed that I never expected to see in the arena was a Marine recruiting kiosk [pictured], where kids were actually showing interest and talking to the recruiters, as well as an Army National Guard kiosk [pictured]. As you can tell by the picture, the Army guy looked like he needed a friend. I didn't want to get too close to him for fear he might ask me to sign up. Maybe the Navy and Air Force had recruiting kiosks, too. But I didn't look for them. I'm not interested in joining. All in all, it was a fun day. The fans -- at least the young ones -- probably dress more goofy than they did back in the old tournament days at the Auditorium, but most of them have a great time. It's too bad some teams have to lose. But that's been going on forever. Oh, one other thing. Remember, I said earlier in this essay that I wondered if Danny, Don and some of the others with HLV ties would be at the Warriors' game. Well, I talked to Danny on the phone late last night, and he said he was there. Sorry I missed him. Maybe next time.

*

[All photos by Ron Maly].

Drake's Keno Davis Is Runaway Winner Of Missouri Valley Coach Of the Year Award, And Take My Word for It, He'll Be Honored Nationally, Too

Take it from me, Drake's Keno Davis will be a finalist on every collegiate national coach of the year ballot -- and he'll be named the winner by at least one of the organizations that hand out the awards.

Count on it.

He deserves it.

It's been my feeling since midseason that Keno was doing enough to be named national coach of the year.

Davis was the runaway winner of the Missouri Valley Conference coach of the year award today in St. Louis. All of us knew that would happen.

He received 38 of a possible 40 first-place votes to beat second-place Tim Jankovich of Illinois State. Creighton's Dana Altman was third in the voting by coaches, reporters and sports information directors.

"This is an incredible honor," said Davis. "The Missouri Valley Conference has historically had some great coaches and does again this season. My father [former Iowa and Drake coach Tom Davis] has to take some credit for getting the program headed in the right direction."

Davis' Bulldogs hope to continue their magical season tomorrow in the conference tournament at St. Louis.

Drake won the Valley's regular-season championship with a 15-3 record and is 25-4 overall in Davis' first season as a collegiate coach.

Keno [pictured at the right] began being the talk of collegiate basketball when the Bulldogs reeled off 21 consecutive victories from Nov. 14 through Feb. 9.

Several groups name national coaches of the year, and Davis will be a strong vote-getter in all of the balloting. He's certain to be the winner in one of them.

It's not unusual to have at least a couple of winners in the voting. For instance, Tony Bennett of Washington State won the Naismith [named for James Naismith, who invented basketball in 1891] national coach of the year award, the Henry Iba United States Basketball Writers Association award, the Associated Press award and the Basketball Times award last season.

However, Todd Lickliter -- then of Butler -- won the National Association of Basketball Coaches coach of the year award. Lickliter is now Iowa's coach.

Keno Davis will join Bennett as the winner of a national coach of the year award in his first season as a head coach.

Tom Davis was named the Associated Press national coach of the year after his 1986-87 Iowa team had a 30-5 record. Keno was on Tom's coaching staff at Drake for four seasons before being named to succeed him.

*
Keno Davis joins Maury John [1964, 1968, 1969 and 1970], Gary Garner [1982] and Rudy Washington [1993] as Drake coaches to have won the league's top coaching honor. The Valley began recognizing a coach of the year in 1949.

*

Keno Davis will become Drake's second national coach of the year.

I think.

The Drake basketball press guide for a number of years has said that Maury John [pictured at the left] was named the national coach of the year in 1969 by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

John's 1969 team had a 26-5 record, narrowly missed upsetting UCLA on the opening night of the Final Four at Louisville, and finished third in the tournament after walloping Dean Smith's North Carolina team, 104-84, when consolation games were still played.

John is shown in the press guide with a large trophy, and the text says: "Drake coaching legend Maury John was named the national coach of the year in 1969 by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. John, a four-time Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year, is Drake's all-time winningest coach with 211 victories. He was inducted posthumously into the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame in 2000."

However, United States Basketball Writers Association records show that UCLA coach John Wooden was named its national coach of the year in 1969 -- starting a string of five straight times he won the award.

There's got to be some sort of screwup.

All I can say is this: The trophy Maury John is standing over on page 40 of the 2007-2008 Drake press guide is large enough to get the attention of any basketball fanatic from Drake to UCLA to Duke and any other place you care to name. He didn't get that for raking leaves in the backyard of his Des Moines home.

Hey, I covered John's teams, and I know how talented the man was.

*

A guy told me at lunch that John Lickliter, the son of Iowa coach Todd Lickliter, plans to join the Hawkeye program as a walkon.

In other words, without a basketball scholarship.

City High of Iowa City teammate Matt Gatens will also be a Hawkeye. He committed to Iowa as a high school freshman.

With the 6-4 Gatens and the 5-9 Lickliter, some people -- well, two or three anyway -- think Iowa's coaching staff may start getting things turned around.

*

A woman I know writes:

"I was at the Iowa-Wisconsin women's game at the Kohl Center on Sunday. If that was a crowd of 13,320, then I am a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model."

I told the attractive woman to never underestimate her chances of getting into SI.

But, like her, I'm not buying that "announced" crowd of 13,320 at Madison, Wis. Something tells me the folks counting the paid admissions got into the suds halfway through the job.

'I'm Glad We Were Able To See Brett Favre Walk Away On His Own Terms'

Let's get this going today with an e-mail from Rev. David P. Mumm, formerly of Des Moines, who writes about Brett Favre, the newly-retired Green Bay Packers quarterback:

"Hi, Ron,

"I know your primary emphasis and love is with college sports, but every now and then a 'tip of the hat' to a pro player is in order. Anyone who has followed the career of Brett Favre, whether they are a Packer fan or not, certainly has to be thankful for the experience. Yesterday he announced his retirement. No one was surprised, and yet, I suspect all who followed his career are at least a little bit surprised. All the records he set are a nice tribute to an exceptional athlete. I am glad we were able to see him able to walk away on his own terms, while he is still at the top of his game. Few athletes have the courage to hang up the spikes when they are at their best. The last season was a great season for the Packers, for all of us who are Packer fans, and especially for Brett and his family."

David P. Mumm, M.Div.
Senior Pastor
Concordia Lutheran Church
Machesney Park, IL 61115

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Pastor, thanks for the excellent tribute to a man who was a wonderful NFL quarterback. I know there are some skeptics out there who are already saying, because Brett Favre [pictured at the right] is announcing his retirement in March, he has plenty of time to change his mind and return to professional football -- perhaps with the Packers, perhaps with another team. The way I look at it, Favre has had lots of time to ponder his retirement [after all, he's been the subject of retirement rumors for the past four or five years], so I figure he won't put his pads on again. I do hope, however, Favre is able to contribute something to the game in the future. I can see him joining one of the networks that televise NFL games. He'd have plenty to offer from the TV booth on Sunday afternoons].

*

Good news for those of us who are hoping Drake's Keno Davis is named collegiate basketball's national coach of the year: Purdue lost last night in overtime to Ohio State, 80-77.

Purdue coach Matt Painter has been running a close second to Davis in at least one group of voters that will name the No. 1 coach. Last night's loss dropped Purdue's records to 23-7 overall and 14-3 in the Big Ten.

Davis' Drake team takes records of 25-4 overall and 15-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference into this week's league tournament at St. Louis.

It will help Keno's chances of being named the national coach of the year if his team wins at least a couple of games at St. Louis.

Don't forget, there could be as many as a half-dozen news/wire service/coaches/basketball publication outlets -- including this Internet outlet -- that name a coach of the year.

Indeed, the same guy might not -- and probably won't -- be the No. 1 pick by all of those groups. But Keno Davis could, and should, be a finalist in all the groups.

Drake's Maury John was named the national coach of the year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association in 1969 -- the year his Bulldogs went 26-5 and finished third in the Final Four at Louisville. John was a four-time Missouri Valley Conference coach of the year.

Of course, I've already named Keno Davis my national coach of the year. Nothing Painter has done -- or Bruce Pearl, the former Iowa assistant now coaching Tennessee -- can match what Keno has accomplished in his first season as a collegiate head coach.

*

Speaking of collegiate basketball, I'm pretty sure the new practice court they're talking about at Carver-Hawkeye Arena would've been able to strongly improve the 13-18 record Iowa has so far this season.

There's no limit to how many miracle victories a new practice floor can produce.

*

It wasn't a good day for the folks who write corrections at the paper.

But it turned out to be a pretty fair day for a guy named Larry Blaker.

He found out he's still alive.

This item appeared in today's paper:

"A story last month about the state wrestling tournament stated that former refereee Larry Blaker had died. Blaker is alive and living in Florida."

I wonder if Blaker called in the correction, and if he had to show proof that he was still alive.

And I wonder how many people have told Blaker that they thought he was dead.

*

The honors never end for Drake basketball player Adam Emmenecker.

The league's player of the year today was named captain of the Valley's 2008 most-improved team. Joining Emmenecker on the team were teammates Jonathan Cox and Leonard Houston.

Those three helped Drake to its first national ranking since 1975, a regular-season Missouri Valley Conference title and the No. 1 seed in this week's league postseason tournament.

Others on the most-improved team were Shy Ely of Evansville and Andrew Warren of Bradley.

*

Steve Alford says he's not going to Indiana.

As though anyone at Indiana wants him to be the Hoosiers' next basketball coach.

Hell, he couldn't even get an interview the last time Indiana was looking for a coach.

By the way, Alford is now coaching at New Mexico, which is a good place for him.

I think he looks good in Indian jewelry.

Adam Emmenecker's Name Mentioned In the Same Breath As Larry Bird -- Drake's Point Guard Is 'Overwhelmed' To Be Voted Valley's Player Of the Year

Drake point guard Adam Emmenecker climaxed an unbelievable regular season for the Bulldogs today when he was voted the Larry Bird Player of the Year in the Missouri Valley Conference. That's quite an accomplishment for a 6-foot 1-inch senior from Saginaw, Mich., who didn't have a basketball scholarship until the day before -- or the day after, he can't remember which -- practice began last October. Joining Emmenecker [shown being interviewed by channel 13 today in the photo by Ron Maly] on the all-conference first team were teammate Josh Young, Jeremy Crouch of Bradley, Osiris Eldridge of Illinois State and Randal Falker of Southern Illinois. Drake's Jonathan "Bucky" Cox and Leonard Houston were named to the second team. Emmenecker had 25 first-place votes for player of the year, one second-place vote and four third-place votes. Eldridge was second with five first-place votes, 13 second-place votes and eight third-place votes. Drake's Young was third with nine first-place votes, nine second-place votes and 10 third-place votes. When the question was asked if Emmenecker was a little overwhelmed at being given an award named after former NBA standout Larry Bird [who played for Indiana State in the Valley], he said, "Calling it a little overwhelming is an understatement. It's a lot overwhelming. I heard about it 15 or 20 minutes ago, and I was thinking of things I might say. I have to tell you, I'm not speechless too often, but right now I'm speechless. It's a tremendous honor." Let's put it this way: Emmenecker would be Bird's kind of player. Bird liked to shoot, and Emmenecker would give him the ball a lot. Emmenecker has been a huge factor in Drake's 25-4 season, including a 15-3 record in the Valley. He leads the Valley with a school-record 177 assists and leads Drake with 50 steals and an 81.3 free throw shooting percentage. Emmenecker is also the Academic All-American basketball player of the year. "I have to give a lot of the credit to our system and to the people I'm surrounded by," Emmenecker said. "Having four shooters on the perimeter allows me to try to put them in the best position to score. Since other teams have to worry so much about them, it opens up lane for me to score sometimes. There's no way I can do this alone." Emmenecker is averaging 7.7 points and 4.4 rebounds heading into Drake's 12:05 p.m. game Friday against either Indiana State or Wichita State. Asked what means more to him -- his assists average or his 3.97 grade-point average -- Emmenecker said, "Well, you know, I've had the GPA for four years now, so I think the assists average might mean a little more." Emmenecker carries four majors at Drake -- management, business, finance and entrepreneurial [thank goodness for spellcheck!] management. Since the Player of the Year award was first handed out in 1969, four Drake players have won it -- Jeff Halliburton in 1971, Lewis Lloyd in 1980 and 1981, Curt Smith in 1993 and now Emmenecker. The Valley's coach of the year honor will be announced later this week during the league's tournament in St. Louis. If anybody but Drake's Keno Davis wins that, athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb had better demand a recount of the votes, plus a congressional investigation.

'Little Boy Blue' [Continued] Plus Much More In Today's Column

The subject of "Little Boy Blue" is still on the minds of readers today.

Remember, I pinned the nickname "Little Boy Blue" on Brady Keno Davis -- the young son of Drake basketball coach Keno Davis -- in a column a couple of days ago.

Yesterday, I heard from Scott Pierce, the play-by-play radio announcer for Drake's women's games, that his son is already called "Little Boy Blue."

No problem, say my readers:

"Hey Ron,

"Just read your column and I don't see why there can only be one 'Little Boy Blue' at Drake. Scott's a good friend of mine, but I'd have to disagree with him on this one. Besides, his son's at an age where he's going to take exception to being called a 'little boy' any day now if he hasn't already! So I wouldn't worry about that!

"Another thought--you want to make sure that you reference the nursery rhyme 'Little Boy Blue,' because there was also a semi-autobiographical novel by that name written by Edward Bunker in 1981. Wikipedia tells me this. So maybe Brady Keno Davis could be 'Little Bulldog Boy (Brady) Blue. (Or LBBBB or something. How about a reader contest?) We could also make up a tonguetwister, maybe.

"Best,"

Jay Davidson

*

Scott Pierce jokingly [I think] threatened to call his lawyers if I persisted in calling Brady Keno Davis "Little Boy Blue" because his son already has that nickname.

Here's more on the subject from reader Susie from Sioux City, not her real name:

"Ron, I wouldn't worry about a lawsuit. For a few more months Brady Keno Davis could be called 'Little Baby Blue.' He might object to that as he gets older. Or since he's part of the Bulldog family, could he be called 'Little Blue Puppy' or just 'Little Puppy?' Maybe his parents would object, but puppies are very lovable."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I included the photo of Krista Davis, Keno's wife, and "Little Boy Blue" Brady Keno Davis in today's column that I used Sunday. There they are, little Brady Keno and his mom, both dressed in blue. Just so everyone knows, I'm not concerned one bit about any possible lawsuit over all of this "Little Boy Blue" fun stuff. Indeed, after I wrote that maybe Pierce and I have the same lawyers, he e-mailed me to say, "If you and I both have the same lawyers, then we both have the same incompetent lawyers."]

*

Jay Davidson, a longtime Drake fan, also kicked in with this e-mail:

"Hi, Ron,

"There were two worthy achievements by Drake basketball teams over the last few days--Sunday, the Drake women played a tremendous game on senior day to knock Illinois State (at least temporarily) out of possession of first place in the Valley race. With two regular-season road games remaining at Missouri State and Wichita State, the Bulldogs still are playing for a top seed in the MVC women's tournament opening in St. Charles, Mo., on March 13. And they are playing their best ball of the season now. Of course, the Drake men, led by three great senior leaders, cut down the nets when they concluded their 15-3 MVC regular season (25-4 overall) on Saturday afternoon in the Knapp Center. They're the No. 1 seed in the MVC tourney in St. Louis.

"Just a comment on your Sunday column. As Drake partisans, many of us believe that Keno Davis richly deserves to be National Coach of the Year, and that some of our players deserve national recognition as well (in addition to their academic honors, which really are more achievement-based than they are recognitions). This kind of thing highlights the distinction between achievement and recognition. Achievement is visible to all, measurable, and lasting. It's the record, the conference championship, the well played and memorable games. All the rest--the rankings, the national this and that--is nice, but it's subjective and ephemeral. It's really based on the opinions of others, and often they are others who don't even know the real story, or the full story.

"Maury John was National Coach of the Year, as named by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, in 1969. It surely was a nice honor and it meant something to him and to Drake, but the 26-5 record and being in the Final Four (although the national championship weekend hadn't officially been dubbed that yet) meant a lot more. And the next two years, when he didn't win national honors but Drake continued to excel with a different lineup each year, Maury was just as good a coach and just as deserving. So no one should get too hung up on these honors, which are really subjective opinions, mainly by strangers from afar. Not that they aren't nice! And when players and coaches get them, we need to remember the people who work in sports information at universities and all the work they do to promote their players and coaches. They are key people in this process!

"Really nice pictures in that Sunday column! Wishing you all the best, Ron,"

Jay Davidson

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Several groups hand out national coach of the year honors, and I already know that one of them has Keno Davis in a slight lead over Purdue's Matt Painter. It would help Keno's chance of winning if his team can advance through a couple of rounds in the Valley tournament this week. A one-and-done tournament wouldn't look good].

*

Mark Robinson of Iowa City also noticed the Brady Keno Davis/Krista Davis photo I snapped at halftime of the Drake-Wichita State game:

"My goodness, Mrs. Davis is drop-dead pretty. Never mind, thanks for all the great words for Drake, Ron.

"Speaking of recruiting to Iowa schools, I watched Harrison Barnes play against Marshalltown the other night on Mediacom. I am still trying to figure how Marshalltown beat them, but that is what Marshalltown does -- knock Ames out of the tourney.

"Ten times since 1991. And Marshalltown has been to the state tourney more than any other Iowa school.

"The Barnes kid, a sophomore, is outstanding. He could play at the collegiate level now. He was on visitation at the Iowa game on Saturday, the game in which Iowa scored all of 47 points.

"Hopefully, he was charmed by the Iowa club.

"My opinion: The kid will be headed to Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, anywhere but an Iowa destination. He's that good.

"Take care and keep writing,

Mark Robinson

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Harrison Barnes is a 6-6 Ames player who is already on a number of recruiting lists, and likely will be sought by most of nation's major-college programs before long. He's certainly no secret. The photo of Barnes at the left is courtesy of HawkeyeNation/Scout.com].

*

"Looks like the Register is going to put some people out of work and give their jobs to folks in India," writes Bud Appleby.

Appleby was referring to this story in Editor & Publisher:

"The Des Moines Register is taking the path of its other sibling Gannett papers and outsourcing part of its advertising production department.

"The move will affect five jobs, the paper reported. The Register has 22 artists in the department, according to Susan Patterson Plank, the Register's vice-president of marketing.

"The Register is contracting with 2AdPro, which has offices in Bangalore and Chennai, India. The company also handles outsourcing for other Gannett papers like the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Hey, anything to save a buck these days in the sagging newspaper business. And nobody seems to care how many people are put out of work in their own town. Sad. Very sad].

I'm Pinching Myself, and the Folks At Wells Fargo Arena Are Salivating

Hey, pinch me to make sure I'm awake.

Oh, all right, I know that can be difficult to do through the computer screen.

Especially on a Monday.

So I'll just pinch myself.

Yep, I'm awake.

And I'm glad to be awake now that Iowa's women's basketball team tied for the Big Ten Conference championship yesterday.

The celebrating began in Madison, Wis., where the Hawkeyes steamrolled [an old term from my newspaper days in the 1960s] Wisconsin, 87-78, and continued to 15,500-seat Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City last night where I hear that a handful of curious people showed up to congratulate Iowa's co-champions.

I want you to know that I'm happy about this co-championship. But even happier are the folks who will oversee the NCAA women's regional tournament later this month at Wells Fargo Arena in downtown Des Moines.

They're absolutely watering at the mouth thinking about having maybe Iowa, Iowa State and -- heck, why not Drake, too? -- in the tournament. The Bulldogs won the Missouri Valley Conference postseason tournament title to get into the Big Dance last year, didn't they?

Des Moines is trying to show that people will show up for big sports events at the big arena, so I hope Bluder or somebody can light a fire under folks at the University of Iowa to get them off their butts.

I know Iowa State's fans will be there in droves. With the Cyclones' men's basketball program continuing its freefall, the women's team is the only thing to get excited about in this long, difficult winter.

*

Now back to me being happy about Iowa's success.

Sure, I was the guy who wondered early in the season if Lisa Bluder would be able to keep her job. That might have been right after the Hawkeyes were clobbered [old newspaper term from the 1970s] at Iowa State, 58-44.

I pointed out that Bluder hadn't done much -- maybe not anything -- about improving Iowa's horrible attendance.

The Hawkeyes drew an average of just 2,987 to their home games in this championship season. Iowa State, meanwhile, attracted an average of 9,388 at 14,300-seat Hilton Coliseum. Drake averaged 2,809 st the 7,002-seat Knapp Center.

The announced attendance at Wisconsin yesterday was 13,320--outstanding for a team that had modest regular-season records of 16-12 overall and 9-9 in the Big Ten.


Scott Pierce, who does the radio play-by-play of Drake's games on KRNT, e-mailed me about a different matter -- so, in my response to him, I asked for his thoughts about Iowa's season and its home attendance problems.

"Good questions," Pierce said. "Without watching the game, I can't speak intelligently about the 13,320 at Wisconsin. For example, when we played at Indiana State, they announced a sellout crowd because a local booster bought the entire inventory of tickets and gave them out. But only about 4-5,000 actually showed up, in my opinion. In this day of 'announced crowds,' I never put the school's announced crowd with how many people actually set foot in the arena.


"Yes, Iowa has improved tremendously. Joanna Solverson has picked this team up and carried them. I'm sure after being out over two years, it took her some time to get into form. She's also a sixth-year senior. But she's been the key to their turnaround.

"I don't know why more fans haven't showed up at Carver-Hawkeye. At Drake, Lisa Bluder did a great job of public relations. I'm assuming she's doing the same thing, if not more, at Iowa. She's recruited mainly Iowa kids. I think very highly of that coaching staff, both as coaches and people.


"I know they've been disappointed in their record the last couple of years. But, for the life of me, I don't understand it.

"Then again, just me talking.....I think we ought to draw more fans. Check out the south side of the Knapp Center. There sure are a bunch of NCAA banners hanging there, including an Elite Eight and a Sweet 16. Based on what I see across the country, that should get you 5,000 fans a night.

"As much as I think of Bluder and her staff, I think Amy Stephens is an outstanding coach. She always has her teams prepared. And if another coach throws something at her she didn't expect, they always make an adjustment to it. I think the quality of her assistant coach hires is very similar to the quality of the Bluder assistants. When you make those kinds of hires, you're going to be pretty successful."

*

Now back to the original e-mail I received from Scott Pierce:

Ron:

"You can't call Keno's boy 'Little Boy Blue.' That nickname was pinned on my son by Laura Leonard at last year's Drake women's basketball banquet.

"We were in Cancun last year at a tournament. The last night there, we go out to eat at a nice restaurant. On our way back on the bus, there's a wedding party. A bunch of young, energetic (by that, I mean drunk), wedding party boarded the bus. One of the bridesmaids sat right next to me. I was wearing a powder blue shirt (ala 1969 Drake) and she started calling me 'Blue' in front of the entire bus. Well, Laura picked up on that and started calling me Blue the rest of the way. In fact, if she calls my cell, she says 'Blue....' and then begins the conversation.

"So, I take my 9-year old to the banquet last year. He went with me last year on a road trip and the girls on the team just had him eating out of their hands. Laura is
emceeing the banquet, introduces people, tells the story I just told you and said,
'So, tonight, we welcome 'Blue' and his son, 'Little Boy Blue.'

"So, my lawyers will call your lawyers."

Scott Pierce

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Scott's reference to Little Boy Blue was in response to me nicknaming Brady Keno Davis -- the son of Drake men's coach Keno Davis -- Little Boy Blue in yesterday's column. So if you're sure, Scott, that there can't be two Little Boy Blues -- or is it Little Boys Blue? -- around the Drake basketball scene, I'll be in search of another nickname for Brady Keno. Maybe I can get some help from his parents, and maybe his paternal grandfather, Tom. And, by the way, it could be that both you and I have the same lawyer. Then what do we do?]

*

By the way, I didn't think much of that headline in the paper today.

The one that said, TIE-TLETOWN, I mean.

Pretty high schoolish stuff, I'd say.

Come to think of it, I don't even think the Roosevelt Roundup would use something like that.

*

Drake's men are No. 7 in my national rankings today, No. 20 in the Associated Press poll and No. 21 in the coaches' poll.

*

Iowa's women's basketball team wasn't the only Hawkeye squad that had attendance problems this season. Jim Ecker of the Cedar Rapids Gazette pointed out that Iowa's men's season attendance average of 10,761 is the worst in 25 years at the arena.

Ecker also wrote that there were hundreds of empty seats at Saturday's Iowa-Illinois game, yet the crowd was announced as a sellout of 15,500.

*

[The photo of Iowa's women's basketball team courtesy of www.hawkeyesports.com. The photos of Drake broadcast commentator Laura Leonard "mugging with the California bear from our NCAA trip last year," as Scott Pierce put it, and Scott Pierce with his son courtesy of Scott Pierce. Scott said, "The pilots photo shows me and my son from a couple of years ago. He helped the pilot wipe down the plane, so the pilot took our picture in the cockpit."]

Keno Davis Remains My Choice As National Coach Of the Year; Biggest Threat Is Purdue's Matt Painter; One Loss Hurts Memphis' John Calipari

It was halftime of the Drake-Wichita State basketball game, and I went into the seats behind the Bulldogs' bench to look up Brady Keno Davis.

Tom Davis, his grandfather, told me Brady Keno was "over there in blue shirt. His mother, Krista, is holding him."

Sure enough, Krista -- also dressed in Bulldog blue -- was holding Little Boy Blue comfortably.

But, alas, I wasn't able to get Brady Keno's thoughts on the first 20 minutes of the game being played by his dad Keno's Drake team and a Missouri Valley Conference opponent called the Wichita State Wheatshockers -- mostly called just plain Shockers these days.

He was asleep.

Yes, sir, sleeping soundly amid all the band music, all the chanting and roaring from another sellout crowd and all the loud sounds from the public address system in Drake's final home game of the season.

Brady Keno Davis is almost 4 months old now, and he's already been on the scene for several Drake games, both at home and on the road.

Good thing.

This, after all is a historic season. Brady Keno's dad has coached the Bulldogs to a 25-4 record overall, and they celebrated the university's first Valley championship since 1971 yesterday by beating Wichita State, 73-63.

Brady Keno will have to be a bit older before he realizes the significance of what Keno Emlen Davis has done in his rookie season as a collegiate head coach.

This was a Drake team of which nothing -- I mean zero -- was expected this season. The Bulldogs were picked to finish a next-to-last ninth place in preseason voting.

But they reeled off 21 straight victories, clobbered Iowa State by 35 points, defeated Iowa by 5, Northern Iowa first by 4, then by 10. That made 'em the mythical state champions for the second straight year.

I hope Brady Keno's parents are keeping plenty of videotape of the season. The kid is going to enjoy this stuff in a few years.

*

I sat next to Mitch Holthus, the Kansas City Chiefs' announcer who does play-by-play of most of the games on the Missouri Valley Conference's TV network.

Holthus said the Drake-Wichita State game would have been on the Valley network, but the ESPN powers-that-be can always jump in and do a game they think will be of interest nationally.

So ESPN2 did yesterday's game, and Holthus sat between Tom Davis and I, and did most of his talking to us.

I, of course, have made it a point to say often this season that Keno Davis is my choice for national coach of the year.

Holthus [pictured at the lower left], who has been with the Chiefs for 14 years and the Valley network for 13, agrees with me.

"Keno should be the national coach of the year now that Memphis has lost a game [to Tennessee]," Holthus said. "You could argue that Memphis coach John Calipari should be favored to be the national coach of the year until his team was beaten."

Memphis is now ranked No. 2 nationally with a 28-1 record.

When I asked Holthus if he's ever seen a first-year coach do what Keno has done, he said, "No, not even close.

"To see what Tom Davis has done, then to hand the job over to Keno is, quite honestly, heartwarming. I just told Tom that it validates Drake's mission.

"These kids have not compromised Drake's overall mission as a university--they've enhanced it. They've done it by winning games and doing it the right way. It's an incredible story.

"In fact, in the 101-year history of the Valley, it's one of the best stories ever."

Because of such things as high academic standards and low athletic budgets, Drake went 20 years before Tom Davis' team had a winning season in 2006-2007.

Now, in his first season, Keno has given the university national attention that it hasn't had since Maury John took three straight Drake teams to the NCAA tournament nearly 40 years ago.

*

Still on the subject of the national coach of the year, I can tell you for a fact that Keno Davis is under strong consideration to receive the honor from one group of basketball experts.

Obviously, Keno will be named the Missouri Valley Conference's coach of the year.

"If Drake would have lost to Wichita State, you could have forgotten about Keno, but right now we're leaning toward him over Purdue's Matt Painter for the national coach of the year," I was told.

Painter's Boilermakers are 23-6 overall and tied at the top of the Big Ten standings with a 14-2 record.

*

Early in the season, I saw Tom Davis watching his son's team practicing at the Knapp Center.

I asked if he missed coaching. He said he did.

I asked him again after yesterday's game if he missed coaching.

"Absolutely," said the man who became the winningest coach at Iowa before coming out of what seemed to be retirement to take the Drake job. "It was fun."

"Do you watch 'em practice much?" I asked Tom.

"Not much," he said. "I stop by occasionally just to sort of stay in touch with what's going on. Anything I can do to help, I obviously do.

"But I'm like a fifth wheel out there."

*

I asked Mitch Holthus how old he is.

Pause.

I could tell I maybe was getting into some territory where Holthus didn't want me.

"Hey, I'll make you whatever age you want," I said with a laugh. "If you say you're 35, I'll say you look 25."

"I'm 50," he said.

Holthus looks 40.

There, Mitch. You owe me one.

*

I asked Tom Davis if he can actually believe that Drake won the Missouri Valley Conference title with a 15-3 record and now is 25-4 overall.

"I think it'll take a while for it to sink in," he said. "The significance of this year has just struck us. It'll take a while for people to appreciate just how special this team is.

"There are so many things working against Drake that people are well aware of. Then to achieve this under those conditions is pretty spectacular."

*

Before the game, Tom Davis introduced me to Mitch Holthus.

"Ron covered my games at Iowa," Davis said. "He ripped me every chance he got."

I looked at Davis, and he was laughing.

I was pretty sure he was bullshitting the radio/TV announcer.

So I went right along with the joke.

"You must have had me confused with Marc Hansen," I told Davis. "You always called me Ron whenever I asked you a question, and I always called you Tom. We got along very well in your days at Iowa."

Now as far as the ripping is concerned, maybe we should start talking about the guys named Dick, Lute, George and Steve.

They deserved it.

Some more often than others.

*

Speaking of confusing me with Marc Hansen, I'll tell you a story--and this one is true.

At least Hansen told it to me a few years ago, and he wasn't in the habit of lying to me.

Hansen was covering an Iowa football game when Hayden Fry was in the twilight of his 20-year coaching career with the Hawkeyes.

During, and maybe even after, a press conference, Fry referred to Hansen as "Ronnie."

Not just once, but several times.

I think my ears were ringing that day, and I wasn't even covering that game.

I don't know if Hansen corrected Fry, or why ol' Hayden got the two of us confused.

The next time I see Fry, I'll ask him.

*

Drake athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb was at midcourt almost as much as the players in yesterday's game.

By my count, Sandy was handing out awards during timeouts, at halftime and after the game five times.

Clubb and Drake president David Maxwell were on the floor at halftime to present plaques to "Double D" honorees Jody Busing, Bill Coldiron, Pat Meyer and Rita Harmening Pedersen.

The "Double D" ceremony is pictured above in this column.

*

Tom Davis hasn't been on hand for a Drake road game yet this season, and doesn't plan to go to St. Louis for the Missouri Valley Conference tournament this week.

"I don't want to be the story," he explained. "After another year, I'll just be another guy in the stands.

"Now, though, some people come up to me and ask what I'm doing and things like that. I'd rather have the team and the staff get the attention."

I've been sitting next to or near Davis on press row during the home games this season.

It's been a continual stream of fans who come up to him to talk and to get him to autograph shirts and pieces of paper.

"You sign as many autographs as the players," I told Davis.

*

I was walking out of the Knapp Center with Tom Davis when a man wearing a shirt that said "IOWA" on the front stopped him.

"Can I interrupt you for a second?" he asked. "I've been waiting for years to thank you for something.

"I graduated from the University of Iowa, but I was living in Washington, D.C., most of the time when you coached the Hawks. You have no idea what joy you brought all Iowans out there with those victories.

"We had an arrangement with a sports bar on the Virginia side of the Potomac that we could get together for big parties. That way, we could celebrate our common Hawkeye heritage.

"Congratulations on what you've done here at Drake. I've got my Hawkeye shirt on now, but I'm bleeding blue."

*

I wrote a couple of days ago that nobody knows yet if Todd Lickliter and Greg McDermott are in over their heads as coaches at Iowa and Iowa State.

Well, after what happened yesterday, we know even less now than we knew before.

Iowa losing to hapless Illinois and Iowa State losing to hapless Colorado is ridiculous.

Embarrassing, too.

All I can say is this: Iowa and Iowa State are pretty damn hapless themselves.

Let's hope somebody can recruit at both places. Things are looking bleak, my friends.


*

[All of these photos from the Knapp Center were taken by Ron Maly, or with Ron's camera. His editors say he's keeping most of his pictures in focus, but not all of them. Ron said he particularly likes the picture of Keno Davis' wife, Krista, holding their sleeping son, Brady Keno, at halftime of yesterday's basketball game, and the shot of the Drake student crowd showing a fan in costume holding a sign reading, "Cinderella Was a Bulldog." Tom and Keno Davis are pictured, as is the net-cutting ceremony after the game and seniors Adam Emmenecker, Leonard Houston and Klayton Korver holding the Missouri Valley Conference championship trophy. Emmenecker is my favorite to be named the Valley's player of the year. Also pictured are Drake's "Double D" winners who are named in the column].