I Feel Needed, So I'll Handle the 'Bulldog Buzz [Not To Be Confused With Biz Buzz'] Reponsibilities Today Following Drake's 67-49 Dollar Day Victory

I wrote earlier today about how the Des Moines Register has been shortchanging Drake's basketball team much of the season, and that it's time for the paper to be getting some "Bulldog Buzz [Not To Be Confused With Biz Buzz"] into the sports pages.

Since hard-working Andrew Logue evidently was the only Register reporter on press row for the Bulldogs' 67-49 victory today over Missouri State, I decided to help out as much as I could.

With the Des Moines Bureau of Team Gannett overwhelmed at the Outback Bowl and, since my 2008-2009 Drake credentials list me as being from the Des Moines Register, I'll go ahead and take care of "Bulldog Buzz [Not To Be Confused With Biz Buzz"].

But first let me finish my two $1 boxes of popcorn.

*

I showed up at the Knapp Center at 1:33 p.m. so I could take a walk in one of the empty gyms before the game started at 2:05.

It turned out I didn't need to be there that early.

Josh Young was a no-show until 2:43 p.m.

Actually, he was in the building well before that, but he didn't score his first point for the Bulldogs until 141 seconds remained in the first half.

Young, who came into the game with an 18.2-point scoring average, made only five of 15 shots [1-for-5 from the three-point line] while scoring 16 points.

"Missouri State always plays a real physical, aggressive man-to-man defense," Young told me afterward. "They just did a good job of applying pressure."

*

Jonathan "Bucky" Cox played an outstanding game for the Bulldogs, drilling eight of 11 shots [four of five from the three-point stripe] and grabbing 11 rebounds in Drake's first Valley victory in Mark Phelps' term as coach.

His leaping ability and knack of shooting 3's make him a dangerous weapon for a team
that lost its league opener at Evansville and couldn't afford a defeat at home.

"Cox is a good player," said Cuonzo Martin, the former Purdue player and assistant coach who is in his first season at Missouri State. "He can shoot the ball from the perimeter and he rebounds the ball well.

"Teams have to match his level of intensity, and we didn't do that today. He got key rebounds, he got key charges and he made some big baskets for them. He's all over the floor and he's constantly moving. Cox was the difference in the game.

"If you're not ready to play at that level, it's going to be a tough game for you."

*

Drake athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb and other school officials made the right call in declaring today's game "Dollar Day."

General admission tickets cost $1 and that's what Drake charged for popcorn and hot dogs.

With students on their holiday break and with the game being played on New Year's Eve, Drake drew a crowd of 6,018 -- just over 1,000 below capacity.

*

Actually, it appeared that the players from both teams got into the $1 popcorn and hot dogs before the game started.

With 7:37 remaining in the first half, Missouri State owned a 10-7 lead.

*

Phelps, whose team improved its overall record to 10-4, said, "It certainly was nice to be back home.

"We knew coming into the game that Missouri State plays extremely hard on the defensive end, and they were true to form there. I thought our guys did a pretty good job defensively--especially in the first half.

"We're still not where we can be--especially on the offensive end. But we're pleased to get our first conference win.

"Our defense is still a work in progress. There are times when we're good and there are times when we're not so good."

*

Phelps said, "You don't want to declare a game as being critical, but I think our players knew it's important to protect the home court in this league.

"When you play at home, there's added pressure because the road is so tough."

*

If you think I was upset earlier today when I wrote that it was ridiculous the Register didn't send a reporter to the Bulldogs' game at Evansville last Sunday, how do you think the people at Drake felt?

Drake officials couldn't recall the last time the paper didn't staff a Bulldogs league opener -- especially coming off a 28-5 record and the Valley's regular-season and postseason championships.

*

However, I heard at the Drake game this afternoon that the Register didn't send a reporter to Iowa's Big Ten opener today at Ohio State -- and I can't remember the last time that's happened.

Iowa lost, 68-65, but it would've been very embarrassing to the paper had the Hawkeyes upset 23rd-ranked Ohio State in Columbus.

Somebody named Ryan Suchomel of the Iowa City Bureau of Team Gannett covered the game for the Register's website.

There's that Press Citizen influence again at 8th & Locust in Des Moines.

*

Martin, 37, played for Gene Keady at Purdue from 1991-1995 and was an assistant and associate head coach for the Boilermakers from 2000 through last season.

I asked him what he thought of the Missouri Valley Conference.

"It's a good, talented league as far as players," he said. "You've got good coaches; it's one of those leagues where you don't have a game where you can say, 'That's a win.'

"From top to bottom, it's very competitive. You have to come to play every night."

These Days, the Way I Rate 'Benjamin Button' and Other Movies Is Whether I'm Awake At the Start and At the Finish--Just Like Certain Football Games

The way I rate movies anymore is whether I'm awake at the start and awake at the finish.

Come to think of it, that's how I rate certain football games these days, too.

I was put to the test last night while sitting through the 2-hour 48-minute showing of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." at the Cobblestone Theater in Urbandale.

The movie [a photo of which is at the right] is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

All I know is, if it was based on one of Fitzgerald's books, the movie would last for three weeks instead of nearly three hours.

Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are the two so-called stars. Pitt plays the role of a man who is born in New Orleans right after World War I.

The weird thing is that Benjamin Button [the character played by Pitt] is already older than 80 when he's born.

He then gets younger as the years go on.

Put yourself in ol' Benjamin's shoes. He's over 80 when he's born and in diapers when he dies.

But, as someone [probably Benjamin Button] in the movie says, "We all wind up wearing diapers at the end."

Oh, well. The scenery in the movie is good, and I didn't fall asleep.

*

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

Mark Robinson [pictured at the left] of Iowa City knows the newspaper and online businesses pretty well, and he's keeping track of the goings-on as they pertain to Team Gannett in Florida.

Here's an e-mail from him:

Hello Ron;

"Following is a link to a post from a Hawkeye fans website. According to the poster, one of the Gannett team's columnists (Sean Keeler) blogged about Mitch King throwing down the gauntlet with regard to South Carolina players' garb at a function.

"The poster left a link to Keeler's blog.

"I clicked to read. Keeler's blog is experiencing technical difficulties.

"Actually, I was relieved.

"Happy New Year, Ron. And I hope we can get together some day at that Asian restaurant with all the skywriters.

"Keep Writing,"

Mark Robinson

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Mark, you're a very intelligent guy who is well aware of the problems in the newspaper business. You and I both know that there are a number of difficulties -- technical and non-technical -- in journalism these days. You need to go no further than Team Gannett in our state, which now has Andy Hamilton of the Iowa City Press Citizen being a featured sportswriter for the Des Moines Register. Hell, for all I know, Hamilton might be named sports editor of both papers sometime soon. He's what's known in the business as a rising star. The biggest question now is whether he'll be picked to write a future "Bulldog Buzz" [not to be confused with "Biz Buzz"] at a Drake game. If and when that happens, Hamilton will have arrived. Matthew Holst of the Press Citizen is shooting digital still pictures for the Register's print and online editions in Tampa. It could be that his next stop will be manager of the Register's photo department. Register photographers could be moonlighting on weekends at the Walgreen's photo counters around town while Holst basks in the Florida sun, for all I know. The Des Moines Bureau of Team Gannett has sportswriters running around Tampa carrying video cameras -- trying to keep their movies in focus so they can hang onto their jobs for another few weeks. In that business [especially at Gannett], another layoff is just around the corner. Have a great 2009, Mark, and we'll see you over the crab rangoon].

*

SOME BULLDOG BUZZ IS NEEDED

Speaking of "Bulldog Buzz" [not to be confused with "Biz Buzz"], Drake's bssketball team continues to get the short end of the stick from the Des Moines Bureau of Team Gannett.

The advance on Drake's Missouri Valley Conference home opener today against Missouri State was buried on page 3 of the sports section, but the advance on a road game involving a so-so Iowa team that Drake thumped by 17 points is spread across the top of page 1.

I mean, the entire front page is made up of something Iowa -- football, basketball and wrestling.

Give me a break already.

There's got to be a balance somewhere when it comes to news.

Drake, of course, is always fighting for recognition, and no one should forget already that the Bulldogs had a 28-5 record last season when former coach Keno Davis put his team on the national map after a 40-year interruption.

It's always a struggle at Drake. Obviously, tickets to today's Valley home opener weren't selling briskly or school officials wouldn't have made $1 tickets [plus $1 popcorn and $1 hot dogs] available to fans.

if a "Bulldog Buzz" [not to be confused with "Biz Buzz"] was ever needed, it's now. Not a burial back by a radio ad for the Iowa-South Carolina game in the Outback Bowl.

*

Just one day until kickoff

Now there's an attention-grabbing headline for you.

I guess it was a slow news day in the Des Moines Bureau of Team Gannett.

Team Gannett's Game Plan: 'It's Your Turn To Do the Chat And Take the Pictures. Just Don't Tell the Readers Or Explain To Them What We're Doing'

Goodness gracious. Lots of things going on at Team Gannett as I wait to see how today's online chat goes with new Des Moines Register sportswriting star Andy Hamilton of the Iowa City Press Citizen.

Hamilton's chat from Tampa, Fla., will be at 12:30 p.m. for all of you Hawkeye chat fans out there who might still be wondering how a dead team like South Carolina wound up being chosen to play Iowa in the Outback Bowl.

The way I get it, you can chat with Andy about anything that moves you. However, I suppose Andy would prefer that you keep the chat to the usual burning Outback Bowl questions, such as [again] whether Shonn Greene will turn pro; [again] when Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker is going to retire and [again] how soon it'll be that Iowa's Kirk Ferentz is interviewed for the Cleveland Browns' coaching job.

But, if you prefer, go ahead and ask Andy why the Register's page 1 cartoonist was told to take a hike [a permanent hike] earlier this month. See what Andy says.

I won't be able to participate in today's Chat With Andy because I've got more important things to do -- like taking my indoor walk at Valley West Mall and making sure I've got enough 9-grain bread from Hy-Vee for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

But as I scan what Team Gannett produced this morning in Des Moines and Iowa City, here are some facts and observations:

*The Press Citizen is not only doing lots of the writing for Team Gannett at Tampa; it's also producing the photography. Matthew Holst of the Iowa City Press Citizen took the page 1 picture in the Register sports section of Mitch King and also the page 6 shot of Shonn Greene.

The Register chapter of Team Gannett evidently is doing everything it can to promote Holst's photo career. It's making all of his pictures big, like from one side of the paper to the other.

That probably means Holst will be a victim in the next Gannett buyout, which undoubtedly will come sooner rather than later.

However, Holst should be happy, at least temporarily, that Team Gannett is making his pictures big. In the old days, the big question when the bowl assignments were approaching, was whether Harry Baumert of the Register's Cedar Rapids Bureau or Dave Peterson or Bob Modersohn of the Register's Des Moines newsroom would be making the trip.

These days, the guys and girls in Des Moines can spend their time taking pictures for the West Des Moines Register, now that Conrad Schmidt has been layed off.

*Randy Peterson has some new video out on Mitch King, Matt Kroul and Shoon Greene.

*Peterson, who has been a collegiate football and basketball writer, high school writer and bowling writer for the Register [snd earlier the old Tribune] for more years than I [and probably he] can remember, is listed as a Press Citizen sportswriter in today's Iowa City paper.

Team Gannett can do wonderful things for a guy's career.

*Team Gannett's coverage of the Hawkeyes didn't reach as far as Iowa basketball coach Todd Lickliter's press conference yesterday in Iowa City--at least as far as the Register was concerned.

Pat Harty of the Press Citizen covered the press conference and wrote more about the strange Anthony Tucker situation.

Tucker is the Hawkeye player who was arrested for public intoxication earlier this month, and hasn't played much since.

People are starting to wonder if there's more to Tucker's problems than him trying to decide which Iowa City alley to lie down in when he wants to sleep off his latest alcohol binge.

The Register ignored the Tucker story today.

Oh, well. I guess we can't expect miracles from Team Gannett in these tough times.

*

As far as I know, neither the Register nor the Press Citizen has explained to its readers why writers and photographers are being shared.

That shouldn't surprise you. Newspapers historically are terrible at communicating with their readers about what's going on in their business.

If you want to know the truth, they're embarrassed about those things, and don't know how to tell you. Or else they think you're too dumb to understand. So they take the bull by the horns and don't say a damn thing.

*

TEAM GANNETT NOT THE ONLY PLACE WITH PROBLEMS

More coverage of Iowa newspapers.

In its Christmas edition, the East Iowa Herald of Victor surprised readers with this story, headlined East Iowa Herald to suspend print operations:

VICTOR - The East Iowa Herald newspaper today announces that it will suspend print operations after the Dec. 31, 2008, edition. Declining advertising revenue and a challenging outlook for the near term future are being blamed for the suspension.

With declining advertising and classifieds revenue, this is a difficult time for many newspapers across the country. Earlier this month, Gannett Company, Inc., the parent company of the Des Moines Register and Marengo Publishing Company, reduced payroll by 10 percent company-wide after reporting significant declines in revenue and falling circulation. Gannett’s reduction also included an announcement that two local papers, the Brooklyn Chronicle and the North English Record, would be shut down.

Also this month, the Tribune Company, parent of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy protection.

Last week, another Gannett-owned paper, the Detroit Free Press, announced that it would reduce home delivery to three days per week, becoming the first major metropolitan newspaper to step back from daily delivery. According to company reports and the Audit Bureau of Circulation, weekday circulation at the Free Press has declined by 15 percent.

Additionally, both the Washington Post and the New York Times, two of the nation’s premier newspapers, have recently reported losses and the Times has reported a decline in circulation.

According to Mitch Traphagen, owner of the East Iowa Herald, subscriptions and circulation were not the problem for the newspaper.

“Subscriptions have continued to come in - even up to this week,” Traphagen said. “As local businesses cut back due to concerns over an economic recession, that left only limited advertising dollars available to competing newspapers. As a new business, we haven’t been able to build up the resources necessary to overcome the financial hurdles during this period of economic slowdown.”

Also according to Traphagen, a suspension is being announced rather than an outright shutdown with the hopes that conditions could change to allow the newspaper to resume operations in some form. A decision as to whether it is feasible for the Herald to continue as an online-only newspaper will be made in the coming weeks. The newspaper’s Website, www.eiherald.com, has received more than one million hits since it began in January. Iowa County Publishing, the business that the Herald operates under, will continue to provide video, photography, and Web development services.

“This last-minute announcement is due primarily to waiting until the last minute to be absolutely certain,” Traphagen said. “We wanted to be sure there were no other alternatives.

In addition to sincerely thanking our readers and advertisers, I would also like to apologize to them for not finding a way around the hurdles we face. If there was any other viable option, we would have pursued it.”

Those who have sent in subscriptions since November will have their payment checks returned. All other subscribers will receive refunds for the unused portion of their subscriptions over the coming months.

The East Iowa Herald Website, email addresses and telephone number will all remain open for the indefinite future.

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: So it's not just Team Gannett that's having problems. I always thought weekly newspapers had the best chance of being immune to the troubles plaguing the journalism business. Shows you what I knew].

A Lackluster Hawkeye Basketball Team, the Outback Bowl, the New York Yankees' Ridiculous Salaries, Plus, Black Friday [Or Is It the Black Plague?]

A friend of mine who is a longtime observer of the sporting scene and the non-sporting scene sent me this e-mail:

"The Iowa Hawkeyes must start playing better basketball if they're going to win any Big Ten games. They are really a lackluster-looking team with almost no inside game, and they get outrebounded nearly every game. It seems like they depend almost entirely on the three-pointer. They do have some good shooters though. Carver-Hawkeye did look really empty [Saturday] night during the game against Western Illinois, but I think the roads were really bad and traveling was treacherous.

"Are you going to the Outback Bowl? I think Iowa can win that.

"Changing the subject to baseball, what do you think about the hundreds of millions of dollars the Yankees are spending on players salaries? Looks like they're determined to buy a pennant this year. I hate to see teams have that much money to spend and then demand a new ballpark financed all or mostly by the public. The new Yankee Stadium cost an astounding 1.2 or 1.4 billion dollars. I think the Yankees paid for part of that, but the taxpayers are still paying a big part of it too. They remodeled the old stadium not that many years ago, so I don't know why they needed a new one already. I wondered the same about the Cardinals and several others too.

"I remember something you wrote around Thanksgiving about calling that Friday, Black Friday. I agree with you 100 percent that is really stupid. To me, it sounds like something bad, like the Black Plague, and now even more ridiculous they called the Friday after Christmas, Black Friday 2."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I'd say Todd Lickliter has made some progress with his Hawkeye basketball team. A 10-3 non-conference record is nothing to sneeze at, but it's not yet a team that will have a huge impact on the Big Ten standings. I think this Iowa team will pull off some upsets in Lickliter's second season, but one of them won't be New Year's Eve when it plays at Ohio State. That could get ugly for the Hawkeyes. I'll be watching the Outback Bowl on TV just like a lot of other Iowans. I couldn't see spending any money to watch two fairly ordinary teams play a New Year's Day game. A team has to be pretty bad these days to not be chosen for a bowl game, and South Carolina is one of the really bad ones. Iowa should win easily. I don't know how the Hawkeyes can screw this one up. As for the Yankees, it'll be interesting to see how well they do with all their high-priced players. I've never been one who thinks money can buy a pennant. They had a whopping budget last season, too, but didn't even make the playoffs. The heat is on manager Joe Girardi. Just think, if he flops with all the ridiculously-salaried players in 2009, he might be out of a job by the All-Star break. I used to be a Yankee fan when I was a kid because I liked Joe DiMaggio. I thought he deserved his $100,000 salary. Now, DiMaggio wouldn't believe what's going on in baseball--especially with his old Yankees team, which will be playing its games in the atrociously-priced new Yankee Stadium [pictured at the right]. Thanks for your comments on Black Friday, a stupid term if I ever saw one regarding a shopping day. I hope the guy who dreamed it up got his toes stepped on when he was shopping at the mall the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas. Happy New Year to everyone. Well, almost everyone].

*

Another reader writes that the Hawkeyes' basketball program will certainly be better when the new $47 million renovation of Carver-Hawkeye Arena [pictured at the left], which includes a new practice court, is completed.

Nothing like a practice floor to kick-start a basketball program.

I'm pretty sure the reader was joking.

All I know is, I can't figure out how Tom Davis became the winningest Iowa basketball coach without having a practice court.

Somehow his teams were able to practice pretty well on the court where they played their games.

*

It's difficult for me to believe that the Des Moines Register placed the story of a very ordinary Northern Iowa basketball team on page 1 of the sports section today, and had the game story on Drake's 76-65 loss at Evansville on page 3.

The Bulldogs are coming off a 28-5 sdeason that saw them win the Missouri Valley Conference's regular season and postseason championships.

UNI went nowhere last season and is going nowhere this season. The biggest story will be whether coach Ben Jacobson is fired during the season or after the season.

The Register had no staff writer at the Drake-Evansville game, but had reporters at road games involving UNI and Iowa State.

Horrible.

The Register, like every other newspaper in America, is fighting a losing battle when it comes to circulation -- and the makeup of today's edition is a prime example of why.

*

I'm all for Andy Hamilton of the Iowa City Press Citizen being assigned to the Drake basketball beat fulltime.

He's getting more well-displayed stories in the Register than anyone these days.

*

I saw this comment on Twitter:

"Just stopped for gas in Des Moines that cost $1.45 a gallon. What the crap makes gas so expensive in Cedar Rapids?"

I'm surprised it took people in Cedar Rapids so long to figure out that they're getting screwed at the gas pump. Iowa City, too. It's even worse there. No excuse for it. I call it robbery.

Hawkeye Basketball Less-Than-Upbeat Heading Into Big Ten Opener At Ohio State--Tucker In Lickliter's Doghouse, Team Isn't Playing All That Well

Anthony Tucker continues to be a problem for Iowa basketball coach Todd Lickliter and the entire Hawkeye program.

Although Lickliter [pictured at the left] apparently didn't go into any detail in his press conference following the Hawkeyes' unimpressive 58-43 victory last night over Western Illinois, he was more specific in his postgame radio show.

When Iowa play-by-play announcer Gary Dolphin said to Lickliter, "Tucker didn't play at all, and that caught us off-guard," Lickliter responded, "We're still working through some things."

Tucker [pictured at the right] is the 6-4 freshman from Minnetoka, Minn., who leads Iowa in scoring with a 13-point average.

But he was suspended for two games after being cited for public intoxication and fined $182 Dec. 10.

Tucker sat out two games, but Lickliter inserted him into the Dec. 20 game at Drake -- a 60-43 Iowa loss -- and he led the Hawkeyes with 12 points.

I'm pretty sure everyone expected Tucker to play last night. I know I did.

But he sat on the bench in uniform throughout the game.

It's obvious to me that Tucker is again in Lickliter's doghouse.

ESPNU announcers Lou Canellis and Mike Kelley -- a fourth-team tandem if I ever saw one -- didn't have a clue why Tucker wasn't playing last night. They kept saying they talked with Lickliter before the game, and that the coach was still unhappy about the way Iowa played -- or didn't play -- against Drake.

But Lickliter obviously didn't tell the announcers that Tucker wouldn't play against Western Illinois.

In retrospect, I guess Lickliter used Tucker for 19 minutes against Drake was because the other players were doing so poorly. It was a desperation move. No one else scored more than eight points.

On his postgame radio show last night, Lickliter mentioned that Tucker wasn't feeling all that well in a loss Dec. 2 at Boston College.

That was more than a week before he arrested for public intoxication.

"Then he was off during the [Christmas] break," Lickliter said. Now he's kind of getting his legs under him. He's going to practice for a while before we're going to let him play because playing against Drake was a struggle for him.

"He shot [the ball] pretty well, but there were other areas [where he had problems]."

Pat Harty, an Iowa City Press Citizen sportswriter who covered the Iowa-Western Illinois game for his own newspaper and the Des Moines Register [evidently we can call this the Gannett Co./Iowa City/Des Moines Press-Citizen/Register from now on] wrote only that "Tucker didn't play because of what Lickliter said was a coach's decision."

Evidently, Lickliter didn't go into any more detail at his press conference.

*

The 17-point loss at Drake continues to bother Lickliter. The Hawkeyes pretty much were no-shows in their third straight loss to the Bulldogs.

Lickliter told Dolphin and radio commentator Bobby Hansen he still wonders, "Why were we the way we were at Drake? Why were we flat? I've been on [the players] pretty good. I haven't been real happy with the way we performed at Drake. I had higher expectations."

*

Dolphin pointed out that Western Illinois had a dozen offensive rebounds to just six for Iowa.

"Can you imagine how New Year's Eve is going to be?" Lickliter asked.

Iowa opens its Big Ten season at 3:05 p.m. Wednesday at Ohio State, which lost its first game of the season yesterday to visiting West Virginia, 76-48.

"Last year's game at Ohio State wasn't one of the most pleasant experiences I've had," Lickliter said.

Iowa was thumped at Columbus, 79-48, last season.

*

Iowa and Western Illinois played their game in relative privacy last night.

An ice storm invaded Iowa City and other parts of eastern Iowa, so driving to and from a basketball game was pretty risky business.

The person who announces the attendance figures at Iowa City said 9,941 people were in Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the game.

That man or woman must have thought it was April Fool's Day or was into the New Year's Eve bubbly several days early.

I watched the game on ESPNU and estimated the attendance at 1,573.

It may have been the smallest crowd ever to watch a game in the 25-year-old building.

While the game was being played, you could almost hear the voices of the people working in the concession stands high atop the arena.

*

Andy Hamilton of the Iowa City Press Citizen continues cranking out the sports stories for the Des Moines Register during Iowa's preparations for the Outback Bowl at Tampa, Fla.

More of that team effort from the Gannett Co./Iowa City Press Citizen/Des Moines Register.

I'm sure the Register is paying Hamilton a bonus for all the extra coverage he's providing for Des Moines readers.

More of that April Fool's Day stuff.

*

This just in from Tampa: "Andy Hamilton and Randy Peterson are on the same Gannett team down here at the Outback Bowl."

Drake's Phelps Has Done His Homework--Valley Is No ACC, But It Has 'Terrific Coaching, Great Players, Passionate Fans And Rich Basketball Tradition'

Mark Phelps has his eyes wide-open as he goes into his first Missouri Valley Conference basketball game.

Phelps, who is in his first season at Drake after being an assistant at North Carolina State and Arizona State, said this about the Valley:

"In terms of the importance of basketball to each school, to each president, to the alumni, to the community in general, in terms of the passion, in terms of the support, it's very, very similar to what I remember as an assistant in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Pac-10.

"Are the players [in the Valley] as great as those in the ACC? No, but I'll tell you what -- there is terrific coaching, there are great players, there are passionate fans, there is rich tradition at each one of the schools.

"That really makes the Missouri Valley unique among mid-major conferences across this country. There's really a high level of competition. It's so much fun to be in an environment like that as a player or coach."

Phelps Bulldogs take a 9-3 record into a 2:05 p.m. Valley opener Sunday at Evansville.

*

Here's an e-mail I received from someone who identifies himself as Strange Hires. I'm assuming that's not his real name:

"Let's see if I got this straight -- Auburn hires an Iowa State football coach who won five games in two years and lost his last 10 this season, most by huge margins?. ...Then Iowa State hires an Auburn assistant coach who just got fired with the rest of the staff?...Is there something going on here I do not understand?"

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS TO STRANGE HIRES: I realize these things might seem a bit unusual to someone like you who spends a lot of your time following University of Iowa and Big Ten football. But with Auburn's hiring of Gene Chizik and Iowa State's employment of Paul Rhoads, losers all across America are feeling good about themselves once again].

*

Speaking about strange things happening, the Des Moines Register had a page 1 story with a Tampa, Fla., dateline in its sports section today that was written by Andy Hamilton of the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

I have never heard of such a thing happening involving Register coverage of a football bowl game.

The paper has its own reporter in Tampa, but gave prominent display to Hamilton's story nonetheless.

Of course, the Register and the Press-Citizen are both owned by the Gannett Co. That's undoubtedly one reason the Register felt comfortable using Hamilton's story on Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker.

What I wonder now is if the Register's Randy Peterson and the Press-Citizen's Hamilton will be teaming up on other Outback Bowl coverage from Tampa.

*

It could be that the Register wanted to lighten the load on Peterson because the editors have assigned him to take video of the Hawkeyes for the paper's website in addition to writing newspaper stories.

In a note in today's paper under Video from the Sunshine State, the Register says, "Randy Peterson shot video while covering the Iowa football team. Check it out at DesMoinesRegister.com."

Well, I couldn't find the video, but maybe I'll keep looking. I say maybe because I tend to agree with others who say the Register's website is too confusing for most people to locate something specific they want.

Most people don't have the time to be searching a website for long periods when they're trying to find something. People are simply too busy to for stuff like that.

Telling a sportswriter to shoot video at a bowl game is definitely something new in the newspaper business. That's what's happening, though, at a time when people are losing their jobs every day in a dying business.

I mean desperate people do desperate things, and so do desperate companies.

I wonder what Maury White [pictured at the left] or Bert McGrane would be saying about all of this. Then again, I probably don't want to know. Especially when it came to McGrane, a longtime sportswriter in the Register's golden age.

I can imagine that all hell would've broken loose if some editor had said to McGrane, "Now don't forget to take your computer, your tape recorder and your movie camera with you when you cover the Outback Bowl."

He might have said, "What if airport security doesn't let me get on the plane with all that electronic stuff?"

"Blame it on Carolyn Washburn," somebody might've said.

Maybe it's time somebody told the editors to "Shove your Hitachi camcorder up your ass."

*

I asked Mark Phelps if he was alarmed that 6-8 Brent Heemskerk and 6-5 Adam Templeton were a combined 0-for-6 on field goals in Drake's 60-43 victory last week over Iowa.

I mean, there are going to be some games when Josh Young [who scored 24 points against the Hawkeyes] can't do it all on offense.

Actually, Phelps described Heemskerk and Templeton as poster children "for our mantra of consistent improvement."

"Overall, both of those guys have been good for us this year. I'm really encouraged about Brent's rebounding. He's playing more minutes than he ever has in his career, and he's shooting a high percentage from the floor.

"He scored 17 points against New Mexico, and he's doing everything we're asking him to do. He's playing really well on defense, he's rebounding and he's an excellent passer. At times, I think Brent defers to his teammates.

"Templeton is shooting 42 percent on three-point field goals, and he's been shooting free throws well. We like his rebounding, too."

Drake's Mark Phelps Has Already Beaten ISU and Iowa; Now Santa Claus Has Brought Him a Shovel, So I Figure He's Ready To Dig Into His Valley Schedule

I asked Mark Phelps today if Santa Claus was good to him.

I was fully aware, of course, that Josh Young, Bucky Cox and a number of other players on Phelps' Drake basketball team had treated him nicely before Christmas, so I figured I might as well get updated on how our guy Mark was treated by one of the world's favorite gift-givers.

"Did Santa bring you a snow shovel?" I asked.

"Mrs. Phelps/Santa Claus [whose real first name is Alissa] was good to me," Mark said. "And, yes, she did bring me a show shovel. And she did tell me to get out there around the mailbox or the mailman wouldn't deliver our mail.

"I also got a pair of boots because you need boots in Iowa. And I got a pair of gloves. You need gloves in Iowa. So I'm sitting pretty here the day after Christmas."

I also asked Phelps if he found somewhere to stay warm during Christmas.

"We actually took a little three-day jaunt back to Arizona," he said. "I was able to catch the Arizona State-Idaho State game in which Arizona State probably played its best game of the year.

"I was able to visit with friends and coaches -- including coach Herb Sendek of Arizona State [where Phelps was an assistant before coming to Drake]. So it was a good trip, and now we're back here digging in."

Digging in means more than just using a snow shovel.

Phelps' Bulldogs, who rolled past Iowa, 60-43, less than a week ago at the Knapp Center, open their Missouri Valley Conference season at 2:05 p.m. Sunday at Evansville.

The game will be televised by Fox Sports Net and Comcast.

With an 8-2 record, Evansville has been one of the surprise teams in the Valley's non-conference schedule. Under second-year coach Marty Simmons [who coached at Wartburg College in Waverly in 1996-1997], Evansville is off to its best start in 14 years and is just one victory away from matching last season’s total. The Aces have won all eight home games.

Drake has a 9-3 record in Phelps' rookie season as a head coach.

I certainly didn't know what to expect from a 42-year-old guy who had been on Sendek's staffs at North Carolina state and Arizona State.

But give Drake athletic director Sandy Hatfield Club credit. She figured Phelps was the right guy for the Drake job, and he's proving her right. The Bulldogs are making steady improvement as they prepare for what figures to be a highly-competitive Valley race.

Actually, little did I know what Keno Davis could accomplish a year ago in his rookie season with the Bulldogs, and all he did was follow his dad Tom Davis' 17-15 record with a record 28-5 finish that included the Valley's regular-season and postseason championships and a spot in the NCAA's Big Dance.

"Answer this for me," I said to Phelps today. "You're in your first year as a coach at Drake, you've already beaten Iowa State and you've already beaten Iowa. You're 9-3 as you head into the conference season.

"How does all of this make you feel at this stage?"

"Well, we're encouraged certainly," Phelps said. "especially coming off that game against Iowa. I thought we took steps forward with our team -- especially on the defensive end.

"We're focusing on improving on a daily basis. The thing that excites us is that, if we can continue to improve we can have a pretty good season. Our players are embracing everything we're giving them and they hunger and thirst to get better.

"That part of it is really gratifying, to be around a bunch of great guys who are saying, 'Hey, just coach us up.' We're improving in many areas, so it's very exciting."

Drake assistant coach Kareem Richardson was a two-year starter at Evansville and was an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator there from 2003-2007.

Richardson was named to the Valley's scholar-athlete team in 1996 and 1997. He also was a member of the 1996 Valley's all-underrated team and graduated with a degree in telecommunications in 1997.

Two Iowans have played prominent roles in Evansville’s success. Freshman guard Kaylon Williams, a former Cedar Rapids Kennedy standout, was named the Valley's newcomer of the week Monday afer averaging 8.5 points, 5.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds last week. He had nine assists, eight rebounds and seven points in a 72-40 romp past 2008 NCAA participant Western Kentucky Dec. 13.

Senior forward Nate Garner, a former Cedar Rapids Washington player, is one of the most improved players in the Valley, averaging 9.4 points and 6.9 rebounds while owning two double-doubles this season.

Merry Christmas From the Maly Kids & Aeropostle

Defending Champion Bulldogs Still Getting Short-Changed By Valley Schedule-Makers--They Again Start and End the League Season With Road Games

A few items as I wait for one of my kids to get the snow off my driveway so Santa Claus and the reindeer can get to my front door quicker:

MORRISON WAS THERE...

Mike Mahon pointed out to me that when Drake's basketball team thrashed Iowa, 60-43, the other day, it marked the fewest points the Hawkeyes had scored against the Bulldogs since a 35-22 victory Jan. 4, 1936 in Iowa City.

Ninety-one year-old Drake historian Paul Morrison [pictured at the right] attended that game. He was a freshman at Drake and had returned to his hometown of Cedar Rapids during Christmas break. He traveled to the game with his older brother, Holbrook.

"That was the first time I saw Drake play Iowa," said Morrison, who has attended 47 straight Drake-Iowa games since that time. "I remember I had to convince my brother to go to the game because the weather wasn't the best."

CONSPIRACY THEORY...

When Tom Davis [pictured at the left] was coaching at Drake, he suggested that it was the toughest coaching job in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Not only does Drake have difficult academic standards for athletes, Davis thought the university got screwed by the league on scheduling and the assignment of officials.

Davis theorized that the league office often sent second-rate officials to Drake's games.

As for the scheduling, sure enough, the Valley's schedule-makers didn't give any breaks to the defending league champion Bulldogs this season. They must open their league season on the road for the fourth straight year when they play at Evansville on Sunday.

And Drake will close its Valley season on the road for the fifth time in the last six years when it plays at Bradley on Feb. 28.

Mahon, who is Drake's sports information director, points out, "No other league school will encounter those type of schedules during the same time frame."

Evansville, with an 8-2 record, is off to its best start since the 1994-95 season.

IOWANS HELP EVANSVILLE...

Two native Iowans have played prominent roles in Evansville’s success this season. Freshman guard Kaylon Williams, a former Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School standout, was named the Valley's newcomer of the week Monday afer averaging 8.5 points, 5.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds last week.

He had nine assists, eight rebounds and seven points in a 72-40 romp past 2008 NCAA participant Western Kentucky on Dec. 13. Western Kentucky is the team that eliminated Drake from the 2008 Big Dance. 101-99, in overtime.

Senior forward Nate Garner, a former Cedar Rapids Washington player, is one of the most improved players in the Valley, averaging 9.4 points and 6.9 rebounds while owning two double-doubles this season.

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT...

Drake has won its last two home games against Iowa and Iowa State by a combined 52 points. The Bulldogs hammered Iowa State, 79-44, at the Knapp Center in 2007, and Saturday's 60-43 victory over Iowa.

IT'S BEEN 40 YEARS...

A 40th anniversary celebration of Drake's 1968-69 Final Four team is scheduled for Feb. 20-21.

A banquet honoring the team will be held Feb. 20 at All-Play in downtown Des Moines. Members of the 1968-69 team will be recognized during haltime ceremonies. Reservations for the banquet can be made by e-mailing Mark Kostek at mark.kostek@drake.edu.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK...

Can you recall the last time a mid-major basketball team has beaten schools from two BSC conferences three consecutive years, in particular teams from the Big Ten and Big 12 Conferences?

Drake continued its dominance of in-state schools by beating Iowa after winning at Iowa State, 66-63, on Dec. 9. It marked the third straight year Drake has beaten both teams.

Drake, of course, has had three different coaches during that time: Tom Davis in 2006-07; his son, Keno, in 2007-08, Keno Davis in 2007-08 and now Mark Phelps.

AN EMBARRASSMENT...

Evidently, there's no such thing as Hilton Magic anymore.

Magic as it relates to Iowa State men's basketball success at Hilton Coliseum, that is.

The Cyclones' 65-58 loss last night to South Dakota State was thoroughly embarrassing to the Iowa State program.

The Jackrabbits are in their first season as a Division I team, and they halted a 17-game road losing streak with the victory.

This looks like another long season for Greg McDermott and his Cyclones.

You've got to wonder how long Iowa State will put up with this kind of basketball.

MERRY CHRISTMAS...

Santa Claus just called on his cell phone. He's getting an early start in my neighborhood.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

No Respect: Despite Blowing Out Iowa By 17 Points, Drake Still Far Below Hawkeyes In Idiotic Power Rankings. My Advice: Don't Pay Any Attention To 'Em

This might be a good season for Mark Phelps, Drake's first-year basketball coach, to pull the "no respect" card out of the deck.

I mean, his Bulldogs are coming off a 60-43 victory over Iowa in a game in which they completely dominated the Hawkeyes, and the national power rankings don't reflect it at all.

I'm not talking about the Associated Press sportswriters' poll or the coaches' poll.

The people who vote in those deals wouldn't know Drake or Iowa from Mike Krzyzewski's ass.

I'm talking about the Ratings Percentage Index [from now on called the RPI here] and the Sagarin rankings.

It looks to me like both of them are compiled by idiots.

The RPI, which claims to take into account strength of schedule, has Drake ranked No. 110 among the nation's 347 Division I teams, and Iowa is No. 58.

The Sagarin rankings are no more accurate. A guy named Jeff Sagarin has Iowa No. 65, Drake No. 86.

Iowa State and Northern Iowa are so deep in both rankings that you'll need a magnifying glass to find 'em.

The Cyclones are No. 124 in the RPI and No. 119 in Sagarin. UNI is No. 149 in the RPI and No. 170 in Sagarin.

Somebody told me the "official" NCAA version of the RPI won't be out until January. What I saw was something called the "Real Time RPI."

Hey, if those rankings are real, so are Santa Claus, the Easter Rabbit and the Tooth Fairy.

All of which means it's too early to even be concerned with the ratings. Hell, maybe March will be too early to be concerned with them, too, if they can't be any more accurate than they are now.

They can't even agree on which team should be No. 1. RPI has Pittsburgh on top, Sagarin has North Carolina.

I know this. No one among the crowd of 7,152 that sat in on Drake's thumping Saturday of Iowa at the Knapp Center would have Iowa ranked ahead of Drake today.

The Bulldogs outplayed the Hawkeyes and Phelps outcoached Iowa's Todd Lickliter. Indeed, Lickliter heaped praise on Phelps [pictured at the right] after the game in both his press conference and on his postgame radio show for the job he's been doing in his rookie season.

Iowa never led in the game, and it was fair to wonder if the Hawkeyes were prepared either mentally or physically for an emotional in-state game.

I know any Hawkeye fan would be at least a bit alarmed at how easily a Drake team that's still getting accustomed to its third coach in three seasons could handle Iowa.

Oh, well, the Hawkeyes will get better, and so will Drake. Let's hope the people who run the ratings services do, too.

But my best advice is to not even pay attention to them.

The ratings services, I mean.

This may be the only time I bring 'em up all season.

It's almost Christmas. I still haven't sat on Santa's knee yet this year. See you later.

6-8, 225-Pound Jonathan 'Bucky' Cox Came To Drake Without a Basketball Scholarship, Now Eyes a Pro Career When His Collegiate Games Are History

The way I look at it, the biggest success story among the present players in Drake's superb basketball program is Jonathan "Bucky" Cox, a 6-8, 225-pound senior.

Tom Davis was the coach when Cox [pictured at the right] enrolled at Drake without a basketball scholarship in 2004.

Now he's the leading rebounder and the No. 2 scorer on a Bulldogs team that has a 9-3 record and is on its way to a third consecutive mythical Division I state championship.

Drake has already beaten Iowa State and Iowa this season. and owns 10 consecutive victories over the Cyclones, Hawkeyes and Northern Iowa.

The Bulldogs can make it a dozen if they win Missouri Valley Conference games Jan. 17 and Feb. 18 over Northern Iowa.

That's rather difficult to believe at a brain school that went from 1988 through 2006 without a winning record.

Tom Davis, who had been the winningest basketball coach in history at Iowa, changed the culture at Drake with a 17-15 record in the 2005-2006 season. Then his son, Keno, coached the Bulldogs to the school's best record ever [28-5] last winter.

Now Cox is playing for his third coach at Drake -- Mark Phelps, a longtime assistant at North Carolina State and Arizona State.

Cox has been around the program so long that he's 23 years of age and already listed as a graduate student, with a major in finance.

Tom Davis awarded Cox a basketball scholarship in his sophomore season, and the pleasant young man from Barrington, Ill., has made the most of it.

He scored a career-high 29 points and snared 16 rebounds in Drake's 101-99 overtime loss to Western Kentucky in the NCAA tournament last season, and he's shouldering his share of the responsibility for the 2008-2009 success.

The way the Bulldogs are playing, they're capable of making it to the NCAA's Big Dance again.

They've made considerable progress since opening the season with a 58-48 loss at home to Butler. That game was Nov. 15, collegiate football's regular season was still going on then, and I didn't get the opportunity to see the game against Butler.

Frankly, I couldn't believe it that Cox got just five field goal attempts and scored seven points in that game.

I guess Phelps couldn't either.

Cox told me the coach changed the offense immediately after the game, and now he and the other "bigs" are supposed to be getting the ball more.

However, Cox tried only seven shots against Iowa -- two from three-point range -- and scored six points. Guard Josh Young led both teams with 24 in Drake's 60-43 victory.

I'm thinking Drake needs to continue trying to get the ball more to Cox, who is the team's second-leading three-point shooter. Also, the Bulldogs need to get more from Adam Templeton and Brent Heemskerk, the forwards who were a combined 0-for-6 from the field against Iowa.

Whatever, Cox wants to continue playing basketball after his collegiate career ends.

"I definitely want to play somewhere professionally, whether it's overseas or in the U.S.," he said.

Cox is keeping an eye on the pro career former Drake teammate Adam Emmenecker is having in Germany.

"I talk to him every now and then," Cox said. "And he's coming back here for the Christmas break."

*

I visited with longtime Drake fan Jay Davidson at the Knapp Center during the Bulldogs' game Saturday, and got an e-mail from him afterward.

Jay told me he'd tried to send me an e-mail earlier last week, but evidently I had too many messages piled up in my account and he couldn't get into it. So here we go again:

"Hi, Ron,

"I'll try again to get an e-mail to you. The other day I was just writing to tell you I enjoyed your column about Gary Thompson and about CO's book about him. I'll have to pick up a copy one of these days. I've never known Gary but have always considered him a class guy. And Chuck's book about Wayne Cooley published in 2002 was a really good read. So I expect this one to be worthy also.

"On the Drake-Iowa men's game, you highlighted the most salient things in your column. The Bulldogs outsrcapped and outplayed Iowa in most facets of the game, and for the whole game. Josh Young had another outstanding game as the Bulldogs really dominated on the glass and from the line. I am not very impressed with Iowa's defense. The Hawks seem to play defense mostly with their bodies, arms and hands, not with their feet the way it should be taught and played.

"In this context I am reminded of two quotes, the first by one of my heroes in sports, Dean Smith, who often told Tarheel players and fans, 'Try to act like we've done this before.' He didn't like things like storming the floor, or ever showing anybody up. Two years ago it was understandable that Drake fans--especially students--stormed the Knapp Center floor after the big Bulldog win over the Hawks. Saturday, it was most appropriate that they did not, and I was glad to see that show of restraint, as well as the mutually sportsmanlike behavior of all participants at the end of the highly contested, if not terribly close, game.

"The other quote worth noting is one from Yogi Berra, who once allegedly said, 'Making predictions is hard, especially when they're about the future.' For those folks who have difficulty understanding how it was that I said what I did (in your column a few weeks ago) about Drake never having another season like last year's, one must reflect on three things about last year that will, in all likelihood, never happen again: Drake's history in men's basketball including the decades of futility, the coaching succession that occurred last season, and the sudden emergence of unsung student-athletes in the finest sense of the word, young men who came to Drake without any acclaim (not to mention in some cases athletic grants-in-aid) and who virtually came out of nowhere to lead the Bulldogs to their most wins ever in real storybook fashion. No matter what current and future Bulldogs do, on and off the court, the happy and remarkable circumstances that converged last year will never happen again. And that, among other things, was what I was talking about.

"All the best to you and yours, with every good wish."

Jay Davidson

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: This has the makings of another fine Drake season, Jay. Enjoy the holidays and the rest of the Bulldogs' schedule that follows.]

*

This e-mail is from Scott Pierce:

"Never mind this kid is from Urbandale. I guess that's not close enough to home for the Register to report on. Now, if he was a former Hawkeye or Cyclone......

"What would Maury White think?"

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/947600.html

Scott Pierce
Adventures In Advertising, Central Iowa
(515) 274-1112 x 104 (office)
(515) 707-0121 (cell)

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: The link is to an Associated Press story about Scott Clemmensen [pictured at the left], a New Jersey Devils goalie who was born here and played for the Des Moines Bucs in 1996 and 1997. As for Maury White, the late Des Moines Register sports columnist, he probably would've ssid, "What's hockey? Any sport that's played without kicking, throwing or dribbling a ball isn't a sport." Happy holidays, Scott.]

*

A former newspaper guy I know forwarded an Iowa City Press-Citizen story headlined, Basketball tradition now gone that was written by Susan Harman:

"A tradition dating back to the first part of the last century died quietly in recent weeks. The Des Moines Register no longer is publishing girls and boys basketball rankings.

"The demise of the rankings is the result of job cuts at the paper and a reallocation of priorities among the remaining staff. While most of the newspapers in the state used the Associated Press rankings, the Register always was the first with its preseason rankings and gave the AP voters something to consider in the crapshoot that is the initial vote.

"Only 11 voters cast ballots in the initial Associated Press boys poll, which came out Tuesday. That's better than the nine who voted in the first football poll, but the AP's high-water mark in football only was 15 voters. Realistically, it's best for the poll's legitimacy if more people participate and guarantee some semblance of statewide coverage.

"The website Iowapreps.rivals.com and Radio Iowa do weekly boys rankings. The Omaha World Herald has for years done rankings of western Iowa teams. But the loss of the Register's rankings only will serve to limit the discussion of prep basketball in an era when high school sports need every bit of attention they can get.

"In Class 4A, the AP voters had Linn-Mar, Ames and City High as the top three. Sioux City Heelan, Dubuque Wahlert and Harlan topped the 3A poll. Western Christian, Pella Christian and Solon head the 2A, and Rock Valley, Boyden-Hull and Cedar Falls N.U. High topped 1A.

"Iowapreps.com has the same three in each class, albeit in a different order in 3A and 2A.

"Radio Iowa's poll is quite different. It has Ames, Linn-Mar, Kennedy and City High in 4A and ranks West High sixth. In 3A, it has Pella as No. 3. In 2A, its leaders are the same but it also has Mid-Prairie fourth. The Golden Hawks are No. 10 in the AP poll and are unranked by Iowapreps.com.

"So there you have it. A few different opinions. Minus one.

"The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union puts out rankings for the girls, and the union has done such a good job that no other entity (now that the Register has bowed out) really challenges its dominion."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I'm sure Brad Wilson, Chuck Burdick and other formner Register sportswriters who specialized in reporting on high school sports are rolling around in their graves. Actually, Susan Harman is also a former Register sportswriter who covered the high school scene and used to rank the teams. I'm glad, though, that she's not rolling around in her grave].

Phelps Changed Bulldogs' Offense After the Opening Game, Added Toughess To the Team's Finesse, Now Gets High Marks In His First Season As Coach

Let me give you a prime example of how far Drake's basketball program has come.

When the Bulldogs wrapped up their crushing 60-43 victory yesterday over Iowa, their fans didn't rush onto the floor to celebrate.

They were happy, but it was a calm happiness as Drake won its third consecutive game over the Hawkeyes and their 10th in succession over a Division I team from this state.

Drake's fans acted as though they expected the Bulldogs to win over an Iowa team that came into the game with a 9-2 record. To the folks who bought the tickets, it was just a matter of how large the margin of victory would be.

When Tom Davis' Drake team thrashed an Iowa squad then coached by Steve Alford, 75-59, two years ago, Bulldog fans were so excited they stormed the court afterward -- just as Iowa's football followers still do at Kinnick Stadium when the Hawkeyes win a game they regard as meaningful.

Iowa never led in a basketball game yesterday that drew a sellout crowd of 7,152 at the Knapp Center, Understandably, the throng was overwhelmingly pro-Drake.

However, when Iowa was reeling off 27 straight victories over Drake in a streak that began in 1979, it wasn't unusual to see and hear more Hawkeye fans than Drake fans in the audience at both Veterans Memorial Auditorium and the Knapp Center.

Bo no more. Athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb has done a very good of job of selling Drake basketball to Des Moines and central Iowa, and coaches Tom Davis, Keno Davis and now Mark Phelps have been doing the winning.

*

Drake, of course, had a 28-5 record in the magical 2007-2008 season that saw Keno Davis sweep every worthwhile national coach of the year award.

There are some people who say that'll never happen, and maybe they're right.

But I said there probably wouldn't ever be a coach like Maury John, or a team like his 1968-1969 Bulldogs, That spectacular group went 26-5 and finished third in the NCAA Final Four.

So the words "ever" and "never" are strong ones.

All I can say now is that Phelps' team this season -- which now is 9-3 after a disappointing 58-48 loss to Butler in the opener -- has a chance to finish with a very good record.

Indeed, senior Jonathan "Bucky" Cox, who is among the guys playing for a third coach at Drake, told me he thinks this group has the potential to be as good as last season's team.

"We have a lot of new guys and a new coach," Cox said. "We had to adapt to his system. If we keep improving every day, we definitely have the potential to be as good as we've been in the past."

Phelps, who is in his first season as a collegiate head coach after working on Herb Sendek's staff at North Carolina State and Arizona State, is showing that he's got plenty of savvy when it comes to X's and O's as well as mental preparation.

Cox told me Phelps changed Drake's entire offense after the 10-point loss to Butler on Nov. 15.

"We were running an offense then that didn't match our strengths," explained Cox, a 6-8, 225-pounder who can be an outstanding shooter and rebounder, and he plays good defense.

"We're using an offense called 'cutters,' which enables the big guys to get more shots," added Cox, who is pictured at the right guarding Iowa's Jermain Davis. "Everybody cuts and there's a lot more movement out there now. It's almost identical to the offense we used last season."

*

People are noticing that Drake seems to have more toughness this season than in the past -- something Phelps likes to hear.

"I'd like to think our team will be known for mental and physical toughness," Phelps said. "That's something we talk about and try to practice.

"We're trying to emphasize being good at both ends of the court, being efficient, aggressive and not playing carelessly. I think we took a real big step forward defensively against Iowa."

Cox said Phelps "stresses toughness and we have toughness drills every day in practice. We do chest-to-chest drills and take charges. Those are things we didn't do last year.

"[Phelps] is a lot more intense than maybe Keno and Doctor Tom were."

Drake's zone limited Iowa to 31 percent field goal shooting, and the hawkeyes were only 8-of-29 from three-point range. No Iowa starter scored more than eight points.

The Hawkeyes' leader was freshman Anthony Tucker, who scored 12 -- all on three-pointers -- after being suspended for public intoxication.

Drake's Josh Young [pictured at the left driving to the basket and at the top with Phelps and teammate Craig Stanley [No. 3], scored 24 for Drake -- including 14 free throws in 15 tries.

*

Iowa coach Todd Lickliter heaped praise on Drake, and several times commented about what a good coaching job Phelps is doing.

But Lickliter is no doubt wondering what his team needs to do to get to the free throw line against the Bulldogs in the future.

The officials awarded Iowa no free throw attempts in a 56-51 loss to Drake last season in Iowa City, and the Hawkeyes had only seven tries yesterday. They made five.

Drake had only one more field goal than Iowa, but the Bulldogs had a huge 41-24 rebounding advantage -- led by Cox's eight.

When reporters were placing tape recorders in front of Lickliter after yesterday's game, he joked, "I see those recorders, indicating I might know something. But, after that game, I don't feel like I know a whole lot, to be quite honest with you. I appreciate the vote of confidence.

"I was really impressed with Drake as I scouted them and even moreso now. I thought they controlled the tempo and were the aggressors.

"The thing that's the most frustrating for me is that when somebody is driving at you hard, you think that maybe you might get a half-dozen charges. I'm not sure we got more than one or two. We've got to do a better job of taking position and making those kinds of plays."

Lickliter called Drake's shooters "terrific, but they also have a great knack for running down offensive rebounds. We couldn't do anything about it.

"One of the things they do is match up so well zone-wise. They do a great job of covering, and they don't foul. That's huge. That's got to be part of the theory to keep [opponents] off the free throw line."

When asked if he thinks Drake has added a layer of toughnes this season to the finesse it had in 2007-2008, Lickliter said, "I liked their finesse last year and their toughness this year.

"I thought they were a great team last year, and no one can argue they weren't. Now they're 9-3, and they're really playing well. They've got veteran players who have won.

"If you watch them and never look at the score, you would never know what the score is. They play the same consistent way. That comes with good coaching and veteran players."

*

Cox was involved in an emotional episode that almost turned into a free-for-all in the first half.

He got tangled up with Iowa freshman Matt Gatens, and both players were charged with technical fouls.

It happened right in front of the Iowa bench.

"And it happened fast," Cox said. "I called a timeout and some guy [Gatens] jumped on me. Then we began pushing each other. The refs did everything correctly."

The officials -- Steve Skiles, John Yorkovich and Lamar Simpson -- didn't call the technicals until they had watched videotape of the incident.

I walked out of the arena with one of the officials, who told me the crew was assigned by the Big Ten Conference.

"There was a loose ball and a pileup," Lickliter said. There also was some emotion involved. It's an emotional game, and I don't think there was anything flagrant or unsportsmanlike. [The players] were separated quickly.

"The officials said Gatens had pursued the ball after the whistle. I know Matt well, and it wasn't anything intentionally flagrant."

Said Phelps: "I really didn't see [the incident]. It was a matter of two teams getting after it. There was no bad blood at all. The refs did what they had to do. I don't think it was a bad incident at all."

*

Thanks, Paul Morrison.

Again.

This announcement was made at the 10-minute mark of yesterday's game:

"Ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention to center court, where the Missouri Valley Conference is making a special presentation to Drake living legend Paul Morrison.

"Each year, the Valley presents the Paul Morrison Award to honor those individuals who have made significant contributions to their rsspective league-member institutions, the conference or collegiate athletics in general.

"Originally known as the MVC's award of merit, the honor was renamed the Paul Morrison Award in the fall of 2007 to salute Paul's longtime service to Drake University and the Missouri Valley Conference as a whole.

"Today, MVC associate commissioner for marketing and television Jack Watkins is presenting Paul with his portrait that will hang in the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame, alongside Drake representatives Maury John, Wanda Ford, Johnny Bright, Bob Ehrhart, Carole Baumgarten and Kevin Little.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Morrison!"

Hey, the man deserves every award they give him.

*

Photos courtesy of the Associated Press

Tempers Flare, But the Only Thing That Mattered Was How Drake's Relentless Defense and Free Throw Shooting Buried Iowa For Record 3rd Straight Time

Josh Young scored 24 points and Drake used a big free throw advantage to overwhelm Iowa, 60-43, in a huge intrastate game today at a sold-out Knapp Center.

Young [No. 20 in the photo at the right] made 14 of 15 free throws. As a team, Iowa attempted just seven.

Drake was 23-of-29 from the free throw line. The Bulldogs had only one more field goal than Iowa.

The game was officiated by a crew assigned by the Big Ten Conference, of which Iowa is a member.

A roaring crowd of 7,152 watched Josh Parker add 14 points for the Bulldogs [9-3], who beat Iowa for the third straight time and now have 10 straight victories over their major in-state rivals -- Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa.

Drake, under first-year coach Mark Phelps, now has beaten Iowa State and Iowa en route to what Bulldog fans hope will be a third consecutive mythical state championship.

Drake's fans took the in-state victory so casually that they didn't run onto the floor after the game. When the Bulldogs, then coached by Tom Davis, ripped Steve Alford's Iowa team, 76-59, two years ago at the Knapp Center, their fans dashed onto the court afterward.

Drake's relentless defense smothered an Iowa team that was feeling pretty good about itself after coming into the game with a 9-2 record.

But the Hawkeyes had no answers for a Drake team that's making bigtime improvement after opening the season with a loss to Butler. The Bulldogs now have a 9-3 record.

Anthony Tucker, playing for the first time in three games, led Iowa with 12 points. Tucker had been suspended for the Hawkeyes' two previous games after being charged with public intoxication.

Let's put it this way, Iowa would have been a sorry bunch if coach Todd Lickliter hadn't decided to put Tucker into the game.

With both teams coming off final examinations, the game was sloppy at times and slowed by 40 fouls -- 26 on Iowa. Drake outscored Iowa 23-5 on free throws and outrebounded the Hawkeyes 41-24.

Tempers flared late in the first half [pictured at the left and top] when Iowa's Matt Gatens dived on top of Drake's Jonathan "Bucky" Cox during a scramble for a loose ball. Players from both teams surrounded the two and some Drake players started leaving their bench at the other end of the floor but were stopped by the coaches [Drake's Mark Phelps at the left and Iowa's Todd Lickliter at the right in photo at the left].

The officials restored order quickly and Gatens and Cox each were given a technical foul.

It marked the first time in the 63-game series history that Drake has won three straight games over Iowa.

Iowa's 43 points were its fewest scored against Drake since a 35-22 victory Feb. 3, 1936.

Drake held Iowa to a season-low in scoring, field goal shooting [.313] and three-point field goal shooting [.276.]

Iowa had entered the game leading the Big Ten in field goal percentage [.489, while ranking 10th nationally in three-point field goal percentage [.421].

"It was nice to be in an energetic Knapp Center," said Phelps. "Our players gave their most consistent effort of the season. We didn't play well on offense, but our defense played great.

"We can into this week knowing we needed to improve in a lot of fronts and our team embraced it."

*

Photos courtesy of the Associated Press

At 41, Ex-ISU Assistant Gets 5-Year Deal That Will Pay Him $5.75 Million As He Becomes Latest Guy To Take a Stab At Deleting Words Coaching Graveyard

I looked up and down Interstate 35 this morning and didn't see Brian Kelly anywhere.

He must still be in Cincinnati, where all he does is win football games.

Or maybe Miami, where his Cincinnati Bearcats will play Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.

Kelly was the guy I thought Iowa State should have hired two years ago to coach its football team.

Now, too.

Forget it. I guess Kelly's ship left long ago and never wanted to stop at the dock in Ames.

Well, at least Paul Rhoads knows the territory.

Iowa State's new coach is from Ankeny, which is just down the road [I-35, that is] from Ames and just up the road [again, I-35] from Des Moines.

So he shouldn't get lost.

Off the field anyway.

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard decided Rhoads, who had spent one season as the defensive coordinator at...ready now?....Auburn, should be the Cyclones' new coach.

Pollard is no doubt tired of hearing that he'd get only one more chance to hire a coach who would be successful before he [Pollard, I mean] would be sent packing.

That's the old "an-athletic-director-gets-just-two-opportunities-to-hire-a-football-coach" philosophy.

Pollard's first football coach, Gene Chizik, was introduced two years ago as he walked through some phony smoke at Hilton Coliseum.

Chizik left recently in a firestorm created by Cyclone fans.

Pollard wasn't very happy about Chizik's departure either.

Hey, at least Rhoads was on Dan McCarney's staff at Iowa State.

McCarney should never have been fired by Pollard, but maybe some of Dan's coaching rubbed off on Rhoads.

See, I'm trying to be positive.

I have not used the term coaching graveyard one time in the last couple of days.

Auburn had a 5-7 record in 2008 [Rhoads' only season at the school], and that's what got Tommy Tuberville fired as the head coach.

Auburn is the university that just took Chizik off of Iowa State's hands. Chizik, who had a less-than-spectacular 5-19 record with the Cyclones, was for some reason hired to lead Auburn's program.

Good riddance.

Here's what Iowa State put on its website this morning about Rhodes [with some editing by me]:

Paul Rhoads, a highly successful and charismatic defensive coordinator at both Pittsburgh and Auburn and a former Cyclone assistant coach, is returning home to become head football coach at Iowa State University.

The announcement was made this morning by Iowa State president Gregory Geoffroy and athletic director Jamie Pollard. Rhoads will be introduced to reporters at a 5 p.m. press conference in the Jacobson Building and to Cyclone fans at halftime of the men’s basketball game tonight against Jacksonville State.

“Paul Rhoads is an outstanding and intelligent football coach, a highly successful national recruiter and has nearly 10 years of experience as a BCS coordinator,” Pollard said. “During our exhaustive interview process, he was the one candidate that clearly demonstrated both extensive experience and an extreme passion for and familiarity with our institution. In addition, and most importantly, he also has a comprehensive plan for how to be successful at Iowa State. He is a great fit for our institution.”

“I am thrilled to welcome Paul back to Iowa State University as our head football coach,” Geoffroy said. “He is a man of great character, has an absolute commitment to the dual goals of academic and athletics success, a strong love for this institution and a single-minded desire to lead our football program and inspire our fan base.”

“It has been a professional goal of mine to become a head coach since my dad introduced me to the game as a kid and I could not have found a more perfect place than Iowa State,” said the 41-year-old Rhoads. “I know how special Ames and ISU were to me during my first tenure and having the chance to return and lead this program reads like a Hollywood script. I want to express my most sincere appreciation to Dr. Geoffroy and Jamie (Pollard) for the opportunity.”

Rhoads agreed to a five-year deal worth $5.75 million in guaranteed compensation with incentives available to increase that total.

Rhoads, who grew up in Ankeny, coordinated the Pittsburgh defense for eight seasons (2000-07) before moving to Auburn in the same role last season.

Auburn is whe university that took old 5-and-19 Chizik away from Ames just days ago.

When Chizik was hired, Rhoads and others on Tommy Tuberville's staff at Auburn were in limbo. A number of them, perhaps Rhoads, would've been out of work.

Rhodes' resume includes a 2004 Big East Conference championship with Pittsburgh. Five of the defenses he coordinated ranked in the nation’s top 30 for scoring and three in the NCAA’s Top 12 for fewest yards allowed. His aggressive philosophy allowed Pitt to score 10 defensive touchdowns from 2004-06.

The Sporting News named him the best defensive coordinator in the Big East Conference two years ago. His Panther teams led that league in scoring defense, total defense and pass efficiency defense once each during his tenure. One of the highlight games of his Pitt tenure was the 13-9 upset of No. 2-ranked West Virginia in 2007. The Mountaineers gained 183 total yards, which were 292 below their season average.

Rhoads coordinated defenses for both Walt Harris and Dave Wannstedt at Pitt. He was approached by Auburn’s Tuberville to move to Auburn in 2002 after two spectacular seasons at Pitt but turned down the offer. Tuberville again offered Rhoads his top defensive coaching position prior to last fall and he accepted.

Rhoads familiarity with Iowa State goes back to his youth growing up in central Iowa but also includes a five-year stint as inside linebackers (1995) and secondary (1996-99) coach with the Cyclones. He was a member of Dan McCarney’s first staff at ISU.

His first full-time coaching stint was at Pacific (1992-94) where he climbed from position coach to pass game coordinator in three years. Rhoads also had graduate assistantships at Ohio State (1991) under John Cooper and Utah State (1989-90) under Chuck Shelton.

“I have been blessed to learn from and work along side some great football minds,” Rhoads said. “I’ve taken pieces from all of them and formed my own coaching philosophies, leadership style and approach to strong player relations.”

Six of his former defensive backs have been drafted by the National Football League, including Pitt’s Darrelle Revis (the 14th overall pick by the Jets) in 2007. He has coached in six bowl games, including the 2005 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl with Pitt. Fourteen of his Panther defenders earned first-team All-Big East honors including H.B. Blades (the 2006 Big East Defensive Player of the Year) and Scott McKillop (the nation’s leading tackler in 2007).

“A great recruiter” is how national recruiting analyst Tom Lemming described the charismatic and highly energized Rhoads a couple of years ago. “He knows how to relate to kids and they respond to him.”

“In my two face-to-face meetings with Paul this week, it was obvious that his enthusiasm, energy and warm personality would be well received by our players, fans and university community. He has a presence with a ‘look-you-in-the-eye’ style that makes you feel comfortable,” Pollard said.

“Coaching and recruiting are people businesses,” Rhoads said. “I will reach out and connect with our current and prospective Cyclones as quickly and effectively as possible. Helping our players through the transition and answering their questions is my immediate goal.”

During his playing days, Rhoads earned special mention all-state honors as a safety at Ankeny High School. He was also class valedictorian. He lettered three seasons (1986-88) as a defensive back at Missouri Western.

Rhoads earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1989 at Missouri Western and was the recipient of the Chris Faros Scholarship, which honors the football team’s top senior student-athlete. Rhoads added a master’s degree from Utah State in 1991.

His father, Cecil, was a high school coach for 3½ decades and has been inducted into the Iowa High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame. His mother, Mary, was a teacher. Rhoads is the youngest of five children. Mary has fond memories of Paul eavesdropping on his fathers’ strategy sessions with his coaching colleagues since the age of five.

Paul and his wife, Vickie, a former college basketball player at Missouri Western, have two boys (Jacob and Wyatt).


Rhoads Quick Facts

Wife: Vickie
Children: sons, Jacob and Wyatt
Born: Feb. 2, 1967, Ankeny, Iowa
Education: B.S., Missouri Western (1989) and M.E.D., Utah State (1991)

Coaching Experience

Auburn, defensive coordinator (2008)
Pitt, defensive coordinator (2000-07)
Iowa State, assistant coach (1995-99)
Pacific, assistant coach (1992-93), pass game coordinator (1994)
Ohio State, graduate assistant (1991)
Utah State, graduate assistant (1989-90)

Bowl Games

2005 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
2003 Continental Tire Bowl
2002 Insight Bowl
2001 Tangerine Bowl
2000 Insight.com Bowl
1992 Hall of Fame Bowl

Drake Has Gotten Todd Lickliter's Attention--He Says the Bulldogs Are 'Poised, Balanced, Skilled, Confident, Unselfish and Well-Coached'

The Drake basketball team that first-year coach Mark Phelps puts on the floor tomorrow afternoon at the Knapp Center won't be a mystery to Todd Lickliter.

Lickliter, who is in his second season as Iowa's coach, has done his homework on the Bulldogs.

"We have a huge exam Saturday -- a non-academic one," Lickliter [pictured at the left] said at his get-together with reporters this week in Iowa City.

"Drake is a terrific team, Poised, balanced, skilled, confident, unselfish and well-coached. They play 40 minutes. It will be a really good test for us."

Obviously, no bulletin board material for Drake with those comments.

Drake and the Hawkeyes play at 3:05 p.m. in what loosely amounts to a rare in-state doubleheader at the Knapp Center.

The Drake and Iowa women play at 11:05 a.m., which means the on-campus building [Bulldog fans pictured at the right] will be jumping all day.

Unless fans have tickets to both games, there's just enough time to get folks who watch the women's game to leave their seats so those with tickets to the men's game can come through the doors. Separate admissions, of course.

There were a few tickets remaining for the men's game this week, but count on it that there will be a sellout of 7,152 or more.

Drake has won the last two games of the series with the Hawkeyes. Tom Davis was coaching the Bulldogs when they beat Steve Alford's Iowa team at the Knapp Center, 75-59, two years ago.

Keno Davis, his son, coached Drake to a 56-51 victory over Lickliter's Hawkeyes last season in Iowa City.

Iowa has a 9-2 record, Drake is 8-3. I look for highly-competitive game.

The men's game will be televised by ESPNU, the women's game will be shown by Mediacom.

*

There's a possibility freshman forward Anthony Tucker, Iowa's leading scorer, will play tomorrow after being suspended following his arrest for public intoxication.

Lickliter knows his team much better than I know it, of course, but I'm not sure this is the type of game in which I'd want Tucker making his return.

Iowa played pretty well a week ago without him in a 73-57 victory over Iowa State. Until Tucker has his legs under him again -- no pun intended -- I'm not sure I'd want to do anything to change the chemistry of the team in this highly-emotional game.

On the other hand, I guess there's the chance Tucker could play his best game of the season because he wants to prove himself to Lickliter, his teammates and fans.

*

Iowa women's coach Lisa Bluder knows all about the Drake program because she was in charge of it from 1991 through 2000.

In her years as Drake's coach, she had a 3-5 record against Iowa. The Hawkeyes have won the last six games of the series as Bluder [who was coach of the year in the Big Ten last season] has settled in at Iowa City.

*

Photo of Todd Lickliter courtesy of Google. Photo of Drake fans by Ron Maly.

Even Though Wood Is No Longer a Cub, I Hope They Still Name a Park Bench After Him In D.M.; That and More As I Wait for Sleet , Freezing Rain and Snow

In Iowa, of course, we spend a lot of our time waiting for the next storm to hit.

So, as I wonder if four people will be able to make it to my home today through freezing rain, sleet, snow and maybe even hail, drizzle, thunder and lightning, I'll tell you a few things that are on my mind....

First of all, I'm thinking that Drake will need some strong rebounding from Jonathan "Bucky" Cox [pictured at the right] and Adam Templeton if it's going to be competitive in Saturday's basketball game against Iowa at the Knapp Center.

The Bulldogs will be going for their third straight victory over the Hawkeyes and their ninth in succession in the state Division I series involving Iowa State, Northern Iowa, Drake and Iowa, but they're going to require some outstanding work on the backboards.

Iowa can be a very physical team, as it showed in last week's 73-57 victory over Iowa State.

But Drake can be, too. The 24 rebounds by Cox [14] and Templeton [10] were instrumental in the Bulldogs' 66-63 victory at Iowa State.

Drake can shoot, but so can Iowa. Rebounding will be a key in a game against Iowa that starts at 3:05 p.m. Saturday at the Knapp Center. It will be televised by ESPNU.


*

Major league baseball has a lot of problems, and one of them was defined when the Cleveland Indians decided to pay Kerry Wood $20.5 million to pitch.

Wood, who has spent all of his major league career with the Chicago Cubs -- much of it on the disabled list -- will receive $10 million in 2009, $10.5 million in 2010, and will automatically receive a third year at $11 million should he pitch in 55 games in either 2009 or 2010.

Hey, Kerry Wood [pictured at the left] isn't worth that kind of money.

Wood used to be a pretty fair flame-throwing starting pitcher, but now -- because of problems in his arm, shoulder, elbow, hand and head -- he's a closer.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella lost patience with the guy, and so did I. Just when all of us thought he might have his act together last season, he spent a month or so dealing with a blister that wouldn't heal on his pitching hand.

He has spent almost as much time in Des Moines, hanging around No-Name Ballfield, as he did in Chicago.

He was around here so often, rehabbing from injuries [he was on the disabled list 12 times in 10 years] and helping the economy, that some people thought a park bench should be named after him.

*

I wonder if Iowa State has had more good football coaches trying to win in a bad program or just more bad coaches, period, since it began fielding teams in 1892.

By the way, the Cyclones had a 1-0-1 record in their first season.

The 1892 team tied State Center, 6-6 [no overtimes then, I guess], and beat the Des Moines YMCA, 30-0.

*

Come to think of it, the Des Moines 'Y' wouldn't be a bad team for the coach who succeeds Gene Chizik to play next season.

But I hear the Des Moines 'Y' has a good passing game.

*

It's too bad Pop Warner, who coached at Iowa State from 1895-1899, isn't around so people can ask him what he thinks of all this Gene Chizik/Jamie Pollard stuff.

*

Something tells me that Cub fans can forget outfielder Felix Pie.

The Cubs have signed somebody named Joey Gathright, to an $800,000 contract for 2009.

Gathright is an outfielder who is, they tell me, fleet afoot. All I know is, he couldn't wait to get out of Kansas City, where he played last season.

But, in a Cubs outfield that's becoming very crowded, he'll be fighting for playing time.

After all, the Cubs are still trying to sign Milton Bradley, who is usually in trouble with his manager, his teammates or other teams' players.

He'll fit right in with the Cubs.

"He's a world-class speed guy who can do a lot of things for us," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said of Gathright. "If he's not starting, he's a tremendous piece on the bench every day."

Gathright has 78 stolen bases in 105 attempts in his career, good for a 74 percent success rate. He has primarily played in centerfield.

Goodbye, Felix, an out-of-options guy who can run but can't hit.

*

The continuing story of the trouble newspapers are in:

The Detroit papers are going to deliver papers to homes just a few days a week, not every day.

If that happened here [and it certainly could], there'd be no paper, which is something a lot of people wish would happen.

*

Somebody tells me Mike Gartner wrote this in his Civic Skinny stuff in Cityview:

"Is it true, as an old Register hand tells Skinny, that for a while cops guarded the home of a 'high Register executive who has received death threats? That’s frightening, if true."

Great behind-the-scenes work. I mean spectacular. That's the kind of stellar writing that makes Cityview the kind of publication it is.

I'm betting Gartner heard the story from the same "old Register hand" who told it to me.

I see that same guy quite a bit. The "old Register hand," I mean.

I think the story about the cop was third- or fourth-hand when I was told about it.

The way I heard it, the son of an "old Register hand" was talking to a policeman in a western suburb, and asked, "What are you doing here?"

That's when the son was told that the cops were guarding the home of a Register bigwig if, indeed, there are any bigwigs at the paper anymore.

Another guy who'd be classified as an old Register hand told me it would be unusual for a cop to tell some passerby what he was doing in the line of duty.

I sure can't imagine why anyone would issue death threats against someone from the Register just because it's a place that's been firing and laying off people in droves in the days leading up to Christmas.

*

Photos courtesy of Google.

'Note Who Came From Dubuque To Buy a Ticket To the Cyclones' 1957 Upset Of Wilt [The Stilt] Chamberlain and His Kansas Team : A Young Johnny Orr!'

I asked Chuck Offenburger to jot down some thoughts. or tidbits of information, regarding Gary Thompson and the book he wrote about the former basketball standout at Roland High School and Iowa State.

I'm just starting to read Offenburger's 351-page book, "GARY THOMPSON: All-American," and I wanted to get Chuck's take on some things after it was published.

Here's what he wrote in an e-mail:

Hey Ron...

You've been so generous already in your plugs for the new book, I don't expect anything more. But I'm going to cite a few things that I think are key, or amazing, in the book that will at least make your reading of it more interesting.

---

Some fun that reflects how things were in the '40s: On page 30, starting wtih "In the late 1920s..." go on through the birth of Gary's brother, DeLon. On down through "If you asked where you came from, the answer would be, 'You came from Norway.' "

---

How it was with the Roland Rockets as they started their great run in 1950-'51: Go to P. 45, start with "but Cheadle knew what could really help..." and go on through the end of P. 46 to get the feel of how special it was.

---

All of Chapter 7 ("This high school romance worked") will give insights to what teenage life was like in the early 1950s, and will really be surprising to a lot of people about Gary Thompson. But it's really cool about all the letters Gary and Janet wrote back and forth. Go to P. 104, and start with "The two of them have a precious record..." through the top of P. 105, "Be good, Darling!"

---

Then skip into Chapter 8, about "Life's different at Iowa State." Who'd have thought Gary Thompson at a campus riot and panty raid -- but note he was really just watching from the sidelines in shock. Go to P. 110, "So, in the late summer of 1953..." And go on, to near the bottom of P. 111, "...my last 3 years as a student!"

---

And on the Thompsons' marriage -- there is a horrible tragedy involved just before the marriage that almost nobody today knows about -- in Chapter 8, go to P. 112, "When basketball started..." and read on through the bottom of P. 114. This is really a stunning story, I think. How'd they possibly get through it? Truth is, they're not even sure now -- except for the strength of Janet's mother saying, "The wedding goes on."

---

Then when it gets to Iowa State basketball, I love the whole Chapter 10, "Sweetest Time to be a Cyclone," in which the whole chapter is on the '57 upset of Kansas in the blizzard at Ames. That's got some fascinating detail -- note who came from Dubuque to buy a ticket: Young Johnny Orr! Then there's Iowa State Daily sportswriter Tom Emmerson (later an ISU journalism prof for about 40 years) doing the one-on-one interview with Wilt in the hotel room in downtown Ames. And much, much more.

---

Chapter 20, "In the Eye of Some Iowa State Storms," is all about the fusses with Lou McCullough and Max Urick, and I'll leave it to you to digest those, as you remember being on the periphery of those. A lot of it will be shocking stuff for the Cyclone faithful who were unaware then. In a nutshell, go to the bottom of P. 256 and start in mid-paragraph at a sentence that says "The disputes that led to those two flash points..." and then go through the top of the next page, 257, at the end of Buck Turnbull's quote.

---

Then, as it winds down, in Chapter 26: "Gary and Janet Look Back at their Lives," there is an insight that I think gets to the heart of why so many people admire and genuinely enjoy Gary Thompson today -- years after he gained his fame. In a passage near the bottom of P. 335, he has just been talking about how competitive he's always been, sometimes overly so, but then start at, "But do not mistake his competitive instinct..."and then read through the middle of P. 337, ending with the quote, "Athletes who begin thinking they're more important than they really are, and think people owe them something, just because they're athletes," he said. I mean, that's a lesson that you wish all high-profile athletes would sit down, read and think about!

---

Four other random thoughts:

-- I probably had more fun digging into the "Roland Rockets" saga than any other aspect of the Thompson story, and maybe that's my own peculiar bias toward small towns, small schools and rural Iowa. I loved hunting up the former players of Waterloo West, Des Moines East and Davenport High, who were all befuddled by Gary and the Rockets in the '51 state tournament. And Buck Cheadle, the ol' coach who is in poor health but still alive in Ada, Oklahoma, is just a prize.

-- I wish I'd been tuned in more when Norm Stewart and Joe Cipriano were holding forth in the Big 8. Those guys must've just been a stitch to cover!

-- Certainly one of the most interesting people Gary ever crossed paths with is Jay Randolph. You can read his Foreword, then also read Randolph's own background, from the bottom of P. 240 to the middle of P. 242.

-- Finally, don't miss the "Epilogue" Gary wrote. It was his idea, and it's one of the most genuine, heartfelt things I've ever read.

Chuck O.

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Thanks, Chuck. I'm confident the book will be a success for both you and one of the classiest sports personalities our state has ever produced, Gary Thompson].

*

Photo of Wilt Chamberlain [left] courtesy of SI Vault.com. Photo of Gary and Janet Thompson [right] by Chuck Offenburger.

No One Can Take Away Drake's 2 Straight Victories Over Iowa, But Bulldogs' First-Year Coach Phelps Says Hawkeyes Pose 'Tremendous Challenge' Saturday

Say what you want about Drake's basketball victories over Iowa last season and the season before that.

As far as the Bulldogs were concerned, they were very nice, and no one can take them away.

But that was then.

Now is now.

Today, when I asked Bulldogs coach Mark Phelps about the Hawkeyes, he said they pose a "tremendous challenge" to his team.

"I'm very impressed with Iowa," Phelps said. "They're extremely well-coached, and they'll be one of the more physical teams we've faced. They're similar to Vanderbilt, which beat us in Cancun, Mexico."

Iowa brings a 9-2 record into a 3:05 p.m. game Saturday against Drake [8-3] at the Knapp Center. The game will be televised by ESPNU.

Drake will be attempting to clear another hurdle in what it hopes will be a third consecutive mythical Division I state championship.

The Bulldogs rallied from a 12-point deficit in the last half to win Dec. 9 at Iowa State, 66-63.

Games against in-state rivals remaining after Saturday are Northern Iowa here Jan. 17 and Feb. 18 at Cedar Falls.

Iowa had beaten Drake 27 consecutive times before a Bulldogs team coached by Tom Davis [who earlier had become Iowa's winningest coach] thumped Steve Alford's Hawkeyes, 75-59 [pictured] here two years ago.

Then Davis' son, Keno, coached Drake to a 56-51 victory over Iowa and first-year coach Todd Lickliter in Iowa City last season.

So Phelps will attempt to become the third Drake coach in three seasons to win in the series.

"Iowa is an extremely efficient team on both offense and defense," Phelps said.

The Hawkeyes are coming off a 73-57 victory over Iowa State last Friday night in Iowa City.

One of Drake's problems has been inconsistency. Just when it appeared the Bulldogs had things going very well, they had a six-game winning streak ended Saturday night by Stephen F. Austin, 66-64, in the championship game of the Hy-Vee Classic at the Knapp Center.

The other losses have been to Butler and Vanderbilt.

"We're making progess," Phelps said. "We didn't play particularly well against Butler, but now you can see what kind of season [8-1 record] they're having. Our goal has been to make progress on a daily basis.

"So much is new at Drake, not just the coaching staff. After last year's [28-5 record], a lot of people realize how valuable the three players were who departed our team.

"We can use a lot of woulda, shoulda, coulda about our team, but there is a great willingness among our players to improve. They're doing a terrific job."

*

It's much too early to be talking about how many teams the Missouri Valley Conference will send into the 65-team NCAA tournament in March, but Phelps was asked [by the Omaha World-Herald] today on the league's teleconference if he thought the Valley would get only one spot.

"There's a lot of basketball to be played," Phelps said. "Like a lot of other coaches, my focus is on our team and the next opponent. It's not prudent to look at the overall schedule and what we might do in this game or that game.

"Who knows how it's all going to go down? We just have to do our absolute best in each game."

If Pollard Hires the Wrong Coach This Time, He'll Be Gone In 2 Years; The Only Apology From Greg McDermott Should Be To Iowa State's Fans

Quentin from Quasqueton, not his real name, has spent plenty of time in Ames, and is aware of the problems in Iowa State's athletic department.

And all of us know there are plenty of problems

Here's an e-mail I received from Quentin concerning some of the latest ones:

"If Auburn had needed an athletic director, too, Saturday would have been perfect for Iowa State fans.

"Now Gene Chizik is someone else's problem. In two years, two things were pretty obvious; 1. Chizik didn't appear to know what he was doing; 2. He wanted to be doing it someplace else.

"Look back at how many times Chizik's teams were up 7, 14 or even 21 points and couldn't hold the lead. Look at how many times his teams were penalized for really stupid decisions that a coach should have control over. Look at how many Iowans Chizik had on his staff. I realize Iowa doesn't produce a long list of Division I players every year, but Dan McCarney tried to get those few players and was pretty successful at it. Chizik cared so little that no one on his staff was from Iowa.

"Being a complete outsider, the first decision Chizik should have made was to find an Iowa high school coach to join his staff. McCarney's first hire for his staff was Mike Woodley, who had both high school and college head coaching experience in Iowa. Chizik knew he wasn't staying, so he didn't even bother opening doors in Iowa. Now we're hearing that he had pretty much the same attitude about Iowa State fans and boosters.

"I look at this as a great opportunity for Jamie Pollard. Get this one right and he gets to keep his job. Get it wrong and he'll be gone in two years.

"So who are the candidates? Brian Kelly is out of reach. Why would he want to leave Cincinnati for Iowa State? That ship has sailed after he should have gotten the job two years ago. Turner Gill has to be near the top of the list. If he can win at Buffalo, he can win at Iowa State. Steve Loney would love to have the job and did have that one season at Drake as head coach. Mark Farley should be considered. He would have beaten a couple more teams on Iowa State's schedule with his Northern Iowa players or with Chizik's players and remember, only a few years back Brian Kelly was at Division II power Grand Valley State so it is possible to successfully make that kind of coaching move.

"My fear is that Pollard is already starting this clandestine B.S. again where he tries to find a coach in total secrecy. It was a silly game he was playing with the media. We saw the result. Maybe he should think about some different tactics this time."

Quentin from Quasqueton

*

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I, too, wondered why Chizik didn't hire someone familiar with high school football in the state of Iowa when he was assembling his Cyclone coaching staff two years ago. Obviously, he wasn't happy with the assistants he brought on board because he fired two of them and reassigned two others after a second lousy season. Now, of course, Chizik is gone, too. I don't know if I agree with Quentin from Quasqueton's comment that "if Turner Gill can win at Buffalo, he can win at Iowa State." Buffalo and Iowa State are two different animals. Jim Criner was a big winner at Boise State, but couldn't win at Iowa State, and wound up breaking NCAA rules while trying. Jim Walden did all right at Washington State, but was a flop at Iowa State. Besides, I'll bet you a bagel from Bruegger's that the minute Gill [[pictured at the right] has a 7-5 record with the Cyclones, he'll be out the door -- telling fellow coaches at the next convention that "I needed to get out of there because Iowa State is a coaching graveyard."]

*

Rick Brown wrote in the Des Moines Register that Iowa State basketball coach Greg McDermott thinks he should apologize to Craig Brackins [pictured at the left].

After the Cyclones lost at Iowa, 73-57, last week, McDermott said he thought the Hawkeyes' Cyrus Tate manhandled Brackins.

Listen, when a grown man who has a Division I basketball coaching job has to apologize to a 6-10, 230-pound sophomore, there are some serious problems in collegiate sports.

McDermott must be fearful that he's hurt Brackins' feelings and that the big guy will become the next Cyclone player to quit the program.

McDermott must also be fearful athletic director Jamie Pollard might pull the plug on him, just like he did Wayne Morgan, Dan McCarney and Bobby Douglas.

The only apology from McDermott should be to Iowa State's fans.

They're the people he's short-changing.

McDermott's team quit in the last half of the game at Iowa City, and he was outcoached by rookie Mark Phelps a few nights earlier when Drake stormed back from a 12-point last-half deficit to beat the Cyclones for the third straight time, 66-63, at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

Talk about being manhandled, Iowa State's entire team was manhandled the year before by Drake -- by 35 points -- at the Knapp Center in Des Moines.

That night, McDermott didn't have a clue and neither did his players.

Offenburger Wonders If Valley's Gary Swenson Would Be a Good Fit At ISU; Schallau Says Pollard Should Hire Fired Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville

This is a fun time for sports fans. Iowa State suddenly needs a football coach, and people get to take potshots at the outgoing Gene Chizik as well as Jamie Pollard, the athletic director who hired him.

In addition, they get to suggest names of people they think should be the Cyclones' new coach.

I'm sure Pollard appreciates all the help he's getting. Athletic directors always like it, don't they, when others tell them how to do their jobs?

Sure.

Anyway, I wrote yesterday that Iowa State should go after Brian Kelly, who was interviewed for the Cyclones' football job two years ago, before Pollard gave it to Chizik -- who then was a defensive coordinator at Texas.

All Kelly has done at the University of Cincinnati is go 10-3 in 2007 and, so far in 2008, he's 11-2 heading into an Orange Bowl assignment against Virginia Tech. His Bearcats are ranked No. 12 nationally.

I'll find out soon if Pollard is paying attention to what I suggest. This is his chance to do it right and, actually, save his own job. They say an athletic director gets two chances to hire a football coach before he pays the price with his own job. Well, the next coach he hires will be Pollard's second at Iowa State. He can't afford to screw things up again.

Let's put it this way. Kelly is head-and-shoulders above anybody on the list the Des Moines Register has been putting out there.

If Iowa State had to settle for some of the has-beens and never-weres the paper is having readers vote on, I'd suggest that the university drop football or turn it into a club sport.

Indeed, the paper's list is already out of date. Brady Hoke of Ball State is in line to succeed Chuck Long at San Diego State, and I guess people at the paper aren't aware of it. So forget Hoke.

By the way, as long as big losers like Chizik, who had a 5-19 record before being given the Auburn job, are so popular, I wonder why the paper didn't include former Iowa quarterback Long in its list of potential candidates at Iowa State?

My e-mail includes nominations for a couple other guys.

Chuck Offenburger, the author and longtime newspaper and Internet columnist from Cooper, Ia., wonders if Gary Swenson of Valley High School in West Des Moines would be a good guy for the job.

Al Schallau, a longtime Iowa and Southern California fan, suggests Tommy Tuberville, the guy who was fired at Auburn to pave the way for the hiring of Chizik.

In another e-mail, George Wine of Coralville, who spent 25 years as the sports information director at Iowa, writes about the Hawkeyes and Cyclones.

Here are the messages, starting with the one from Offenburger:

"Ron,

"I'm sure you'll be writing more about the candidates for the Iowa State football coaching job. When you do, I'd be interested in reading your take on whether Gary Swenson, the coach at Valley High School in West Des Moines, would be a possibility. Haven't his Tiger teams won five Class 4A state championships? At Valley, he's also had experience running a staff the size of most college coaching staffs, if you count the paid and volunteer assistants. I know there's some dubious history of high school coaches taking over major college football programs [I remember Bob Commings at Iowa]. And I think Swenson right now has a much stronger coaching resume than Commings did at the high school level. I may be nuts on this, but I've wondered why Swenson has not shown up on anybody's speculation list."

Chuck O.

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Gary Swenson [pictured at the left] is certainly an outstanding football coach. When he coached Valley to a 27-8 victory over Cedar Falls in the state 4-A high school championship game this season, it was his fourth championship in seven seasons. I probably think Swenson would do a pretty good job at Iowa State because he certainly knows if high school players can or can't play the game. So he should be able to recruit. But I worry that he'd eventually have some of the same problems Commings had at Iowa from 1974-1978, when his best record was 5-6. Trying to recruit outstanding players, assemble a strong coaching staff, beat teams such as Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Nebraska and keep the fans happy is a daunting task for a guy who's spent his time coaching high school players. An athletic director like Pollard would be putting his professional life on the line by bringing in a high school coach at this stage at Iowa State. The Cyclones need someone -- preferably from the midwest -- who has been through the collegiate wars. Besides, I'm selfish. I live six blocks from Valley High School and I don't want to see Swenson leave. I think he's the best high school coach in America and I want him to continue winning state 4-A championships. I'm fairly certain he's had chances to become an assistant on collegiate staffs in the past -- including at Iowa State -- but has stayed where he is. Thank goodness.]

*

Here's Al Schallau's e-mail:`

To Ron Maly,

"Auburn's hiring of coach Geme Chizik is one of the great surprises of the year.

"I cannot imagine what went into their hiring decision.

"But Iowa State should respond by hiring deposed Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville as its new football coach.

"ISU would come out light years ahead on that one.

"Best regards,"

Al Schallau

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: That would be quite a deal, Al. It would be like a baseball trade -- Iowa State peddles Gene Chizik to Auburn for Tommy Tuberville and maybe [just maybe] a winning record to be decided later. No one can argue with Tuberville's record at Auburn, and Mississippi before that. He was 85-40 in 10 seasons at Auburn and beat state rival Alabama six straight times before being blasted by the Crimson Tide, 36-0, this season--the school's worst in the series in 46 years. Potential problems with Tuberville [pictured at the right] are that he's 54 years of age -- which is considered old in the coaching business, and all of his collegiate coaching has been done in the south. I wonder how he'd appreciate trying to recruit in weather like we have in Iowa today -- 8 degrees or so and a bitterly-cold wind.]

*

Writes George Wine:

"Ron,

"Who comes out looking dumber on this, Auburn or Iowa State? Cyclone fans must be wondering about their boy wonder AD...The embarrassing attendance at Iowa games is a reminder that once you lose the fans it is hard to get them back. We saw that when Sharm Scheuerman coached and later under Dick Schultz."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Talk about a circus act. Iowa State hires a Texas coordinator who obviously can't coach, and has five victories in two seasons to prove it, then Auburn takes the guy off the Cyclones' hands. Pollard didn't even have to fire Chizik to get him out of Ames. Now, though, the pressure is on Pollard to hire someone who knows how to pass Coaching I as well as Coaching II. Wine's reference to the poor attendance at Iowa's basketball games is in response to second-year coach Todd Lickliter going on his postgame radio show to say he takes it "personally" that people aren't showing up at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. I think Lickliter is being too hard on himself. He should place the blame where it belongs -- directly on the shoulders of former coach Steve Alford].

Pollard Never Should've Fired McCarney, But the Ideal New Coach Was Brian Kelly--And He'd Be My Choice Now for the Cyclones' Football Job

I'm going to repeat myself one more time.

First of all, Iowa State should never have fired Dan McCarney.

Second of all, Brian Kelly was the guy Jamie Pollard should have hired for the Cyclones' football coaching job two years ago.

Certainly not Gene Chizik, who couldn't win in Ames, who can't coach his way out of a paper bag and who won't win at Auburn, his new gig.

Any list of potential coaching candidates at Iowa State that doesn't have Kelly at the top is put together by someone who doesn't know anything about football.

Kelly is the guy who would make a winner out of Iowa State.

He knows, just like everyone else in the football business, that Iowa State is a coaching graveyard.

But he's a winner.

At least he'd have Iowa State in a bowl game or two before bailing out for Michigan State or UCLA.

To freshen your memory, Brian Kelly looked to be the ideal guy for the Iowa State job in December, 2006.

But Pollard, for some reason, chose Chizik, then a defensive coordinator at Texas, to be do the miracle-worker thing at Ames.

Bad decision, of course.

Kelly, who then was at Central Michigan, ranks 12th nationally with a 148-54-2 coaching record.

After being hired Dec. 4, 2006 by Cincinnati, his team went 10-3 in 2007, including a victory over Southern Mississippi in something called the Papajohn Bowl.

This season, Kelly has his Bearcats, who have an 11-2 record and are ranked No. 12 nationally, in the Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech.

Tell me his record isn't absolutely spectacular.

Pollard screwed it up by not hiring him two years ago. Now he should make a run at him again.

Kelly has told other potential employers that he's not leaving Cincy, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

He'd probably tell Pollard to shove it, but I'm sure Jamie-boy has been given that message by plenty of others in the past.

*

R. H. of Des Moines weighs in on the Iowa State/Auburn football situations in this e-mail:

"Ron,

"I couldn't start to describe how far my jaw dropped when I saw the bottom ticker on KCCI-TV [yesterday] afternoon during the Memphis-Georgetown game, confirming that Gene Chizik will be returning to 'The Plains,' as they refer to the area where Auburn is located. I heard about the news that Chizik did interview with Auburn officials on Friday evening.

"To say that Auburn considered him a serious candidate was laugh out loud hilarious. I didn't envisioned that Auburn would be foolish and desperate to do the unthinkable. Well, those idiots did, and now I'm wondering, along with others, how in the world did their AD was able to get the administration to sign off on the hire? Did he promise that Auburn will beat Alabama, 77-0, and sack Tim Tebow 10 times in the SEC title game next year?

"It has been said that Iowa State is a coaching graveyard. That is true. But, I can't blame Iowa State for Chizik leaving. If Auburn was that loony to get him, then that's on them. Chizik isn't leaving the coaching graveyard that is ISU. He's going to a place that is far worse than a coaching graveyard and is certain to put an end to his head coaching career, or his career all together.

"How does a school, as reputable and football-crazy like Auburn be so inept and and desperate to make a move like this? Easy. They're crazy. From the administration, who conspired, on a plane to hire Bobby Petrino, to the loony wing of the Tiger fan base who calls for a coach to get fired if they lose to Alabama, even after winning six in a row versus the Crimson Tide. They get rid of Tommy Tuberville [who was successful in his 10 years at the helm], after one bad year. From hiring and firing Tony Franklin, his team struggling and ending up 5-7, and losing to Nick Satan, eh, Saban, 36-0, in the Iron Bowl.

"If that was any other school, they would look back at it for 30 seconds, and then toss the tapes in the trash can and prepare for spring football.

"This was a 'reaction' hiring by Auburn. In essence, they had no plan in place, only resorting to trying to find either A]. a big name; or B]. someone with Auburn ties. It also doesn't help that the large sector of the Auburn fan and booster base are delusional and borderline bat-nuts anyway. Memo to Auburn fans, be careful what you wish for. Knowing them, they're too arrogant to readily admit that.

"In the case of Jamie Pollard, talk about karma. Dan McCarney is in line to win a national title with Florida, and Pollard is fuming that Chizik left him with the bill for the honeymoon suite. The spotlight is now on Pollard. If he enjoys talking the talk, then the young fella better walk the walk and land someone."

R.H.
Des Moines

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Thanks for your observations, R. H. I'm giving Chizik two years at Auburn. After that, he'll be in a job Hayden Fry used to talk about a lot for ex-college football coaches: Selling used cars. I guess there'll still be used cars around in two years, even if the new car business in Detroit will be closed down].


*

Brian Kelly is pictured at the right in the espn.com photo. Jamie Pollard and Dan McCarney are at the left in the AP photo. That's Pollard at the left, McCarney at the right in the photo.

Iowa, Drake 1-2 In the State; But the Hawkeyes' Picture Not All Pretty--Where Are Fans? Small Home Crowds 'Painful' To Second-Year Coach Lickliter

So far, Iowa is the best basketball team in our state this season.

But Drake isn't far behind.

Thanks to the magic of DirecTV, I saw Drake storm back to beat Iowa State, 66-63, in Ames earlier this week, and I saw Iowa drill the Cyclones, 73-57, last night in Iowa City.

At this stage, I'm thinking Iowa will win a close game when it plays Drake at the Knapp Center a week from today.

But I wouldn't bet the farm, or even the shed in my backyard, on it.

The Bulldogs are certainly capable of beating Iowa and taking another huge step in a march to their third straight mythical Division I state championship.

Under three different coaches, mind you.

I mean, the Hawkeyes aren't the Big Ten Conference's gift to Division I basketball, or anything.

They can be had, in the Knapp Center or anywhere else.

And if Drake should manage to beat Iowa, I'd say Mark Phelps [pictured at the left] could be on his way to being somebody's coach of the year.

Maybe not to the extent Keno Davis swept nearly every national coach of the year award last year, but rookie Phelps [whose team has won six straight games en route to an 8-2 record] would certainly open a lot of eyes about how well he can coach.

I know he's already opened my eyes.

But I also like the job Todd Lickliter [right] is doing in his second season at Iowa.

The Hawkeyes are 9-2 and they're playing hard.

So hard in the second half last night that they tore the competitiveness smack out of Iowa State's players.

The Cyclones weren't going so aggressively to the backboards and to loose basketballs after a decent first half.

You won't catch me saying the Cyclones quit, but maybe they were thinking more about semester exams than they were about Cyrus Tate and Jeff Peterson in the final 10 minutes.

So, in the big picture, Iowa and Drake have separated themselves from Iowa State and Northern Iowa in the state's power rankings this season.

The Cyclones continue to struggle under McDermott -- who wanted to prove himself at the bigtime level, but so far hasn't done it -- and so does UNI under Ben Jacobson [who was McDermott's assistant at Cedar Falls].

Getting back to the Drake-Iowa game next Saturday at the Knapp Center for a minute.

It's a game at an arena where Lickliter and his players should feel right at home.

The Knapp Center seats 7,152 fans.

That's about how many folks Iowa is accustomed to playing in front of.

The Hawkeyes have averaged turnouts of 9,094 in seven home games this season at 15,500-seat Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Counting people disguised as empty seats, I guess.

They tell me some of the crowds have been much smaller than the figures in the box scores.

Actually, Iowa might be one of the best teams in college basketball that people rarely see.

Whatever, Lickliter has noticed the small home crowds -- and he got on the subject [again] during his postgame radio show last night.

Iowa said 12,125 were in the building for the Iowa State game.

Well, maybe.

"I've said this before," Lickliter said. "I think these [Iowa players] have great pride in being Hawkeyes. I think they're really trying to play the right way, and I appreciate everybody who came [to the game]. It was great.

"Before I came to Iowa, I'd heard about Carver-Hawkeye being full. I take it very personally [when it isn't]. It's painful for me because it's on my watch. I'm not begging people to come; I just want us to play so well that people will embrace us and come back and support us.

"We need crowds here that will encourage us to win, to let us know they appreciate what we're doing. I hope [the people who were here] tell others it was an enjoyable evening and that they're proud of these players."

Well, Todd, you can blame Steve Alford for Iowa's attendance problems. Hell, he gets blamed for everything else.

But also maybe blame the 19 losses last season, the bad economy, the high cost of tickets and the fact that all of the games are on TV.

I mean, who needs to drive on icy I-80 or icy I-380 to Iowa City when you can watch the game on the Big Ten network or, maybe, ESPNU?

My advice to Lickliter: Keep winning and people will come.

Chuck Offenburger's New Book About Gary Thompson Has Lots Of Photos, And You Can Count On It That's It's Well-Researched and Well-Written

It was either late-afternoon or early-evening.

Take your pick.

Whatever, it was late enough in the day that darkness was approaching.

My phone rang, and it was Chuck Offenburger.

You know Chuck. Everybody knows Chuck.

He and I worked together for a lot of years in the newsroom at the Des Moines Register, and now both of us are still writing.

I'm usually wearing sweatpants or just my flannel underwear when I'm writing. I don't know what Offenburger wears these days when he writes.

Whatever, neither one of us has a dress code, and we like it that way.

We're writing Internet columns and books. The only difference is that Offenburger, always a prolific writer, has authored many more books than I have. I'll never catch up with him.

Offenburger also does a lot more driving than I do.

"I'm in my car," Chuck said on the phone. "I just left WOI-TV and now I'm looking for your house. Tell me how to find it."

I told him. He found it.

Offenburger [pictured at the left] came to my place to drop off his new book, and I had the coffee ready for him.

Chuck's 351-page book is about Gary Thompson, the former Roland High School and Iowa State basketball standout who went on to do very good job as a TV basketball commentator, and he also had a successful career in the oil and gasoline business.

Thompson had already signed my copy of the book, and Offenburger signed it while sitting at my dining room table.

This book -- titled "GARY THOMPSON: All-American," is another in a long list Offenburger has written.

Included among the others were books about the late Babe Bisignano, who owned a very good restaurant in downtown Des Moines and was one of the the city's all-time characters; Bernie Saggau of the Iowa High School Athletic Association; Wayne Cooley of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, and books that included many of Chuck's "Iowa Boy" columns at the Register.

Among the 27 chapters in the book are those titled Roland Keeps Right On Rolling; This High School Romance Worked; New Era for Iowa State Basketball; Golden Era for Phillips and 66ers; Playing Days Over, Back to Iowa; Thompson Oil Grows and Diversifies; Gary and Janet Look Back at Their Lives, and What Others Say About Gary Thompson.

The foreward is written by Jay Randolph, a broadcaster with whom Thompson worked many TV games at Iowa State and in the old Big Eight Conference.

There are lots of photographs. The cover, a photo of which appears at the right in this column, was designed by Mark Marturello, a talented artist and graphic designer at the Register.

I've leafed through the book, and I'm about ready to start reading it. I know it's going to be a very good book because everything Offenburger does is well-researched and well-written.

Cost of the book is $19.95, plus $3.95 for shipping for one book or $4.95 for shipping of two or more books. Proceeds will be donated to Iowa State.

Address to order the book:

GARY THOMPSON: All-American
c/o Our Iowa Magazine
2501 North Loop Drive
Ames, iA 50010

It's Not 72 and Sunny Like In Arizona, But Drake's Phelps Enjoys the Weather Here, Says He and His Wife Already Consider Themselves Iowans

Mark Phelps was on the other end of the phone line, and I had one more question for him.

"Have you gotten accustomed to the weather in Iowa yet?" I asked.

Drake's first-year basketball coach chuckled.

"You know what, it's not that bad," Phelps said. "I mean, get a coat, get some gloves, get a hat and warm your car up."

Great attitude.

"I get excited when I see the snow fall," Phelps added. "I've got four-wheel drive."

Hey, anytime someone gets excited about the snow in Iowa deserves to beat Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum in Ames -- and that's exactly what Phelps did a couple of nights ago.

Phelps was hired last April to succeed Keno Davis as the Bulldogs' coach, and has warmed up to our state quickly.

His Bulldogs have a 7-2 record after rallying in the final 3 minutes to beat the Cyclones, 66-63, in the first leg of the road to the mythical Division I state championship.

Phelps, who is in his first season as a collegiate head coach, clearly outcoached the veteran Greg McDermott at crunch time.

Indeed, McDermott was critical of himself afterward, saying on his radio show, "I'm disappointed in myself. I've got a young team, and when your team has a lead late in the game you ought to find a way to coach them into a victory--and I didn't do it.

"I have to figure out a way to get better at it. Until we can get a killer instinct, I've got to do a better job on the sideline."

McDermott has lost three straight games to Drake to coaches Tom Davis, Keno Davis and Phelps.

Phelps' team has also already beaten the New Mexico team coached by former Iowa coach Steve Alford. That, plus the victory at Hilton Coliseum, is the kind of stuff that'll warm up any relationship with a new employer and a new team.

Now back to the Iowa winter.

"It's not same kind of weather as there is in Arizona, that's for sure," Phelps said. "But my wife, Alissa, and I really enjoy Iowa.

"I'm not a native of the state, but we consider ourselves Iowans now.."

Phelps came to Drake after spending two seasons as an assistant on Herb Sendek's staff at Arizons State.

The temperature today in Tempe, AZ, is 72. The temperature in Des Moines is 33.

In Tempe, the sun is out. In Des Moines, it's been snowing at times today, it's cloudy and there's ice and earlier snow on the ground.

"Alissa has an extra-long coat, and one of my assistants' wives said, 'You're in Iowa, not Alaska!'" Phelps said.

Phelps said his father-in-law, who lives in the Orlando area of Florida, visited last weekend, and he had the same sentiments as us about the weather. He said, 'All right, it snowed and it's cold. So drive carefully.'"

I told Phelps he's obviously going to fit in very well around here.

"Hey, we can make this a regular weekly half-hour show," Drake sports information director Mike Mahon said with a laugh.

Sure, now just get us a sponsor," I said.

"I'll work on it," Mahon added.

*

Photo of [left to right] Drake athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb, Alissa and Mark Phelps and president David Maxwell courtesy of Drake University.

Drake Is Capable Of Having Another Outstanding Season; ISU's McDermott Says, 'I'm Disappointed In Myself. I've Got To Do a Better Job'

Fasten your seatbelts, Bulldog basketball fans.

This could be another fun ride.

I know it's early.

Just the second week of December.

I know the Georgia Southerns and Stephen F. Austins of the world aren't off the schedule yet.

But this Drake team of yours is capable of doing some big things again this season.

Adam Emmenecker, I guess, is playing somewhere in Germany, but Josh Young and Bucky Cox are still around, and newcomers Adam Templeton and Craig Stanley are showing they know what they're doing.

The Missouri Valley Conference hasn't exactly jumped front and center in the power rankings, so I'm saying that Drake is capable of winning the championship again and, consequently, capable of going to the NCAA tournament again.

And, yes, Drake is certainly capable of winning the mythical Division I state championship for the third consecutive season.

Maybe you can tell that I was impressed with what took place last night at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

From the Bulldogs, I mean.

Oh, sure, for a long time, they looked like a Howard Stacey-coached Drake team.

They'd fall behind by 10, fall behind by a dozen points.

You know how it used to go -- a 10-point deficit suddenly became a 25-point deficit.

Then ESPNU announcer Dave Armstrong could keep saying, "Well, I told you Iowa State hasn't forgotten about that 35-point loss last season at Drake."

Last night, the Bulldogs kept hanging around, made it a close game at halftime [Iowa State led, 33-29], then buried the dagger into the hearts of Iowa State's coaches, players and fans [former Iowa State announcer Armstrong, too] in the final 3 minutes for a 66-63 victory.

Drake improved its record to 7-2 under first-year coach Mark Phelps, and all of a sudden he's starting to look more like Tom Davis and his kid, Keno, all the time.

Drake has not been choosy when it comes to dominating Iowa State in recent seasons.

Tom Davis did it at Ames two years ago, Keno did it last season in Des Moines, and now Phelps did it in impressive comeback fashion last night.

As I pointed out earlier on these pages, the only Hilton Magic last night belonged to Drake.

The way things are looking, Hilton Magic as it pertains to Iowa State disappeared when Johnny Orr, Tim Floyd and Larry Eustachy quit coaching there.

I won't say Greg McDermott is in over his head at Ames, but Iowa State teams aren't supposed to blow big leads in the last half of a home game that means something.

Certainly not against Drake.

Certainly not when Lucca Staiger is shooting three-point baskets for the Cyclones like he was born to make connections from 25 feet.

But then Drake found a defense to control Staiger, and Craig Brackins was pretty much a no-show for Iowa State.

McDermott told his postgame radio listeners that the Cyclones had no killer instinct and that Drake's veteran players [from a team that went 28-5 last season] never thought they were out of the game, even when the Cyclones had big leads early.

"Drake has five seniors and five juniors," McDermott said. "Not once did they feel they weren't going to have a chance to win this game. You could see it in their faces.

"As soon as they made a run at us, there was a little bit of tentativeness that showed up in our eyes, and that's discouraging. We had a chance to put 'em away in the first half and in the second half, but we don't take advantage of those opportunities."

Some people would say Iowa State choked in this Big Four game. I wouldn't say that about any team because plenty of them blow big leads in arenas all around the country, every night of the week.

Choke? We'll leave that subject to the experts at the lunch in the Chinese restaurant.

All I know is, Staiger couldn't hit the side of a barn with his shots in the last half.

And Brackins might as well have been in his dorm room.

To McDermott's credit, he took his share of the blame on his radio show for Iowa State's loss.

"I'm disappointed," he said. "I'm disappointed in myself. I've got a young team, and when your team has a lead late in the game you ought to find a way to coach them into a victory--and I didn't do it.

"I have to figure out a way to get better at it. Until we can get a killer instinct, I've got to do a better job on the sideline."

I was impressed with Templeton a 6-5 forward from Rapid City, S.D., who transferred to Drake from Cal-Irvine. He took control of the backboards when Drake needed it late in the game, and wound up with 10 rebounds to go with his 13 points.

"Guys stepped up for us," Phelps said. "Craig Stanley, [who hadn't been] shooting particularly well from three-point range, hit a huge three to put us up finally.

"Adam Templeton, slowly but surely is becoming more and more comfortable. Bucky Cox had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Guys just made plays down the stretch and we did enough to get the win."

Defense? Drake held Iowa State to just one basket in the final 7 minutes 58 seconds.

As for the conference power rankings I mentioned earlier, the Missouri Valley was ranked No. 8 nationally--even behind something called the Mountain West.

The Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern were also ranked higher than the Valley.

But don't pay much attention to anything like that in December. What it probably means is that the Valley will get only one team in the Big Dance, and as far as I'm concerned that one could be Drake.

*
Photo of Drake's Josh Parker being guarded by Iowa State's Wes Eikmeier by Steve Pope of the Associated Press.

Duffy's Parting Shot & Other Things the Register Missed

R. H. of Des Moines, who is on top of everything, touches a number of bases with this e-mail to me:

"Ron,

"I was surprised to hear that the Whitewater fans resorted to using excessive profane language towards the Wartburg fans and the team on Saturday. When I went to Monmouth for the second round game between the Knights and Fighting Scots, there were students from both schools sitting in the stands on the Monmouth side of the field. I was sitting behind both sections. Outside of a few curse words, the students playfully traded barbs, from screaming in their horrible Red Cashen-like voice "FIRST DOOOWN!" to a Wartburg grad telling a Monmouth student that the Iowa Conference were willing to give Cornell College back to the Midwest Conference, and in exchange, let Monmouth join the IIAC.

"Cornell and Coe were members of the Midwest Conference, along with Grinnell, before leaving to join the Iowa Conference in 1997. Coe has done well, but Cornell has struggled to be competitive in the IIAC.

"Add KWWL-TV to the list of stations who are laying off employees as well. The tough part is that even the best television stations are not immune to the cutbacks and letting good employees go.

"Another thing that was missed in the daily: Army and Navy sported new jerseys for their annual clash last weekend. The company that designed them was Powers Manufacturing, from Waterloo! The Courier did a big write-up about it this past Sunday. I guess Washburn didn't think too highly of the story. If she did, she'll place a call to Jack Hovelson, and he would have been all over that story!!!!

"Finally, you may have known about this already, but Cityview got in touch with Brian Duffy and offered him a full page to publish whatever he wanted. Duffy took publisher Shane Goodman up on his offer.

"I have sent you Brian's parting shot, courtesy of Cityview [the cartoon that's pictured].

"It will be in this week's Cityview, in the stands, and online.

"Brian, well done sir, well done.

R.H.
Des Moines

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Thanks for letting me know, R. H., that Duffy hasn't lost his awesome drawing abilities since being escorted out of the Register's newsroom last week. Thanks, too, for your comments on football crowds, Powers Manufacturing of Waterloo and other items -- including the problems at KWWL-TV. These are difficult days out there in the workplace and the streets].

Adding Insult To Injury: Wartburg Not Only Lost the Football Playoff Game, But Was Peppered With the F-Word By the Home Team's Fans

Crowds at football games -- especially the student sections -- can, of course, be very imaginative and sometimes crude when it comes to their behavior.

I heard from a Wartburg College fan, who was in Wisconsin last Saturday for UW-Whitewater's 34-17 victory over the Knights in an NCAA Division III playoff game.

"We had to sit on the home side, which wasn't fun," the fan told me. "The two student sections were separated by an aisle and two cops. Every time the Knights fumbled, the Whitewater section turned toward them and yelled, 'You fucked up!'"

A big problem was that Wartburg had plenty of turnovers in the game, so the Knights' players and fans had to hear the F-word a lot.

Not that folks from a church school like Wartburg haven't heard language like that before, of course.

Pretty salty stuff. I don't even know if fans in the student section at the University of Iowa have heard of that chant yet.

Oh, all right, they probably have.

*

I was reading stuff on the Internet -- where some of the best writing in the world is done these days -- when I came upon a comment made about the Des Moines Register's latest dumb move:

"How could it possibly have come to this? A Des Moines Register cartoonist, escorted from the building by security? How cld it be?"

The writer was, of course, referring to Brian Duffy, who was dumped from his page one cartoonist job after 25 years.

Duffy, the most high-profile victim yet of the paper's downsizing in a dying business, has been blasting his bosses on Des Moines TV stations since being taken to the door.

Both channel 8 [pictured at the right] and channel 13 have interviewed Duffy about his dismissal, and he hasn't pulled any punches.

I'm just guessing, but something tells me he's pissed.

I mean, the man is all over You Tube and the Internet.

Duffy said he never missed a deadline and never told his bosses he couldn't come up with a cartoon idea in all his years at 8th & Locust.

"I gave 200 percent to that company," he said.

He used such words as "shocked," "totally surprised" and "a stunning experience" when describing his feelings when he was told he was finished.

The most embarrassing thing was when Duffy said he was told he couldn't go back to his desk to get his coat. He was told it would be brought to him and he'd be escorted from the building.

That at a place where former page one cartoonists Ding Darling and Frank Miller won three Pulitzer Prizes.

That at a place where front-page cartoons were featured for more than a century.

I can't wait for the day when a few other people are escorted from the building.

You know me, I don't like to name names. But the initials of those people I'd like to see shown the backdoor are Laura Hollingsworth, Carolyn Washburn and Randy Brubaker.

It'll happen. Count on it.

*

By the way, the TV business certainly can't be high and mighty when it comes to reporting on firings and layoffs at other media places.

TV news departments aren't healthy at all these days. I get reports from the Twin Cities regularly that TV reporters and anchors are being fired there.

It could happen here.

*

I just got my 25th recorded phone call this month, reminding me that my car warranty has expired.

I wonder if they were talking about my 20-year-old Toyota or my 10-year-old Honda?

*

Photo and illustration courtesy of Google.

Drake's Mark Phelps Hasn't Been In This State Long, But He Knows About Hilton Magic and He's Aware Of Fans' Passions For Big Four Basketball

Mark Phelps hasn't been in our state very long, but he's already well aware of the term Hilton Magic and he knows the intensity of a Division I, Big Four in-state basketball rivalry.

With his Drake team preparing to play Iowa State tomorrow night at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, I asked Phelps what he knows about Hilton Magic.

"I don't know all the history of the building, but I've heard of Hilton Magic," said Phelps [pictured at the right], who was named Drake's coach last April 21. "I know [Hilton Coliseum] is an older building, I know there have been some high-level games there, and I know down the home stretch some of that magic has shown itself for the Cyclones.

"I'm sure the fan support has a lot to do with it. It seems like the fans are right on top of you, and they're vocal. They're passionate. I've heard bits and pieces--mainly from media people--and I'm looking forward to it.

"I understand there might be some bad weather tomorrow night, and that might keep some people away. But I hope we have a really nice crowd."

Hilton Magic got its start in an arena that opened in 1971 when Johnny Orr coached at Iowa State from 1981-1994. The Cyclones' boisterous crowds seemed to miraculously enable Iowa State to pull out some late victories in the Orr, Tim Floyd and Larry Eustachy coaching eras.

Make no mistake about it, though, talented players certainly help propel whatever magic is in the building.

And today, Phelps said, 6-10 Craig Brackins [pictured at the left] of Iowa State "is as talented an inside player as there is in the country."

Phelps said his team won't have a formal practice at Hilton Coliseum before tomorrow's game.

"We've have our final shoot-around and walk-through at home, then drive up there," he said. "We'll have plenty of time to shoot at Hilton before the game starts."

Tomorrow night's game will be Phelps' first in the Big Four series involving Drake, Iowa State, Iowa and Northern Iowa.

Drake did the improbable and won four games last week. The Bulldogs take a 6-2 record into tomorrow's 8:05 p.m. game that will be telecast by ESPNU. Iowa State is 6-1, with a 5-0 record at home.

Drake has won the mythical state championship the past two seasons, with Bulldogs coach Tom Davis going into Hilton Coliseum and bringing home an 80-78 victory two years ago, and his son, Keno, walloping Greg McDermott's Cyclones in historic 79-44 fashion last season at the Knapp Center in Des Moines.

The 35-point margin was Drake's largest in a series with Iowa State that began in 1908.

“This is my 19th year involved with [the game of basketball], and you have a tendency to see a little bit of everything,” McDermott said afterward. “This was one of those nights. Drake was very good, they deserve all the credit. They beat us in every phase of the game.”

Asked about his feelings concerning the Big Four series, Phelps said, "I'll tell you what, I'm really excited about it. There's a tremendous amount of interest in our state. Although I'm not a native, I've quickly become an Iowan.

"I really appreciate the rivalries, and I understand them. Coming from my background [he was an assistant at North Carolina State from 1996-2006], we had our own Big Four in North Carolina with Wake Forest, Duke, North Carolina State and North Carolina.

"I anticipate some of the same passions here. It's exciting for me to get my first taste of it tomorrow night. I know how improtant it is to the fans of college basketball in Iowa, and to the players."

I Think Football Has Passed Spurrier By, But His Underwhelming, Troubled 7-5 South Carolina Team Will Play 8-4 Iowa In the Outback Bowl Jan. 1

Iowa's football team got lucky twice today.

First, the Hawkeyes were invited to their third Outback Bowl in six seasons.

Second, they learned they'll play South Carolina, a Southeastern Conference team that's in disarray after a 7-5 regular-season record.

Hey, South Carolina's season should have ended in September.

Coach Steve Spurrier's contract, too.

If you ask me, it's a good thing Iowa didn't get matched against Georgia, which began the season ranked No. 1 nationally, is now No. 17 and goes into the Capital One Bowl against Michigan State with a 9-3 record.

The Outback Bowl starts at 10 a.m. Jan. 1, and will be telecast by ESPN.

I wrote this morning that Iowa would be headed to the Outback Bowl after I received an e-mail from the university's Alumni Association, which said it was already booking tours to the Tampa, Fla., game.

If the Hawkeyes were going somewhere else -- like the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, TX -- people had the association fooled.

Not to say the alums can't be tricked. But not very often. Smart folks, those Iowa grads.

The Alumni Association put out this memo: "While it's NOT official YET, Iowa Hawkeye alumni and fans, book your Official Iowa Hawkeye Outback Bowl Tour packages today at Hawkeye Sports Travel to see your Hawkeyes in Tampa on Jan. 1, 2009!"

Everything became official a few hours later. It's the Outback for Iowa. South Carolina, too.

Iowa has an 8-4 record after closing the regular season by clobbering Minnesota, 55-0.

There was so little drama in the game at the Metrodome in Minneapolis that a couple of Iowa fans decided to create their own excitement in a men's restroom there. They were cheered on while having sex in a stall, and were cited by police.

I wrote earlier today that I feared Georgia would get the SEC's Outback Bowl slot, but added that I preferred South Carolina, and I'm sure Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz and his players agreed with me.

I mean, if you were the Outback Bowl's selection committee, you'd want Georgia over South Carolina, wouldn't you?

If any team should have turned down a bowl invitation, it was South Carolina.

You've got to be kidding ne, a 7-5 team playing an 8-4 team in a New Year's Day bowl game!

What has college football come to?

South Carolina's problems this season began with Spurrier [pictured at the left], its coach.

Indeed, football has maybe passed Spurrier by. After losses in his last two regular-season games -- to Florida, 56-6, and Clemson, 31-14 -- he took the gutless way out and fired two of his assistants,

In other words, like Iowa State, the head coach placed the blame for a bad season on his staff, not himself. At least Iowa State's Gene Chizik waited until his team's season was over, though, before canning people.

On. Nov. 30, South Carolina said Spurrier fired assistants John Hunt and David Reaves immediately. Hunt had been the Gamecocks' offensive line coach four seasons. He had worked for Spurrier since 1999, first at Florida, then with the Washington Redskins, before joining the Gamecock staff in 2005.

"We appreciate the job John Hunt has done here at Carolina for the past four seasons," said Spurrier, "but we felt like we needed to make a change in that area. He's a good person and we wish him the best."

"I don't agree with the decision, but I respect coach Spurrier's decision," said Hunt.

Reaves, who has been at South Carolina for seven years, resigned for the old "to pursue other coaching opportunities." In other words, he was fired on the spot by Spurrier.

Reaves has been a fulltime member of the South Carolina staff for five years after two years as a graduate assistant. He was given the duties of recruiting coordinator in February of 2006 and was handed the fulltime quarterback coaching duties in the spring of 2007.

If South Carolina should lose to Iowa -- which is certainly possible [I'm picking the Hawkeyes by a couple of touchdowns] -- the heat will be on Spurrier even more than it is now.

Say what you want about the Outback Bowl -- and I know Hawkeye fans get giddy whenever their team gets picked for a Jan. 1 bowl or any bowl -- it's a game for also-rans.

When it comes to bigtime football, the BCS bowls are the important ones these days.

Speaking of that, Oklahoma [coached by Bob Stoops, a former Iowa player who was bypassed when Ferentz was hired] will play Florida for the national championship Jan. 8 in Miami.

Florida throttled Iowa, 31-24, in the 2006 Outback Bowl. The Hawkeyes smashed the Gators, 37-17, in the 2004 Outback.

It's anybody's guess what kind of mood South Carolina will be in when it shows up in Tampa.

Let's hope Spurrier doesn't try to make some kind of statement there on New Year's Day against Iowa.

Frankly, I don't think he or his team are capable of pulling it off.

Nile Kinnick Of the Hawkeyes Won the Heisman Trophy 69 Years Ago Today. And, Emma, Thanks Very Much for Asking Me About a Man Who Died Too Young

It was 69 years ago today that Nile Kinnick became the first, and only, football player from a university or college in our state to win the Heisman Trophy.

On Dec. 6, 1939, the University of Iowa halfback [pictured at the right with the trophy] won in a landslide in New York City.

And, after being named the winner of the award given to the best collegiate football player in the nation, Kinnick delivered the most eloquent Heisman speech that ever has been given.

Now the stadium in which he played so many years ago is called Kinnick Stadium, and there is a statue of him [pictured at the left] at the south entrance

The reason I'm bringing up Kinnick today is because of the letter I received recently from a 13-year-old student at an Iowa school.

The student's name is Emma and, frankly, I'm very happy someone her age is aware of Nile Kinnick and she's interested enough in what he did on and off the football field to ask about him.

Here's Emma's letter to me:

Dear Mr. Maly,

My name is Emma. I am 13 and am in seventh grade. This year I'm doing a National History Day project. The theme this year is, 'The Individual History: Actions and Legacies.' My topic is Nile Kinnick.

I am requesting information about Nile Kinnick. From your experience with the Hawkeyes, is there a legacy Nile Kinnick has left on the University of Iowa? What actions did Nile Kinnick do on and off the football field?

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Emma

Here's the letter I sent to her:

Dear Emma,

Thanks for writing to me regarding Nile Kinnick, who was an outstanding football player at the University of Iowa in the late-1930s.

As far as I'm concerned, Kinnick was the best Hawkeye football player in history.

Iowa has been fielding football teams since 1889, and a lot of players have suited up in those years.

I was too young to see Kinnick play a game, but he's always been my favorite Hawkeye.

Kinnick is one of only two Hawkeye players to have their jersey numbers retired by the university. Calvin Jones, a lineman who lettered in 1953, 1954 and 1955, is the other.

Kinnick was a halfback on Iowa teams in 1937, 1938 and 1939. In his senior year, he became the only player from a football team in the state of Iowa to win a Heisman Trophy -- the award given to the best collegiate player in the nation.

Kinnick was not only a brilliant player on the field, he was just as superb off the field.

He maintained a 3.4 grade-point average [on a 4.0 scale] and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the national scholastic honor society.

His acceptance speech at the Dec. 6, 1939 Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York City was the most eloquent in history.

Here it is:

"Thank you very, very kindly, Mr. Holcomb. It seems to me that everyone is letting their superlatives run away with them this evening, but nonetheless, I want you to know that I'm mighty, mighty happy to accept this trophy this evening.

"Every football player in these United States dreams about winning that trophy, and of this fine trip to New York. Every player considers that trophy the acme in recognition of this kind. And the fact that I am actually receiving this trophy tonight almost overwhelms me, and I know that all those boys who have gone before me must have felt somewhat the same way.

"From my own personal viewpoint, I consider my winning this award as indirectly a great tribute to the new coaching staff at the University of Iowa, headed by Dr. Eddie Anderson, and to my teammates sitting back in Iowa City. A finer man and a better coach never hit these United States, and a finer bunch of boys and a more courageous bunch of boys never graced the gridirons of the Midwest than that Iowa team in 1939. I wish that they might all be with me tonight to receive this trophy. They certainly deserve it.

"I want to take this grand opportunity to thank collectively all the sportswriters, and all the sportscasters, and all those who have seen fit, have seen their way clear to cast a ballot in my favor for this trophy. And I also want to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Prince and his committee, the Heisman award committee, and all those connected with the Downtown Athletic Club for this trophy, and for the fine time that they're showing me. And not only for that, but for making this fine and worthy trophy available to the football players of this country.

"Finally, if you will permit me, I'd like to make a comment which in my mind, is indicative, perhaps, of the greater significance of football and sports emphasis in general in this country, and that is, I thank God I was warring on the gridirons of the Midwest and not on the battlefields of Europe. I can speak confidently and positively that the players of this country would much more, much rather, struggle and fight to win the Heisman award than the Croix de Guerre.

"Thank you."

Obviously, Kinnick was proof that a bigtime collegiate football player could be an all-star in the classroom and on the campus as well as on the field.

I'm happy for Nile that Eddie Anderson, who was a medical doctor and carried on a practice at times while coaching football, came to Iowa in time for Kinnick's senior season.

I devoted a large part of my book, "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines," to Kinnick and his 1939 Hawkeyes, the team that was nicknamed the "Ironmen."

Iowa was coming off 1-7 and 1-6-1 records when Anderson coached Kinnick in 1939.

"Anderson did his medical work at the hospital in the morning, then he'd be wearing his doctor's clothes when he showed up when he showed up on the practice field," said George "Red" Frye, a center on Iowa's 1939 team.

Kinnick grew up in Adel, Ia., but spent his senior year of high school in Omaha, Neb.

Kinnick wasn't even elected captain of the '39 team. Teammate Erwin Prasse was.

"Kinnick had counted on being captain," Prasse told me. "And I certainly thought he would be. But he had a bad ankle in 1938, and I was named our most valuable player."

But Kinnick was the obvious leader of the Hawkeyes in '39. He played 402 minutes of a possible 480 in the 6-1-1 season. Kinnick was involved in scoring 107 of Iowa's 130 points.

Iowa;'s only loss was to Michigan, 27-7. The Hawkeyes and Northwestern played to a 7-7 tie in the last game of the season.

"I certainly believe Kinnick deserved the Heisman Trophy," said Prasse, the Hawkeyes' left end. "Nobody could come close to him in those days. If he didn't get the Heisman, there would have been a riot in the state of Iowa."

Prasse, like the above-mentioned George "Red" Frye, recalled Kinnick as someone who kept his distance off the field from other members of the team.

"He was always studying," Prasse said.

Yet, Kinnick was no "Goody Two-Shoes."

That comment was made to me by Jim Hoak, who was a friend of Kinnick's when they both attended Iowa.

"Kinnick had fun and he liked the girls," Hoak said. "He had a couple of girlfriends, though not serious ones. He enjoyed going to dances, but he wasn't the type of gregarious guy who would go out and chase girls."

Hoak said Kinnick "was very shy around everybody until he got to know them."

Some thought Kinnick would have been a state or national leader had he not lost his life at the age of 24 on June 2, 1943 when his Navy airplane crashed in the Caribbean Sea on a training flight.

Kinnick's grandfather, George W. Clarke, was governor of Iowa from 1913-1917.

Many people figured Kinnick had the knowledge and the political ambition to be a governor had he lived longer.

"Nile was very politically minded," said his friend, Jim Hoak. "He could become a governor, a United States senator or something. Who knows?"

Yes, who knows? Maybe even president.

That's me talking, Emma.

And thanks for asking me about Nile Kinnick.

It was a pleasure writing to you about him.

Sincerely,

Ron Maly

Reader Says Gannett Has, In Essence, Been Killing Off Bits And Pieces Of the Register, And Now the Company Has Finally Lowered the Coffin

I am shocked beyond belief with the lack of respect being shown Brian Duffy, the veteran page one cartoonist who has been dumped by the Des Moines Register.

When someone has been at a place for 25 years, you'd think the editor and/or publisher would write something about him when he leaves -- whether it's his idea to exit or someone else's.

But there hasn't been a word from publisher Laura Hollingsworth or editor Carolyn Washburn.

I mean, Duffy's drawings graced the front of the paper five and six times a week for a quarter-century. The guy was the last page one newspaper cartoonist in the nation!!

His bosses even had him serving as a spokesman for the paper's summertime bicycle trip across the state.

Then he's caught in a massive layoff, and he's treated like he's a slab of hamburger that has spoiled.

Here's an e-mail I received today from R. H. of Des Moines, who has some excellent background information on Duffy and other topics:

Ron,

"I was checking my trusty little BlackBerry when news broke of the eventual layoffs at 715 Locust. What was interesting was not how short the story was, but it was how it was written. The initial internet story did not mention Brian Duffy by name, only by saying that 'the layoffs included the Register's editorial cartoonist.' As Frank Sinatra would croon, 'Ain't that a kick in the head?'

"An hour later, I stopped at the Gateway Market, on the corner of Martin Luther King Dr. and Woodland Avenue for a short meeting. No one needed to read the newspaper the next morning to know that Brian got whacked. It was the big story in the Market.

"First, the Big Peach, and now the front page editorial cartoon. Thanks for nothing, Gannett. Gannett, in essence, has been killing off bits and pieces of the Register, but I believe they have finally lowered the coffin.

"At least they could do the humane thing and take RAGBRAI behind the woodshed and go 'Old Yeller' with it."

*

[More from R. H. of Des Moines]:

"On Sunday, we recall our friend from Eastern Iowa, who complained about the Cedar Rapids Gazette not publishing a story on the Wartburg-Monmouth playoff game.

"Well, Mike Hlas decided to correct a wrong and put the Gazette back, hopefully, in the good graces of our Eastern Iowa correspondent.

"Here is the story, courtesy of the Gazette, written by Mike Hlas:

Wartburg will fire up the football buses again Friday

By Mike Hlas
Gazette sports columnist
mike.hlas@gazettecommunications.com

College football playoffs? A burden? Not at Wartburg.

The Knights of Waverly know the drill. They get on a bus Friday, travel four or five hours to meet a ranked opponent, win, and come home.

It's not really that easy, of course. The teams the Knights have beaten were good ones and the games have been doozies.

Wartburg won at Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 26-21, in an NCAA Division III first-round game. Then, after trailing 28-14 at Monmouth (Ill.), the Knights rallied for a 30-28 second-round triumph. Nick Yordi threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Justin Vetter with seven seconds left.

"It's been a lot of fun," Wartburg Coach Rick Willis said Tuesday.

It's been busloads of fun. With a roster that consists of about 90 percent Iowans, most of them from the eastern part of the state, the Knights have won two games in a D-III football tournament for the first time. Next up is another road trip, this one to defending national champion Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The loudest argument in college football is if the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (major college) should go to a playoff format. All other divisions have had playoffs for decades with no noticeable horrible side effects, and D-III has a 32-team field with a playoff that lasts five consecutive weeks.

"It's a longer season than what we're accustomed to," Willis said. "When you're traveling every weekend, there's certainly some strain that goes with that. The players have to efficiently balance their priorities between academic responsibilities and football responsibilities.

"But we haven't missed a lot of class because of it. Our travel's been minimal, trips of less than five hours. We've been leaving at midday on Friday."

The games have been close enough that Wartburg has had as many or more fans at Stevens Point and Monmouth than the home teams. That's mainly because so many family and friends of players live in Iowa themselves.

Junior quarterback Yordi, who set the Wartburg season record for passing yardage in the last game, is from Solon. The Knights' leading rusher is Alex Boom of Manchester. Their leading tackler is Jason Lansing of West Union.

Josh Faaborg of Cedar Rapids Jefferson leads Wartburg in interceptions with five. Benton Community grads Marcus Hemesath of Norway and Kyle Goodchild of Van Horne have four each.

The coach has Eastern Iowa roots himself. Willis is a Cornell College alum, but he's a Wartburg man through and through. Willis was Wartburg's head coach from 1997 through 2005, racking up four D-III playoff berths and a 79-14 record.

He stepped aside to become the athletics director, with assistant Eric Koehler taking over. Wartburg didn't drop off under Koehler, going 16-4 in two seasons. But he left the school suddenly in late July when the opportunity arose to become the offensive coordinator at Division II football national power Grand Valley State in Michigan.

"It was a situation where it was two weeks until players would be reporting," Willis said.

"There really weren't a lot of other options. Obviously, I'd done this before, and it was exciting to have the opportunity to do it again."

Handling the dual roles of AD and head football coach "has been a challenge to me," Willis said, "but we have an outstanding staff and we've figured out a way to make it work."

Something's working and keeps working. Year after year, Wartburg reels in lots of fine Iowa high school players. The 10-2 Knights just won their 11th Iowa Conference title, and fifth since 1999.

But this deal about going into a third week of the national playoffs, this is something new for the school.

"I think it's a pretty big deal here," Willis said.

It certainly is a pretty big deal.

Mike Hlas' "The Hlog" is at gazetteonline.com.
To contact Mike: (319) 368-8840 or mike.hlas@gazcomm.com

*

"Best,"

R.H.
Des Moines

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Back to Brian Duffy and cartooning for a minute. Evidently, the cartoon at the right was his last one for the Register. That gave me an excuse to also print the final cartoon drawn by J. N. "Ding" Darling, courtesy of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. Darling won two Pulitzer Prizes for his Register page one drawings. His farewell cartoon was titled, "Bye, Now. It's Been Wonderful Knowing You." Ding gave the cartoon to his secretary to use after his death. It appeared on the front page of the Register on Feb. 13, 1962, the morning after he died. It shows what his studio may have looked like--hunting devices behind the sofa and pictures of Farmer John, Teddy Roosevelt and his duck stamp design on the walls. I guess Duffy would draw quite a different cartoon of his final day at the Register drawing board. What a shame the guy had to leave the place in that manner. Thanks to R. H. of Des Moines for sending Mike Hlas' column on Wartburg. I messaged R. H. this morning, saying I figured he'd be making the trip to Wisconsin for tomorrow's playoff game. Here was his reply: "Thanks, Ron! Unfortunately, I will not be heading to Wisconsin for the game. Long before everyone knew Wartburg would qualify for postseason play, I purchased tickets to watch the Christmas with Wartburg concert at the Des Moines Civic Center downtown. The concert is tomorrow night! So, a large group of alums and friends I know who are heading up there will be calling and sending emails to me throughout the game. The good folks at the concert would enjoy being in a festive mood if the football team pull off a great win tomorrow. But, if they fall short, we won't feel bad, because it's been a heck of a ride for the Orange and Black. We couldn't be any prouder of these guys!!!" By the way, shown in the photo at the left is Wartburg football coach Rick Willis, courtesy of the Gazette.]

Dismissal Of Longtime Page One Cartoonist Brian Duffy 'Will Cost the Register a Lot More Than They'll Save With His Salary'

The Des Moines Register has been trying to be its usual secretive self when it comes to reporting on company business in regard to this week's newsroom bloodbath.

Publisher Laura Hollingsworth issued a memo [which I'll show you later in this column] to Register employees that said 41 people were losing their jobs, and there was a small story buried in the business section of the paper this morning about cartoonist Brian Duffy being one of them.

Otherwise, the paper didn't name any others who were given their walking papers. But you'll find the names of Julie Probasco-Sowers, the outdoors writer, and others who are victims in my story on the right side of this site.

Trying to keep newsroom happenings from readers has been a trademark of newspapers since the printing press was invented.

But keeping anything a secret these days is impossible. There are plenty of gossipy, talkative people in the newspaper business, just like there are in plenty of other businesses.

When the news came out that Duffy, who has been a page one cartoonist at the Register since 1983, was among those told their services would no longer be needed in a dying industry, a guy e-mailed me.

"I think this thing with Duffy will hammer home to the readers what's going on, and it will cost the Register a lot more than they'll save with his salary," he said.

I agree.

If there were still folks out there who didn't realize newspaper bosses are people without hearts and that the business is on life support, the dumping of Duffy should have informed them.

Duffy was the latest [and undoubtedly the last] editorial/page 1 cartoonist the Register had.

He followed such cartooning stalwarts as Ding Darling, who won two Pulitzer Prizes, and Frank Miller, who won one.

I always heard that one of the reasons Duffy got his job at the Register was because, in his letter of application, he included a cartoon he drew of Jim Gannon, who then was editor of the paper.

Gannon, I guess, always liked looking at himself -- so he gave the cartooning job to Duffy.

Newspaper cartoonists have been being dumped by their bosses in wholesale numbers in recent years, so Hollingsworth, Register editor Carolyn Washburn and the brutal bosses at the Gannett Co. aren't doing anything that hasn't been done before.

That figures. Nothing the Register does is original anymore. If it's done at a Gannett paper somewhere else, it's done here--and at the Iowa City Press-Citizen, another Gannett paper and one that dumped 11 employees yesterday.

The fact that 41 people are gone from the Register three weeks before Christmas means, of course, that the finished product will be even less polished than it was before all this happened.

Anyone in the newsroom who is breathing easier because he or she survived this round of layoffs and buyouts certainly can't relax.

There's always another one just around the corner.

"It's a good thing you and I worked there in the golden age," a guy told me this morning.

You can say that again.

*

I wonder what Ries Tuttle would be saying now. Tuttle was the longtime outdoors writer at the Register. Then came such names as Larry Stone, Tom Kollings and Julie Probasci-Sowers [who is now history].

I wonder if there will be anyone else who writes about fishing, pheasants, ducks, geese and prairie grass.

For all I know, Washburn will go up to Randy Peterson in the sports department [if she knows who he is] and say, "I need a pheasant hunting story. Forget about that Iowa football game and write me one."

*

Mike Gartner, in his Civic Skinny blather in City View, writes that the Register is dropping book reviews from its Sunday Opinion sections.

Hell, the Register's book reviews lost all of their credibility when they didn't do anything with Dave Kruidenier's book, "David and Liz -- Dancing Through Love."

The best part of the book was the chapter named "Betrayal," which centered on Gartner. My coverage of it is a staple of this website. Readership surveys show it is one of the most-heavily read features of the page every day -- in the same high-traffic neighborhood as Al Schallau, Carolyn Washburn, Jamie Pollard's latest firings at Iowa State and arrests in Iowa City.

*

Here's Laura Hollingsworth's memo:

To: All Des Moines Register and Affiliate Employees

From: Laura Hollingsworth, President and Publisher

December 3, 2008

This week we notified 41 Des Moines Register employees that they were being laid off in response to the worsening economic situation. Another 15 open positions will not be filled, and we had four employees who volunteered for a severance package.

In our weeklies division including the Des Moines metro-area weekly newspapers and our Marengo operations, there are an additional 14 employees being impacted.

This total employee impact translates to 6.9% of our 801 member workforce.

All laid off employees will receive severance packages and benefits for up to 26 weeks.

Those employees who are leaving us in the coming days have made important and hard-working contributions to the Des Moines Register, many for a number of years. We are grateful to them for all their service and we thank them for their impact to this company and to our communities.

The layoffs here and those going on throughout Gannett are difficult but necessary steps. The challenges the current economy poses are well known. Though it may be well into 2009 before we see some relief, the actions we are taking now will position us to take full advantage of the turnaround. With your help and through it all, The Des Moines Register will continue to remain strong.

I thank you for your hard work as we move forward. You are a very talented and committed group of employees. Together, we will get through this. LH

*

If it's not "Black Friday," it's "white-knuckler."

For the life of me, I can't figure out why any sportswriter or headline writer would use the term "white-knuckler" when it comes to describing basketball games in which the best players are black.

Sounds to me like a good way to get canned in an era when editors are looking for ways to get rid of people.

Message from The Voice Of Reason Jay Davidson To Bulldogs' Disappointed Fans, 'There Will NEVER Be Another Season Like Last Year'

Longtime Drake booster Jay Davidson is unlike a lot of other sports fans I know.

I call him The Voice Of Reason.

A number of folks who used the 28-5 season generated by then-coach Keno Davis' 2007-2008 team to celebrate have been critical of what took place early in Mark Phelps' first season.

Especially disheartening was Drake's 58-48 loss to Butler in the season opener.

However, people felt a lot better when the Bulldogs beat Steve Alford's New Mexico team, 68-62, in the third-place game at the Cancun Challenge this week.

With Drake taking a 3-2 record into tonight's game against Lincoln [Mo.] at the Knapp Center, here's an e-mail The Voice Of Reason sent me:

"Hi, Ron,

"I always enjoy your columns [even when I disagree with them)] and lately, especially, the pictures have been terrific. The snow shot [at the top of this page] is gorgeous!

"Just one comment on Drake men's basketball: People who insist on jumping on and off the bandwagon after every victory or loss are going to get very winded and maybe even mighty sore this year. And those who expect a repeat of last season [which I predicted, sort of; you'll notice I have made no predictions this year, which doesn't reflect any lack of confidence on my part -- just enough savvy to refrain from risking any prognosticating prowess I have left]...long parenthetical phrase, eh?..those who expect a repeat should also expect a total eclipse of the sun every week. There will NEVER be another season like last year, nor could there be. But this year will be worthy, and interesting. And the players and new staff deserve support, not criticism.

"There's nothing wrong at Drake that a little more consistency won't cure, and time will provide that.

"All the best,"

Jay Davidson

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Jay Davidson has been around the Drake scene a long time. He was a roommate of Rick Wanamaker, the 6-8 Bulldogs basketball player and superb track and field athlete who played on the best Drake basketball team in history. That was the 1968-69 squad that was coached by Maury John. Those Bulldogs went 26-5 and clobbered Dean Smith's North Carolina team, 104-84, in the third-place game at the NCAA Final Four in Louisville. Early last season, following a lunch at the Drake Tipoff Club, I mentioned to first-year coach Keno Davis that he should enjoy the season he was having because things like that happen only once every 40 years at Drake. I was trying to make a joke, but it was a true statement. Drake is not an easy place to coach, even though Keno was everybody's national coach of the year. Indeed, Tom Davis [Keno's dad, who coached at places such as Boston College, Stanford, Iowa and Drake] regarded Drake as the toughest coaching job in the Missouri Valley Conference. I was disappointed that Mark Phelps' Bulldogs lost their opener to Butler. 58-48 [less than a year after Keno's team beat Butler 71-64, in the ESPN BracketBusters event in Indianapolis], and I wrote how I felt. I couldn't believe the Bulldogs scored only 15 points in the first half. But now comes The Voice Of Reason to calm me and others down. Thanks for writing, Jay. Still, don't forget, never is a long time].

*

From Jane Burns, a Drake graduate, former writer/editor for newspapers in Des Moines and Minneapolis, and now a columnist in Madison, Wis.:

"For what it's worth, one of our most-clicked stories over the years has been a couple busted for having sex in one of the bathrooms at Camp Randall Stadium. Online journalism puts us on the pulse of what's really important."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Madison, Minneapolis...it makes no difference where the football stadiums are. Obviously, people with computers like reading about others [or maybe themselves] doing it [or doing something] in the restroom. Thanks for writing, Jane].

*

A man identified as Tongue Planted Firmly In Cheek, not his real name, writes:

"Hi, Ron,

"Referencing yesterday's column: As a longtime admirer of the late Paul Simon, whose formal education ended well short of a college degree but who was one of the most wise and informed men I've ever met, I would say this: Dave Yepsen's prospective departure from Des Moines and arrival in Carbondale would raise the IQ of both areas.

"Only in fun,"

Tongue Planted Firmly In Cheek

[RON MALY'S COMMENT: There are some people who are saying Yepsen and Carbondale deserve each other].

With the Shaky Status Of the Newspaper Business,I Think the Register's Political Columnist Will Fit In Well At Beautiful Downtown Carbondale, Ill.

My day started a little later than usual.

I slept until 8 a.m. after staying awake too long while watching and listening to the Gaither Brothers gospel music [left] on DirecTV channel 338 late last night and early this morning, I guess.

I began brewing my pot of coffee at 8:05 a.m. before checking the usual long e-mail list awaiting me.

One message that immediately caught my eye was from Scott Pierce, the basketball/football radio broadcaster from Des Moines.

"Did you know this?" Pierce asked me in an e-mail that linked to a story at thesouthern.com.

The story said that David Yepsen [right], who seemingly has been writing political columns at the Des Moines Register since Teddy Roosevelt was president, is one of three candidates for the director's job at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute in Carbondale, Ill.

Indeed, Yepsen interviewed for the job yesterday.

In answer to Pierce's question, I wasn't aware that Yepsen was interviewing for jobs.

But, hey, a guy [or a girl] in the newspaper business these days needs to keep all options open.

There's another round of layoffs and/or buyouts approaching at the Register, so you never know who'll be called into editor Carolyn Washburn's office to get the bad news.

Folks with big salaries are prime candidates to go.

During the most recent buyouts, reporter/humor columnist Kenny Fuson and farm editor Jerry Perkins said adios to Washburn and everyone else in the fourth-floor newsroom.

So I guess it doesn't surprise me that Yepsen is looking.

But at a job in Carbondale, Ill.?

Listen, this is no time for laughing.

When I was traveling to Drake basketball and football games on the road, Carbondale was one of the stops.

And it was a place nobody wanted to stay very long.

"Well, they have a Holiday Inn there," I was always told.

"Yes, but do they have indoor toilets and a Greyhound bus station?" I asked.

Just kidding, Scott.

When he was Drake's basketball coach in the previous century, Maury John was famous for not wanting to stay at the site of a game the night before his teams played Missouri Valley Conference games.

If the Bulldogs played in Louisville, he'd put the players in an Indianapolis hotel the night before. If they played at North Texas State in Denton, the team stayed in Dallas.

Heck, if Maury had to go to Southern Illinois now, he and the players might stay in Keokuk, Ia., the night before.

It figured that Pierce would locate a story about something going on in Carbondale.

He's from that area, and even has the courage to admit it.

Just kidding, Scott.

"Actually, I'm from Murphysboro, which is Carbondale's arch-rival," Pierce told me. "We didn't keep track of who won the game, but who won the fight after the game."

"Going from Des Moines to Carbondale would be quite an adjustment. It would be like going to Cedar Falls with no Waterloo or Des Moines nearby. It's basically a college town."

As for Yepsen being a candidate for a job at the Paul Simon Policy Institute, Pierce said, "This should answer the question about Yepsen's political leanings. I'm from southern Illinois, and there is NO WAY a conservative would be interviewed for this job."

Whatever, thanks to Pierce, I think I scooped Biz Buzz [not to be confused with Bulldog Buzz] at the paper again with the news on Yepsen.

Come to think of it, Washburn may decide to lay off Biz Buzz, too -- and perhaps Bulldog Buzz.

Wikipedia says of the Simon Institute:

"Founded in 1997 by Paul Simon, a former two-term U.S. Senator from Illinois and one-time candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for president, the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute differentiates itself from similar organizations by working directly with elected officials and others to fashion and implement changes in public policy.

"Many of these organizations are considered 'think tanks,' which is not a title that aptly describes the Simon Institute. Paul Simon spoke of his institute as a 'do tank' because it seeks--and achieves--positive results and concrete actions based on its work.

"Simon established the bipartisan institute to maintain this fundamental difference from virtually all other organizations of its kind. It does so by asking two important questions:

"1. Can anything be accomplished by our taking on this project? and;
"2. Is our involvement differentiated from other organization's work on this subject?"

Candidates for the director's job in addition to Yepsen are William H. Freivogel, director of the Southern Illinois school of journalism, and state Rep. Arthur L. Turner, a Democrat from Chicago.

When he was in Carbondale, Yepsen said the institute "could be used as a means to explore national issues, like combating racial prejudice, studying women in politics, government spending and debt, health care in rural America and campaign finance reform," according to thesouthern.com.

"Yepsen said it's important to not lose sight of Simon's vision of the institute as a 'do-tank' rather than a 'think-tank.' It could be used as a way to educate the public, garner public opinion and even go so far as to draft legislation to send to lawmakers.

"I think it's important for the institute to always be doing what it can to take it to the next level," Yepsen said. "It's okay to do some things locally, but this is a state university, this is a nationally recognized institution.

"If you want an Illinois-oriented director, I'm not it. I think we need to be focused on something bigger," he added.

"While focusing on a national scope, it's also important to remember the institute's role in helping students. In that regard, Yepsen said he would like to use several ideas he learned while spending a semester teaching at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

"He would like to create a 'pizza and politics' atmosphere during an informal study group that would teach students the foundations of becoming involved in politics. Yepsen also suggested starting a mentoring program with students that would help university faculty and others in the community trying to become U.S. citizens."

Good luck, Dave. If it's something you want, I hope you get it.

Gene Chizik Could Be the Next Guy At Iowa State To Get the Boot, So That's Why He Fired 2 Assistant Football Coaches and Demoted 2 Coordinators

In a way, I'm surprised Gene Chizik has fired a couple of his assistant coaches and demoted two others so soon.

After all, Chizik has just finished only his second season as the Cyclones' coach.

On the other hand, I guess I'm not so shocked that Chizik is already making changes.

Chizik is no dummy.

This time, it's assistant coaches who are dumped. Next time, it likely will be him who's shown the door.

And not once in this column have I yet called Iowa State a coaching graveyard.

Plenty of others have already done that over the years.

Chizik saw that Ron Prince was canned as Kansas State's coach before his third season in 2008 was completed, and he knows 2009 will be his third year at Iowa State.

The Big 12 is as high-pressure a football conference as it gets these days.

Chizik knows that if he doesn't show some progress next season -- like win about six games -- he, too, could be fired.

Don't forget, he works for an athletic director [Jamie Pollard] who has an itchy trigger finger.

Pollard has already fired one head football coach, a head basketball coach, a head wrestling coach and a head track coach.

When Chizik was hired, he walked through artificial smoke [pictured] while being introduced to a cheering crowd at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

Now, it's obvious he's feeling a different sort of heat.

Chizik's two-year record is a not-so-fantastic 5-19. He was 2-10 in 2008, which didn't exactly show a lot of progress after his break-in 3-9 record in 2007.

“It’s the head coach’s responsibility to evaluate all facets of the program and make whatever changes are necessary to improve the team’s overall performance,” Chizik was quoted in Iowa State's announcement of the coaching changes.

Robert McFarland is out as the offensive coordinator, but will still be the assistant head coach and offensive line coach. Wayne Bolt is finished as the defensive coordinator, but will continue as linebackers coach. Quarterbacks coach Tony Petersen and secondary coach Shawn Raney were fired.

And, oh, by the way, Iowa State is probably saying, we hope your families have a great holiday season.

Popularity Of the Paper's 'Sex-In-the-Bathroom' Story May Mean Something, and Whenever I Figure Out What It Is, I'll Let You Know

An e-mail from former newspaperman Bud Appleby of Des Moines:

Subject: Most popular story ever at DesMoinesRegister.com

Last week's story on Hawkeye fans having sex in the bathroom of the Metrodome is now the most popular story in the history of our web site.

Here's the top 10:

1. Update: Hawk fan says bathroom sex scandal "ruined my life" - 688,794 page views
2. Iowa Central president receives $400K for resignation - 654,008
3. Spring break at Wal-Mart - 453,439
4. Rolling back bad taste - 442,635
5. Vilsack fourth in presidential poll - 262,553
6. Iowa Ear: Des Moines' well-endowed flood control - 246,433
7. 'Dilbert' retells story of Iowan fired over comic - 182,990
8. Grisham slams war, tells book's Iowa ties - 174,375
9. New Iowa Poll: Obama widens lead over Clinton - 148,258
10. Stumping for wife, Clinton can help, or hurt, anybody - 147,930

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: That may mean something. But I'm going to need some time to think about it. Just exactly what it indicates, I'm not yet sure. When I figure it out, I'll let you know. Preliminary thoughts: Folks who get their news on computers like to read about people having sex in the bathroom. Any bathroom. Or they like bathroom humor. It also might mean the Des Moines Register's online coverage has gone to the crapper].

The Knights' Football Beat Goes On: 'I Have Never Seen a Large Loyal Following That Wartburg Has With Its Fans and Students'

Obviously, Wartburg College has it going in NCAA Division III football. There's a very strong football tradition at the Waverly school, and this 2008 team is more than upholding it very well.

R. H. of Des Moines was on hand for the Knights' last-minute [almost last-second] 30-28 victory Saturday at Monmouth, and sent the following e-mail:

"Ron,

"Your eastern Iowa reporter was spot on about the Cedar Rapids Gazette's [lack of] coverage, but I have to advise him to read Kelly Beaton's account of the game from the Waterloo Courier. The Courier sent Beaton to Monmouth for the game. Heck, even John Bohnenkamp from the [Burlington] Hawk Eye had a front row seat at April Zorn Memorial Stadium/Bobby Woll Field for Saturday's wild classic.

"I was very lucky that things fell into place for me to travel to Monmouth. After having Thanksgiving with the family in Waterloo, I drove my mother and sister back home to the Quad Cities for the weekend. That allowed me to sneak away Saturday morning make the 45-minute trip south to the quaint small town Monmouth, Ill. I have been to a good number of college football games, from Iowa and ISU, to UNI and Simpson, but forgive me for being biased, I have never seen a large loyal following that Wartburg has with its fans and students. We had so many fans from Waverly and eastern Iowa fill the visitors stand, we started to fill out the stands on the Monmouth side of the field! Of course, the Monmouth crowd was none too pleased with us sitting next to them!

"It was a tale of two halves. Monmouth, with its vaunted high-scoring spread offense, wasted little time in getting on the board first in the first quarter. Sophomore QB Alex Tanney, who has thrown for over 3,000 yards and 48 TDs, moved the Fighting Scots down the field with ease. The Scots dominated Wartburg's defense and capped off the first half scoring with a TD pass from Tanney to WR Steve Zidow to take a 28-14 lead.

"A classmate of mine said that if the Knights hold on to the ball and make several defensive stops in the second half, they can get back in the game. Wartburg came out in the second half and did the unthinkable: hold Division III's top offensive unit scoreless, and the offensive scrapped and clawed themselves down the field and outscored the Scots, 16-0, in the second half.

"After the game, the local media started asking questions about a call made by the Scots' coach Steve Bell. On a fourth-and-6 at the Knights' 16-yard line, Monmouth was called for a false start. Rather than kick a field goal and go up, 31-24, Bell decides to go for it on fourth-and-11 on the 21-yard line and Tanney's pass was broken up. QB Nick Yordi brings the Orange and Black offense back out for one last chance with roughly 1:20 to go.

"Justin Vetter, who caught the game-winner, made two gaffes earlier in the fourth quarter. The first one was making a catch and fumbling it, with the Scots recovering the fumble. The second one was dropping a wide-open pass from Yordi. Vetter atoned for his mistakes, by what, in my opinion, was the play of the game. He catches a key third-down pass on a slant route across the field to keep the drive going. Several plays later, he hauls in the pass in the endzone to win it.

"I have sent you the picture of Vetter's winning catch [at the right], courtesy of the Courier.

"Wartburg advances to the quarterfinal round of the Division III playoffs for the first time in school history, and will travel to play defending national champion Wisconsin-Whitewater at Perkins Stadium on Saturday. This game was one of the most exciting and memorable playoff games since the 1994 first round game between the Knights and the Central Dutch. Central missed a go-ahead FG with :12 left to lose to Wartburg, 22-21, in dramatic fashion in Pella. Earlier that season, the Knights missed a PAT and lost to Central, 14-13. That playoff win cemented Wartburg's rise from the middle-of-the-pack to a dominant football powerhouse that it is today in the IIAC.

"There is no doubt that Chuck Offenburger is smiling from ear-to-ear, thanks to the great play of the Knights and how they are representing the Iowa Conference in grand fashion.

"Best,"

R.H.
Des Moines

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Thanks for the recap of Wartburg's outstanding victory last week, and good luck to the Knights in the next round against Wisconsin-Whitewater. The way Wartburg has caught fire this season, I'm predicting it will knock off the defending champions this week].