Drake's Lorri Bauman Has Owned NCAA Record Of 50 Since 1982, and That Was Before the 3-Point Shot; I Hope No One Ever Breaks It--Jayne Appel Included

It was the women's version of basketball's Big Monday.

Stanford seemed to be telling Iowa State, "Ladies, welcome to the major leagues."

I mean, was Jayne Appel impressive or what?

The 6-foot 4-inch junior was unstoppable and unconrollable in Stanford's 74-53 victory in the NCAA Regional tournament game that ended the Cyclones' neon season and prevented them from advancing to the Final Four in St. Louis.

You won't get me to second-guess the defensive strategy of Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly.

After all, right now Fennelly is such a hot commodity around here that he could run for just about any job in public office, and win. Kirk Ferentz might beat him in the vote for governor of our state, but it would be close. Very close.

Oh, I know, Fennelly couldn't figure out a way to stop Jayne Appel, but he might be able to stop the flooding in Fargo and Cedar Rapids, and save General Motors.

Fennelly chose to not double- or triple-cover Appel last night in Berkeley, Calif., because, he told reporters afterward, the Cyclones tried that "in Hawaii and got annihilated."

Fennelly was talking about a 38-point loss Stanford hung on Iowa State Nov. 29. In that game, Appel was limited to six points.

*

As Appel piled up basket after basket and rebound after rebound [she had 16 of those] in her monstrous performance against Iowa State, the TV announcers kept talking about how close she was to the single-game NCAA tournament record for points,

That record of 50 is held by none other than Lorri Bauman of Drake, who reached the lofty figure in a defeat.

It was on March 31, 1982 that Bauman scored half-a-hundred in an 89-78 loss to Maryland in the West Regional final at -- of all places -- Stanford, Calif.

You can bet your old short-pants version of collegiate basketball from 25 years ago or today's long-pants variety that I was hoping Appel wouldn't get 50 against Iowa State.

I want Bauman's record to last forever.

In her record game, the 6-3 Bauman -- then a Drake sophomore -- connected on 21 field goals in 35 attempts [her teammates were 12-for-23] and she was 8-for-11 at the free throw line. Bauman played all 40 minutes, grabbed five rebounds and didn't have a turnover.

The East High School graduate [pictured in her No. 55 uniform at the right] was a four-year starter for Carole Baumgarten's teams at Drake. She became in the first woman in NCAA Division I history to score 3,000 points [Bauman had 3,155] and total 1,000 rebounds [she had 1,050].

When she graduated from Drake in 1984, Bauman [who now lives in Gillette, Wyo.] was the NCAA women's all-time scoring leader.

Her jersey number has been retired by Drake [Bauman is shown in the photo at the left in the ceremony with athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb], and she was named to the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame earlier this month.

*

Jane Burns, formerly of Des Moines and now of Madison, Wis., knows more about women's basketball than most people. She e-mailed me at mid-morning today after reading what I wrote about Bauman.

"Ron, I was glad to see your mention of Lorri Bauman. I, too, was watching that game and hoping Lorri's record would stand," she wrote. "The thing that I found most amazing about Lorri Bauman's scoring, and she and I talked about this once for an NCAA piece I did, was that it was done before the three-pointer was part of the game. [That began in 1987.]

"Yes, she was a big player, but she had a beautiful killer shot from the top of the key and, needless to say, most post players didn't follow her out that far. Her totals, while impressive, would have been even higher."

*

It was good that Iowa State men's basketball coach Greg McDermott got to Berkeley for the game last night. That way, he could finally see what it's like when the Cyclones play an NCAA game.

*

I'm glad Memphis' John Calipari is getting closer to accepting Kentucky's offer of an 8-year, $35 million basketball coaching contract. I don't like either Calipari or Kentucky very much, so I figure they deserve one another.

Accepting The Call

It's definitely an impressive afternoon of sights and sounds when an adult choir sings "Crown Him With Many Crowns" and "Blessed Be Your Name" in addition to a number of other hymns, and 20 pastors in white robes [shown in the photo at the top] participate in the ceremony on an afternoon when The Rev. Kendall L. Meyer is installed as the senior pastor at Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Des Moines. Rev. Meyer [shown with his family in the lower photo] has been associate pastor and director of adult ministry at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Urbandale. Mount Olive had been without a senior pastor for 2 1/2 years before Rev. Meyer accepted the call.

At a Place That Too Often Is On the Outside Looking In Athletically, Iowa State Women's Coach Bill Fennelly Keeps Showing What a Miracle-Worker He Is

Whenever I hear about a significant Iowa State women's basketball accomplishment, I wonder how Bill Fennelly would do as the Cyclones' men's bssketball coach or even the university's football coach.

As far as I'm concerned, Fennelly is a miracle-worker at a place that always seems to be on the outside looking in when it comes to success in bigtime collegiate athletics.

Fennelly's Iowa State women stormed back to beat Michigan State, 69-68, last night in Berkeley, Calif., in a regional semifinal that has his team within one victory of advancing to the Final Four.

Fennelly, in his 14th season at Iowa State, has his team poised to do something other coaches at Iowa State and a lot of other places, can just fantasize about.

I mean, Gene Chizik -- a football coach who was introduced to Iowa State fans while walking through artificial smoke at Hilton Coliseum -- bailed out of Ames in a firestorm after winning just five games in two seasons.

For some unknown reason, Auburn hired the guy who so far hasn't demonstrated that he can coach his way out of a grocery bag.

Obviously, he had started to believe the stuff he kept hearing -- that Iowa State was a football coaching graveyard. All Chizik did was add to the problem.

Greg McDermott can't get the Cyclone men's basketball program out of the starting blocks, no matter what he does. His teams are overmatched nine games out of every 10 in the Big 12 Conference.

People [and I was one of them for a while] have wondered whatever happened to Hilton Magic.

I'll tell you what happened to it.

It's in Bill Fennelly's briefcase. In his back pocket. In his game plan. He's got the magic.

Now, crank it up one more night in Berkeley, Bill.

There's still a Final Four out there to play in, and win.

*

After last night's game, Fennelly told reporters the victory was "one of the best I've ever been a part of."

*

I'm very sorry to hear of the death of Bev Mahon, the 86-year-old owner of the Varsity Theater near Drake's campus. Bev, the father of Drake sports information director Mike Mahon, suffered a stroke on the weekend last month when the Bulldogs' 1969 Final Four team was being honored. The Varsity is quite a story; Bev Mahon was a story all by himself.

*

Al Schallau writes about the men's basketball mess at Iowa:

"Dear Ron,

"The evidence is overwhelming that Todd Lickliter is an excellent basketball coach. As head coach at Butler University, he had a 6-year record of 131 wins and 61 losses, with two outright conference championships, and one tie for the conference championship. His Butler teams in 2003 and 2007 both made it to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.

"In terms of personnel, Coach Lickliter inherited an Iowa Hawkeye basketball program that was full of problems. Thereafter, some of his best players suffered serious injuries.

Now the word out of Iowa City is that Jake Kelly, Jeff Peterson, Jermain Davis, and David Palmer have quit the team.

"My reaction is: If there are any players who don't want to be part of the Iowa Hawkeye basketball program, then get 'em the hell out of Iowa City as quickly as possible. They will not be missed.

"Kelly, Peterson, Davis and Palmer were NEVER threats to make any all-Big Ten teams, and none of the four will ever be drafted by any NBA team. The only way that any of the four will ever get into an NBA game is to buy a ticket. I predict that the four new players who will eventually receive their scholarships will be BETTER than Kelly, Peterson, Davis, and Palmer. Those four were not very good.

"Those four defections bring back memories of 1978 when Lute Olson was coaching at Iowa. On December 13, 1977, a tragic plane crash claimed the lives of the entire Evansville University basketball team and coaching staff. In 1978, Iowa players Scott Kelley, Jim Hallstrom and Larry Olsthoorn transferred to Evansville, where the NCAA allowed them to be eligible immediately.

"In 1980, (after the Iowa Hawkeyes made it to the Final Four), Lute Olson told me that those three transferring out was "the best thing that happened to the Iowa basketball program". It freed up three scholarships, two of which went to Kevin Boyle and Kenny Arnold. Boyle was a starter all four seasons at Iowa, and Arnold was a three-year starter.

"Those four defections give Coach Todd Lickliter a golden opportunity for a "new beginning." He will do just fine. I also believe that Coach Lickliter will do it with integrity, as he always did at Butler University.

"Best,"

Al Schallau

[RON MALY'S COMMENT: Al, I know Todd Lickliter will be happy to know you're in his corner].

Just Thinking On a Snowy [Well, Not Really That Much] Saturday Morning In March About Hawkeye Basketball, Todd Lickliter, Tom Davis and His Son Keno

I guess I'm having trouble buying that "dark before the dawn" stuff in Iowa City.

About Todd Lickliter's Hawkeye basketball program, I mean.

Like I wrote the other day, I've been watching Iowa basketball for 63 years, and I'd never seen anything like what went on this week.

Not even when Dick Schultz was the coach. And he was pretty bad.

I mean, until now, Schultz might've been the worst basketball coach Iowa ever had. Yet, for some unknown reason, the Des Moines Register named him to its Sports Hall of Fame a few years ago. Total insanity.

Four of Lickliter's players -- Jake Kelly, Jeff Peterson, Jermain Davis and David Palmer -- have quit the team.

And there was another bizarre development early in the week.

An 11th-grade kid at Marshalltown High School named Chanse Creekmur announced to everyone in the world James Naismith created that he didn't want to enroll at Iowa on the full-ride basketball scholarship he'd get in 2010.

He said he wanted to find out how many other coaches were interested in recruiting him.

It was almost like Creekmur had been talking to the Iowa players who were in the process of letting Lickliter know they were quitting the team.

Taking all of that into consideration, why am I supposed to be optimistic about Lickliter's future at Iowa?

Not a lot of other people seem to be.

After all, the Hawkeyes didn't have a capacity crowd in their home arena in any game during the 2008-2009 season.

Indeed, some of the crowds were pretty bad by Iowa standards.

Basketball is certainly not the hot-ticket item it once was at my alma mater.

Some of the players are saying they don't like Lickliter's slowdown style of basketball.

I guess a lot of the fans don't like it either.

But, as I've written before, I've got no problems with slowdown basketball if the team wins.

More often than not, though, Iowa plays slowdown basketball and loses.

Even though I don't have much confidence in Lickliter's ability to win at Iowa, it certainly appears he'll be back for a third season in 2009-2010.

Athletic director Gary Barta didn't give any indication at yesterday's press conference that he wants to pull the plug on the coach he hired.

Had Barta sent a message that maybe he wanted to, as some employers now say, "go in another direction," I would have maybe suggested that Iowa do something that could turn into a real feel-good story.

Barta could part ways with Lickliter, go down the road to a house on the golf course in Coralville, knock on the door and ask Tom Davis if he wanted to be the interim coach at Iowa next season.

Davis, of course, was dumped as the Hawkeyes' coach before Lickliter arrived, even though he had the winningest record in history at the university.

Some people thought Davis got a raw deal at the time, especially after his replacement -- Streve Alford -- showed that he was clearly in over his head.

Now a lot more people think Davis got a raw deal.

Davis turned around a Drake program that had a Division III, non-scholarship future written all over it, giving the Bulldogs their first winning record in 20 seasons in 2006-2007.

Then he handed the team over to his son, Keno, who went 28-5 in his only season as Drake's head coach. [Tom and Keno are pictured at the right].

Wouldn't it be a neat story to have Tom Davis come back to Iowa, provide a short-term cure, somehow coach the Hawkeyes to a 20-victory regular season, then have his team picked for the NCAA tournament?

Then he could go back into retirement, and Iowa could find some up-and-coming young guy who could keep the program rolling.

And maybe that young guy would be Keno Davis, who won 19 games this season at Providence of the Big East Conference.

Like I wrote in the headline, just thinking on a snowy [well, not really that much] Saturday morning in March.

*

Iowa, of course, isn't the only place basketball players are leaving.

Sophomore guard Josh Parker is saying adios to Drake, and Iowa State has lost a couple of players who weren't going to help Greg McDermott keep his coaching job.

In addition, three Evansville players -- including freshman Kaylon Williams of Cedar Rapids -- are bailing out. [Williams is pictured at the left].

You may recall that it was Williams who sank a shot from midcourt to give Evansville a 65-62 victory over Drake at the Knapp Center this season.

The other Purple Aces leaving, coach Marty Simmons said, are freshman Zach House and junior Darin Granger.

"Zach and Darin are transferring because both want a greater opportunity for more playing time in the future," Simmons said. "In Kaylon's case, for personal reasons he and his family believe it's in his best interest to get closer to home [in Cedar Rapids]. All three are good kids, and we wish them the best."

Williams has withdrawn from classes at Evansville.

'I Just Don't Like Losing. Somebody Please Give Me a Wake-Up Call When the Hawkeyes Become a Threat To At Least Make It To the NIT'

Iowa native Al Schallau, who now lives in California, weighs in on the Hawkeyes' basketball problems in this e-mail:

"Ron,

"I liked your column about the present plight of Iowa Hawkeye basketball in 2009. I don't have any dislike for anyone in the Hawkeye basketball program. Instead, my feeling is one of profound indifference, which is the worst emotion of all coming from a lifelong Iowa basketball fan.

"I admit that I am a true-blue 'fair weather fan.' I just don't like losing.

"Right now, I could not tell you the names of six players on the Iowa team. During the 2008-2009 season, I didn't watch a grand total of 20 minutes of Iowa basketball. Several times I came home from my office and turned on the Hawkeye game during halftime.

"The scoreboard showed Iowa trailing by 17 to 20 points, so I turned the channel to a re-run of 'Boston Legal.' My options were 'Denny Crane' vs. Todd Lickliter. Not a tough choice.

"Somebody please give me a wake-up call when the Hawkeyes become a threat to at least make the postseason NIT tournament.

"Best,"

Al Schallau

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: It's probably a good thing you didn't learn the names of six players on Iowa's basketball roster, Al, because the list would be out of date now. Jermain Davis and Jake Kelly have already decided to transfer -- Davis to Division II Minnesota State of Mankato and Kelly to Indiana State. What's more, there are rumors that more Hawkeyes also plan to bail out of the program. So the team will have an entirely different look next season. Again. You've got to wonder about coach Todd Lickliter's future in Iowa City. Player defections have become the norm with the Hawkeyes. The good thing for people around here is that they'll be able to eventually see former Hawkeyes play in the Missouri Valley Conference. Tony Freeman [pictured at the left], who didn't feel wanted by Lickliter in the 2007-2008 season, transferred to Southern Illinois. He sat out this season and will be able to play in 2009-2010 in the Missouri Valley Conference. He'll play two regular-season games against both Drake and Northern Iowa. With Kelly heading to Indiana State, he'll also be able to play at the Knapp Center on Drake's campus in Des Moines and at the McLeod Center at Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls after he sits out next season].

*

All of the parttimers must have been busy yesterday in the sports department of the Des Moines Register.

I can't believe the editors assigned the overworked Dan Johnson to write a story on the Iowa Barnstormers' season opener, then buried it on page 4 of the sports section this morning.

Johnson had just returned from the two Iowa State women's victories in the NCAA tournament at Bowling Green, Ky., and was getting ready for the trip to the Cyclones' next game at Berkeley, Calif.

At the sportswriters' lunch this week, a guy said, "Do you suppose Johnson drove to Kentucky for Iowa State's two games there?"

"Sure, he did," someone else said. "Johnson could drive to Kentucky blindfolded. He's done it plenty of times while covering the Kentucky Derby."

I'm assuming the paper bought Johnson an airplane ticket for the trip to Berkeley, but these days you're never sure.

Who knows, maybe they're making Johnson drive to Milwaukee for tonight's Barnstormers opener on a ridiculous roundabout trip to Berkeley, Calif.

By the time Johnson gets through with all the stuff the editors have assigned him, he'll be ready for the next unpaid furlough week, ordered by the Gannett Co.

Either that or ready to go to a hospital.

*

Another thing I can't believe: The story on Jake Kelly quitting Iowa's basketball team placed on page 3 of the sports section. The turmoil in the Hawkeyes' basketball program -- and whether coach Todd Lickliter will survive it -- is the hottest story in the state, yet the paper is consumed with sports-talk radio. Then the editors keep wondering why circulation is in a freefall.

*

Another ominous sign in the newspaper business:

The New York Times and the Boston Globe [which is owned by the Times] are cutting salaries of newsroom employees by 5 percent.

Count on it, that'll be the next thing to happen to people in other newspapers, including those in Des Moines and Iowa City. There's already a year-long wage freeze and a second unpaid furlough week. Pay cuts will be next.

Obviously, Hawkeye Basketball Has Changed a Lot Since That Exciting 43-41 Pops-and-Piggy Game I Saw More Than 63 Years Ago At Iowa Fieldhouse

I saw my first University of Iowa basketball game Feb. 9, 1946.

The Big Ten game at Iowa Fieldhouse was against Purdue, which then was coached by a man named Piggy Lambert.

Iowa's coach was Pops Harrison.

They don't call many men Piggy anymore, but maybe Purdue's Piggy wanted to be called Piggy because his actual first name was Ward.

They still call some guys Pops, but at the moment I can't think of any basketball coaches named Pops.

By the way, Pops Harrison's real name was Lawrence Harrison.

I guess he liked Pops better.

Some people -- probably Bob Brooks and the other radio announcers -- called him Popsy.

*

Whatever, I went to Iowa City for the Iowa-Purdue game on the old Crandic Railway between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City with a classmate of mine at Lincoln School in Cedar Rapids and his dad.

The kid's dad arranged to get the game tickets. I don't think he ever asked me for any money for mine.

The Iowa-Purdue game was more exciting than I could've imagined.

This kid, then 10 years of age, was thrilled beyond belief.

Until then, I had listened to the Hawkeyes' games on the radio whenever I could.

There was, of course, no television coverage of Iowa games then. Even if there was, we wouldn't have seen the game at our house.

My dad didn't buy our first TV until about 1950.

*

Iowa won the game, 43-41, and now -- after more than 63 years -- the memory of Pops Harrison climbing over the canvas in front of Iowa's bench is vivid in my mind.

The radio announcers always talked about "Popsy climbing over the canvas" if he was upset about a call the officials made.

The crowd would roar when Popsy did that. I thought it was fun watching him.

Popsy's starters that season were Murray Wier, Dick Ives, Clayton Wilkinson and his brother Herb, and Ned Postels. Ives was the best player, but the 5-8 Wier was the most exciting.

*

The reason I'm bringing all of this up is that I've been thinking since yesterday about what's going on at Iowa City now.

I've been following Hawkeye basketball since the Pops Harrison years and, more often than not, it's been a proud collegiate program.

Iowa has had more good coaches than bad coaches, more good teams than bad teams.

Among the good coaches I've observed were Harrison, Bucky O'Connor, Sharm Scheuerman, Ralph Miller, Lute Olson and Tom Davis.

Some obviously were better than others. O'Connor, Miller, Davis and Olson were the best I saw, in that order.

In the more than 60 years I've been paying attention to Hawkeye basketball, I can't ever recall something happen similar to what's going on at Iowa City now.

As many as four players -- some of them very good players -- have either quit the team or act like they want to quit soon.

*

I'm not close to the Hawkeye scene anymore. I saw them play just one game in the 2008-2009 season -- and it was a 17-point loss Dec. 20 at Drake.

But when four players indicate they want to leave, that tells me they either don't like the coach or they don't like the way the coach is coaching.

To make matters even worse, a junior at Marshalltown High School [Chanse Creekmur], who had told the coach and everyone else that he planned to be a Hawkeye in the future, now says he wants to see if any other schools want to recruit him.

It used to be that players would do anything short of cutting off their left ear to play basketball for Iowa, all expenses paid. Now 11th-grade kids are telling the coach they want to look around a little more.

*

Todd Lickliter [pictured at the right] is the coach. He's had losing records in his first two seasons in the job, and one of his biggest problems is that some of his best players quit the team.

Apparently, some of Lickliter's players don't like his slowdown offense.

I have no problem with a slowdown offense if the team wins. It's when a coach uses a slowdown offense, and loses, that he gets into trouble with fans and, evidently, his players.

I consulted a friend of mine who saw Iowa play more games this season that I was able to see.

I sent him this e-mail:

"I can't recall ever seeing anything like what's going on with Lickliter's Hawkeye basketball program. I don't even remember Dick Schultz or Steve Alford having to face a mass bail-out of key members of his team. It looks like a mutiny.

"What are the players' issues with Lickliter, and do you think Lickliter can survive all
of this without Iowa parting ways with him?"

The guy responded promptly.

Here's what he said:

"If Jake Kelly and Jeff Peterson bail on Lickliter, he is probably finished at Iowa. I don't know how he'll be able to sell his program to the fans. I don't think there is a personal problem between coach and players. They just don't like his system, which they should have known before deciding to play for him. Maybe we have another FXL on our hands, as I suggested a couple of months ago."

*

The "FXL" my correspondent was referring to is Frank Lauterbur, who had records of 1-10, 3-7-1 and 0-11 while coaching Iowa football teams in the 1970s.

Lauterbur had been a big winner at Toledo, but was clearly in over his head at Iowa.

Lickliter was a big winner at Butler before coming to Iowa.

Butler is a nice basketball school, but it's not Iowa. Maybe Lickliter -- like Lauterbur -- is in over his head in Iowa City.

What all of this has done is create quite a problem for Gary Barta, the Iowa athletic director who hired Lickliter.

Barta needs to find a solution to this mess sooner rather than later.

Frankly, I can't think of a bigger embarrassment to Hawkeye basketball since the Dick Schultz era from 1971-1974.

I Saw These Things On Twitter: Pete Carroll's Jump Shot Was 'A Little Off' and Every Register Sportswriter Has Now Written and Produced a Video Story

Pete Carroll's jump shot was "a little off" in the pickup basketball game he and his football coaching assistants played the other day in Los Angeles.

I know because Carroll told me on Twitter.

I also know that every sportswriter at the Des Moines Register has now reported and produced a video story.

I know because Carolyn Washburn, the newspaper's editor, told me on Twitter.

This is what she wrote in her less-than-140-character-Twitter-limit: "Every reporter on the Register sports team has now reported and produced their own video story."

In other words, sportswriters at the Register are no longer just writers. They're also photographers. Or at least they're required to use a camcorder to shoot video.

If they don't, a security guy might take them to the door, and tell them to never come back. After all, their wages are already frozen and they've been ordered to take a second week of furlough -- without pay, of course.

*

Twitter is the social networking tool that a lot of people are using these days to communicate with each other.

The way some folks look at it, I guess, is that the telephone is out and the written word on Twitter is in.

The thing is these days, sometimes a person needs the phone to send the written word.

Or so my grandchildren tell me when they're trying to explain all the text messaging they do.

*

Actually, Pete Carroll [pictured at the right], the outstanding football coach at Southern California, and Washburn, the newspaper lady, didn't send their Twitter messages just to me.

They sent them to everyone else who called up twitter.com/petecarroll and twitter.com/carolynwashburn.

I began using Twitter a year or so ago. My main purpose is to inform other Twitterers what I'm putting in my columns at wesleyvaclav.blogspot.com.

Occasionally, though, I'll send some smart-ass stuff like: "UCLA played so bad in the NCAA basketball tournament that people thought Steve Lavin was still the coach."

Or: "6 UCLA players were planning to declare for the NBA draft when the season ends. Now all 6 are transferring to Upper Iowa."

I have 104 people "following" me and I "follow" 104 people.

Not all of the 104 I follow and the 104 following me are the same people.

I know, sometimes it gets confusing.

I maybe got the Twitter [which, by the way, I consider kind of a dumb name] idea after seeing that Steve Buttry, the former editor and now information content conductor at the Cedar Rapids Gazette, was a firm believer in it, and a heavy user of it.

Buttry thinks Twitter can be a powerful tool in journalism, and obviously it's being implemented in varying degrees by newspapers and even TV stations and networks.

*

Incidentally, Twitter isn't meant for long-winded writers.

You're limited to 140 characters [characters, not words] per entry.

Unless, of course, you go to www.bigtweet.com, where you get 240 characters.

Pete Carroll has been using Twitter for a while, Washburn not so long.

I began reading Carroll's dispatches a couple of weeks ago, and I saw that he sent several while the Southern California basketball team coached by Tim Floyd [formerly of Iowa State, of course] was playing in the NCAA tournament at Minneapolis.

Houseman that he is, Carroll wished Floyd and his team well in the Big Dance.

Carroll also wrote this: "Sad news about the football team at my alma mater College of Marin being disbanded... The Tars won't be forgotten!"

Sorry to hear that about Pete's old school.

Then there was this one yesterday from Carroll: "staff meeting in the War Room... Four days til Spring Ball!"

That was sent by "mobile web," which means Carroll used a cell phone -- probably a fancy cell phone that he can also use to send text messages to his players and recruits.

In the "bio" part, Carolyn Washburn writes: "I'm the committed editor of The Des Moines Register, DesMoinesRegister.com, etc., partnering with journalists serving Iowans across every platform."

Washburn "follows" 13 people and is "followed" by 22. By the way, Washburn is also on Facebook. With pictures.

*

Mike Hlas, the sports columnist the Cedar Rapids Gazette, wrote a blog that said Tim Brewster, the football coach at Minnesota, has also gotten into Twittering.

Evidently, Brewster has come out of hiding since his team lost to Iowa, 55-0, last November in the last collegiate football game played in the Metrodome at Minneapolis.

Remember, some Iowans drank so much beer and apparently got so bored with what was going on in the game that at least a couple of them went into a restroom and had sex in the second half.

For the heck of it, I made an attempt at finding out if some other coaches I know are into Twittering.

I saw that Mack Brown, who once was an assistant football coach at Iowa State and now is the head coach at Texas, has a Twitter account.

Or at least someone who says he's Mack Brown has an account.

In the "bio" part, Brown says he's "Coachin' the Hornz."

Brown says he "follows" three people and three people are "following" him on Twitter.

One of Brown's few messages says: "JUST SENT LITTLE RICKY A TEXT WISHIN HIM GOOD LUCK!...HOOKEM HORNZ!"

*

Some guys -- Ohio State football ooach Jim Tressel and USC basketball coach Tim Floyd among them -- are listed as having Twitter sites, but have no updates and few, if any, followers.

The same with Jamie Pollard, Iowa State's athletic director. A Jamie Pollard site on Twitter says there are two followers, but there are no updates.

I'm wondering if some coaches and athletic directors think it's a good idea to have a Twitter site under their own names so other people they might not even know won't get the idea to set one up.

Indeed, there's a site called Woody Hayes, which actually was set up by someone going by the name Bob Cook.

Cook, or Woody, wrote: "Things are going well here in the lone star state. doc told me to buy a blood pressure kit and I did. used it for the first time."

I couldn't find any Twitter sites belonging to Iowa coaches Kirk Ferentz, Todd Lickliter, Iowa athletic director Gary Barta or Iowa State coaches Paul Rhoads and Greg McDermott.

But it's still early.

The only Mark Phelps I could find identified himself as a "retired police officer turned 3rd-grade teacher" in Madera, Calif.

That Mark Phelps didn't look like Drake's basketball coach.

Memo To the Siding, Window, Door and Insurance Salesmen: Don't Call Me Between 8 and 9 O'Clock Tonight. I'll Be Getting Mad At the Judges On ABC-TV

Warning to those people who sell siding, windows, doors and insurance: Don't call me between 8 and 9 o'clock tonight.

I won't be answering the phone.

I'll be watching "Dancing With the Stars."

I missed the first seven years of it, but now I'm hooked.

Even if the NCAA basketball tournament was on tonight [which it isn't], I'd be watching "Dancing With the Stars."

I started watching it because Our Own Little Darling, Shawn Johnson [pictured at the left with the guy she's been dancing with], was on it.

Now I watch it so I can get mad at the judges [pictured at the right], and also to watch Our Own Little Darling.

*

They always say the judges' names so fast on the ABC-TV show that I have a hard time understanding them.

So I did some research on the Internet and found out that the judges are Len Goodman, who is called the head judge [whatever that might mean], Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli.

Goodman and Tonioli commute weekly between Hollywood and London to judge both the American and British versions of the show.

*

When I first heard Carrie Ann Inaba's name, I thought the announcer was saying something about Ann Arbor -- as in the Michigan town where the University of Michigan is.

Actually, Wikipedia says Inaba is a 41-year-old singer and dancer who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is of Japanese, Chinese and Irish descent.

I knew you'd ask, so I also found out that she appeared as the character "Fook Yu" in "Austin Powers in Goldmember."

I haven't seen her as Fook Yu yet, but that's kind of what I think of Goodman and Tonioli, the other judges, most of the time.

Neither of those guys seems like anyone I'd want to invite to the family picnic, but I guess I shouldn't care because, after all, they're judges on a dancing show, right?

Let's just put it this way. I don't think either one of those two would be welcome at our sportswriters' lunch tomorrow.

Now, Inaba...I could put up with her over the crab rangoon and shrimp fried rice.

For all I know, she might have Kosuke Fukudome's hitting problems figured out.

*

By the way, I haven't changed my mind on "Dancing With the Stars" since I last wrote about it, which was last Saturday.

I still think it's fixed.

I think ABC wants Johnson and her dancing partner, whose name I've forgotten and don't really care about, to succeed.

They're going to continue getting 8 and 9 on those rating cards.

Like the NCAA tournament, though, this game is going right down to the wire.

A Lot On Scott Pierce's Plate: Iowa Women's Basketball Attendance 'Perplexes' Him; He Also Sounds Off On the 'F-Word' As It Applies To Radio Stations

I'm getting some of my questions answered. Scott Pierce checked in with the following e-mail to me after I wrote today's earlier column during this morning's rain and thunder:

"Hi, Ron:

"I read your piece today about the NCAA tourney in Iowa City. The reason Iowa State could not go there is because the NCAA went from 8 pre-determined sites to 16 sites this year. That means 16 sites with 4 teams in each site. For Iowa State to have been there means they would have had to be either a 1, 9, or 16 seed. Like the men's tournament, the women's committee slots in all the 1-16 seeds (i.e. a top 1 seed, the 2nd 1 seed, etc.)

"I have been perplexed at Iowa's attendance, too. Having spent 3 years with Lisa Bluder at Drake, she knows how to play P.R. There must be some internal issues with the athletic dept. Bluder's attendance at Drake was right at, maybe even higher, than it is at Iowa. And it's not like she hasn't been successful at Iowa. Plus, her roster is mostly Iowa kids. I suspect something we don't know about behind the scenes is going on
at Iowa.

"Okay, I must weigh in on this controversy at 1460. This does take me back to my days at WEBQ in Harrisburg, IL when we had the "f-word" make its way on The Baptist Hour.

"I'm not going to comment on the personalities involved because I know all three.
However, whomever is responsible for that piece getting across the air should be fired.
It could be a board operator, it could be an engineer. Someone failed at their job
miserably.

"I am disappointed in the Clear Channel management and they're hiding behind 'no comment' and obviously not answering their phones. I have no fault with the employees deflecting comments to management, but I have a BIG problem with Joel McCrea and/or Van Harden ignoring this with the public. They should at least come out with an apology to their listeners and a pledge to get to the bottom of this. We haven't even heard that. We've heard more from the Iowa Energy and KCCI-TV than we have Clear Channel.

"I don't know what will happen with the FCC. In all my days in radio, I never had a FCC
inspector visit one of my stations. I'm glad I don't have the experience with the FCC
where I can predict what's next. Final thing. Remember when I told you all of these
broadcasting layoffs had nothing to do with the economy? How the industry has eaten its
own for a long time? Here is an example of the broadcasting industry today."

Scott Pierce

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Scott Pierce, of course, knows a lot about the radio business because he's been in it a long time -- and still does the play-by-play of Drake's football and women's basketball games. I continue to be surprised that people don't show up for women's basketball games at Iowa. I know some keep saying that attendance is down across the country in both men's and women's sports, but empty seats at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for women's games has been common in recent years -- at least since Vivian Stringer was the coach. No one seems to have any answers for the attendance problems. Bluder's teams have certainly been successful. But fans still stay away. I've appeared on Larry Cotlar's early-morning sports-talk show on KXNO in the past -- both in the studio and from my home. I've also appeared on the Marty & Miller Show in the past, as well as the Jon Miller Show on KXNO. I don't wake up early enough to listen to Cotlar [shown in the photo at the left, holding the microphone] much anymore, and I guess I don't listen to much sports-talk radio at all unless I'm driving somewhere. I've been told that Cotlar wasn't on his show this morning, and he's been suspended. Keith Murphy, on WHO-TV, reported that Marty Tirrell and Geoff Conn have also been suspended. There's no need to use the "f-word" on any sports-talk station in this market or any other market. It'll be interesting to see where this all leads].

I Wonder Why Iowa and Iowa State Women Weren't Both Assigned To Carver-Hawkeye Arena So There Would Have Been a Decent Crowd for NCAA Games

I tell people who run the NCAA women's basketball tournament how to do their jobs only on Monday mornings in March when it's raining and thundering.

I just looked at my calendar, and this is Monday.

And it's raining and thundering.

So it's time to second-guess the NCAA.

I can't figure out why the women's teams from Iowa and Iowa State weren't both sent to Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City for the opening round.

That way, there would've been a decent crowd in the building.

Instead, Iowa played on its home court last night, and was ousted by a Georgia Tech team that didn't have its best player, Alex Montgomery, and -- as usual -- didn't have anyone in the seats.

A gathering of only 5,615 in 15,000-seat Carver-Hawkeye had enough interest in the two opening-round games to show up.

That means 9,885 vacant seats masqueraded as basketball fans.

Awful.

They should have sent Iowa State to Iowa City because the Cyclones always attract a big crowd when they play at home, or close to home.

I didn't hear it, but I guess Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said on his postgame radio show after the Cyclones lost at Carver-Hawkeye earlier in the season that his team had more fans in the building than Iowa had.

Evidently, 15 or so buses filled with fans followed Iowa State to Iowa City.

During the regular season, Iowa State drew an average of 9,754 for its games at Hilton Coliseum, which seats just over 14,000.

Yet, the NCAA sent the Cyclones to something called E. A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, Ky., for their 85-53 romp over East Tennessee State. A slim turnout was 3,907 was in the arena.

I wonder what the crowd would've been without Iowa State being there?

Iowa, coached by Lisa Bluder, again had lousy home attendance numbers for its home games. The Hawkeyes averaged 3,395 for 14 home games. They had bigger turnouts on the road, attracting 4,614 for a dozen games.

Now, can you imagine what kind of crowd will show up Tuesday night when Oklahoma plays Georgia Tech at Carver-Hawkeye and Iowa isn't even in the tournament?

*

I made some observations on Twitter and Facebook after UCLA's 78-69 loss to Villanova in the NCAA men's tournament. One thing I wondered was if Steve Lavin was still coaching the Bruins.

*

I also hoped the 20-point embarrassment didn't cause John Wooden, who coached the Bruins to 10 NCAA championships, to have a relapse. Wooden was just released from a hospital after having pneumonia.

*

In addition, I wonder if football and men's basketball are now club sports at UCLA.

*

I'd heard that six UCLA players were going to declare for the NBA draft after the NCAA tournament. Now they're transferring to Upper Iowa.

*

I can't wait for this.

Carolyn Washburn, the often-maligned editor of the Des Moines Register, says she's going to put something called a Good News section into the paper a month or so from now.

Naturally, Washburn wants readers to do the writing.

Kind of like the high school paper, I guess.

More of that "get-the-reader-involved" kind of stuff.

The bosses at the Gannett Co. figure that's pretty cool.

I think the last time Washburn asked if there was any good news happening was just before, or just after, cartoonist Brian Duffy was being escorted to the door by a security office after being fired.

I'll be anxious to find out what that Good News section looks like April 26.

*

No wonder Dave Yepsen is getting out of that place.

*

I'm very sorry to learn of the death of Wayne Johnson [shown at the left] of Iowa City. We traveled with Wayne and Donna to Spain on the same tour a number of years ago, and hoped to be able to make another trip with them someday. Our prayers are with Donna and her family.

I'll Miss Talented Larry Peterson's Work As Sports Editor Of the Creston News Advertiser, But I'm Happy He'll Be Paper's Assistant Managing Editor

Larry Peterson, the talented sports editor and columnist at the Creston News Advertiser, tells me and his other readers that Friday was his last day in the job he has handled so well for so long.

Starting Monday, he'll be an assistant managing editor at the newspaper. Here's the way Peterson [pictured at the right] explained it in his column yesterday:

Today is the last time in the foreseeable future that I'll carry the title of sports editor here.

Starting Monday as sports editor is a familar face to Creston athletics.

I'll feel a little old Monday, since an athletic little fifth-grader on the first Little League team I helped coach here will sit in my chair, as I move across the room. Kyle Wilson comes back to Creston from the Christian County Headliner in southern Missouri, where he was sports editor.

I'll be working as assistant managing editor, with some new duties in news as well as supervising the sports department. That staff will include Wilson, as well as SWCC student Jake Waddingham of Macksburg, who has been working for us as an intern. Now he'll man the 20-hour sports assistant position vacated recently by Kurt Ritzman.

Wilson is also a former CNA sports part-timer during his days at SWCC, where he played right field for the Spartans.

We've had a great run of sports assistants. Scott Levine is now assistant editor at the Clinton Herald. Scott Vicker is a scholarship runner at St. Louis University with media interests that will include a summer internship at WHO-TV in Des Moines. Matt Lanning is a busy student at the University of Iowa. And now, Waddingham has stepped into another valuable role for us.

I'm excited for Kyle, because it's always special to work as sports editor in your hometown where you wore the same uniform. He still has good relationships with many of the coaches, so it should be a smooth transition.

I'll still write a weekly column and help Kyle and Jake for occasional assignments as needed.

In the meantime, I'll look forward to diving back into a variety of education and general interest writing. With sons in grad school and college next year, Deb and I will be able to get away once in a while to see them, rather than always hunkering down to cover the busy local weekend sports scene. And, we both have immediate family members battling cancer. You appreciate opportunities to visit those loved ones in their time of need.

It's time to step aside for a younger, eager sports writer who obviously has an interest in doing an earnest job on behalf of sports in Creston and the area. I hope you'll make him feel welcome in this homecoming.

*

In an e-mail, Peterson told me the "reference to cancer is news that my sister, who battled breast cancer two years ago, has received word it's flared up in her spine now. Not great news. Deb's mom is trying to fight off lung cancer, too.

"I know I'll have withdrawal from the daily sports beat, but I'll stay in it at least once a week to help out.

"Back to those 3-hour school board meetings now. And repetitive, canned speeches from politicians. Can't wait for that!

"Take care,"

Larry

In my e-mail response to Peterson this morning, I wrote:

"Larry, I'm sorry to hear you're leaving the sports beat, but I'm glad you'll still be at the paper so all of us can read what you're writing. I enjoyed your thoughts on 'Dancing With the Stars' and reality TV -- probably because they're the same as my thoughts. By accident, I saw 'The Bachelor' exercise in ridiculousness recently and came away thinking it's fixed. Now I'm wondering if 'Dancing With the Stars' is fixed. I think ABC knows it's got something hot with Shawn Johnson and wants to make sure she succeeds for ratings purposes. I'll be seeing you in the paper. -- Ron."

*

My reference to Shawn Johnson and "Dancing With the Stars" came after Peterson led off yesterday's column by writing:

Psst. Don't let this get around, but I've been watching "Dancing with the Stars" lately.

I know, what a hypocrite. Nobody has trashed reality TV more than me. Contrived shows like "Survivor" and "The Bachelor" always seemed like cheap programming schemes for the networks. A waste of time.

But, curiosity got the best of me this season in "Dancing with the Stars," since Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson of Iowa was selected as a contestant.

I've always admired how unflappable she's been as an athlete performing under pressure. She just kept smiling and plugging along in Beijing until she finally turned sliver to gold in the balance beam.

But this ballroom dancing stuff was a new world to her. At 17, she's the youngest contestant ever.

I've seen her in two episodes and so far I'm impressed. She and partner Mark Ballas, who won the 2008 show with skater Kristi Yamaguchi, stand in third place with a score of 47 out of 60. They got a 23 out of 30 in the waltz in week one, followed by a 24 for their salsa routine.

In other words, she's pulling it off. It's probably not surprising, although she's not used to gliding around on heels. But she's a professional in terms of learning a routine. And, performing in the pressure cooker spotlight of the Olympics is proof she can focus on demand. I mean, this is a girl who admitted she recently went on her first family vacation in eight years.

And, physically she's a talent like few others on the planet. Obviously she's got a competitive streak. Three days after learning how to ski in Colorado she was bouncing around on the challenging black moguls.

I don't know if she'll win her latest adventure, but it has been interesting to see her try.

Just don't let it get around. I've got a reputation to uphold as a reality TV grump!

*

The thing that worries me about a place like Principal Financial cutting employees' pay by anywhere from 2 to 10 percent is that other businesses are sure to follow along.

I certainly can see pay being chopped at a place like the Des Moines Register and other Gannett Co. newspapers.

Gannett has already laid off people left and right and ordered remaining employees to take an unpaid one-week furlough in an effort to save expenses.

Count on it that Gannett will tell reporters [and, hopefully, editors] that their pay will be cut.

*

I wonder if any team from the Big 12 Conference will ever lose a game in this year's NCAA basketball tournament. Tough league, folks. No wonder Greg McDermott can't win at Iowa State.

*

I enjoyed reading Marc Hansen's column this morning about the firing of TV anchor Jeanette Trompeter at WCCO in Minneapolis.

Nobody does that kind of stuff better than Hansen, who continues to be a gem in the ever-shrinking newsroom at the Des Moines Register.

I just wish somebody would have treated Brian Duffy with the same respect at the Register when he was fired recently as the page 1 cartoonist.

Originally, the paper didn't even want to admit that Duffy was among the victims when it canned a bunch of newsroom people a while back. Editors left Duffy's name out of a tiny story it buried deep in the business section. Later, Duffy's name was added to the story.

Duffy was one of the last remaining editorial cartoonists working in daily journalism nationally, and he followed some real heavyweights in the job -- Ding Darling and Frank Miller among them.

But the paper treated him like he was just another sack of garbage that was being tossed out the door.

They even embarrassed the guy by having a security officer take him to the exit after he was told he was fired.

Anyway, I have no doubt Trompeter, a former KCCI-TV anchor in Des Moines, will land on her feet. At least I hope so.

*

When I was searching for a photo of Hansen [shown at the left] in my archives, I came upon the column I wrote about him 3 1/2 years ago after he had addressed Register retirees.

It's amazing how much of what I wrote then applies to what's happening today.

For that reason, I've decided to reprint the column. I can do that, of course, because [unlike the newspaper business] I have no space limitations.

The column, which was published July 28, 2005 under the headline:

Talent Leaves, Paper Crumbles, But Be Glad Marc Hansen Is Still There

We all know the problems.

Well, some of them anyway.

After Gannett bought the Des Moines Register, things went to hell in a hurry. The travel budget dried up. Hell, they wouldn’t even pay for a lunch in Ames when a guy was up there for 10 hours to write about a coach who was being canned. They brought in creeps with names like Townsend and Ryerson. A sports section that once was called the world’s greatest suddenly wouldn’t even send photographers to Iowa and Iowa State football games on the road. A guy who ran the department didn’t have enough sense to assign a reporter to the Valley High School season football opener.

An editor and a managing editor—evidently finding out that they liked going to more places with each other than afternoon news meetings--had already skipped town together, each leaving a spouse behind. Gene Raffensperger, Joan Bunke and Walt Shotwell retired. Bernie Owens went to law school. Newsside reporters broke each other’s ribs while hurrying out the door to jobs at the Chicago Tribune. People in Des Moines did what people everywhere else were doing. They quit buying the paper. Instead, they watched Bachman and Murphy on Channel 13, and they read the Internet.

But Marc Hansen stayed.

That says something about stability in the newspaper business. What it says I’m not sure, but it says something.

Intelligent. Dependable. Fine writer. Nice guy.

That’s Marc Hansen.

Hansen showed up at the Register retirees’ lunch the other day at Baker’s Cafeteria in Windsor Heights, and talked about the newspaper business. He came to the local paper in 1978 when he was 25, and he’s 52 now.

I don’t know if that means he tried to get a lot of other jobs, and failed, or if he likes Des Moines so much that he can’t think of anywhere else he’d rather write columns.

Whatever, it’s good to have him around. I enjoyed his style, his wit and his friendship when I worked with him for more than 20 years, and I still like to get his take on what’s going on in the world around him.

Hansen told the 70- and 80-something retirees [well, at least one of them wasn’t 70 yet!] what they wanted to hear—stuff like, “I sit among all those interns in the office, so it’s really great to be here. I feel like an intern today,” and, “I notice there’s an emergency exit door right behind me here,” meaning he could make a quick getaway if needed.

No getaway was necessary. Hansen did a nice job of summarizing his career and covering what some people who have been out of the loop wanted to know about the Register. He did what he said he’d do—he talked for a few minutes, then fielded questions.

I was particularly happy that he talked a lot about me. And even my desk.

“Looking at Maly’s desk, I often wondered if Johnny Gosch was lost in there,” Hansen said.

Smart-ass comment, yes, but it showed that Hansen was a pretty observant guy.

I think he meant my desk for more than 39 years had the appearance of the city dump. That’s what a hard-working guy’s desk is supposed to look like. What I’d like to know, though, is how the hell Hansen knew what my desk looked like. In those days, he wrote his sports columns at home, and some people thought he was actually Jim Murray’s illegitimate son.

“Turnbull, your desk was the neatest,” Hansen said of Buck Turnbull’s work area, which looked like it belonged in an insurance company that still hadn’t hired any employees.

When Jim Gannon was the paper’s managing editor a number of years ago, one of the two good things he did was ban smoking in the newsroom. For some reason, I can’t think of what the other good thing was.

“I was talking to [columnist] John Carlson the other day,” Hansen said. “Not only was smoking permitted, but you could do anything with your cigarettes. One day Carlson, who was a smoker, was looking for an ashtray.

“Laddie Paul came up to him and ripped the cigarette out of Carlson’s mouth and threw it on the floor, saying, ‘Here’s the ashtray.’”

Laddie Paul is gone now, and so are the cigarettes. Laddie works at the New York Times, where they maybe call him Laurence Paul now.

In the old days, Hansen said Register people even – excuse the expression – drank.

Occasionally, even in the office.

But those who did that had bigger problems than what Hansen talked about.

“When I worked on the sports copy desk, I quickly learned that plugging your meter didn’t mean plugging your meter,” he said.

In other words, plugging your meter sometimes took a couple of hours at places called “The Office” and “T&T.”

Yes, they were bars.

“Raff, you remember this one,” Hansen said to Gene Raffensperger, a multi-talented, longtime Register employee who included sports editor, city editor and Eastern Iowa Bureau chief among the jobs he held.

Raff wasn’t sure he wanted to remember what Hansen had to say.

“Raff thought it was a good idea when he was sports editor to see what was going on with the copy desk at night,” Hansen explained. “Everyone on the desk liked that. Raff would come in and help us all out.

“Then, after the first edition closed, there would be a break and we would go to lunch.”

[Lots of laughs among the retirees now. Lunch meant the liquid variety. In those days, pastrami-on-rye often was spelled and tasted like Bud Light].

“When we’d go to The Office or T&T, I don’t think Raff ever came back,” Hansen said. “Other people from the desk kept going over there, but never returned. Finally, Bernie Owens, who was the sports news editor that night, was the only one left to put out the paper.

“Bernie was upset, but we said, ‘Hey, the boss is here.’

“I doubt that would happen these days.”

No wonder Owens became a lawyer.

Hansen’s appearance was only the second such retirees’ meeting I have attended. The first was in January, 2002, when local paper publisher Mary P. Stier spoke.

It was then that Stier admitted there were problem areas in the newsroom. Among them were the business and sports departments.

“With all due respect to Dave Elbert, I think our business section is weak,” Stier said. “I think it doesn’t have a mission. It doesn’t know what it wants to be. That’s part of the issue there.”

Elbert was called the business editor then, and is still called the business editor, He also writes columns, but I hear that he is no longer involved in editorial decisions. Figure that one out. Whether the business page has more of a mission now than it did when Stier talked to the retirees, I’m not sure. Actually, I doubt it.

“I think we can beef up sports,” Stier told the retirees in 2002.

One of the reasons she made that comment was because the sports section occasionally went to press without stories on some of the local high school football games. That was pretty embarrassing stuff, especially when the bosses were ready to put on a big push to publish new sections that included the “West Des Moines Register” so they could try to sell a few papers in the suburbs.

Sadly, the “beefing up of sports” that Stier said needed to happen still hasn’t. Randy Brubaker, who was out of touch with what was going on at both the local and national levels, was dumped as the paper’s sports editor a few months ago. So it’s obvious the bosses still aren’t happy with a department that continues to have the appearance of a sinking ship.

Losing Hansen as the No. 1 sports columnist sure didn’t help matters.

Since moving from the sports copy desk and writing sports columns, Hansen now writes for the Metro & Iowa section of the paper. He has made the transition smoothly to newsside columnist.

So smoothly that he said he finished No. 1 in a readership survey of those who read the paper’s columnists.

“You were named the No. 1 columnist,” Buck Turnbull blurted during the retirees’ question-and-answer session. “Did you get a raise out of that?”

Said Hansen: “Buck, would you repeat that question! Yes, I was the No. 1-read columnist in a readership survey. A number of editors told me that. The upper echelon would rather I forget it. I’m not quite sure if I got a raise out of that. Maybe I’ll put it on my headstone.”

Hansen was asked if he sometimes regrets moving from sports columnist to newsside columnist.

“I sometimes miss the camaraderie of sports,” he said. “But I don’t miss those Tuesday press conferences [during the football season at Iowa and Iowa State]. I get kind of antsy during the football season and the NCAA basketball tournament. That’s when I miss sports. But I enjoy what I’m doing.

“In sports, I thought my knowledge was as good as anybody’s. Ron and Raff, you know that [about yourselves]. Now every time I write something, somebody calls. A respiratory therapist calls to say he knows more about what I’m writing about than I do. People will say, ‘You didn’t consider this or that.’ I say, ‘Why didn’t you call me before I wrote it?’”

Hansen was writing his columns when the husband-and-wife team of Rob Borsellino and Rekha Basu were hired a second time by the paper a few years ago. Borsellino is now slowed by the horrible effects of Lou Gehrig Disease, and he has cut back on his writing to one, or no, columns per week because of it.

I asked Hansen if he and the other columnists have been asked by their bosses to handle some of Borsellino’s responsibilities.

“No, they haven’t said a word about it,” Hansen said. “I was doing a notes column on Saturdays before Rob came back, and I was doing a damn poor job with it. I didn’t care about how the TV anchors were wearing their hair. I know some people do. I was glad to relinquish that notes column to Rob, but now he doesn’t do it, either. I think he was glad to drop it.”

Someone asked Hansen why he and business editor Dave Elbert “look so much alike.”

Hansen was stunned. Somehow, I don’t think he cared for the “separated-at-birth” question.

“Dave Elbert?” he said. “I think you’re thinking of that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie when he was twins with Danny DeVito. Is that what you’re talking about? I never heard that before. Some people tell me I look like [New England Patriots coach] Bill Belichick.”

I asked Hansen if he misses the 7 p.m. deadlines on Saturdays.

That was an inside joke because three of us from the local paper—me along with Hansen, and Dave Stockdale—were covering an Iowa-Michigan football game at Ann Arbor, Mich., a few years ago that began at 11 a.m. [Central Time]. It finished at about 3 p.m., which meant Hansen had 4 hours or so to produce a column.

He didn’t.

“That was the only deadline I ever missed,” he said. “That was really bad. It was plain awful.”

Perfectionist that he is, Hansen kept writing, editing, rewriting, editing, adding to, editing the column to the point where he blew the deadline on one of the biggest collegiate games of the entire season. Not until the second edition was there a Hansen column.

Asked if he gets “hate mail” these days, he said he does.

“I also get ‘hate’ phone calls,” Hansen said. Sometimes they’re at 3 o’clock in the morning—like I’m going to be there at 3 in the morning! But we have caller-ID, so I know who’s making those calls.”

I asked Hansen if he thought he and others would eventually be asked to write more for the Internet version of the paper. Newspaper executives, with their worried eyes on dwindling circulation, are scared to death of competition from the Internet. Consequently, they’re doing what they can to bolster what they put on the Internet themselves.

“I think that might be coming,” Hansen said. “More and more papers have bloggers who write every day. The Chicago Tribune’s Eric Zorn was among the first to do that. It’s picking up steam. Still, there’s not near the readers on the website as with the paper. But they’re finding that the website can be very profitable.”

Blogs? That’s a term used for “web logs.” To me, it’s strange that people at the local paper are giving any thought to blogs. It sounds like a case of “follow the leader” to me.

Imagine this. Some guy who has just finished lunch, and still has mustard on his face, walks into the building and says, “Hey, I think we need a blog.” The editor he’s talking to in the elevator says, “Yeah, let’s have a blog! That’ll solve all of our problems. Maybe then the business section will have a mission, the sports section will be beefed up and Mary Stier won’t be pissed off so often!”

Asked if putting the paper on the web for free is hurting circulation of the printed version, Hansen said, “I doubt [the bosses] will admit it. But common sense tells me that if you’re going to get something for free, you’re not going to pay for it. But I think—and I might be in the minority—that reading a newspaper online is work. You can’t turn pages and you can’t take a computer into the men’s room.”

At least not a desk-top computer.

A laptop? I wouldn’t bet against it.

Asked if he thinks the weekly “Juice” publication will take the place of “Datebook,” Hansen said, "It sure looks that way. Probably not many people in this room relate to ‘Juice.’"

Just then, someone asked, “What is ‘Juice?'"

“They’ll be happy to hear that,” Hansen said with a laugh. “Don’t take offense, but you may not be in the target audience [for ‘Juice’]. ‘Juice’ is a publication for 18-to-34-year-olds. When you get to be 35, there’s nothing for you.”

Hansen talked about the heavyweight stuff in “Juice,” a free tabloid.

“A recent 'Question of the Week' was, 'What kind of condiment should I use?'" he said. [Hey, maybe they’d have been better off using, “What kind of condom should I use?” instead. After all, a recent front cover to “Juice” had this message: “Suck for a Buck.” Now, if "Suck for a Buck" doesn't attract that 18-to-34 crowd to "Juice," nothing will].

“Ken Fuson [the paper’s new once-a-week humor columnist] says we spend too much time asking what young people want to do,” Hansen said. “People who buy the paper are you [older] guys. Fuson thinks we should put out a publication called ‘Prune Juice.’”

[Laughs, lots of ‘em, after that Hansen line].

Maybe they should also put out a publication listing where all the departed editors and reporters are now. Another editor just bailed out. Paul Anger, who had been at the paper just three years or so, is moving to godawful Detroit. Try to call that an upgrade and I'll commit you to the nearest funny farm. No new editor has yet been named in Des Moines. That shows you how bad things have gotten at a once-proud Iowa paper.

All in all, though, Hansen's appearance made for a very entertaining lunch meeting. And he didn’t have to use the emergency exit when he left.

It was great to see you, coach. Come back soon, and come to those Wednesday lunches at the Chinese place with us, too. By the way, my desk at home looks like the city dump, too.

*

Sometimes it's very easy to fool newspaper reporters. I figure whenever radio announcers scream and swear at each other on the air, it's a publicity stunt.

Another NCAA Tournament Filled With Sorry Game Plans By CBS-TV and Westwood One Radio; Plus, Obama Should Stick To Predictions, Not His Bad Bowling

Scott Pierce [pictured at the right], who knows quite a bit about the broadcasting business because he's been a part of it for a long time, writes about radio and TV coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament:

"The only thing bad about this time of year is (a) CBS-TV's coverage of the NCAA tournament and (b) Westwood One Radio's coverage of the NCAA tournament.

"I'm watching Western Kentucky-Illinois in an 11-point game with 12 minutes left. CBS switches me to a UCLA-Virginia Commonwealth 9-point game with 9 minutes left. CBS takes a Big Ten audience (from a neighboring state) out of that game to watch a Pac-10/Atlantic 10(?) game that I don't really care about. Granted, the UCLA-VCU game went down to the wire, but it didn't do so until about the 2-minute mark.

"Westwood One, I don't think, has hired a color analyst that doesn't have a New York accent. Listening to Pete Gillen on radio or TV is like listening to Carl Lewis sing the national anthem."

Scott Pierce

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Pierce is Drake's football and women's basketball radio announcer. I agree with what he writes about TV and the NCAA tournament. It's maddening when the network suddenly switches to another game. It happened yesterday briefly during the telecast of Northern Iowa's 61-56 loss to Purdue in the West Regional at Portland. The itchy-fingered producers can't wait to unplug a game when one team goes in front by 12, 14 or more points. As for the radio broadcasts, I know nothing. I don't listen to much NCAA tournament basketball on the radio].

*

The president of our country should stick to picking NCAA tournament winners instead of talking about his bad bowling.

Like a lot of other people who go on late-night TV [or even early-morning TV or mid-afternoon TV], president Obama stuck his foot in his mouth on the Jay Leno Show [pictured at the left] last night.

Obama described his bowling as "like it was like Special Olympics, or something,"

Believe it or not, idiots in the audience gave the comment a big laugh.

Now, though, Obama is backtracking.

A White House statement today read: "The president made an off-hand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics. He thinks the Special Olympics is a wonderful program that gives an opportunity for people with disabilities from around the world."

Shame on the president.

*

The Chicago Cubs are trying to strong-arm people in Mesa, AZ.

The Cubs have been going to spring training in Arizona for what seems like forever, but now they're indicating they might move their spring act to Florida.

The Cubs want a bigger stadium and better facilities in Mesa, so they think threatening to leave Arizona and in favor of Florida will force Arizona people into making the improvements.

This is what I think: The Cubs could bring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back from the dead and hold spring training at Yankee Stadium and they'd still get swept in the first round of the postseason playoffs.

*

By the way, Obama was right on 11 of his 16 picks in yesterday's NCAA tournament.

UNI Gave Purdue Its Best Shot--Boilermakers' Coach Says, 'We Were Fortunate To Survive. We Beat a Team I Felt Was Going To Give Us Trouble'

I obviously had my priorities in order.

Before settling in to watch the Northern Iowa-Purdue basketball game in the NCAA tournament early this afternoon, I took my 2-mile walk.

You know, fresh March air. Lots of sun.

When I got home, UNI was already behind, 16-6.

Bad news. I should've kept walking.

Sunday, when 12th-seeded UNI was matched against No. 5 Purdue, I picked the Panthers to win, 65-58.

But I could tell the crowd in Portland, Ore, was with UNI.

Either that or Purdue didn't sell any tickets.

This tournament loves Missouri Valley Conference teams and other underdogs.

Well, the fans do anyway. The selection committee obviously doesn't.

UNI was the only Valley team in the tournament.

Creighton deserved to be in it. Maybe even Illinois State.

It's becoming too much of a big-school tournament.

The TV showed Jordan Eglseder's parents, who drove 29 hours to get to Portland from Iowa.

Good for them.

Eglseder [pictured at the left] is the 7-foot 1-inch Panther center from Bellevue, Ia.

Oh-oh. CBS is already switching away from the UNI game It's got North Carolina on my picture.

CBS shows a promotion for "Harper's Island," something I know nothing about and probably won't watch.

Now we're back to UNI, which trals, 29-17, with 1:57 left in the first half.

The TV guy says UNI coach Ben Davidson "has to be concerned because his team is being outhustled."

Purdue leads, 32-20, at halftime.

It's not pretty for the Panthers,

Another in a series of CBS-TV in-house commercials for its upcoming coverage of the Masters golf tournament.

Sometimes I think CBS covers the NCAA tournament so it can promote its coverage of the Masters.

Either that or the network likes green sportcoats.

Purdue leads, 40-31, and the TV guys point out that "UNI is still very much in this game."

Sure.

They don't want you switching to the food channel. Giada will be on there soon.

The Panthers cut the deficit to 40-34 with 12:10 left.

"Northern Iowa refuses to go away," the TV guy says.

Business as usual.

The TV guy says Eglseder "keeps working even though he never gets the ball. I'd try to get him the ball all the time."

Bud Light commercial. Just right for a college basketball tournament.

Promotion for the CBS "Survivor" show. It's undoubtedly targeted at me I never watch it.

Miller Lite commercial. Great for a college basketball tournament.

UNI calls its last timeout with 1:58 left in the game The Panthers trail by 8 points.

Eglseder, who finished with 13 points, is named UNI's player of the game by CBS.

Hey, Purdue's lead is only 4 points with a minute to play.

It's 56-54 with 16.7 seconds remaining.

A Boilermaker free throw sinks a free throw makes it 57-54. Another one. Now it's 58-54, Purdue.

Very nice comeback by UNI, which had trailed by as many as 14 points earlier.

The TV guys decide it was "a great effort by UNI."

Purdue wins, 61-56, but is unimpressive to me.

Purdue coach Matt Painter [pictured at the right] said at his postgame press conference, which was shown on ESPN News, "We beat a very good Northern Iowa team -- a team I felt was going to give us trouble.

"Their big fella [the 7-1, 290-pound Eglseder] puts you in a bind. I knew this would be a tough matchup. Ben Jacobson is a very good coach, and we were fortunate to survive."

Purdue's E'Twaun Moore had his right shoulder wrapped in ice at the press conference after his game-high 17 points. Robbie Hummel, who had ice on both knees, had nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

"This was definitely a physical game -- sort of like a Big Ten game," Moore said. "The ice is just temporary. We'll be OK."

This was a Boilermakers team that seized the Big Ten postseason tournament. If this is the best that conference has, forget a strong showing in the tournament.

Even though UNI's 2009 NCAA Experience was over at 3:30 p.m [1:30 p.m. in Portland], the Panthers can come home knowing they weren't embarrassed and didn't roll over for an opponent that came into the tournament with stronger credentials.

Why wouldn't I make that comment? After all, I picked UNI to win.

*

It's early, so maybe there's still time for UNI to get into the NIT.

I'm kidding, of course.

Ben Jacobson is probably already interviewing for another coaching job.

It was about this time last season that Drake's Keno Davis was interviewing at Providence.

*

Seriously, I doubt Jacobson is leaving UNI.

He really hasn't proven anything yet.

This was his first decent season with the Panthers.

Actually, it wasn't long ago that I wondered if he was in over his head at UNI.

Like Greg McDermott at Iowa State.

*

If anybody will be on the coaching hot seat next season [or this summer], it's McDermott.

Especially with how they dump coaches at Iowa State.

After a Not-So-Good 17-16 Record, Mark Phelps Needs To Somehow Find Consistency To Help End the Agony Next Season In Drake's Basketball Program

This time, Drake's 2008-2009 basketball season is really over.

I mean, definitely.

Absolutely, too.

Some of us thought it was over [or at least should have been over] March 5 when the Bulldogs lost to Indiana State, 62-55, in the play-in round of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament at St. Louis.

But something called the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament decided to put Drake into its 16-team field.

So the Bulldogs traveled all the way to Moscow -- Idaho, not Russia -- to play their first game in that inaugural tournament Wednesday night, and came away with a heartbreaking loss in a game viewed by 1,502 fans in a gym that seated 1,500.

I guess they counted a couple of the popcorn vendors.

Idaho [17-15] beat them, 69-67, when Josh Young's three-point attempt from the left wing rimmed out as time expired. Earlier, Craig Stanley's layup rolled off the rim.

"I'm trying to figure out what the lesson to be learned [from this game] is," Drake coach Mark Phelps [pictured at the right] said on his postgame radio show.

"Stanley -- point-blank at the rim -- will make that layup 99 out of 100 times. I feel badly for Craig because he's taking it hard--understanding he was at the rim. But, obviously, a game doesn't ever come down to just one play. Young got a decent look with his three-point attempt, and it looked good, too."

Young was 0-for-8 from the field in the last half, but closed with 18 points.

*

Stanley [pictured at the left] was intentionally fouled by Idaho's Mac Hopson with 1.5 seconds remaining.

He missed the first free throw, but made the second.

Drake got the ball aftrer the miss, and Stanley inbounded the ball at midcourt to Young, who then failed on his three-pointer.

"We had a nice play set up for the last-second shot," Young said. "I thought the shot might have a chance, but it rolled away."

Drake finished the season with a 17-16 record and losses in its last four games. First-year coach Phelps' team didn't win after a 71-54 victory over Austin Peay in the BracketBusters event Feb. 21.

"What a game! What a great game!" said Idaho coach Don Verlin. Lots of transition baskets. I thought we played one of our best games of the year from an offensive standpoint."

Drake hasn't won a postseason tournament game since the National Commissioners Invitational Tournament in 1975 --and that, my friends, is a long time ago.

I know because I was there, and I still have my wristwatch from the tournament.

It still keeps time, too.

*

Jonathan "Bucky" Cox, playing his final game as a Bulldog, scored 17 points and had 10 rebounds in the game at Moscow. Josh Parker scored 12 points.

Cox had his eighth double-double of the season -- best in the Valley.

The Bulldogs made only one basket in a 9-minute 25-second stretch late in the last half, which allowed Idaho to grab a double-digit lead.

After a three-point basket by Cox pulled Drake up to a 50-49 deficit with 10:28 left, the Bulldogs went cold -- allowing Idaho to expand its lead to 67-55.

Drake then hit six straight free throws, including four by Young, to pull within six [67-61].

A layup by Stanley with 1:01 go go ended Drake's dry spell, moving the Bulldogs within four points at 67-63.

Idaho threw the inbounds pass out of bounds and Drake's Parker drilled a three-pointer from the right wing with :50.9 to go.

Drake outrebounded Idaho, 38-29, and outscored the Vandals, 12-3 on second-chance points.

*

Young had a game-high 14 points in the first half while becoming the 16th player in Drake history to score more than 500 points in a season.

He also moved into a tie for No. 7 on the school's career scoring chart with Luke McDonald [2000-2003] at 1,328.

Cox ended his career ranked 13th on Drake's scoring list with 1,205 points and second on the career rebounding chart with 817.

"Bucky played a terrific game," Phelps said. "He continued to demonstrate that he is one of the top players for his size in the country."

In retrtospect, it's probably a good thing Drake got the chance to play another game after the embarrassing early exit from the Valley tournament in St. Louis.

"The thing we talked about in the locker room [after last night's game] was how proud we were of our team in terms of execution," Phelps said.

"They couldn't have done a better job after being down by 12 points late in the game. They did everything right on the defensive end, they shared the basketball on the offensive end, we had player-after-player make huge shots and we executed almost to perfection down the home stretch. That was the best end-of-game execution we've had probably all year."

*

Now it will be Phelps' job to get something going next season when he will have what has been rated the best recruiting class in the conference.

The Bulldogs showed signs this season that they'd have a pretty fair season after beating Iowa State and Iowa in December, then starting the Valley season with a 4-1 record.

But there was far too much inconsistency the rest of the season, which can't be allowed to happen if a team is going to challenge for a championship and finish better than one game above .500.

A horrible example of fans never knowing which Drake team was going to show up came Jan. 17 when NCAA tournament-bound Northern Iowa played at the Knapp Center in Des Moines.

The Bulldogs didn't know what hit them. UNI, sinking three-point shot after three-point shot, raced to a 22-oint halftime lead and buried Drake, 81-59.

Yet, later in the season, Drake jolted UNI at Cedar Falls, 47-46.

Go figure.

*

In other CollegeInsider.com games involving Missouri Valley Conference teams last night, Bradley defeated Austin Peay in Peoria, Ill., 81-74, and Evansville was clobbered at home by Belmont, 92-76.

My Mention Of 1,500-Seat Memorial Gym In Idaho Leads To An E-Mail Discussion With Offenburger About UNI's West Gym and Loras Fieldhouse In Dubuque

After I wrote yesterday about Memorial Gym -- the 1,500-seat building in which tonight's Drake-Idaho basketball game will be played in Moscow, Idaho -- I exchanged e-mail with fellow columnist Chuck Offenburger of Cooper, Ia.

Offenburger said both he and his wife, Carla [pictured at the right, courtesy of Offenburger.com.] "think a 1,500-seat gym built in 1928 sounds cool. It'd be like playing in the old Loras Fieldhouse, which is just a classic in Dubuque!"

I was never in Loras' gym, but I mentioned to Chuck that Memorial Gym in Moscow sounded something like old West Gym in Cedar Falls, where I once covered a couple of Northern Iowa basketball games.

I remember walking up a narrow, curly stairway made of iron to get to my seat in a cramped press area.

I think UNI's women's team played Creighton that afternoon, and the Panthers' men played Southern Illinois.

And get this. Southern Illinois was then coached by Bruce Weber, who now is at Illinois and has his team in the NCAA tournament that's starting this week.

West Gym is pictured at the left, courtesy of UNI.

The university says the gym is "nestled in the heart of UNI's picturesque campus is "the former competition site for Panther volleyball, women's basketball and wrestling.

"Built in 1925 for a mere $180,000, the West Gym was an intimidating place for opposing teams to play. With an intimate seating capacity of 2,052, the West Gym not only filled up quickly -- it got very, very loud. UNI's volleyball team posted two of the longest winning streaks in NCAA history there, a 50-match streak in the mid '90s, and a 74-match streak from 1997-2004 that is the second longest ever in the nation."

*

Offenburger, the former "Iowa Boy" columnist at the Des Moines Register, knows something about nearly everything in our state.

"I think you're correct that old West Gym is still standing at UNI," he told me. "In fact, I think the UNI women played most of their games there until the McLeod Center was built.

"When Tony DiCecco had the Panther women challenging the Valley leaders like Creighton and Missouri State, those games at West Gym were packed. But I think Tanya Warren brought that UNI women's team along pretty well this year, and in another year or so, they could be challenging again, and then they'll get better crowds at McLeod.

"But, back our original message to you, Carla and I were just having some fun with this whole idea of the Drake men, after the season they've had, playing in this new tournament [CollegeInsider.com]. And now it turns out that playing in the facility where they'll be playing, heck, it would be like playing at Loras, or Wartburg, or Buena Vista -- just a whole lot more expensive to get there!

"On the other hand, this will be a nice set of 'bookends' on this season for Drake, as far as playing in venues that are, uh, interesting. Remember the facility used for the Vanderbilt vs. Drake game in the Cancun Challenge back about Thanksgiving time? Andrew Logue reported in his Des Moines Register game story that it was certainly a 'unique setting.' Then he added this great explanation: 'Hotel officials converted a second-floor ballroom into a gymnasium, with makeshift bleachers and chandeliers. As the ball was tossed for the opening tip, 109 people were watching, including four off-duty security officers. A bartender delivered drink orders during timeouts.'

"I doubt there will be atmosphere to rival that at the old gym in Moscow, Idaho!"

*

By the way, Carla Offenburger writes a column for the Offenburger.com website titled "My View from the Porch."

This week she writes about high school girls basketball in Iowa, making this comment early in the column: "I've come to terms with the idea that the girls state tournament is not what it used to be, nor is it going to turn into something I enjoy anymore..."

I'll let you read the rest of what she wrote on the website.

I told Chuck I agree with everything Carla wrote about the tournament.

*

I know you're dying to find out which teams won and which teams lost in the 2009 National Invitation Tournament.

Sure.

Well, for all you Steve Alford fans out there -- all three of you -- StevieBoy's New Mexico team ousted Nebraska, 83-71.

Other scores last night that are perhaps of interest to you:

Davidson 70, South Carolina 63
Rhode Island 68, Niagara 62
Penn State 77, George Mason 73 [overtime]
Notre Dame 70, Alabama-Birmingham 64
Kentucky 70, Nevada-Las Vegas 60
San Diego State 65, Weber State 49
St. Mary's, [Calif.] 68, Washington State 57

*

I guess a couple of people -- a cameraman at WHO-TV and a janitor at the paper -- are excited about this new "partnering" the Register is doing with WHO-TV at the UNI-Purdue NCAA basketball game in Portland, Ore., and the NCAA wrestling meet at St. Louis.

*

I got back from the weekly sportswriters' lunch a while ago, and I think I'm the only guy who's picking Northern Iowa to beat Purdue tomorrow. I predicted Sunday that the 12th-seeded Panthers would upset No. 5 Purdue in the first-round West Regional NCAA game, and I haven't changed my mind.

*

A guy at the lunch said he was surprised ex-KCCI anchor Jeanette Trompeter got canned at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. "I'm not," I said. "She's probably one of the highest-paid on-air people at the station, and she's also likely one of the oldest. TV stations are having the same financial problems newspapers are having, so it was easy to fire Trompeter. I'm sure there are younger, better-looking female anchors at WCCO who are being paid less than Trompeter, and that's who the bosses want to keep."

*

I don't know if Andrew Logue, a hard-worker and a good guy, wants the information to get out or not but he shot some pretty good video of scenes in Portland after arriving there for the NCAA tournament. That's the new deal, of course, at the paper -- reporters and columnists are equipped with video cameras when they're on assignment so they can shoot footage for the paper's website. That's in addition, of course, to writing advances, features, game stories, blogs, hosting online chats and interviewing players and coaches. I don't know what they do in their spare time. Logue's video of Portland is on the Register's website right now. I guess it's a good thing for newspaper people to display their versatility, now that they're "partnering" with TV stations. I expect Rekha Basu to start cranking out video footage from around Des Moines' seedier neighborhoods any day now.

Drake's Postseason Game Will Be Played In a 1,500-Seat Gym Built In 1928 At Moscow; And What Exactly Did That Register Sports Headline Mean Anyway?

This is postseason basketball.

Well, one form of it anyway.

Drake's game tomorrow night against Idaho in something called the CollegeInsider.com tournament will be played in a gym at Moscow, Idaho, that seats 1,500 people.

I'm not sure if that includes hotdog vendors or not.

If that's not classy enough for you, the gym -- known simply as Memorial Gym -- was built in 1928.

That's almost the same as the Bulldogs playing a postseason game in old Drake Fieldhouse, across the street from the Knapp Center.

The difference is that Drake Fieldhouse has a larger capacity.

Idaho normally plays its games in the Cowan Spectrum, but that 11,000-seat arena has been removed from the Kibbie Dome.

The Kibbie Dome [compare it to the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls] has seated 17,000 for football, but is being renovated and will soon seat 20,000.

But it's not ready for Wednesday's 9:05 p.m. game against Drake.

Makes me wonder how Idaho was assigned a home game in this dot.com tournament.

That's just one of things I'm wondering about on St. Patrick's Day.

*

I've also been wondering all morning about how editors at the Des Moines Register let this headline appear at the top of page 1 of today's sports section:

Valley vet Painter impressed by Koch

Hey, folks, that's pretty amusing stuff.

A much better, and safer, headline would've been:

Purdue coach impressed by UNI player

Whenever someone's last name is Koch [no matter how it's pronounced], you'd better be careful how you use it in a sentence, and certainly a headline.

The person who wrote that headline about the UNI player might be a candidate for a "Best of Gannett" prize sometime soon.

*

One of the assistants on Idaho's basketball staff is Mike Freeman [pictured at the left], a native of Cedar Rapids, Ia., who graduated from the University of Iowa. Freeman got his degree from Iowa in 2006 in communication studies and a minor in sports studies. He was the student manager for the basketball team from 2001-2006.

*

I see Biz Buzz in the paper made a big deal out of ex-KCCI TV anchor Jeanette Trompeter getting canned by WCCO in Minneapolis.

But when cartoonist Brian Duffy, who was one of the few page 1 cartoonists still drawing pictures for a daily paper, was escorted to the door by a security guy after he'd been fired, Biz Buzz didn't write a word about it.

Indeed, the paper almost tried to keep Duffy's firing a secret [which, of course, is impossible these days]. A reader had to look so far back in the paper to find anything about Duffy that a magnifying glass was needed to locate it.

When the first reference to Duffy was used, his name wasn't even included in the story.

And when editor Carolyn Washburn made an ass of herself on TV during the presidential debate in Iowa, Biz Buzz didn't write a thing.

Not until Washburn responded to critics from the Washington Post and other newspapers did the Register admit she was awful on TV.

*

I just got my wristwatch [pictured at the right] from the 1975 National Commissioners Invitational tournament out to see if it still keeps time.

It does.

Now there was a postseason tournament, if you ask me.

The NCIT was the brainchild of the NCAA, which was trying to kill the NIT.

Drake, then coached by Bob Ortegel, played in the inaugural NCIT, and beat Southern California, Bowling Green and Arizona en route to the championship in Louisville, Ky.

*

By the way, the NCIT didn't last long. And the NIT is still going.

*

Idaho's best player is point guard Mac Hopson, a transfer from Washington State. He was named to the all-Western Athletic Conference first team, leading the Vandals with a 16.6 scoring average and finishing No. 1 in the conference in assists with a 5.9 average. Forward Luciano deSouza, one of three native Brazilians on the squad, leads Idaho with 59 three-point baskets.

*

Drake fans are still trying to figure out what happened to their team in 2008-2009 under first-year coach Mark Phelps.

Coming of a 28-5 record last season under Keno Davis, the Bulldogs beat Iowa State and Iowa in December and got off to a 4-1 Missouri Valley Conference record before going into a tailspin that hasn't stopped.

Drake hasn't won since clobbering Austin Peay [also in the CollegeInsider.com tournament], 71-54, Feb. 21.

Which Drake team shows up in Moscow is anybody's guess. But I'm not optimistic.

Oh, All Right, If Bowl Games Can Take 6-6 Football Teams, I Guess a 17-15 Drake Basketball Squad Can Play In a Dot.Com Postseason Tournament In Moscow

Drake's basketball players and I did our best to get the Bulldogs' 103rd season finished nearly two weeks ago.

But it didn't work.

Nobody paid attention.

Now, coach Mark Phelps and his players have yet another game in another tournament.

Drake was a team that, after a 62-55 loss to Indiana State in the play-in round of the Missouri Valley Conference's postseason tournament, had the appearance of one that was ready to pack the jockstraps away until next October.

In the last 11 days of the season, Drake basketball looked about as dead as it could get.

Not since a 71-54 victory Feb. 21 over Austin Peay -- more than three weeks ago -- has Drake beaten anybody.

But Phelps will try to get his players to put on their game-faces again -- this time in Moscow.

Moscow, Idaho, that is.

That's where the University of Idaho is located, and where Drake will take a 17-15 record into a 9:05 p.m. game Wednesday in something called the CollegeInisder.com postseason tournament.

I mean, when they start naming a 16-team basketball tournament after a website, all of us are scratching our heads.

*

Actually, they might as well call the CollegeInsider.com event an extension of the Missouri Valley Conference's postseason tournament -- for losers.

Evansville and Bradley of the Valley are also in the dot.com tournament, but at least they get first-round games at home.

By the way, Drake is the first Valley team in history to lose in the opening round of the league tournament and wind up playing in a national postseason event.

"I think it's very important for us to continue momentum in the area of postseason play," Phelps said today. "As a program, Drake basketball hasn't gone to back-to-back postseason tournaments since the 1969-70 and 1970-71 seasons."

Drake, of course, played [and lost in the first round] in the NCAA tournament last season when Keno Davis was the coach.

"We were disappointed in our first-round loss in the Valley tournament in St. Louis, but we're excited to be one of 129 teams still playing," Phelps said. "The opportunity to still be playing is significant."

I asked Phelps what his team needs to improve on to have some success in the dot.com tournament.

"We need to take care of the ball on offense," he said. "It's that simple. We need to limit our turnovers and play defense the way we did in the last five games."

Phelps said Drake was able to practice four times since losing in St. Louis.

*

It appears Idaho's coaches and players are already mentally prepared for Drake.

Coach Don Verlin called it a “huge day for Vandal basketball" when his team was picked for the dot.com tournament.

“I can’t express how excited I am for the players, coaches and most importantly, the fans who have waited 19 long years for a postseason game,” Verlin said. “To be one of the handful of NCAA Division I basketball teams with the opportunity to continue its season is unbelievable. This is a great day to be a Vandal.

“The opportunity to play in a postseason tournament will give our program great experience for what will hopefully be a long run of postseason participation,” Verlin said.

The Vandals had the school's best record since the 1998-99 season.

Actually, I guess none of us should second-guess the formation of this dot.com tournament for teams with 17-15 and 17-16 records.

After all, football squads with 6-6 records get invitations to bowl games now, don't they?

South Carolina, with a 7-5 record, showed up to play Iowa in a New Year's Day game and was dead on arrival when it got there. Iowa won, 31-10, over a team coached by Steve Spurrier, a guy who looked like football had passed him by.

When Drake officials began making noise that they might try to get the Bulldogs into another basketball tournament, I ridiculed the idea.

After the Bulldogs' loss to Indiana State, I wrote, "The postseason tournament that might be interested in the Bulldogs hasn't yet been invented...No postseason tournament worth its Sunday night game on Mediacom or ESPNU wants Drake and its 17-15 record cluttering up its field.

"Hell, I don't even think the players and the student managers on Drake's bench want to watch the Bulldogs in another game. Come to think of it, I'm not sure the starters even want a 33rd gme.

"Not many of them acted like they wanted to play in the last three games of the season, did they?"

Now, though, Drake is getting ready to play another game.

*

By the way, I've been in Moscow -- in both Russia and Idaho.

Moscow, Russia, was much more lively than Moscow, Idaho.

I was in the Idaho version in 1982 when Iowa was assigned to the NCAA's West Region tournament.

The tournament was actually played in the gym of Washington State at Pullman, Wash., across the border, but some of us stayed in hotels in Moscow.

By the way, after beating Northeast Louisiana, 70-63, in the first round, Lute Olson's Hawkeyes lost to Idaho, 69-67, in overtime in the second round.

I think Olson was critical of me and other Iowa sportswriters afterward, which was business as usual for him at the end of every season. He was always mad about something.

At least Olson won't be around to tell writers in Moscow how to do their jobs this time.

The Inside Story On Why and How Drake Decided To Retire the Jersey Numbers Of 1969 Final Four Standouts Willie McCarter, Dolph Pulliam and Willie Wise

Some e-mails have been forwarded to me in reference to the celebration that was held to honor Drake's 1968-69 Final Four basketball team last month.

One was from Maurice John Jr., the oldest son of the late Maury John, who coached the Bulldogs to a 26-5 record and a third-place finish in the 1969 Final Four at Louisville.

Maurice John Jr., who now lives in Louisville, wrote to former Drake standout Dolph Pulliam in an e-mail titled, "Thank you, all."

John continued: "Hi, everybody. Great seeing you all. Denny Crum went to the 40th reunion of the 1969 UCLA team. I'm told he made some positive remarks about you guys on his radio show [which he shares with former Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall]."

Crum was an assistant coach on the UCLA staff that helped Wooden win three of his 10 NCAA championships. The 1969 Bruins escaped Drake's bigtime upset attempt with an 85-82 victory on the opening night of the tournament in Louisville.

Crum went on to coach at Louisville for 30 seasons, and won NCAA titles there in 1980 and 1986.

I have some personal thoughts about the honoring of the 1968-69 team by athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb, assistant athletic director Mark Kostek, university president David Maxwell and others from Drake.

I was happy that, after 40 years, this team finally got the recognition from the university that it should have received many years earlier.

It was ridiculous that, until this winter, the only men's basketball jersey numbers retired by Drake were those of Phil "Red" Murrell and Lewis Lloyd.

The numbers of Pulliam, Willie Wise and Willie McCarter were retired Feb. 21.

The only improvement that could have been made was the retirement of the numbers of the other two starters -- Don Draper and the late Al Williams.

Draper was among the few members of the team not present for the celebration.

Frankly, I'd like to see jersey numbers of Draper and Williams retired at a later date.

The planning of the 40th reunion of the 1968-69 team began early, but I'm told the retirement of some of the starters' jersey numbers wasn't part of it at the start.

As late as last August -- just before first semester classes were scheduled to start at Drake -- one of the best players on the team told me there was no plan to retire any numbers.

I talked with some of the players throughout the school year, and for a while it appeared that neither McCarter nor Wise planned to be present for the celebration.

Wise had been telling friends that he would be busy with mission work for his church. McCarter was vague about why he wouldn't be able to be in Des Moines on the weekend of Feb. 20-21.

Had Wise and McCarter [who both played professional basketball after their Drake careers ended] not been present, that would have meant Pulliam would have been the only starter present at the celebration.

Obviously, that was not a situation Drake wanted.

Pulliam had to be there because he is employed by Drake and is the commentator on radio broadcasts of the Bulldogs' games.

When Drake officials learned that the presence of McCarter and Wise was in doubt, the plans were changed.

The decision then was made to retire the jersey numbers of three of the starters and to honor Maury John, the university's winningest coach.

I was told of the change in thinking, and wrote in a Feb. 2 column that the numbers of Pulliam, McCarter and Wise would be retired permanently. I also wrote that John would get the credit due him, and that his family would be invited to the weekend celebration.

Credit McCarter and Pulliam with doing the legwork on talking players into coming back for the reunion.

McCarter tried hard to get Draper, the guard who took the first shot in every Drake game, to come back, too. But Draper stayed in Arizona, saying he had to care for his ailing mother.

There are many associated with the 1968-69 team who felt the players didn't receive the recognition they deserved from previous Drake athletic directors and presidents because John left Drake after the 1970-71 season and took the coaching job at Iowa State.

However, it now appears Sandy Hatfield Clubb, Mark Kostek and David Maxwell have soothed any hurt feelings the players had.

They did something that should have been done long ago.

They put on a tremendous show for the team, and banners honoring John, Pulliam, McCarter and Wise, along with another paying tribute to the entire squad, are displayed prominently in the Knapp Center.

A very happy ending to a situation that had become a sore point with some outstanding basketball players.

Big East Basketball Fans Have To Bring NoDoz To the Arena; Syracuse Beats UConn, 127-117, In Near-Record 6 Overtimes! Game Ends At 1:22 a.m. In N.Y.

There probably wasn't enough NoDoz in New York City's Madison Square Garden last night and this morning to keep everyone awake during a bizarre six-overtime Big East Conference tournament basketball game between Syracuse and Connecticut.

But R. H. of Des Moines stayed awake to see the finish, and so did I. Here's what R. H. wrote about it:

"Ron,

"I have seen a large number of college basketball games in my young life. What I saw between Connecticut and Syracuse will be talked about for a while. Syracuse defeated the Huskies, 127-117, in six overtimes (!) in the Big East Conference quarterfinal game in New York City. The game ended around 12:15 a.m. Central Daylight Time. This game should have ended two hours earlier.

"After Connecticut tied the game at 71-71, Syracuse inbounds the ball down the court. Eric Devendorf scoops up the ball and shoots a 3-pointer, which goes into the basket at the buzzer. After replay review, the basket was waived off, after it was determined that the ball did not leave Devendorf's fingers as time expired.

"What ensued next were missed opportunities, miscues, and astoundment, as both teams, somehow, forced overtime after overtime. Syracuse did not take their first lead (yes, their first lead) until :10 into the 6th extra frame, when Andy Rautins made a 3-pointer to pull the Orangemen ahead.

"Ron, by the time you read this, I'll be crawling out of bed, wishing it was Saturday, so I could sleep in. But, I'm a big boy and when work calls, you go and get the job done!

"Best,"

R.H.
Des Moines

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I didn't specifically stay awake long enough to see the Providence-Connecticut game. I just happened to be watching after midnight when ESPN News reported that the game was still being played. So I switched to whatever ESPN station was carrying it, and saw the rest. The game, of course, finished after 1 a.m. [1:22 actually], Eastern Time, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. "I've got no words," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim [pictured at the left] said to reporters when asked to describe the second-longest Division I game ever. "I've never been prouder of any team I've coached." The game finished one overtime short of the record set in Cincinnati's 75-73 victory over Bradley on Dec. 21, 1981. The game took 3 hours 46 minutes to play. Syracuse point guard Jonny Flynn, scored 34 points and had 11 assists in a game-high 67 minutes. "I just wanted to get the game over with," he told reporters. "I was thinking, 'Lord, just get this game over with. Whoever wins the game, let's just get it over with.'"]

*

Scott Dochterman of the Cedar Rapids Gazette messaged me on Twitter to say, "Lickliter doesn't know the postseason rules. Any team can go to those junk tourneys, even a bad Iowa team."

Dochterman was referring to Iowa basketball coach Todd Lickliter saying after Michigan clobbered the Hawkeyes in the Big Ten tournament yesterday that the Hawkeyes [15-17] couldn't go to any of the several postseason tournaments that now are available to teams because they didn't finish with a winning record.

I figure there are a number of things Lickliter had better learn before it's too late for him at Iowa.

*

One thing you can count on at this time of the collegiate basketball season is that every coach who still has a job is optimistic about next season.

I've never yet heard one of them say, "We don't expect to be any better next season than we were this season."

Red Sox Closer Jonathan Papelbon Calls Dodgers' $45 Million Man Ramirez a 'Cancer Who Had To Go'--And, Oh, Yes, Iowa Is Big Ten Tournament No-Show

One of the things I like about major league baseball is that the players talk a lot and don't care what they say.

Not much of that "no comment" garbage when somebody asks those multi-millionaires what's on their minds.

Besides, half of the overpaid big leaguers are airheads.

Any reporter will tell you that interviewing an airhead is often a lot of fun.

I particularly liked a story I just saw about Jonathan Papelbon, the closer [that means he pitches only in the ninth inning] for the Boston Red Sox.

Because he pitches only in the last inning, Papelbon and other closers have a lot of time to think while sitting in the bullpen.

Evidently, Pepelbon [pictured at the left] did a lot of thinking about Manny Ramirez, a former teammate who now plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ramirez recently signed a new two-year, $45 million contract. The best thing I can say about that is I wish the Dodgers would've designated the $45 million to helping find a cure for cancer, not signing a bum like Ramirez.

Numerous news sources say Papelbon calls Ramirez a "cancer" in the April issue of Esquire.

"It just takes one guy to bring an entire team down, and that's exactly what was happening," Papelbon told the magazine, according to ESPN.com. "Once we saw that, we weren't afraid to get rid of him. It's like cancer. That's what he was. Cancer. He had to go. It [stunk], but that was the only scenario that was going to work. That was it for us."

*

Headline in today's West Des Moines Register:

Trail to link Jordan Creek area in WDM to downtown Des Moines

I guess that's a trail Shawn Johnson won't be interested in taking anytime soon.


*

After watching Craig Brackins in Iowa State's one-and-done Big 12 postseason tournament game, I'm saying he has played his final collegiate basketball game.

From now until the NBA draft, he's going to be showered with questions from agents and friends about why he'd want to play another season for Greg McDermott at Iowa State.

By the way, despite what McDermott says, I don't think he'll have any influence on whether Brackins passes up his final two of collegiate eligibility or not.

Brackins will get plenty of advice from guys who are already playing in the NBA. I can't imagine McDermott being any kind of authority on something like that.

I sure as hell can't imagine McDermott meeting with Brackins and saying, "Craig, I think it's time for you to go."

A more likely scenario will have McDermott huddling with Brackins and saying, "Craig, I need you to stay so you can save my job."

*

Indeed, it seems like just yesterday that McDermott, who has had three consecutive losing seasons at Iowa State, was apologizing to Brackins.

In December, McDermott said Brackins was "manhandled" in Iowa State's 73-57 loss at Iowa.

Afterward, the coach -- for some unknown reason -- felt he needed to send an apology to his sophomore standout.

Sounds like someone in Ames is running scared, and it's not Brackins.

*

I've got one word for the fact that Iowa State hasn't had a winning season since Wayne Morgan [who was considerably less than a coaching genius] coached there, that the Cyclones haven't won a Big 12 tournament game since 2005 and that they've lost 16 straight conference road games.

Horrible.

Actually, two words.

The other one is inexcusable.

*

This was pretty funny.

I was having lunch the other day with Mr. and Mrs. Alive In Clive, not their real names, when the mister asked if I saw the latest photo in the Des Moines Register's Datebook that showed an empty restaurant.

Yes, I'd noticed it.

I never miss things like that.

Today, Datebook had yet another empty-restaurant picture.

A photo by James D. Fidler [right] that accompanied a story [the word review would be stretching it] on Johnny's Italian Steakhouse showed a vacant dining room.

Yet the headline said: Johnny's on Fleur a real crowd pleaser

What kind of crowd?

Unbelievable.

*

By the way, how many times is the Register going to have a story and pictures about beer -- green or any other color -- in a story about St. Patrick's Day?

The paper did it yesterday, and did it today.

In an era when the overuse of alcohol is one of the biggest problems in the nation, the paper continues to promote beer sales and beer drinking.

Like I always say, no wonder circulation is in a constant nosedive.

*

My advice to guys in town for the state high school basketball tournament: Avoid going anywhere near the Westown Parkway Residences near Valley West Mall.

*

That's it for now.

I'm going to spend the rest of the morning deciding whether I want to Twitter the Iowa-Michigan basketball game this afternoon.

Right now, I'm leaning toward not doing it.

Why clutter up Twitter with something like that?

*

Wise decision.

There was such a lack of interest in the Iowa-Michigan game that even the Hawkeyes were no-shows.

They lost, 73-45.

It was about as embarrassing as it could get for Iowa and its fans.

*

I tried listening to Brent Musburger on the ESPN2 telecast.

I heard him say something like, "Across the board, I think coaching in the Big Ten is the best it's ever been."

I don't know where Musburger got that opinion.

Basically, I think he's full of crap.

Then I tried Gary Dolphin and Bobby Hansen on the radio.

No better there.

Dolphin joked [at least I think it was a joke] that maybe he should cancel the postgame interview show with coach Todd Lickliter.

The announcers got a break. They didn't do the postgame show with Lickliter. Instead, they used a feed from the press conference at which Lickliter appeared following the game.

Someone even asked Lickliter if he was interested in Iowa going to one of several postseason tournaments that now are held in collegiate basketball.

Lickliter told the interviewer that a team had to have a winning record [something the Hawkeyes didn't have] to go to those events..

Another bad season is history.

Craig Brackins, Cyclones' Road Woes, Dan McCool, a Sick Health Section, Newspaper Pay Cuts, Shawn Johnson, Harrison Barnes, Eric Henderson

I guess I'm wondering what Craig Brackins gains by playing another season for Greg McDermott at Iowa State.

McDermott has had three straight losing seasons as the Cyclones' coach. He was 15-16 and 14-18 in his first two years, and he finished 15-17 with an 81-67 season-ending loss tonight to Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Conference tournament..

Brackins [pictured at the right], a 6-10, 230-pound sophomore who is a first-team all-Big 12 selection, already has NBA scouts drooling over him in arenas everywhere.

He auditioned for the pro scouts tonight against Oklahoma State -- scoring 23 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

Count on it that he's been getting, and will continue to get, all kinds of information about how much money he could be making a year from now. If some agent tells him [whether it's a lie or not] that he's going to be a first-round draft choice [or even a high second-round pick], he's gone from Ames.

*

Iowa State has lost 16 consecutive Big 12 road games.

Tonight's game was played in Oklahoma City, which is officially called a "neutral" site.

But if you think there's anything neutral about the arena where Iowa State's players were matched up against the Cowboys in Oklahoma City, you live on another planet.

*

The Des Moines Register's Dan McCool, the nation's best wrestling writer, is out of the hospital.

People have already seen him in the newsroom, which means he's likely figuring on covering the upcoming NCAA wrestling tournament in St. Louis.

McCool was hospitalized with pneumonia. Rick Brown called 911 when McCool began having problems in the newsroom, and paramedics came to get him.

*

Buck Turnbull wasn't feeling all that well today, either.

He missed today's sportswriters' lunch.

"I've got a bad back," he explained.

*

Speaking of ailing things, the Health section of the Register has turned into a joke.

A sick joke.

At a time when the editors should be sending a reporter to Mercy, Methodist or some other hospital to do a story on bypass surgery or something else of importance, readers are given something on how to eat in the winter.

The paper had a chance to do something worthwhile, and has already screwed it up with poor thinking and poor planning by editors and reporters.

The Health section was, for a while, a stand-along section, but now it's buried inside something called "Iowa Life."

If the hospitals and the Iowa Heart Center weren't financing the whole thing with ads, there'd be no Health section at all.

*

Bosses in newspaper offices have found a different way to save money in an effort to stay out of bankruptcy court.

They've already laid off so many people in so many different departments that it's made a huge difference in what's being covering and what isn't being covered.

Now, sadly, papers are cutting the wages of the people who still have jobs.

About 175 Miami Herald employees will lose their jobs, and 30 vacant positions will be eliminated, the newspaper and Jim Romenesko report. Remaining full-time employees earning between $25,000 and $50,000 a year will have their pay reduced 5 percent. Those making more will see a 10 percent cut.

*

One more thing about Shawn Johnson's mother saying the gymnast/dancer doesn't want to come back to Des Moines.

I could be wrong, but maybe the weather has something to do with her decision.

I mean, 6 degrees tonight and a north wind at 25 miles per hour. The only person who'd want to come to Des Moines in March for that crap is an Eskimo. And maybe his or her Alaskan Husky.

As they say about Iowa...if it's not the cold, it's the wind.

*

Come to think of it, the weather might be what convinces Harrison Barnes he should play basketball at Duke and not Iowa State.

Certainly it couldn't be that Greg McDermott isn't outcoaching enough guys in the Big 12, could it?

*

I didn't know until leafing through the Iowa State basketball press guide that the basketball program has someone called a "learning specialist."

He's Eric Henderson. The press guide says Henderson "established a relationship with Greg McDermott when the two were part of the Wayne State basketball program in Wayne, Neb."

Henderson, a native of the eastern Iowa town of Coggon, played four seasons for McDermott at Wayne State.

The book says Henderson "assists ISU's academic services staff in monitoring the academic progess of ISU's basketball progress."

*

I know everybody but me is getting old when I see that Julie Flory is in her 30th year as an administrative assistant in Iowa State's basketball office.

You're Getting It All Today: Drake Optimism, Hawkeye and 6-Girl Basketball, Alford, College Baseball and Our Own [Or So We Thought] Shawn Johnson

"81DrakeGrad," not his real name, writes about the recently-concluded Bulldogs' men's basketball season:

"Hi, Ron,

"I went to St. Louis for the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. Once again, another disappointing showing from the Bulldogs. Oh, well, this season is done, and I'm going to maintain a positive attitude going into next season. The recruiting class looks to be very solid, and there should be more depth, more size and more athleticism next year, although the Bulldogs will be very dependent on freshmen in the front-court."

"81DrakeGrad"

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: It's good to see that someone is optimistic about a Drake team that went 17-15 in Mark Phelps' first season as coach, Optimism is a difficult thing to find these days, whether it comes to the economy or major-college basketball in our state, other than Big Dance-bound Northern Iowa].

*

I talked to a guy the other day who said he actually misses six-girl high school basketball.

Evidently, so do a lot of other people.

The paper did its best to keep attendance figures in the 2009 five-girl game a secret, but John Naughton finally wrote that "more than 5,000" fans attended the championship class 4-A game at Wells Fargo Arena.

If that's true, it's horrible.

When I was covering Denise Long, Jeanette Olson and the rest of the six-girl gang [where teams had a three-girl forward court and a three-girl guard court] at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, there'd be more than 14,000 people in the building.

The teams would score 80 and 90 points, and the place would be in an uproar.

Now the teams sometimes score 22 and 27 points [the score of the 1-A championship game was 28-27].

I asked the guy I was talking to why teams can't score -- maybe because the girls wear themselves out running up and down the floor before they shoot?

He didn't know. He just wants six-girl basketball back.

It ain't going to happen, my friend.

The good thing is you'll always be able to get a good seat in the arena. How's that for optimism?

*

Speaking of places where you can always get a seat, I certainly cannot figure out why anyone would want to transfer from the Iowa men's basketball team that plays at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

I mean, there aren't many places you can play where every game you win is considered an upset, you're able to learn how to pass, and the team is always described as "young."

*

Speaking of Iowa -- something Steve Alford doesn't ever do -- Mr. Wonderful [that's Alford, of course] is coach of the year in the Mountain West Conference.

Alford [pictured at the left] has a 21-10 record in his second season at New Mexico after being picked to finish fifth in the Mountain West.

His Lobos tied Brigham Young and Utah for the championship.

Alford's 45 victories in his first two seasons are more than any coach in school history. His teams have gone 9-7 in Mountain West road games and 14-12 overall away from home, another school record for consecutive seasons.

Not bad for a guy who couldn't recruit, couldn't win and turned off fans at Iowa.

*

Louie from Le Claire, not his real name, writes more on the subject of Northern Iowa dropping baseball:

"It hurts -- athletes, coaches, fans, alums -- whenever a college drops a Division I sport but this isn't a new concept. Iowa State hasn't played baseball for years and neither have the University of Wisconsin, University of Colorado and on and on. All with good reason. Unless you are willing to commit millions of dollars in a stadium to be competitive, it won't happen. Iowa State can't compete in baseball with Texas and the Oklahomas or Nebraska. Nebraska has a heated and cooled field -- grass all year -- in a stadium that seats 8,500. It cost $32 million in a public-private partnership and that was a few years ago. That isn't going to happen in Ames, Cedar Falls or Iowa City. I don't think Iowa State even has a stadium and Northern Iowa doesn't have much of one if they are playing in Waterloo.

"Sometimes there isn't a reasonable solution from a financial view other than just not trying any longer. Like you, I think Iowa will be next. I don't think the NCAA will let schools that are Division I in other sports play Division III non-scholarship baseball, although that would probably be the best solution. At least then students who wanted to play baseball could do it. Division III schools would then complain because they wouldn't be able to be competitive with say, Iowa State, Northern Iowa or Iowa. That's why it isn't allowed.

"Add ice hockey and men's soccer. Those sports aren't as dependent on weather."

Louie from Le Claire

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I covered plenty of baseball games in April at Iowa and Iowa State, and at Sec Taylor Stadium in Des Moines when Drake still had a team. I wished I could have been somewhere else. I know one thing. The fans were always somewhere else].

*

Shawn Johnson, the girl who doesn't want to come back to Des Moines [according to the Los Angeles Times] gave ABC-TV exactly what it wanted on "Dancing With the Stars" last night.

The big smile. The cuteness, Enough athletic ability to overcome any shortcomings she might have as a dancer.

America loves Shawn Johnson, and ABC obviously loves Shawn Johnson [pictured at the right].

Mark my word, she and her partner -- whose name I have forgotten -- will continue to get good scores on the show until a football player/dancer comes along that ABC likes better.

America's Little Darling is, as the kids her age [17] say these days, "hot."

I'm not saying "Dancing With the Stars" is fixed like shows such as "The Bachelor" are fixed; I'm just saying ABC likes Shawn Johnson.

Well, maybe I am saying all of those shows are fixed.

Ratings are the name of the game on TV, and don't forget it.

Shawn Johnson and Her Mother Relocate In L.A. Until 'Dancing With the Stars' Ends; And Get This: 'Shawn Says She's Never Going Back To Des Moines'

I'm absolutely breathless as I await "Dancing With the Stars" on WOI-TV tonight.

Actually, I'm kidding.

Really, I'm having a difficult time deciding if I want to watch the 7 o'clock show on the tube or go to Wells Fargo Arena for the Solon-Central Lee class 2-A high school state boys' basketball tournament game.

Shawn Johnson, Our Little Darling of Olympic gymnastics fame, is on the "Dancing With the Stars" stage.

I mean, this is bigtime stuff.

Naturally, I've been reading every word of what the Des Moines Register has been writing about Shawn in her preparation for the show.

The other day, there was a story in the paper that indicated the reporter was having a difficult time getting Our Little Darling to say much.

Now I can understand why.

Our Little Darling obviously was biting her lip.

She didn't want to say tell Jennifer Miller, the Des Moines reporter, what she'd already told [or later told] Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times.

"A smudge grumpy," was how Miller characterized Shawn's attitude on the day she did the interview.

Then the Diane Pucin story.

Damn big-city reporters.

Smart-asses.

They sure know how to pop a midwestern town's cute little bubble.

Get this, the mother of our 17-year-old cupcake told the Times that Shawn "never wants to go back to Des Moines."

I'm just glad Teri Johnson, the mother, didn't say Shawn wasn't ever going back to West Des Moines -- where, technically, Our Little Darling is supposed to be a student at Valley High School.

After all, there's a huge difference between Des Moines and West Des Moines.

I rarely drive east of 63rd Street myself, unless it's to see a Solon basketball game or an Iowa football game.

Thanks to Bud Appleby, who e-mailed the Times story to me, here's what Pucin wrote:

"Shawn Johnson can't stop smiling. She looks into the eyes of her dancing partner, Mark Ballas, the two nod at each other and then the music starts.

"We can't tell you the music. It's a secret until Johnson and Ballas compete tonight on ABC's 'Dancing With the Stars.'

"Johnson, 17, the bubbly gymnast from West Des Moines who won Olympic gold and silver medals in Beijing last summer, is the youngest star ever chosen to participate on the show that has always prominently featured athletes in its lineup. Johnson's partner, for example, won the mirror ball trophy with former figure skating gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi.

"Johnson and her mother, Teri, have relocated to Los Angeles for as long as Johnson stays on the show. While Johnson is testing her waltzing skills in her three-inch heels, Teri whispers, 'Shawn says she's never going back to Des Moines.'

"It's as if Johnson has packed away her Olympic medals and memories on a back shelf in a locked closet. Her Beijing experience was marked first by disappointment and then with subdued relief. Johnson had been the favorite to win the individual all-around medal and her U.S. team had been co-favorites with China to win gold.

"Instead, Johnson's teammate Nastia Liukin won the all-around gold while a teary-eyed Johnson took second. Her team finished second to China and Johnson also was second in floor exercise, in which she had been the defending world champion. Her gold came on the last night of the competition, on balance beam.

"'I haven't watched the Olympics,' Johnson said. 'I don't know if I will. It was all just...hard.'

"Before the 'hard,' there was a pause, a moment where her happy mask melted.

"Since the Olympics, Johnson has participated in a gymnastics tour, made appearances at Super Bowl parties, spoken at the Democratic National Convention, vacationed in Beaver Creek, Colo., learned to snowboard and been made up and dressed up and twisted and twirled in preparation for this television turn. What she hasn't done is gone back to work at her Iowa gym, where she had spent the better part of 10 years with her gymnastics coach Liang Chow.

"And for now that isn't in the plans. Johnson is taking some online classes with the hopes she will be able to graduate with her high school class next year.

"Teri sits in a corner of a strip mall dance studio on Sunset Boulevard watching her daughter twirl on the finger of Ballas and says she misses the family pets fiercely. Whether competitive gymnastics will return to Johnson's schedule seems uncertain at best.

"Her most immediate goals are learning how to perform in heels instead of bare feet and how to wiggle her hips.

"'It's all different from what I was taught in gymnastics,' Johnson said. 'I have to learn to let go and just be emotional.'

"Then Johnson sneaks a look at Ballas. 'You know," she said to him, 'in gymnastics I was known for being a bad dancer.' Ballas feigns shock, then says, 'We'll fix that.'"

Frankly, that stuff about not coming back to Des Moines just makes me sick.

That means, I guess, she won't be signing autographs at Hy-Vee again.

She won't be giving us that trademark big smile at a Drake basketball game.

She won't wave her arms to the crowd at a high school football game.

She won't show up at a Farmers Market -- either on Saturday morning or Thursday afternoon.

She won't participate in fund-raising for flood relief in Valley Junction and Cedar Rapids.

I'm horrified.

Hand It To Panthers' Valley Champs. They Deserve To Be In the NCAA Tournament; It Would've Been a Real Shame Had They Not Punched Their Dance Ticket

Good for the Panthers.

They decided to leave nothing to chance, and punched their own ticket in overtime this afternoon to the Big Dance.

They'd heard and read all that stuff like, "Maybe the NCAA tournament will take two teams from the Valley, not just one."

Sure, just like last season when Drake was the only Missouri Valley Conference team invited to the dance.

So it's Northern Iowa that gets the Valley's automatic bid to the 65-team NCAA tournament field.

And, if you want my opinion, coach Ben Jacobson and his players deserve it.

It would've been a shame to leave the Panthers out of this dance.

Listen, I know how good they are. I've known since Jan. 17.

That was the day [actually, the morning] they showed up at the Knapp Center on Drake's campus and absolutely hammered the Bulldogs, 81-59.

I mean, that was an unbelievable show UNI staged -- the most impressive I've seen by any team anywhere this season.

And the Panthers outplayed Illinois State when they had to this afternoon.

They made sure the Redbirds were the undisciplined team in the championship game at St. Louis.

Illinois State launched 3-point attempt after 3-point attempt [a whopping 35 in all] -- far too many of them with plenty of time remaining on the shot clock -- and not enough of them fell.

So the Redbirds lost for the third time this season to UNI, 60-57, and it was the Panthers -- guys with jawbreaking names like Ali Farokhmanesh and Kwadzo Ahelegbe [pictured at the right, courtesy of the Associated Press] -- who showed America on CBS-TV that football isn't the only sport their school can excel at in an indoor arena.

So what if sometimes the announcers made it sound like the UNI-Illinois State game was a preliminary -- or the "lid-lifter" as they used to say in the newspapers in the 1950s -- to Duke against North Carolina?

Farokhmanesh scored eight of Northern Iowa's 12 points in the 5-minute overtime, and Ahelegbe added 17 points.

Maybe America was waiting to see if UNI would buckle after falling behind, 55-51.

But Ben's boys would have nothing of it.

I know play-by-play announcer Dick Enberg kept shouting, "Oh, my!" whenever Illinois State's Osiris Eldridge made another 3-point basket, and commentator Bob Wenzel hollered, "Are you kidding me?" when the Redbirds rallied.

But UNI's players had performed in a pressure cooker throughout the conference season, and they were more than willing to take advantage of Illinois State's poor shot selection down the stretch.

Good thing.

I'm still thinking the Valley will get only one team in the NCAA tournament.

The only school that might [and I stress the word might] make it along with UNI could be Creighton, which has won 26 games, but lost by 24 points to Illinois State in the semifinals.

I wouldn't want to be in the Bluejays' shoes. They've left too much to what might still happen.

There's a long time between now and next Sunday, when the NCAA field is decided.

UNI made sure on the court that it's going to the dance.

*

Photo at the top of UNI's championship team courtesy of UNIPathers.com.

It's Not a Good Thing When You've Got To Turn the Clock Back 40 Years To Find Something Upbeat To Write About Major-College Basketball In Our State

This generally piss-poor major college basketball season in our state is on the minds of my readers today:

"Hi, Ron,

"In reading your column Friday, I cannot help but think that many of us Drake basketball fans are in a depression of our own, or at least denial. Some things you wrote, especially about Bucky Cox, are especially poignant right now. But I wonder if this wouldn't be a great time to write about Willie Wise, a man who probably laced up basketball shoes more times than practically any other Drake grad, given his nine-plus years in the pros, yet hardly ever dwelt on the W's and L's or the game scores. His interests were, and are, in the game of life. Might this be a great time to highlight Willie, one of the strongest, most graceful, and wisest men I have ever known? I am sure you can share some of Willie's insights with all of us. Best,"

Jay Davidson

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Here's how I answered Davidson: "Pretty depressing men's basketball season for the Bulldogs, Jay. I expected better. And, yes, I do have a Willie Wise column in the back of my head. The sad thing about that is that too many of us have to live 40 years in the past. That's not a good thing].

*

This e-mail is from Fred Of Farmington, not his real name:

"What's your take on Iowa basketball? I sometimes think that coach Todd Lickliter is another FXL, but his team is shorthanded and gives it a good effort. Maybe I'm being too hard on him. We'll be present for Iowa's season-ender today against Penn State at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Will anyone else?"

Fred Of Farmington

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: The "FXL" Fred refers to is Frank Lauterbur, who was Iowa's football coach in the awful 1971, 1972 and 1973 seasons. Lauterbur's Hawkeyes had records of 1-10, 3-7-1 and 0-11. Thank goodness then-athletic director Bump Elliott sent him packing quickly when he found out he was in over his head at Iowa. Lickliter's second season with the Hawkeyes is almost over. He went 13-19 overall and 6-12 in the Big Ten last season, and he's headed for a second straight losing season now. His Hawkeyes take records of 14-16 and 4-13 into today's regular-season finale against Penn State. Here's how I answered the e-mail from Fred Of Farmington: "You asked about Lickliter [pictured at the right]. At best, I'd say the jury is out on him. I don't think people like his slowdown basketball; that's not what brings people into the arena. I'm wondering if he's in over his head. What worked at Butler probably won't work at Iowa. He's got to recruit, and I'm not sure bringing in players from Iowa high schools is the answer. I also get tired of his constant complaining. On his postgame radio shows, he bitches a lot about people not coming to his games and about the lack of a practice court at Carver-Hawkeye. How did Lute Olson and Tom Davis win without a practice court?]

*

Another guy headed for yet another losing record is Greg McDermott of Iowa State.

The Cyclones take records of 14-16 overall and 3-12 in the Big 12 into today's regular-season finale against Texas Tech at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

The Cyclones have lost 16 straight conference road games. That's embarrassing.

Rick Brown pointed out in today's Des Moines Register that McDermott [pictured at the left] is under contract at Iowa State through 2015, which is depressing in itself.

I think people at the university should have their heads examined for giving a losing basketball coach a contract like that,

*

Lots of Iowa City Press-Citizen in the Register this morning.

Andy Hamilton of the Press-Citizen, who writes so much stuff for the Register that Carolyn Washburn might be signing his paychecks, covered the Big Ten wrestling meet in State College, Pa., and Ryan Suchomel of the Press-Citizen handled the Big Ten's women's basketball tournament for the Register at Indianapolis.

Interesting, too, that Jeff Dahn covered the Division III wrestling tournament at Cedar Rapids for the Register.

Dahn is one of the three sportswriters fired by the Cedar Rapids Gazette recently.

The Register usually pays a freelancer like Dahn about $50 for a couple days of wrestling coverage. That might get him a loaf of bread, some smoked turkey and a Diet Coke from Hy-Vee for lunch.

But I hope Hamilton and Suchomel aren't planning on any freelance money. Not when both the Register and Press-Citizen are still Gannett Co. newspapers.

*

A headline in the paper referred to Shawn Johnson's "glow."

However, the reporter's story on Johnson didn't indicate Our Little Darling had much glow while being interviewed.

The reporter used that old trick of writing more about herself than the subject of the story -- indicating she was either afraid or reluctant to ask any questions.

That's not very good newspapering.

I can't wait for those blogs from "Dancing With the Stars."

I'm sure they'll be absolutely riveting.

*

With sportswriter Jim Ecker fired, the Cedar Rapids Gazette is using the Associated Press for its coverage of the Missouri Valley Conference basketball tournament in St. Louis.

It Wasn't a Very Good Season for Drake, and I'm Glad It's Over; By the way, the Postseason Tournament That Wants the Bulldogs Hasn't Yet Been Invented

Before I get very deep into this column, I want to make one thing perfectly clear.

Drake's men's basketball season is over.

Finished.

Done.

Put to sleep.

Thank goodness.

Anyone hanging around the press table at the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis who tells you otherwise has been spending far too much time in the hospitality room.

Let me point out that I like Sandy Hatfield Clubb. She's the best athletic director Drake has had in many, many years.

She might be the best athletic director the university has ever had.

Obviously, she's also the best-looking athletic director Drake has ever had. And that comment comes with absolutely no apologies to Doc Pell, who ran the department in 1907.

But I hope Sandy really doesn't believe that some kind of postseason tournament is going to invite Drake this season.

The postseason tournament that might be interested in the Bulldogs hasn't yet been invented.

I think any newspaper that tries to sell that story to its readers should be put on the auction block, or simply close up shop.

People from postseason tournaments have been bullshitting coaches, athletic directors and gullible sportswriters for a long, long time.

No postseason tournament worth its Sunday night game on Mediacom or ESPNU wants Drake and its 17-15 record cluttering up its field.

Hell, I don't even think the players and the student managers on Drake's bench want to watch the Bulldogs in another game.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure the starters even want a 33rd game.

Not many of them acted like they wanted to play in the last three games of the season, did they?

Drake's season ended at 8:06 p.m., on Thursday, March 5, with a 62-55 loss to Indiana State in the play-in round of the Valley tournament.

It happened so fast that some of Drake's fans who drove to St. Louis hadn't yet finished their four pregame Bud Lights in the parking lot of the arena.

You know it's been a pretty bad year when a team's postseason tournament is finished at 8:06 p.m. March 5.

I mean, lots of teams haven't even ended their regular season yet.

It's just a good thing the Bulldogs were assigned a game Feb. 21 against Austin Peay on BracketBusters Saturday -- the last time they won.

I doubt they could've beaten anybody else, unless it's those guys trying to cover up their bellies with their undershirts at the "Y" on Saturday mornings.

I'd like to know how many more times we need to watch Josh Young miss most of his shots. Or Bucky Cox stand there without somebody passing him the ball.

Realistically, I think Drake's season pretty much ended five days before Christmas.

That was the Saturday afternoon the Bulldogs clobbered Iowa, 60-43, at the Knapp Center.

Iowa coach Todd Lickliter is still trying to make sense out of that one. Of course, he's in his second season of being in a state of confusion.

About three weeks after thrashing Iowa, Drake was a no-show in an 81-59 loss to Northern Iowa.

The Bulldogs didn't know what hit them that day, and they still don't know.

Yet, Drake somehow won the mythical Division I state championship for the third straight time.

That shows you how bad major-college basketball has been in our state in 2008-2009.

Sandy Hatfield Clubb took a chance in hiring Mark Phelps [pictured at the right] as Drake's coach.

Phelps had never been a collegiate head coach, and he definitely showed it.

I mean, there aren't many Keno Davises around. Not every rookie coach can go 28-5 and win every major coach of the year award in his first, and only, season at a Division I school.

I figured there was trouble ahead when Cox didn't get the ball in the first game of the season -- a 58-48 loss to Butler at the Knapp Center.

Cox told me several weeks later that Phelps changed the offense after that game.

That's a scary thought.

I take that to mean Phelps is still learning to be a head coach.

He'd better learn quickly.

Cox, Brent Heemskerk, Jacob Baryenbruch, John Michael Hall and Alex White have played their last game for the Bulldogs.

Heemskerk is a nice young man, but I don't think he's a Missouri Valley Conference player. Cox is a nice young man, and it's too bad he got the shaft this season.

He deserved a better team and a better senior year.

Phelps is supposed to have the best recruiting class in the Valley coming in next season.

Among the players are Reece Uhlenhopp, a 6-7 forward from Urbandale; Seth VanDeest, a 6-9 forward from Bettendorf; Aaron Hawley, a 6-7 forward from Rogers, Ark.; Ben Simons, a 6-7 guard from Cadillac, Mich., and David Smith, a 6-3 guard from Chicago.

Let's hope all, of most, of them can play. Apathy among the fans is no longer a problem at Drake. The Bulldogs' faithful wasn't very patient with Phelps this season, and I doubt it'll be very patient at all next season.

Scott Pierce Says Jim Ecker Is Off-Base; 'You Can't Name a Half-Dozen College Baseball Programs In Cold Weather Climates That Have Sustained Success'

After spending 27 years in the newspaper business, Jim Ecker knows the drill.

When you write columns and stories that contain opinion, you win some and you lose some.

You're going to make some people happy, you're going to upset some people.

Ecker, who was fired last week as a sportswriter at the Cedar Rapids Gazette, is now working and writing for Perfect Game USA, a baseball company in Cedar Rapids.

In the new job, he came out with an attention-getting opening punch -- saying a way to save the baseball program at Northern Iowa would be to fire university president Ben Allen and Tom Schellhardt, the vice-president who oversees the athletic department.

Scott Pierce [pictured at the right], the play-by-play radio announcer for Drake's football and women's basketball teams, takes issue today with Ecker in this e-mail to me:

"Sorry, Ron. I hope Jim Ecker does a better job in his second column for Perfect Game. It's obvious he can't dismiss his biases. While acknowledging one of the sympathy calls he received was from the AD at UNI, he calls for the firing of the UNI president and a UNI VP, sparing the AD. Anyone with common sense can read through that.

"Besides, he CAN'T be serious about firing a university president over a baseball program? You can't name a half-dozen college baseball programs in cold weather climates that have sustained their success. Nebraska, Wichita State, Creighton sometimes.....I'm at a loss to name more.

"And discussing the dropping of the program with the coach ahead of time? What's the coach going to do to make up $400,000? I understand Eck is working for a business that has an interest in UNI keeping its baseball program. But you sometimes have to water down your own Kool-Aid.

"I don't wish to offend a friend of yours. We used to have Eck on the radio and found him to be a good guest. But this was not his finest hour."

Scott Pierce

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Thanks for your thoughts, Scott. Jim Ecker can roll with the punches [he had to take a sizable hit lately], and I'm sure he appreciates your views. Now keep the Bulldogs' women's basketball program rolling this weekend. Let's hope they can make the season last longer than Drake's disappointing men's team].

*

An e-mail from Chuck Offenburger:

"Ron...

"Am I the only person who thinks that not only should UNI save its baseball program, but that the programs at Drake and Iowa State should be re-started, too?"

Chuck Offenburger

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Unfortunately, there aren't many people in this part of the country who think collegiate baseball can make a go of it when the season lasts from March to early-May. It's too bad there can't be a summer season, like the state's high school baseball and softball teams enjoy, when the weather is more conducive to those sports. As people at UNI will tell you, baseball is a money-losing sport at the collegiate level, and anytime administrators can save a buck or two these days they'll do it].

*

Scary situation the other day in the Des Moines Register newsroom.

The way I hear the story, Dan McCool [pictured at the left] -- the nation's best wrestling writer -- was hacking and coughing.

Suddenly, he doubled over in pain and became incoherent.

Rick Brown, the basketball specialist, was also in the sports department. Rick noticed that McCool was having problems.

Brown called 911. Paramedics came into the newsroom and took McCool to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia.

Hopefully, McCool is doing better now. I'm sure the fact the collegiate wrestling season is reaching its climax will hurry his recovery.

Good luck, Danny.

*

Sad news about John Hyde, an author and former Washington Bureau writer for the Register.

I hearJ Hyde has had a stroke, which caused him to fall. The fall crushed his brain stem, and he has been on a ventilator. Medical people will turn off the ventilator, and he will die.

Jim Ecker Already Has a New Job, and He Comes Out Swinging--Writes That UNI President Ben Allen and Top Aide Tom Schellhardt Should Be Fired

I predicted they couldn't keep Jim Ecker down for long, and I was right.

Ecker, who shockingly [to me anyway] was fired last week after 27 years as a sportswriter at the Cedar Rapids Gazette, already has a new fulltime job.

He's working for Perfect Game USA, a Cedar Rapids company that "is devoted to furthering the development and career of the talented high school baseball player."

Ecker [pictured at the right] will be doing a lot of what he does best -- writing.

And not just the who-what-why-and-where kind of writing.

Writing that shows some balls, so to speak.

Indeed, Ecker has already written a commentary for one of the company's two websites that suggests Ben Allen [pictured at the left], president of the University of Northern Iowa, and Tom Schellhardt, the vice-president who oversees the school's athletic department, should be fired.

That's my kind of writing.

Ecker's last big story/commentary at the Gazette was that UNI's baseball program will be dropped after this season because it has an annual deficit of $400,000.

Ecker had a national scoop on the story. Anyone else who wrote or talked about it was a day late in the reporting of it.

"I think it's going to be a lot of fun," Ecker told me of his new job. "I'm pretty excited about it."

Asked to explain Perfect Game USA, Ecker said, "You're familiar with Future Stars in basketball, right? Well, Perfect Game USA is kind of the same thing, but in baseball.

"They do a lot of work with top amateur baseball talent in the country in terms of showcases and tournaments. It brings talent, scouts and coaches to the same place at the same time."

Ecker said the company's websites are PerfectGameUSA.org and PGcrosschecker.com.

"A lot of information on the websites is devoted to company business--tournaments, showcases, player rankings, inside baseball stuff," Ecker said. "There are general interest columns, too.

"I'll be writing a lot of feature stories, breaking news stories, columns and blogs. For instance, my first story that was posted this week was about UNI baseball. They want to keep the story alive and reach the baseball community.

"I can write whatever I want to write, but there will be some grunt work, too, like press releases, company activities and the contacting of local media. A kid from Timbuktu might have a good performance in a showcase event, and I would contact his hometown newspaper."

Ecker certainly got my attention with the commentary he wrote, headlined "An Easy Way To Save UNI Baseball," for Perfect Game USA about the Panthers' program.

Here's some of what he wrote:

"The University of Northern Iowa plans to cut its varsity baseball program after the 2009 season because the team runs an annual $400,000 deficit and the school has financial problems, but there's a simpler way to save the sport and trim more than enough from the budget.

"Fire Ben Allen.

"Allen is the school's president. He makes $300,000 a year, and if he's willing to cut the program without even talking to the head coach, he deserves to go.

"And fire Tom Schellhardt, the vice-president who oversees the athletic department. He couldn't meet with coach Rick Heller before the decision was made either, so dump him, too. That saves another $180,000.

"That was easy. You trim $300,000 and $180,000 there, and pretty soon you save the baseball program. You save the head coach, three assistant coaches, 35 players and the honor of the school.

"Allen and Schellhardt might be missed in some circles but, hey, these are tough economic times. Somebody has to bite the bullet. It's better to chop the bloated salaries of two administrators than the 35 innocent players their team is folding.

"Allen and Schellhardt can find other jobs, but good luck finding another Division I baseball program that will take 35 guys on short notice.

"Heller said he didn't get a chance to fight for his program, until it was practically too late. Allen and Schellhardt refused to meet with him while the decision to drop baseball was being made.

"After 10 years of service, I felt like I deserved the chance to maybe meet with the president and the vice-president and at least defend the program," Heller said at a press conference last week. "I didn't get that opportunity, and that saddens me a little..."

Like UNI baseball, Ecker, 56, was the victim of difficult economic times at the Gazette -- a place where he worked in various writing and editing capacities.

He was one of three Gazette sportswriters and was among 14 or so newsroom people who were fired last week on what has become known as "Black Tuesday."

I label Ecker one of the top three investigative sportswriters in the state of Iowa. He also was one of the most valuable writers in the sports department at the Gazette because he was so versatile.

He was a thorough investigative reporter and, after being assigned to write two weekly columns, he did solid commentary.

His byline in the Gazette will be missed by a lot of people, but it's good to know we'll all be able to read what he writes on the Perfect Game USA websites.

*

When Ecker got home one day this week, there was a message on his phone that Greg McDermott -- a former UNI basketball coach and present Iowa State basketball coach -- had called.

"Add McDermott to the list of people with class who reached out, and cared," Ecker told me.

Last week, after being fired at the Gazette, Ecker received phone calls from top coaches and administrators at UNI, including basketball coach Ben Jacobson, football coach Mark Farley, athletic director Troy Dannen and sports information director Josh Lehman.

*

Message from "Bo In Iowa City:"

"Don't go fishing today, although it's 55 and sunny over here right now, and I just saw a friggin' house fly outside on the deck! What's next, gnats?!"

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: No fishing for me again today, Bo. I know my limits. And gnats to you!]

Maude from Mechanicsville Is Sick Of Hearing About '3 from Downtown.' I Say It's Time for TV Announcer Wayne Larrivee To Take a Long Vacation

Maude from Mechanicsville, not her real name, had a question about basketball.

Or, more specifically, about TV basketball announcers.

"Ron, who coined the phrase; 'That's three from downtown?'" she asks. "I think 'downtown' is grossly overused."

I'll bet Maude was watching the Iowa-Ohio State game last night on the Big Ten Network because I think "three from downtown" is something idiotic play-by-play announcer Wayne Larrivee continually says.

Larrivee is a master of the overstatement. Everything is always bigger than it really is.

In constantly referring to "downtown" in last night's telecast, Larrivee obviously was talking about three-point baskets by Iowa's Devan Bawinkel and others.

And Larrivee also doesn't know which side of the street he's on.

Larrivee is the guy who said during a recent game that Hawkeye freshman Matt Gatens "is the son of a former Iowa football quarterback."

Nothing like screwing up his sports. Gatens is actually the son of former Iowa basketball player Mike Gatens.

It's Wisconsin basketball player Jason Bohannon who is the son of former Iowa quarterback Gordy Bohannon.

*

It's good to know they'll be naming a street in Coralville after Hayden Fry, who was Gordy Bohannon's coach at Iowa.

"Bo from Iowa City" writes that it's a nice gesture.

But he can't believe Fry is turning 80 years of age.

"If John Hayden Fry is EIGHTY, you must be getting old too! At least you're on the Wall. Hayden is getting his name on a street!"

Bo was obviously referring to the media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box.

As for a street being named after Fry, he's joining some select company.

I mentioned to Bo that retired Iowa athletic director [and ex-Hawkeye assistant football coach and ex-Michigan head coach] Bump Elliott also has a street named after him.

"Elliott Drive, to be precise -- right in front of Carver Hawkeye Arena," Bo wrote. "You know, the place where 10,388 fans -- well, paid anyway -- were last night [for Iowa's 60-58 loss to Ohio State] Sheesh! If you win, they will come or some such!"

By the way, Bo says he hears there's "movement" to name the local landfill or sewage treatment plant after former Iowa basketball coach Steve Alford.

Somehow, I doubt they're thinking of naming any streets after Bob Commings, Frank Lauterbur, Ray Nagel or Dick Schultz in or around Iowa City.

And Bo ended his e-mail with this advice:

"Don't go fishing today, Ronnie."

Don't worry, Bo, I won't. Especially ice-fishing.

And one other thing, Bo. I'm not getting older.

*

A man who consistently does good newspaper work is Larry Peterson, sports editor of the Creston News Advertiser.

Peterson [pictured at the left], a man I've known for many years, sent me this e-mail:

"Forgot to pass along this column note I did on Russ Smith Friday, after an earlier reference to the death of John J. Harris, who directed one of the state's premier wrestling tournaments in the state in Corning since 1955. Strange week, also the death of 37-year-old Greg Haley last week was the fourth parent of a junior high BB player I've coached in the past two years.

"Ron, you fall in the category I speak of with Russ, because about a year later in my time in Atlantic, I decided to look you up in the Register office and 'talk shop.'"

From Peterson's column:

"It’s been a tough week for deaths of people in my life. I’ll get into more of that later.

"But the only reason I was competent at all in covering the first Corning tournament I attended in 1980 was the opportunity given to me a year earlier by Russ Smith, who died three days after the passing of Harris on Sunday.

"Smith was longtime sports editor at the Waterloo Courier, and one of the most accomplished writers in the sport of wrestling. One night while I was assisting at an Iowa wrestling meet as a Sports Information intern, Smith approached me and asked if I would be interested in being the Iowa City correspondent for the Courier. I would cover any home wrestling meets or basketball games that they couldn’t afford to send a regular staffer to cover.

"What a thrill. Dan Gable’s program was just taking off with the likes of Bruce Kinseth -- inducted into the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame last weekend -- and that was the famed Final Four basketball season under Lute Olson, with star guard Ronnie Lester in and out of the lineup with a knee injury.

"Smith was someone who opened a door for me. You never forget those people."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Good hearing from you, Larry. Keep up the outstanding work].

*

Speaking of Lute Olson, My West Coast Correspondent tells me the University of Arizona will be honoring him at a basketball game tomorrow night.

Olson coached at Arizona after leaving Iowa. He recently suffered a stroke and now has gone into permanent retirement. I think.

Normally, I would have made arrangements to be in Tucson tomorrow for the celebration honoring my good friend Lute. After all, I received a framed invitation to the event.

But it turns out the honoring of Olson interferes with a trip I had planned to Walgreen's in West Des Moines to buy vitamin B-12 pills, so I'll have to pass on being in Arizona.

*

I continue to have confidence in Todd Lickliter's coaching ability. I still say that once they get that new practice floor built at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the men's basketball team will start winning some games.

UNI's Jacobson Is a Class Act--A Half-Hour Before Big Game, He Called Jim Ecker To Say He Was 'Sick To His Stomach' the Gazette Veteran Had Been Fired

A week ago tonight, Ben Jacobson was preparing to coach one of the biggest basketball games of his life.

He was in Normal, Ill., for Northern Iowa's 7 p.m. game at Redbird Arena against Illinois State.

It was 6:30 p.m., and Jacobson [pictured at the right] made a telephone call to Jim Ecker [left], who had been fired 5 hours earlier after spending 27 years as a sportswriter at the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

That was the day people at the newspaper are describing as "Black Tuesday."

Fourteen or so newsroom people were among the casualties in a cutback at the Gazette Co.

As far as I was concerned, Ecker's dismissal was the most shocking.

*

Jacobson had been told that Ecker, who had covered most of Northern Iowa's games this season, wouldn't be in Normal for the very important late-February matchup with Illinois State.

So Jacobson took the time to call Ecker and tell him how sorry he was that Ecker was now without a sportswriting job.

Talk about a class act.

Ben Jacobson was a class act last Tuesday.

"I've only got a minute," Jacobson told Ecker when he reached him by phone. "I've got to get into the locker room.

"But I'm just sick to my stomach about what happened to you. My head is spinning and I can't believe it."

Jacobson became my coach of the year that night. Not only did his Northern Iowa team beat Illinois State, 69-67, in two overtimes, but he took the time to offer his best wishes to a fired sportswriter.

"Imagine that," a guy told me. "Ben Jacobson was calling Jim Ecker to cheer him up before one of the biggest basketball games of his life."

*

Ecker, 56, had been told he was fired shortly after 1 p.m. last Tuesday after going to the Gazette offices to get a company car for the trip to Normal.

With Ecker out of the picture, the Gazette wound up using an Associated Press story of Northern Iowa's victory in its Wednesday morning editions.

Jacobson's Panthers then climaxed a big week Saturday night by beating Evansville, 69-62, and wound up tying Creighton for the regular-season title in the Missouri Valley Conference.

*

Jacobson wasn't the only Northern Iowa coach or administrator to show concern over the firing of Ecker.

I'm told that football coach Mark Farley called Ecker when he was on his way back from the Missouri Valley Conference football meetings in St. Louis.

Athletic director Troy Dannen also telephoned Ecker. So did sports information director Josh Lehman.

All wondered if there anything they could do to help Ecker's situation.

And another thing.

Ecker has been a semi-regular on Gary Rima's radio show on KXEL of Waterloo this year.

Rima is Northern Iowa's play-by-play announcer, and he and Ecker hit it off well on the show.

Ecker had been scheduled to participate in the show before the game at Redbird Arena in Normal.

Rima had been told of Ecker's firing, and made sure Jim was on the show as scheduled -- even though he no longer had a sportswriting job.

*

I've spent several hours on the phone with Ecker since his firing, and I'll be writing much more about him when the time is right in the future. What's happening in the newspaper business these days is, of course, very sad -- not just in places like Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, but across the nation.

*

The first guy at the Des Moines Register who puts an attendance figure into one of his stories from the state girls' high school basketball tournament this week is my Sportswriter Of the Year.

Folks covering that tournament, as well as the upcoming boys' high school tournament, for some reason can't move themselves to tell readers how many people are in Wells Fargo Arena.

That's something a lot of readers want to know. And I'm among 'em.

Fans are as big a part of the state tournament as the players and coaches.

Indeed, I think the paper should run a table every day, listing the attendance at each session of the tournament.

If the reporters can't get the attendance figures from the people running the tournament, they should estimate the crowd numbers themselves.

*

On second thought -- after spending the 6 1/2 minutes required to read this morning's Register -- maybe Biz Buzz should report those basketball attendance figures. There's nothing else in it.

*

I'd like to make one thing perfectly clear right now.

I don't spend a hell of a lot of time watching TV shows like The Bachelor.

But I'd been hearing so much about that ABC show recently that I saw some of it last night.

The only reason I even clicked on channel 5 was because the Baylor-Texas basketball game on ESPN was so bad, and there wasn't anything decent to watch on the History channel.

Anyway, after seeing about an hour of The Bachelor, I won't be watching it -- or anything like it -- anytime again soon.

I think the whole deal is scripted, and everybody on the show knows how it's going to end.

I do not believe for one minute that every actor and actress wasn't made aware of what the clown playing the role of the bachelor was going to decide.

They've known it for months, and they made big money by keeping their mouths shut about it until the end.

The sad thing is that much of America is captivated by that kind of garbage on TV.

It's a sick world we live in, folks.

However, at least someone writing on Twitter last night put things in perspective.

"The bachelor should have been kicked in the balls," she wrote.

Good stuff.

*

I hope someone reminds me again today to not go fishing.

Kurt Kanaskie, Who Was Drake's Ticket To Division III, Maybe [Just Maybe] Can Get Into Big Dance With Penn State. For His Sake, I Hope He Makes It

This was seven or so years ago.

I was sitting in during one of Kurt Kanaskie's press conferences in the Paul Morrison Room at the Knapp Center, and I asked the beleaguered [hey, I couldn't help it, the guy was always beleaguered] coach a question.

It was something about whether he ever thought he'd get the Drake basketball program turned around.

Kanaskie, a nice enough guy, said words to the effect that, "Ron, can you see the back of my head? Do you see all the hair I've lost in the past few years? I've lost it because of the times we've been beaten while trying to rebuild this program."

After Drake finally did everyone [including Kanaskie] a favor and pulled the plug on him following a 10-20 season in 2002-2003, he had become the all-time losingest basketball coach since the university began an intercollegiate program in 1906.

He had a record of 62-136 from 1997 [when he was 2-26] and continuing through six more sub-.500 seasons.

He seemed to be Drake's quickest route to Division III, non-scholarship basketball. If the people in charge at the university would've let him continue coaching, they might as well have turned the Knapp Center into a community recreation center instead of a major-college arena.

The situation had almost reached the point where someone in town who wanted to see a basketball game could call the ticket office and ask, "What time does the game start tonight?" and be told, "What time can you be here?"

Finally, somebody saw the light of day over there. When they fired Kanaskie, I suggested they hire Tom Davis for the job to save the program. If they want to give me credit for then-athletic director Dave Blank bringing in the Little Doctor [which later led to Keno Davis, his son, taking over the job] to save the program, I'll take it.

Whatever, I'm glad -- for Kanaskie's sake, and Drake's -- that Kurt was canned and that he found a place on Ed DeChellis' coaching staff at Penn State, where he's been for six seasons.

[In the photo at the right, that's Kanaskie on the left and DeChellis on the right on the Penn State sideline; DeChellis has even less hair than Kanaskie].

Now Penn State is somehow in contention for the 65-team NCAA tournament, which will be starting before we know it.

This is the final week of the Big Ten's regular season, and here are DeCehellis, Kanaskie, the rest of the Nittany Lions' staff and the players sitting there with a 20-9 record overall and a 9-7 record in the conference.

DeChellis' job [and Kanaskie's, too] seemed to be hanging by a shoestring a few months ago. Penn State couldn't beat its way out of a cardboard box for several seasons, and it was hard to believe the school was going to put up with the present coaching staff much longer.

I was watching on TV the other day when Penn State barely escaped lowly Indiana, 61-58, at home, and there was Kanaskie in the final minutes of the game, doing what he could to rally the troops.

And there was the bald back of his head -- a reminder of all those miserable games at Drake and, yes, probably more than a few lousy games at Penn State, too.

The last time I saw Kanaskie in person was in early-February of 2004 when I was in Iowa City for a Penn State game against Iowa.

Don't ask me why I was in Iowa City for a Steve Alford game against Penn State. All I can think of is that everybody's gotta be somewhere.

I went into the locker room before the game and sought out Kanaskie.

I always got along pretty well with him, and he rarely minced words with me.

I can't recall now if I said, "Nice hair" or not.

"We're not very good," he told me.

Later, the Nittany Lions proved they were even worse than not very good.

Afterward, I wrote: "Iowa raced to a 39-15 lead en route to a 77-58 victory. The Nittany Lions were so bad that one guy wondered if maybe Joe Paterno was coaching them."

For Kanaskie's sake, I hope Penn State gets to the Big Dance. But I guess I'm not optimistic. There's never much reason to be optimistic about Nittany Lions basketball.

Even though Penn State has its first 20-victory since 2000-2001, the Nittany Lions' all-important RPI ranking is only 65. They'll probably need to beat Illinois at home Thursday night and win at Iowa on Saturday to stay in contention for the Dance.

I can't see that happening. Iowa isn't very good, but Penn State is certainly a team the Hawkeyes can beat. And Illinois is capable of winning at Happy Valley.

*

I see Curt Schilling [pictured at the left],who is a great baseball pitcher [all you have to do is ask him], says he wants to play for the Chicago Cubs or Tampa Bay sometime this season, preferably later in the summer.

On his blog, which I rarely read, Schilling wrote about his future, but not until he criticized reporters by saying they should use their tape recorders more often.

Schilling, of course, is an expert at telling other people how to do their jobs:

“'I’m not sure if I am coming back or not, but yes, I’d definitely be interested the Cubs, and in Tampa if I did.'"

Schilling then pointed out that quote somehow became this quote:

“'I’m definitely coming back and would play for the Cubs.'”

"I have said to no one, including myself, that I am definitely coming back, because it’s not true. However if I did, the Cubs, and Tampa, were they to need a starting pitcher for the 2nd half of the season and into October, would be 2 situations I’d be very interested in.

"Little ‘misquotes’ lead to news that really isn’t news. First off a team has to want you to make anything of this sort work. I love Joe Maddon, always have, and I’d play for Lou Pinella in a heartbeat.

"So I’ll be clear here. If I do feel I can be better than I was in 2007, and I do decide to come back, AND either of those teams is in the market for a starting pitcher (because let's face it, both teams have what could be outstanding rotations) I would DEFINITELY be interested in both. The Cubs present as much of a cool challenge for me as the Red Sox did in '04, and Tampa has a roster of guys I’d love to play with.

"Oh, and for what it’s worth, that’s not an all inclusive list, those were the teams mentioned. People asking about the Sox should understand they are always a potential but this team is stacked with starting pitchers, in addition to having 2 of the better October arms in the history of the game in Josh and Smoltz (and soon to be Lester after another huge year)."

Lots of baseball people think Schilling is washed-up. Piniella, of course, would like to have Schilling on his team.

Which is further proof that the Cubs occasionally look like an old-folks home.