Game Notes
The Drake Bulldogs may have been picked to finish ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball race, but the Bulldogs are getting the last laugh. They're 21-1, winners of 20 straight games, and their next opponent is the University of Evansville. Game time Saturday at Des Moines, Iowa is 7:05 CST. The game can be heard on the UE Radio Network.
AN AMAZING SEASON
A 21-1 record creates a remarkable season for any team, especially for a Drake program with only one winning season (17-15 last season)?in the past 20 years. The Bulldogs are 21-1 overall and 12-0 in the MVC despite being picked in October by MVC coaches, media and sports information directors to finish ninth among the 10 teams. Drake has won 20 in a row, and is ranked 15th nationally in the latest AP and ESPN polls. UE’s most recent win over a team ranked that high was in 2002-03, over #9 Creighton 74-66. All of Drake’s last seven victories have come by 10 points or less.
ACES ALMOST BEAT THE BULLDOGS
Drake needed a crucial bucket in the last minute to beat the Aces on Jan. 6 at Roberts Stadium, 71-68. The Aces were within three in the final minute, but Jonathan Cox hit a three-pointer with 23 seconds remaining to give the Bulldogs a 71-65 lead and seal the win. Cox had 19, and Adam Emmenecker totaled 10 points and 10 assists for Drake. Jason Holsinger (20), Clint Hopf (12) and Victor Gomez (11) led the Aces in scoring.
THE SERIES
Evansville still has a 15-13 lead over the Bulldogs in a series that began in 1994-95. Evansville has won two of the last five games against Drake--at Des Moines on Feb. 11, 2006 by the score of 69-68, and the next season at Roberts Stadium, on Dec. 28, 2006, by the score of 78-57.
BACK TO IOWA
Evansville first-year coach Marty Simmons is making his second trip this season to Iowa, a state he knows well. His first head coaching position was in Waverly, Iowa at Division III?Wartburg College in 1996-97.
MOST IMPROVED MVC PLAYER?
Junior forward Shy Ely has built the numbers to make him a candidate for the MVC Most Improved Team. He’s averaging 14.0 points and an even better 15.1 in the 12 MVC games. Ely is also the Aces’ co-leader in rebounding at 5.5. Last season, he averaged 6.9 points and 2.9 rebounds. Ely has scored at least 13 points in each of the last eight MVC games.
ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA FINALIST JASON HOLSINGER
Jason Holsinger is a member of the ESPN The Magazine / Academic All-District 5 men's basketball team. All-District selections are the finalists for the ESPN The Magazine / CoSIDA Academic All-America Team, which will be chosen later this month. Holsinger has a 3.86 grade point average, and a double major of Social Studies Education and Economics. Holsinger is averaging 13.3 points and 4.5 assists, and ranks among the MVC top five in five categories. He’s first in minutes played (35.64), third in 3-point field goals per game (2.68), fourth in both 3-point field goal percentage (.457) and assists (4.5), and fifth in free throw percentage (.823). Last week, Holsinger became the 42nd player in UE history to reach 1,000 career points.
THE ACES NEEDED THAT
Rewards for hard work have come infrequently for the Aces, but they got one Wednesday. Despite missing 15 of their first 16 shots, and trailing 31-20 at halftime, UE beat Wichita State 64-56 thanks to a 44-point second half. The Aces’ Shy Ely led all scorers with 18. Ely, Jason Holsinger and Nate Garner helped spark a 23-2 run midway through the second half.
COACH MARTY SIMMONS
Evansville’s Dec. 5 victory over Princeton was the 100th in first-year coach Marty Simmons’ career. Simmons goes into the Drake game with a career record of 105-87. He was head coach one year at Wartburg (Iowa) College and five years at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, compiling a record of 98-73 in those six years. Simmons played two years at UE after transferring from Indiana University, and led the Aces to a conference championship in 1987 and the second round of the NIT in 1988, when he was the nation’s sixth leading scorer at 25.9. He was an assistant coach at UE for 11 years under head coach Jim Crews, and helped lead UE to three NCAA Tournaments (1992, 1993, 1999) and one NIT (1994).
