Wednesday, January 24, 2018 7:00 p.m.
Knapp Center, Des Moines, Iowa
Very few NCAA Division I men’s basketball players have gone through the tribulations the seniors on the Drake men’s basketball team have seen. Four freshmen and a transfer arrived on campus in 2014-15 as part of then-Coach Ray Giacoletti’s first full recruiting class, and miraculously, all five are still at Drake. They’ve seen good players transfer out, like 7’0” center Dominick Olejniczak (now starting at Ole Miss), and Billy Wampler (now sitting out a transfer year at Wright State). They’ve seen three head coaches in the past two years, and five different assistants. They’ve had injuries, they’ve had players mis-used, and cycled back and forth from the starting lineup to the bench. They’ve gone through an unknown number of offensive and defensive philosophies plugged in and swapped out often. And those five players from 2014-15 endured 70 losses against only 20 Division 1 wins coming into this season.
The Bulldogs, under new Head Coach Nico Medved, were picked to finish last yet again in the 2017-18 MVC men’s basketball preseason poll, but one of the grizzled seniors, 6’1” guard Reed Timmer, was named to the MVC First Team. Right from the get-go, the five long-suffering Drake seniors (and some newer players, too) have responded under Coach Medved. They beat Wake Forest in their first D1 game of the season, rather fittingly in a tournament that was moved from the Virgin Islands to Lynchburg, Virginia. From there, the Bulldogs fought hard against a much tougher than usual non-conference schedule– they led for much of the game and lost by one point at Minnesota, played well against Colorado, and notched a few easy wins against lower quality teams.
By the time the conference season began, the Bulldogs had acquired some confidence and swagger. Coach Medved had discovered their abilities and refined the game planning. Although Timmer was still the primary scorer, Drake learned how to win with depth and experience. Four different players have led the team in scoring in their six conference wins, and three different players have led in rebounds. Drake and Loyola are the only two teams in the league with four players averaging double-figure points per game, and the two teams are tied for first place.
The Bulldogs use a starting lineup of 6’8” junior forward Nick McGlynn and four guards: 6’1” senior Reed Timmer, 6’2” senior C.J. Rivers, 6’3” senior Ore Arogundade, and 6’2” senior De’Antae McMurray. McGlynn is easily the most improved player on the roster, averaging 11.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, second on the team in both categories. He’s had four double-doubles on the season (one rebound away from a fifth against Evansville), and since conference play began he is averaging 13.3 points and 6.6 boards. He’s got 26 blocks on the season, which is more than half of the team total.
The guards are led by leading scorer Reed Timmer, who has fashioned himself into a leader who fully maximizes his physical abilities. Timmer is averaging 18.4 points per game, and while he’s always been thought of a free shooter, this season he’s shooting a career high in overall field goal percentage (46.4%) and three-point percentage (45%), with more than half of his shots coming from behind the arc for the first time. He is one of the league’s best free throw shooters at 89.2%, and he gets there a lot—he’s tied for 30th in the nation in free throw attempts. Timmer is only 53 points away from setting a new career points record at Drake, which is a pretty big deal.
De’Antae McMurray is also a senior, but joined the team as a juco transfer two years ago. He’s averaging 11.1 points, and ranks second in steals. McMurray doesn’t shoot very well on average (a tick under 40% on field goals), but when he gets hot he can go off for big numbers—he had 19 against Colorado, 23 against Drexel, and 25 points on 9 of 13 shooting at Indiana State.
Senior C.J. Rivers arrived at Drake as a somewhat traditional shooting guard, but Coach Medved has him doing what he does best—ball handling, passing and rebounding. He finally seems to have found his niche, leading the Bulldogs in assists (3.4 per game), steals (1.2) and rebounds (5.9), and adding 5.4 points per game with very judicious shot selection. Ore Arogundade was recruited by the Ramblers from North Chicago, but joined Giacoletti’s 2014-15 recruiting class at Drake. He’s gone back and forth this season from starter to sixth man, and did not start the last game against Missouri State. He is a good ball handler and rebounder, adept at disrupting passes, finishes well at the basket on a break, and has very long strides. He’s averaging 7.0 points, with most of his buckets coming from three-pointers.
The bench players are led by the Penn State transfer who joined Drake in 2014-15, Graham Woodward. The 6’2” senior guard averages 10.0 points coming off the bench, and ranks second on the team in made threes and connects at a 42.9% clip. Six-ten junior forward Casey Schlatter averages 4.6 points and 3.4 rebounds while giving McGlynn some breathers. Noah Thomas, a 6’2” freshman guard from Australia provides some speed and an impressive vertical; he’s been getting more court time recently and averages 4.0 points. Another freshman, 6’3” guard Jalen Gibbs averages 3.3 points per game. And the last 2014-15 survivor is Kory Kuenstling, a 6’11” junior forward who lost the 2015-16 season to injury and plays minimal minutes.
Since conference play began, Drake is 4-0 in games where they’ve out-rebounded the competition, but they’re 2-2 when opponents win the backboards. In Drake’s wins throughout the season, forward Nick McGlynn averages 6.7 rebounds, but only 3.7 rebounds in Drake losses.
Drake leads the MVC in free throw percentage on the season, and since conference play began they’ve taken 40 more free throw attempts than their conference opponents—but they’ve only outscored their opponents by a total of 21 points in conference play. In their six conference wins, Drake averages 20.5 trips to the free throw line, and they average 8 free throw attempts in their two conference losses. Keeping the Bulldogs off the free throw line is one of the best ways to beat them.
The Bulldogs are 8-0 on the season at home, which is more wins at home in the first 2/3 of the season than they had all of last season—plus they’ve picked up two neutral site wins and two roadies. Loyola has lost their last two games in Des Moines, one to end the conference season in 2015-16, and one to begin the conference season in 2016-17.
Sixty-six is the magic number against Drake. When the Bulldogs score 66 points or more they’re 11-5, and when they score less than 66 they’re 1-4. Meanwhile, Loyola has yet to give up 66 points in conference play, and averages 59.9 points per game in scoring defense. The Ramblers are looking to match their longest conference winning streak since 2006-07, and are working on a three-game road winning streak. The last Loyola three game road winning streak was broken on Feb. 27, 2016 when Drake beat the Ramblers 69-59 in Des Moines.
Loyola game notes: http://www.loyolaramblers.com/documents … df?id=4815
Drake game notes: Pending
TV/Streaming video: ESPN3 / http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3245178/ … basketball
Stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/drake/mbball/
Vegas odds: Pending
