Drake Men Host Southern Illinois on Senior Night

By Paul Kirk, Drake Athletics Communications Director

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Drake Bulldogs (15-13, 8-8 in the MVC) enter the final week of Missouri Valley Conference regular season play this week with a home game vs. Southern Illinois (8-20, 5-11) Wednesday for Senior Night followed by a trip to Wichita State Saturday. Kurt Alexander, Cory Parker, Greg Whitaker and Kraidon Woods will be recognized in a pregame ceremony before their final scheduled home game as Bulldogs. Drake is tied for fourth place in the MVC and seeks its first winning conference record since 2007-08, and just its second since 1985-86. The Bulldogs have won 15 of their last 18 contests on Ron Pearson Court at the Knapp Center. Wednesday’s game will be preceded by a 4:30 p.m. ceremony in front of the Knapp Center to official unveil the renaming of Forest Avenue between 25th and 31st Streets “Paul F. Morrison Way,” as part of “Paul Morrison Day” in Des Moines.

RADIO/TV: All games can be heard on AM 1350 KRNT in Des Moines, with Larry Cotlar on play-by-play and Dolph Pulliam as analyst. The game vs. Southern Illinois will be televised across the state of Iowa by Mediacom on MC22 with play-by-play announcer Larry Morgan joined by former Drake star guard Adam Emmenecker, in his first year as color commentator. Emmenecker earned honorable mention AP All-America honors and was named the Larry Bird Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year in 2007-08 when he led Drake to the MVC title and a trip to the NCAA tournament. The game at Wichita State will be televised by FOX Sports Midwest with Tom Ackerman handling play-by-play and Mac McCausland providing color commentary.

TOP NOTES:
· Saturday’s game was the 2,500th in the 106-year history of Drake’s men’s basketball program. The Bulldogs have an all-time record of 1,146-1,354 (.458).
· With 15 wins the Bulldogs have achieved the second-highest win total in head coach Mark Phelps’ four years at Drake, with a chance to record the most wins in his tenure. Phelps’ first team in 2008-09 finished 17-16.
· Drake is 8-8 in the Missouri Valley Conference, assuring the Bulldogs of their best league record in Mark Phelps’ four-year tenure as head coach, with two conference games remaining. His first three teams each finished 7-11 in the Valley. Only once in the past 25 seasons has Drake finished above .500 against conference foes (2007-08; 15-3).
· With 59 career wins at this stage of Year Four, head coach Mark Phelps already has more wins than any Drake coach in his first four seasons (2nd: Maury John, 55, 1958-62). No Drake head coach since Maury John (.555 from 1958-62) has had a better winning percentage in his first four seasons than Phelps (.472).
· Drake boasts two of the top four scorers in the Valley, with Rayvonte Rice third at 16.4 points per game and Ben Simons fourth at 16.1. No other school has two players in the conference’s top 8.
· Drake ranks second in the MVC in three-point field-goal percentage defense (.326) and third in steals (7.0).
· Sophomore Rayvonte Rice is No. 101 in the nation in scoring (16.4) and No. 31 in the nation in steals (2.1; No. 1 MVC). He is averaging 2.5 steals per game in MVC-only games and tied his career high with five at Southern Illinois (1/18). He also had five at Creighton (1/3).

NOTABLE THIS WEEK:
· Rayvonte Rice’s 16.4-point scoring average is on pace to be the best by a Bulldog in 10 seasons (Luke McDonald, 17.9, 2000-01). The next highest averages in recent history are 18.1 by Lynnrick Rogers in 1994-95 and 21.1 by Curt Smith in 1992-93.
· Rice is one of 10 Missouri Valley Conference players on the Watch List for the 2012 Larry Bird Player of the Year Trophy. He was named National High-Major Player of the Week by College Sports Madness for games of Jan. 23-29.
· Drake is 14-2 when shooting a higher percentage than its opponent.
· The Bulldogs have not allowed an opponent to shoot higher than 50 percent from the field in any of its last 13 outings. Opponents in this stretch are shooting a combined 41.4 percent (291-703), including a figure of 38.1 percent over the last four games (82-of-215). In addition, those four opponents have combined to shoot 28-of-118 (.237) from three-point range.
· This 13-game stretch follows a period in which Drake allowed six opponents over an 11-game span to top 50-percent shooting before tightening up on the defensive end.
· Junior Jordan Clarke ranks eighth in the MVC in rebounds with a team-leading average of 6.8 and sixth in steals (1.3). Clarke has 34 rebounds in the last three games (11.3 rpg). He had his third double-double of the season on Feb. 12 vs. Evansville with a career-high 18 points and 12 rebounds.
· Junior Aaron Hawley has made 16 three pointers in the last five games (3.2) starting in place of the ill Ben Simons. Three times he has made a career-high four three-pointers in this five-game stretch (vs. Missouri State, 2/4; at Illinois State, 2/8 & at New Mexico State, 2/18).
· Senior Kraidon Woods ranks fourth in the MVC in blocked shots (1.2; 34) and third also in conference-only games (1.4; 23). His 59 career blocks rank eighth among active Valley players. Woods tied his career high with four blocks and set a career high with four steals vs. Wichita State (1/28/12).
· Woods’ .649 career field-goal percentage ranks second among active players in the Missouri Valley Conference with at least 10 attempts (85-131).
· The Bulldogs are the last team to defeat first-place Wichita State (Jan. 28), which is No. 15 in the RPI rankings, and the Bulldogs own a win over No. 40 RPI Iowa State.
· The Missouri Valley Conference is No. 8 in the NCAA’s latest RPI rankings, with two teams in the top 30 and a combined 14 Top 50 wins, including two by Drake—over No. 15 Wichita State and No. 40 Iowa State. The MVC’s 14 Top 50 wins are third-most of any conference. Six of the Bulldogs’ MVC losses have come at the hands of No. 28 Creighton (twice), No. 64 Northern Iowa (twice) and No. 94 Missouri State (twice). Drake is No. 131.
· Junior Ben Simons is out indefinitely after missing the first four games of his career over the past two weeks because of mononucleosis. He has topped the 20-point mark four times in his last eight games played and leads the MVC in three-point field goals (57), while ranking No. 72 in the nation in three-point field goals per game (2.5). Simons ranks sixth among active MVC players in career three-pointers (136).
· Mark Phelps picked up the first two overtime victories of his career in a span of 11 days in January after dropping the first three overtime games of his career from 2008-11. The first win came Jan. 18 at Southern Illinois, a 75-68 victory in a single overtime session. The second came Jan. 28 in triple overtime against Wichita State, 93-86.

LAST OUTING: New Mexico State senior Wendell McKines scored 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds on Feb. 18 to lead the Aggies to a 71-55 victory over visiting Drake in a BracketBusters matchup at the Pan American Center. McKines, the leading scorer and rebounder in the WAC, set the tone from the start in handing Drake the non-conference loss. Sophomore Rayvonte Rice led Drake with 18 points and pulled down five rebounds. Junior Aaron Hawley added 14 points and tied for the team lead with six rebounds. He tied his career high with four three-pointers, and has made 16 in the five games he has started in place of the ill Ben Simons (mononucleosis). New Mexico State, ranked 23rd in the nation in scoring at 77.7 points per game and 14th in rebounding at 39.6 per game, outrebounded Drake 40-31. Drake shot just 34 percent from the field (18-for-53), while New Mexico State shot 48 percent (24-50), the highest by an opponent since Creighton shot 50 percent on January 25. The Bulldogs were 7-of 22 from three-point range (32 percent), while the Aggies shot 7-of-13 (54 percent) from three.

ABOUT THE SALUKIS: Southern Illinois enters Wednesday’s game 8-20 overall, 5-11 and in ninth place in the MVC. Leading scorer and rebounder Mamadou Seck averages 12.9 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, the latter ranking fourth in the MVC. Dantiel Daniels is the No. 1 shot-blocker in the conference at 1.7 per game. The Salukis rank second in the MVC in both blocked shots (3.5) and steals (7.7), and lead the MVC in offensive rebounds (11.9).

BULLDOGS-SALUKIS SERIES: Southern Illinois leads the all-time series 51-27, though Drake has won six in a row and eight of the past 10. The Salukis own a slim 19-18 advantage in games played in Des Moines. The Bulldogs have won two in a row at home vs. Southern Illinois.

THE LAST TIME (Drake 75, at Southern Illinois 68; OT): Drake won its fourth consecutive game, and second in a row on the road, 75-68 in overtime on Jan. 18, 2012 at Southern Illinois. Junior Ben Simons led the team with 20 points, and the Bulldogs got 18 points from sophomore Rayvonte Rice and 16 off the bench from Aaron Hawley. Drake claimed its sixth win in a row over the Salukis, and fourth consecutive at SIU Arena. It was Simons’ third 20-point game in the last four outings. Rice, who had just two points at halftime after sitting for 10 minutes with two fouls, scored nine points in the second half and seven in the overtime session after it was tied 63-63 at the end of regulation. The overtime was Drake’s first since Jan. 30, 2011 at Illinois State (L), and it was the Bulldogs’ first overtime win since Jan. 22, 2008 at Creighton, 68-60. The game was tied 14 times and the lead changed 18 times.