By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Under normal circumstances, which means without Tom Davis, Keno Davis and Todd Lickliter being involved, the men’s basketball rivalry between Iowa and Drake has been as one-sided as a political rally.

Iowa holds a 58-10 advantage in the series and has won 32 of the last 35 meetings.

Drake won three games in a row from 2006 to 2008 during the father-and-son era with Tom and Keno Davis, but Iowa has won the last five games in the series, with the last two victories coming as part of the Big Four Classic at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

The teams will meet again on Saturday in the Big Four Classic, but the outcome hardly seems to be a foregone conclusion.

There have been times in this rivalry when Iowa stood little chance of losing if it just avoided having a major stinker.

But this isn’t one of those times, at least on paper.

Iowa, with records of 5-6 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten, has shown nothing to suggest that it is vastly superior to 5-5 Drake on a neutral site.

Iowa is fortunate that Saturday’s game won’t be played at the Knapp Center on the Drake campus because there is no home-court advantage at Wells Fargo Arena.

Drake is no world beater, but is dangerous under first-year coach Niko Medved, thanks largely to having several accomplished 3-point shooters.

The Bulldogs spread the floor and perform concise and well-timed cuts and screens in order to create space for perimeter shooters. They made 12 treys against Minnesota on Monday and nearly pulled off an upset, losing 68-67 at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

Senior guard Reed Timmer is capable of going off if he gets into a rhythm and has space to shoot. He leads four Drake players who average in double figures in scoring at 20.7 points per game.

The 6-foot-1 Timmer is one of four senior starters for Drake, along with 6-0 Graham Woodward, 6-2, De’Antae Murray and 6-2 C.J. Rivers.

Woodward is a fifth-year senior who started his career at Penn State before transferring to Drake.

“You look at their lineup, the guys that are playing, they're all seniors, fifth-year seniors, and they're just not mistake guys,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. “Timmer is really good. But all those other guys, seems like 100 years ago we played against Woodward at Penn State. He was a good player then, I thought. I've always liked his game. I thought he was solid.”

Iowa will be flirting with disaster if it continues to turn the ball over and struggles on defense because Drake has enough talent and experience on the perimeter to exploit a subpar effort.

Iowa had 18 turnovers in each of the three consecutive losses to Penn State,Indiana and Iowa State and has allowed at least 77 points in seven of the last eight games, six of which have been losses.

But on the other hand, Drake will be in serious trouble if it allows Iowa’s size to dictate things near the basket.

Drake’s tallest starter is 6-8 forward Nick McGlynn, while Iowa has 10 players who are listed at 6-7 or taller.

However, one of those players, 6-8 sophomore forward Cordell Pemsl, is questionable for Saturday’s game and will be a game-time decision.

Pemsl suffered a deep laceration on his right shin that required three layers of stitches from crashing into a folding chair as he attempted to grab a loose ball in Iowa’s 84-78 loss against Iowa State on Dec. 7 at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

Iowa has enough frontline depth to make up for Pemsl’s loss, but he was playing well against the Cyclones when the injury occurred, with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Sophomore point guard Jordan Bohannon could be a key factor on Saturday because of his ability to shoot from 3-point range. The same rules that apply to Iowa when defending against Drake also apply to the Bulldogs when defending against Bohannon.

He is much like Timmer in that he also can get on a roll as a preimeter shooter. Bohannon leads Iowa with 31 3-point baskets and is shooting 45.6 percent from 3-point range.

Most of Bohannon's problems have been on defense where he has struggled to stop the ball at the point of attack. 

"They have a really good guard in Reed Timmer, so we're going to have our hands full trying to contain them," Bohannon said.

The best-case scenario for Iowa would be to dominate in the paint early in the game because that would help to create space on the perimeter for Bohannon and for the other perimeter shooters on the team. A strong inside game also could lead to foul problems for the undersized Bulldogs.

As for Drake, its best chance for a rare victory in the series would be to drain a bunch of 3-pointers to help offset Iowa’s height advantage.

The 3-point shot can be the great equalizer, and that’s what Iowa will have to guard against on Saturday.

 

Iowa vs. Drake

What: Big Four Classic

When:  1:04 p.m., Saturday

Where: Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines

TV: Big Ten Network

Game two: Iowa State and Northern Iowa will meet in the second game.