November wrapped up with a whirlwind of twists and turns for the women’s and men’s basketball programs at Drake University and has left fans around the globe ready for what December has to offer on the court.
The men’s program saw a 2-1 record from Nov. 19 to Thanksgiving break with a win at home against Buena Vista University 98-52 before heading to Destin, Florida, for the Emerald Coast Classic. Drake had never been invited to the tournament before, and the Bulldogs had their hands full with two powerhouse teams, the Louisiana State University Tigers and Georgia Institute of Technology.
Georgia Tech lost to DePaul University in the first round of the tournament, which meant the Bulldogs would still have to play against either team, whether in the consolation bracket or the finals.
In the Bulldogs’ first round, they battled brutally against the Tigers in hopes of putting on a good show against a team they had only played twice in program history. Drake lost 71-62 to the Tigers, but still had one more game to play before heading home to Des Moines.
“I’m not into moral victories at the end of the day,” Drake head coach Eric Henderson said. “Did we do some nice things? Certainly. And the thing that I take away most is we can grow from this. We fought for 40 minutes, I thought, especially in the first half. [LSU] got us a little bit in the second half. They only had one offensive rebound in the first half, and we just fought like crazy. There’s things to take away that are positive, but we’re going to continue to grow. I promise you that.”
The team then took on Georgia Tech in a battle that ended with an 84-74 Bulldog win over the Atlantic Coast Conference powerhouse. This win propelled the men’s team to 5-3 and will play a fundamental role in how the Bulldogs approach training and gameplay going forward.
“To be able to come back and respond and to play with the composure that we did, I was so proud of,” Henderson said. “Obviously, Jalen [Quinn] was great. Okku [Federiko] got us going with a terrific start, and Andrew [Alia], defensively, I thought was terrific on the Craft kid, so it was a total team effort, and I’m really happy with how our guys were able to respond.”
The women’s team took on Iowa State University, the University of Arkansas and Northern Kentucky University in some of the Bulldogs’ hardest competition yet this season. Drake hosted ISU Nov. 20 in the Knapp Center in a hard battle to the end. Although the Bulldogs lost 87-60, the team learned more about its communication and skills going into the Music City Classic over the Thanksgiving break.
On Nov. 25, the team took on Arkansas in Nashville, Tennessee, in a nail-biter. The team only lost 79-72 after four quarters of gameplay, with all hands on deck going into the rest of the tournament.
“I was pleased with the second half effort for sure,” Pohlman said. “We played a team today that pressured us a little bit more, got in our space a little more, and we didn’t handle that very well. I know those are growth pieces, and we’ll look back in January or February and be thankful for these opportunities, but we all really want to figure things out.”
The Bulldogs faced another hard 90-69 loss against NKU on Nov. 26 to finish out the holiday. Although this did not end the way Drake may have hoped, it gave the team lessons to work on back in Des Moines and more playing experience against a tough season opening schedule.
“We’ve got to be able to play 40 full minutes,” Pohlman said. “We’ve put together some great quarters, scored 30 in the fourth quarter and were able to sustain some things early, but then we just have these lulls. We have a lot of maturing and growing up to do … not sure if it’s our readiness or our preparation. Every game we’re talking about different players contributing … we’ve had some notable individual efforts, but just have to get back to a collective consistency to put it all together.”
Both teams will return to Des Moines the first week of December before taking on Lindenwood University on Dec. 3 on the women’s side and Western Illinois University on Dec. 2 for the men’s team.
