Drake building a program with patience

IOWA CITY — When Ray Giacoletti took over at Drake three years ago, he had aspirations of turning the men's basketball program into a perennial Missouri Valley Conference contender. But he'd have to do it his way, and that takes time.

Giacoletti's recruiting approach was to draw a circle 300 miles around Des Moines and pick up skilled and intelligent players in metro markets like Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Kansas City. He also expanded his reach to include Europe.

'In today's world of college basketball, you don't get these opportunities very often to go back and truly do it the right way, without taking a bunch of junior-college players or transfers,' Giacoletti told The Gazette this summer. 'To do it with high school players. The two transfers we have are fits, so it was an easy decision to make.

'In today's world of football and basketball of winning at all costs, that's not the way we do things at Drake. The institution has really understood that if you want to build something and sustain success, you've got to be able to do it with high school kids and guys who are going to be there for four years. We took our lumps last year, and I think you'll see a big improvement with this program this year.'

Drake (4-6) has taken steps forward this year after a tough 9-22 season last year. The Bulldogs have beaten Pepperdine and Western Kentucky and lost close games to Tulane, DePaul and Nevada. As Drake enters its game Saturday against Iowa (7-3) as part of the Big 4 Classic at Des Moines' Wells Fargo Arena (3:30 p.m.), the upgrade is obvious.

'They've continued to improve; they run good stuff,' Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. '(Giacoletti has) three very talented scorers. He's got a couple big kids that are impressive. He's got some athletes on the wing, so you can see him kind of putting it together piece by piece. He plays 11 guys, so he's had some really good recruits.

'It's a team that's been impressive. They had a tough overtime loss at Tulane, a game that they played tremendously well in, and then an overtime win over Western Kentucky, a big-time win in a tournament situation. This is a team that has really impressed me on film. But I'm not surprised. I have a lot of respect for Ray and his body of work, and you're seeing it come to fruition.'

Sophomore guard Reed Timmer (6-foot-1) put together an impressive freshman season last year. In Drake's final 10 games, Timmer averaged 15.6 points and he was one of 15 freshmen nationally to average more than 11 points and 2.5 assists a game. This year, Timmer leads the Bulldogs with 19.0 points a game. He scored in double digits in every game, including 30 against DePaul.

Timmer, who comes from New Berlin, Wis., isn't alone. Big Ten transfers Kale Abrahamson (Northwestern), a forward, and guard Graham Woodward (Penn State) average 16.8 and 12.1 points a game, respectively. Woodward, a Twin Cities native, leads Drake in assists. Abrahamson (6-8), a star at West Des Moines Valley, scored 41 points against Western Kentucky, the most by a Drake player since Lewis Lloyd in 1981.

'(Timmer is) terrific, but I think what makes him so good is Abrahamson and Woodward are equally talented,' McCaffery said. 'Offensively, they can all get their own. They run stuff for them. (Giacoletti) does a really good job of going to them and mixing it up.'

Drake also boasts physical players in the post with Dominik Olejniczak and Jacob Enevold, who hail from Poland and Denmark, respectively. They each stand 7 feet tall and combine for 9.1 points and 10.7 rebounds a game.

'Olejniczak and Enevold have really stepped up their game,' McCaffery said. 'I mean, that's a game changer when you have two 7-footers who can play with those scorers, and then you've got your athletes on the wing that can do some things.'

l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com