Timm, Paige top all-area boys' basketball team

Ed Timm won a lot of basketball games as a college head coach, but nothing beat the victory he picked up two weeks ago. Nothing.

Timm saw his Mount Vernon Mustangs rally unexpectedly from 15 points down in the third quarter to edge Fort Dodge St. Edmond for the Class 2A state championship in Des Moines. To top off this miracle, his son, Jake, was the Mustangs' point guard and hit some clutch free throws down the stretch.

What a magical run for the school, which won a state title for the first time since 1973. Just think, the guy in charge took the alleged step down to the high-school level after spending time in the Iowa Conference at Buena Vista and Cornell.

"It's a lot different because I've been able to be around these kids every day," said Timm, also a teacher at Mount Vernon. "When you're in college, there's the season, but you can't really be around the kids in the offseason. Here you spend so much time with them, see them every day, get to know them. That's been the best part."

Timm has been named The Gazette-KCRG area boys' basketball co-coach of the year, sharing the honor with Iowa City West's Steve Bergman. Bergy's Trojans won the Class 4A state championship.

Granted, he may have had a ton of talent, with all-area players Dondre Alexander and Jeremy Morgan, but Bergman was able to build a group that featured primarily underclassmen and finished 26-0.

"That's why we were good. Jeremy, Dondre ... Pick your poison," Bergman said. "As long as guys buy into that, and they did. When it's not their night, they don't force. They don't mope about it.

"I'd been hearing forever, when those freshmen are seniors, you're going to win state. But I found out a year or two ago, they're not patient people. They got 'er done this year."

As you may have expected, Linn-Mar's Marcus Paige is the area player of the year. The North Carolina signee and 2012 Iowa Mr. Basketball led the state in scoring and is the Metro's all-time leading career scorer.

Paige had a pair of legendary games this season, dropping 46 points on Cedar Rapids Prairie midseason and scoring 49 in an amazing double-overtime win over Cedar Rapids Kennedy in a 4A substate final. That included his scoring seven points in the final 15 seconds of regulation to tie the game and send it to extra time.

"In terms of my career as a whole, I couldn't be happier," said Paige, who led Linn-Mar to state tournament finishes of first, second, third and fourth in his amazing four-year career. "Having one season with a state championship and being with these guys, a different group, a young group, and going as far as we did this year, I couldn't be happier.”

Joining Paige, Morgan, Alexander and Jake Timm on the all-area team are Dubuque Senior junior forward Josh Weeber, Cedar Rapids Jefferson senior guard Taylor Olson, Waverly-Shell Rock junior forward Klinton Carlson, Cedar Falls senior guard James Harrington, North Cedar swingman Jordan Hay and Western Dubuque junior guard T.J. Lake.

All of the above mentioned players were named first-team all-state by the Iowa Newspaper Association, with the exception of Olson, a second-team pick in 4A.