Let’s hear it for Coe and Wartburg and Max Duggan and Kool-Aid McKinstry

Monday is Halloween, and it’s great.

Having little kids in costumes come to strangers’ doors for free candy while their parents stand smiling behind them in the shadows is truly a great American tradition. Enjoy every Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

Me, I’ll be at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the Truman State-Iowa men’s basketball game. But if my co-workers want to bring in leftover Reese’s and leave a few on my desk, I promise to accept graciously.

Now, for sporty stuff:

The best football game in Iowa Saturday was in Cedar Rapids. Coe College, typically formidable in football, defeated always-potent Central College, 37-31.

Central passed for 436 yards, but the Kohawks’ defense was at its best in the game’s last seven minutes.

Coe is 5-1 in the American Rivers Conference, Wartburg 6-0. The Knights and Kohawks finish the regular season with a game against each other at Coe on Nov. 12. Wartburg has outscored its eight opponents by a total of 355-38.

One of the funniest things in major-college sports has been hearing all the proclamations of the Big 12’s demise over the last decade.

The latest came last year when flagship members Texas and Oklahoma jumped to the Southeastern Conference, effective in 2025. Bye bye, Big 12, right?

Uh, no. The news broke Sunday that the league is about to sign a $2.28 billion media rights deal with ESPN and Fox. It isn’t Big Ten money, but it keeps the Big 12 at the big boys’ table.

Quick switch to basketball. If you find yourself drawn to the Sacramento Kings for the first time in your existence, you aren’t alone.

Iowa’s Keegan Murray is performing like an NBA veteran. A really good NBA veteran.

With four games under his belt, the Kings rookie is averaging 18.8 points and has never been below 16. He has made 53.9 percent of his field goal tries, and has hit at least three 3-pointers in every game.

This isn’t common, though the play of rookies around the league may seem to belie that.

Paolo Banchero, the No. 1 pick in 2022, was averaging 23.5 points and 8.3 rebounds through Saturday for Orlando. Bennedict Mathurin of Indiana averages 21 points, and scored 32 in a win over Brooklyn Saturday.

Jaden Ivey of Purdue, picked immediately after Murray at No. 5, is averaging 15.2 points and 4.4 assists for Detroit.

OK, more football. Do you realize if Illinois had kept Indiana out of the end zone with 23 seconds left in their Week 2 game that the Illini would be unbeaten?

Being No. 1 in the nation in scoring defense and total defense is a good thing.

Max Duggan, who has 22 touchdown passes and just two interceptions quarterbacking unbeaten TCU, is from Council Bluffs.

He is the answer to the question “Who is the most-famous person to ever come from Council Bluffs?”

Max Duggan. What a great name. Just like Illinois’ All America-to-be running back Chase Brown.

Purdue wide receiver Charlie Jones also has a great name, the name of someone who would have been an All-American 75 years ago.

But you can’t go wrong with Kool-Aid McKinstry, the Alabama player who leads the nation in punt-return average at 17.7 yards.

Kool-Aid was nicknamed that by his grandmother when he was a baby because she thought his smile resembled that of the Kool-Aid Man. Don’t all babies look like that?

Guess who signed Kool-Aid to an NIL deal last year? Kool-Aid!

Iowa no longer is last in total offense!

The Hawkeyes are up two spots to 129th after amassing 398 yards in their 33-13 win over Northwestern Saturday. They are fifth in scoring defense and total defense.

Next up is Saturday’s game at Purdue, which averages 444.6 yards per game. You may read a thing or two this week about Jones, an All-Big Ten player for Iowa last year. As a kick returner.

Jones has 72 catches for 840 yards and nine touchdowns. Only Iowa State’s Xavier Hutchinson has more receptions.

About Iowa State … The Cyclones are 11th in the nation in total defense, tied for seventh in scoring defense, and are 0-5 in the Big 12. That does not compute.

Remember when ESPN’s College GameDay was in Iowa a little less than 14 months ago because Iowa and Iowa State were both in the top 10? Well, we still have Wartburg.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com