Perennial loser Drake is one of game’s biggest winners

DES MOINES, Iowa | The highest compliment comes from the person most qualified to sing Drake’s praises.

“They way they’re playing,” Willie McCarter said, “reminds me of the way we played.”

With every victory — 21 straight after Saturday’s filing away of Evansville — these amazing Bulldogs grow closer to the greatest team in school history. In 1969, Drake and its star player McCarter threw a major scare into Lew Alcindor’s final team at UCLA, losing by three in a national semifinal.

“We were great competitors who never thought we were ever out of any game,” said McCarter, the Bulldogs’ leading scorer that season. “That attitude carried us a long way. I see that with this team.”

McCarter also sees winning on a scale that hasn’t happened since his era. No. 15 Drake stands 22-1 and one victory away from clinching its first Missouri Valley Conference championship in 37 years. The Bulldogs join Memphis, Kansas and Duke as the nation’s teams with one or fewer losses.

What separates Drake from the power programs is where it stood in the preseason. The Tigers, Jayhawks and Blue Devils took their familiar positions in the polls.

The Bulldogs were picked to finish ninth … in their 10-team conference.

Drake knew better. But this?

“I was pretty confident, knowing what we had coming back, that we’d be better than a ninth-place team,” point guard Adam Emmenecker said. “I’m not sure I expected this.”

Nobody did. Not first-year coach Keno Davis, who followed his father Tom Davis in a succession plan that didn’t generate as much attention as the Texas Tech Knights or Oklahoma State Suttons.

But it sure hit the jackpot. Keno Davis, on his way to becoming one of the most successful first-year coaches in college basketball history, still has to occasionally pinch himself.

“I wake up every morning and wonder how we’ve been able to continue this,” he said.

The simple answer is a team chemistry some coaches only dream of. It’s the product of an eclectic collection of talent playing an unorthodox style. It’s allowed them to win eight straight games before Evansville in which they trailed at some point in the second half.

In other words, down is up. Just like the team.

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In a typical offensive set, the Bulldogs spread the floor with Emmenecker at the controls. The possession usually ends with a drive and kick out to a shooter open for a three-point attempt.

The unique aspect of this is that Drake’s best shooter, statistically, is center Jonathan “Bucky” Cox, who at 6 feet 8 is the Bulldogs’ tallest starter.

Cox buries a conference-leading 50 percent from behind the three-point line. Against Evansville, Cox launched a deep attempt from in front of his team’s bench with a defender his size draped all over him as the shot clock was expiring.

Swish.

“They really stretch you out,” Evansville coach Marty Simmons said.

So much so that Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich likened the Bulldogs’ approach to a European team that has shooting deftness from many of its big men.

In style, yes. But in many ways Drake is the quintessential American rags-to-riches story, a group of players largely ignored not only by bigger schools but also by similar-sized schools.

Cox spent his first three seasons as a nonscholarship player. So did Emmenecker, a senior who wasn’t put on athletic aid until a week before this school year. He leads the Valley in assists at 5.9 and in majors at four.

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To reach Blair Kerkhoff, college sports reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4730 or send e-mail to bkerkhoff@kcstar.com