The McDermott Era Begins This Weekend

[Jeremy]

The McDermott Era Begins This Weekend
Media Relations
American Family Insurance BTI Cyclone Challenge
Nov. 10-12, 2006 • Hilton Coliseum (14,092)
Radio: Cyclone Radio Network (Brent Blum, pxp)
Television: Mediacom (B.J. Schaben, pxp; Jim Hallihan, color)

American Family Insurance BTI Cyclone Challenge Schedule
Friday, Nov. 10, 2006
ULM vs. Eastern Illinois, 5:30 p.m.
Iowa State vs. UC Riverside, 8 p.m. (Mediacom)

Saturday, Nov. 11, 2006
UC Riverside vs. Eastern Illinois, 5:30 p.m.
Iowa State vs. ULM, 8 p.m. (Mediacom)

Sunday, Nov. 12, 2006
ULM vs. UC Riverside, Noon
Iowa State vs. Eastern Illinois, 2:30 p.m. (Mediacom)

Gameday Quick Facts
Iowa State officially begins the Greg McDermott era this weekend, playing host to the American Family Insurance BTI Cyclone Challenge...ISU’s season-opener on Nov. 10 is the earliest start to a season in school history...ISU closed out the exhibition season with a 2-0 record, defeating EA Sports (58-57) and Wayne State (55-41)...all four schools competing this weekend (ULM, Eastern Illinois, UC Riverside, Iowa State) will be playing in their first games of the season...the Cyclones have never faced ULM and UC Riverside...ISU is 1-0 lifetime vs. Eastern Illinois...Iowa State junior center Jiri Hubalek will miss all three games of the tournament, fullfiling the first three games of a six-game NCAA suspension...Hubalek will return to the lineup Nov. 29 at Northern Iowa...Mike Taylor, who did not play in ISU’s two exhibitions, has been suspended for academic reasons...his status for this weekend is still day-to-day...Jessan Gray played sparingly in ISU’s last exhibition game...he is nursing a cracked wrist in his shooting hand.

Cyclone Update
Iowa State increased its all-time exhibition record to 37-4 with a 55-41 win over Wayne State on Monday...ISU head coach Greg McDermott got his first head coaching job at Wayne State...McDermott will face all three of his former head coaching stops this season (Wayne State, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa)...the Cyclones won both of their exhibitions, defeating EA Sports last Friday, 58-57 behind a late 3-pointer from Rahshon Clark...ISU held both of its exhibition opponents to an average of 49.0 ppg and forced 42 turnovers in its two tuneups, averaging 21.0 turnovers forced per contest...Clark tallied a double-double against Wayne State, scoring 12 points and 10 rebounds...Clark, a three-year starter and ISU’s most experienced player, averaged 11.5 ppg and 9.5 rpg in the two exhibition contests...Cory Johnson, a true freshman from Duluth, Minn., had seven points and seven boards vs. Wayne State...he will likely see more minutes this weekend with the absence of Jiri Hubalek...Dodie Dunson, another true freshman, started both exhibition games...he averaged 9.0 ppg and handed out five assists with no turnovers...Iowa State shot the ball poorly in its two exhibitions, hitting 40-of-114 of its shots (35.1 percent) from the floor...however, a strong turnover margin (+7.5) and rebounding margin (+3.0) helped offset its shooting woes.

UC Riverside (0-0)
UC Riverside will be playing its first regular-season game in the Cyclone Challenge this weekend...the Highlanders had one tune-up game this week, beating CSU-Dominguez Hills, 81-77...senior guard Justin Bell had the hot hand for UCR, tallying 21 points and connecting on 5-of-10 shots from downtown...sophomore forward Benoit Bekono posted a double-double in the exhibition win with 16 points and 10 caroms...UCR returns three starters from last year’s 5-23 team...their biggest loss was guard Rickey Porter, a second-team all-Big West pick who averaged 14.2 ppg a year ago...the Highlanders’ top returner is senior guard Dedrick Bates...a native of Los Angeles, Calif., Bates suffered a season-ending ACL injury on Feb. 9...however, the former walk-on impressed enough people in his 20 games to earn honorable mention all-conference honors and Big West Defensive Player of the Year accolades...Bates averaged 9.9 points and a team-high 5.1 rebounds...he came off the bench and scored nine points in UCR’s lone exhibition game...another top returner is Larry Cunningham, a 6-2, 190 junior guard from Downey, Calif...Cunningham, who enters his third season as a starter, averaged 10.8 ppg last year...Cunningham was second on the team in steals last year with 34 and had a career-high 33 points vs. UC-Davis...Bell will be the point guard this season for the Highlanders...the 5-10 senior was lost for the season with a torn ACL after the season’s only exhibition game last year...Bell averaged averaged 3.7 ppg as a junior and will be ready to lead the Highlander run and gun offense in 2006-07...UCR is coached by David Spencer, who is in his second season with the Highlanders...assistant coach Mark Wade is in his second season with the Highlanders...Wade was the starting point guard for the UNLV Runnin Rebels’ outstanding teams in 1986 and 1987...his 10.7 assist per game average in 1987 is still a NCAA record...this will be the first meeting between Iowa State and UC Riverside.

ULM (0-0)
2006-07 will be a season of firsts for the ULM (Louisiana Monroe) program...ULM begins its first season in the Sun Belt Conference after leaving the Southland Conference...it will also be the first season with a new nickname, changing its name from the Indians to the Warhawks...ULM played one exhibition game last week, defeating Arkansas Tech, 86-64...five players reached double figures in the win, led by senior forward Darien Bynum, who went 8-for-9 from the field en route to 20 points...the Warhawks made 10 treys in the exhibition win, including three by Jonas Brown...the Warhawks went 10-18 and 6-10 in their final season in the Southland Conference last year...ULM returns three starters, including its backcourt consisting of junior Lance Brasher and sophomore Tony Hooper...the pair earned honorable mention all-Southland Conference honors last year...Brasher averaged 7.3 points and 3.8 rebounds...Hooper averaged 10.6 ppg and led the team in assists (100) and steals (58)...the Warhawks like to shoot the 3, making 208 treys last season...junior college transfer Gerard Jackson will be a key addition for the Warhawks in the paint...the 6-5, 240-pound forward played at Chipola JC the last two seasons where he was teammates with Cyclone Mike Taylor...the duo helped Chipola go 62-8 in their two seasons at the junior college power...ULM is coached by Orlando Early, who is in his second season at the helm...Tom Coverdale is the director of basketball operations for the Warhawks...Coverdale was a member of Indiana’s 2003 NCAA national runner-up team...this will be the first meeting between Iowa State and ULM.

Eastern Illinois (0-0)
Eastern Illinois, located in Charleston, Ill., begins its regular-season this weekend in Ames after playing two exhibition games...the Panthers defeated Missouri Valley College, 74-49 and Eureka College, 71-55...junior forward Bobby Catchings had 15 points against Missouri Valley and Mike Robinson tallied 20 points vs. Eureka to lead the Panthers in scoring...EIU returns three starters from last year’s team that finished 6-21 overall and 5-15 in the Ohio Valley...5-11 sophomore guard Robinson is arguably the Panthers’ top returner, averaging 9.6 ppg and 3.1 rpg as a true freshman last year to help him earn Ohio Valley Freshman of the Year accolades...Robinson started all 27 games, handing out a team-high 115 assists and recording a team-high 53 steals...he had a career-high 10 dimes against Tennessee-Martin...Catchings, a 6-6 junior, averaged 9.4 points and 4.6 rebounds last season...Catchings scored a career-high 32 points against UMKC, drilling 5-of-7 from 3-point line...junior Jake Byrne will man the center spot after posting 6.9 points and 3.8 rebounds...he made 55 percent of his shots from the floor and averaged 10.1 points in the final 13 games of the season...he was 10-of-15 (66.7 percent) from the floor in the two exhibition games...the Panthers averaged 59.2 ppg and shot 73.5 percent from the free-throw line last year...EIU is coached by Mike Miller, who is in his second season with the Panthers...Miller is familiar with Hilton Coliseum...he was the associate head coach at Kansas State under former head coach Jim Wooldridge for five seasons...he came to KSU from Texas State, where he led the Bobcats to two Southland Conference titles...Iowa State owns a 1-0 lifetime record vs. Eastern Illinois...in the only meeting between the two schools, the Cyclones defeated the Panthers 76-66 in overtime on Dec. 21, 1987...it was the first game after Lafester Rhodes’ record-setting 54-point game that helped ISU defeat Iowa, 102-100 in overtime (Dec. 19, 1987)...Eastern Illinois and Northern Iowa used to be members of the Mid-Continent/AMCU-8 Conference while ISU head coach Greg McDermott was a player at UNI...McDermott was 2-6 all-time as a player against Eastern Illinois...he went head-to-head a number of times against EIU center Kevin Duckworth, who later went on to a succesful 11-year NBA career...in his senior season at UNI, McDermott’s squad lost a 126-121, four-overtime thriller to EIU, the longest game in UNI history.

Iowa State Team Quick Facts
• Iowa State has just four returning scholarship players from last season.
• 60.2 percent of the minutes played in the first two exhibition games were by newcomers on the roster.
• ISU head coach Greg McDermott is the first native Iowan to coach the Cyclone men’s basketball team since Clayton Sutherland (1948-54)...McDermott is from Cascade; Sutherland was from Nashua.
• Greg McDermott was 0-5 as a player and head coach at UNI in games played in Hilton Coliseum.
• Head coach Greg McDermott will play all three of his former schools where he was a head coach in his first season with the Cyclones (Wayne State, 1995-00, Nov. 6; North Dakota St., 2001, Dec. 31; UNI, 2002-06, Nov. 29).
• Junior Jiri Hubalek will miss the first six games of the season due to a NCAA rules violation...his first game where he is eligible to play will be McDermott’s homecoming to Northern Iowa (Nov. 29).
• Wesley Johnson broke Will Blalock’s school-record for standing vertical leap at 34 inches...Blalock’s record was at 33 1/2 inches...Johnson also had a 41-inch step vertical leap to top Taylor’s record.
• ISU head coach Greg McDermott is in his first season with the Cyclones, but he is already the seventh-longest tenured coach in the league...of the six new coaches in the league (Mike Anderson, Missouri; Bob Huggins, Kansas State; Doc Sadler, Nebraska; Jeff Capel, Oklahoma; Sean Sutton, Oklahoma State; Greg McDermott, Iowa State), McDermott was the first to be hired.
• ESPN.com picked Hilton Coliseum as the "Hot Arena" in the Big 12...coaches in the league noted that, "regardless of talent, the Cyclones have a home court like no other."
• ISU junior college transfers Corey McIntosh and Mike Taylor have witnessed a ton of success in their collegiate playing career...McIntosh tallied a 59-9 record in his two seasons in JC ball, while Taylor recorded a 62-8 mark in his two seasons at Chipola JC...the pair posted a combined 121-17 record in their two years in junior college.
• Iowa State’s two opponents in the exhibition season averaged 21.0 turnovers per game.
• Iowa State’s Nov. 10 start date against UC Riverside is the earliest start to a season in school history, eclipsing the old mark by five days set in the 1999-2000 season (Nov. 15, Simon Fraser).

True Freshmen
With only four returning scholarship players, Iowa State has been forced to play a number of yearlings in its first two exhibition games...forward Wesley Johnson and guard Dodie Dunson started both of ISU’s preseason games as rookies...Johnson had 10 points and eight rebounds vs. EA Sports and Dunson tied for a team-high 14 points against EA Sports...another freshman, Cory Johnson, has also played a number of minutes in the first two games...the forward was solid against Wayne State, scoring seven points and grabbing seven rebounds.

Freshmen Starters
It is more than likely that Dodie Dunson and Wesley Johnson will start in Friday’s season opener vs. UC Riverside...the freshmen started both exhibition games and will be called upon to play a number of minutes because of ISU’s lack of scholarship returners...a true freshman has started for Iowa State in the season opener the last four seasons...here is a look at how they fared:

Freshman Starters The Last Four Seasons
Nov. 20, 2005 Ross Marsden Mountain St.
Nov. 23, 2004 Rahshon Clark Drake
Nov. 28, 2003 Curtis Stinson Mercer
Nov. 28, 2003 Will Blalock Mercer
Nov. 25, 2002 Adam Haluska Coe

Top Freshman Scoring Debuts
1. 25 Ron Harris Vanderbilt (1980)
2. 20 Curtis Stinson Mercer (2003)
20 Jeff Grayer Mankato State (1984)
4. 18 Gary Thompkins Mankato State (1984)
5. 16 Shawn Taggart Mountain State (2005)

McDermott Among Top-50 Winningest Active Coaches
Iowa State head coach Greg McDermott has the 41st-best winning percentages among active NCAA coaches...McDermott is 221-127 in 12 seasons as a head coach for a 63.5 percent winning percentage...Gonzaga’s Mark Few heads the list at 82.1 percent (188-41).

Iowa State Head Coaching Debuts
Iowa State head coach Greg McDermott makes his debut Friday vs. UC Riverside...Cyclone coaches have had success in their first game at the helm, compiling an all-time 14-3 mark in their debuts:

Clyde Williams Kansas L, 35-53 Feb. 20, 1908
Homer Hubbard Missouri L, 24-25 Jan. 17, 1912
H.H. Walters Fort Dodge W, 26-20 Jan. 1, 1916
R.N. Berryman Coe W, 23-13 Jan. 6, 1920
Maury Kent Coe W, 51-25 Dec. 18, 1920
Bill Chandler Cornell W, 29-5 Dec. 19, 1921
Louis Menze Simpson W, 42-18 Dec. 20, 1928
Clayton Sutherland Simpson W, 43-29 Dec. 8, 1947
Bill Strannigan Carleton W, 78-60 Dec. 6, 1954
Glen Anderson South Dakota W, 66-47 Dec. 1, 1959
Maury John Arizona W, 71-54 Dec. 2, 1971
Ken Trickey Mankato State W, 99-81 Nov. 29, 1974
Lynn Nance St. Louis W, 62-47 Nov. 30, 1976
Johnny Orr Vanderbilt L, 87-97 Dec. 1, 1980
Tim Floyd Illinois State W, 88-71 Nov. 25, 1994
Larry Eustachy Chicago State W, 79-48 Nov. 23, 1998
Wayne Morgan Mercer W, 87-64 Nov. 28, 2003
Greg McDermott UC Riverside ??????? Nov. 10, 2006

Iowa State In Home Season Openers
Iowa State is 79-20 overall in season openers...the last season-opening home loss for Iowa State was a 54-48 defeat to Northern Iowa in Hilton Coliseum to begin the 1997-98 season...that was former Cyclone coach Tim Floyd’s only season-opening loss in his four years with the Cyclones.