Drake-Illinois St. Preview

3/8/2008 9:49 PM

By ANTHONY GIORNALISTA
STATS Senior Writer

A gaudy scoring average isn't what made Adam Emmenecker the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year, but a 20-point effort helped put Drake in the league title game for the first time.

Illinois State is well aware of what Emmenecker is capable of when he takes a more aggressive scoring approach.

Led by Emmenecker, the 20th-ranked Bulldogs have a chance to secure their first NCAA tournament bid in 37 years when they face the Redbirds in the MVC title game Sunday.

Emmenecker, the league MVP after coming off the bench his first three seasons, matched a career high with 20 points and set one with 11 assists as Drake (27-4) beat Creighton 75-67 on Saturday to earn its first MVC title appearance.

"I'm not used to it yet," Emmenecker said of fans chanting M-V-P. "Half of the time, I figure they're chanting it about somebody else. It's kind of a new situation for me."

It's also new territory for the top-seeded Bulldogs, who have won consecutive games in the 32-year-old tournament for the first time. A win Sunday would give Drake its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1971, and its first postseason berth of any kind since the 1986 NIT.

The Bulldogs' success is due largely to the play of the 6-foot-1 Emmenecker, a former walk-on who started just two games before this season. After averaging 0.9 points in his first three seasons, he has raised that number to 8.2 as a senior, but it's his 6.2 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game that earned him league MVP honors.

Emmenecker, though, has picked up his scoring in this tournament, totaling 33 points, and two of the five best scoring efforts of his career have come against Illinois State (24-8) this season. He had 19 points, six assists and six rebounds in the Bulldogs' 79-73 win over the Redbirds on Jan. 19. On Feb. 5, Emmenecker finished with 14 points, eight assists and four boards to lead Drake to a 73-70 win in the teams' last meeting.

The Bulldogs had long been MVC doormats, forced to play the lead-in game of the tournament nine of the previous 11 years, until their stunning emergence with Emmenecker running the show.

"It means a lot to us as individuals, going through the struggles of the last three or four years," Emmenecker said. "It's not only for us but it's for our fans who have been there since 1969, the fans that have been diehard Drake fans, that have gone through some of the lowest lows of college basketball."

Illinois State, meanwhile, is in the title game for the first time since 1998, when it won both the regular-season title and tournament. Behind first-year coach Tim Jankovich, the Redbirds advanced to the final with a 56-42 win over Northern Iowa on Saturday.

Second-seeded Illinois State, which has won five straight and seven of eight, has some tournament history on its side. The No. 2 seed has won 13 of the 31 tournament championships, more than any other seed. The No. 1 seed has won 10 times.

The Redbirds win with defense, holding opponents to 58.9 points per game. Drake, however, is one of just seven teams to score 70 points or more versus Illinois State this season.

Five-foot-8 Boo Richardson, the team leader with 48 steals, will likely be guarding Emmenecker.

Osiris Eldridge, who tops the Redbirds with 16.1 points a contest, had a team-high 13 versus the Panthers.

Eldridge, a sophomore guard, averaged 18.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in two games against Drake this season.

Illinois State leads the all-time series 43-24.