Complete game notes (.pdf)

GAME 30
Detroit (15-14) at Drake (11-16)
Date:  Feb. 19, 2011 - 8:05 pm EST
Location: Des Moines, Iowa
Arena:  Knapp Center
Live stats: godrakebulldogs.com
Live video: godrakebulldogs.com
Live audio: www.1350krnt.com
Series:  Bulldogs lead, 10-9
Last meeting:  Drake, 69-61 (11/20/05)

ON TAP
Detroit will hit the road for its final two regular season games.  The Titans travel to Des Moines, Iowa for the ESPN BracketBuster game on Saturday against Drake and finish-out the slate at Wright State next Friday (Feb. 25).   The Horizon League tournament begins Mar. 1 on campus sites with the No. 3 through 6 seeds hosting.

ABOUT DRAKE
The Bulldogs are 11-16 overall and 6-10 in the Missouri Valley Conference.  Drake has lost its last two games to snap a brief three-game winning streak.   Drake sports an 8-5 record at home this season and is led by Rayvonte Rice's 13.6 scoring average.

LAST TIME OUT
The Titans closed-out their regular season home slate with a 91-79 victory over Youngstown State Wednesday night at Calihan Hall.  Five different Detroit players were in double figures scoring, led by Nick Minnerath's 24 points.  Ray McCallum was two assists shy of a triple-double for Detroit in the win with 14 points, 10 boards and eight assists.  Chase Simon had 17, Chris Blake added 15, while Eli Holman chipped-in 14. 

I LOVE THE 80s
The Detroit Titans hung 91 points on Youngstown State Wednesday, their third-highest point total of the season.  Detroit improved to 7-1 when scoring at least 80 points this season.

NICK the QUICK
Junior Nick Minnerath grabbed his team-leading fifth 20-point game of the season in the win vs. Youngstown State Wednesday, scoring 24 points.  More impressive was his hot start as Minnerath torched the nets for 15 points in the first 10 minutes alone, helping Detroit get off to a fast start and an eventual 48-31 halftime advantage.

HL TOURNEY SCENARIOS
Detroit is currently sitting in the sixth spot in the Horizon League standings.  With one week remaining of the regular season, UDM's fate is pretty clearly defined heading into next weekend.

*Detroit earns the #5 seed with a win over Wright State (teams will be tied at 10-8 and Detroit would have tiebreaker with 2-0 record over WSU).
*The only way Detroit falls to the #7 seed is if the Titans lose to WSU and Green Bay wins ALL three of its remaining league games.  (GB would hold the tiebreaker due to having a better record over the top seeds).
*All other scenarios would give Detroit the #6 seed.

THAT LOOKS FAMILIAR
Both head coaches come into Saturday's game with exact identical 42-51 records at their current school.  Mark Phelps has led Drake to 17- and 14-win seasons along with this year's 11-win team.  Coach McCallum took over a team that won 7 games in his first season but turned things around with a 20-win campaign last year.

HEY, I KNOW YOU
Drake forward Ben Simons has ties to Michigan.  Simons (Cadillac, Mich.) is the son of David Simons, the college roommate of Detroit Director of Basketball Operations David Saltman.  The elder Simons and Saltman played collegiately together at St. Andrew's.  

SHARING IS GOOD
As can be expected, the Titans are 10-0 when they have more assists than their opponent.  When they register at least a dozen helpers, the Titans are 13-5.

NEARING MILESTONES
With two games remaining in the regular season, milestones are approaching.  Here's a look at a few in range by season's end.
Career
Chase Simon    943 pts (57 shy of 1,000)
Eli Holman    695 pts  (5 shy of 700)
Eli Holman    555 rbs (45 shy of 600)
Eli Holman    123 blks (31 shy of 2nd)
LaMarcus Lowe    122 blks (1 shy of 4th)

Season
Ray McCallum    146 asst (9th)(23 shy of top 5)
Ray McCallum    49 stls    (5 shy of top 10)
Ray McCallum    127 FTs    (22 shy of top 10)

WHAT'S NEXT?
Following the regular-season finale at Wright State, Detroit will enter the Horizon League tournament the following Tuesday.  If UDM earns at least the #6 seed, it will host a first round game at 7:00 p.m. at Calihan Hall.  The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds will be played at the top seed on Friday and Saturday with the championship at the top remaining seed on Tues., Mar. 8.

AMONG THE NATIONAL LEADERS
Several Titans have their names appear among the NCAA Division I leaders in the Feb. 15 report.  As the time of the release, junior Eli Holman had 11 double-doubles, which ranked 25th.  He also was 28th in rebounds per game (9.8).  LaMarcus Lowe was 19th in the NCAA with his 2.5 blocks per game clip.  Ray McCallum's 4.9 assists per game is 52nd while Nick Minnerath cracked the report with his .820 free-throw percentage (112th).

MAC OF DIMES
Freshman Ray McCallum is among the top freshmen in the country, ranking second in NCAA D-I in total assists at the time of the last national stats report (Feb. 15).  McCallum's 4.9 per game average ranks third among all Horizon League players.  A look at those freshmen with at least 100 assists (through Feb. 15).

NCAA D-I Freshman Assist Leaders
1. Juwan Staten, Dayton        152
2. Ray McCallum, Detroit        138
3. Brian Voelkel, Vermont        123
4.  Jason Brickman, Long Island    121
5. Kendall Marshall, UNC        119
6. Aaron Craft, Ohio State        117
7. Tyreek Duren, LaSalle        112
    Kendall Williams, New Mexico    112
9. Sean McGonagill, Brown        110
10. Luke Davis, Gardner-Webb    109

Evan Roquemore, Santa Clara    103
Jake Odum, Indiana State        103
Rodney Glasgow, VMI        103
D.J. Irving, Boston        102
T.J. McConnell, Duquesne        102
Rakeem Brookins, Siena        101

THE LOWE DOWN
Junior LaMarcus Lowe blocked three shots vs. Youngstown State Wednesday, giving him 74 for the season.  Lowe's block total ranks second in the Horizon League and he now has 18 games with multiple rejections this season.  

Single-season block records at UDM
1. Terry Tyler, 1978 .....................      172
2. Terry Tyler, 1976 ......................     107
3. Terry Tyler, 1977 ......................       86
4. Eli Holman, 2010 ......................      77
5. LaMarcus Lowe, 2011 ..............      74
    Greg Grant, 1992......................       65
7. Stacy Johnson, 1988 .................      63
     Brian Humes, 1986 ...................      63
9. Keith Jackson, 1979 ..................      61
10. Alan Renner-Thomas, 1994 ......      56
       Brian Alexander, 1998 ...............     56
(*block records not kept before 1976)

LEADING THE LEAGUE
Eli Holman leads the Horizon League in both offensive (3.4 rpg) and defensive (6.2 rpg) rebounds per game (9.6 total).  He is also second in field goal percentage, connecting on 59.9 percent of his shots (124-of-207) and is fourth in blocks (1.7 bpg).

BRACKETBUSTER HISTORY
The lone non-conference game on Detroit's schedule is the BracketBusters game set for Feb. 19.  The ESPN event recently announced that the Titans would match-up with Drake University, a  ninth-place Missouri Valley Conference school.  Detroit has appeared in all nine BracketBusters, marking a 5-3 record in those contests.  This season's game is just the third against a team not from the Mid-American Conference (MAC).  As part of the agreement, all of the BracketBusters home teams will play a “return” game at the home facility of their opponent in November or December of the 2012-13 season.

Detroit all-time in the BracketBusters (5-3)
2003-     W, 75-59                at UC Santa Barbara
2004-     W, 70-49             vs. Ball State
2005-     L, 65-66               vs. Ohio
2006-     W, 65-63             vs. Toledo
2007-     W, 92-84             at Buffalo
2008-     L, 65-81               vs. Bowling Green
2009-     L, 75-78               at Tennessee State
2010-     W, 68-66              vs. Eastern Michigan