CHICAGO, Ill. – Drake University men's and women's basketball inched one step closer to the start of the 2013-14 season at the Missouri Valley Conference Tipoff Wednesday afternoon at Loyola's Gentile Arena.
The tipoff event combined a brief luncheon with a lively panel discussion of coaches, media and basketball insiders along with the trappings of a traditional preseason basketball media day.
The luncheon, emceed by Comcast SportsNet Chicago's Dave Kaplan, featured ESPN's Stephen Bardo and Mark Adams, CBS Sports' Jerry Palm, analyst Debbie Antonelli and a pair of Valley coaches in Wichita State's Gregg Marshall and UNI's Tanya Warren.
Joining first-year men's head coach Ray Giacoletti and second-year women's coach Jennie Baranczyk at the event event was guard Kyndal Clark, a selection to the all-MVC women's preseason team.
Each spent parts of the afternoon answering questions from the assembled media, recording segments for upcoming Valley telecasts. Clark also fielded questions live from Valley fans submitted via the league's social media platforms. Click here to watch Clark's answers.
Earlier in the day, the MVC released its annual preseason polls, which fostered plenty of discussion throughout the day. The Drake women's team was picked fourth, while the men's squad was picked 10th.
“It's a free swing for us,” Giacoletti said of the preseason projection. “There's no target on our back and no pressure or expectation. We've talked about simply being the best that we can be on every single day. If we can do that, tomorrow, a week from now, and a month from now will take care of itself.”
With a small bench, Baranczyk echoed her comments from earlier in the season on the need for consistent contributions, while at the same time trumpeting her team's continued growth and maturation in her second season on the bench.
“We don't have large numbers on this team so each player is going to have to be ready to contribute night in, night out,” Baranczyk said. “We are a more confident team going into the second year of our system being in place and our women have done a great job of working hard.”
The women's team plays its lone exhibition contest on Friday evening at 7:05 p.m. in the Knapp Center against Dubuque. The men's squad hits the court two days later to host Central on Sunday at 2:05 p.m. Click here for tickets to both exhibition contests.
