'I'm Excited. I'm Anxious To Get the Regular Season Going,' Says Mark Phelps As Countdown Starts To His Debut As Drake's 25th Basketball Coach

For Mark Phelps, excitement is the word.

Phelps is the 25th men's basketball coach Drake has had since a guy named C. A. Pell sent his 1907 Bulldogs onto the floor against Des Moines Baptist.

Pell and his players won that game, 36-17. Ol' C. A. must've had a tremendous defense.

Phelps' team has had two exhibition games -- won 'em both, too -- but Josh Young, Jonathan "Bucky" Cox and the boys get down to business for real at 7:05 p.m. Saturday when they play Butler in their season opener at the Knapp Center.

It's also the debut for Phelps [pictured], who signed on as Drake's coach last April 21 after one-year wonder Keno Davis had a school-record 28-5 finish that got him a $1 million-a-year job at Providence.

I asked Phelps today what his emotions are as the countdown starts for Saturday's game.

"It's been a while [since April 21]," Phelps said. "A lot has happened. It's been a short 6 1/2 months and it's been a long 6 1/2 months.

"But I'm excited. I'm anxious to get the regular season going, and I would say most of my emotions are excitement."

Phelps said his starting lineup will be the same Saturday night as it was in Drake's exhibition victories over Truman State and Arkansas State.

"We'll start Craig Stanley, Josh Young, Adam Templeton, Jonathan Cox and Brent Heemskerk, he said.

Phelps said his team is "in relatively good health, other than the normal nicks and bruises at this time of year."

It's not like Drake is starting the season against the Sisters Of the Poor.

No opponent with a hyphenated name in this opener.

Butler has been a national power in recent seasons, and anyone who knows anything about Division I basketball knows about the school in Indianapolis.

The Bulldogs -- the Butler Bulldogs, that is -- finished 30-4 last season, but Drake handed them one of their losses Feb. 23 at home. Drake, then ranked No. 18, rode Young's 25 points to a 71-64 victory over a Butler team that was No. 8.

It's been known for a long time that Butler would be Drake's regular-season opener this year.

I sat next to Tom Davis, Keno's dad, at most of Drake's home games last season, and Tom told me late in the year that Butler would be here for the 2008-2009 opener.

But that was before he knew Keno would now be at Providence, not Drake.

I'm not sure Phelps would have scheduled Butler as his opening opponent if he'd had anything to say about it.

"There's no question we're going to find out more about ourselves by playing Butler than playing a team that's not of their caliber," he said. "But it is what it is. It's on the schedule. It's the game I inherited.

"Certainly it would nice if we could kind of ease [into the schedule]. But there's a certain excitement and expectation about opening up this way as well. We know it's a game of great interest to both programs."