Regarding Those Season Ticket Refunds for Drake Basketball Fans, I'm Fairly Certain Bulldogs' Player/Funnyman Brent Heemskerk Was Joking About Them

Drake held its first men's basketball Tipoff lunch of the season today at Christopher's restaurant in Beaverdale, and the clear-cut star of the show was Brent Heemskerk.

Heemskerk [pictured at the left] is a 6-8, 225-pound senior forward from Grand Rapids, Mich., who might have a future in stand-up comedy.

Those attending the lunch needed something to get their minds off last week's opening game -- a disappointing 58-48 loss to Butler -- and Heemskerk gave them a few things to laugh about.

He made sure he told the fans that Drake's players are better than they showed in a game that saw them trail at halftime by the ugly score of 25-14.

"If we don't score in double digits in the first half of our next game, Coach Phelps has promised to stand outside the Knapp Center and give fans refunds for their season tickets," Heemskerk said.

I'm pretty sure Heemskerk meant it as a joke.

Heemskerk said today's Tipoff lunch was his fifth since coming to Drake.

"The only person who's been to more of them is Paul Morrison," he said of Drake's 90-year-old sports department historian and all-around information man and goodwill guy for the university. Morrison is pictured at the right.

Heemskerk is majoring in finance, marketing, entrepreneurial management and general business, and said he has already accepted a job at Principal Financial in Des Moines after he gets his degree.

"The last Drake player to accept a job at Principal was the player of the year in the Missouri Valley Conference and in the league's postseason tournament," someone in the crowd told Heemskerk.

"That's why I accepted the job," Heemskerk said.

The reference was to Adam Emmenecker, who set a Drake record with 213 assists. Ironically, although Emmenecker was supposed to begin a career at Principal, his outstanding 2007-2008 season got him a contract to play basketball in Germany.

The game against Butler was Mark Phelps' first as Drake's coach. He took over a program that saw Keno Davis go 25-8 and advance to the NCAA tournament in his only season as the head coach.

The Bulldogs' point guards were pretty bad in the opener. Something else that must improve is getting more good shots for Jonathan "Bucky" Cox, another 6-8 senior forward.

Cox scored a career-high 29 points in Drake's loss to Western Kentucky in the NCAA tournament last season, but was limited to five shots and seven points by Butler.

I didn't attend the game, but others who did told me Cox got the ball a lot, but immediately was hounded by Butler defenders and couldn't get the kind of shots he thought were necessary to score.

Somebody's got to figure out a solution to that, sooner rather than later. I mean, Cox is supposed to be a leader on this team.

Heemskerk, Phelps and athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb told people at today's lunch that they're confident Drake can, and will, play better.

I sure hope they're right.

Improvement can't come too soon.

The next game is tomorrow night against Morehead State at the Knapp Center.