Drake proves itself worthy of lofty national ranking

Drake's Josh Young draws a first-half foul against Butler on Saturday. AP

RELATED • Drake edges Butler in BracketBusters

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INDIANAPOLIS -- The sentence seems as implausible now as it has for three decades, but this time there's undeniable evidence to back it up.

Drake is for real.

Despite reaching the top 15 of the national polls, despite winning 21 straight games at one point, despite locking up the Missouri Valley title with nearly three weeks to spare, the Bulldogs' bandwagon was still noticeably empty, partially because of their absence from the airwaves, partially because ... well, who the heck is Drake?

Saturday inside amped-up Hinkle Fieldhouse, and in front of their first national-television audience all season, the 24-3 Bulldogs legitimized themselves with an impressive 71-64 BracketBusters win over eighth-ranked Butler, a 25-3 team featuring a core of players that gave two-time national champion Florida a run for its money in last season's Sweet 16.

As smiling shooting guard Josh Young walked to the locker room following an eye-opening 25-point performance, one of several congratulatory Drake fans said it best. "That," he told Young, "was big time."

"I think we surprised some people," said Young. "That's fair to say."

While the college basketball world has been largely consumed these past few months with Michael Beasley's stat lines, Memphis' quest for perfection, and, most recently, Indiana's coaching drama, tiny Drake -- located in Des Moines, Iowa, if you're wondering -- has quietly been conducting one of the sport's most improbable rises.

In a season already filled with historic moments -- longest winning streak in school history, most victories since 1969, and, we can safely assume now, first NCAA tournament berth since 1971 - Saturday's win marked the school's first over a ranked foe since Feb. 15, 1982.

"Every time we win a game," said first-year Bulldogs coach Keno Davis, who took over the reins last spring from father Tom Davis, "we're setting some sort of record."

Even so, Drake had yet to truly earn respect outside of Des Moines due to a dearth of so-called "signature" victories. Its most noteworthy non-conference wins had come against downtrodden state rivals Iowa and Iowa State, while recently prominent conference foes like Southern Illinois and Creighton appear NIT-bound this year.

"Everyone at various stages of the season has doubted them, including me," said Missouri Valley commissioner Doug Elgin. "There were times I didn't know if they were for real."

The Bulldogs won over Elgin on Feb. 5 when they pulled out a last-second win on the road against the conference's second-place team, Illinois State. In other parts of the country, it presumably took until Saturday.

The atmosphere inside Hinkle was ACC-caliber electric, and the suspense was palpable throughout the second half when the lead changed hands or the score was tied on 11 occasions. With neither team on target from outside -- both squads came in ranked in the top 20 nationally in made three-pointers but combined to hit just 11-of-41 treys (26.8 percent) -- the game turned into a surprisingly up-tempo contest.

Though Butler features one of the nation's finest backcourts in Mike Green and A.J. Graves, who combined for 30 points, and while Drake's conference "MVP" candidate is widely considered to be pass-first point guard Adam Emmenecker, the best player on the floor by far was Young, who leads the Missouri Valley in scoring at 16.5 points per game.

While himself one of the conference's top two three-point shooters (46.1 percent), the athletic Young is equally adept at driving the lane and creating scoring opportunities. Throughout the season his biggest scoring outputs have seemed to coincide with Drake's biggest games (including 24 in wins over both Creighton and Southern Illinois), and Saturday was no exception. He had 17 by halftime, including consecutive 3-pointers to squash a brief Butler run.

His most important shot of the night, however, was one that never had a chance of going in. In the final minute, with Drake clinging to a 64-62 lead, the Bulldogs attempted to milk as much of the clock as possible but due to some sticky Butler defense nearly let the shot clock run out. The ball wound up in Young's hands on the wing with barely a second remaining when he launched a desperation three-pointer -- but leaned in just enough to draw a back-breaking foul by Green in the process.

"I knew the shot clock was running down," said Young. "I thought I'd put it up there and see what happened."

Young stepped to the line and hit three straight clinching free throws. The final few minutes of the game had been marked by a series of unfavorable calls against the home team -- a Horizon League administrator made sure to point out afterward that the officiating crew had been chosen by the visitor's conference -- causing a cascade of boos and a smattering of litter heaved on to the floor. But this particular foul was blatant -- and it helped Drake seal its biggest win of the year.

"Today's game was very representative of how this team has played all year," said Davis. "We haven't won games in convincing fashion, winning by 10 or 20, but have played hard enough that we've been able to be in games at the end and found a way to win."

While beating Butler doesn't make the same kind of national statement as, say, beating Duke, it does achieve exactly what this event is intended to: It shows these Bulldogs could very well bust some brackets next month.

They're incredibly disciplined, have four starters that can nail a three, boast a pair of highly athletic scorers in Young and senior Leonard Houston and a savvy senior point guard, Emmenecker, who distributes it to the shooters. If they're missing one piece, it's an inside presence, but that doesn't make them any different than Butler's team last season. (Those Bulldogs, incidentally, are themselves a more complete team than a year ago due to the addition of freshman power forward Matt Howard, who scored 16 points Saturday.)

"I try not to listen too much to what the national analysts say about us, but you hear a lot about signature wins," said Davis. "This is definitely one they'll have to take a hard look at."

Hopefully, "they" were watching Saturday.