Fennelly had magic at West

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By Don Doxsie | Friday, May 09, 2008 | No comments posted

LONGTIME Davenport West basketball coach Dave Wessel has not yet been inducted into the Quad-City Sports Hall of Fame.

But on Wednesday, at our annual Salute to Sports, Wessel will experience the next best thing: One of his former players, who has become a great coach in his own right, will become part of the Hall of Fame.

Wessel has very fond memories of Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly, who was an integral part of some very good West teams in 1974-75.

“A great young man and a true basketball junkie,’’ Wessel recalled. “Always had a basketball magazine in his back pocket.’’

Sounds like the kind of guy who could end up winning 446 games (and counting) as a coach at the college level.

Wessel always frowned on players who tried to do fancy stuff on the court — behind-the-back passes, dribbling between their legs, etc. — but he made exceptions for Fennelly. In fact, the Falcons sometimes turned their pregame warm-ups into a showcase for his ballhandling skills.

“We put him in the middle of a drill, and he did his magic,’’ Wessel said.

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If you were thinking of attending Wednesday’s Salute — 7:30 p.m., North High School — look for a little added twist.

Several local high school athletes also are very accomplished in musical areas and we plan to have several of them perform during the program.

Just to show what most of us already know: That there’s a lot more to these kids than what you see on the football field, basketball court and running track.

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On the face of it, Joan Samuelson’s finish in last weekend’s U.S. Olympic marathon trials wasn’t all that fantastic. She only finished 90th.

Then, you remember that Joanie, who has won the Quad-City Times Bix 7 four times, is going to be 51 years old in a few weeks.

Then you realize that there were 34 much younger runners who trailed in her wake and 22 more who never even reached the finish line.

Then you realize that her time of 2 hours, 49 minutes, 8 seconds was only about 14 minutes slower than the time she ran when she won the Boston Marathon for the first time 29 years ago on the same course.

Considering all that … fantastic might be an understatement.

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This is pretty ridiculous: Joe Lunardi of ESPN.com already is projecting the 64-team bracket for next year’s NCAA basketball tournament.

And we’re sorry to report that there are no teams from the states of Iowa and Illinois anywhere in the field. He has four Big Ten teams, but it’s Wisconsin, Purdue, Ohio State and Michigan State.

Lunardi does have one interesting twist: He has both North Carolina and Duke as No. 1 seeds and both playing at the same site (Greensboro) on the opening weekend. You don’t suppose that would be a hot ticket, do you?

Fortunately, it’s way, way too early for Lunardi — or anyone else — to have any clue of what they’re talking about.

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When Davenport Central’s L.A. Pomlee signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Iowa State earlier this month, it prompted reader Jim Hoepner to contemplate how many Davenport kids have played basketball at the state’s other big university, the one that’s only about 60 miles up the interstate.

He could think of only one who has played there since the mid-1950s — former North star Ricky Davis — and he only hung around Iowa City for one year.

There have been plenty of other Quad-City kids who played for the Hawkeyes through the years — Acie Earl, Kevin Skillett, Scott Thompson, Jason Smith, Jim Hallstrom, Brig Tubbs, Kurt Spurgeon — but no others from Davenport.

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Speaking of Ricky Davis, he just finished his 10th NBA season. He scored in double figures for the seventh year in a row, had 200-plus assists and 80-plus steals for the sixth year in a row, had 300-plus rebounds for the fifth time in six years and made a career-high 135 3-point field goals.

Oh, and the team he played for missed the playoffs for the seventh time in 10 years. The Miami Heat finished with the worst record in the league, 14-68.

Don Doxsie can be contacted at (563) 383-2280 or ddoxsie@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.