The Iowa Hawkeye football team has kicked off its spring workouts coming off of a historic season in 2015.

Head Coach Kirk Ferentz spoke at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon in Iowa City. The reigning Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year thwarted criticism from a disappointing 2014 campaign to lead the Hawkeyes to a record-setting 12-0 regular season, an appearances in the Big Ten Championship and Rose Bowl Game.

Even with the successful season, Ferentz is excited to focus on 2016.

“Going back to January 19th, that was our first team meeting after the break, after the holidays,” Ferentz explained. “We just talked about turning the page and the great thing each and every year is in January you start new. There is no credit for last year. There is no debt. You start with an even balance and get to move on to a new year with a new team and new opportunities.”

As a veteran coach, Ferentz understands the vitality of spring football activities.

“Again, you can’t practice football in a media room,” Ferentz said.  “You can’t practice it certainly in a weight room. So this is a really important time for us. We have limited opportunities, and really the objective is to make sure that every meeting we have and every practice we have during this period are productive and we can close the book on those at the end of the day and say that we moved forward as a team.”

Iowa football activities began this week, and we will have continuing coverage of Hawkeye Spring Practice on the Mahaska Zone Network and on our website at radiokmzn.com.

Story provided by Emery Songer and Zach Payne

Oskaloosa–Three members of the Statesmen men’s basketball program were honored for their excellence in the classroom as they were named 2015-2016 Daktronics-NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athletes Monday.

Jesse Utt (Jr., Cowgill, Mo., Industrial Technology) led the group with a 3.75 Grade Point Average, while Titus Letzring (Jr., Alta, Iowa, Digital Communication), with a 3.71 mark, and Rufus Williams (Jr., Tuscaloosa, Ala., Physical Education), with a 3.58 GPA, also garnered recognition.  It is the first honor for all three individuals.

The trio joins a list of 60 Division I men’s basketball players from within the NAIA to be awarded the laurel.

To be eligible for the award, athletes must be of at least junior academic standing, maintain a cumulative Grade Point Average of 3.5 or above on a 4.0 scale, and have attended the nominating institution for at least one full academic year.

For a complete list of all the NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athletes, go to http://www.naia.org/fls/27900/1NAIA/SportsInfo/Championships/2016DIMBB/2015-16%20NAIADIMBB_SA_forWebsite.pdf?DB_OEM_ID=27900

Story provided by Wade Steinlage

Kansas City, Mo.–Welcome to the Big Time, Statesmen!  Playing in its first NAIA Division I National Championship game in historic Kansas City Municipal Auditorium, the William Penn men’s basketball team did enough to march on to the second round with an 85-77 win over #6 seed Montana Western Wednesday.

The third-seeded Statesmen (28-6) will now play #2 seed Columbia (Mo) Friday at 2:15 p.m.in the Naismith Bracket.  The navy and gold most recently fell 68-64 to Columbia back in 2002-2003.

With the win, WPU has tied its second-highest win total in program history.  Despite leading for the entire second half, the Statesmen were not out of the woods until the final seconds.

William Penn overcame foul trouble (six players with at least three, two fouled out) and a rough showing from behind the arc (5-for-25) by owning a 42.3%-37.7% shooting edge.  The victors also bettered the Bulldogs (19-13) on the glass 47-40, including a 13-6 mark in second-chance points.

WPU committed three more turnovers than UMW, but was more opportunistic with a 17-14 advantage in points off turnovers.

The Bulldogs, paced by 31 points (seven three-pointers) from Connor Woodill, used a more proficient deep ball (9-for-22 overall) to pull out to a 17-11 lead at the 11:44 point.

The Statesmen stayed close and eventually took the lead back a few minutes later.  Unfortunately, Montana Western went on a 7-0 run to go back up 33-32 late in the first half.  The final two minutes were owned by William Penn, however, to go up 41-35 entering halftime.

The navy and gold led by at least five points during the entire last 20 minutes, including by as many as 16 points.  UMW kept hanging around, but could not get over the hump and the Statesmen avoided the upset.

In the end, the biggest difference-maker came at the charity stripe as William Penn was 20-for-26, while the Bulldogs struggled to the tune of 16-for-32.

Brady Burford (Sr., Chicago, Ill., Physical Education) did not let a minor injury in the second half slow him down, going 7-for-13 from the field for a team-high 17 points.  He also stole two passes.

In Burford’s absence, Jarvis Haywood (Jr., Charlotte, N.C., Business Management) stepped up and scored all 14 of his points after intermission.

Steven Roundtree (Sr., Jacksonville, Fla., Physical Education), with a quiet double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds, and Kevin Smith (Jr., Baltimore, Md., Physical Education), with 11 points off the bench, were next on the scoring list.

Jessie Pernell (Sr., North Augusta, S.C., Physical Education) added 10 points with six assists and two thefts, while Shane Bosek(Sr., Lowry, Minn., Physical Education), highlighted by seven straight points in the second period, also reached double figures with 10.

Josh Caldwell (Sr., Denver, Colo., Physical Education) contributed eight points and four blocks, and Jeff Drew (Sr., Little Rock, Ark., Sociology) tallied three blocked shots as well.

“Our bench was incredible tonight, on both ends of the floor,” Head Coach John Henry said.  “We did not play our best game, but did enough to advance.  While it is nice to reach the second round, our guys have already said that this is not our end goal.”

“We want to thank our crowd and the pep band for providing a great atmosphere,” Henry added.  “They really helped us during the night.”

The next game on the slate for the Statesmen is a Round of 16 battle with Columbia of Missouri, who defeated LSU-Shreveport last night, 94-68. Columbia is the #2 seed in the Naismith Bracket, and is currently 29-5.

You can hear that game live on 99.5 FM/740 AM KMZN, as well as the KMZN mobile app, and radiokmzn.com. The pregame will start around 2 PM, with the tip-off occurring around 2:15 PM from the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.

Story provided by Wade Steinlage

It was business as usual for the Pella Little Dutch.

The #2 seed in the Class 3A Boys’ Basketball State Tournament dominated #7 seed Perry en route to a 94-54 victory to move into the state semifinals Tuesday night.

The game had blowout written all over it early, as Pella raced out to a 27-14 lead after the first quarter. After a fairly even second quarter, Pella really pushed down the throttle. The Dutch outscored Perry 25-5 in the third to trigger the running-clock, something rarely seen at the state tournament. They would coast to the 40-point win.

As usual, Pella had an extremely balanced offensive attack, led by Donovan Holterhaus off the bench, who finished with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Ryan Van Wyk had 17, Payson Vande Lune had 16, and Will Warner had 10 to join Holterhaus in double figures.

There were several eye-popping stats for the Dutch in the game. The most impressive may be points in the paint. Pella had 70 points inside, and held Perry to only 20. The Dutch also assisted on 26 of their 39 made field goals in the game. They forced 27 Bluejay turnovers and capitalized with a 33-2 margin in points off mistakes.

Pella also shot 59% from the field in the game and only needed to attempt 10 three pointers in the contest, making four. If there was one weakness in the game, it was free throw shooting, as Pella went 12-24 from the line.

Pella now moves on to face #6 seed Cedar Rapids Xavier on Thursday in the Class 3A Semifinals. Xavier pulled off an upset against Iowa-commit Ryan Kriener and the #3 seed Spirit Lake. They come into the contest at 17-8, but have played one of the toughest schedules in the state. Pella enters at 23-1.

That game will be in Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Thursday, with the tip-off scheduled at 8:15 PM. You can hear live reports from the game on 104.9 FM KBOE and 99.5 FM/740 AM KMZN.