St. Louis, MO – The evolving face of the Missouri Valley Conference took a positive turn last week. Drake University filled the only league coaching vacancy by hiring a man with a deep resume of success.
Ray Giacoletti has had successful head coaching jobs at the Division 1 level and has spent the last six seasons as an assistant at Gonzaga University. Giacoletti, who turns 51 this month, was born in Peoria and has had a long standing desire to return to the Midwest, and in particular to the MVC.
His D 1 coaching record is 123-90 with time at both Eastern Washington and Utah and he was 48-33 at North Dakota State (while it was still a D2 school). Giacoletti has coaching history in the Valley. He was an assistant at Illinois State in the early 1990’s.
As he was introduced to Drake media and fans he said he’s excited to be back in the Midwest.
“I’m excited to be a part of the Drake family and Des Moines community. I’ve followed Missouri Valley Conference basketball my whole life and I’m looking forward to making Drake basketball the best it can be. There are a lot of similarities to where I’ve been and this is a similar situation where there is the potential to grow a program.”
During Giacoletti’s tenure as an assistant with Gonzaga the Zags won five West Coast Conference championships and achieved a winning percentage of .799.
Meanwhile, the MVC has stayed mum on replacing Creighton University in the league’s basketball roster. Check on our story about possible replacements for the Bluejays. Dennis Dodd of CBS Sportsline reported recently that Missouri Kansas City is being looked at by league officials.
The Kangaroo program is one of the schools we mentioned last month and has recently added a new coach in Louisville assistant Kareem Richardson. Richardson has Valley roots too. He played at Evansville and was an assistant on Valley members Indiana State, Evansville and Drake.
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Three more road wins so far in @ValleyHoops as @BradleyUMBB @BelmontMBB & @UIC_MBB capture road wins. Looks like @DrakeBulldogsMB will do so too. #FatherHarry
Well @RacersWBB followed the men's example and swept Iowa in the @ValleyHoops race! Racers are 6-1 & if @BelmontWBB holds on to their Iowa sweep, the Bruins and Racers will be tied for first. What a trip for those two teams! #FatherHarry
After today's action, @EIUWBB is 8-0 in @OVCSports play. 4 teams @usiwbb @TTUWBB @LRTrojans @LindenwoodWBB are tied at 6-2. Six other teams are under .500. Great race to the finish lies ahead. #FatherHarry
Really entertaining game between @BelmontMBB & @UEAthletics_MBB. Under four minutes left in a one point game. Gabriel Pozzato back in the Aces' lineup. Rogers is playing like I've expected. Triples are dropping. It's fun and @kylejpeach bringing it on #ThePlus #FatherHarry
