Two good basketball teams were coached by two living legends at their respective schools, and only one could keep their season going. The crazy thing about sports is no matter how many good teams hit the court or field, only one per class can have a happy ending. A total of 96 teams hit the court in Class 2A this season, and Lake Mills finished as one of the top-16. One night can end a team’s season – that’s what happened Saturday night in Charles City.
Let’s start with the coaching matchup.
Kyle Menke, in his 24th year with Lake Mills, had led the Bulldogs to three straight state tournament appearances and a semifinal appearance a year ago. He’s won 371 games while losing 191 (with Saturday’s loss), a nearly 66 percent win rate over his near quarter-century coaching career. A 1995 South O’Brien grad, Menke started with the Bulldogs right out of college before the 1999-2000 season and hasn’t left.
Eric Dettbarn also started coaching MFL MarMac (MFL at the time) out of college and has been with the Bulldogs for 35 years. His win over Lake Mills was win 491 in his career, and he has lost 311 times. His game against Lake Mills was the 802nd of his career. MFL had lost 44 straight games before Dettbarn got his first win in the 80s.
Combined, the two have coached 1364 games with 59 seasons coached and have won 862 of those games. The most impressive of the stats, though, is the fact that both coaches have been at their respective schools since the beginning.
As far as the game goes, the pace fell right into what MFL MarMac wanted. A team that scores over 70 points but doesn’t make field goals as effective as Lake Mills. MFL attempts a ton to score their points. On the other hand, Lake Mills scores a lot, but their basket attempts are much higher percentage shots. MFL’s effective FG percentage is 51.4 percent, Lake Mills’ is 56.7 percent shooting 1,297 field goals in 24 games, and MFL has attempted 1,591. MFL had a gameplan executed that plan and is heading to state for the first time since 2013.
These types of setbacks happen during historical streaks in a program’s history. What Lake Mills is doing right now is a historical streak in terms of its program – it’s not unprecedented in the TIC/NIC.
In 1959, Osage joined the North Iowa Conference to expand to eight teams, and the conference would stay that way until the 2015 merger with the Corn Bowl to form the Top of Iowa Conference. The only significant change came in the 2002-2003 season when Northwood-Kensett left and Mason City Newman Catholic joined.
Through the first 350 games played in the first 25 years from 1959-1983, Lake Mills hovered around .500 in conference play. The Bulldogs went 189-161 in that quarter-century, winning three conference titles and placing second seven other times.
For the next 25 years, Lake Mills again was around an even conference record. From 1984-2008, the program won 184 and lost 164, nearly identical to the previous 25 years with two fewer games played. The program won four conference titles this quarter-century, including back-to-back titles in ’86 and ’87.
That brings us to the current 15 years played since the 2007-2008 season. Lake Mills is currently 157-72 and has won three straight conference titles tying both Forest City and Northwood, who have also won three consecutive conference titles. But the Bulldogs stand-alone, doing it undefeated.
Northwood won two undefeated titles in the 80s but lost two games on their way to a third straight title in 1985. Forest City won six consecutive conference titles from 1996-2001, which included a 40-game win streak but ended only the 2000 and 2001 seasons with undefeated conference titles. Forest City went 77-7 during those six title seasons, similar to Lake Mills’s current run.
The Bulldogs have won 74 of the 80 games they’ve played in conference play in the past five seasons, winning three conference championships and finishing second and third the other two years. They’ve defeated Forest City’s record of 40 wins in a row and ended this conference season winning their 49th straight. Lake Mills will get a chance at home against West Hancock to win a 50th straight when they open the 2023-2024 conference season unless the Eagles’ football season forces a schedule change.
Lake Mills finished as district and conference champs, ranked #8 and 23-1 on the season.
Yes, Lake Mills will miss the services of Denton Kingland next season – the cupboards are far from bare. Kingland played in over 70 games scoring over 800 points in just three varsity seasons. He and teammate Lance Helming were two of the best scorers in Class 2A this season, and Helming returns. Lake Mills will also return Aiden Stensrud, who averaged a double-double, including a 20 rebound game this season. Eli Menke shot over 40 percent from three and nearly 80 percent from the free-throw line, the point man Logan Bacon, and Alex Mannes, who could see an expanded role, plus Lake Mills will add more young guys to the mix.
Lake Mills will be the undisputed favorite going into the 2023-2024 conference year, though don’t start hanging the banner just yet. As many as three teams will have conference title on their minds and spoiler fever.
