Sitting at the bar after the game, someone who hadn't been there asked me how the Jays had done. I replied that they'd won, but when asked how they won, I struggled for an answer. After hemming and hawing for a couple of moments, ultimately I replied that I didn't know.
"What do you mean you don't know?", my buddy asked, confused. I answered, "The Jays got outrebounded by 12, they shot poorly, they were losing by double digits most of the game, and every borderline call went against them. But somehow they won, and I can't explain it right now."
Think about those things, and it does seem absurd to be talking about a Jays win, doesn't it? New Mexico spent the first half pushing Creighton around, and by all rights should have been blowing them out. The Jays were outrebounded 26-13, shot just 7-24 (29%) while allowing the Lobos to shoot 16-33 (48%), turned the ball over 8 times, and were outscored on second-chance points 15-0.
When I first came to Creighton in the fall of 1997, there was no bigger villain in the Missouri Valley than Steve Alford, especially in and around Omaha. Rivalries and great coaching showdowns are part of what makes college basketball great, and for my first two years here, Dana Altman and Steve Alford had some epic, EPIC battles.
You see, back in those days, Alford was more like his mentor Bob Knight than he is now. He was easily excitable and often temperamental, and when urged on by rowdy students and/or bad refereeing, he would pout, complain, swear, throw clipboards, and rack up technical fouls. It was all very entertaining for home and visiting crowds alike, who egged him on with equal vigor.
It was fun to root against a guy like that, especially when the rumors surfaced in January of 1998 that "someone" at SMS had asked the NCAA to investigate whether Creighton forward Nerijus Karlikanovas had accepted payment for playing overseas before enrolling in school. These allegations mysteriously cropped up days after Karlikanovas shot 4-5 from three-point range and torched the Bears for 20 points and 8 rebounds in a huge 72-70 win in Springfield.
Nerijus missed the next two games while the NCAA investigated, and his absence was a huge factor in the Jays suffering a one-point defeat at home to Indiana State, which may have cost them the regular season championship.
Whether it was sour grapes or he was acting on what he believed to be good information, Alford was no longer just the coach everyone loved to hate; his status as Public Enemy Number One in Omaha was cemented. He was booed lustily when his Bears came to Omaha in late February that year, and a big (for the time) crowd of 5300 cheered as the Jays stormed out to a 16-point lead, before nearly blowing it and holding on for a 79-76 win. A clearly rattled Karlikanovas shared barbs back and forth with the SMS bench all day, much to the delight of the student section.
In March, the teams met again in the semifinals of the MVC Tournament, and the Jays got big games from Rodney Buford and Ben Walker, taking a 12-point lead into the half. Alford was T'd up shortly after the second half began, upset with both his team's play and a perceived abundance of bad calls from the refs. The Jays beat them a third time, 78-70, as everyone in Omaha yukked it up over beating the coach they loved to hate.
After Alford took that SMS team to the Sweet 16, he bolted for Iowa, which was highly amusing to me having grown up in northwest Iowa as a Hawkeye fan. When
Alford brought his Iowa team to Omaha for the return game of a home-and-home that previous coach Tom Davis had signed, Alford made no bones about the fact that he was unhappy with the game. A column in the World-Herald by Tom Shatel even paraphrased Alford as saying he would never bring a team to Omaha again.
The game drew 9,374 to the old Civic, which at the time was the fifth largest crowd in Creighton history. Iowa was fresh off an upset of #1 UCONN in Madison Square Garden, and came into the game ranked 23rd. Best of all, our old friend didn't disappoint: Alford was T'd up as the game slipped away late in the second half. Star forward Jacob Jaacks even got in on the act, taunting the student section all day before yelling obscenities and having to be restrained after fouling out. It was one of the classic games of the Civic, and as I stormed the court with most of the student section behind me, I swore I heard Alford mutter he would never come back to Omaha.
On Sunday, he returns. The coach we loved to hate is back, and frankly, I can hardly contain my excitement.
You bet.
