Results tagged “Northern Iowa” from Jays Blog

Tied for First! You bet.

By
Max Univers
on February 19, 2009 7:20 AM |
Wednesday night, I was midway through a horrendous burrito that I'm ashamed to admit I made myself when the sounds of Mr. T blared out of my phone.

"Ain't got time for the Jibba-Jabba...Say what you got to say!"

This meant I had a text; I'm dominant like that. So I opened up the phone, saw it was from my brother, and was not surprised at what it read: "h-time uni 23 drake 17, brother". I'd been counting on Drake beating UNI to move the Jays into a tie for first place, and so far, my father's Bulldogs weren't coming through. Which meant my brother's Panthers were.

An aside for those of you who may be new to the blog in the last couple of weeks: while I'm a Creighton grad and Jaybacker, my father went to Drake back in the early 1970s heydey of Bulldog hoops, and my brother went to UNI in the McDermott early 2000s. So we have a triangular Valley rivalry, and on this night, I was in the uncomfortable position of having to actually root for one of their schools, instead of rooting against both of them.

I was rooting from afar, though: there was no way in hell I was going to be the sort of guy who listens to the webcast radio feed of a non-Jays game. If it had been a video webcast, and it had been free, you could have twisted my arm. But a radio webcast, particularly the KRNT feed with Dolph Pulliam -- the biggest homer in the Valley, God bless him -- yeah, that wasn't gonna happen. So I sat in front of the TV, clearing programs off my DVR by watching them. The Office, 30 Rock, Chuck, WKRP in Cincinnati, you know, the usual stuff.

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2008-09 Game #25: Jays 77, UNI 71

By
Max Univers
on February 8, 2009 10:40 PM |
When you're playing on the road against the first place team in your conference -- a team that has won ELEVEN straight games, a team that beat you on your home court earlier in the season -- its not necessarily important to be picky about "how" you beat them, but merely that you beat them. It is in this vein that I profess not to caring about losing the battle of the boards by nearly 20, and profess apathy at the fact that UNI shot 30-32 from the foul line while Creighton missed ten throws. No, all I care about is one stat: Creighton 77, Northern Iowa 71, natch. You bet.

Here's why that final score is hugely important, besides getting a win and knocking off the first place team on their home court: with five games to go, Creighton is just two back. Further, Illinois State lost a heartbreaker at home to Indiana State (thanks, Coach McKenna!) to knock the Redbirds out of a second-place tie and into third place. Not to get ahead of ourselves here, but this sets up the potential for two things: one, an absolutely BRUTAL season finale on February 28 when the Redbirds come to Omaha, and two, an opportunity to steal the league crown if UNI stumbles.

I wrote earlier in the week that I believed the Jays would go 2-0 on their road trip through Iowa, and was ridiculed by a few of my readers for it. I also wrote that Justin Carter was becoming the best player on the team. I've never been confused with a genius, mostly because I go around telling people how dumb I am despite ample evidence to the contrary, but those thoughts seem awfully smart at the moment.

So lets look closer at this game, because if we didn't, what would I write about? You bet.

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2008-09 Game #16: UNI 69, Jays 66

By
Max Univers
on January 7, 2009 8:12 AM |
For the first time since 1996, Northern Iowa leaves Omaha with a win. Creighton falls to 2-2 in the league after a home court loss to an average UNI team. And you know what?

Its not the loss that's nagging at me, stuck in my craw like a popcorn kernel. I've rooted for the Minnesota Vikings my entire life, so trust me, I know how to deal with a loss. No, my problem is when a team doesn't play hard. If you play with max effort and lose because the other team is better, or simply has a better night, I'm generally OK with that. Teams can learn from that.

I'm not sure you can learn much from a performance when you half-ass your effort. And I'm sorry, that display on Tuesday was not even half-assed. It was more like a quarter-assed effort. I get pissed as hell when players don't give maximum effort. What am I talking about, specifically? Not hustling, not rebounding for fear of contact, not diving for loose balls, not getting back on defense. I'm sorry if I'm off base here, but I don't think its too much to ask for players to play hard EVERY game. Not most games, not when they feel like it, EVERY game. I won't make excuses for you if you don't play hard. For two straight games, this team has played at about 60% effort, and that pisses me off.

And you don't want to piss off The Polyfro.

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Gameday: Northern Iowa

By
Max Univers
on January 6, 2009 7:09 AM |

The Eleventh Annual Polyfro Cup gets underway tonight when Creighton hosts Northern Iowa. For those of you who are new to this site or new to me or new to whatever, the Polyfro Cup is a mythical yet lightly regarded JPEG trophy that is awarded annually to the team with the best record among Creighton, Drake and Northern Iowa.

Why those three schools? Its easy: while I graduated from Creighton, my brother did likewise from Northern Iowa, and our dad from Drake. So every year since 1997, when I became the second in the Univers family to attend a Valley school, we've passed around the "Traveling JPEG" -- a JPEG version of a basketball trophy with three players, one for each school.

It was quite amusing to me for nine of those years, because Creighton won it every year. When I was in school, Drake and UNI were alternatively horrible and terrible, depending on the year. And even when UNI had their renaissance under Chewbacca, er, I mean, Greg McDermott, the Jays seemed to have their number. But then last year...ah, last year. Drake had their renaissance, but they swept the Jays in three games, they swept UNI in two meetings, and BAM the trophy was on its way, traveling via email attachment back to Iowa.

The quest to return it to its rightful place in my Documents folder begins tonight.

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2007-08 Game #22: Jays 74, Northern Iowa 50

By
Max Univers
on February 6, 2008 2:47 PM |
Tuesday night's nationally-televised game was what I refer to as an "Ass-Kicking Buffet." The Jays took all they wanted, came back for more, and after filling up on points and assists, emptied the bench. That's the Old Country Buffet of basketball games, right there. An ass-kicking buffet.

21-7 out of the gates. 33-18 at the half. A high-water mark of 32 points ahead in the second half. You get the picture.

Northern Iowa wasn't a bad team, or at least, I didn't think they were. The game in Cedar Falls was competitive, and they had the same record as the Jays coming in. But this game was as uncompetitive as you'll see, and quite honestly, by the second half the Panthers were phoning it in.

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Gameday: Creighton at Northern Iowa

By
Max Univers
on January 15, 2008 3:15 PM |
School Databank:
Location: Cedar Falls, IA
Enrollment: 10,727
Famous sports alumni: Kurt Warner (NFL), Bryce Paup (NFL)
Last game: Lost to Bradley 75-73
Last game vs Creighton: Jays won 66-55 on 2/13/07 in Omaha
Series: Creighton leads 23-11 (UNI leads 9-7 in Cedar Falls)
Series notes: Creighton has won seven straight vs UNI and 18 of the last 21

Back when I was at Creighton, my brother was in school at UNI. Of course, back then you needed to invent a better word for "terrible" to describe the Panthers' basketball team, because it got old describing them as simply terrible all the time. They stunk. They only beat the Jays one time in those years, an overtime thriller at the old Civic Auditorium. I never heard the end of it.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of time up in Cedar Falls, and likewise my brother spent a lot of time in Omaha. I can't tell you how many times I enjoyed the penny beers at Suds or one of the other great college bars on "The Hill". I can still taste the greasy late-night pizza from the Stein. Cedar Falls is a good time.

After we both graduated, UNI got to be awfully good. And then the smack talk really commenced, because his boys could finally back it up on the court. I'll save you the horror stories of "interesting" bets won and lost between us over the years -- interesting because they're not the sort of bets where money changed hands, if you catch my drift...


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2007-08 Game #16: Jays 68, Northern Iowa 59

By
Max Univers
on January 15, 2008 3:14 PM |
Remember two weeks ago when all those Debbie Downer Jays fans flooded the Bluejay Cafe and talk radio with their Armageddon talk? The Jays had lost two particularly ugly games, falling to 0-2 in the league for the first time since the Rick Johnson era. Well, don't look now, but the Jays have won four straight, three of them on the road, and now sit at 4-2 in the league, 13-3 overall.

Remember two weeks ago when an interview with Dana Altman on a local radio station led a sports talk host to speculate that if a certain Freshman didn't stop whining to the refs and didn't start buying into the Creighton system, he might transfer? Again, don't look now, but that same Freshman has since gone on to be the MVC Newcomer Of The Week in BOTH weeks since that erroneous speculation, has earned a starting spot at guard, and made clutch plays down the stretch in two consecutive road wins.

Tuesday night, a national TV audience (or at least, the 1% of the U.S. not watching American Idol or Ohio State-Michigan) got a chance to see this new crop of Jays first-hand. And they saw a pretty good representation of what this team's made of.


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Season Preview: Northern Iowa

By
Max Univers
on November 7, 2007 7:55 PM |
Over the next several days, I'll be posting previews of each team in the Valley. Today I take a look at the Northern Iowa Panthers.

No. Iowa
2006-07: 18-13
(9-9 MVC)

01.15 at UNI
02.05 at CREI

2006-07 REWIND: What was more annoying for fans of the Panthers last year: hearing the media mention for the 9000th time that their new coach Ben Jacobson was not THAT Ben Jacobson, or missing the NCAA tourney for the first time in four years?

Jacobson's first year saw the team race out to a 13-3 record, and 4-1 in the Valley when the Panthers hosted Creighton in a Friday night tilt in Cedar Falls. Creighton jumped out early, hitting 6 of their first 8 shots and grabbed a 14-4 lead before the first media timeout. The Jays led the entire way, beating UNI 62-54.

By the time the teams rematched in Omaha, UNI was in a free fall. They had won just 3 of their last 10 games, and by the end of the Jays' 66-55 win the Panthers were 16-11 and 7-9 in the league. The game was noteworthy for a huge Creighton comeback, as they trailed from the opening tip until late in the game, before holding UNI without a field goal over the final nine minutes of the game in a 19-3 run.

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2006-07 Game 26: Jays 66, Northern Iowa 55

By
Max Univers
on February 15, 2007 11:52 AM |
Since I can't quite figure out what the hell happened in this game -- which is probably the result of sneaking into the UNI party at Old Chicago before the game, where its a distinct possibility that my drink was spiked -- this recap is going to use what we writers call "gimmicks". Lots of them. It will be pathetic. It will be awesome. It will suck. Pathewsomeck. There's the first gimmick: inventing a new word!

Dearest Mr. Fro,

I'm tragically disappointed that you have decided eating Mini Donuts before or during a Creighton game brings the team bad luck. Further, I was saddened to read that you will no longer be wolfing down the delicious Mini Donuts that bear my name. I want to earn your trust and bring you back in, so let me know what I can do to help?

If you're interested, drop us a line at (email removed) and we'll do our best!

Cheers,
Mr. Mi-Ni Donut, Esq.

My response:

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2006-07 Game 16: Jays 62, Northern Iowa 54

By
Max Univers
on January 14, 2007 5:04 PM |
What's this? A Dana Altman coached team, improving as the year goes along? No! A Dana Altman coached team showing steady improvement as January rolls around, and appearing headed for a peak in late February and March? You don't say! I'm calling Shenanigans here, because that never happens.

All the Debbie Downers and Negative Nancies who appeared to be turning on the team after a sputtering start are now seeing the same things I am: a team finally playing as a team, finally playing solid defense, and finally shooting the ball well. And, there is this too: an 11-5 overall record and a stellar 5-1 in-conference record.

The roll continued Friday night in Cedar Falls, where the Jays led wire-to-wire and beat Northern Iowa 62-54.

Coming out of the gates playing zone -- supposedly a no-no against Northern -- the Jays blitzed out to a 20-4 lead ten minutes into the game. By the time the Panthers figured out ways to scheme the Jays out of the zone, an insurmountable lead had already been built. Northern would get as close as 2 at one point in the second half, but never tied it and never led.

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Max Univers (not his real name) is a graphic designer and author of two books, neither of which you’ve probably heard of. A 2001 graduate of Creighton University’s Journalism program, Max takes time out of his busy nightlife to share his thoughts on Jays hoops here during the season.

Why Univers? Its his favorite font, plus it just sounds really cool as a surname.

Why Polyfro? Years and years ago, Max had a giant afro wig that he wore as part of a Halloween costume. Not wishing to retire its giant fro awesomeness after the holiday, he began wearing the wig out in public as part of his everyday ensemble. One night at a dance club, the DJ called out the moniker over the soundsystem. Max thought it sounded cool, and purchased the URL shortly thereafter.

More questions? Send me an email: max-at-polyfro-dot-com. I like jokes, story tips, and generally all correspondence involving Bluejay athletics. Emails that point out how stupid I am and/or where I should go after I die are not encouraged.

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