Gameday: Northern Iowa

By
Max Univers
on January 6, 2009 7:09 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.
Continue reading Gameday: Northern Iowa.

2008-09 Game #15: Illinois State 86, Jays Much Less

By
Max Univers
on January 4, 2009 9:52 AM | | TrackBacks (0)
The response to the Jays' 22-point loss in what was (so far) the biggest game of the year was eminently predictable. Because taken on the surface, that was what my old college roommate used to call "An ass kicking buffet." Illinois State kicked the Jays posterior, and then came back for seconds, and thirds, and later, dessert. The Redbirds were faster, more athletic, more fundamentally sound, played better defense, and hit every open shot. They were better in every aspect of the game. Period.

Its becoming a disturbing trait of this team that when they don't shoot well, the rest of their game goes into the crapper too. When Booker Woodfox is hitting shots and P'Allen is making plays, they rebound, play defense and beat good teams like Dayton and St. Joes. When they have an off night shooting, they get outrebounded by a million, play Bullfighter Defense, and lose the game.

Their energy for the other aspects of the game come from offense, which is not a recipe for success, because you're going to have nights where shots don't fall. Those are the nights that separate the good teams from the great teams. Do you win the games when you shoot 35% from the field and only make a couple of threes? The teams that do are the ones who win league championships.
Continue reading 2008-09 Game #15: Illinois State 86, Jays Much Less.

2008-09 Game #14: Jays 79, Indiana State 61

By
Max Univers
on December 31, 2008 1:11 PM | | TrackBacks (0)
In honor of the dozens of people in attendance at this game (official attendance was 2988 but really, if there was more than 500 there I'll eat my shoe), I'm going to keep this short. During the postgame comments on the radio broadcast, as I was collecting my thoughts to write something you might enjoy reading free of charge on this here blog, my phone rang. I ignored it, because when Dana talks, I listen. This is one of my rules, and its gotten me in trouble with many ladies over the years.

On this day, I should have made an exception. See, it was an advertising agency calling to invite me in for an interview on Friday, and by ignoring it, they left a message that I was then forced to return. Not the end of the world, you say? Maybe not, but it might be bad karma. I don't know. What I do know is when you're unemployed, the usual rules probably shouldn't be enforced. Even when listening to Dana after his 500th win.

Jays predictably win by 18, 79-61, which is very close to what I predicted, hence why I say it was predictable. I pegged it at 76-59, and that's the closest I've been to being dead-on all year. Maybe that's good karma to offset the earlier bad karma I mentioned.

Anyway, the Jays are 12-2 overall, 2-0 in the league, and head into a big early season game at Illinois State this weekend. Illinois State is playing better than they have since the halcyon days of Rico Hill, and it remains to be seen if the Jays have a player the caliber of Rodney Buford to counter with. We'll see.

I'm off to give some last minute touch-ups to my portfolio and then I'll try to stay upright tonight on New Years for the first time in years, because on Friday, apparently, surprisingly, I've got a big interview at a big ad agency. Good for me, good for the Jays, good for everyone! Happy new years to you all, and wish me luck!

Gameday: Indiana State

By
Max Univers
on December 31, 2008 7:59 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Wednesday, the Jays compete in the rare midweek day game. Actually, outside of St. Louis, this is the first time I can remember the Jays playing a weekday matinee. Couple that fact with Indiana State's usual tepid attendance, and today's gate numbers might be a race to 2,000. Anyone remember the game two years ago that took place at the same time as a Colts playoff game? There couldn't have been triple digits in that place, including staff and players.

The Hulman Center is a quaint place, more gymnasium than arena, and its been at least seven or eight years since I remember an imposing atmosphere in there. In February of 2001, the Jays went into Terre Haute and stole a win from the Michael Menser-led Trees, 77-71, in front of over 7,000 spectators. Every game since has been played in front of fewer and fewer people.

Add in the fact that Creighton hasn't won their MVC road opener since 2004, and this begins to look like the proverbial trap game -- mediocre opponent, no crowd, weekday matinee. Then you factor in the fact that the guy on the other bench was mentored by Dana Altman AND played for Creighton, and you start to wonder if this is a loss waiting to happen.

At least, I do. I'll try to talk myself out of it by the end of this post, when I make my prediction official.
Continue reading Gameday: Indiana State.

2008-09 Game #13: Jays 68, Wichita State 56

By
Max Univers
on December 29, 2008 9:47 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
On Sunday night, the Missouri Valley Conference portion of the schedule opened, with the *ahem* Wichita State Shockers in town. I always believed Mark Turgeon was a good coach, and was sad/surprised when he bolted for Texas A&M before last season. Turgeon's replacement, Gregg Marshall, has rubbed me the wrong way in his year-plus in Wichita. His dealings with the Omaha media have been rude and condescending (see: Matt Perrault's interview last year). His behavior during games has been hot headed and ridiculous (see: getting ejected from the MVC Tourney last March). His comments after games have been inflammatory (see: accusing Creighton of showboating with the game in-hand).

Ah yes, that last one. Since I wasn't listening, I found out about it when a reader emailed to tell me all about it.

"Max, I share your low opinion of Gregg Marshall based on first impressions last year. I hope I'm able to change my mind about him as time goes by, but right now his personality is as abrasive as 70-grit sandpaper on glass. Tonite. the esteemed Double G accused Creighton of running up the score after the game on his radio show. I was driving back to Nebraska by way of Kansas, and couldn't get the 590 signal so I was listening to the Wichita broadcast on AM 1330. After the game, they were interviewing Double G and he said something to the effect of 'They ran an alley-oop out of a timeout with 50 seconds left, when they were winning by 16.' The best part? 'That will come back to haunt them.' Really? A play that I don't remember happening will come back to haunt them? Since you were at the game, please tell your readers about this alley-oop with 50 seconds left that Marshall believes was drawn up by Coach Altman. I'm dying to find out about it. Take care, enjoy the site...Yahoo in Wahoo."

Well, Yahoo in Wahoo (not his real name, I'm hoping), I'm not really sure what he/you are talking about, so I'm going to have to consult the game tape and the play-by-play in the box score to figure out what Marshall is so upset about. What I found, after the jump...
Continue reading 2008-09 Game #13: Jays 68, Wichita State 56.

Gameday: Wichita State

By
Max Univers
on December 28, 2008 2:38 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Since I'm writing this from a rest area in Iowa (thank to free WiFi, woohoo!) I'll keep it short and to the point. There's a creepy guy with a scraggly beard pacing around the building who looks scared by my "demon machine", and I don't really want to hang around too long. He's asked me more than once why I have lighted fruit on my computer. Seems too much work to explain to him its an Apple, and all Mac laptops have the Apple logo on the back of the monitor, which yes, lights up from the light of the monitor. Sooo, you know, never mind.

Prediction: Jays 79, Shockers 64

2008-09 Game #12: Jays 83, DePaul 75

By
Max Univers
on December 24, 2008 7:29 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
...or should I say DEPAUL 38 17:21 CREIGHTON 50?

That's a little inside joke, never mind. On Tuesday in Vegas, the Jays played an athletic Big East team (and I use the word "team" loosely) in DePaul, and were murdered so violently on the boards that the authorities are going to have to call in Gil Grissom to survey the damage for DNA samples to determine just what went wrong.

None of this would be necessary if A) the Jays didn't allow Mac Koshwal to nearly outrebound them ALL BY HIMSELF and B) the webcast showed time and score, and live stats were available.

I don't know about you, but I love it when I'm watching a webcast and I have to bust open a text document on screen to manually keep track of the score. I mean, I just LOVE (sic) it when that happens. In the first half, the webcast with no radio or TV announcers was quaint, and I actually kinda dug it. I've always wanted to watch games on TV with judge the PA and ambient crowd noise, and for 20 glorious minutes, I got my wish. You could hear the roar of the 1,100 people in attendance, most of them Jays fans. You could hear the PA guy announce fouls and points scored. It was grand.
Continue reading 2008-09 Game #12: Jays 83, DePaul 75.

Gameday: DePaul

By
Max Univers
on December 23, 2008 1:09 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
I've made no secret of the fact that I'm no fan of the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic. See here and here. Oh, and here. But since we can't change the tourney or its participants, at least the Jays opponent this evening in the title game is DePaul. While neither the Blue Demons or the Billikins are great opponents, playing a third A-10 school wouldn't necessarily be a huge boost to the RPI. Meanwhile, if they can beat DePaul, they'll at least have the benefit of the Big East's likely #1 conference RPI on their schedule strength. Granted, DePaul might be one of the worst teams in the Big East, but still, its better than beating Southern. Or playing Southern. Or having to watch Southern. In fact, lets just change the topic, shall we?

When last the Jays saw DePaul, they were a "potential" sleeper team in the Big East, coming into the Qwest Center for a rare Friday night game. I use the word potential loosely, because it was really only DePaul fans who believed they were a sleeper team, but someone believed it, which doesn't technically make saying it now a false statement. Right? Right. The Jays fell behind big early, before a huge rally led by P'Allen Stinnett's virtuoso scoring performance: 9-12 from the floor, 5-5 from behind the arc, 23 points, all in the second half. After that game, Blue Demons fans watched in horror as their team went 11-19 and 6-12 in the league.

Back is Mac Koshwal, who averages a double-double and grabbed 11 rebounds last year in Omaha. Also back is Dar Tucker, who averages 18 points and 6 boards. Tucker was in foul trouble most of the night last year, and fouled out with just 8 points, although he did grab 6 boards. DePaul outrebounded the Jays 41-38 in last year's game, and their best Windex men from that contest will be playing tonight. Sounds like a good test of the Jays improvement on the boards to me.
Continue reading Gameday: DePaul.

2008-09 Game #11: Jays 84, Fresno State 65

By
Max Univers
on December 23, 2008 9:10 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
I took some major league heat via my inbox after the lashing I gave to the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic yesterday. Apparently not everyone agrees with my harsh assessment of the tournament. And really, shouldn't it have the word "Tournament" in the name instead of "Classic"? There's nothing classic about it. I mean, how low does your attendance have to be for the official box score to not even bother listing it? The article on GoCreighton.com says the crowd was "sparse"; the box score simply ignores it entirely.

I know that as I listened to the game on the radio, it seemed like I could hear individual voices in the crowd. This is never a good thing, I can assure you, although it did bring back memories of the Civic. At least at the Civic there was free Godfathers Pizza at halftime. In this game, there was just a 38-38 tie in an ugly game against a bad opponent.

Wait, I take back the "bad" thing. Paul George is a good player, and may become a great player if he progresses the way he appears he will. Holy cow, that guy can score, rebound, pass...he's the entire package. He was as advertised, and the Fresno fans were selling me on the fact he was great, so that's saying something.
Continue reading 2008-09 Game #11: Jays 84, Fresno State 65.

Gameday: Fresno State

By
Max Univers
on December 22, 2008 11:01 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
I'm an optimistic fellow, and even I'm finding a tough time justifying the Jays presence in the Las Vegas Classic. If the purpose of an exempt tournament is to play top teams you couldn't otherwise play, its a failure. Fresno State and DePaul have been on the schedule recently, and St. Louis isn't exactly lighting the world on fire. If the purpose is to get national television exposure, its a failure. The games are only available via webcast from a dubious site that won't even allow customers to pre-order the game. And if the purpose is get games to impress the selection committee come March, its also a failure. If they win, tis tournament does absolutely nothing to improve their chances of getting into the field and/or earning a better seed, and a loss will absolutely be a scuff mark on their record.

As a matter of fact, the only thing I can find to remotely justify playing in this thing is that it allows P'Allen Stinnett a chance to play before his hometown friends and family. That's a good thing. But its the only good thing.

And don't even get me started on pulling out of last year's tourney to take the Canada trip. I'm officially changing my answer to that quandary to "Bad Idea". I argued until I was even bluer in the face than I normally am that it was a defensible position. No longer. This tournament is crap, there's absolutely nothing to gain from it and there's a huge amount to lose. There. I said it.

The game against Southern, while a win, dropped the Jays' RPI almost 40 spots simply by having the worst team in America on the schedule. Playing Fresno State, number 241, tonight will probably also precipitate a drop even with a win. And playing the winner of DePaul and St. Louis? 115 and 202, respectively. I'm not afraid to call a turd a turd, and this tournament is a turd sandwich made of Bulldogs and Demons (and possibly Billikins).

No, I'm not bitter or anything, but thanks for asking and showing concern for my well being.
Continue reading Gameday: Fresno State.
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About the Author

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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