Game Two: Jays 116, Nebraska-Kearney 84
Last year, I opined on the strange phenomenon of fans' fascination with a team scoring 100 points in a college basketball game. It happens pretty rarely, and when it does, generally there's some drama and tension surrounding the getting to it. More often than not, its a blowout, so the team's reserves are the ones attempting to get to 100 in the waning moments.
And then there's last night's game between Creighton and Nebraska-Kearney. The Jays blew past the 100 barrier with almost 6 minutes remaining, and wound up with 116 in their blowout win. I had to go back and consult my trusty Jays record book to find out if they'd ever scored that many before. Since last night was an exhibition game, it doesn't technically count, but apparently the most points they've ever scored in a "real" game was 124 against Miami Florida in February 1964.
The game was very similar to a 1-16 matchup in the first round of an NCAA Tourney. UNK came out swinging, and in the first 4 minutes actually had a lead. You could imagine Jim Nantz saying as CBS went to commercial "We've got a game in Omaha! The Lopers with the early lead!" Then after the timeout, Creighton settled down, went on a little run, buried the Lopers by the 10-minute mark, and Billy Packer had a blowout with which to fill air time with ludicrous analysis and ridiculous indefensible proclamations. At halftime, the Jays already had 64 points. The "Godfathers Pizza 70 Point Reward" that sometimes is a struggle to achieve was met just 90 seconds into the second half, and you could imagine Greg Gumbel breaking in to say "With this game well in hand, lets switch you to a more competitive game..."
Along the way, there were several plays worth the price of admission. Late in the first half, newcomer Brice Nengsu skied for an alley-oop dunk where I swore he was 4 feet off the ground. Talk about big time air. And then in the second half, on a fast break Johnny Mathies bounced the ball off the backboard from the top of the key, and Jeffrey Day caught the rebound and slammed it home. Best dunk I've ever seen at a Creighton game, and I've been to a helluva lot of 'em. This includes all of the rim-shattering Rodney Buford dunks in the late 90s. Just...I mean, it was incredible. Of course, Coach Altman immediately removed Day from the game. It was a great dunk, but it was also sort of a showboat move.
Incidentally, can I say that its about time we had a player from Compton? Dropping lines from NWA songs every time Nick Porter makes a play never gets old.
So officially:
$5 Schlitz Beers consumed: 8 (4 cans each by Donovan and myself)
Badass Dunks: 3
NWA song lyrics dropped: 4 (all by Donovan)
Occurrences of "The Altman Face": 7
Good times. Final score Creighton 116, The Lopers 84.
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