Recently in 2005-06 Game Recaps Category

Before heading out to watch the game on Saturday night, I had ESPN College Gameday on and the usually well-researched and respected Jay Bilas dropped the following line when talking NCAA tourney teams with the despicable Digger Phelps (don't even get me started on DP or things will get ugly in a hurry):

"I really think the committee is going to have to take a close look at these Valley teams. They need to determine how much their RPI's are artificially inflated by playing each other. I really think there's two teams, maybe three deserving out of there."

I think what incensed me more than anything was the intonation in his voice when he said "these Valley teams", almost as though they all had leprosy. Of course, his toeing the national media party line of saying the MVC only deserves two or three teams in the tourney was bad too. But the hypocracy of saying their high RPI's were the result of playing each other, and thus, articficially inflated their RPI's, was just too funny to imagine. For years this is what the Big Six have done -- play cupcakes in November and December, and let their league games raise their RPI. Why is this suddenly a bad thing, Jay, when a "little guy" does it? Please explain it to me, my email is listed below, Jay. Are you threatened by the thought of someone outside the Big Six possibly being as good as the Big Six? Wichita State, Missouri State, Creighton, oh my!

Saturday was the Creighton-Southern Illinois game. I really don't want to bore you with too many details of CU's 6th consecutive loss to the hated Egyptian Dogs, so I'll just give you some bullet points.

-CU played poorly, but much of that has to do with SIU. They are a terrible matchup for the Jays. Their aggressive, hand-check defense forces you to run your offense 30 feet from the basket, and results in bad shots, turnovers and early fatigue. The fact that they have the athletes to run this system well is a big reason they've not only won the league so much, but made deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. Their old coach, Bruce Weber, has got Illinois to buy into this system -- with Big Ten Caliber athletes -- and they went like 35-2 last year and lost in the National Championship game. Southern Illinois deserved to win the game, just like they have the last five.

-That said, they still get away with a lot of cheap and occasionally dirty shots. Not Wichita State-dirty, but still. Their hand-check defense is mostly illegal but since you simply can't call a hand-check on every play, they get away with it about 60-70% of the time. They play rough, and run so many bodies at you its possible for them to sacrifice a player or two with foul trouble. The cheap shot on Josh Dotzler -- a moving screen that knocked him hard to the court square on his knee, resulting in what appears to be a broken kneecap was not even called a foul. Trust me, if it was possible to break my arm rest on my chair, it would have happened at that point. If this was the old Civic where some of the chairs in the student section came out and were throwable, mine would have been on the court. There's a time for calm measured analysis, and there's a time for throwing things.

-Don't get the wrong idea though: I respect what SIU has been able to do, winning as many games as they do. But respect and liking are two different things. I respect their program. I hate their guts.

his isn't exactly a news flash, but I'm not the most responsible person in the world. According to the Gallup Strengths Finder, its one of my bottom five strengths, in fact, along with Deliberative. This means I do not enjoy routine and structure, and I do not take psychological ownership of what I say I will do. Simply put, I'm a free-spirited irresponsible dude.

Also, this means when I say I will be in Des Moines at 2pm on Saturday, what I really mean is I'll leave Omaha at 2pm and get there at 4pm.

Oh, I had intended on being there at 2, but things happened. Things like Double Overtime in the Southern Illinois-Wichita State game, which I stayed and watched to its conclusion before leaving. The Colorado was outside warming up as regulation ended, but it sat out there running for another 30 minutes as two overtimes played out. By the time I went to the bank and got gas, it was 2pm before I got on I-80 to Des Moines.

I felt sorta bad about it, but my attention was soon diverted by severe spillage of my beverage.

I've been to over 100 Creighton games in the 10 years I've lived here in Omaha, and I've never been present for a game-winning shot at the buzzer. Until Saturday night. For that matter, I've never been in an arena, or a stadium, or a ballpark and seen my team win on a last-second play. Until Saturday night.

Saturday night, Creighton fell behind 25-6 in the first 12 minutes of the game. A furious comeback put them in position for Anthony Tolliver to hit a 15-foot jumper as time expired to win 57-55. The entire 12-second sequence unfolded right in front of us...

As Johnny Mathies brought the ball up the court, my old college roommate John (who was in town for the game) was incredulous that the Jays weren't calling timeout. When I watched the TiVo of the game the next day, the TV announcers shared that opinion. I knew better -- Dana Altman prefers his teams to go for the winning shot without calling timeout. Sure, you can set up a play, but the defense can too, and he's always trusted his teams to create a shot without having to draw something up. Sometimes it backfires, like in the 2004 NIT game against Nebraska. Sometimes like Saturday night, it works beautifully.

I'm still not exactly sure when Bradley became such a heated, despised opponent, but last night was the most physical, black and blue game I can remember seeing in several years. Easily the roughest game in the history of the Qwest Center. Easily. Three technical fouls. One shoving match. A coach out on the floor pulling players apart. A cheap shot intentional foul sending Dane Watts crashing face first into the basket support. Several fans being escorted out for making comments deemed in poor taste. And, oh yeah, a pretty good ball game in between.

Jays played a lackluster first half, and were behind 38-28 going in to the break. In the first five minutes of the second half, Creighton took the fight to Bradley, both literally and figuratively. Before the first TV timeout, the game was tied and two players had scuffled -- and been Teed up. The tensions only ratcheted up from there, and the hot start extended into an 18-4 run and a lead Creighton would never again give up en route to a 80-76 win.

An alley-oop dunk to Anthony Tolliver at the one-minute mark gave the Jays a 10 point lead and should have punctuated the win. But in that last minute, Bradley scored an incredible 16 POINTS!!! In a minute!! They were raining threes from everywhere on the court, fouling to stop the clock, and then hitting more threes. I've never seen anything like it. When they cut the lead to 77-76 with 17 seconds left, I was too stunned to even speak. Had they come back to win, I might still be in that predicament. Luckily, the Jays held on in what was the second most physical game I've been witness to in person. Still can't match the Creighton-UNI game up in Cedar Falls 8 or 9 years ago where one of the Creighton players, Doug Swenson I think, actually threw a punch at a Northern Iowa player and started a brawl. I was scared for my life that night, being on the road. We were at home this time at least.

JAYS 78, Missouri State 56

Lets put this thing to rest, shall we? On a night when Creighton Basketball went head to head with Nebraska Football, in a bowl game no less, 13,898 tickets were sold. More importantly, 11,547 people came through the turnstiles. So to all the haters, all the people who talked smack to us Jays fans that no one would be at the game; that we'd all rather be watching Nebraska on TV somewhere -- turns out, um, NO. You bet.

Props to the arena PA for ignoring the Husker game and refusing to announce the score at any point during the game, even at halftime when they read the out-of-town basketball scores. And for that matter props to everyone who showed up to make everyone notice Jays basketball is not simply a bandwagon of disgruntled Husker fans.

Well then, with that off my chest, on to more important things.

Jays 61, Xavier 59

A couple of years ago, when I was in Cincinnati for a few days at a conference, I had a chance to talk hoops with several of the locals at a bar one night. I was curious if they were Cincinnati or Xavier fans. Certainly, the Bearcats were the more successful program, but Xavier with none of the thuggery or drunken coaches was the better program. I was somewhat shocked to learn, at least in their opinion, that Xavier was who almost everyone pulled for. They had played Creighton that year and won in Omaha on a late shot, after handing Kyle Korver's 02-03 Jays their first loss in Cincinnati a year earlier, so they knew of the Jays and had much respect for their program.

Over the past four years, these two Jesuit schools have played some absolutely fantastic games, all three won by a combined 11 points. In a way, these two programs are almost mirror images. I'm glad they have decided to continue this series thru the 07-08 season, and likely beyond. Creighton and Xavier should play every year, dammit.

Tonight's game was originally part of a proposed Jesuit classic, including Gonzaga and Marquette, to be put on by ESPN in the vein of their Big 10-ACC Challenge. But Gonzaga and Marquette wouldn't agree to do it. Whatever. XU and CU still locked horns, and it was a good game.