Its easy to over-react after last night's so-called debacle. After all, Creighton is the 19th ranked (sic) team in the country, and they struggled mightily to beat Nebraska-Omaha, a Division II school so banged up they only played 7 guys.
On the walk to my car, at the bar after the game, everywhere I went the conversation overheard from people around us was pretty much the same: This team is fat and happy, figuratively speaking. They've read too many stories about how great they are. They don't work hard enough. That there's no magic "on" switch they can simply turn on once the regular season starts. That you play how you practice, and they practice sloppy, unenergetic, uninspired basketball.
Come on, everyone. Back off the ledge before the fire department shows up with the cherry picker and a trampoline. Lets talk, and see if can gain some perspective.
***
It could be worse. Minnesota lost to Division II Winona last night. My grampa up in Austin, MN, the biggest Golden Gopher fan in the world, was apocalyptic over that one, believe me. We won the game. And it doesn't count anyway, so lets take what we learned and move on the games that count, shall we?
And what exactly did we learn?
Rationally speaking, there are two truths to this year's team that I've noticed after watching the exhibition season.
One, Dana Altman teams simply can not function offensively without their starting point guard. This has bore itself out over the years as both an obvious trait and an achilles heel.
Remember when Tyler McKinney woke up with his eyesight compromised after washing his contacts in tap water? The morning he woke up and realized he couldn't see well enough to play, CU was ranked in the Top 25, undefeated at 10-0 and well on the way to continuing the momentum from their 29-5 season the year before. The rest of the season, minus their floor general, they went 10-10 and lost in the first round of the NIT.
Or how about last year? From sure-thing NCAA Tourney bid and possible MVC title in its most competitive season to NIT berth. The reason for the collapse? The loss of point guard Josh Dotzler.
Both years, the offense bogged down, became predictable and inefficient without their point guard. The first two exhibitions this season, minus Dotzler, have looked like the end of last season -- without the great defense to keep the team in games despite offensive struggles. This team will struggle to score points and to run an efficient offense until he returns. I know Nick Bahe and Isacc Miles are good players, but man, that offense was painful to watch.
Once Dotzler comes back, the offense will be fine; I hear he could be back in limited minutes as early as Monday. And keep in mind they scored 71 points without him, ugly as it was. Think what will happen when he's back.
Two, there are a lot of new players angling for minutes. Only four players with significant D1 experience are on this team. Everyone else is new. The case can be made that the first two exhibitions have been nothing more than "practices against competition" -- that is, a chance for Altman to play the new guys and figure out what rotations work well together.
I've heard it compared to an NFL-style of exhibition game theory. You know what you can expect from Funk, Tolliver, Porter and Watts. So put them in some different situations, maybe even play them out of position to get them on the floor at the same time as some of the new guys.
Is there a danger in this style, a chance of the players not being ready for the regular season? Sure there is. But you take a chance just getting up in the morning, crossing the street or sticking your face in a fan.
***
Finally, some thoughts on individual players before I give out the player of the game and get to bed on this Wednesday night (well, early Thursday morning -- 1:30 am is technically Thursday I suppose).
I really thought Brice Nengsu had a great game shooting, and he pulled down a team-high 7 boards. But his defense still leaves a lot to be desired.
Tolliver spent WAY too much time around the perimeter, but this may be a side effect of #2 as I discussed above. He played a lot of minutes with Kenny Lawson Jr. and Ty Morrison on the floor with him.
Funk had difficulty getting open -- he created some shots for himself in the second half, but he needs help from his teammates. Set some screens, set some picks, get the man some shots already!
Kenny Lawson. Wow. The big Freshman had himself an awfully nice game, playing solid defense in the middle, scoring 10 points and even had a fastbreak steal that should have been a breakway dunk. He needs to work on his footwork, but he can and will be a major contributor to this team. I think he will take most if not all of Manny Gakou's minutes and be Tolliver's primary backup.
Bahe needs to stop turning it over. Isacc Miles needs to learn from whatever it was that got him suspended for the game. Ty Morrison needs to keep working to get back in shape after battling Graves Disease. And Dustin Sitzmann needs more minutes -- because when he plays, CU blows people out. You could look it up.
***
Tonight's Heee-Haw Soft Drink Player of the Game was going to go to Brice Nengsu. Then I heard the radio guys gave it to him. Here I was going to be unconventional and be different, and name the Cameroon native my POTG. Thanks, guys.
So keeping with the spirit of being unconventional, I'll name Brice the POTG anyway. If the only reason not to give it to him is because Travis Justice already did, that's not good enough on this night. Congrats, Brice. I raise my half-full pint glass of generic Mountain Dew to you.
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