My internet access was down the latter half of the week, so I was unable to publish this recap, written on Thursday on my internet-less computer. Some might think I cheated and didn't want to write a recap until after the Xavier game. Not true. But you'll believe what you will, I suppose, regardless of what I tell you. So be it. With that, on to my recap of the Dayton game. You bet.
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The addition of ESPNU to Cox Cable here in Omaha meant I would not have to go out to a bar to see the Jays/Dayton game -- I could watch it in the comfort of my own home, on the couch, in front of the 52" big screen in my basement. So several of my friends came over, and we gathered to watch the Jays and Dayton on The Ocho, I mean, ESPNU.
This raises an interesting question. If ESPN2 is "The Deuce", is ESPNU "The U"? Or does the University of Miami have dibs on that name? Doesn't it kill you when players who played for the Hurricanes announce their school as "The U"? Do doctors and lawyers who graduate from Miami list "Graduated from The U" on their resumes? I mean, the ever-popular (sic) Gloria Estefan refers to it as The U in their TV ads. I don't remember, but when VH1 did her "Behind The Music", did they say she went to "The U" or "The University of Miami"? I need to know these things.
Don't even get me started on the arrogance of "THE Ohio State University".
I'm calling ESPNU "The U", as reparations for the NIT travesty last year, and you can't stop me.
Anyway, since this was a CU party, I busted out a jar of Mr. C's Spaghetti Sauce ("Manufactured according to Mr. C's recipe as served at Mr. C's Restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska!"). Mr. C's. Creighton. Its clever, shut up. And the spaghetti and meat sauce was delicious to boot. So there.
Beers in hand, we settled in at 7:45 to get ready for the game. Western Illinois and Indiana were on The U, and of course it was not only running late, it was a terrible game. Is there anything worse in sports than turning on the channel that your game is on, only to find out the game preceeding it is running over? I remember in 1999, Creighton was playing Evansville for the Valley Tournament championship. The game before it went OT, and they didn't join the Jays game until the 11 minute mark. I was steamed, you don't even know! In 2003, Indiana and Minnesota played a 55-foul sham of a Big Ten game that took 2-1/2 hours to play, and ESPN didn't join the Jays/SIU game until after the under-8 timeout of the first half. Pisses me off.
The score of the Indiana-Western Illinois game was 90-40. We watched the clock, speculating whether The U would cut away when the Jays game started, should they overlap. Why not? This isn't like the Heidi game, there was no way Western Illinois was coming back. We speculated whether they'd foul, just as a cruel torture. The teams emerged from the under-four timeout at 7:54. The refs, God bless their souls, let the teams play through the final four minutes in just five minutes of actual time.
As it turned out, we'd have been better off missing the first part of this game. The entire first half, actually.
So many things went wrong for the Jays in those first 20 minutes, its hard to recount them, so I'll just tell you this: they were awful. Standing around on offense, not energetic on defense, content to get their asses summarrily handed to them by a Dayton team and crowd that wanted the win more. That's enough about the first half; I'm going to get really really upset if I have to think about it anymore.
The only funny thing that happened in that first 20 minutes was when we realized the Dayton scoreboard listed Creighton as the "BJays". That's classic. Flyers vs BJays. You bet. And yes, this may only be funny to guys drinking beer. But I don't think so.
In the first 4 minutes of the second half, the 13-point deficit almost completely evaporated, courtesy of a 15-2 run. They were flying around on defense, rebounding, shooting better, and giving themselves a chance to win. Isacc Miles completely took Dayton's best shooter, Brian Roberts, out of the game, playing intense man-to-man defense on him. Unfortunately, Monty Scott picked up the slack and carried the Flyer offense.
The second half may not have led to a win, but it was a hell of a lot more entertaining to watch, and offers a hell of a lot more hope for the immediate future than we had any right to expect after the first 20 minutes. They found out some good things. That Miles can really, really defend. That Tolliver can dominate on the boards. That Funk's outside shot might be off, but his driving ability is not. And most importantly, that this team isn't going to quit.
There's some who will say none of that matters. They lost, they're 3-2, and that's the bottom line. I beg to differ. The things we saw in the second half, the things I named above, have a chance to be the turning point in the season. As the voices in Bruce Wayne's head tell him constantly in "Batman Begins", why do we fall? So we can pick ourselves up. Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom to realize what needs to be done to get back up. I would argue the first half in Dayton, Ohio was rock bottom. The second half was the Jays beginning their ascent.
We'll find out Saturday against Xavier whether I'm right. I have been wrong before.
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Tonight's player of the game is the true freshman Isacc Miles. His defensive intensity set the tone for the Jays comeback, although it came up short. And his ability to be a lock-down defender against a fantastic shooter with a hot hand like Brian Roberts was a revelation. This guy is only scratching the surface of what he can be. Exciting stuff.
You bet.
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