There's nothing like bad calls to get a crowd riled up. Exhibit A: Saturday night's game against 24th ranked Xavier. At tipoff, the crowd wasn't all that different from other games this year. But three terrible calls, all against Creighton, in the first 150 seconds of the game changed all that.
It was a double-edged sword. Josh Dotzler had two fouls by the 17:30 mark of the half, and sat the bench the rest of the first 20 minutes. One of his fouls was highly questionable and got the crowd incensed. I had barely settled in, and already I had to tell the ref that the only way he would stop blowing is to put his whistle in his pocket. Not the way I like to start a Saturday night, let me tell you.
Barely a minute later, Dotzler was trailing on a fast break, and he absolutely laid out the Xavier shooter. This is the kind of foul that sets the tone for a big game, telling the opponent that you are bringing it tonight. This is also the kind of foul that lands your point guard on the bench for the next 17-1/2 minutes.
But the crowd was crazed. When Isacc Miles was whistled for a questionable foul a minute later, after I'd settled down from telling the referee that his mother is a very ugly woman, my brother announced that if his chicken strips hadn't cost 5-and-a-quarter, he'd have thrown one at the ref. (He wouldn't really have done it, don't worry, but just the thought of wasting quality poultry on such a despicable ref should tell you how bad the call was.)
Creighton made 8 of their first 16 shots, while holding Xavier to 2-13 shooting, and raced out to 19-8 lead, including a 10-0 run. The lady behind me was annoyed with my standing to applaud the Jays outstanding play. This ain't the theater, lady, and when warranted, I'm going to stand, I'm going to be loud, and you are just going to need to deal with it. This would get ugly in the second half, but more on that later.
The A-Train had 12 of his 17 points in that first half, and he had 7 in a row at one point -- against some really solid post players. Xavier is one helluva team, folks. They won't just be playing in March, they'll be playing deep into March. And Creighton absolutely took it to them. They were moving around on offense, making the extra pass to the open man and then hitting the shot. They were ferocious on defense, allowing no open looks, and anticipating passes and then jumping into the pass lane for steals. Tolliver was blocking shots left and right. It was exciting, it was awesome, and it was everything people thought the Jays could be coming into the year.
By halftime, it was 34-26 Jays. You bet.
***
At the half, my brother and I decided it was time for a beer. We came back with the Polyfro Special: a 24-ounce glass of PBR. The guy who sits next to me is a good guy, but he's kind of a beer snob. He'd prefer to drink Bud Light out of an Alumabottle as opposed to a PBR out of a clear plastic cup, and he's not afraid to tell you. Good guy though. Every game, he'll ask mockingly, "Is that a Schlitz?"
I told him I wished it was, but "Nah, its the good stuff. PBR, baby."
His response was classic. "Pabst Blue Ribbon is like making love in a canoe. F*&@ing near water."
I had no response. Just, wow. I mean, I disagreed, but still, that was pretty funny.
***
We made it back in time to see a student shooting for a free trip to Arch Madness in the ConAgra Foods shootout. He had 45 seconds to make a half-court shot. This is very tough, as you'd well imagine. But his first three attempts were amazingly dead on. I mean, a slightly different roll and any of the three would have gone in. Unbelievable. The crowd, ordinarily indifferent to the ConAgra shootout, was now into it. His fourth attempt was short, but the aim was dead on. Then the fifth try went up, and as T Scott would say, "Three on the way...nothing but nylon!" Wow. I've never seen anyone shoot 5 half-court shots so dead-on. And the drama of shooting 4 progressively better shots before making one? That's good stuff. Good for him.
***
Thursday night, I was out at Barrett's with some of the video production team, and a couple of guys from Creighton Athletics. They told me that the "Nate Funk Video" was going to make its debut Saturday. I was psyched. And when it came on at the under-eight timeout, it was epic.
Of course, thirty seconds later the crowd was silenced when Nick Porter's steal and resulting fast break shot attempt was blocked, taken the other way, and Xavier missing not one but two shots, the last culminating in a foul on Porter.
Lucky for the Jays, the Qwest had one more trick up their sleeve: playing Europe's "The Final Countdown" at the under-four timeout. Over at the mothership Polyfro blog, I was on the Europe bandwagon long before the song made a comeback. Long story short, I'd found the cassette laying in our warehouse at work, gathering dust, and listened to it -- finding its hair metal to be surprisingly listenable, even beyond the title track. Hell, I even penned a piece on the cover art for a nationally-syndicated graphic design website. This song never fails to get the crowd stoked. And it never fails to generate great Rocky IV quotes.
"I must break you."
"He's like a piece of iron."
"If I can change, you can change!"
Good times.
***
The second half started with a 9-2 run that ran the lead out to 15. Same intensity on defense, same good looks on offense, same dominant awesomeness. Tolliver had a monstrous block on the first Xavier possession that led to a fast-break basket, setting the tone for the second 20 minutes. From here, the Jays were off and running, and the crowd was up.
Now, Matt Perault can call out Section 113 all he wants for not standing, and he did on his postgame show. He's right, but its more complicated than just saying "Everyone needs to stand up and be loud. The student section was standing all game, but the section opposite them behind the other basket sat down most of the game." I'd like nothing more than to stand up all night. But when you stand up, like I did last night, you can draw the ire of dullards who prefer to sit in their seats and watch the game like its a movie in a theater. Which brings me back to the story I alluded to earlier.
The guy behind to me, husband/boyfriend/random-dude-friend of the lady who despised my standing in the first half, the same guy who sat with his coat in his lap the entire first half, looking like he wanted no part of being at the game, finally had enough at the under-16 timeout.
"You make a better door than a window. Sit down, some of us want to see!"
That's awesome. You're at a basketball game, if you want to see, stand up and look over me, buddy. Maybe others will follow suit.
But I didn't want a fight, because I wanted very much to see the end of the game. So I sat down. But everytime other people in front of me stood up to cheer, I was the first one to follow suit. What was I to do, after all, stay seated like the guy behind me? No chance. I said to him, "You bet. Cheer Or Die, buddy. Cheer or die." Never heard from him again.
Despite a 15 point lead, you knew a rated team as good as Xavier wasn't going away; they were going to make a run. And halfway through the second 20 minutes, Xavier used a 10-2 run to pull within 4. Tolliver picked up his 4th foul just a minute later, and suddenly, things were getting pretty interesting. The hilarious guy two rows behind me, who frequently blurts out the funniest things I've ever heard in such a deep voice that the entire section hears him, tried starting a "Man-ny-Gak-ou!" chant. But Dana had other ideas. Namely, one Ty Morrison.
And Morrison, healthy and finally showing why he was recruited by such powers as Gonzaga, Arizona, Indiana and Minnesota, more than held his own in Tolliver's absence. He even provided a signature moment for the game, with his steal of an inbounds pass and quick shot at the 6:10 mark. It was one of those "No, no, no, YES!" shots, where you're upset with the shot selection until he makes it. But that was a microcosm of the night: hustle and energy and shots falling.
That shot grew the lead to 58-50, and turned the final six minutes into a free-throw shooting contest. Altman subsituted Tolliver for Morrison and vice versa over and over, allowing Morrison to play defense and Tolliver offense as much as possible, keeping his star with 4 fouls in the game. And when Funk hit a three from the corner with 90 seconds left, making it a 66-57 lead, the game was essentially over. Tolliver would foul out with 38 seconds left, but the game was well in hand by then.
***
Color analyst Michael Lindeman gave the player of the game to the crowd. The 15,872 was the biggest crowd in CU history; of course, they announced it as "The biggest crowd ever to see a basketball game in the state of Nebraska" just to needle the Huskers. But I can't give it to the crowd, not when the people behind me got upset with me standing to cheer. Yep.
So I'll give it Anthony Tolliver. His defense against Xavier's tough post players, his 17 points and 3 huge blocked shots in 32 minutes played a huge role in the Jays winning this game. I salute you, A-Train, and I'll have you know that I raised a large beverage stein to you, which may or may not have actually been Heee-Haw, at the bar after the game. Actually, I can guarantee it wasn't, but after a game like this, who cares?
You bet.
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