2006-07 Game 9: Jays 80, Houston 72

But its the second quote there that is of particular interest to me. Creighton couldn't even get the ball across half court? On what planet? Has there ever been a game where one team couldn't move the ball across half court against another? Even in high school? At any level? Not that I know of.

The entire conference took offense to the other two quotes, and for good reason. Them's fightin' words.

When the 2006-07 schedule was released, one of the first things I noticed was the teams in the Rainbow Classic bracket. The 2nd round potentially featured a game with those same Houston Cougars. The championship game could potentially be a rematch with Nebraska. Interesting. Fans of other Valley schools have openly admitted to hoping Creighton would blow Houston out to send a message.

During the first round game, Houston's players came out to watch the CU-Valpo game, and made a point of heckling the Jays. The teams crossed paths in the hallway after the game, and Houston's players talked trash. From the OWH:

"They were saying, 'We smell you, Creighton,' " Isacc Miles said. "I heard they were saying no Missouri Valley Conference team can get past half court on their defense. It made us compete and wanted it more."

I called a priest to find out what time I could go to confession on Saturday, because the things I was probably going to yell at Houston and their players couldn't live on my conscience for very long. Lets bring it on, boys.

***

The game starts at a horserace pace, with Houston's athleticism dictating the pace. They made a point of telling the Jays, and even the Jays fans, about how awesome they thought they were after several plays. That's right, even to the fans. Mid-way through the first half, Dion Dowell pointed to the Jays fans and yelled out some things I'd prefer not to type. The TV announcers -- our ol' buddies Soupy and TC -- picked up on it, commenting that it seemed completely unnecessary and unbecoming.

Cougars players were pounding their chests after scoring, and screaming insults on defense. A couple of times, they dunked and did a chin-up on the rim to accentuate their supposed dominance, followed by a primal scream akin to Roger Daltry on "Won't Get Fooled Again". Dane Watts told the OWH, "There was a lot of jabbering going on, but we just tried to keep our mouths shut. That's not really our game and we're not going to let that affect us."

For all of the jabbering, the game was back and forth, and was extraordinarily entertaining in the first half, which featured 11 lead changes. Houston led 41-39 at the break, but the stat I was counting was the number of times Creighton was able to get the ball across half court. Seeing as Tom Penders said CU couldn't even do it once, I figured it shouldn't be too tough even with my limited math skills to be able to count them. The results through 20 minutes:

26 times. I bet Penders had to have his assistants give the halftime speech, because after realizing he was full of crap, he probably needed most of that 15 minutes to engage in an epic dump session in the locker room bathroom. A four-flusher, I'm guessing.

The second half was a series of big runs by both teams, who played at a breakneck pace that appeared to be as fun to play as it was to watch. The Jays unleashed as 12-3 run out of the break to go up 51-44. Houston went on a run to close it to 60-58. The Jays hit two threes sandwiched around a Cougar bucket to build their lead out to 6, and then turned the tables on the Cougars' jabbering.

As the Jays lined up to defend the inbounds pass, Dane Watts slapped the court with his hands to signal to the defense it was time to step it up. One after another, the other Jays on the court did the same. It was a sign of solidarity, of motivation, and a sign to Houston that not only can we bring the ball across half court against you, we're going to beat you.

Houston is quick, big, and athletic, but Creighton went toe to toe with them, giving them few if any open looks. They are going to get fast breaks and quick possessions, but compared to other Houston games I've seen this year, CU forced them into longer possessions, a more deliberate half-court offense, and my observations were bore out in the final stats: a team averaging 88 points a game scored just 72.

After Watts' signal, the Jays went on a 10-2 run to build an insurmountable 76-64 lead.

Houston's runs lasted much shorter than CU's, because the CU coaches were able to call timeouts to show the players what Houston was doing and how to stop it. The Jays' big runs could have probably been stemmed somewhat if Houston had a coach on the sidelines to teach them what Creighton was doing, and how to stop it. But they didn't; they had Penders, who's just a chaperone in charge of watching over the players to make sure they stay out of trouble on the court. Oh, wait, he stinks at that too. I don't know what he is, then.

Or maybe I do. Penders is an idiot. Yeah, that's it.

The Jays fans, outnumbering Houston's 3 to 1, began chanting "Half Court! Half Court!", and Tom Penders briefly flashed a look of bewilderment. No doubt, he was wondering how his team could allow a squad such as Creighton, who he believed couldn't get the ball across half court against his team, had not only lost but given up 80 points.

You bet, Tommy, you bet.

***

Its hard to argue with Dane Watts being the Heee-Haw Player Of The Game. The man had 21 points, 10 rebounds, went 4-6 from three point range, had 4 assists and played lock-down defense all night. He'd certainly be your POTG if you were a conventional picker. But I don't do anything conventionally, as you well know.

So I'm going with Nick Bahe. His two three-pointers in 14 solid minutes off the bench both came at key times. But his Plain White T under his jersey goes along so well with my opening to this article about not hating Houston, just really, really, really not liking them, that how can I not name him POTG?

I can't, so you sir are the Polyfro Heee-Haw Player of the Game.

You bet.