We're a Valley family. My dad went to Drake, I went to Creighton and my brother went to Northern Iowa. My brother's wife also went to Northern Iowa. And I used to date a girl who went to Wichita State -- opportune words there being "used to". A man has got to have standards.
So every winter, the smack talk begins. Anytime UNI and Drake play, Drake and Creighton, or any other permutation of the three, things get pretty heated, in a familial sort of way, of course. All year long, I've heard the stories.
"Drake is pretty good this year."
"Did you see them beat Iowa State at Hilton?"
"Hey, how about Drake running Iowa out of the gym? Some game, huh?"
"Dr. Tom is going finally has the athletes to run his press. Drake is going to be in the hunt for the MVC title!"
"You know son, I remember when we made the Final Four in 1969...we went 26-5 and had UCLA beat in the semifinal! And NOBODY beat UCLA!"
How's that 0-5 conference record working out for you?
You bet.
***
Tuesday night, the annual showdown began when Creighton hosted the Drake Bulldogs.
My dad made the three-hour drive to Omaha for the game, and because he couldn't decide between being cordial and rude, wore a Creighton sweatshirt over a Drake polo shirt. Nice. His opening line? "Can't you let us have this one? Please?" Um, no. Sorry.
I was curious, having watched both the Drake-Iowa and Drake-Iowa State games on TV, how the team that looked so good in those games could be 0-4 in league play. And the "The Valley is just that good this year!" excuse doesn't cut it. The excuses I got were that they have no depth in the post, so if you get Alou Keita in foul trouble, they struggle in the paint; Ajay Calvin is a streaky shooter and when he's off, look out; and Klayton Korver is not the shooter he was before his injury.
Well, Creighton dominated for about 34 minutes on Tuesday night, and managed to exploit every one of those weaknesses. The Jays raced out to a 13-point lead, and were ahead 29-16 at the under-eight timeout. At this point, their crisp passing, fantastic shot selection and passable defense led my dad, who'd seen just one Creighton game this year (parts of the Missouri State game on The Deuce, during commercials of the Iowa-Texas football game) to ask a fair question:
How exactly is it that Creighton is 9-5? Because this looks like a pretty good team to me. And their point guard is out?
Fair question. He knew all about the perimeter defense woes, but their struggle to hold leads of any substantial amount was a fairly new discovery, and as such I hadn't given him that scouting report. See, if you blow a couple of big leads late in the first half or early in the second half, you've done just that: blown a couple of big leads. Lots of good teams do it at some point or another. But when it happens repeatedly, its something more.
Is it the lack of a killer instinct? Is it the lack of a consistent third scoring option to compliment those times when Funk and Tolliver go cold at the same time? Is it just a side-effect of a team that has struggled to score all year?
Yes, yes, and, um, yes. Maybe. No. I don't know, actually. Is that what you wanted to hear? I don't know@#! What I do know is if T. Scott "Voice of the Jays" Marr's theory that every team has a unique identity is true, then this team's identity is "Blowing Big Leads".
Hawai'i. Indiana State. Missouri State. Evansville. Drake?
Yes, even Drake. You see, after that timeout, the Jays never scored another field goal the rest of the half. In another of their patented meltdowns, they allowed Drake to go on a 12-0 run (15-1 if you count the free throw that broke the 0-ness). Then Drake actually went ahead 31-30 in the closing moments -- before two free throws from Nate Funk put the Jays up 32-31. Good grief.
My dad was elated. Besides being behind by just 1 on the road, his Bullpuppies finished the half on an energy-sapping 15-3 run. I was nervous -- remembering the horror of 2002 when Drake beat the Jays on Senior Night to cost them the outright Valley title.
But I needn't worry. In the first 130 seconds of the second stanza, Creighton rolled off a 9-1 run to go up by 9 at 42-33. And they followed that up with a 10-0 run that put them up 54-38.
Folks, they shot 18-23 for a brisk 78.3% in that second half. Holy crap, 78%. Seventy-eight-percent. Rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Whats more, they had 25 assists and 29 made baskets -- my Iowa High School math tells me that only 4 baskets were unassisted. That's phenomenal. Why people weren't making a big deal about this is beyond me.
So the Jays beat back the Woofies by 23, but along the way, they did more than just blow out a winless team. They discovered some things about themselves, I think.
Don't provoke The Tolliver, or The Tolliver will shame you. Not one, not two, but THREE monstrous dunks, and filled up the ol' stat sheet with 18 points, 6 boards, 6 assists, and 5 blocks. The first of his monster dunks damn near turned into Chocolate Thunder Redux, as he just about forcibly separated the rim from the backboard.
Darryl sez "Bring it, big man".
After that dunk, The Tolliver walked purposely in the direction of the stands, a look of absolute ferociousness in his eyes that I've never seen from him before. My dad turned to me quizzically and said, "Who's he talkin' to?" Of course, I was kinda busy standing and yelling to hear him, so that may or may not actually be what he said.
Just a big, big, monster game from The Tolliver. But equally impressive, albeit on a more passive scale, was the game from Nick Bahe. With a sore ankle and a fat lip, he hit 5 three-pointers for 15 points. [channeling The Sports Guy] As Bahe shakes more rust off his game every night, he is becoming a latter-day Matt West/Jimmy Motz instant-offense guy and frankly, I couldn't be more excited. I'm thoroughly enjoying the Nick Bahe Era. [end channel]
And on top of all that, we had a Sitzmann Sighting™. All in all, quite a night. Bragging rights are mine for exactly three days -- the Jays travel to Cedar Falls to take on my brother's Northern Iowa Angry Squirrels on Friday night.
***
If I don't name The Tolliver as the Heee-Haw Soft Drink POTG, I have this sneaking suspicion that The Tolliver will shame me. So name you, I will, sir. Eighteen points, three dunks, six rebounds, six assists, five blocks. One can of slightly-sampled and luke-warm Heee-Haw are the spoils of your victory. Enjoy.
Leave a comment