For Saturday's game, my parents made the 3-1/2 hour drive to Omaha. My mom hadn't been to a game since I was a student, which is coming up on six years now. So she hadn't been to the Qwest Center -- the last Jays game she was at took place at the venerable Civic Auditorium. Her sudden interest in attending a game had a decidedly non-hoops reason: she wanted to see the tunnelwalk video that I helped to produce. Parental pride, you know.
Around the first of the year, I circled the Indiana State game for a couple of reasons. One, it was an afternoon game, and two, there should be plenty of tickets available for that one. So of course, by the time they decided to make the drive, the game was already sold out.
Luckily, my dad was in town on business and attended the Drake game earlier this year, so on Saturday, it was a no-brainer which of them would be using my other ticket. And after watching a zillion of my games from 3rd grade up to high school, she's a pretty astute fan of the game, often picking up on things that I don't even notice. You watch that many games, you're bound to pick up some things. Between my brother's baseball playing and my basketball, she became an expert in two sports.
I'm as guilty of this as anyone, but its easy as die-hard Jays fans to forget what things were like just a few short years ago. Going to a game with 15,000 of your closest friends all decked out in Bluejay gear just didn't happen as recently as my senior year -- 2000-01. The Jays averaged 6,561 fans a game that year, and drew 91,858 fans for 14 home dates.
You can imagine her shock and amazement when she walked into a game that drew over 17,000 people. It took 3 games to get that many fans the last time she was here for a game.
Anyway, I didn't come here to bore you with a history lesson. And for the record, my mom thought the video was "really great", and she cried at the end knowing I worked on it. But she also cries during sappy commercials and watches Hallmark Hall of Fame movies on Sunday nights, so that doesn't really mean anything.
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Sometimes, you need to win "ugly" if you're going to be a championship-calibre ballclub. You need to be able to pull out a win on nights that you don't have your "A" game. That's what happened on Saturday as the Jays improved to 14-7 overall and 8-3 in the conference.
The surprising thing to me was, for all its ugliness, this game was not lacking for indelible imagery. There were several memorable moments, not the least of which was Nick Porter taking verbal heat from the Indiana State bench for several possessions, followed by Porter draining a three in front of them, and then turning to give them the evil eye all the way back down the court, as if to say, "Did you see that?!"
There was yet another Olympic-volleyball-spike from Anthony Tolliver. Seriously, he's going to impale somebody one of these days. Courtside seats are going to have to start carrying a disclaimer on the back of the ticket stub like lower-deck seats at a baseball game, warning against balls entering the crowd at high speeds. There's nothing better than a monstrous block, is there?
Maybe. How about Manny "Being Manny" Gakou playing extended minutes with Tolliver in foul trouble, and actually acquitting himself rather decently? A common misperception: people don't like Gakou. Quite the contrary, I think most people would really love to see Gakou be able to provide decent minutes subbing for Tolliver over the last month-plus of the season. Cloning the game he had on Saturday would be fine with me -- and if the second-half play where he laid down the smack on a slasher who dared to enter the lane with him could happen every game, that's fine by me. Incidentally, waving his arms to incite the crowd after that foul was GREAT. More, please.
Nate Funk moved into the top 10 on Creighton's all-time scoring list in this game, just 44 points behind the immortal Benoit Benjamin. Alas, he's over 600 shy of Rodney Buford, but he does stand a decent chance of besting Vernon Moore, Paul Silas, and Rick Apke. Indeed, to pass Apke and finish in 6th place just behind Kyle Korver, Funk needs to average just under 17 points a night the rest of the way. Hmmm.
Dane Watts once again had 12 boards -- the 8th time this year he's had double-digit rebounds in a game. That's the most such games for any player in the Dana Altman era. Think about that, and try to remember that this is the same player that a vocal minority was calling for to be benched earlier this year. Sheesh.
And then there was Josh Dotzler. Showing he's getting ever closer to his old self, he played 24 minutes with 3 assists and no turnovers. He showed less (if any) of the slow first step on defense that has made him a defensive liability much of the year. And he had a career-best 5 steals. You bet.
So all in all, you had a game where Creighton was a 7-point favorite, and they jumped out to an early lead, Indiana State stayed close for a while, but the Jays pulled away the last 10 minutes of the game and won big. Big ugly, but this late in the year, you take what you can get.
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Like the guy who eats a granola bar dipped in spoiled milk for breakfast, I'm going unconventional today. With my POTG pick, that is.
Its Manny "Being Manny" Gakou. 3 points, 3 rebounds may not seem like much, but his 13 minutes were HUGE in allowing Tolliver to stay on the bench with his foul trouble instead of potentially fouling out early -- and could be the confidence boost he needs to be the backup Tolliver is going to need down the stretch. If giving him the Heee-Haw Soft Drink Player of the Game award helps in that even 2%, its worth it.
You bet.
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