March 2007 Archives

I spent the first 18 years of my life in the middle of Hawkeye Country, and still have a lot of friends and family there. When Steve "Snake in the grass" Alford left for New Mexico this week, and the first name rumored for the job was Dana Altman, my phone started ringing off the hook.

Was the tone of those calls one of "Man, I hope we can lure Altman away from Creighton!"? Not so much. More of a "I hope we don't settle for Altman." One old friend even told me he thought Altman was, quote, "Tom Davis Reincarnate. A quiet guy who's good for 20 wins a year, a first round NCAA Tourney win, and graduates unremarkable players. Iowa shouldn't have to settle for that."

As an Iowa native, this pains me to say. It really does. I'm struggling with it, as a matter of fact, and that's why it comes after the jump.

Altman is the best candidate for the job, but Iowa doesn't deserve Dana Altman. I told my dad this tonight on the phone, and he was none too pleased. For years, as he spurned offers from Tennessee, Miami, Georgia, Iowa State, Illinois, etc., the one job I've always worried about coming open was Iowa. He recruits the state already, his personality and values are a great fit, and he's a better coach than Tom Davis, George Raveling or Steve Alford.

However, the reason I say that Iowa doesn't deserve him is that there seems to be a prevailing theory that Iowa is a top caliber basketball program in hibernation, that the right coach can suddenly vault them "back" to winning Big Ten championships, Final Four berths, etc. They think they can lure someone like Bruce Pearl, Tom Crean, Lon Kruger, Mark Few, or Tony Bennett, and they think Dana Altman is a boring, blase choice that can't get them there. If they really think that, then they won't be happy with whatever the next coach accomplishes -- and Altman had that situation at K-State.

In my preview of this game, I wrote "it will be a barnburner, coming down to a couple of plays late to win. Whoever makes the big play will win a game like that; the classic March Madness photo finish. And I trust the Jays to make that big play. I really do."

Well, it was indeed a game just like that. Except Creighton wasn't able to make the plays down the stretch to win. They played close the entire day, with 12 lead changes and 10 ties. Nevada's largest lead was 7 (coming in the first half), Creighton's 6 (coming in the second half).

Traditionally in NCAA Tournament games that CU has lost, Creighton has started slowly, fought back to make a game out of it, and ultimately lost in the waning moments. Only the West Virginia game two years ago broke the mold. Even in the two games they've won, slow starts were the rule.

Against Nevada, however, Creighton started reasonably well. In fact, the first half was incredibly competitive, and the Jays had a 32-28 lead with just 30 seconds left in the half. In that first half, they got points from Pierce Hibma, Manny Gakou and Isacc Miles -- all coming off the bench -- and that had to be seen as a positive sign.

Its time to set aside the jokes and the references to Star Wars, and its time to trade in your Heee-Haw for a can of Mountain Dew. Its time to get serious. Its gameday, baby.

Nevada and Creighton square off at 1:50 central time from New Orleans today, in the only 7-10 game between two ranked teams that I can ever remember. If you're looking for proof that the committee underseeded both of these teams, look no further than that fact. Nevada has been in the Top 25 for the better portion of the year, peaking with a run in the Top 10. Creighton opened up in the Top 25, was picked by Sports Illustrated at #13, then tumbled to a 150+ RPI after embarrassing losses at Nebraska, Fresno State, Dayton and Hawaii. But the Jays have played up to potential -- finally -- over the past two weeks, and enter today's game ranked #24.

The national media has found it tempting to look at the mere presence of three-time WAC Player of the Year and All-American Nick Fazekas, surrounded by a very solid supporting cast, and hand the game to Nevada before the tip. How good is Fazekas? He's one of six players EVER to score 2000 points and get 1000 rebounds while making half his shots from the floor and 80% from the charity stripe. The others? Larry Bird, Rick Barry, Bill Bradley, Christian Laettner and Keith Van Horn. That list started out pretty good...but being compared to Chode Boy, er, Laettner and Van Horn? You bet.

Nevada is 6th in the county in three-point percentage, at a robust 41%. They're 16th in field-goal percentage at 49%. They're 16th in free-throw percentage at 75%. They've only been outrebounded five times all year. They've won 27 games. Their shooting guard, Marcellus Kemp, has scored 81 points in their last three games.

Projecting the NCAA Tournament bracket is an inexact science, much like meteorology, climatology and beerbong, um, ology. I'm always quite amused by jokers like Jerry Palm, Warren Nolan, and to a lesser extent, Joe Lunardi.

Believe it or not, my comparison of bracketology to meteorology was not just a cheap joke, although it certainly succeeded at being that. Both of these predictions are worthless more than a day or two out. How many times have you heard the weatherman predict 70 degrees and sunny 8 days from now, only to arrive at that day and have it be 50 degrees and rainy? Lots of intervening factors can change the outlook between the day of the prediction and the actual day.

This is a lot like bracketology. As of Monday, Missouri State was in most brackets. Then a couple of solidly "in" teams from otherwise one-bid leagues failed to gain their conferences' auto bid, thus stealing an at-large from someone else. Suddenly, Missouri State was out on most brackets. But yesterday, upsets galore in conference tournaments seem to have not only vaulted Missouri State back in, but have placed Bradley back in the discussion, if you can believe that.

Pointing to the assortment of Creighton memorabilia on the wall of my cubicle, the new guy from one of our east coast offices said, "How are these guys doing?"

"Heading to the NCAA Tournament again this year. Really starting to play like they're capable of, and blew out three teams in the conference tournament last weekend."

Equal parts annoyed and impressed, New Guy responded "What conference are they in again?"

With a pride I would not have been as willing to share five years ago, I responded "The Missouri Valley Conference."

Beginning to show his true colors, he shot back "So what seed will they get, a 13 or 14?"

Now I was the one annoyed, and not at all impressed. "Well, most people figure they'll get between a 7 and a 10. Their RPI is in the high twenties and they're in the Top 30 in both national polls this week, so no lower than a 10."

"Really? I don't hear much about them on the east coast, so they must not play many real good teams. Who have they beaten?"

What a time to play your best three games of the year! On Championship Sunday in St. Louis, the Jays finished off a near perfect weekend of hoops with a 67-61 victory over Southern Illinois.

One of the things I'm really disappointed was not brought up in either the postgame on the radio nor on the local Sunday night TV programs was how it happened. Well, I'm going to bring it up now and rectify the situation.

Fans and writers have complained for a long time about Southern Illinois' style of play. Hell, I've done it myself. Its a grudging complaint, really, because you have to give them credit for winning. You've heard the talking points: they hack, they hand check, they tackle, they turn the game into rugby.

History will refer to the 2007 MVC Semifinal as "The Nate Funk Game". In a game where his Jays and Missouri State were playing what some pundits called an "elimination" game for an NCAA Tourney at-large berth, he came up with his greatest game as a Jay, putting the team on his back and carrying them to a blowout win.

Just look at the box score:

The Jays B-team lost to Indiana State 11-10 on Friday night, small consolation for a Sycamores squad whose season ends at 13-18.

Yes, you read that right. Creighton's B-team (or the B-Jays, if you prefer) began subbing in at the 8:02 mark, and the final 7 minutes of the game was played with a lineup consisting mostly of these players:

Pierce Hibma, Nick Bahe, Brice Nengsu, Dustin Sitzmann and Manny Gakou

No starter played after the 5:39 mark when Nick Porter came out, and still, this team of B-Jays managed to hand a one-point loss to the Sycamores over that span.