School Databank:
Location: Cedar Falls, IA
Enrollment: 10,727
Famous sports alumni: Kurt Warner (NFL), Bryce Paup (NFL)
Last game: Lost to Bradley 75-73
Last game vs Creighton: Jays won 66-55 on 2/13/07 in Omaha
Series: Creighton leads 23-11 (UNI leads 9-7 in Cedar Falls)
Series notes: Creighton has won seven straight vs UNI and 18 of the last 21
Back when I was at Creighton, my brother was in school at UNI. Of course, back then you needed to invent a better word for "terrible" to describe the Panthers' basketball team, because it got old describing them as simply terrible all the time. They stunk. They only beat the Jays one time in those years, an overtime thriller at the old Civic Auditorium. I never heard the end of it.
Needless to say, I spent a lot of time up in Cedar Falls, and likewise my brother spent a lot of time in Omaha. I can't tell you how many times I enjoyed the penny beers at Suds or one of the other great college bars on "The Hill". I can still taste the greasy late-night pizza from the Stein. Cedar Falls is a good time.
After we both graduated, UNI got to be awfully good. And then the smack talk really commenced, because his boys could finally back it up on the court. I'll save you the horror stories of "interesting" bets won and lost between us over the years -- interesting because they're not the sort of bets where money changed hands, if you catch my drift...
I'm glad for UNI that they finally have a real basketball facility, because while the UNI-Dome is fantastic for football, it was perhaps the worst facility in America for basketball. That's not hyperbole, either. In all the games I watched in that dome, I don't know if you could even describe the "atmosphere" because there wasn't any. The court was pushed up against the football seats on one side of the dome, parallel to the sideline. On the other side were temporary wooden bleachers, perhaps 15 rows high. Behind the baskets were more temporary bleachers, and all the way around the perimeter there was a 12' high purple curtain. Ghastly.
The players route to the locker rooms just happened to be the same route as fans who sat in those bleachers had to take to exit the dome, which while quaint, made for interesting exchanges with the players. At one game in '98, we were walking out that tunnel and Rodney Buford and Doug Swenson walked past us. Rodzilla stopped, turned around, and thanked us for being at the game. Oh, and he also had a monster 180 dunk in that game on a fastbreak that might have been one of his finest. Of course he did. What else would you expect from Rodzilla?
UNI now has a first-rate facility, the McCloud Center, which I was very impressed with when I saw it in person at an exhibition game earlier this year. I need to make it over for a game against the Jays one of these years.
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Creighton comes into tonight's nationally-televised game riding a three-game winning streak, while UNI has lost three straight. A Jays win would put them at 4-2 after 1/3 of the MVC slate, putting them in solid position for a run at Drake and Illinois State. A UNI win would get them back to .500 in the league and allow them a little breathing room as they try to keep their heads above water.
The Panthers are a mysterious team. They rebound the heck out of the ball, with three players giving them an average of 22 combined boards a night. Eric Coleman is still a monster, pulling down NINE BOARDS a night and dang near averaging a double-double. 7'1" Freshman Jordan Eglseder averages 11 points, 7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks a night. As a team, they average seven points more than they allow (64 to 57), shoot 44% from the floor and hold opponents to 40%. Yet they're just 10-6 and 2-3 in the league. Like I said, its a mystery.
The key for the Jays, as Otter expands on in much more grandiose terms than I can, will continue to be defense and rebounds. And its true: with Coleman and Eglseder in the paint, the Jays will need to be tough on the boards and play outstanding defense to stay in this one.
When I hear "defense and rebounds" together like that, for some reason I hear Adam Sandler singing the Lunchlady Song. Instead of "hoagies and grinders" ad nausiem, I hear "defense and rebounds". Clearly I'm insane.
PREDICTION: Jays 59, Panthers 57
(Remember to check out Otter's ode-to-Bill-Simmons tonight as he live blogs the game. The combination of ESPN2, Doug Gottleib and a live blog might be sensory overload, but do me a favor and check it out.)
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