February 2008 Archives

I've not been quiet in my hatred for the Jays participation in Bracket Buster Saturday. I think their matchups over the years have on the whole been a joke, and the day just gives ESPN another chance to rip on the Valley. Anyone see Hubert Davis tell a nationwide audience that 24-3 Drake, the regular season MVC champs, are quote "not a lock for the NCAA Tournament"? Even Digger Phelps isn't THAT dumb, but only slightly...

In defense of ESPN, Jay Bilas called him out on it immediately, and Rece Davis made fun of the comment throughout the evening -- even at halftime of Memphis-Tennessee. After reading the highlights of the Drake game, he turned to Hubert and said, "And Hubert still thinks they're not a lock for the tournament!"

Sign Guy was in rare form at Tuesday night's game. For those of you who aren't familiar with Sign Guy, he sits about 20 rows behind the visiting bench, and frequently brings blank 20"x30" poster board to the games and then scribbles out signs during the game to hold up during timeouts. From time to time, the fuddy duddies who sit around him complain to the Qwest Center Police -- a band of rogue, glorified mall cops derisively nicknamed the Qwestapo -- and his signs are confiscated.

I had only seen the Barry Hinson sign, so I was appalled when, midway through the second half, the Qwestapo made a big production of confiscating his signs. Seriously, they sent their two biggest guys to carry out this task, probably 600 pounds of muscle to take five or six sheets of poster board. You can't tell me this wasn't for show.

The entire arena erupted in boos of such loudness that several of the Jays players looked back to see what the heck was going on. Hinson looked back too, and the game was going on!

After the Jays were on the receiving end of a butt-kicking buffet on Saturday -- or a "Poo Sandwich" as I called it at the time -- do you think they had to get on a plane to fly home, or did Bradley simply boot them back to Omaha like a kickball, one after another? Ha.

Anyway, I had to do something. This team clearly had hit rock bottom, and I had to do what I could to help. I grabbed my MacBook and navigated to the Omaha World Herald website, and somewhere amidst the 600 pop-under ad windows (seriously, this has to stop -- those pop-under windows are like digital mosquitos!) I saw that UNO's hockey team was playing their weekend series at the venerable Civic Auditorium because of the state wrestling tournament at the Qwest Center.

After the loss at Evansville on Wednesday, I tried to put a positive spin on things. I wrote that it wasn't that bad in the big picture; after all, the team could still finish 11-7 in the league if they held serve at home and won one of the last two road games.

Well, now they have to go undefeated the rest of the way in the Valley to accomplish that.

***

I don't want to say that the Evansville game is akin to a gimme in golf, because no matter what, a road game in conference is never easy. That said, the Purple Aces are 7-16 overall and 2-11 in the Valley, their point guard is out for the season with a broken hand, and the Jays won the first meeting by 18.

Shy Ely is averaging 14 points a game and 5.5 boards, but the loss of Jason Holsinger makes an already overmatched Aces squad that much weaker. As Creighton's game notes point out, "Jason Holsinger was averaging 13.0 points per game but broke his non-shooting right hand on Saturday and is not expected to play on Wednesday. Holsinger's 103 assists are 64 more than any other UE player and he's also made 60 of the team's 128 three-pointers to date."

On paper, this shouldn't be much of a game. But as I've often said, games aren't played on paper, they're played on television -- or in tonight's case, radio, because its the first road game of the season to not be televised in Omaha. Think about that, its February 13 before there's a road game we can't watch on TV. (The Xavier game on December 5 was technically televised, although the broadcast was rightfully pre-empted for coverage of the Westroads shooting).

PREDICTION: Jays 76, Evansville 58.

Well, crap. Losing to Evansville is bad, and there's really no way to spin it. I'm a big believer in staying positive, but come on, EVANSVILLE? 2-11 Evansville? Nice job, guys. And again, the story of the night is free throws and turnovers. The Jays turned it over way too often and missed too many free throws, and despite that, would still have won the game. That's how bad Evansville is.

The Jays were 13-20 from the charity stripe and turned it over 22 times. That's 22 possessions where they weren't able to take a shot! Cripes.

The Jays shot a respectable 42.2% from the field (19-55), but launched way too many threes -- and missed them. 5-20 from downtown.

Meanwhile, the Aces were 30-32 from the charity stripe and turned it over just 13 times. How do you win a game when you only make 13 field goals? Make THIRTY free throws, that's how.

Southern Illinois had this coming to them. The Jays owed them a butt-kicking, and brother, that's what they got. I described the win over Northern Iowa as a "butt-kicking buffet" because they took all they wanted and then came back for more, and this was another trip through the buffet line. After the first minute of the game, there was no point where you thought Southern could win the game. It was a blowout almost from the word "go".

Does a 19-point win on national TV make up for the two one-point losses to the Salukis in Omaha the last four years? Does it make up for the six and seven point losses the two years in between? The five straight losses in Carbondale? Not entirely, but its sweet nonetheless, make no mistake. It would have been nice to win on a buzzer-beater, ripping their heart out and showing it to them while its still beating a la "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", but a 19-point blowout that was over at halftime will suffice. You bet.

I don't hate Southern Illinois; hate is an awfully strong word. I have a grudging respect for what they've accomplished. but that doesn't mean I like them. How's this: I really, really, really don't like them. Really, really, really, really, REALLY don't like them.

Which makes the nine-straight regular season losses hurt me like getting shafted out of dollar PBR night at the Musette Bar (which actually happened to me this week).

Its absurd but true: the last time Creighton beat Southern Illinois in the regular season was a fire marshal special nationally-televised on ESPN. Played before 1000 more fans than there were seats at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, the Kyle Korver-led Jays beat the Salukis 85-76. Those Salukis were coached by Bruce Weber; the Jays are winless against both of his successors (Matt Painter and Chris Lowery).

Since that victory, here are the results of the SIU/Creighton series in the regular season (last year's MVC tourney win not withstanding):

Tuesday night's nationally-televised game was what I refer to as an "Ass-Kicking Buffet." The Jays took all they wanted, came back for more, and after filling up on points and assists, emptied the bench. That's the Old Country Buffet of basketball games, right there. An ass-kicking buffet.

21-7 out of the gates. 33-18 at the half. A high-water mark of 32 points ahead in the second half. You get the picture.

Northern Iowa wasn't a bad team, or at least, I didn't think they were. The game in Cedar Falls was competitive, and they had the same record as the Jays coming in. But this game was as uncompetitive as you'll see, and quite honestly, by the second half the Panthers were phoning it in.

Well now, isn't it nice to see someone else blow a big lead and lose for once? Wichita State should have won this game. They led by 15 in the second half, they outrebounded the Jays by NINETEEN, they outscored them 40-28 in the paint, they had FIFTEEN offensive rebounds...and they lost. Wow.

How exactly did this happen, you say? Easy. The Jays made the plays down the stretch, and Wichita didn't. Specifically, Cavel Witter made huge plays, Booker Woodfox and P'Allen Stinnett hit big shots, and Dane Watts had a huge tip-in with 16 seconds left to give them the lead.

Obviously, the statistic everyone is going to focus on is the rebounds, because getting outrebounded by 19 at home is really heinous. And make no mistake, the Jays got kicked in the teeth on the boards. Wichita boxed out better, they were in better position, they wanted the ball more, and they got twice as many boards as Creighton. Just an awful, embarrassing effort.

Fortunately, they hit enough shots down the stretch to make up for it, and forced enough turnovers with great defense to allow them to come back.