After a thrilling game in the Bracket Buster a year ago, Creighton and Oral Roberts staged a rematch in Omaha on Saturday. Problem was, for 25 minutes the game was rather ordinary, and dare I say, boring? No, I don't dare. Creighton games are never boring. But I'd be remiss if I didn't admit to you that my bag of mini donuts did a better job of entertaining me for most of the first half.
The strange thing is, the Jays led most of the first half, and that's strangely incongruent with what I told you in the first paragraph. If the Jays are winning, no way mini donuts are more entertaining, right? It was a methodical, and wholly unremarkable half of basketball. So I'll stop remarking about it.
As the teams came back on the court for the second half, the Jays trailed 35-33. The Oral Roberts lead would be short-lived, as The Justin Carter Show was about to debut. Less than twenty seconds in, Carter tipped in a missed shot to tie the game. After giving up a basket on the other end, Carter made a second shot to again tie the game. With 17:53 left, Carter put the Jays ahead 41-39, a lead they would not relinquish. But Carter wasn't done. Mere seconds later, Carter stole the basketball at mid-court and lead the fastbreak as the crowd anticipated a monster dunk to continue the run.
Marcus Lewis had other ideas. Lewis, perhaps upset at losing the ball to Carter, perhaps upset after a bad week of classes, or maybe just intent on proving he knows how to keep it real, delivered a vicious foul on Carter to prevent the easy basket. Grabbing Carter by the collar, he jerked his neck back and then as Carter was collapsing to the ground, pushed him in the back to finish the job.
The bloodthirsty crowd was incensed, and the refs got it right by calling an intentional foul. That was little consolation to Carter, who lay in a heap under the basket and was later helped off the court and into the locker room. Nor was it consolation to the crowd, who booed Lewis lustily and continued booing him the remainder of the afternoon every time he touched the ball.
Here's the question I keep hearing: was it a dirty play? Absolutely. Does it make Lewis a dirty player? I don't know about that; I don't know enough about him to make such a bold proclamation, and I hesitate to condemn a man over one play. Seems a little harsh. What I do know is that particular play was heinous, and his reaction of "What did I do?" was amusing.
Here's what else I know: clearly Lewis never watched Chappelle's Show, because if he did, he'd know all about "When Keepin' it Real Goes Wrong". From the moment of the intentional foul, the Jays outscored the Golden Eagles 28-5 over the next seven minutes. That deciding stretch took what had been a close game and turned it into a laugher.
When Keepin' It Real Goes Wrong, indeed. By keepin' it real, Lewis fired up a lackadaisical Jays squad and they responded by blowing his team out of the gym. By keepin' it real, Lewis made what had been a subdued crowd into a bloodthirsty, angry, vocal mob, which in turn fired up the players even more, which in turn made the crowd even more excited, which...you get the idea. But mostly, by keepin' it real, Lewis made sure his team got their asses summarily handed to them on the place where it truly counts: on the scoreboard.
Just how big was the turnaround? The Jays shot 30% in the first half, and 65% in the second. They made just 2-8 three pointers in the first, and converted 6-9 in the second. Surprisingly, they outrebounded the Eagles in both halves.
Thanks to the big second half surge, the Jays move to 3-0 as they depart for a two-game road trip to Little Rock and Lincoln. No analogy jokes, please.
*****
Today's Polyfro Player of the Game is brought to you by Sam's Choice Diet Cola. Sam's Choice...if you mix in enough Jack, you can't even tell the difference, baby!
There were a lot of Jays who had awesome games on Saturday, but there was one player who had a bigger impact than any of them. I'm talking about Marcus Lewis of Oral Roberts. His intentional foul turned the tide of the game against his team, something I'm certain he understands now (since he clearly felt he'd done no wrong at the time). I could list his points, rebounds, etc., but all you really need to know is that he thugg'd up on the Jays, and it backfired. For this, he is my Player of the Game, and while I know you'll disagree, I kindly remind you that A) This is my blog, B) I have complete and total autonomy over who wins this award and C) It costs you nothing to read this site so stop complaining.
You bet.
