For the first time since 1996, Northern Iowa leaves Omaha with a win. Creighton falls to 2-2 in the league after a home court loss to an average UNI team. And you know what?
Its not the loss that's nagging at me, stuck in my craw like a popcorn kernel. I've rooted for the Minnesota Vikings my entire life, so trust me, I know how to deal with a loss. No, my problem is when a team doesn't play hard. If you play with max effort and lose because the other team is better, or simply has a better night, I'm generally OK with that. Teams can learn from that.
I'm not sure you can learn much from a performance when you half-ass your effort. And I'm sorry, that display on Tuesday was not even half-assed. It was more like a quarter-assed effort. I get pissed as hell when players don't give maximum effort. What am I talking about, specifically? Not hustling, not rebounding for fear of contact, not diving for loose balls, not getting back on defense. I'm sorry if I'm off base here, but I don't think its too much to ask for players to play hard EVERY game. Not most games, not when they feel like it, EVERY game. I won't make excuses for you if you don't play hard. For two straight games, this team has played at about 60% effort, and that pisses me off.
And you don't want to piss off The Polyfro.
The boos that seemed to be directed towards the players -- something I've never seen in my years and years of following the Jays, thankfully -- were a disgrace, but so was their play. Lets get one thing straight: booing your own players, especially college athletes, is NEVER alright. Period.
Booing your coaches, on the other hand, is completely acceptable. They make a lot of money to prepare and coach the team, and handling a little negative feedback from their constituents when their performance isn't up to par is part and parcel of the job. And lets be clear: I wasn't one of the people booing the coaches from my seats in 113, but I...I understand the people who were. And it pains me to say that, it really does. I've spent years, many of them right here on this site, defending Dana Altman against his detractors until I was even bluer in the face than I normally am. I can't do that today, because for the first time, I too am disappointed in the coaches.
Was Dana coaching in this game? Because I'm 90% convinced that was a Dana 3000 Robot from Acme Inc coaching this game, purchased for the athletic department by Wile E. Coyote. He was either replaced by an impostor, or he was taking the night off. Maybe I'm mistaken, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time, but were the Jays actually running an offense? Four people standing around, watching the ball handler dribble in and out of defenders is not an offense anywhere on this planet. It might be on that strange alien planet where "Space Jam" was filmed, but not on Earth.
I don't make a million dollars a year, but long before the first media timeout, it was apparent to me that the offense was, um, not an offense. Maybe I'm out of line, but would it kill you to call timeout and fix it? Look, I'm usually of the opinion that he and his staff make decisions for very good reasons, and have more information from which to make those decisions than I, or any other fan for that matter, will ever have. But come on man, for forty minutes tonight, I watched a team that didn't want to be there, and for the most part, looked worse than they did six weeks ago. They're going backwards, not forwards, and that's on the coaches.
*****
Is it just me, or did Northern Iowa look like Creighton, 10 years ago? Not as talented as their opposition, but they got every loose ball, they outhustled, they scrapped, they clawed, they fought, they antagonized, they played defense, they rebounded, they won. Meanwhile, Creighton stood around, played selfish one-on-one basketball, felt it below them to do all of those things in the previous sentence, and they lost.
Maybe its just me.
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How is it possible for a guy as big as Kenny Lawson to play 18 minutes and get one rebound? One lousy rebound? That's absurd. I'm 5'8" and I'm pretty sure if I played 18 minutes I'd get one rebound simply by tracking down a loose ball. Being buried on the bench for most of the second half was not only warranted, but deserved. I hate ripping players by name, and I usually don't do it -- and I won't start here. What I will say is Chad Millard, despite being smaller and less gifted, was twice the player Kenny Lawson was on Tuesday night. Make of that what you will.
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You can sum up the Jays play in general, and this game in particular, with one play in the second half. Cavel Witter was bringing the ball up court, lost the handle, and waltzed over to it like it was a penny he'd lost out of his pocket. While he was looking to see if it was heads-up or heads-down, and contemplating how the old saying about picking up a penny and good luck went, one of the Northern Iowa players hit the floor, dove and grabbed the ball, and called timeout.
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A longtime confidant of mine said to me after the game, "Remember when we were in school and the 1999-2000 team struggled like this?" Ah yes, the 1999-2000 team. Rodzilla was gone, Doug Swensen was gone, sophomores Sears and Walker were charged with leading the team. The non-conference got out gangbusters, with that big win over #23 Iowa at the Civic highlighting the slate. Then MVC play started and they were 3-4 out of the gate.
Nice analogy on the surface. But I'm sorry, Sears and Walker had three times the heart, guts and determination of just about anyone on this team. Those guys would not have accepted a quarter-assed effort like we saw Tuesday night. They just wouldn't. They were hungry.
This team doesn't have those qualities. Yet. Will they have them? I hope so, my friends, I honestly hope so.
You bet.
