Jays Blog tag:www.polyfro.com,2008-05-17:/jaysblog//2 2009-04-09T17:28:31Z Movable Type Personal 4.1 Time to Get Properly Pumped tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1211 2009-04-09T16:37:20Z 2009-04-09T17:28:31Z Max Univers
Announcer: Good evening. And welcome again to "Pumping Up With Klaus & Mouse", the informative training program for the serious weightlifter. 

Mouse: Hello! We're back! 

Klaus: I am Klaus. 

Mouse: And I am Mouse. 

Together: And we just want to.. Pump.. [ clap ] ..you up! 

Klaus: Alright. But before we can pump you up tonight, we have to answer a piece of viewer mail. 

Mouse: Ya. Ya. This is a letter we received from a Max Univers. I'll only read an excerpt, so I don't go into his loser details. "Dear Klaus & Mouse: I have recently seen your.. mo-.. mo-" 

Klaus: Moronic. 

Mouse: "...Your moronic show, and have wondered why you don't open your own gym to train basketball players. Maybe you are too stupid." [ crumples letter ] You know, maybe you thought this letter would make us angry; but it only makes us sad. 

Klaus: Really, ya. We are sad, you know, because anyone who calls us "stupid" is really just jealous. Because their coach looks at us, then looks at his players, and realzies his team is full of little girly-men! 

Mouse: Ya. Ya, girly-men. Hear me now and believe me later - but don't think about it ever, because, if you try to think, you might cause a flabalanche! 

Klaus: Ya! 

Mouse: Poor little girly-men, alone in their hilltop girly-gym! 

Klaus: Sorry, Mr. Girly-Man, but here's a treat for your fans! 

[ Klaus & Mouse flex their muscles egotistically ] 

Klaus: Alright. 

Mouse: Oh, and thank you so much for the letter. [ puts crumpled letter in his mouth and swallows ] 

Klaus: Ya! Ya, don't think for a minute he's not eating it, because believe me he is! 

Mouse: That was one delicious piece of girly-man. 

Klaus: Ya! You know, but we're not here to eat. We're here to... 

Together: Pump.. [ clap ] ..you up!

(Based on an original script from Saturday Night Live)
]]>
An ongoing concern for Jays' fans has been the team's strength -- namely, their ability to get stronger so that they don't get pushed around by every team they play. And its not a state secret that the basketball program went years and years without their own strength coach or weight training staff. The situation is so bad that two of the best players in the Altman era paid out of their own pocket for weight training supervision during the offseason. Kyle Korver and Nate Funk both worked with the strength coach from Creighton Prep on their own dime.

My cheesy Hans & Franz sketch might have been sad and pathetic, but no more pathetic than a college basketball program's players not being able to get what they need within the confines of the program -- and seeking out a HIGH SCHOOL coach. That's funnier than anything Hans & Franz ever said. Actually, its not. Its sad.

The team has traditionally used the weight and strength professors in the school of physical therapy as their resource. Someone I trust told me there have been four different strength coaches just in the last year! Worse, last summer, the head of that department left Creighton, and the team was on their own all offseason. Now, imagine college kids being asked to do something but knowing that no one would check up to see if they were doing it, knowing it couldn't be required because there was no one to verify their attendance. Some will go anyway. Some won't.

It would be outstanding if the team was full of driven guys who would go work out on their own, but that's not the case. And even if they were, its an awfully big assumption that the players would know what sorts of training programs to do. Its not as easy as going in and maxing out on the bench press -- they need to build and enhance their explosiveness too. That's why you need structure and a program in place so that players know how to accomplish those things.

All of which makes the article in Wednesday's Omaha World-Herald very strange. In it, Dana Altman is quoted as saying some things that sound like he woke up in the middle of the night with a premonition.

"We have to have a great offseason," Altman said. "We have to get more physical, and the only way to do that is to gain more confidence. We have six months here to get ourselves built up again, and we really have to take advantage of it."

...

Altman admits that the staff has tried some different approaches to offseason conditioning in recent years. The results haven't been to his liking. 

"We're going to take a step backward and try some of the old-fashioned stuff," he said. 

The players got a taste the last couple of days as they began what will become a four-day-a-week regimen between now and the end of school.

Did that just occur to him now? We have to get stronger! Supervised strength training by an actual staff! That's like waking up in the middle of the night and realizing, "Taco Bell is a Mexican McDonald's!" or "Mini donuts are miniature versions of regular donuts!"

Pardon me if I'm not terribly excited. Its pathetic that two of the best players in school history had to hire outside help to get them the training they needed. Absolutely a shame.

I'm not really upset at the players or coaches, so don't get the wrong idea. They're doing the best they can given the resources available, I'm sure. Those last two paragraphs reads more harshly than I intended.

More from the article:

"A lot of making this work is the guys' dedication to it. The leadership is important. You have four of the six months when guys are pretty much on their own. There has to be a lot of self-discipline and a lot of leadership."

Maybe we need to organize a fundraiser to pay for strength and conditioning! Pass the buckets up and down the rows at the Open House next fall. Hell, I'd contribute. If it led to fewer moments of Jays players getting pushed around like girly-men, it would be money well spent. If one fewer bag of mini-donuts for yourself lead to one more big rebound late in a game for the Jays, wouldn't you chip in? I would.

You bet.
]]> Cavel Witter Leaves Team tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1210 2009-04-05T07:01:41Z 2009-04-06T05:51:07Z Rumors that junior guard Cavel Witter would be leaving the Jays at the end of the season have been rampant for weeks. Now that those rumors have been corroborated by actual sources contacted by actual reporters, and Witter has in... Max Univers
Witter transfered into Creighton from the Kansas City area, a juco player in the same recruiting class as Booker Woodfox -- although Witter played just one season in juco. Lost in all of the Booker talk was the fact that, before this past season, if you had to pick a player to have a breakout season, you'd have likely tabbed Witter over Woodfox. I know I would have. Their 2007-08 campaigns showed Woodfox to be a solid if unspectacular player, and Witter to be an explosive if inconsistent player.

Unfortunately, we know how the story ends: Woodfox became the MVC Player of the Year and an All-American, while Witter became buried on the bench and will not even finish his eligibility at Creighton.

He was never a fabulous defender, and his style of point guard play was a change-up from the standard pass-first style Dana Altman traditionally recruits, but man, could Witter score when he was hot! For a player who was never a regular starter, his ability to score played a huge role in three of the biggest wins of his two seasons at Creighton.
]]> 111-110 double-overtime win over Bradley last March. Witter scored 42 points off the bench, including 18 in the overtime periods, to nearly single-handedly guide the Jays to victory on Senior Night. It was an exhilarating performance that, as a sophomore, made one wonder what he might have in store his next two seasons.

But there was also the Rhode Island win in the NIT, a 74-73 win in game where the Jays' only lead came after a buzzer-beater by Witter. Coming just two weeks after the 42-point outburst, Witter's clutch shot seemed to bode well for the future.

His junior year got off to a rough start, as Witter suffered a lower-body injury in preseason practices and spent the first couple of weeks playing through pain. The plan was to shift him to the two-guard anyway, with the thought being that without having to worry about distributing the ball, he'd be free to get open and create shots. Whether it was the injury or the adjustment to the new position, Witter never looked comfortable and by mid-December, seemed to be playing tentative and was not the same player.

Witter's minutes decreased steadily as conference play approached, and he became almost a forgotten man in many games, entering for brief periods only to exit quickly. When he did play, he was prone to turnovers and mental mistakes, almost as though he was trying to do too much to earn back minutes.

Despite his struggles, against Southern Illinois he hit three clutch free throws with virtually no time on the clock to tie the game and send it into overtime. He also was the only player willing to stand up to SIU's Kevin Dillard when he made the curious decision to talk smack despite losing the game. Witter, unprompted by his coaches, apologized in the media the next day, giving us a glimpse at his character.

A streaky but at times prolific scorer, a hard worker, by all accounts a great stand-up guy and a solid student, Witter bore the brunt of criticism from fans for his turnover-prone ways but was a good player to have playing for your team. In his second season, he struggled to adjust to moving to the two-guard, saw his minutes decrease, and given the stellar freshman guards coming in next season, perhaps saw the writing on the wall that his minutes weren't going to go up despite Dotzler's graduation.

Altman's comments to the Omaha World-Herald seem to indicate as much.

"Cavel indicated he wanted an expanded role next season. I told him I could not guarantee him anything."

Here's where the stories diverge. Creighton is saying officially that Witter asked for an expanded role, they wouldn't guarantee it to him, and upon hearing this, Witter asked for his release. Witter's side seems to be indicating, through message board posts from former coaches and through other social networking sources, that Jays' coaches essentially told him he wasn't welcome back for his senior season -- that his scholarship wasn't being renewed. Witter's side also is saying he wanted to come back, but was not given that option.

Now, the pragmatist might point out that this is certainly within their rights. Scholarships are a one-year rolling contract, and can be pulled at the end of each academic year. The realist would counter that pulling a scholarship of a player who busted his ass for two years, from all reports gave everything he had in practice, dealt with injuries, played out of position his second year, and from everything I heard was a classy and honorable representative of the University -- before his senior year, when his transfer options will be limited -- strikes me as a bit, how do you say it? Low. Cold, even. Its certainly not the Creighton I know.

You don't cut seniors. You can cut bait on Freshman or Sophomores, and it happens all the time (twelve players at last count just in the last six years right here at CU). Once you reach your senior season, players who've done everything that has been asked of them deserve the opportunity to finish their career and to graduate. Its my opinion that to do otherwise stinks.

The indication from Witter's side is that Altman wanted him to play like Dotzler -- be a pass-first point guard. Here's my issue if this is true: that's not Witter. Its never been him. Why recruit him if you want to change who he is? And if you do bring him in, you sure as hell don't cut him before his senior year because he's not who you thought he was.

We don't know if that's what happened, and we'll never know the real story, I suppose. Here's what we do know: Creighton seems to jettison one helluva lot of players. Maybe the truth in this case is closer to the middle of the two stories than we'd like to believe. I don't want to believe the Jays would essentially "cut" a player who'd done everything right before his senior year. But recent history doesn't seem to indicate we ought to give them the benefit of the doubt here.

After typing that, all I can say is Good Lord, I need a beer.

Thanks for giving us three memorable performances that none of us who were there in person will ever forget, Cavel. I for one looked forward to watching you bounce back and have a great senior season, and find it a shame that won't happen in a Jays uniform. Best of luck wherever you wind up, and on behalf of the many Jays fans who have expressed the opinion to me either in person or via email the last couple of days, know that we appreciated your time in Omaha.

You bet.
]]> Kenneth Elaborates...Sorta tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1209 2009-04-01T18:42:47Z 2009-04-01T20:31:56Z So, apparently Kenneth Kenny "Doc" Sadler is taking some heat over his comments about how playing Creighton does them no good. No less a source than Kenneth himself told the media that he's received emails and calls from "tons of... Max Univers comments about how playing Creighton does them no good. No less a source than Kenneth himself told the media that he's received emails and calls from "tons of folks" upset at both his tone and his words. He sat down with KETV to elaborate, and presumably, have the chance to backtrack.

But this being Kenneth, he offered no apologies, instead expanding his comments and digging an even deeper hole for himself with both Bluejay fans and, apparently, level-headed Huskers too.

You can watch the interview here, and you should, because the circuitous route he takes in explaining himself is fascinating. I'm not sure what he means by saying the Huskers would be better off playing Duke than Creighton, because that's a horrible analogy. Given their pedigree, pretty much everyone would be better off playing Duke. But Duke isn't gonna play Nebraska any more than they're going to play Creighton -- or pretty much any team is either of their conferences, for that matter.

Be sure not to miss his little white lie at the very beginning where he changes his story to claim the entire conversation started after a question about playing TWICE A YEAR. If that's actually true, than either the reporter (and every media outlet in Nebraska) is lying, or Kenneth has changed his story to paint himself in a better light. I don't know which and I won't speculate. But someone is not being truthful here.

Oh, and I've heard Dana Altman say on multiple occasions, both in person and in print, that he'd like to play twice, so for Kenneth to claim Dana has told him otherwise in private is insulting, disingenuous and wrong.

I did have a good laugh towards the end, though, as he tries so valiantly to pitch himself as a philanthropist, playing Creighton out of the kindness of his heart. That's gold.
]]> pointed criticism of Sadler in yesterday's paper, "Has Doc looked at his nonconference schedule lately?...Even with the quality he faces in the Big 12, Sadler should be thankful that a top 50 opportunity lies just down the road. Husker fans should be thankful. How many Maryland-Baltimore Counties are there anyway?"

Why does your athletic department charge a higher ticket price for the Creighton game if its a "bad" game? Why was it one of the only games to sell out all season? Clearly its a revenue boost to play Creighton, which should make it a good game for your program, right?

Is it so hard to ask those questions? I think a lot of people on both sides of this argument would be interested to hear his answers. There is a "full-length" version of this interview that will air Sunday night, and until then, I'll give KETV the benefit of the doubt. But I hope the full interview comes off better, and comes off less as a press release written by the NU Athletic Department.

And lets hope it puts this story to rest, because I'm as tired of writing about Kenneth as you are reading about him. This is Inside Creighton Hoops, after all, and there are way more important things to be discussing.

You bet.
]]> Booker Woodfox, All-American tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1208 2009-03-30T23:12:50Z 2009-04-01T20:33:10Z If you're an honorable mention All-American, do you still list yourself as an All-American on your resume? I mean, most news outlets only list the First and Second Teams, and the players mentioned honorably are covered only in their hometown... Max Univers
I say "Hell Yes". There are roughly 4,000 players in Division 1 Basketball, and around 50 of them are named All-Americans by the Associated Press. That's just over 1%.

Booker Woodfox, the Jays' guard from Lewisville, Texas, was named an All-American on Monday, placing him among the Top 1% of players in Division 1 hoops. I'd say that's cause for celebration, even if it is "just" an honorable mention. There's a litany of players considered among the Bluejay Bouguoise who weren't All-Americans (at least, not as named by the Associated Press, which is the only one that really matters, despite the litany of lesser awards listed in the media guide).

Sir Rodney Buford was. Kyle Korver was.

But Nate Funk and Anthony Tolliver were not. Ben Walker and Ryan Sears were not. Chad Gallagher and Bob Harstad were not.

Booker Woodfox is, and forever will be, an All-American.
]]> Think about that for a second. Last Fall, imagine yourself standing in the Jaybacker Room, or alternatively at the Homy Inn, drinking a beer and discussing Bluejay Hoops. If the topic of "Who will be the next All-American?" came up, who would your answer have been?

And think about what that answer would mean were it to come true. The last two All-American Jays are royalty. Any discussion of Jays Greats in the Altman era is Buford, Korver, and Everyone Else. The next All-American would be the third in that era, and would have to join those two Royal Blues among the royalty, wouldn't he?

I had just such a discussion last November, and I can tell you this: my answer was most certainly NOT Booker Woodfox. The MVC Sixth Man of the Year, yes, a good outside shooter, yes, but MVC Player of the Year? Or (sheesh) All-American?

Nope. Wouldn't have said that, because I enjoy beer too much and if I had said it would be Booker, no sane bartender would have served me another drink. They'd have cut me off and made sure my friends drove me home. It was that crazy in November.

Flash forward to now, and it still seems wonky.

When Booker was named POY, I banged out a lengthy piece about his journey to becoming, as I wrote, "One of the Creighton Immortals." If you haven't read it, you should; it made that honor seem astonishing considering the player he was as a junior. And a lot of that article could be copied-and-pasted into this one, because being named All-American is a similarly surprising, but very deserved, honor. Instead, I'll just include the final portion of that article:

Booker's ceiling turned out to be enormously higher than anyone imagined, including Dana Altman. Asked about it in the World-Herald, he shook his head and replied, "No" when asked if he thought Booker would turn into a MVC Player of the Year talent.

"After I saw him shoot the ball, I knew this was a no-brainer. But I knew he was going to be a liability on defense, and we'd have to work through that. And he has. He's worked hard defensively just to try to do a better job. To shoot the percentages that he did this year and to come on as strong as he did last year, I can't say I saw that. To become the kind of shooter he's been for us, wow. He hits tough shots, shots on the move. He's hit so many big ones for us."

From unknown to MVC Player of the Year in 23 months. From mystery recruit to one of the all-time great Jays, the best player on a team that has the opportunity to be one of the best in school history by season's end.

He was only here for two seasons, so his name won't be near the top of many statistical categories in the Bluejay record book. But his shooting percentage will rank as among the best all-time, and he'll be listed along with Bob Harstad, Chad Gallagher and Kyle Korver as the only Jays to win MVC Player of the Year honors.

And he'll be listed alongside Rick Apke, Benoit Benjamin, Rodney Buford, Kyle Korver, Vernon Moore, Bob Portman, and Paul Silas as the only Jays to be named All-Americans by the Associated Press. Count 'em: there have been seven prior to this year.

Booker Woodfox is the eighth, and he will forever be mentioned as one of the All-Time Greats to have worn a Creighton uniform. A deserving honor for a fine young man who also happens to have been, in 2009, one of the elite college basketball players in America.

I'm not sure what else to say other than, "You bet."
]]> Recruit Runnels Picks Jays tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1207 2009-03-26T21:05:49Z 2009-04-01T20:37:08Z Monday at the Kentucky game, I commented at one point to my buddy Rob that I hoped there was a recruit visiting. The atmosphere was that amazing, the crowd that awesome, that I wondered if any recruit -- no matter... Max Univers
Turns out there was indeed a recruit visiting, and my hunch was correct: he signed before leaving. He's a helluva get, too, and exactly the type of player they need: an athletic 6'6" power forward who is a rebounding machine and is ready to step in and play right away.


Runnels sat beside Ethan Wragge, a 6-7 Minnesotan who signed with the Bluejays in the fall.

"We had a great time together," he said. "We both really got into that game. At first, we were just watching but by the end of the game, we were standing up and cheering and really getting into it. Right then, I felt like I was family and that I had to come to Creighton. That was the best atmosphere I've ever been at. I was getting goose bumps seeing the love the fans showed the players. It was amazing, and it made me want to suit up right then."

Runnels has some good size to him, a 6'6", 215 lb player who like Justin Carter (and Ben Walker before him) was recruited to play Division 1 football but chose basketball instead. I love those kind of guys; they generally tend to play tougher, don't shy away from contact and play bigger than their size would ordinarily indicate. Look at Walker, a guard who was often the team's leading rebounder. Or Carter, who was a BEAST against Kentucky, pulling down FOURTEEN rebounds in a game that was the zenith of a stretch-run where he was the Jays toughest player and toughest matchup.

With Runnels in the fold, imagine this lineup:

Lawson/Walker at the 5
Runnels/Millard at the 4
Carter/Korver/Harriman at the 3
Stinnett/Witter/Jones at the 2
Young/Bock/Witter at the 1

I like that a LOT. I'll have a lot more on the returning group as the summer goes on, but my basic thoughts are that Lawson and Walker are going to be the best post duo in the Valley the next two years. Unlike a lot of fans, I really really like Millard's game off the bench, especially at the 4 (and not out of position at the 5). Runnels getting substantial minutes at the 4 means Carter can slide down to the 3, where he'll be a nightmare matchup for pretty much every team in the conference, and many outside the conference too. And guard play is not, and has not been, a concern, nor will it be next year.

This is a HUGE addition. Welcome to Creighton, Wayne!
]]> The Inventor of Mini-Donuts Dies tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1206 2009-03-26T05:33:14Z 2009-03-29T20:49:03Z You can imagine my surprise and trepidation when I logged onto the Bluejay Cafe message board tonight and saw my handle as the title of a thread on the front page:Sad Day for All, Especially PolyfroNeedless to say, I immediately... Max Univers
Sad Day for All, Especially Polyfro

Needless to say, I immediately clicked on this thread, curious to see what I was supposed to be sad about. It had been a good day, I'd thought: I'd supervised a commercial shoot that day, and after getting home, managed to make pancakes in a frying pan without burning them. Don't laugh. This is a tougher task than you imagine it to be. Without a griddle, pancakes are damn hard to cook.

I wouldn't classify it as a great day, but it certainly wasn't a sad day. I wondered what the writer of the thread, a loyal reader who goes by the handle "Jayball", knew about my day that I didn't. There's three things someone can do to piss me off post haste:

Spill my beer, steal my mini-donuts, and disrespect either Creighton or the Minnesota Twins. Do any of those three, and we're going to have trouble with a capital T, as a country western star once sang.

Add a temporary fourth item to that list.

Edward Anderson, inventor of the Lil' Orbits automatic donut machine and the man who perfected the batter that went with it, died at the age of 78. The inventor of the mini-donut, dead!

As I wrote on the message board:
]]> The inventor of mini donuts has...has... 

died?!? 

But, but, he can't die! NOOOOO!  

This is even worse than the day I found out that Simon & Simon weren't brothers in real life, but only on television!


Don't let the wry smile or fatherly combover fool you, this man was an unheralded genius, a man whose massive brainpower not only led to the greatest culinary invention of the 20th century but to the successful mechanical separation of oil and water! 

Edward Anderson, Inventor of the Mini Donut Machine, Sir, I salute you. Rest in Peace.
]]> Kenneth Stirs The Pot (Again) tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1205 2009-03-25T02:41:27Z 2009-04-01T20:38:43Z "A loss to Creighton hurts us. A win over Creighton, the only thing it does is make our fans happy. It doesn't help you come Selection Sunday. That's just the way it is." Those words from Kenneth Kenny "Doc" Sadler,... Max Univers "A loss to Creighton hurts us. A win over Creighton, the only thing it does is make our fans happy. It doesn't help you come Selection Sunday. That's just the way it is."

Those words from Kenneth Kenny "Doc" Sadler, head coach of Nebraska, just the latest in a slew of pot-stirring comments about Creighton from the Head Red. Or at least, that's the version that the Omaha World-Herald printed in a front-page story today. Since Day One, Sadler has taken opportunity after opportunity to take shots at the team down the road. An interesting tact to take, considering the fans he's speaking to tend to believe that school is irrelevant and the inferior program (despite ample facts to the contrary).

Having not grown up in this area, I don't have the deep-seated hatred of Nebraska that native Creightonians do. My attitude is more of indifference; the only reason I pay any more attention to them than, say, Iowa State or Missouri is because the Jays play them every year. I don't care for Sadler, but that's got nothing to do with Nebraska, per se. I didn't like Steve Alford or Bruce Weber, either. Its funny, all three coaches had something in common:

All three made no secret of their hatred for Creighton.
]]> In Alford's case, it was jealousy that Dana Altman consistently out-coached him and in a couple of cases, beat him on the recruiting trail. In Weber's case, as head coach in Carbondale the first line in the job description is "Must H8 CR8TN". And in Sadler's case, he desperately wants to be the top program in the state and it burns him to his core that a school with 1/8 the student body outdraws his.

I love it. I miss having opposing coaches in the Valley that everyone can rally around and hate. Oh, there's Double-G in Wichita, who's currently Public Enemy Number One in Omaha and is gaining quickly for the All-Time crown. People to stir the pot make sports fun, and having a notorious pot-stirrer 50 miles down the road is delicious.

More from Kenneth:

"And as you saw (Monday) night, very few teams - I don't care if it's Kentucky or if it's Michigan - they ain't going into Creighton and winning very many games. But nobody cares about that."

Sadler may not have started the "People only to go to Creighton games because they can buy beer" argument, but he's the highest-profile person to speak it publicly. He's spoken in the past of wishing the Creighton series didn't exist. The man puts his foot in his mouth a lot, because he's visible and speaks his mind -- something Nebraska basketball fans appreciate after the previous coach was invisible, quiet and didn't win.

His act is wearing a little thin at least with a few fans, including a blogger over at HuskerLocker.com who wrote:

Nobody cares? The fans do. Nebraskans do. Boosters do. The players do. And it's a good win, too, even if some faceless committee balks at it. How many non-conference road games feature 15,000 hostile fans? Sounds like a pretty good tuneup for the Big 12 slate to me. And, honestly, given the end of the Danny Nee era and the sleep-inducing Barry Collier era, that's more than enough justification for the series...If the Creighton series is inevitable anyway, it's fair to ask: What's to be gained, at this point, by even mildly objecting to it?

Count me as one of those fans who would have normally have no beef with Nebraska if it wasn't for Sadler's continuing attempts to protect his own self-interest at the expense of ripping on my alma mater. But he seems to relish the opportunity to do so, and when he does, depending on my mood, it either enrages me or amuses me. Today, it amuses me.

You bet.
]]> 2008-09 Game #35: Kentucky 65, Jays 63 tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1204 2009-03-24T07:52:14Z 2009-03-24T14:03:25Z All I ask for as a fan, as a Jaybacker, and as an alum is for the team to play as hard as they possibly can for 40 minutes, leaving their guts, their heart, their soul, and everything they have... Max Univers
That was a whale of an effort, particularly defensively. I'm not sure what it looked like on TV, but in person, I can't ever remember witnessing a better off-ball defensive effort than the Jays executed on the All-American Jodie Meeks tonight. That was an absolute clinic. P'Allen Stinnett, Antoine Young and Josh Dotzler didn't just guard Meeks, they were in his face nearly every second he was on the court, and denied him from even catching the ball. It was simply extraordinary. When he did have open looks, he almost always nailed the shot, giving you a glimpse of what he might do against a worse defensive effort. That it happened so infrequently tonight is a credit to the men who stopped it from happening more often. You bet.

Furthermore, Kenny Lawson was a MAN tonight. Against the most talented big man he's likely ever faced in Patrick Patterson, he didn't just hold his own, he played toe to toe with him. In fact, you wouldn't be crazy if you made the argument Lawson outplayed him. Combined with the efforts of Kenton Walker, the Jays primary post players had 19 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocked shots and were 8-14 from the field. Did I mention their defensive effort on Patterson was outstanding?

Everyone who got into the game had something to look back on and be proud of. Everyone.
]]> Justin Carter had FOURTEEN rebounds against guys four and five inches taller than him. I can't count the number of times he scrapped and clawed in between two and three defenders to get the ball. He played 27 minutes and for all 27 of them, had the burning desire that the ball belonged to him, and anyone who dared try to take it instead was in for a world of hurt. FOURTEEN rebounds! That's twice what the all-world Patterson had, and Carter is seven inches shorter!

Kaleb Korver had a great game, blocking a would-be Jodie Meeks dunk (!), contributed four assists and knocked down a big three.

Booker Woodfox played outstanding defense on Meeks, hit three big three-pointers, and had the open look for the game winner that was flat. In addition to the scoring we've all come to take for granted, he grabbed five boards and dished out an assist.

Josh Dotzler had six assists, two steals and just one turnover, and fouled out only because he was scrapping and diving for everything in sight. His two steals moved him into a tie with Sir Rodney Buford for second all-time in the Creighton record books, something he richly deserves.

His defense tonight reminded me of The Mosquito, Michael Lindeman -- he visibly bothered both Patterson and Meeks all night long with his tenacity. And his fifth foul was vintage Dotzler: a teammate had blown his assignment, the Kentucky player (I forget who) was driving for a bucket, and Dotzler, with four fouls, sprints over and hacks the guy hard enough to prevent him from making the basket. He took one for the team, knowing it would disqualify him.

I never understood why some people didn't understand why Dotzler was as quietly outstanding as he was, but if they still feel that way after tonight, I have to question their basketball acumen. Seriously.

Antoine Young was 0-5 from the floor, but played such terrific defense, particularly on Meeks, that anything he contributed offensively was going to be a bonus. He also played admirably in relief of Dotzler and as a Freshman, had decent minutes at the point, especially in the last 2:30 after Dotzler fouled out.

Casey Harriman was asked to play several minutes alongside Walker in trying to stop Patterson, and despite being five inches shorter and 50 pounds lighter, bodied him up as best he could and managed to do as well as you could expect. Better than you'd expect, frankly.

Cavel Witter and Chad Millard gave solid minutes, giving starters valuable time to rest.

And last but certainly not least, P'Allen Stinnett played an awesome game. I can imagine people will remember his missed free throws and his ill-advised drive to the lane that resulted in a steal late. Its tempting to let those things poison your opinion of this performance, but to give in to that temptation would be unfortunate. Because make no mistake about it: P'Allen played very, very well for 34 of the 35 minutes he was on the floor.

He hit big shots. He had some big assists. He wanted the ball, and created plays with it, both for himself and for his teammates. And most importantly, he played the best defense I've seen in a long time in a game, regardless of opponent. He single-handedly removed a second-team All-American from the game offensively. Stinnett's defensive effort completely removed Jodie Meeks from the equation -- I counted, and Meeks attempted THREE shots while Stinnett was guarding him. In almost 20 minutes of gameplay. THREE SHOTS!

So if you want to rip him for his missed free throws or for his lost ball in the lane, go right ahead...just know that I'm not going to join you in that endeavor. I instead choose to applaud his effort and stand impressed by his ability to raise his defense to a level I didn't think was possible.

Stinnett from time to time does things to draw criticism, many of them deserved. But I'm sorry, anyone who rips him tonight is allowing something else to cloud their better judgment. Without his defensive effort, without his offensive execution, the game isn't close enough for his late miscues to matter. Period. End of discussion. Look, I'm not going to argue this. P'Allen was outstanding tonight, and was the player of the game in my book.

And Dana Altman...wow. He coached circles around Billy Gillespie. The defensive gameplan to deny Meeks the ball was genius, and it worked. The offensive gameplan to get Patterson in foul trouble early was genius, and it worked. The late-game X's and O's to draw up an open look for Booker, the MVC Player of the Year and the guy you want to take the game winning shot, was genius and it worked, except the shot just didn't fall. Its games like this that make you appreciate what we've got here, just in case anyone ever forgets or feels the need to rip him for lack of postseason success. The dude can flat-out coach, and that should never be taken for granted.

*****

People who've been with me for a while on this site know that I'm not one for sappy platitudes and overly-positive, flowery displays of affection. I don't believe in moral victories. I don't do that stuff well, which is why I don't do it. I make pithy remarks, I crack jokes about mini donuts and Pabst Blue Ribbon, and I link to Rick Astley videos. This is what I do.

But dammit, I'm not ashamed at all to say that tonight, I'm proud of this effort, and I'm proud of this team. If that makes me sappy and weak, then I'm the Apollo Creed to your Ivan Drago. So be it.

The thing we can't lose sight of as we reflect back on this game is that if they hit their free throws down the stretch, they win and everyone is talking about how the Jays outrebounded Kentucky, how they held Jodie Meeks eight below his season average, how they neutralized Patrick Patterson's inside presence, and how they played with a defensive vigor that we weren't sure existed. The fact that they came up two points short does nothing to diminish those facts. The end result is not indicative of the effort, and it should not poison our opinion of that effort.

In January, many fans wondered out loud what had become of Creighton basketball, where the hustle plays, the defensive effort, the attitude and the swagger had gone. Fans lamented the absence of those qualities. It was hard to argue with those people, because frankly the team wasn't doing much for us staunch defenders of the program to argue with.

Over the last ten games of the season, they silenced those critics and won a regular season championship. And in the last game of the season, on a big stage in front of 17,000 partisan fans and a nationwide audience on ESPN, playing against the most storied program in college basketball, the Jays made everyone who's ever graduated from Creighton, rooted for the team or had the pleasure of meeting the people associated with it proud. They played as hard as they could possibly play, they put themselves in position to win, and were a couple of shots away from pulling out a landmark victory.

I for one am damn proud to be an alum of Creighton University tonight, and I hope you join me in saluting this group of players for an outstanding effort. Its going to be a long eight months until we see them play another game, but I will be able to sleep well knowing they gave it everything they had in the last game, and it just wasn't quite enough. And there's no shame in that.

You bet.
]]> Gameday: NIT Second Round - Kentucky tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1203 2009-03-23T18:04:00Z 2009-03-23T17:08:07Z Around Omaha, the buzz for tonight's game is palpable. Indeed, its been awhile since I've had so many random people ask me my opinion on the Jays game. I'll give you three examples. On Friday, I was at dinner and... Max Univers
So yeah, people are kinda excited. And it is a big game, make no mistake about it. Kentucky has played one true road game -- ONE -- against a team outside of the power-six conferences in the last decade. And they haven't played a road game in this part of the country, period, in at least 20 years (I got bored with the research when I got that far back and stopped). They may be downtrodden and in the midst of their worst season in two decades, but they're still Kentucky.

They're one of college basketball's glamour programs, second only to UCLA in championships won and second to no one in total victories. They have one of, if not the, most rabid fanbases in college sports. They have fans all over the country; those from nearby states are excited at the chance to see Kentucky play within driving distance and have been snatching up any and all available tickets to the game.

All of that said, it really sticks in my craw to hear people call this "Creighton's Super Bowl." No, it is not. Please, I beg you, stop saying that. It only goes to prove to the Jay Bilas' of the world that teams of Creighton's ilk deserve the second-class citizen treatment they receive. Don't believe me? Here's an email I got from a Kentucky fan on Saturday:

"I'm excited to see how Kentucky fares in this game. I have always been dubious of Doug Gottlieb and others when they claim that Southern Illinois, St. Mary's, and Creighton, among others, are as good as teams from the BCS leagues. They're not. Fact: you guys would struggle to finish .500 in the SEC or any other BCS league. But the argument that truly elite BCS programs never travel to play you on your courts is something I cannot refute. We don't. And it gives you mid-majors something to hold over us in an argument.

That's why Monday is an important litmus test for me. If Creighton is really as good as the guys on ESPN say they are, combined with the advantage of home court, they should win by 20 points. I mean, it should be a blowout. Kentucky is having the worst season in the 30 years I've followed them, and yet I really honestly believe they are still 10-15 points better than even the best of the aptly-named mid-major teams. So I look forward to your team proving my point, one way or the other."

Calling this Creighton's Super Bowl plays right into their hands, don't you see? Is it a big game? Sure it is. Am I marvelously excited for it? Absolutely. But truth be told, I was way more excited when Oklahoma State came here in 1998, or when Iowa came here in 1999, because both teams were ranked at the time of their visits.

It is NOT the biggest game in program history, nor will a victorious outcome somehow "validate" the program. Unfortunately, I feel I'm losing the battle here, and that most fans really do believe this is the biggest game ever. For that, I am sad, and I will shed a single tear into my Diet Pepsi that the NCAA is forcing me to drink at the game because of their Gameday Prohibition laws. Bastards.
]]> One Big Paragraph With Lots O'Dots (TM): Kentucky is in the midst of their first NIT bid since 1979, after missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 18 seasons. They have a 21-13 record overall ... Second-team All-American Jodie Meeks averages 24.0 points per game, sixth-best in Division 1. He owns the three highest single-game scoring efforts this season, including a Kentucky-record 54 points against Tennessee in January ... All-SEC big man Patrick Patterson averages 18 points, 9 boards and 2 blocks a game, and is a big reason the Wildcats rank third nationally in blocked shots ... The Wildcats are sixth nationally in field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot just 38%. They average 75 points scored and give up an average of just 66 ... They are 4-6 in true road games this season ... The Wildcats coach, Billy Gillespie, is on the hot seat despite this being just his second season on the bench. His 39-26 overall record is far from terrible, but considering Kentucky's elevated expectations, its not surprising that the fans are restless.

The Last Time They Played: Creighton and Kentucky last met on January 2, 1948, and as I wrote in a telegraph post after the game, "Big loss STOP 65-23 Kentucky STOP Cross the Ohio River for a game tomorrow STOP Hopefully the outcome is better against Cincinnati STOP"

Pete Rose Memorial Odds: Creighton by 1.5 to 2.5 depending on who you ask. Not that it really matters, considering I don't gamble and only offer this information for entertainment purposes.

Gratuitous Linkage: You know you're getting old when the albums of your teenage years start getting re-issued in collector's edition packages. Isn't that stuff for old artists? Oh, wait, they are. First it was Pearl Jam's Ten, the news of which made me feel like lying about my age, and now its the Beastie Boys' Check Your Head. Good Lord. Make it stop.

Oh, and that article I linked to claims that Ten is directly responsible for the reprehensible Creed, Staind, and Nickelback trio. This claim made me throw up in my mouth, and a little bit on my shirt. Thanks.

The totally random song I'd play right now if I were still a radio DJ: Speaking of crappy music, some people don't like Duran Duran. I am not one of them. They're a guilty pleasure and dammit, I'm not afraid to admit as much. Its Monday, and I'm going to play New Moon on Monday because I can. You bet.

Prediction: And here we are at prediction time. What's going to happen tonight?

I predict I will enjoy two beers prior to game time. I predict I will enjoy chicken strips and fries inside the arena, and I will enjoy the Diet Soda less than I would a PBR. I predict Jodie Meeks will go for 30 tonight, Patrick Patterson will go for 18 and 12, but the rest of the Wildcats will struggle. I predict Booker Woodfox will score 28, P'Allen will score 23 and have two colossal dunks, and Kenny Lawson will foul out.

I predict a close, hard-fought battle with 15 lead changes.

Mostly, I predict a Jays victory.

Creighton 77, Kentucky 75
]]> A Game Plan for Beating Kentucky tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1202 2009-03-23T02:58:47Z 2009-03-23T04:42:50Z Ah, Kentucky. The winningest program in the history of college basketball with 1,987 victories. Seven National Championships. 43 conference titles. 47 All-Americans. Too many NBA lottery picks to mention.Its because of the facts in the paragraph above that the prevailing... Max Univers Ah, Kentucky. The winningest program in the history of college basketball with 1,987 victories. Seven National Championships. 43 conference titles. 47 All-Americans. Too many NBA lottery picks to mention.

Its because of the facts in the paragraph above that the prevailing opinion seems to be that the Jays have to play their absolute best game to have a chance to win. That's unequivocally, absolutely, positively the most absurd thing I've heard all week. Yes, Jodie Meeks and Patrick Patterson are wonderful players, NBA lottery picks both. But the players who surround them are very average. The team finished fourth in an extraordinarily weak SEC. The Wildcats are seeded #4 in the NIT for a reason. They're a good team, not a great team. They're beatable. Notice I didn't say the Jays WILL win -- I merely said they CAN win. To think otherwise is simply untrue.

The 'Cats were three-buzzer beater losses to LSU, Louisville and South Carolina away from being a 7 or 8 seed in the "other" tournament. But the last I checked, a 7 or 8 seed is never deemed "unbeatable" in that tournament. If the Jays had made the "other" tournament and drew a 7 or 8 seed with Kentucky's talent but a different name on their jersey, would people be claiming the Jays would have to play their absolute best to even have a chance? I'm guessing no.

Kentucky is still Kentucky, because of all of the reasons outlined in the lead paragraph. But people seem to believe that the talent and success of previous Wildcat teams somehow has any bearing whatsoever on Monday's game. Guess what: it doesn't. None of those players will be suiting up for the game. The jersey will still say KENTUCKY across the front, but the players occupying those jerseys are not the unbeatable juggernaut of years past.

The Jays can win this game, and they don't have to play their absolute best game ever to do so. After the jump, we'll analyze how they can accomplish that.
]]> Rebounding. Grabbing boards has been an achilles heel all season, and a poor effort in this game will cost them more than it has in previous games because of the presence of Patrick Patterson. The nightmare scenario involves Patterson grabbing multiple missed jumpers and dunking the ball each time over a Jays defender before his feet hit the ground from the rebound.

Offensive rebounds are going to be a key: the Jays need to stay as close to even on the offensive glass as they can. They can afford to beaten on the offensive boards, but not by double-digits. Ditto on the defensive glass. Patterson is fantastic, and he's going to get boards. He's probably going to get a lot of boards. There's no realistic scenario where the Jays out-rebound Kentucky, so they need to minimize the differential as best they can.

If a Wichita State debacle repeats itself where the Jays get out-rebounded by 25+, the result at the end of the game is probably going to be about the same: a blowout loss. But if the Jays can merely be respectable on the glass and keep it close to even -- say, minus-7 -- they will have put themselves in position to win provided they can:

Shoot The Ball Well. Needless to say, the shooting percentages of the last two games cannot repeat themselves. If they shoot 25% from the field and go 0-for the half from long range, nothing else that they do (or don't do) will prevent a blowout loss. A repeat of the Illinois State game in St. Louis or the first half last week against Bowling Green will be disastrous. Those two teams are vastly inferior to Kentucky, and both managed to blow out the Jays due to historically bad shooting. If that happens again, this will be ugly, and it will be ugly early.

However, there's every reason to believe we won't see that kind of shooting on Monday. If anything, I'd think the percentage may swing to the high side of 50%, at least early. When this team is motivated and plays its A-game, its very tough to beat at home. Anyone willing to bet they won't be motivated to play Kentucky? That's what I thought.

40% from three-point range is the magic number. If the Jays hit that, I like their chances. With that said, another thing to look at is the number of attempts they have from long-range. If its 25+, I don't like their chances. They need P'Allen, Antoine Young and Cavel Witter to put the ball on the floor and dribble penetrate. Make the defense guard you in the paint. You'll either draw a foul or create open looks outside. Both are good outcomes.

Still, all the shooting in the world won't help if you don't...

Guard Someone. Jodie Meeks is a great shooter, and Patterson is a tremendous post player. I really believe we'll see some box-and-one employed in this game to prevent Meeks from getting touches. He's a dynamic enough scorer that merely allowing him to catch the ball is dangerous, as he'll shoot -- and make -- shots from anywhere. Deny him the ball, deny him scoring opportunities.

Essentially, the game plan should be to make someone else beat you. If Kentucky had "someone else", they'd be a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament. Meeks is that good. Limit his touches and his ability to beat you, and your chances for winning increase a lot.

As for Patterson, the Jays bigs (Lawson, Walker, Millard) have 15 fouls to play with. Use them. Yes, he's a decent free throw shooter, especially for a big man, but don't let him get easy buckets. Make him earn those points at the line.

Turnovers. The Jays have done a pretty good job of limiting their own turnovers, and have a knack for creating turnovers on defense. This is one area where even the most cynical Jays fan has to admit they have an advantage: Kentucky turns it over almost 20 times a game. In fact, the scouting report on Kentucky is that they're extremely loose with the ball, and that the single biggest obstacle to their being a better team is too many turnovers.

So apply pressure. Go full-court most of the game, perhaps switch it up with a little 3/4 court pressure from time to time. Face-guard the ball at all times.

If the WIldcats merely hit their average in turnovers, that's a very good sign for the Jays.

To sum up: the Jays need to shoot 40% from three-point range, take around 20 attempts from long range and the rest from 15 feet or closer. They need to keep the rebounding margin to around minus-7. They need to limit Jodie Meeks touches, and force Patterson to earn his points. And they need to get Kentucky to turn the ball over at their season-average rate.

Does that sound outrageous? Not really. Don't fool yourself: this is a very winnable game. I'd almost go far enough to say this is a game the Jays SHOULD win. Stop back after lunch for the official Gameday Breakdown, and see if my Gameday prediction has the Jays prevailing.

You bet.
]]> 2009 NIT First Round: Jays 73, Bowling Green 71 tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1201 2009-03-19T13:34:28Z 2009-03-19T16:10:48Z Yesterday was my bosses' birthday, and we brought in a homemade meal of her favorite food for lunch: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, rhubarb pie and ice cream. I was entrusted with bringing in the ice cream, because my... Max Univers
Meatloaf! The bombastic, theatrical singer and star of such cinematic masterpieces as Fight Club and Wayne's World? I like him very much. A loaf of bread made out of various and sundry meats? Not so much.

Why do I tell you this? For once in my life, I got a prediction right, and not just right -- REALLY right. It must be the meatloaf. Has to be. How else do you explain me writing this yesterday?

"I think the hangover from 50 minutes of shoddy play in St. Louis, coupled with the disappointment of playing in the NIT, will lead to an ugly first half. I have an awful feeling that Bowling Green is going to jump out to an early lead, perhaps by double digits. Somehow, the Jays will find a way to come back.

Creighton 69, Bowling Green 64"

Doesn't that sound like essentially an elevator speech version of the game recap? Sure does. For a couple of hours yesterday, I was marvelously clairvoyant. I also warned a co-worker that he was not only going to eat pie and ice cream, but that he was going to get an ice-cream headache when he ate it too fast.

It was like I'd taken a Quantum Leap into the body of Ed Glosser: Trivial Psychic. Truly bizarre.

So...

The hangover from 50 minutes of shoddy play in St. Louis, coupled with the disappointment of playing in the NIT, led to an ugly first half.

Haha!

After the jump, I stop messing around and get to the actual recap. Join me, won't you?
]]> *****

10 days separated the Jays' blowout loss to Illinois State and their NIT First Round matchup. If the disappointment of being in the NIT wasn't bad enough, the rust from 10 days without a game compounded it. The first half of the game looked like a continuation of all of the nightmarish qualities of the Illinois State game: historically poor offensive production for the Jays and equally historic offensive production for their opponent.

Darryl Clements equalled the Jays scoring output by himself during a 31-13 run that lasted nearly ten-minutes in the first half. The Falcons hit six three pointers during that stretch; meanwhile, the Jays were shooting just 26% from the floor and were en route to 0-11 shooting from behind the arc.

You knew that both extremes were not sustainable. The odds of Creighton shooting 26% two games in a row is roughly the same as the odds of me drinking coffee in the morning. I do not drink coffee. Based on my bottled-water-in-the-morning math, I figured despite a 14-point deficit, the game was not yet out of reach.

The same cannot be said for the guy sitting two rows behind me, who spent the entire first half ripping each and every player, by name, in a booming voice. You know that old adage that people who rip players to shreds on message boards would never do so in person? This guy was making that adage seem quaint, and his soliloquies had all the vitriol of the anti-Jays threads that polluted the Bluejay Cafe in January with none of the anonymity.

During the tail end of the 31-13 run, he yelled out, "That's it, I can't take this anymore!" He made a rather large production about leaving. I couldn't help it and said to my buddy sitting next to me, in a loud enough voice that the guy could hear me, "Hurry up and leave, you won't be missed."

Just as my meatloaf clairvoyance had predicted, the Falcons hot shooting was not sustainable. Shots stopped falling, the rebounding margin narrowed, the Jays shots started falling (at least inside the arc), and by halftime, the deficit was sliced to a manageable 8 points.

After the break, the negative guy returned, and although the team was playing better, he still found things to gripe about. I overheard him make a comment about how he wished the people in front of him would sit down so he could "watch this embarrassing display without looking at the g**d*** video board!", meaning the people two rows in front of me (and four rows in front of him). It doesn't take much for me to be ornery, and I decided to stand up and cheer, partly because the team was making a run and needed support, but mostly because the negative guy was pissing me off -- and I now had knowledge of a button to push to piss him off in return. You bet.

Over the first ten minutes of the second half, the Jays slowly chipped into the lead. Like a faucet dripping, they slowly drew down the deficit point by point. Finally with just under 11 minutes to play, they cut the lead to 51-49 on a dunk by Kenny Lawson. Unfortunately, as so often happens when a team has a big deficit, so much energy is expended coming back that they can't get over the hump once they get close. In under 90 seconds, the lead was back to eight for Bowling Green.

With 4:40 to play, the Jays capped a 14-4 run with a three-pointer from Booker Woodfox, who was wide open on the wing and took a pass from P'Allen Stinnett. The three gave the Jays their first lead since an early 5-4 advantage; as Bowling Green called timeout to regroup, Creighton led 67-65 and suddenly, the negative guy was drowned out by 9,500 die-hard fans screaming and yelling.

For a couple of minutes, the game went back and forth, with the teams exchanging both baskets and the lead. And then with 1:40 left, Justin Carter nailed a three to give the Jays a lead they would not relinquish at 70-69. Stinnett hit two free throws on the next possession to run the lead out to 72-69; a defensive lapse led to an easy layup for Bowling Green and set up a tense final 30 seconds.

With the shotclock off and trailing by one, Bowling Green had to foul. They picked the freshman point guard, Antoine Young, and they chose well: he missed the front end of a one-and-one. Now with 28 seconds left, Bowling Green could hold for the winning shot, as they trailed just 72-71.

They had an open look early in the possession, however, and took it -- fortunately for the Jays, Nate Miller's shot clanged off the rim, and Kenton Walker grabbed a huge rebound. Walker was smacked in the head on the play and his contact lens popped out; ordinarily the refs will stop the game to allow re-insertion of a lost lens, and they did just that. Because of Walker's poor free throw shooting percentage, the Jays bench employed a little gamesmanship and took advantage of the situation. After a two-second exchange with the coaches, suddenly the lens was torn, not just knocked out.

And just like that, the team's leading free throw shooter, Booker Woodfox, popped up off the bench to shoot Walker's free throws for him. Gamesmanship. You bet.

Of course, Booker missed the second free throw, making the entire situation moot. With 19 seconds left, Bowling Green had a second opportunity to hold for the last, game winning shot, or to hit a jumper to go to overtime.

All night long, dribble penetration had killed the Jays. But when it counted, Justin Carter sealed off the lane, forcing the ball-handler to kick it back out towards the perimeter. An awkward, off-balance, closely-guarded three bounced harmlessly off the rim as the horn sounded, and the Jays had survived.

You bet.

*****

Tonight's Polyfro Player of the Game is brought to you by the letter P. Hey, if its good enough for Sesame Street, its good enough for me. Speaking of things that are good enough for me, C is for Cookies, and that's good enough for me. And P is for P'Allen Stinnett, who played a marvelous game on Wednesday. P played 31 minutes, scoring 18 points on 5-8 shooting, 8-9 from the line and biggest of all, dished out a career-high six assists.

And now its time for Kentucky. The winningest program in the history of college basketball, seven-time National Champion, and a program with unparalleled tradition. Its not the biggest game in Creighton history as some people very wrongly are claiming, and its not the biggest opponent to play in Omaha. But it is pretty cool, and I'm excited.
]]> Gameday: NIT First Round - Bowling Green tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1198 2009-03-18T12:44:58Z 2009-03-18T18:32:48Z The NIT is a funny tournament in that some years, you're clearly not an NCAA-tournament caliber team and you're glad for the extra games (2006, 2008). Some years, you're clearly not an NCAA-tournament caliber team but you wish the season would... Max Univers The NIT is a funny tournament in that some years, you're clearly not an NCAA-tournament caliber team and you're glad for the extra games (2006, 2008). Some years, you're clearly not an NCAA-tournament caliber team but you wish the season would just end already (2004). And some years, you're a bubble team for the NCAA and didn't make the cut, so you're disappointed to be in the NIT (2009).

In a sense, the NIT can be more about which team cares to be there and less about who the more talented team is. You see it in lower-tier college bowl games all the time, where a clearly inferior team wins by three touchdowns over a big-name, heavily favored opponent that was disappointed at not playing in a bigger game. That's one of the keys to winning bowl game pick 'em sheets in your office: figuring out which teams in the lower-tier games actually care.

Hence our dilemma tonight. Creighton believed they were going to the NCAA Tournament, and now that they're in the NIT; many people -- players included, if the rumors are to be believed -- are not terribly excited to be there, and even less so to see Bowling Green as the opponent.

Look, I'm not hugely excited for the game, either. Part of it is that every damn time Creighton goes to the NIT, something awful happens that leaves me angry for two days.

In 2004, there was the Jake Muhleisen buzzer beater that gave Nebraska a 71-70 win and gave me nightmares for a week. Luckily my therapist, Dr. B. Light, is economically priced and always available. Four or five sessions later, I was over it.

In 2006, we had the Miami Debacle where the refs call the phantom foul on Dane Watts. Mayhem ensued, trash was thrown onto the court (although how anyone could tell the trash from the stands from the trash in striped shirts, I'll never know). Dana Altman chased the refs into the tunnel screaming bloody murder, and rumors of a certain Athletic Director allegedly taking a swing at said referees followed (for the record, those rumors were and are completely false, although it was and remains a fun rumor). Despite many sessions with my therapist, Dr. B. Light, I've yet to fully recover from this one. The Doctor's advice was to black it out as best I could, which I've mostly succeeded at doing until I stupidly brought it up just now. I've just broken a pencil in half on my desk. IDIOT.

In 2008, the Jays followed a buzzer-beater by Cavel Witter with an abomination in Gainesville, losing 82-54 and looking outclassed, outmanned and dominated. Only two sessions with Dr. B. Light were required to get over that one, because the game was over before halftime. However, three sessions with his assistant, the lovely Ms. Minnie Donutson, were prescribed and lustily enjoyed.

In 2009? My guess is Creighton wins tonight and Monday over Kentucky, then plays Notre Dame for the right to go to NYC. They're ahead all game, and in the last minute, Kenton Walker is called for a moving screen giving the Irish new life. On the other end, P'Allen is T'd up for hanging on the rim on the exclamation point dunk that should have sealed the win. Notre Dame wins on free throws. Dr. B. Light works overtime for days.

Just kidding. But seriously, the NIT has usually not ended well for the Jays. After the jump, we'll get ready for Bowling Green.
]]>
One Big Paragraph With Lots O'Dots (TM): Bowling Green plays in the MAC, and got an automatic berth by winning the regular season title but failing to win the conference tournament. They're 19-13 overall, and looking to win 20 games for the first time since their last postseason berth, an NIT run in 2002 ... In the non-conference, the Falcons lost by single-digits to Minnesota and Ohio State, and lost at Illinois State by 13. It should be noted that the Jays lost by 20+ to that same Illinois State team twice ... On January 20, they sat at 8-9, but a 10-3 run down the homestretch allowed them to claw back into the MAC race and ultimately win it ... A veteran team, the Falcons have developed into a pretty solid road team, winning six of their last seven ... Senior Nate Miller leads the team in scoring at 13.5 a game, rebounding at 7.5, and steals. He was a First Team All-MAC selection, and has a well-rounded game. He's one of just three Falcons all time with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 150 steals. He's also 6'4" and between 225-250 lbs depending on which source you consult. If Miller gets too feisty, foul him: he shoots an atrocious 44% from the line ... Senior Brian Moten is the primary deep threat, hitting a team-high 67 three pointers, averaging 11.5 points a game, and earning honorable mention All-MAC honors ... The Falcons are coached by Louis Orr, which is a cool name for a coach. He's also the MAC Coach of the Year this season, so good for him ... The Falcons ideal tempo is a slow, half-court game that allows their defense to drag the game down into the mud. They allow an average of just 60 points a night, and score an average of just 64. Their shooting percentages of 43% overall and 34% from long range mesh with that 64 point average, and seem to indicate if the Jays can dictate tempo and run, this game could get out of hand.

The Last Time They Played: Hard as it is to believe, Creighton and Bowling Green have never met before. In lieu of that, I'll give you this info nugget: Creighton is 1-4 against MAC teams under Dana Altman. The only win? A 71-60 W over Akron in the 2006 NIT.

Pete Rose Memorial Odds: Creighton by 11.5. Good thing I don't gamble, and only provide this number as a service to those of my readers who may be inclined to do so, because that's a high number for an NIT game. Wow.

Gratuitous Linkage: I'm not ashamed to admit that good-old-fashioned potty humor still amuses me, so it should be no surprise that this story about Bob Dylan's toilet emitting offensive odors cracks me up. Its sad people got sick, but still, I can't help myself.

Official Gametime Snack: The NCAA, which owns the NIT, bans the sale of liquor on the premises. They also ban streaming audio and video web casts. These draconian, CCCP, Cold War tactics do not amuse me. I'm not telling you to do this, nor am I saying I will do it, but IF you happen to smuggle in a flask, and IF you are so inclined to fill it with an adult beverage, PERHAPS that should be your gametime snack. Liquid diet of contraband, bootleg liquor. Again, I'm not suggesting you do this. Its definitely against the rules and it might even be a bad idea.

The totally random song I'd play right now if I were still a radio DJ: I've never seen Bowling Green play a game in my life, so I can't very well pick a proper song for tonight, can I? No, no I can't. I'm going to play "The Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground because I've been trying to work this song into a post for two seasons and haven't been creative enough to do it. Time to get crazy in a Burger King bathroom!


Prediction: I think the hangover from 50 minutes of shoddy play in St. Louis, coupled with the disappointment of playing in the NIT, will lead to an ugly first half. I have an awful feeling that Bowling Green is going to jump out to an early lead, perhaps by double digits. Somehow, the Jays will find a way to come back.

Creighton 69, Bowling Green 64
]]> Upon Further Reflection... tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1199 2009-03-17T20:51:40Z 2009-03-17T21:46:12Z Lots of things have been written here and elsewhere in the aftermath of Sunday's disappointment, and the inevitable backlash has begun. You wouldn't believe the emails I've been getting -- I could become a pretty successful freelance joke writer just... Max Univers
I can't speak for everyone, and wouldn't presume to do so, but I don't think Creighton feels a sense of entitlement or that the NCAA Tournament bid was "stolen" from them. I don't think this is a conspiracy, nor do I believe that the NCAA is some over-arching cartel that is out to get the mid-major team. Its disappointing that the criteria favored by the committee is increasingly advantageous to "major" teams. But there's no conspiracy here.

On Saturday after Creighton got hammered by Illinois State, I remember telling someone "Well, there goes the NCAA tourney bid." It was quite a discussion that night, with me, the eternal optimist, strangely playing the role of Negative Noonan. There were chinks in Creighton's armor I figured the committee, armed with a blowout in their last game, wouldn't ignore: a BAD home to Drake, non-conference losses to non-Tournament teams, and no marquee win. In other words, they were a bubble team. Win that game, they're not a bubble team. They lost it, though, and badly.

Did Arizona have chinks in their armor? Absolutely, and I outlined many of them here over the  weekend. Same deal with every team on the bubble. That's why they were on the bubble in the first place. If they had sterling resumes, they'd be locks and someone else would be on the bubble.
]]> What we can't lose sight of is that there isn't a whole helluva lot of difference between Creighton, Arizona, St. Mary's and San Diego State. All had plusses, all had minuses. One team was getting in, and the other three were going to be left out and therefore be angry. If Creighton had gotten the bid, Arizona would have cried foul. Or if St. Mary's got gotten in, Arizona would have been mad. Somebody's going to be left out and believe they got jobbed. That's why we're fans. We're passionate, and we're always going to side with our team. Whoever got left out was going to be mad.

Its a lose-lose situation for the committee. Put Creighton or St. Mary's in, and Digger Phelps and Jay Bilas will scream bloody murder. Put Arizona in, and Dick Vitale and Doug Gottleib will scream.

That's true whether you've got 64 or 128 teams in -- someone is always the last team in, and the last team left out is always going to be upset. Creighton happened to be that team this year. I'm not terribly upset about it two days later, because their resume wasn't markedly different from Arizona, at least not enough to whine about it.

*****

There's no conspiracy schedule-wise, either. Doofus-pants Jay Bilas can spit as he yells on TV all he wants and claim "Creighton can play anyone they want, if they go on the road!", but that's not necessarily true -- nor is it necessarily, well, necessary. This season's schedule, cited by many as the deciding factor in keeping them out, looked much better on paper in August. Think about it:

St. Joseph's on the road? That's usually going to be a stellar game, a highlight of the schedule. The Hawks turned out to be decidedly average and no one mentioned the Jays win two weeks later.

New Mexico at home? The Lobos won 21 games but were picked to be not just an NCAA Tournament team, but a dangerous one. They're in the NIT. Again, the win was barely a postscript on their resume.

Oral Roberts at home? They had their worst season in years, something that couldn't be anticipated. I seem to recall people being really excited when the Jays got paired up with them for the BracketBuster last year -- because the return game would be great. Didn't work that way. Another postscript on the resume.

The Las Vegas Classic? This tourney was originally supposed to have a "Mystery" Pac-10 team as the headliner, but wound up with an 0-18 Big East team in DePaul and a below-mediocre St. Louis team as co-headliners.

That's just bad luck. The biggest names are never coming to Omaha, so the ideal schedule is probably 2-3 good/great games against solid mid-majors, an exempt tournament with solid BCS type teams, and some filler games against Top 150 teams. Throw in the annual Nebraska game, and that's a pretty good slate. And that's what Creighton likely believed they had this year: 3 games against good/great mid-majors, an exempt tourney with 2 BCS teams, and some filler games.

If it had worked out that way, the Jays would likely be in the tournament, or at least have had a stronger argument. Unfortunately, the only game that worked out well was Dayton, who contended for the A-10 title, was ranked most of February and was the best team on the schedule at season's end. Everything else went poorly.

That's not a conspiracy, that's bad luck. This is the first year I can remember where the Jays schedule was an issue come March. They play as good a schedule as they can get without selling their souls, and every year except this one it has worked out just fine.

The thing about luck is, eventually it runs out. This year it did. And so the Jays are NIT bound as a #1 seed. Bowling Green is first up, and then the winner of Kentucky-UNLV comes to Omaha. If they beat one of those two traditional beasts, Notre Dame, Nebraska or New Mexico is headed here.

So think about this. They're in the NIT, but tomorrow we get to see them in person one more time. And if they win, we get to see one of the three most storied programs in college basketball IN OMAHA -- we get to see Booker Woodfox versus Jodie Meeks! That's good stuff. Or we get to see Lon Kruger, Dana Altman's mentor and UNLV head coach, come to Omaha. That's a great storyline too. Should they win that one, Notre Dame (!) comes in, Steve Alford returns with his Lobos (Boo!), or Doc Sadler's Huskers come in for a rematch.

That's a consolation prize, but it ain't too bad.

You bet.
]]> A Tale of Two Coaches tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1196 2009-03-17T05:15:55Z 2009-03-17T05:32:41Z Two fellow Valley coaches had public comments in the aftermath of Selection Sunday. See if you can decipher who said which comment.Coach X: "Am I upset that the league didn't get more than one team in? Yes. Am I upset... Max Univers
Coach X: "Am I upset that the league didn't get more than one team in? Yes. Am I upset that Creighton didn't get in? I won't say what I feel about that."

Coach Z: "What's very frustrating is to listen to the criticism that Creighton took, that we all take. You can never satisfy that. We can never get the Lakers on our schedule three times a year. It's not going to happen. So if that's the criteria, we cannot win that game."

After the jump...
]]> Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich, talking to the Chicago Tribune's John Mullin. More of his quote:

"The real issue is how do you get the real powers-that-be to respect the non-BCS more instead of less. Right now the trend is toward less. That's a convenient argument. RPI becomes a convenient argument when it's in their favor, and when it's not, [they say] it doesn't matter. They all talk about Top 50 wins like those are not subjective. You don't have a Top 50 win unless there's RPI. That's how you get a number. They use those like crazy for someone like Syracuse, for example: 'Syracuse has six Top 50 wins.' But Creighton's 39 RPI you should ignore because RPI's irrelevant? Well, if it's irrelevant, then you have zero Top 50 wins because there is no Top 50 without RPI."

Coach X is our old friend Double G, Gregg Marshall, stirring the pot and doing what he does so well: delivering delicious soundbites and spewing hatred towards Creighton. I've said it before and I'll say it again: did Dana Altman accidentally run over Double G's dog with his car on a recruiting trip or something? There hasn't been this level of venom spewed the Jays' way since the halcyon days of the Steve Alford-Bruce Weber era. I can't wait for Double G to stoop to Alford's level and turn the Jays into the NCAA for made-up recruiting violations after a player torches him for 30 points some time.

You bet.
]]> Stood Up tag:www.polyfro.com,2009:/jaysblog//2.1195 2009-03-16T02:20:13Z 2009-03-16T03:27:45Z Joe Lunardi finally missed one in his final bracket, and wouldn't you know it, it was Creighton that he was wrong about. There's a couple of schools of thought about what happened to Creighton today, both of which contain puke-inducing... Max Univers
One: the Jays were the proverbial "Last Team In", and were bumped for Mississippi State when the otherwise NIT-bound school won the SEC Tournament and thus, the automatic bid.

Two: the Jays were much further down the pecking order than any of the pundits believed, and had been out of the discussion pretty much all week.

I tend to believe it was the second scenario, hard as that is to digest. Mississippi State winning removed Penn State or Auburn from the field, not Creighton or St. Mary's. There were only four mid-major at large bids, and the 11/12 seeds that used to go to those schools are now going to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona, etc. Those teams never used to get double-digit seeds. In the post-George Mason world, they do. Fewer and fewer mid-majors in the field leads to fewer chances one or two of them advance to the second weekend, or, God forbid, the third weekend. Every year the number of those teams getting in gets smaller, and that's what is upsetting to me.

Taking a step back, Creighton didn't have a fabulous resume. But the mid-majors that did have a good resume got screwed too, and that doesn't bode well for years when Creighton DOES have a great resume. The 2001 team that got an at-large doesn't get that chance in this environment; the 2003 team doesn't get a top-six seed in this environment. Wichita State doesn't get a favorable draw leading to a Sweet 16 run in this environment. It just doesn't happen, and that's really, really upsetting to me. I'm not upset over Creighton so much as I am about mid-majors in general.

Does this impact recruiting? Does it affect attendance? Valid questions with difficult answers.

This entire scenario is insulting, its demeaning and perhaps worst of all, its a wet dream for Jay Bilas and Digger Phelps. And as you know, anything that makes those two clowns happy is automatically "List of Things That Piss Me Off List".

*****

In my Selection Sunday Primer, I noted teams to be wary of seeing on the board. That list was gleaned from lots of sources, and was not as far out of left field as it wound up seeming.

"If one of the group consisting of Penn State, Auburn, Florida and Arizona shows up, its an ominous sign. If two of that group show up, its curtains."

When Arizona showed up in the very first region that was revealed, it was like getting punched in the stomach by 1985 Dolph Lundgren. Arizona was probably the worst team of that group, so them getting a bid was like getting a crisp meat burrito shoved up my butt. Thanks to some random Husker troll on the Bluejay Cafe for that insulting analogy, incidentally. I swore I'd steal it and use it eventually, and here I am mere days later, doing just that. Thanks.

Surprisingly, none of the other three in that group got in. But lots of other bad things did happen. Minnesota and Wisconsin got in with double-digit seeds, meaning they were closer to the bubble than we'd been led to believe. San Diego State and St. Mary's didn't get in, but Maryland did.

And around 5:40, it was official: Creighton, their 26 wins and conference co-championship were stood up for the dance.
]]> I have but one question to ask of my fellow Jays fans. A couple of months ago, there was a heated debate about the relative merits of regular season championships versus conference tournament championships. A surprising number of people wished for regular season titles, because "the MVC regular season champ hasn't missed the tourney in 15 years, and winning the regular season is a better barometer of solid play over 2+ months instead of three days."

Well, everyone who made that argument, congratulations, you got your wish! And for the first time in 15 years, the regular season champ didn't get in -- and it was Creighton. Ouch.

*****

In November, pretty much everyone would have agreed that going 26-7, 14-4 in the league and tying for the championship would have earned a bid. Creighton did those things, and yet they're on the outside looking in. Here's why, in my estimation:

What we didn't count on is a mediocre non-conference schedule turning solidly horrible. They won on the road at St. Joseph's in a year when the Hawks had their worst team in a decade. That *should* have been a good win, but wasn't. They won the Las Vegas Invitational, but beat two sub-200 RPI teams in Omaha to get there and then beat Fresno State (bleh) and DePaul (0-18 in the Big East) once they got there. Who would figure the generally decent Fresno State would be awful, and that DePaul would go two months without winning a single game?

Taking away the relative demerits of the schedule, the Jays still gave the committee ample reasons to keep them out.

The Jays got blown out at Wichita State (bad loss), and lost home games to Drake (bad loss) and Northern Iowa (bad only because it was at home). They got their asses summarily handed to them twice by Illinois State. They lost road games to non-tournament teams in Nebraska and Arkansas Little-Rock. Their schedule did them no favors, but they didn't exactly make lemons out of lemonade either.

Don't be too distraught over Creighton. Don't cry for me, Argentina.

Cry for the Mid-Major in general, because every year, we get closer and closer to having a D1A and D1AA split as there is in football. After a high water mark of 12 mid-major at large bids in 2004, there were a record low 4 this year. FOUR! I'm not going to make the argument that Creighton deserved to be in the tournament over Minnesota, Maryland or Wisconsin; all four of those teams had flaws, and while it stinks Creighton is one outside looking in, its not horrible.

What I am upset about is San Diego State, St. Mary's, and a plethora of other good, quality mid-major teams -- Creighton included -- being excluded. Its like the movie Idiocracy is coming true. Jay Bilas and Digger Phelps, both of which are dumber than my left nut, have successfully educated the ESPN-Kool Aid drinking public into believing that teams with losing records in their conference are better than teams who win a Top 10 league.

I challenge anyone to present an argument to me where Arizona, a team that was sub-.500 in the Pac 10, is better or more deserving than the mid-majors on the bubble. Lets be clear about something: I'd be OK with San Diego State or St. Mary's getting in over Creighton. I'm not OK with Arizona getting the nod, and I'm not soon going to forget about it. I hold grudges like Khomeni.

Sleep well, Jay Bilas and Digger Phelps. Your dream is coming true. As for me, I'll go on a Forrest Gump-length run, grow a long beard, get on some magazine covers, give away genius t-shirt ideas, inspire hundreds of lost souls and get in really, really good shape.

You bet.
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