Around the Rim–6/4/09

A few different things going on the past few days with the Jays and around the Valley.

• Scheduling–Earlier this week, an Iowa St. message board, CycloneFanatic.com, mentioned that a local radio show in Des Moines was talking that the Jays have been working at securing a date at the Wells Fargo Center for the upcoming season assuming that it is for a neutral game against Iowa.   Now initially, I am skeptical that it would be for this season for these reasons:

  1)As it stands right now, Creighton goes on the road @Dayton, @George Mason, @New Mexico the Old Spice Classic in Orlando and 9 conference road games.  That leaves Creighton with the potential of having 15 home games this season–9 conference, Nebraska, Arkansas-Little Rock and from what I have been hearing a home Bracketbuster game.  That leaves Creighton with potentially 3 games that haven’t been assumed, plus an exhibition.  That is a total of 16 home games.  Last season there were 17 home games + the exhibition for 18 home games.  Though ticket prices were not raised this year (probably because of less home games), it is hard for me to imagine that the athletic department would take one of the 3 remaining  games on the schedule to be a neutral site game.  I’m not sure how many fans are going to potentially lose 3 home games from last year.

  2)You know that there are a couple of games to sort of get the team acclamated to each other, especially with 5 new players hitting the court.  So you schedule the Iowa neutral game and that leaves the SWAC to fill the remaining 2 games.  Not an absolutely stellar home schedule and people complained last year with an average home schedule.  Hate to see what happens now unless the tough road schedule sort of fills that gap.

  3)I could see this more as a preparation of some type of 3-game series with the first game starting in Omaha, 2nd year at Des Moines and then the 3rd year at the opponent home.  But then the Iowa Events Center is always looking for things to be at the Wells Fargo Center.

  I guess we’ll have to see on this one.  Seeing schedules take shape is always interesting in the offseason.  Rivals has part 2 of their series of behind the scenes of scheduling.   Then you have UMass. They are having some trouble filling their schedule too.

• Former Recruits–Former Creighton recruit D’Angalo Jackson is on the move again.  He will be playing for Mississippi Valley St. this season.  This will be his 4th team in 4 seasons.  He spent the first half of his freshman year nursing an injury on the Jays squad and transferred at semester to Wisconsin-Green Bay to be closer to home.  He played in the second half of the next season, but still did not see the court like he wanted, so he surfaced at Arkansas-Fort Smith last season.  With two years of eligibiliy left, it is a strong possibility we will actually see D’Angalo set foot on the Qwest Center court as MVS almost seems like a regular staple on the Creighton schedule.
• Arkansas revisited–Coach Altman’s name came up again in Arkansas this week as former player Patrick Beverly came out with a story how players on the basketball team were having papers written for them by other people.  As the Arkansas writers said, “John Pelphrey had absolutely nothing to do with Beverley cheating. Nothing. That was Beverley’s decision, but it makes more sense every day why Dana Altman bolted back to Creighton.”   So under Pelphrey’s watch in 2 seasons, 15 scholarship players have left the program through different means.   Can you imagine what Coach Altman would have to be dealing with right now?
• Honors–Creighton AD Bruce Rasmussen had a great honor bestowed to him this week as the 2nd part of the Ryan Athletic Center will be named after Mr. Rasmussen.  The facility will be a great addition to an already nice looking complex with Morrison Soccer Stadium and the women’s Sokol Arena.
• Omaha World Herald–The OWH has ramped up some nice Jays coverage over the past few weeks with the breaking Cavel Witter returning stories, 1 & 2 , the near misses with all of Creighton Athletics this year, the workouts of the team going on this summer, and the exclusive on Bruce Rasmussen’s honor.  Keep up the great work.
• BluejayCafe–The original BluejayCafe disappeared this week and has now become part of the Rival’s scouting network.   A lot of nice interviews out there, but unless you want to drop some coin, you won’t be able to take part in them.
• Bluejay Banter–Finally, if you haven’t checked it out yet, there is a new radio show on Omaha’s 1620 the Zone AM and 1620thezone.com on Sunday mornings that talks Creighton Bluejay Athletics.  The past few weeks they have had several great interviews.  This week, be sure to check out the show as they will have interviews with former Jay Nick Bahe and take some time to interview ESPN’s Bracketologist Joe Lunardi, which may also provide some insight to a future continuation of the St. Joeseph basketball matchups.   Be sure to check them out at 10AM on Sunday.  If you happen to miss the show, you can always visit Bluejaybanter.com to get the podcasts, but also the guys have been gracious enough to allow access to the podcasts from this site.  There is a Bluejay Banter section on the right side of this page to check out the latest podcasts.

As always, if there is anything you ever want to contribute or provide information, feel free to e-mail me at wildjaysATgmailDOTcom.

Making their Case

P'Allen Stinnett was off tonight, but Booker Woodfox was En Fuego

Box Score

Creighton had an opportunity to showcase themselves to the nation tonight and they did just that.  A fired up crowd provided an extra bit of energy and the Jays played with a lot of confidence in their 76-63 win tonight against George Mason

Booker Woodfox showed everyone why he is the leading 3-point shooter in the nation hitting 5-6 and shooting 8-10 from the field to lead the Jays with 22 points.

Everyone was concerned with George Mason’s Darryl Monroe, but it was the play of Kenny Lawson and Kenton Walker that shut down Monroe for the most part.  There was no sign of that soft play that was talked about earlier in the season.  A couple massive dunks by K & K and a couple of great blocks got the alcohol induced crowd even more excited.  Though Woodfox was 5-6 from three, the team was only 8-20 from three. It was the inside game in shooting inside the arc that led the Jays to the win.

Other than being down early the first few minutes of the game, basically Creighton led the whole rest of the way.   Antoine Young doesn’t look like a freshman anymore again trying to take over the game early in the second half finishing 4-4 from the field and 13 points.  Everyone that got into the game for the Jays  (other than Chad Millard who only played 2 minutes) scored.  The two team rotation where 5 guys go out and 5 guys come in really causes problems for teams but yet keeps the cohesiveness the team needs.  It looks like George Mason was just worn out by the end of the game.

The crowd tonight was great and the student section finally showed up.  Maybe all home games should be played at 8:30 instead of the normal 7PM start time.  I still think it would be blast to have the MVC play in the 11PM slot on Big Monday that was vacated by the West Coast Conference.  In reality it would only be about 1-2 games per season for each team.  The later time definitely draws more people and they are a lot more fired up.

The Jays don’t have time to pat themselves on the back and now have to focus on finishing up Conference play this next week.  First up is a road trip to Missouri St. where the Bears have not lost on Senior Day in 19 years.  Though Missouri St. is last in the league this game is definitely not a gimme.  Then it is the showdown with Illinois St. next Saturday this is most likely for the MVC regular season championship–which will again be on the ESPN family of networks and another opportunity to make their case to the media and the NCAA selection committee.   Finishing their last ten 10-0 would be convincing.   Should be fun.

Gametime Primer: Jays vs. George Mason

Vs.

Saturday, February 21st , 8:30PM
Qwest Center Omaha

Radio: Big Sports 590 AM or Bigsports590.com
TV: ESPNU (Cox Ch. 220 in Omaha)

Creighton Game Notes | George Mason Game Notes

Audio to Listen To
George Mason coach Jim Larranaga (BS 590)
Nothing but Nylon with Nick Bahe (BS 590)
Bracketbuster Usefulness (BS 590)

Other Previews
George Mason Relies on Defense (OWH)

The Jays step out of conference for Bracketbuster Saturday and carry a 7 game winning streak into the game against George Mason.  Here is what we need to know about George Mason

• George Mason is 0-2 all-time against Creighton with the two games coming in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.
• The Patriots are 18-8 on the season and 11-5 in their conference.  The best win of the season for them is against Vermont in overtime in the opening game of the season.  George Mason did play @ Dayton and lost by 4.
• George Mason is 5-8 away from home this season and has lost its past five games away from The Patriot Center.
• John Vaughn, Cam Long and Darryl Monroe all average double-figures  and also lead the team in minutes played.
• George Mason has lost their last 5 road games.
• George Mason just elected a drag queen as it’s homecoming queen.

Ahh, the Bracketbusters.  I remember when this was a nice small set of teams that were pretty consistent and developed in 2003 to have a chance to matchup some teams that were competitive in the past and could have an extra out of conference game late in the season to show how good they were and to get a quality win.  The original 18 teams in the first year of the Bracketbusters were Gonzaga, Kent State, Southern Illinois, Creighton, Illinois-Chicago, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Western Kentucky and Cal-Santa Barbara, Tulsa, Fresno State, Ball State, Bowling Green, Detroit, Hawaii, Illinois State, Northern Iowa and Wisconson-Milwaukee.

The 2nd year of the Bracketbusters, it expanded then to 20 teams and got some teams some good exposure.  At the same time however, there were some teams that started making noise that weren’t part of Brackebusters and some of the teams in the Bracketbusters at the time weren’t as good. ESPN, always one to do more marketing and TV ideas decided to expand the field.  Last season the field expanded to 102 teams.  This year is no different, with again 102 teams.  However, some of the teams that made this event what it was in the beginning (Gonzaga, Western Kentucky and Tulsa) are no longer part of the Bracketbusters and the significance of this has taken a hit.  Now, the Valley is sort of the flagship conference for this event and will probably continue to be through 2010.

Now to the matchup with George Mason.  It is really the best matchup out there for the Jays that was still available and shoudl make for an interesting game.  Both teams are fighting for their conference championship.  Both teams are hoping for that outside chance to get noticed by the media and the NCAA Selection Committee.  With the losses lately by Northern Iowa, Davidson, Butler and St. Mary’s, the Creighton-George Mason game looks even better to the media types.  Yes, ESPNU isn’t available to the most people out there, but a TV game is a TV game.  The Jays get this one and the showdown on ESPN2 against Illinois St. next week.

The Jays are riding high on a lot of confidence through this 7 game winning streak.  The team is really playing great team ball and different guys are stepping up in different ways each game.  With a large crowd expected (under 1000 tickets remaining as of Friday afternoon) and a late start time, this has all the makings of a great game and a great opportunity for the Jays to show what they can do.  I’m pretty excited about this game and hopefully everyone else is as it sort of gives everyone a chance to not have to think about conference play and just enjoy a good basketball game. Heck even the students might show up!

George Mason does hold opponents to 60 points a game, but I think the Jays will be able to push things a  little bit.  In the end, the Jays depth will help them in this one and the long travel for George Mason and the short preparation time and unknowns of both teams will benefit the Jays.  It will be a close game, but the confidence is high with this team and Booker Woodfox will show the nation why he is the #1 3-point shooter in the nation.

Prediction:  Jays 83, George Mason 76