The bouncing of basketballs across Omaha gets a little louder with the start of the Omaha Metro Basketball League on Thursday night. Collegiate players past, present, and future will be participating in the league, creating some great action.
You can get all your previews, recaps, and pictures from the Summer League games at White & Blue Review — the exclusive home to the Metro Summer Basketball League. Bookmark the site to quickly find all the information you need to follow the Creighton Bluejays in these entertaining games.
Come out to the Omaha Sports Academy to watch the games all season. Games are open to the public and admission is free. There will be programs available for purchase so you can figure out which player is wearing what jersey if you are not familiar with the guys. With so many new players on the court, you may need that program to keep up with the action.
Here is a preview of the games and the teams involved.
Game of the Night:
7:00 p.m. (Court 2) Zurlo’s vs. Thompson Basketball Camp
Bluejays to Watch: Isaiah Zierden, Geoffrey Groselle, Nick Bahe, Ross Ferarrini, Matt Dorwart, Avery Dingman, Zach Hanson, Livan Pyfrom
Let’s be honest: There are a lot of great players in this league and many will do some spectacular things. However, most of the spectators at the games are there to watch the Creighton players, especially the incoming guys they have not watched in a game yet. This particular game might be the most Creighton heavy of the night.
Zurlo’s is lead by former Bluejay Nick Bahe who always seems to get a bunch of Creighton players around him. On his team this summer is sharpshooter Isaiah Zierden, who is coming off a redshirt year, and Geoffrey Groselle who looks to get more playing time this upcoming Creighton season with the graduation of Gregory Echenique. Bluejay fans are really interested to see his development. Joining Groselle for the summer is his brother Mike who just finished his career at the Citadel. With former walk-ons Ross Ferarrini and Matt Dorwart, this will be a pretty tall team.
On the other side with Thompson Basketball Camp is to be junior Avery Dingman and one of the incoming Triple H’s, Zach Hanson. Hanson is a two-time South Dakota Player of the Year as he enters his freshman year at Creighton. They are joined by current UNO players CJ Carter and Alex Phillips along with the Thompson’s, Dean and Drew. It will be interesting to see former Bluejay Livan Pyfrom matchup with the Groselles.
7:00 p.m. (Court 4) Andy’s Lawn & Landscape vs. Bank of Nebraska
Bluejays to Watch: Justin Carter
This game may actually turn out to be the game of the night. The biggest reason is that a majority of the two teams rosters have stayed the same from last summer, and they both have a lot of great players. Bank of Nebraska won the MBL last summer and all of their players are back including Justin Carter, former Husker Wes Wilkinson and Nebraska junior Deverell Biggs. While those players get the most attention, look out for former Bellevue player Klaye Rowe. He actually led BofN in scoring last summer.
On the other side are a lot of former Huskers. Jason Dourisseau, Andrew Drevo, John Turek and Charles Richardson lead this bunch. They all play really well together and will be a force. This game will be a battle and the winner in this one will be the early favorites to win the league this season.
Bluejay-Heavy Games:
6:00 p.m. (Court 2) EQ School of Hair vs. Mavs
Bluejays to Watch: Austin Chatman, James Milliken
Creighton fans may get to see a preview to a backcourt combination that could make things a little exciting during the regular season with Chatman and Milliken. Milliken wasn’t originally going to be in Omaha until July, but according to his Twitter feed, he’s already in Omaha — so although we can’t confirm he’ll be there tonight, it’s a definite possibility. Whenever he does hit the court this summer, it’ll be a great (early) chance to see Chatman and Milliken playing together.
The Mavs, as you would expect, is made up of all UNO players with Caleb Steffensmeier as the only current player on this roster. However, the Albers brothers, Tyler and Mitch along with Jeff Martin will make them a dynamic team and a tough matchup for EQ.
8:00 p.m. (Court 1) Judd Knispel Agency vs. Shanks Law Firm
Bluejays to Watch: Jahenns Manigat, Devin Brooks, Alex Olsen, Steve Ferarrini,
For Judd Knispel Agency, this team is made up of mostly Creighton and UNO players. Creighton’s Jahenns Manigat, UNO’s Mike Hagerbaumer, and Peru State’s Eric Donald are the most senior players on this roster which also includes Creighton walk-ons Alex Olsen and Steve Ferarrini. Incoming Creighton JUCO Devin Brooks is in town, but recovering from a wrist injury. He tweeted last week that he is excited to get his cast off soon, so it may be July until we see him playing in Summer League.
Over on the Shanks Law Firm side, the majority of these players are from North Platte Community College, which is growing quite a pipeline of former Omaha metro players. With this team mostly familiar with each other and building towards their regular season, this team could be really tough to beat.
8:00 p.m. (Court 2) Paragas Law Offices vs. Narmi Group @ Baird
Bluejays to Watch: Will Artino, Toby Hegner, Brice Nengsu, Darian Harris, Ethan Wragge,
Will Artino and Toby Hegner lead the Creighton contingent of Paragas Law Offices. The 6’10 twin towers could get some playing time together this winter and it could be fun to see this hi-low combo in the post. Post players don’t necessarily get showcased too well in Summer League, but they have enough height and energy that they could go against the norm. Look for an appearance by former Creighton player Brice Nengsu as well. UNO’s Jalen Bradley will lead the backcourt.
The Narmi Group always has some Creighton players on their team. This year Ethan Wragge and Darian Harris will represent the Bluejays. Wragge is still coming off offseason wrist surgery and may not make an appearance until July. However, most are probably interested in seeing Harris and how he might fit into the lineup this season. With a lot of veterans, including Omar Bynum and Jesse Cardenas, don’t count them out of anything.
The Rest:
6:00 p.m. (Court 1) ABIDE vs. Stangs
This will be a matchup of full rosters. ABIDE is actually made up of all current players from Bellevue University, while the Stangs are the roster of Morningside College. A lot of team ball going on here.
7:00 p.m. (Court 1) Cape Truck Acc. vs. Chris Carder
Cape Truck Acc. is made up of all Midland University players. They will take on Chris Carder which is mostly made up of players from Northeast Community College in Norfolk. Like the 6:00 p.m. game on court 1, a lot of team ball will be happening here as well.
7:00 p.m. (Court 3) Construction vs. Free N Clean
Bluejays to Watch: Antoine Young
Former Creighton Bluejay Antoine Young has returned to Omaha for the summer after playing a season bouncing around Europe and Mexico before returning to Europe to help a team win a championship. He is surrounded by a lot of graduate players including LC Doss who finished his career at Eastern Illinois and Stephon Bradford who played at Nebraska.
Free N Clean includes a lot of players who played for small colleges in Nebraska. Mike Snyder and Scott Wissing who played at Hastings College joins Jake Johnson who played at Doane and Nate Harris who played at York College.
8:00 p.m. (Court 4) Slice vs. UNO Alumni
Bluejays to Watch: Brody Deren
UNO Alumni returns every player from their roster last season with the addition of John Karhoff for this summer. Andrew Bridger, Mike Jenkins and Denny Johnston are on the roster. Of course the oddball of the bunch is former Creighton player Brody Deren, who has been playing on this team for the past several summers. This team will likely be dominant like they have been in the past as well.
Slice is made up of several recent Bellevue University players including Jelani Johnson, Donald Jones and Hussein Diop along with Samford graduate Andy King.
8:00 p.m. (Court 3) Higgins Weatherguard vs. Walentine, O’Toole, McQuillan & Gordon
Higgins is made up of current Benedictine players Luke Norville, Dean Tiwald, and Charlie Wallrapp as well as Jonah Bradley and Trevor Johnson from Nebraska Wesleyan. All of the players on the roster are currently playing basketball in college somewhere.
For WOMG, this roster is made up of players from all over. One of the more fun players to watch in the league is former Bellevue and Midland player James Parrott. Look for a few sweet dunks from him during this game.
