After a wild set of games on Monday night, summer league is almost headed to the playoffs already. Thursday night will be the last set of pool games before the MBL tournament starts on Monday, July 12th. There appears to be a wide gap between teams this season and the stalwarts of past summers are making their mark, while a couple others are making a surprise run.
Head out to the Omaha Sports Academy on Thursday night with games at 6:45, 7;45 and 8:45 p.m. You should see most of your favorites there. Jump around to the different games or find you favorites. Here is our viewing guide.
Game of the Night
7:45 Court 3: Bank of Nebraska (4-0) vs. BD (4-0)
Bluejays to Watch: Toby Hegner
This is easily your game of the night with what could be a preview of the MBL tournament finals. Bank of Nebraska is always tough with the core of Klaye Rowe, Derek Paben, Ben Holling and Cody Levinson, but last week Toby Hegner made his return after minor surgery to remove a cyst. His contributions were big with the absence of a few of the other BofN guys. However, this team has continued to roll and looks to get themselves back into the championship circle like they experienced two of the last three summers.
On the other side is the Jelani Johnson led BD team that has been solid all summer long. After a last second shot to start the summer, they haven’t looked back mowing down everyone they have encountered. Having familiar faces like Donald Jones, Ben Imig and Galen Gullie has helped them gel as a team. Full of veteran players, both of these teams will battle it out for the potential #1 seed in the MBL tournament that starts next week.
Bluejay Heavy Games
7:45 Court 1: Judd Knispel Agency (2-2) vs. APEX Foster Care (4-1)
Bluejays to Watch: Cole Huff, Marcus Foster, Jahenns Manigat, Nick Bahe, Matt Dorwart, Anthony Tolliver
Tolliver is in town for camp this week and played with the Nick Bahe All-Stars (Judd Knispel) on Monday night and destroyed the Rooferees 123-93. Everyone was on all cylinders hitting three-pointer after three pointer along with a bunch of easy layup shots. This team is starting to hit their stride and Jays fans can continue to enjoy the early look at Huff and anticipate what will be a year from now with Foster.
APEX Foster Care (Peru St.) suffered their first loss of the summer last week against an 0-3 team. They will be hungry to rebound from that loss.
7:45 Court 2: EQ School of Hair (1-3) vs. Shanks Law Firm (1-3)
Bluejays to Watch: Mo Watson, Geoffrey Groselle
Mo Watson (EQ) and team struggled a bit on Monday on hitting shots. But that can easily turn around on Thursday. Watson has been a delight to watch this summer just like last summer, but while he struggled on Monday from outside, his outside shot is much improved from a year ago. Geoffrey Groselle also continues to build off of last summer and last season as he went toe to toe with John Turek on Monday. Throw in Randy Reed and Zach Pirog from UNO as well as some veteran players in the mix, they aren’t too bad of a team as whole.
Shanks Law Firm (Hastings College and Morningside graduates) has struggled a bit this summer. However, they did garner their first win last week against the undefeated APEX Foster Care. We’ll see if they can continue the trend.
7:45 Court 4: OFWF (0-4) vs. Winning Mentality (2-2)
Bluejays to Watch: Justin Patton, Marlon Stewart
OFWF wanted to sponsor the team that Justin Patton was on this summer, unfortunately they can’t boast any wins in summer league yet. But then you look down the roster and the team is really young compared to the rest of the league with all of the players still in college. Taking on graduates and pro players is a whole different ball game. From a Creighton standpoint though, it has been fun to watch the future of Creighton basketball in Patton and Stewart. There is a lot of potential there and they are feeling more comfortable week to week.
Winning Mentality is exactly what OFWF doesn’t want to see. Full of former Peru State players along with a Bruce Chubbick and Steffon Bradford sprinkled in there, they have been a vocal group all summer long supporting each other through their ups and downs. After losing on a last second shot in the first game this summer, this team has bounced back by winning two games from behind before losing to the Crusaders on Monday. They would like another win with momentum heading into the tournament.
8:45 Court 1: Paragas Law (2-2) vs. NE HS Hoops (4-0)
Bluejays to Watch: Kyhri Thomas, Drew Cayce, Ronnie Harrell, Zach Hanson
NE HS Hoops has been the surprise of the summer sitting at 4-0. This team has actually been really entertaining seeing the all out effort by Thomas and the great inside play (with a lot of dunks) from Iowa Western’s Thik Bol. They have found ways to win all summer with an OT game in session 1, a one point win in session 2, a blowout in session 3, and a hard fought four point win on Monday night. Granted, the games haven’t been against the likes of Bank of Nebraska or Andy’s Lawncare, but they know how to win.
Ronnie Harrell and Zach Hanson have had a pretty impressive summer themselves. Harrell has benefited greatly from his redshirt year at Creighton last season with a lot of new confidence from the outside and driving to the hoop. Hanson looks to have a lot of confidence back and has been pretty dominant down low throwing down a lot of blocks. It also has been interesting the last two sessions with your boxing champ Terrence “Bud” Crawford putting down the gloves and showing his moves on the basketball court. No word on whether he will be playing with Paragas Law on Thursday night, but if he is, it is just another reason to check out the best basketball in town this summer.
The Rest
6:45 Court 3: UNO Alumni (2-2) vs ABIDE Network (0-4)
In the opening game of the night, look for UNO Alumni and ABIDE Network battle for positioning in the MBL Tournament. UNO Alumni has done a great job getting early leads, but then struggling in the second half, giving up those leads and twice this summer leading to losses. ABIDE is working hard just to get a win, but have improved session to session by making the losing margin smaller and smaller. They may be able to steal one here.
8:45 Court 4: Rooferees (2-2) vs. Capehart Sales (1-3)
Bluejays to Watch: Martin Krampelj, Tyler Clement, Austin Chatman
It is almost too bad that Justin Carter got invited to the Phoenix Suns Summer League team before Monday night. With the game full of Creighton players already with the Rooferees playing Judd Knispel Agency, it would have been fun to add another former Bluejay in Carter to see if the result would be different. Regardless, Austin Chatman has taken a lot of big shots while Krampelj’s confidence has gone up session to session. The growth made during summer league may not seem like much, but just imagine what growth will be made once he gets in the hands of Creighton coaches for the trip to Italy. He may have a bigger impact on the season than people will realize.
Of course, I would be remiss not to mention James Parrott for the Rooferees. I’m probably biased, but he is probably one of the more entertaining players in summer league with his shooting ability and his ability to dunk almost every time he gets within a few feet from the basket. You would have never guessed that he spent his college career at Bellevue University and Midlands.
Speaking of Midlands, Parrott will get to face some of his former teammates as Capehart Sales looks to rebound from a disastrous Monday. Playing two games to make up for not playing before the 4th of July, Capehart (Midlands) got down big early in both of their games and while they rallied back in both, they didn’t have enough to pull out the win. Getting a win here would be a good feather in their cap and possibly make up for Monday.
8:45 Court 2: Narmi Group @ Baird (0-4) vs. Crusaders (2-3)
Bluejays to Watch: Malik Albert, Alex O’Neill
Albert made his summer debut on Monday with the Narmi Group and many walked away feeling pretty confident about Greg McDermott’s last minute addition for this season. He could play a multitude of positions including backing up Watson at the point or sliding over to the shooting guard. O’Neill will come to Creighton as a walk-on and has done pretty nice including 15 points and 7 rebounds on Monday. Unfortunately, Narmi doesn’t have a win to show for their efforts so far.
For the Crusaders (UNK), they played two games last week and walked away winners in both. their confidence should be high going into Thursday night.
8:45 Court 3: Andy’s Lawncare (4-0) vs. Tostensen (2-2)
The defending MBL champs are continuing to roll, but games have been a lot closer than last summer. Andy’s has been playing with a limited number of players all summer, but it hasn’t affected them too much. Tostensen’s two wins have come with former Husker Ryan Anderson playing for them. Their other two games haven’t been pretty. This game could go one of two ways.
