Before the game on Sunday, I felt pretty confident that Creighton’s best shot at victory would be to slow down the pace and not allow Iowa State to make baskets in transition. I even wrote that they could not win a game where one or both teams scored in the 80s or 90s.
So what does Creighton do? Come out and make more three-pointers in the first half alone than they had made in an entire game all season, for one; shoot a scorching 48.6% from the floor in that opening stanza, for another. To say that sort of offensive production was surprising would be the understatement of the season, and the fact that it happened in a road game only makes it that much more impressive. Yes, road game. Don’t kid yourself, any semblance of neutral court-ness went out the door when the “tournament” allowed Iowa State to control gameday operations, bring their own P.A. guy, and show their own pre-tip videos. (I have more to say — much more — on the operations of this “tournament” but I’ll get to that later.)
The game was played at a frenetic pace, one which you would think would benefit the Cyclones more than the Jays, given the way the two had played their first handful of games. Both seemed to thrive on it, though, and the back-and-forth, up-and-down style of play kept the raucous crowd engaged. The atmosphere in the arena was tournament quality, with massive roars going up every time something good happened for either team, with both fan bases trying to drown each other out. And except for one over-zealous Creighton student who did his best Pelini Brother impersonation by flipping the bird and screaming obscenities at Cyclone players as they left the court after the game — an exchange captured on camera and posted online, though we won’t link to it here — the two passionate fan bases shared the arena pretty cordially.
***
As we waited in line for a half hour (!) as the line at the concession stand moved at a snails pace, I got progressively more and more antsy as 2 o’clock approached. My dad and I had been tasked with going to get hot dogs and beverages for the group, which at 1:30 seemed like an easy thing to do. How long could it take? A long darn time, that’s how long. It was exasperated by the stand running out of hot dogs (this actually happened), then running out of beer, and then running out of Coke. This despite only half of the available registers being open. Clearly, a huge crowd was expected.
You’d think the plethora of monitors in the concourse would show the jumbotron feed, as they do in every stadium, ballpark and arena in the world, but apparently, the monitors do not serve that purpose at Wells Fargo Arena, where they merely show commercials — with no sound, mind you — for upcoming events. We watched the same ads for Disney On Ice over and over for 25 minutes, then again as first the starting lineups happened, and then the opening tip, and then the first minutes of the game. I’d like to say the wait was worth it, but my hot dog was lukewarm (the result of the workers panicking at the huge crowd of people waiting, then cooking it on the rollers for all of 30 seconds — it wasn’t even browned) and my beverage was flat.
When we finally got to our seats with three minutes elapsed in the game, I glanced up at the scoreboard thinking the player stats section of the board would fill me in on what had happened so far. It was blank. No list of player numbers currently on the court, so therefore no point/foul totals for those players. There was an area clearly marked for such basic things, but it was bereft of data. And there are no auxiliary boards showing shooting percentages, rebounding totals, or other stats like there are at most modern arenas, Qwest Center included. As I tried to catch up on the three minutes we’d missed, it was mildly annoying; as the game wore on, the lack of stats became inexcusable. And don’t get me started on the half-frame-rate replays, when they bothered showing replays at all.
In the handful of times I’ve been to Wells Fargo Arena, I’ve never been terribly impressed. Its better than Vets Auditorium next door, but that’s faint praise as anyone who’s been in that venerable old barn can tell you. This despite great memories of my high school winning the state championship, first in basketball and later in wrestling, in that old place.
***
Thanks to my brother, I learned that after Cyclone fans had booed Greg McDermott lustily during introductions, the Jays had controlled the opening tip and Darryl Ashford, starting for the first time this year, had taken the first shot. He would score the first four points of the game, with two long jump shots both going in. Doug McDermott would add two baskets of his own, sandwiched around a pair of free throws by Kenny Lawson, and it was 10-5 Jays before we returned to our seats with cold hot dogs and flat beverages. A 12-10 score, with Creighton ahead, at the first media timeout was simply stunning. This was a team that had been defense-first through three games, struggling to hit shots at home in front of a partisan crowd, and now in front of a crowd split 60/40 in favor of Iowa State they couldn’t miss.
Coming out of the first timeout, Ashford hit back-to-back three pointers 32 seconds apart, on the heels of a three-pointer by Kaleb Korver, and it was 23-16 Jays. Iowa State was just as hot, though, and they took their first lead, 32-31, with under five to play in the half. The half of the lower bowl occupied by Clone fans went nuts, as did the upper bowl, which was almost entirely partial to the Cyclones. It would be a short-lived lead, as Doug McDermott hit a stone-cold jumper to put the Jays back ahead going into the final media timeout of the half.
Back-to-back threes from Antoine Young and Lawson in the final minute built the lead out to 43-37, and the Jays took a six-point advantage into the locker room. They’d made 48.6% of their shots (17-35), 53.8% of their shots from behind the arc (7-13), and Kenny Lawson had 12 points with 5 rebounds in 15 minutes of play while Ashford also had 12 points. Both players were 2-3 from behind the arc. For Iowa State, Diante Garrett had played the entire 20 minutes without a break, and scored 15 points with 3 assists. No one outside of press row was aware of these stats, as I mentioned, because of the garbage scoreboard in the arena that had space reserved for stats but opted to conserve energy by not lighting up.
***
At halftime, I did not leave my seat, assuming that if the line to get refreshments was absurdly long before the game, it would be just as bad if not worse at halftime — and as impressed as I was with the arena, I didn’t wish to spend a three-hour tour shipwrecked in the bathroom waiting in line. The game was too entertaining to miss for something as trivial as a bathroom break.
***
Kaleb Korver drained two threes in the first 90 seconds of the second half, sandwiched around a Doug McDermott jumper, and just like that, it was 51-39. Fred Hoiberg called timeout, and with 18:12 to go in the game, all the momentum seemed to be swinging toward the Jays. Of course, when both teams are shooting as well as they were on this day, momentum is only as good as the next team to shoot.
Back-to-back three pointers from Diante Garrett and Melvin Ejim cut it to 51-46, and the Cyclone crowd which had been momentarily silenced was back in it. So too were the Clones, and over the next eight minutes, the teams traded baskets, with the lead gradually decreasing until, with 9:01 to play, Jamie Vanderbeken hit a jumper to give Iowa State a 66-65 advantage. A huge roar went up from the Cyclone faithful. Vanderbeken was fouled on the play, and hit a free throw to make it 67-65.
Again, as it had been in the first half when they briefly took a lead, it was short-lived, this time thanks to Ashford. He nailed a jump shot 20 seconds later to tie it, then 20 seconds after that hit a three-pointer in transition to give the Jays the lead. Doug McDermott followed with a bucket, and less than a minute-and-a-half after taking the lead, the Cyclones were down by five.
With 5:30 to go, Melvin Ejim hit a three for Iowa State that gave them back the lead, and this time, they seemed determined to make sure they still had the lead on their next offensive possession. The teams traded baskets over the next four tightly contested minutes, and with 1:08 to go, Iowa State took a five-point lead — their biggest of the day — on a three pointer by Jake Anderson. Things looked bleak. Shots that had been falling earlier in the day for the Jays suddenly weren’t, while Iowa State continued to be red hot.
Antoine Young, the Jays ironman point guard who has been ridiculously — RIDICULOUSLY, IN ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS TO SHOW THE LEVEL OF MY ANNOYANCE AT THIS RIDICULOUS LINE OF THOUGHT — bashed by some internet posters for not being a very good point guard, despite leading the MVC in assist to turnover ratio a year ago, then put the team on his shoulders for the second time in four games this season. First, he hit a three-pointer with 36 seconds left to make it 83-81. Then he drove it to the rack, drew a foul, and made one out of two free throws to make it 85-82 with 24 seconds left. An assist with 15 seconds left allowed a wide-open Kenny Lawson to knock down a three-pointer to make it 87-85. And finally — following two missed free throws from Scott Christopherson — Young raced down court and when Diante Garrett denied his first look at an attempted three, he opted to drive it at the rim, where he drew a foul. Young made the first free throw as the Creighton half of the arena held their collective breaths and the Iowa State half of the arena yelled at the top of their lungs. It was 88-86 ISU with just three ticks to go and no timeouts.
He would intentionally miss the second free throw — an exceedingly difficult thing to do when you’ve been steeling yourself to make tough free throws in a close game — and then unbelievably, inexplicably, got his own rebound. And amazingly, he was fouled in the act of shooting his desperation shot to tie the game. Melvin Ejim and his 22 points were fouled out of the game for Iowa State, and Creighton was two made three throws away from a tie game and probable overtime, as 1.6 seconds remained.
He made the first, as once again the Creighton half of the arena held their collective breaths and the Iowa State half of the arena yelled at the top of their lungs. Fred Hoiberg called timeout to ice him, but the steely Young was having none of it. Upon returning to the court following the timeout, he quickly took the ball, and coldly drained the free throw with as little drama as possible in such a situation.
Christopherson inbounded the ball for Iowa State, and his pass went to Jamie Vanderbeken who dribbled twice to the top of the key, turned, and — depending on whether you were wearing zebra stripes or not — got off a game-winning shot or failed to get off the shot in time. Referee John Higgins signaled “good”, then ran to the scorers table as Iowa State fans cheered wildly, Creighton fans stood in disbelief, and everyone waited for the outcome of the inevitable replay.
To the surprise of pretty much everyone in the stands, the referees instead quickly ran for the tunnel, exited the court, and the coaches exchanged handshakes. The game was over. Amidst the confusion, the jumbotron showed a replay which clearly indicated the shot had been released too late. It was shown only once. Not that it mattered.
Both teams battled and played a wonderfully entertaining game. Both deserved to see the game played to a controversy-free result — Iowa State fans maintained the foul on Antoine Young that led to his game-tying free throws shouldn’t have been called, while Creighton fans maintained the game-winning shot was released late — and everyone was robbed of what would surely have been an exhilarating overtime period.
Iowa State shot 65.5% in the second half (19-29), making 8-13 from behind the arc (61.5%), so its entirely possible they would have continued shooting that hot and run away from the Jays in the extra period. It might even have been likely, although the Jays were also red-hot, shooting 51.1% in the second half (16-31) and 7-14 from three-point range, so who knows? I don’t know about you, but I think it would have been a blast to find out. This was an entertaining game to watch, and no one I know would have objected to five more minutes of it.
***
That there was no replay monitor has nothing to do with the game not being televised and everything to do with tournament promoter Maury Hanks assuming the arena had one at the scorers table that mirrored the jumbotron house feed. His assumption was wrong, and like so many things surrounding the arena, the game presentation and the tournament itself, was half-baked.
For those in attendance and have a free souvenir “Battle of the Birds” t-shirt to show for it, the game was an exciting, fun afternoon of hoops action in November that felt like a game with much more on the line in March. It was the most fun I’d had at a Creighton game in at least two years — there was not one game last year that I’d put anywhere near this one on the fun scale — and the ending doesn’t diminish that. Bad calls happen. Higgins is a solid referee who simply blew a tough bang-bang call. In the big picture, its a regular season game in November, and to be honest, neither of these teams is likely to be in position for an at-large bid in March so in the hindsight that 24 hours away from it offers, the ending is more of an annoyance than anything else.
There are two more games this week to prepare for, including one against another big-name opponent in Northwestern, so lets hope the team moves on as fast as I did following the loss. Namely, by the time I’d left the arena.
You bet.
