News and Notes from around Creighton and the Big East this week:
- Junior big man Toby Hegner had surgery this week on the ankle that had bothered him the second half of the season:
- Cole Huff reported that his mom, who suffered a stroke the week before the Big East Tournament, is doing well and back home:
- Kari Korver, cousin of Kyle,ย Kirk, Kaleb, and Klayton, wrapped up her UCLA career in the NCAA Tournament last weekend atop the school’s three-point shooting list. Of the five Korvers to play Division 1 hoops, her 256 made threes ranks second.
- Roberts Blumbergs, a 2017 recruit that Creighton is heavily pursuing, took an official visit to CU this week. The 6’9″, 205-pound Latvian native currently plays for GBA Sparta in the Czech Republic. He averaged 16.5 points with 9.8 rebounds in six games at the 2016 U18 FIBA European Championship, shooting 55% from the floor and 45% from three-point range. If Justin Patton heads to the NBA, CU would need another big who could step in and play immediately (their in-house options are Toby Hegner, Martin Krampelj, walk-on Sam Dunkum, and incoming freshman Jacob Epperson). Blumbergs could be that guy.
- Speaking of recruiting, five-star Brian “Tugs” Bowen continues to weigh his options, and Creighton continues to be a legit landing spot for the highly-touted player. His LaLumiere team played in the Dick’s Sporting Goods High School Nationals on Thursday, where Bowen thrilled the national TV audience with a pair of sparkling plays:
- Seton Hall’s Angel Delgado declared for the NBA Draft, but did not hire an agent, leaving the door open for a return to the Pirates for his senior season.
- Xavier’s Edmond Sumner also declared for the draft, but did hire an agent and will not return:
- Providence coach Ed Cooley’s phone is ringing, but he’s not interested in leaving the Friars as he told the Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara.
- Georgetown continues it’s search for a new head coach, and has now brought in a search firm to help identify candidates.
- Omaha referee John Higgins, who will work his eighth Final Four this weekend and has reffed too many Creighton regular season games and Metro Summer League games to count, drew the ire of Kentucky fans after last weekend’s Elite Eight loss. Actually, that’s being charitable. The lunatic fringe of the Wildcat fanbase flooded his roofing company’s Facebook page with negative reviews, andย made death threats deemed serious enough that the FBI was called in.
- Marquette blog Paint Touches analyzed how much NCAA Tournament revenue the Big East is looking at after placing seven of it’s ten schools in the tourney. Their rough numbers also showed each school’s basketball revenue in one handy chart:
- Speaking of revenues, USA Today released figures detailing the compensation for coaches of NCAA Tournament teams, and Creighton’s Greg McDermott ranked 40th out of the 63 on the list at $1.153 million. The only high-major coach to make less was Oklahoma State’s Brad Underwood, who left after one year for Illinois and a massive pay raise.
- The Associated Press released their All-Time Top 100, and all 10 current Big East programs appear on the list including Creighton at #82. The others?ย #15 Georgetown, #19 Villanova, #21 Marquette, #27 St. John’s, #49ย DePaul, #53 Xavier, #57 Providence, #67 Butler and #72 Seton Hall. The ranking was derived based on 68 years of AP polls, withย each poll appearance worth one point and a No. 1 ranking worth two points.
- Creighton baseball’s Bryce Only was a guest on The Bottom Line this week, and talked to Mike’l Severe about the Jays’ season so far.
- Finally this week, a collection of stuff about former basketball coach Dana Altman, whoย guided the Oregon Ducks to the Final Four.
- Altman shed his underdog status in helping Oregon reach the Final Four, wrote the OWH’s Dirk Chatelain
- Nick Bahe asked if Bluejay fans rooting for Dana Altman was weird;
- Tom Shatel covered the same topic with Mike’l Severe on The Bottom Line;
- Altman gambled his career but trusted his system when he left K-State for Creighton in 1994, as Chatelain writes in an excellent longform feature on the first five years of Altman’s career at CU.
- KETV’s Josh Planos takes a deep dive into Altman’s career, where he talked to long-time friends in his hometown of Wilbur and former players from his Creighton days in profiling the coach.
https://twitter.com/jplanos/status/847123489693847553
- Nick Bahe talked to Altman on “Game Time”, a thoroughly enjoyable 15-minute interview with his former coach:
https://soundcloud.com/game-time-with-nick-bahe/march-28-seg-5-dana-altman
- And then later in the week Bahe talked with another former Bluejay, Brody Deren, about the feelings former players have with Altman’s Final Four run:
https://soundcloud.com/game-time-with-nick-bahe/march-29-seg-11-brody-deren?in=game-time-with-nick-bahe/sets/game-time-wednesday-3-29-17
- And lastly, Sharpe & Benning talked to Altman’s father, Lyle, about the excitement of watching his son coach in the Final Four:
https://soundcloud.com/liquid-shane-o/march-29-seg-7-lyle-altman-stops-by?in=liquid-shane-o/sets/march-29-2017
