Today, I was hoping at the end of the day and exhibition season I would be feeling pretty good about the Jays as they head into their first game of the regular season on the road at a top 25 school. I actually left with more questions than answers.
First off, no Casey Harriman. He wasn’t on the bench, he wasn’t in street clothes, he just wasn’t there. We all found out after the game and on the way home that Casey was home sick with what appears to be the swine flu. Ok, no Casey. But will he be well enough to even play on Saturday, especially if this thing lasts 4-7 days for some people? Casey rooms with Kaleb Korver. Is he going to get sick next?
The crowd was not very excited or full for that matter. They may say 15,000 or something like that, but in reality it was only 8000-10,000. That’s OK, it is exhibition–people are still trying to learn names and players. No student section. But they were hopefully at the Women’s MVC Soccer final at Morrison Stadium (which unfortunately they lost 1-0 likely ending their season). So I can live with that.
The team started out slow. They were down by 10 to UNO at the 7:30 point in the first half, but then the Jays went on a 17-2 run to head towards halftime and then kept their distance for the rest of the game to win 93-77. We got to see walk-on Matt Dorwart get some extended minutes and hit 2-of-3 from three including banking his first three-pointer from the top of the key. OK, things are looking up.
The second half starts and it feels like it is even fewer people there. My own observation–the people in the rest of my row left after halftime. Gee, now I am starting to hope things aren’t like this when we have the Florida A&M’s, Savannah St’s and the Houston Baptist’s visit the Phone Booth.
No matter. Sprinkled in there were some great plays by Antoine Young finding players open and dishing out 9 assists today and no turnovers during the exhibition season. I saw Darryl Ashford show the other part of his game with some nice highlight dunks. I saw Kenny Lawson rebound from a less than stellar first exhibition game leading the way in scoring with 20 and rebounding with 7. I saw Wayne Runnels put in another solid performance going 5-of-6 from the field and also grabbing 7 rebounds.
But then things came to a screeching halt with about eight minutes left in the game. Justin Carter, who was somewhat quiet this game, receives a pass and appears to slip on the floor basically, from what I could see, doing the splits. At first everything appeared to me to be a groin injury of some kind. Well, I was totally wrong on that. He laid on the floor for several minutes. They eventually carried him off the court and he could not walk off under his own power. He then returns before the end of the game with ice on his knee.
Listening to the postgame comments on the radio, it appears to be some sort of knee injury and we probably won’t know anything more for the next day or so. Knee injuries are so tough to deal with. Is it a couple of games he might be out? Will it be the season? Justin was on my preseason All-Valley team and one of the cogs that is vital to this team’s success this season. Someone else or several others will have to step up
Walking out of the Qwest Center today, there are many questions that won’t be answered until Saturday. Is Wayne Runnels going to get thrown into his first start against Dayton? Will everyone else be healthy? This is going to be one long week.
Greatest thing of the night: Creighton continuing to share the rock. 23 assists on 36 baskets. For the two games, Creighton has 47 assists in their 69 total baskets. That is a great sign of trust.
Weirdest thing of the night: Obviously the injury to Justin Carter was hard to swallow, but it was interesting to see that UNO brought their mascot to the game and all it did was stand there the whole time. Why have the mascot attend if they won’t do anything? At least the St. Joe’s Hawk will flap its wings.
Interesting Stat: The Jays won the rebound game tonight 39-27. Also there were 52 fouls called during the game.
