A few different things going on the past few days with the Jays and around the Valley.
- Scheduling–Earlier this week, an Iowa St. message board,CycloneFanatic.com, mentioned that a local radio show in Des Moines was talking that the Jays have been working at securing a date at the Wells Fargo Center for the upcoming season assuming that it is for a neutral game against Iowa. Now initially, I am skeptical that it would be for this season for these reasons:1)As it stands right now, Creighton goes on the road @Dayton, @George Mason, @New Mexico the Old Spice Classic in Orlando and 9 conference road games. That leaves Creighton with the potential of having 15 home games this season–9 conference, Nebraska, Arkansas-Little Rock and from what I have been hearing a home Bracketbuster game. That leaves Creighton with potentially 3 games that haven’t been assumed, plus an exhibition. That is a total of 16 home games. Last season there were 17 home games + the exhibition for 18 home games. Though ticket prices were not raised this year (probably because of less home games), it is hard for me to imagine that the athletic department would take one of the 3 remaining games on the schedule to be a neutral site game. I’m not sure how many fans are going to potentially lose 3 home games from last year.2)You know that there are a couple of games to sort of get the team acclamated to each other, especially with 5 new players hitting the court. So you schedule the Iowa neutral game and that leaves the SWAC to fill the remaining 2 games. Not an absolutely stellar home schedule and people complained last year with an average home schedule. Hate to see what happens now unless the tough road schedule sort of fills that gap.3)I could see this more as a preparation of some type of 3-game series with the first game starting in Omaha, 2nd year at Des Moines and then the 3rd year at the opponent home. But then the Iowa Events Center is always looking for things to be at the Wells Fargo Center.I guess we’ll have to see on this one. Seeing schedules take shape is always interesting in the offseason. Rivals has part 2 of their series ofbehind the scenes of scheduling. Then you have UMass. They are having some trouble filling their schedule too.
- Former Recruits–Former Creighton recruit D’Angalo Jackson is on the move again. He will be playing for Mississippi Valley St. this season. This will be his 4th team in 4 seasons. He spent the first half of his freshman year nursing an injury on the Jays squad and transferred at semester to Wisconsin-Green Bay to be closer to home. He played in the second half of the next season, but still did not see the court like he wanted, so he surfaced at Arkansas-Fort Smith last season. With two years of eligibiliy left, it is a strong possibility we will actually see D’Angalo set foot on the Qwest Center court as MVS almost seems like a regular staple on the Creighton schedule.
- Arkansas revisited–Coach Altman’s name came up again in Arkansas this week as former player Patrick Beverly came out with a story how players on the basketball team were having papers written for them by other people. As the Arkansas writers said, “John Pelphrey had absolutely nothing to do with Beverley cheating. Nothing. That was Beverley’s decision, but it makes more sense every day why Dana Altman bolted back to Creighton.” So under Pelphrey’s watch in 2 seasons, 15 scholarship players have left the program through different means. Can you imagine what Coach Altman would have to be dealing with right now?
- Honors–Creighton AD Bruce Rasmussen had a great honor bestowed to him this week as the 2nd part of the Ryan Athletic Center will benamed after Mr. Rasmussen. The facility will be a great addition to an already nice looking complex with Morrison Soccer Stadium and the women’s Sokol Arena.
- Omaha World Herald–The OWH has ramped up some nice Jays coverage over the past few weeks with the breaking Cavel Witter returning stories, 1 & 2 , the near misses with all of Creighton Athletics this year, the workouts of the team going on this summer, and theexclusive on Bruce Rasmussen’s honor. Keep up the great work.
- BluejayCafe–The original BluejayCafe disappeared this week and has now become part of the Rival’s scouting network. A lot of nice interviews out there, but unless you want to drop some coin, you won’t be able to take part in them.
- Bluejay Banter–Finally, if you haven’t checked it out yet, there is a new radio show on Omaha’s 1620 the Zone AM and 1620thezone.comon Sunday mornings that talks Creighton Bluejay Athletics. The past few weeks they have had several great interviews. This week, be sure to check out the show as they will have interviews with former Jay Nick Bahe and take some time to interview ESPN’s Bracketologist Joe Lunardi, which may also provide some insight to a future continuation of the St. Joeseph basketball matchups. Be sure to check them out at 10AM on Sunday. If you happen to miss the show, you can always visitBluejaybanter.com to get the podcasts, but also the guys have been gracious enough to allow access to the podcasts from this site. There is a Bluejay Banter section on the right side of this page to check out the latest podcasts.
As always, if there is anything you ever want to contribute or provide information, feel free to e-mail me at wildjaysATgmailDOTcom..