On Saturday, Dana Altman and Kyle Korver will be inducted into the Creighton Athletics Hall of Fame together, and it’s only fitting: the legendary careers on the Hilltop of coach and player are forever linked.
Altman was head coach from 1994-2010, and remains the program’s all-time wins leader with a 327-176 mark. Summing up his remarkable career is hard to do, because the sum total of his accomplishments are staggering. Inheriting a program in disarray and on the verge of irrelevancy in the spring of ’94 — they had won seven and eight games, respectively, in the two years before his hire — he took just three seasons to return them to a .500 record, and by his fourth, began a streak of 13 straight postseason berths.
Of the 16 NCAA Tournament teams in program history at the time of his departure in 2010, nearly half — seven — were coached by Altman. They had gone to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons just one time (1974 and 1975), yet Altman went to five straight (1999-2003). CU had earned 29 overall postseason berths in their history when he left, including the NIT and other tourneys, and of those 29 a whopping 13 were teams piloted by Altman.
He took the Bluejays to the postseason in 13 of his 16 seasons, including seven NCAA Tournaments. He won 10 or more conference games in 14 of his 16 seasons, had 11 straight 20-win seasons, won Arch Madness six times (!), and won or shared three MVC regular season titles.
Korver’s decorated career finished with him ranking fifth in school history (at the time) in points scored with 1,876. His 45.3% career three-point percentage was tops in school history until Booker Woodfox surpassed it in 2009 and later Doug McDermott in 2014, but he remains far and away the all-time leader in three-point shots made with an unbelievable 371 (Woodfox had 147 in two years, by comparison, and McDermott made nearly 100 fewer at 274 in his four seasons). He’s also the all-time leader in free-throw percentage, making over 89% of his attempts in his career (Fun fact: he missed just 32 free throws in his entire career, going 312-350). And he’s fifth all-time in steals with 172. He’s the only player in Creighton history to play in four NCAA Tournaments. He was part of two MVC Regular Season champions and three MVC Tournament championships, and won the MVC Player of the Year and Tournament MVP awards twice each.
But statistics, awards and win totals only tell part of the story with him. Korver represented the zenith of what Dana Altman had been building towards — he was part of a group that took what Rodney Buford and Doug Swenson had broke ground on, learned the trade from Ben Walker and Ryan Sears, and then constructed a monster that became Omaha’s Team. Consider that the Jays of Chad Gallagher and Bob Harstad never once played before an officially recognized capacity crowd at home; in 1990, there were 3,663 season ticket holders, 660 Jaybackers and the average attendance was 5,566. There were articles in the World-Herald — and quotes from the coach that didn’t exactly dispel the rumor — that part of the reason Tony Barone bolted when he did was because of the failure of Omahans to fill the arena to watch his teams. By Korver’s senior season in 2002, the Jays had over 6,000 season ticket holders, were nearing 1,000 Jaybackers and averaged 8,246 fans a game — and filled the SIU game to 1,000 OVER capacity. By the tipoff of the next season, 9,050 season tickets had been sold.
Everyone who came before helped to build it, but there can be no mistaking that Creighton basketball as it exists today was born during the Korver years, where a legendary coach and a legendary player came together to do something transformational — for an athletic department, a university, and the sporting landscape of a city. It’s only fitting they join the CU Athletics Hall of Fame on the same night.
As we look back, here’s WBR’s list of the Ten Greatest Games and Moments from their time at CU.
10) December 20, 1998: Altman Notches First Signature Win in Upset of Eddie Sutton’s #17th Ranked Cowboys
Creighton hadn’t won a home game over a ranked opponent in a quarter-century when former Bluejay coach Eddie Sutton brought his #17th ranked Oklahoma State team to the Civic in 1997 to take on Altman’s budding program. Though they’d earned an NIT berth the season before, they were yet to notch a huge win over a marquee “name” opponent. The 66-60 win over the Cowboys was exactly that, and was a sign of things to come for a Bluejay program about to skyrocket to new heights.
>> Read More About this Game in Bluejay Rewind
09) November 27, 2001: Double-OT Win Over #17 Western Kentucky
While the 1998 upset of Oklahoma State was the first signature win of Altman’s tenure, the 2001 upset of a similarly ranked Western Kentucky squad was equally important in the trajectory of the program — coming just two games into the post Ryan Sears/Ben Walker Era, it signaled the Bluejays were still going to be a force to be reckoned with. It’s also one of the all-time greatest games in the history of the program, featuring a Bluejay rally from an 18-point second half deficit, and not one but two overtimes.
>> Read More About This Game in Bluejay Rewind
08) March 4, 2007 | Altman Throws Out the Gameplan, Creighton Beats #11 SIU For MVC Title
As Creighton prepared to duke it out with the Salukis in the 2007 MVC Title game, they were staring an eight-game losing streak to the hated Egyptian Dogs in the face. Seniors Anthony Tolliver and Nick Porter had never walked off the floor victorious against the Salukis, while fifth-year senior Nate Funk had only triumphed over them during his freshman campaign in a game he barely played in.
The 67-61 win is one of Altman’s finest coaching jobs, at Creighton or anywhere else in his storied career — abandoning their offensive philosophies in favor of a surprise game plan that caught SIU completely off-guard. Instead of running their usual sets, they schemed to drive to the basket as much as possible and force SIU’s notoriously rough-and-tumble defenders to either foul them or give up a good shot. Sure, they attempted, and made, their share of jump shots, but there were very few possessions where the Jays ran their normal offense, and SIU wasn’t quite sure what to do about it until it was too late. They took 28 free throws, making 21, and attempted only 7 three-pointers — one of just three times all season that they attempted fewer than ten.
>> Read More About This Game in Bluejay Rewind
07) February 22, 2003: Kyle Korver Hits Seven 3-Pointers in ESPN BracketBuster Win
With a 23-3 record, a #18 ranking, and a national TV audience on ESPN (and both Jay Bilas and Andy Katz in the house for the Worldwide Leader), Creighton played host to Fresno State in the first-ever BracketBuster game. Korver put on a helluva show for one of the biggest TV audiences he’d play in front of as a Bluejay, making seven 3-pointers in a variety of ways — shots off missed assignments, shots off screens, and in one instance, making a shot with two hands draped on him.
As so often happened with Korver, his most impressive play came late in the game — on a play where he never touched the ball. With the game in the balance, he set a devastatingly hard pick on Fresno State’s Terry Pettis that knocked the Bulldog guard to the floor. It freed up Tyler McKinney to drive the paint, where he found Mike Grimes for an easy bucket that gave the Jays a 67-62 lead with two minutes to play.
>> Read More About This Game in Bluejay Rewind
06) December 31, 2002/January 15, 2003: Kyle Korver Ties School Record for Most Threes in a Game, Breaks it Two Weeks Later
In the span of 16 days, Korver first tied the school record for most threes in a game, then broke the record. On New Years Eve 2002 at Xavier, he hit eight threes to tie the record held by Tad Ackerman (1995 at Drake) and Terrell Taylor (2002 vs Florida in the NCAA’s). That would be impressive enough, but four of them came in the game’s final three minutes — without a miss! — each of them further out than the last. Three of them came on consecutive possessions. All of them were epic.
Isaiah Zierden (2016 at DePaul) would later join the Eight 3’s In A Game Club, but it didn’t tie the record because just 16 days after Korver’s performance in Cincinnati, he one-upped it — literally.
>> Read More About This Game in Bluejay Rewind
Against Evansville on a snowy Monday night, Korver made nine of 14 from behind the arc, 10-16 overall, and torched the Aces for 31 points in just 22 minutes of action. He might have scored 40 or 50 if the game had been closer — teammate Larry House called Evansville’s gameplan “stupid” in the World-Herald the next day, and Korver said the only time he’d ever had that many open looks was in an exhibition game where the opponent didn’t have a scouting report — but instead he sat on the bench for large chunks of the second half, the outcome not in doubt.
“A couple of (Kyle’s) baskets were so deep it probably shocked them,” Altman said after the game. “He was just feeling it tonight. I don’t discourage him, no matter where he shoots from. As long as they’re going in, I just keep my mouth shut and let him go. And on nights like tonight, it’s kind of hard to argue with anyway.”
The only other member of the Nine 3’s in a Game Club? Ethan Wragge, in 2014 at Villanova.
>> Read More About This Game in Bluejay Rewind
05) January 18, 2003: Kyle Korver Makes Three 3’s in 38 Seconds, Leads Jays to Win Over SIU at Over-Capacity Civic
Perhaps too jacked from seeing their home arena packed to the gills with Bluejay supporters, the Jays played tight in the first half, and an excellent Saluki team took advantage. That huge crowd made the difference in the second half, however. Waiting for a reason to explode, they got one when Kyle Korver hit three 3-pointers in a span of 38 seconds, the first one tying the game, the second tying the MVC record for most three-pointers in a career, and the third giving him the record and the Jays the lead.
From there, the crowd was so loud, so intense, Southern Illinois’ players had trouble communicating — illustrated best by a steal by DeAnthony Bowden late in the game. Following a dunk by Joe Dabbert, the Jays set up their press. Bowden sprinted 25 feet, sneaking up on SIU’s Jermaine Dearman for a steal from behind, and then quickly threw an alley-oop to Larry House that, pun intended, brought the house down. That steal quite simply doesn’t happen without the overwhelming crowd noise — Dearman would have heard him running up behind him in a quieter setting, and been able to prevent the steal. Instead, it was a complete surprise, Bowden picked his pocket, and the rest was history.
>> Read More About This Game in Bluejay Rewind
04) November 26, 2002: Kyle Korver Makes Seven 3-pointers, Logs Double-Double in Guardians Classic Win over Notre Dame
You might be wondering how this one ranks #4 on our list, when Korver made “only” seven 3-pointers. He was brilliant in every facet of this one, and given the opponent, the setting, and how important the win was as the season wore on, it might be his finest game as a Bluejay. He scored 24 points, grabbed 10 boards, played great defense, and left the Irish scratching their heads with his long-range shooting.
One play in particular summed up Korver’s performance. Midway through the second half, Brody Deren came out onto the perimeter to set a screen, and was barreled over by a Notre Dame defender. Both players landed at Korver’s feet — 22, maybe 23 feet out — making a shot hard to get off. So he simply backed up another 18 inches or so and drained a three, touching nothing but the net, like it was no big deal. The analyst on HDNet’s broadcast, former Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins, could barely get words out to describe it before simply laughing at the ridiculousness of it.
One of the CU fans in attendance held up a sign that summed up the night, and the Bluejays season, and maybe the entire era. “I thought it was funny when I saw it,” Notre Dame guard Chris Thomas said to the Omaha World-Herald’s Steve Pivovar. “It said, ‘God, Country, Kyle Korver.’ That said it all.”
>> Read More About This Game in Bluejay Rewind
03) March 11, 1999: Altman’s In-Game Tactical Shift Keys Second-Half Comeback in Upset of Louisville in NCAA’s
In March of 1999, Creighton made its’ ninth NCAA Tournament appearance, and first since 1991. Slotted into a 10/7 matchup with Louisville, the Jays pulled off a stirring upset thanks in large part to Coach Altman blowing up the defensive gameplan they’d spent a week implementing — during a timeout.
Louisville burst out of the gate to an early 13-6 lead, making Creighton’s man-to-man defense look slow and timid. “At that first TV timeout I was so darn mad,” Dana Altman noted after the game. “They had 13 points already and we were playing tentative. We just had to try to get something to slow the game down. They were just getting good shots on us and easy stuff inside.”
So they threw out the man-to-man and went to a zone, slowing the game down and giving his team a chance to hang around. And when the time was right, he changed it again — during the first timeout of the second half, Altman switched from their “soft” press to an aggressive, full-court press. Combined with their zone defense in the half-court, it completely befuddled the Cardinals, who clearly were not prepared for it. The Jays rattled off a 22-7 run over the next 12:30, grabbing a 49-47 lead when Ben Walker converted a three-point play at the 3:04 mark. That set up Rodney Buford to hit the shot of his career, making a long-three with the shot clock winding down that gave Creighton a 52-49 lead, and eventually the win.
>> Read More About This Game in Bluejay Rewind
02) March 10, 2002: Taylor…For the Win…GOT IT!
As time ticked down in the 2002 NCAA Tournament, the deck was stacked against Creighton: they trailed the entire game, needed a 10-2 run just to force overtime, lost both Brody Deren and Kyle Korver to fouls, and fielded a lineup of four guards and 6’7″ Mike Grimes at center against a Florida team full of future NBA talent for not one but two overtime periods.
How in the heck did they pull this one off?
Terrell Taylor scored 28 points, all after halftime, making eight 3-pointers. The last of those threes was a buzzer-beating, heart-stopping shot that lifted the Jays to an 83-82 double OT win.
>> Read More About This Game in Bluejay Rewind
01) March 10, 2003: Korver Repeats at MVC Tourney MVP in Rout of SIU
Prior to tipoff of the 2003 MVC Title Game, Kyle Korver went up to his coaches with a crazy idea. He wanted to guard Jermaine Dearman, the Salukis’ 6’8″ big man who had scored 43 points in the first two games of the tourney, and had lit up the Jays in two previous meetings that season. Assistant coach Greg Grensing said after the game that Korver had all but demanded the assignment, saying he knew Dearman played off emotion and he could “get inside Dearman’s head.”
It was a gamble, because if Korver wasn’t able to back up his talk, he could have wound up in foul trouble and planted on the bench. But he was magnificent, refusing to let Dearman go to his right where he made his living, preventing drives to the basket, and generally shadowing him everywhere he went.
CU opened the game with 10-0 run, punctuated by a quarter-court bounce pass from Korver to Joe Dabbert for a dunk. They had built an 18-4 lead by the second media timeout, and by the halfway mark of the half, were ahead 22-4 after House drained two consecutive jumpers. Larry House hit a three with 1:35 left in the half, then stripped the ball away from Dearman and took off the length of the floor for a thunderous dunk that gave the Jays an unfathomable 42-14 lead.
They’d win 80-56, their fourth MVC tourney title in five seasons, and the second straight they’d won over SIU.
Other games receiving votes:
- 12/11/2005: Down three starters, CU blows doors off Nebraska 70-44
- 03/18/2008: Altman engineers 12-point comeback in final 3:10 to beat Rhode Island in NIT
- 03/01/1999: Altman’s First MVC Title
