All week, we’ll travel back in time two decades to look back at the first NCAA Tournament team of the Dana Altman Era: the 1998-99 MVC Tourney Champion Bluejays. Today in Part Three, the Jays welcome back legendary coach Eddie Sutton and pick up one of the biggest wins of the Altman Era, rattle off seven wins in ten games, and deal with a key player being accused of ineligiblily immediately after the biggest game of his career.
To read the entire series, check out the series page.
***
“Waking the Ghosts”: Eddie Sutton and a Litany of Bluejay Greats Return to Campus as #17 Oklahoma State Visits the Civic
With a week off for Finals, Altman had a week to stew over his team’s two straight losses. And he shouldered the blame for what he deemed “fundamental breakdowns.”
“Our biggest thing is we walk a fine line. We’re not a big basketball team, we’re not a real quick team and we’re not overly talented. So with the style we play, if we’re not playing real hard and doing certain things well, we’re not giving ourselves a chance to win.
“The bottom line is we’ve got to play hard. I’m not talking kind of hard, I’m talking about real hard. If we’re going to play the style we’re going to play, we’ve got to play very hard all the time – and we didn’t do that last week.”
It was an important message, because the next opponent was 17th ranked Oklahoma State, led by former Bluejay head coach Eddie Sutton. He’d started his coaching career at Creighton in 1969, going 82-50 including two wins in the NCAA Tournament during his final year on the Hilltop in 1974. His Hall of Fame career saw him become the first coach to ever take four different schools to the NCAA Tournament, including Final Four berths at two of those stops (Arkansas and Oklahoma State).
Sutton agreed to a home-and-home series with Dana Altman’s budding program thanks to the relentless lobbying of the late Dr. Lee Bevilacqua, CU’s team physician for 31 years, who had worked with Sutton during his time in Omaha.
“When we were talking about scheduling, I wanted to do it,” Sutton said. “I thought it would help Dana’s program because it’s hard to get Big 12 teams to come in there. Now I see they’re building it up as a big game. I don’t want to be too nice.”
Creighton used his homecoming as inspiration for their first-ever “Men’s Basketball Alumni Weekend.” A Saturday night banquet featured a host of former coaches and players who had come back into town for the game, organized by Doc Bevilacqua. He’d personally called every former coach and player he could to invite them back, and was supposed to be the emcee of the banquet. After his untimely death two months before the game, the banquet doubled as a celebration of his life — including a 25-minute video tribute to the volunteer team doctor who served the athletic department for three decades and was beloved by everyone he met. From Tom Apke to Tony Barone, Red McManus to Eddie Sutton, the ghosts of Creighton basketball’s history were all back in town for one simple reason — because Doc had asked them to.
“It’s hard to say no to Doc,” Altman noted.
All of that stuff could have been a distraction to the current group of Bluejays. Instead, Altman looked at it as an important history lesson.
“It’s important that they have a little understanding of the Creighton basketball tradition, that there’s been some teams who have gone to the NCAA tournament and done pretty well,” Altman told the media the day before the game. “Right now, everything is so much the ESPN age that all the players know is the 1990s. Basketball in the ’70s and ’60s is ancient history to them. I think it’s good that they know the tradition.”
The tradition of Creighton hoops took the floor at the Civic two hours prior to tip-off, as legendary Bluejay coaches and players put on a show for the fans. The “White” team, jointly coached by Tom Apke and Tom Brosnihan, won 105-87 thanks to 17 points apiece from Mark Jones and Latrell Wrightsell, and 15 from Darin Plautz, who then hit the showers quickly before doing color commentary on WOW-AM of the main event. Red McManus and Tony Barone coached the Blue team, which was paced by 28 points from Duan Cole.
The Bluejays had not beaten a ranked opponent at the Civic since a 78-77 win over Houston in 1972-73 — ironically, when Sutton was the head coach. They hadn’t played a ranked team in the Civic since the Hersey Hawkins-era Bradley Braves, who came to Omaha ranked #17 in both 1985-86 and 1987-88.
“It is a big game for us, I won’t try to downplay it,” Altman said. “There are very few opportunities we have to play a ranked opponent on our home floor. It’s not a conference game, but it’s a big game for the fact that we have an opportunity to play an awfully good basketball team and we’re coming off a couple disappointing losses.”
What terrible timing, then, for the Jays’ enigmatic star to show up late for practice the day before the game. Rodney Buford was four minutes late, so he sat out the first four minutes of the game.
“I understood,” Buford said afterward. “He’s trying to make me understand that this ballclub’s first, which it is.”
Altman was making an example out of his star — no one was above the team, not even the All-MVC player. “If it cost us the game or cost us a bad start, that’s the way it was going to be,” he told the media after the game. “The guys stepped up and saved me and saved Rodney. I would have looked bad for making the decision if they had jumped out to a 10-0 start.”
Without Buford, the Jays nearly played to a draw, trailing 11-10 after five minutes. After entering the game with 14:48 to play, he quickly made his presence felt with one of his patented highlight-reel dunks, and finished with 20 points in 27 minutes.
Unfortunately, just as Buford came in, Donnie Johnson left, with the starting forward suffering back spasms that forced him to miss the rest of the game. Doug Swenson struggled against the Cowboys’ big front line, and was in foul trouble most of the afternoon. That created an opportunity for Alan Huss, a 6’9″ sophomore not used to playing meaningful minutes. He responded with seven points, six rebounds, and solid defense in 21 minutes, including a still-baffling-to-this-day three-pointer with 2:48 to play that drew the Jays to within one point at 58-57. How unlikely was it? That triple was one of just three that Huss attempted all season, and the only one he made.
In fact, it’s the only three-pointer he made in his entire four year career.
You’d have never guessed it by watching this one; he pump-faked a defender into the air and out of his way, then used textbook shooting form to drain the shot, drawing nothing but nylon on its’ way through the basket.
The three was part of a terrific final four minutes, the culmination of a back-and-forth game that was massively entertaining. Trailing 56-52, Huss stuck a jumper to cut the deficit to two. OSU’s Alex Webber answered with a dunk on the other end to extend their lead back out to four, and then Huss swished his three-pointer to cut the deficit to just one. The Cowboys answered again, this time with a jumper from Desmond Mason to give them a 60-57 lead with 2:27 to go. Those would be their final points of the day.
Buford nailed a three-pointer on the next possession to tie the game at 60, and then Ryan Sears gave them the lead with 58 seconds to play on a three from the corner that sent the Civic Auditorium crowd into an absolute frenzy. After Swenson hit one of two free throws, the Cowboys’ Doug Gottlieb brought the ball up court with 17 seconds left and his team down 64-60. He threw an errant pass that sailed out of bounds, effectively ending any hopes of a comeback, and then Swenson sank two free throws to clinch it.
The Jays’ former coach came away impressed, but not surprised. “I said all along that I was really looking forward to seeing some of my former players and many of my friends, and we had a good time over there last night at the banquet,” Sutton said after the game. “But like I told my wife when I went out the door, ‘I’m looking forward to going up there, but I know I’m not looking forward to playing that game Sunday afternoon,’ because I had looked at enough film to know they had a good basketball team.”
Ready for Launch
The win over #17 Oklahoma State was the start of a stretch where Creighton won seven of their next 10 games, and was a turning point not only in the season, but the entire Altman Era.
“We held tight at the end (of that game),” Sears said. “We weren’t going to let each other lose. It was a big win for us just because of the last week we had, where we kind of lost some confidence. We knew we were better than we played in that last week. That was embarrassing for me and, I’m sure, for everyone else.”
First, they knocked off Mississippi Valley State 78-55 to complete their best non-conference record since 1943 (7-1). The Jays held MVSU scoreless for the first seven minutes of the game, and despite their worst shooting game of the season to that point, never trailed.
Buford’s thunderous dunk in transition against the Braves.
Then they blew out Bradley 65-44 behind 40 points from Buford in a monstrous offensive game — he was 13-of-17 from the field, 6-of-8 from three, and 8-of-8 from the line.
Bradley had gone 10-2 over the previous 12 games against the Jays, handing them one crushing defeat after another — none moreso than in the 1997 MVC Tournament. That would have been plenty of motivation by itself. But there was more. Buford never saw the court in the second half of the previous matchup in Omaha against the Braves after suffering an ankle injury, and was challenged by Coach Dana Altman to step up to the challenge of leading his team to victory.
Did he ever. Buford scored those career-high 40 points, but also played terrific defense, grabbed eight rebounds, and was generally a menace everywhere he went on the court for all 35 minutes he played. “Rodney was really focused tonight, not only on the offensive end but defensively,” Altman said after the game. “He tried to guard, had those knees bent and really put in an effort. Definitely an outstanding night. All around it was probably one of his better performances – maybe his best.”
The offensive show from Buford overshadowed one of the best team defensive efforts of the season. Creighton held Bradley to just 16 made baskets, and the Braves were outscored by Buford 21-19 in the first half. In the second half, Bradley tried to claw back into the game, and cut a 10-point halftime deficit to three after just 90 seconds. CU answered with a 9-0 run, capped off by a thunderous fastbreak dunk from Buford.
The Braves never seriously threatened again, and the Jays went on to win handily 65-44. Buford had settled a score with the Braves, noting afterward that “I just wanted to come out and work hard tonight. Coach was telling me to be aggressive and move without the ball. I was probably doing that, and guys found me. I’m grateful for that.”
A 65-62 win at Indiana State on January 2 moved the Jays to 10-2, and 3-1 in the league. They were fortunate to escape — 20 turnovers kept the Sycamores in the game despite Creighton shooting 52% from the field and outrebounding them by 13. The escape came courtesy of Doug Swenson.
Tied at 56 with two minutes left, Swenson threw down a designed alley-oop out of a timeout to put CU ahead. Then his rebound of a missed free throw and layup put Creighton ahead 61-57 with 17 seconds left and clinched the victory. He blocked four shots in the game, altered two others in the final minute, and scored 11 points.
The top team in the league, Evansville, visited Omaha two nights later and built a 41-27 halftime lead. The Purple Aces’ Marcus Wilson scored 31 points, including 20 during a truly unbelievable stretch where the Aces made nine straight shots. Five of those shots were threes by Wilson. The 30-4 run turned a 17-8 Bluejay lead into a 38-21 deficit.
“We took some bad shots that went in,” Evansville Coach Jim Crews said. “A couple of shots we took you’re kind of saying, ‘Boy, I don’t know,’ and you end up cheering. Marcus was definitely feeling it and knocking it in.”
“Marcus Wilson in the first half was really unbelievable,” Altman said. “We never got a hold of them tonight. I think they felt like they could get a shot about anytime they wanted one, and for the most part they did.”
The loss backed Creighton into a corner. At 3-2 in the league, they were in danger of being left in the dust behind not one but two undefeated teams — Evansville and Southwest Missouri State. They found their way out of the corner by upsetting the Bears on the road 72-70, with Sears hitting a buzzer-beater.
Karlikanovas, sporting a newly-shaved head courtesy of teammate Justin Haynes hours before the game, made his first career start and scored a team-high 20 points on an efficient 7-of-9 shooting, including four 3-pointers. Swenson matched him with 20 points of his own, and set a screen to free up Sears for the game winner.
After SMS tied the game at 70 with 16 seconds left, the Jays opted not to take a timeout and instead let Sears make a play.
“If somebody was open, (the plan was to) kick it out,” Sears said. “If not, I’d just take the shot. It was a tie game, so we were in a win-win situation. Any shot was going to be a good one.”
Dribbling past a high-post screen from Swenson, he drove the right side of the paint and despite a pair of SMS defenders surrounding him, threw in an eight-foot jumper for the win.
“It broke down somewhere along the line and Ryan just had to take it upon himself to beat his man off the dribble,” Swenson said. “He did, got a decent look at the basket and put it in.”
The off-balance, high-arcing jumper was a prayer of a shot, literally.
“I just threw it up,” said Sears, a sophomore from Ankeny, Iowa. “I think God kind of threw that one in for me.”
Who Framed Nerijus?
“(Nerijus) must have played too well Sunday.” -Dana Altman
Karlikanovas missed the next two games while Creighton and the NCAA investigated questions about his eligibility. Perhaps coincidentally, and perhaps not, the information regarding possible club team participation by Karlikanovas while in high school didn’t come to light until after he played his best game to date in a Bluejay uniform.
“Nerijus played a great game offensively and defensively he did some good things,” Altman told the World-Herald. “He really made a big, big difference in the ballgame.”
Steve Alford and the folks in Springfield must have felt that way, too. Creighton Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen told the World-Herald that someone made a phone call to the NCAA the day after the 72-70 upset win over SMS. Altman was coy when asked about the situation, saying, “It was something that was brought to our attention yesterday – I’m not sure how it originated – and we’ve got to get some information from over there. He must have played too well Sunday.” When asked if that meant the question was brought up by SMS, Altman wouldn’t say either way.
He didn’t need to. Everyone knew the score.
Karlikanovas missed two games — a 70-69 loss to Indiana State in Omaha, and a 90-80 win at Evansville. The home loss to the Sycamores saw Creighton blow leads of 55-51 and 58-53 in the final four minutes.
“My idea of a knockout punch is when we’re up by five to just guard people for a couple of possessions,” Altman said. “Probably what our team is thinking is that we had a couple open 3-pointers that we missed. But the bottom line is we were up five with four minutes to go, so all we had to do was get a stop or two put together, and we didn’t do it.”
Instead of that knockout punch, Creighton gave up three consecutive threes to Nate Green, Michael Menser and Green (again) and fell behind 62-59. And though the final score indicates a one-point loss, that’s deceiving; Creighton trailed 70-66 when Buford hit a long, meaningless three at the horn.
Hitting the road for a rematch with first-place Evansville, who had beaten Creighton in Omaha two weeks before, the Jays trailed 72-68 after a 3-point shot by Adam Seitz with 7:13 left in the game. Then they ripped off a 16-0 run to take both the lead and the game.
Buford scored 28 points with 9 rebounds and four steals, contributing to a season-best 61% shooting for the Jays by making 13-of-16 shots. The Aces had been shooting 59% in the game before the decisive run — they made one of 13 shots in the final seven minutes of the game — and while Marcus Wilson matched Buford’s 28 point output, he missed his last eight shots.
“It feels good to win here, but we’re still not happy,” Walker said afterward. “We’re kind of disappointed that we’re not playing this well all the time.”
Their up-and-down January was wearing on everyone, especially their inability to play well at home. Road wins over Indiana State and Evansville sandwiched around home losses to SMS and Evansville left compliments from their coach in short supply.
“I’m happy for the win, but I’m just disappointed that our performances can vary so much,” Altman said. “That’s what I told them after the game: ‘I’d like to be positive with you guys, but every time I tell you something good you just lay down and die on me.’ I told them it was a halfway good effort, but we still gave up 80.”
The next game was a carbon copy of the win over Evansville, which was both a good thing and a bad thing. The good: Creighton scored 90+ for the second straight game, trailed in the first half when their defense struggled, then used a giant run to take control of the game. After falling behind 35-22 early, they made things closer heading to the locker room and then scored the first six points of the second half to go ahead 47-46. And after going back-and-forth for ten minutes, Ben Walker’s three with 10:43 to go gave Creighton the lead for good at 67-65. It triggered an 18-6 run that sealed the victory, with Ryan Sears hitting a pair of threes late in the run. And the win, combined with two upsets — Bradley beat Evansville, and Indiana State beat SMS — moved Creighton into a four-way tie for first place.
All of that was good. But this being a Dana Altman coached team, the bad was all the coach wanted to talk about and his team followed suit. Their defense continued to struggle, they won in spite of it — and that was a decidedly bad thing.
In a postgame interview, Illinois State Coach Kevin Stallings turned to CU Coach Dana Altman — who was standing off to the side of the room — and cracked: “Is it fair to say neither team guarded as well as they were capable of guarding?”
***
Tomorrow in Part Four, the team drops three of four on a brutal late January road trip, then develops a mean streak thanks to a local columnist questioning their toughness in the newspaper and begins their march towards a title.