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 Two the Jays open the season on fire, blowing out Towson and knocking off both UMKC and Iowa on the road. And after a 6-0 start, they rose all the way to #2 in the preeminent computer ranking of the day.
To read the entire series, check out the series page.
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Bluejays Respond to Altman’s Annoyance
After a week of poor practices following the conclusion of the exhibition slate, Altman “got after” his team. He told the media that their concentration and attention to detail were “beyond awful.”
Matt West told the World-Herald that the coach’s, ahem, disappointment was well-deserved. Altman ran the team through a pair of marathon four-hour practices in the days leading up to the season opener, trying to get through to his players that their effort in the exhibition wins was nowhere near sufficient.
“There’s a lot of excitement,” West told the paper. “A lot of people are expecting a lot of things from us, and I think we got caught up in that a little bit. We’ve got to stay focused on what we have to do as a team, not worrying about who we’re playing or what people are saying.”
They opened the season with a pair of blowout wins, responding to Altman’s message with a 93-48 rout of Towson in the regular-season opener and a 79-58 road win at UMKC. Buford scored 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting in the win over Towson, and Swenson had his first career double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds while also blocking three shots and dishing four assists.
The Jays blasted out to a 20-2 lead and led 48-19 at the break, with Buford already having scored 19 points. Altman was pleased with his team’s energy and passion, as they dove for loose balls, jumped into passing lanes, and were consistently aggressive.
“I hope people here appreciate how good Dana’s team is,” Towson Coach Mike Jaskulski said. “For me, this was bad scheduling. We’ve got eight new guys playing a team that’s got everybody back. We also have Louisville and Michigan on our schedule, and everybody talks about, ‘Oh, you’ve got to play Louisville and Michigan.’ Well, the one that I feared the most was this one right here.”
Swenson had another double-double at UMKC, with 15 points and 13 rebounds, and blocked eight shots. He swatted three of the Kangaroos’ first six shots of the game, and three of their first eight in the second half, helping set the tone in both halves. The 79-58 win sent Creighton into an off week with a 2-0 record before hitting the road for a big test at perennial NCAA Tournament team Iowa.
Creighton Turns Heads with Road Win over Hawkeyes
Legendary Iowa coach Tom Davis was in search of a game for Thanksgiving Week when he called Dana Altman in the spring of 1998. Altman had been hoping to get Iowa on the schedule because of the Jays’ heavy recruiting in the Hawkeye State, and he jumped at the opportunity.
Iowa’s twin towers, 6’10” J.R. Koch and Guy Rucker, would be a tough test. But the team’s sophomore point guards — grade school rivals Dean Oliver and Ryan Sears, who had both grown up with dreams of suiting up for Iowa — were the marquee matchup.
The Hawkeyes led 37-30 at the half, and then Buford took over. He made five straight buckets, and scored 13 points in a 34-15 run to open the second stanza. Over a 10-minute stretch Creighton made 12 of 15 shots (80%), six of seven 3-pointers from four different players, and roared to a 64-52 lead. Buford had a double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds, while Sears got the better of his high school nemesis — he had 11 points, four assists, and five steals while forcing Oliver into seven turnovers.
Iowa inched back into the game, and tied the game 73-73 with a minute to play. Then Sears provided the winning margin at the line, and sealed the victory by coming away with the ball during a wild scrum for a loose ball on Iowa’s last shot — four players were on the floor fighting for it. To no one’s surprise, Sears was the one who wound up with the ball.
And then something strange happened. Altman smiled. A giant front-page photo in the World-Herald the next morning showed the victorious coach grinning ear to ear — it was the biggest win for the Bluejays since the beginning of the decade when guys like Chad Gallagher and Bob Harstad were the stars, and he couldn’t help but let a bit of happiness leak through his usually stoic demeanor.
They shot up to #22 in the preeminent computer ranking of the day, published by Jeff Sagarin in USA Today. They were #33 in the coaches’ poll. Heady times for a program on life support five years prior.
And better yet, there would be no hangover. Against Centenary four days later, they came out with their hair on fire. They led 17-3 — and later 24-6 — after their full-court press disrupted the visitors and made the outcome a foregone conclusion very early. Walker hit a jumper, then stole the ball off of their press and hit another. They forced a five-second call when their press didn’t allow anyone to get open. Buford hit a long three. Swenson threw down a one-handed dunk off of a missed shot. Not only was there no big-win-hangover, they seemed to be using the big win to propel them to be even better.
Their 4-0 start was the program’s best since 1980-81. It grew to 5-0 when they knocked off Baylor 73-59, thanks to another quick start — this time they used a 24-4 run to take control of the game in the first half. Ahead 28-10, their pressure defense once again made their opponent uncomfortable, as Baylor made just eight of their first 32 shots. But Altman viewed the win as a step backward. They were outscored 39-35 in the second half, they allowed Baylor guard Tevis Stukes to light up their defense to the tune of 25 second-half points, and failed to put the Bears away after taking a big lead.
“We didn’t get better tonight,” Altman said. “I thought each game before this we had gotten a little better, but tonight we definitely did not. We did not improve defensively, we didn’t improve our execution on the offensive end and we didn’t improve our press.”
“It just wasn’t what I was looking for, and I hope the players feel the same way. We didn’t do the things necessary to make a step. Our defensive awareness was awful in that second half. We’ve got to recognize when a guy’s having a ballgame on us and realize where he’s at. One time he drove it from 35 feet and got a layup.”
Growing Pains
On December 5, Creighton opened MVC play with a 86-60 win over Southern Illinois despite off nights from all of their stars. Buford had the worst shooting night of his career, going 1-for-10 from the field, though he did score 14 points thanks to going 11-for-14 from the line. Swenson was in foul trouble and played just 14 minutes. Sears and Walker combined for just nine shot attempts and 12 points. The Jays’ bench saved the day, as Karlikanovas scored 11, Corie Brandon scored nine (2-for-4 on threes), Cliff Bates and Matt West scored seven each, Justin Haynes had six, and Dan Kolder and John Klein had a bucket apiece.
With a 6-0 start, they had risen all the way to #2 in the Sagarin rating, which amused Altman relentlessly.
“That just shows that if a computer had a brain, it’s lost it,” Altman said on that week’s MVC conference call. “That’s just one of those things where the numbers don’t tally up. The assistants brought it in and I said, ‘Is this a joke?’ I thought maybe they printed it up on a computer and brought it to me. I look at some of those teams and there’s no way we’re ready to play some of them now.”
“It’s good for one reason: Four years ago, five years ago at this time, we were really bad. We weren’t a source of enthusiasm or pride to anybody. At least now when we’re mentioned, it’s not a joke. When we beat Iowa, people were saying they weren’t really sure that was an upset. It’s good for our alumni and good for the people who support us. I’m not sure we’re a source of pride yet, but we’re definitely not a source of embarrassment, and that’s good for the program.”
In their next game, the issues that had cropped up in the win over SIU reared their head again, but against a much better opponent, led to the team’s first loss of the year. Nebraska handed Creighton a 76-60 defeat in Lincoln, using a huge second half surge to take control of the game. The Jays led 35-32 at halftime, but then the Huskers scored on 10 of their first 12 possessions out of the locker room — and forced six Bluejay turnovers. In just over six minutes, it went from 35-32 Creighton to 53-41 Nebraska after a 21-6 run.
Buford’s shooting slump continued, following a 4-for-13 night against Baylor and his 1-for-10 night against SIU with just 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting in Lincoln. Worse, his effort was called into question.
“He didn’t attack as much as I thought he would,” Nebraska’s Larry Florence said after the game. “I thought he would come out with a scorer’s mentality, but he didn’t take many shots.”
Altman agreed.
“Rodney didn’t play hard or good tonight,” he said. “He didn’t make a difference, and he had a lot of defensive breakdowns.”
The road trip, and the downturn, continued three nights later in Des Moines against a Drake team who had lost 39 consecutive MVC games. The Bulldogs dropped the last three conference games in 1995-96, then went 0-18 in both 1996-97 and 1997-98. But the drought had to end sometime, and Creighton was the unfortunate opponent when it finally did.
Drake led 52-38 with just over 13 minutes left, and then Buford scored eight straight to bring CU to within 52-46. It eventually became a 22-6 run that gave Creighton the lead, 60-58, as the Jays’ starting five — in particular Buford, Swenson and Walker — carried the load. Those three scored 40 of the team’s 49 second-half points. But they couldn’t close it out, ultimately expending so much energy to get back into the game that they didn’t have enough to finish.
“Maybe we figured we would just come in here, show up and win the game,” Swenson said. “They came out and fought us right away and built a lead, and that’s all they needed was that little bit of confidence.”
“They played harder than we did and won the game,” Altman agreed. “We buried ourself in a hole with lackluster play and just couldn’t get it back. We’re not playing very well and not shooting the ball well. Then we’re not making up for it in other areas.”
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Tomorrow in Part Three, Creighton wakes the ghosts of past glory with the triumphant return of Eddie Sutton and his nationally-ranked Oklahoma State team, and rattles off seven wins in 10 games — a stretch many look back on as the turning point in the Altman Era.