It is the middle of summer and the NBA season just finished on Sunday, but the basketballs continue to bounce around the metro. Make your way out to the Omaha Sports Academy on Thursday night to fill your basketball void with the Metro Basketball Summer League!
If you aren’t aware of the league and what it entails, you can catch up here. The entire Creighton roster is involved this summer, including the transfers and the incoming freshman. As with most summer leagues around the country, the Metro league isn’t big on defense, so it should be a great opportunity to see who might be able to replace the scoring punch of Doug McDermott. WBR covers Creighton sports, so you know the preview will be pretty Creighton-centric. However, if something exciting in the other games happens at summer league we will be sure to mention it in our Thursday night/Friday morning recap.
Will all the Creighton players be playing on Thursday night? There is no guarantee that everyone will be there each night. But for tonight, we have confirmed that all the players should be there, with the exception of Cole Huff. There are also some additional surprises to the mix! Kenny Lawson is in town and expected to play. And, Gregory Echenique is helping with a camp this week in Omaha, so don’t be surprised if you see him there with the already strong Bank of Nebraska.
So enough of the fluff. Here is what you want to watch on Thursday night.
Projected Game of the Night
8:00 p.m., Court 2–EQ School of Hair Design vs. Narmi Group @ Baird
Bluejays to Watch: Zach Hanson, Leon Gilmore, Avery Dingman, Ronnie Harrell
If you don’t make it to the Omaha Sports Academy until 8:00 p.m., don’t worry. It’s a toss-up on what could be the game of the night involving the Bluejay players, given how they are split across rosters. However, this one is pretty intriguing because each side features one of the incoming freshmen, and it will be the first time most Creighton fans will see them play. Leon Gilmore will lace it up for EQ School of Hair alongside Zach Hanson, while Ronnie Harrell will join Avery Dingman for the Narmi Group in opposing them.
With the way the rosters are set up for both of these teams, there’s a good mix of other players to give some opportunities to both Gilmore and Harrell. Plus, a lot of fans are also interested to see how Zach Hanson has progressed since the end of the season, and he’ll be in action on this court too.
Creighton-Heavy Games
8:00 p.m., Court 1–Judd Knispel Agency vs. Paragas Law Firm
Bluejays to Watch: Nick Bahe, Jahenns Manigat, Matt Dorwart, Austin Chatman, Will Artino, Ricky Kreklow
This is the other game that will be really exciting to watch if Court 2 loses your interest. If you’re looking for the team that has the most Creighton players on it this summer (current and former), then the Judd Knispel Agency has it with Bahe, Manigat, Dorwart, Chatman, and Cole Huff. Unfortunately this week, Huff will not be playing. He’ll play at some point this summer, though, and in the coming weeks, former UNI standout and Jayhawk killer Ali Faroknamesh will also be joining the Judd Knispel Agency. Neither will be there tonight, however.
On the other side for Paragas Law, Artino and Kreklow will be patrolling the paint, and if you are familiar with Artino’s play in previous summer leagues, he is one of the more entertaining players to watch, especially as he runs the point at times. Combined with Jays’ fans first look at Kreklow since he transferred to CU, this game will give fans a tough decision on which court to keep an eye on.
9:00 p.m., Court 2–Zurlo’s vs. Bank of Nebraska
Bluejays to Watch: Toby Hegner, Mo Watson, Justin Carter, Gregory Echenique
There is no doubt, the team everyone is gunning for this season is Bank of Nebraska. The defending champs return to the fold as strong as last season while adding the power underneath of former Bluejay Gregory Echenique. It hasn’t been confirmed as of this writing if Echenique is playing this week, but he is in town and on the BofN roster.
Zurlo’s could give them a bit of a challenge right away. Featuring two young Bluejays, Toby Hegner and Mo Watson, they could have a little fire. What might be even more intriguing is seeing Watson and UNO’s CJ Carter on the floor together; the combination of those two should lead to an up and down game. Can the older guys keep up?
9:00 p.m., Court 4–John Higgins Weatherguard vs. Shanks Law Firm
Bluejays to Watch: Geoffrey Groselle, Devin Brooks, James Milliken, Tyler Clement
Groselle and Brooks team up for John Higgins Weatherguard along with local staples like Jeff Allgood, Jake Reinders and Cole Martin. Seeing Milliken play for the first time since last summer will be interesting, as most fans are curious to see how he progressed during his redshirt season. Having Grant Gibbs back for Creighton last year sort of led Milliken to need to redshirt. While he was already ready to contribute for the Bluejays, he definitely should be ready this season and he will be leaned on more than people probably realize.
The Rest
7:00 p.m., Court 1–Cape Truck Acc. vs. Bruins
A matchup of Midland University (Cape Truck Acc) against Bellevue University (Bruins). Some players have shuttled back and forth between these schools over the past couple of years. You could sort of say these in-state small college teams have a bit of a rivalry. Teams with full rosters of the players they play with every day are always dangerous in summer league.
7:00 p.m., Court 2–Andy’s Lawncare vs. Winning Mentality
Bluejays to Watch: Antoine Young
Andy’s Lawncare will be a contender for the MBL title this year with a team that was mostly together last summer as well. Jason Dourisseau will be out for this game, but former Huskers John Turek and Andrew Drevo, ex-Hawkeye Zach McCabe, and former UNO standout Mitch Albers should be more than enough to carry this team on Thursday.
Antoine Young joins a team of veterans that could end up being a surprise team. If you get to the OSA early, this is the game that you will probably want to watch.
8:00 p.m., Court 3–Mustangs vs. Big O Boys
The Morningside College roster takes on Steffon Bradford and several local junior college players. It is hard to project how the Big O Boys turn out on the court until we see them play.
8:00 p.m., Court 4–Northeast vs. ABIDE
Bluejays to Watch: Steve Ferarrini
Ferrarini leads a team of his old Lincoln buddies at Wesleyan and a couple players from Wheaton College for ABIDE as they take on the roster of Northeast Community College from Norfolk. Watch out for Northeast as they have former Omaha standout and UNO transfer Jalen Bradley as well as LJ Westbrook who was once committed to Oregon State.
9:00 p.m., Court 1–UNO Alumni vs. BD
Bluejays to Watch: Brody Deren
We say this every year, but it is somewhat weird to see the former Bluejay Deren in the mix with this UNO Alumni team, but it works. The Alumni basically comes back with the same roster as last season. The only difference now is that Mike Karhoff and Matt Hagerbaumer can actually put ‘Alumni’ behind their name.
BD is an interesting team and could be one to watch with former Bellevue Bruin standouts Jelani Johnson and Hussein Diop, former Bellevue/Midland University player Donald Jones and Samford graduate Andy King. Several other graduates surround them in what could be an interesting game to watch if you aren’t glued to courts 2 and 4.
9:00 p.m., Court 3–Lopers vs. Apex Foster Care
The roster of Nebraska-Kearney takes on a group of relativel unknowns. The Lopers are a pretty experienced crew led by recent graduate Mike Dentlinger who has had some great performances in Summer League the past several summers.