At halftime Tuesday night, I got a text from a buddy. “I didn’t realize Creighton had three exhibition games this year!” it read. He’s got a point. What we saw Tuesday night was a regular season game in name only; it could be argued, perhaps successfully, that Nebraska-Omaha offered more competition and stood a better chance of winning than Florida A&M. By the under-twelve timeout, the Jays’ lead was already in double-digits. By the half, the Jays led by 20.
The first half showed some good things, though. Namely, the Jays crashed the boards to the tune of a 19-17 edge and their defense forced 18 (!) turnovers. I’m not sure you can give them credit for “holding” FAMU to 35% shooting, because it seems to me that team would shoot about 35% in an empty gym. Still, 18 turnovers in 20 minutes is pretty stellar. And everyone in the building knew the second half would go one of two ways: the Jays would steamroll them by 40, or they’d let up, driving most of the crowd from the arena midway through the half. I had a good idea which one would happen.
I replied back to that buddy who’d texted me, “Just wait. Second half is going to be painful.” And It Was, as the Talking Heads once sang. The lead would swell to as many as 32, but the defensive effort was lacking, they ultimately lost the battle on the boards, and coasted to win by 25. I wound up spending much of the half letting the New Guy and his family in the seats next to me in on the secrets of where to get the best concessions and beer in the arena. I also spent an inordinate amount of time complaining about the new signage on the Mini Donuts stand. Totally strange. Before, it looked like the sort of place that would sell you delicious fried concoctions — hand-painted, like a circus or state fair stand. Now, its using a frilly font that gives you the impression that it will be low-fat and expensive. Not cool.
Yes, by game’s end, the Jays were behind on the boards. But how much stock should we place in the rebounding numbers? Otter offered his take on that this morning, using fancy things like math to back him up. I’m not all that concerned yet, myself. They lost the battle by 4. But in the portion of the game where it was competitive, before it turned into a refereed pick-up game, the Jays were +2 on the boards. And then there’s this: according to the box score, three of the four rebounds making up the difference were grabbed by FAMU in the final 31 seconds, on the same possession, in the very definition of garbage time. Its true, you can look it up. Maybe that doesn’t make a difference, I don’t know. Maybe even if the game ended with the teams tied on the boards the discussion would be the same.
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“Did you eat sum Rattlesnake tonight?” This post-game text amusingly misspelled the word some, using the mathematical addition spelling instead. No, I did not eat Rattlesnake. I did, once, and once is enough for anyone.
Nor did I eat the 3 pound soft pretzel, although I did see one with my own four eyes (no contacts this game!). I’m not sure a sports arena is the proper venue to attack such a worthy culinary foe. I think you would need a table, a steak knife and a fork so you could really tear into it. A pretzel that big around is hardly lap food. My washing machine is not macho enough to tackle the aftermath.
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For the second consecutive game, the newcomers overshadowed the returning players. Darryl Ashford led the team with 17 points, with 3 boards and 3 assists too. Ethan Wragge had 16, was 4-8 from long range, and had 3 boards. Wayne Runnels didn’t score, but led the team in rebounding for the second straight game with 9.
Runnels has had 9 boards in both games thus far, living up to his reputation as a rebound machine, albeit in a small sample size. And Ashford, when on the court at the same time as P’Allen Stinnett, gives the Jays two players that are difficult to defend because of their ability to slash, and defenses cannot stop them both.
Imagine Runnels and Justin Carter grabbing 15-18 rebounds a night (Carter averaged 5.5 last year, a number which is lower than you’d think because it includes his early season games). Imagine Ashford and Stinnett being on the court with them. Opposing coaches will have one helluva time decided how to defend the Jays. I will stop now before the gratuitous salivating on my keyboard makes a mess of things. You bet.
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Tuesday’s Polyfro Gameball goes to Wayne Runnels. Long time readers of my old blog know that I don’t always give the gameball to the guy with the glitzy stat line. In this case, I really dig Runnels and his 9 rebounds. This team has enough scorers. Give me 9 boards a game from him, and I like the Jays chances.