I’ll eat anything once. ANYTHING. The sum total of my income during my freshman year at Creighton over a decade ago came courtesy of eating whatever people dared me to in the dining hall or elsewhere. It was quite amusing, and not a bad way to make a buck. Well, one time on Spring Break at Mardi Gras in New Orleans during my junior year, one of my friends decided someone among us should eat a rattlesnake. Of course, they wanted that person to be me.
For $20 and the price of the meal, I ordered rattlesnake tortillas at a dive a couple of blocks off of Bourbon Street. I have to tell you, out of all the exotic meats I’ve eaten in my day, rattlesnake was among the toughest. Its very coarse, at times difficult to chew, and as long as you don’t have a weak stomach and/or remember you’re eating SNAKE MEAT, it can be quite satisfying. It was on that day.
The Florida A&M Rattlers are in the midst of a SWACtastic eight-game road trip to open their season, even though they’re not a member of that budget-conscious conference. Coming off a 41-point drubbing at the hands of 22nd ranked Georgia Tech, the Rattlers come to Omaha hoping not to be devoured by the Jays tonight. Unfortunately for them, Creighton is coming off a tough loss and is hungry for a win, if not for rattlesnake tortillas.
Hailing from the MEAC, the Rattlers are, if you can believe this, worse than Arkansas Pine-Bluff — the team I declared the be The Worst Team Ever after they played something I guess you could call basketball in a 2006 visit, missing their first 17 shots of the second half, shooting just 17% for the entire game and scoring 29 points in 38 minutes of “action.” Those Golden Lions had an RPI of 311; these Rattlers were 331 last year.
That’s out of 347 teams.
I wasn’t thrilled when this game was added to the slate, thinking to myself that FAMU (can we at least agree their acronym is pretty sweet?) is like a super-creampuff made up of parts from lesser creampuffs. They’re significantly worse than Arkansas Pine-Bluff, if you can wrap your mind grapes around THAT.
Games against 300+ RPI teams aren’t great for your RPI, your schedule strength, or for gauging your team’s progression. About all they’re good for is experimentation, getting lots of players lots of minutes, and getting a win.
But every school in Creighton’s position in the NCAA Universe plays these games, so while the opponent may be of dubious quality, think positively: you’ll get to watch rotations you might not see the rest of the year, the reserves will get lots of playing time, and if you have bad seats you can probably move up when people leave early!
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Florida A&M was outrebounded by an average of almost 12 a game last year, good for 327th in D1. So if the Jays dominate the glass, its not necessarily a sign of things to come … The Rattlers were 10-21 (6-10) in the MEAC a season ago, finishing in ninth place … Dana Altman beat FAMU in his only meeting with them, though it came at Kansas State. His Wildcats won 93-48 in 1990. Yes, the Rattlers have been bad for a long time … The Jays are 8-0 all time against MEAC foes, although the games have been pretty competitive, with an average margin of victory of 12 points.
The Last Time They Played: The last time the Jays played Florida A&M was December 22, 1993, and the Jays won 74-70, in a game played at, of all places, the old Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum!
It was one of just seven wins that year for Rick Johnson’s final Jays squad, and just 2283 folks witnessed it in person that night. WBR’s own Creighton Otter was one of them, as he fondly recollected upon the Rattlers being added to the slate in July.
Gratuitous Linkage: “In his passing, Ober broke a great internet boundary, turning the traditional internet paradigm on its head and becoming the first subject of a false death rumor, wherein the rumor of its falsehood was what turned out to be fake, and the death itself was sadly real.” Just trying to comprehend what that sentence says hurts my head. RIP, Ken Ober, host of the first non-music video show on MTV.
Official Gametime Snack: Try some rattlesnake, if you can find it. If not, a soft pretzel will do. When you think about it, a soft pretzel is kinda slinky like a snake…
The Totally Random Song I’d Play Right Now if I was Still a Radio DJ:
True story to segue you into that song: Florida A&M is the alma-mater of Andre Dawson. Yes, THE Andre Dawson. Cubs fans remember him fondly for being “The Hawk”, for winning the 1987 MVP on a last-place team, and for being a big piece of their run to the NL East title in 1989.
I remember him because back in the late-80s the Cubs were about the only game you could watch every day, because of WGN. Even though I’ve always been a die-hard Twins fan I used to enjoy watching those Cubs teams play. Sandberg, Grace, Sutcliffe, Mitch Williams, Dunston, and The Hawk. That was a classic group.
Anyway, I’ve only been to Wrigley Field once; I was five years old and do not remember it. But I have seen the Cubs play in person…three times — all at the Metrodome. About as far removed from Wrigley as you can get, huh? The first was a preseason exhibition in 1990, where a bunch of Cubs fans tried to turn the left-field seats into the Wrigley Bleachers — and where three drunken Cubbie fans bowed to The Hawk every time up. Problem was, they forgot they had beers in their hands. And 12-year old Max Univers wound up wearing most of that beer. Fun times.
Prediction: Much hurt. Jays jump out to a big lead early, ease up, cruise by 23.
Jays 87, Rattlers 64.