Polyfro Primer: Idaho State

Its almost eleven months to the day when Gregory Echenique abruptly announced he was transferring to Creighton, enrolling in classes by the start of the spring semester so that he could play in December this season. The massive post player has sat on the bench in street clothes at home games ever since, giving fans just two brief glimpses of him on the court: a mid-July appearance in Summer League, and the scrimmage at Bluejay Madness in October.

He’s been hailed by some fans as the savior of Creighton hoops, and is the biggest reason why, despite a 5-4 start to the season, there remains a sense that great things — NCAA Tournament things — can still happen this season. Spend any time talking to a Jays fan, and the conversation inevitably turns to Gregory; normally sane fans expect him to almost hit the ground running despite not playing a competitive game in over a year. Great as he might be, is that realistic?

It seems the word “realistic” doesn’t exist when it comes to Gregory Echenique’s debut. He’s super-human, a colossal rebounding machine who will turn anyone who dares to challenge him in the paint into historical footnotes. Because of his pedigree — the 2nd best center prospect and 9th best player overall coming out of high school —  his stellar numbers in the Big East his freshman year, and because he’s been on the bench in full view of TV cameras and fans for a full calendar year, the level of hype surrounding his debut is off the charts. One fan I ran into at a bookstore earlier this week asked if I thought Gregory would start on Saturday; when I said I doubted it, the most quizzical look came over his face. “He better start! Mac owes it to us to start him, we’ve been waiting for Saturday to come since last January!” Rational thoughts don’t exist when it comes to Gregory Echenique’s debut either, apparently.

When rumors floated that he would play in the second week of summer league, a larger-than-normal crowd came out only to be disappointed when he was merely a spectator. In the third week of the league when he actually played, the crowd was larger than the bleachers could handle, and fans stood anywhere they could steal a glance. The buzz in that building on that warm July night was palpable: people really thought this guy was going to be great. Given six months to digest that appetizer, with a snack coming in October at the scrimmage, the anticipation has swelled to the point where his debut is the most anticipated debut of any Bluejay player I can remember.

My fear is that the combination of being rusty from not playing a competitive game in a year and being nervous (he’s playing not only his first game, but in front of his parents who are in the U.S. for the occasion) will lead to a massive, unfair level of disappointment among fans who expect him to immediately be awesome. I’m confident there will be one, two or quite possibly even three morons who call into the postgame show to express their disappointment no matter what Gregory does on Saturday; it won’t be good enough or it won’t meet their expectations. That’s what happens when you ratchet up the dial on the hype machine to eleven. Creighton’s marketing folks have run huge ads in the World-Herald sports section all week that, while not explicitly advertising the game as “Gregory Echenique’s Debut!”, do feature a giant picture of the giant player. The text may not come right out and say it, but it doesn’t need to with that huge photo. The point is obvious.

I think Echenique will be a fabulous player, but it may be mid-January before we see his full arsenal. This stretch of three games in five days was scheduled this way for one reason — to get Echenique as many minutes as possible before MVC play so he can get up to speed. Give him these three, plus a few in the MVC, before judging him a superstar or a disappointment. To do anything else would be foolish. Here’s a list of 16 All-Time Jays from the last 60 years and how they performed in their first game; very few showed hints of the greatness to come.

For every Paul Silas who scored 22 points and grabbed 29 (!) rebounds in his debut, there’s a Kyle Korver who scored 2 points his his debut. While Echenique is a different case, having played a full-year-plus of D1 hoops and having been around the Creighton program for a full year redshirting, it is still his Bluejay debut, whether he’s a freshman or not. Don’t be discouraged if he’s not awesome right away.

One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Idaho State is 3-5 on the season, winning home games against Great Falls, Montana Tech and UMKC and losing road contests at Colorado, Arizona, South Dakota State, Iowa and Cal State Bakersfield … Senior guard Broderick Gilchrest leads Idaho State in scoring (15.0 ppg.), assists (2.9 apg.) and three-pointers (14) … Deividas Busma, one of two 7-footers on the roster, averages 13.9 points and a team-best 7.1 rebounds per game. He also has a club-high eight blocked shots … Busma is shooting 61.3 percent from the field, which ranks him 22nd in the country and fifth in the Big Sky … Idaho State has been outscored by an average of 10.1 points per game and has committed 133 turnovers against 78 assists this year … In the Bengals 78-57 win over UMKC last Saturday, the senior class of Broderick Gilchrest, Deividas Busma, Mike Lacey and Phyllip Taylor combined to score 62 of the team’s 78 points … Creighton has not had a player score 30 or more points in two straight games since Bob Harstad on Feb. 10-12, 1990, something Kenny Lawson hopes to do on Saturday … Likewise, Creighton has not had a player record consecutive games with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds since Mike Amos on Dec. 7-10, 1992. But the last Creighton player to record a double-double in consecutive games was Lawson himself, who did it on Feb. 20 and 23 last season … In the eight-year history of Qwest Center Omaha, Creighton owns a perfect 46-0 record against teams that enter the game with a record of .500 or worse … Of the 19 teams that have beaten Creighton at Qwest Center Omaha, eight reached the NIT, seven reached the NCAA’s, one played in the CIT and just two teams (Wyoming and Illinois State, both in 2004-05) did not make the postseason … The Jays have 27 straight wins against unranked non-conference opponents at home, and a 38-1 mark since December 19, 2004.

The Last Time They Played: Creighton won 77-66 in Omaha on December 6, 1971.

The Series: This is the eighth meeting between the two schools but the first since that 1971 encounter. Creighton leads the series 5-2, with Idaho State winning the first two meetings of the series in the 1952-53 and 1959-60 seasons and Creighton winning all five since.

Greg McDermott is 1-0 in his career against Idaho State and head coach Joe O’Brien. That victory came on Nov. 13, 2009, when Iowa State opened last season with an 88-68 victory over Idaho State in Ames.

Gratuitous Linkage: Apropos of nothing, its “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.” You’re welcome. (Actually, that’s not entirely true: Netflix has started streaming old episodes of SNL recently, and one of the late-80s shows I watched last weekend featured an Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer sketch, which made me look for others, which led to me embedding one below. That’s still hilarious 20 years later.)

Out of Context Simpsons quote: “How could you?! Haven’t you learned anything from that guy who gives those sermons at church? Captain Whatshisname? We live in a society of laws! Why do you think I took you to all those Police Academy movies? For fun? Well, I didn’t hear anybody laughing, did you? Except at that guy who made sound effects. Makes sound effects and laughs. Where was I? Oh yeah! Stay out of my booze.” -Homer Simpson

This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On December 18, 2005, Creighton beat Xavier 61-59 as Anthony Tolliver had a career-high 26 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for his second career-double-double (his first came when he had 13 points and 10 rebounds in 2004 against Ohio State.) Tolliver entered the contest 1-for-10 in his career from three-point range, but made a pair of treys, including a game-clinching trifecta that put CU up seven with 57 seconds left.

It was the second straight game played without the injured Jimmy Motz, Nate Funk, and Pierce Hibma, coming one week after their decimated roster blew out Nebraska 70-44.

Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: Billy Squier and the MTV Chorus from 1981! Hideous or rad? That’s for you to decide. Its no “The Stroke,” sure, but then, what is, really?

Prediction: Gregory Echenique does not start, but enters the game around the 14 minute mark to a thunderous ovation and almost immediately bulldozes a defender for a ridiculous dunk. He ultimately settles in and scores 10 points while grabbing 7 rebounds in about 18 minutes of action.

Jays 73, Idaho State 61