It’s the dirty little secret of BracketBusters: if you aren’t good enough to land one of the handful of televised games on the ESPN family of networks, the game you get will look a lot like a December buy game. This is the second time in the eight years of BracketBusters that Creighton has been in that scenario; remember the 2005 game against UT-Chattanooga? The Jays scored 100 points as Nate Funk and Kellen Milliner scored 20 a piece, Johnny Mathies added 15…and Anthony Tolliver scored zero points, grabbed one rebound and fouled out in nine minutes. It was the game that has been pointed to as the turning point in the now-NBA career of the A-Train. And it was a game where Creighton hit 20 of 30 three-pointers. 20 of 30! The 20 makes are a MVC record to this day. The fact that they did it on just 30 attempts blows my mind to this day.
So even against a luckluster opponent in a non-televised BracketBuster game, that 2004-05 team found a way to make it a memorable game. What are the odds the Jays score 100 points tonight? I’d put the percentage somewhere near the point total Tolliver had in that 2005 game. Despite not being picked for the televised package, that team was a solid group that hadn’t quite hit its stride yet; that would happen when they won three games in three days in St. Louis to win the MVC Auto Bid into the NCAA Tournament.
This year’s team hasn’t hit its stride yet either, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks its still possible — and even fewer people who think winning three games in three days is possible. The goals now are more modest: avoid the Thursday Play-In game in St. Louis, and try to finish with a winning record. At 13-14, even the CBI isn’t going to come calling, so time is running out for this group.
And so it is that the Ramblers of Loyola Chicago come to Omaha tonight. The Ramblers are 14-12 on the season, 5-11 (8th of 10 teams) in Horizon League play, and are 9-1 in non-conference play, losing only at Kansas State, and have wins over Bradley, San Francisco, Holy Cross and Western Michigan. They’re a middling team, much like the Jays, but luckily for the marketing folks, they’re a fellow Jesuit school. The ads in the Omaha World-Herald have been pitching the battle as a “Jesuit Showdown.” So at least there’s that.
I was talking to a friend who happens to be a huge history buff at the bar Friday night, and he told me a couple of interesting things about Loyola Chicago. One, that they were at the forefront of desegregation in college hoops, and are considered the team that ended it by some observers. So, a huge tip of the cap to that. But they also played the 1963 NCAA Championship game without substituting a single player. In an overtime game with Cincinnati, they played five players for 45 minutes. How nuts is that? Pretty awesome, is what it is.
I’m stretching here for reasons to be excited about tonight’s game, clearly.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: At 14-12, Loyola Chicago is in 8th place in the 10 team Horizon League … Three players average in double-figures for the Ramblers, a group led by Terrance Hill at 11.7 points per game. Walt Gibler averages 10.7 points per game while Geoff McCammon chips in with 10.7 points per game and has made 44.8 percent of his three-point attempts … Courtney Stanley dishes 4.8 assists per game to lead the team, while Andy Polka grabs a club-best 8.8 rebounds per game … Loyola Chicago averages 65.0 points per game while allowing 65.7 per contest. The Ramblers shoot 42.4 percent from the field, 37.4% from three-point range and 67.8% at the line … Loyola is 5-8 in true road games this season, and have played in front of more than 10,000 fans just once all season — 12,528 at Kansas State — which coincidentally was the loss they suffered in non-conference play … Loyola is coached by Jim Whitesell (Luther, 1982) who owns a 93-88 record in his sixth year as the head man on their bench. Whitesell was previously head coach at Elmhurst and Lewis, and owns a career mark of 371-282 in 22 seasons, including six NCAA Tournament appearances … Creighton owns a 5-2 record in BracketBusters match-ups, including a 4-2 mark in televised games. However, they have a 3-4 record in the return matchups.
The Last Time They Played: Loyola beat the Jays 80-78 on December 12, 1981 in Chicago the last time the teams met. The Jays won the last meeting in Omaha, 82-74, which was the year before on December 10, 1980.
The Series: Loyola Chicago leads the all-time series against Creighton by a 11-5 margin, though the teams have not met since the aforementioned December 12, 1981 game. The Ramblers are 4-2 in the six Omaha meetings, but lost the last two of those.
Dana Altman has never coached against Loyola Chicago and has also never coached against Jim Whitesell.
Anthony Tolliver Watch: Friday night, Tolliver and Kyle Korver matched up in an NBA game for the first time. It got me to thinking when the last time two former Jays would have met in the NBA. I remember Korver and Rodney Buford playing a few times in 2004 and 2005 (there’s been a photo of the two of them before one of those games in the CU Media Guide for years.) But before that? Man, probably the late 1980s when Benoit Benjamin and Kevin McKenna were both in the league. Its not an every-day occurrence, clearly.
In this game, unfortunately, both players struggled. Tolliver went 3-7 with nine points and six rebounds in 22 minutes of action. Korver went 2-7 with five points, six rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes of action. Korver’s Jazz won the game, 100-89.
The Totally Random Song I’d Play Right Now if I was Still a Radio DJ: “The Reeling” by Passion Pit. I like this band quite a bit, and this video is pretty rad.
Hilarious Unrelated Story: Last night I was at a CD Release party for a local band (Tim Wildsmith and the Lost Cause) at Waiting Room, and a big shot record producer from Chicago comes over and asks if we’re using the extra chair at our table. When we said “No,” he proceeded to sit down. At our table. I’ve been asked that question probably 500 times in my lifetime, and every single time, the person picks up the chair and moves it to another table. So there’s a first time for everything.
He bought beers for us, though, so he was cool. Apparently he wanted to be as incognito as possible, and the oldest guy in the venue sitting at a table alone is pretty conspicuous. For free beer, I’m happy to provide cover.
Later in the night, the lead singer’s girlfriend comes up and asks the same question about the empty chair, after the record producer had left. Same question, same response, same result! Was that some sort of magical chair? Do people just want to sit next to me and my crew?
These are the things that happen to me in my life. I do not know why. They just do.
The Pick: This game counts for one thing and one thing only: a chance for another win. It won’t affect our RPI because no one cares about RPI when you’re 15th on the “others considered” list for the freaking NIT. It won’t affect our seeding in the NCAA Tournament because even if this team pulls a miracle and wins the MVC auto bid, they’re coming in as a 13 or 14 seed. Its not a meaningless game, but its darn close.
That said, I think Creighton wins tonight. It won’t be anything like the 2005 game against UT-Chattanooga except for the result.
Jays 74, Loyola Chicago 62