The series with Nebraska started in 1922, with Creighton winning 46-24, and they would drop the next three in a row to Nebraska before winning in Lincoln on February 15, 1926. The series resumed with a home-and-home in 1932, with the Jays winning both games. Unfortunately, the schools would not meet for another 45 years, meaning that many of the greats in Creighton history never had the chance to take on the Huskers, including Bob Gibson, Paul Silas, Bob Portman, Chuck Officer, and Ralph Bobik. While the Travelin’ Jays of Red McManus and Eddie Sutton traversed the county, playing games in nearly every state and taking on any and all takers, they never made the short trek down I-80 to play Nebraska.
In 1977, the schools agreed to once again play a home-and-home series, and have played every year since, alternating between Omaha and Lincoln. They split the first four meetings after the 45 year hiatus, with both schools holding serve at home, and the series stood at 6-5 in favor of Creighton when Tom Apke left following the 1980-81 season. Willis Reed took over, and in four seasons, never defeated the Huskers — losing five games during that span, including the heartbreaking 1984 NIT game at the Civic. Tony Barone went 3-4 during his seven seasons, never losing at home, but never winning in Lincoln. Coupled with the loss in Barone’s final season, Rick Johnson’s ineptitude (losing all three atttempts) and Dana Altman’s early-tenure struggles (losing his first three), the Huskers built a commanding 20-9 series edge. They’ve won just four times since.
It stands at 24-19 in favor of Nebraska currently, but outside of two eras where one school was much better than the other (Nebraska during the 80s and Creighton in the late 90’s and 2000s), this has been a remarkably even series, with both teams finding it difficult to win on the road. In other words, its a pretty good rivalry, and a fun one for the fans.
Because of the Big XII Championship game on Saturday and the match up of Nebraska and Oklahoma for the final time, this year’s game has taken a backseat in the hearts and minds of many Nebraskans (particularly Husker fans). Actually, according to an unscientific poll I took last night at the bar, the game is not even in the car, much less in the backseat, as far as Husker fans are concerned. Of the 19 I spoke with, the opinion was universal: Until the football game is over, they don’t want to hear about any other game. Cognizant of this, the local media has barely mentioned the basketball game. And while for them, focusing on football may be smart business, it leaves basketball fans — and Jays fans — a bit hungry.
So, its made for an odd week leading up to the game. There has been none of the usual grandstanding from Doc Sadler, meaning the true red Husker fans have had little reason to avert their glance (and opinions) from football. Meanwhile Creighton and its fans have been preoccupied with #21 BYU and the aftermath thereof, meaning they’ve split their time between wondering what’s going on with Kenny Lawson and being excited for Sunday’s game. Blue or red, both sides have spent their time talking about, and thinking about, other things this week. Like I said, its odd. But whether you’re like us, diehard Jays fans who have but a passing interest in the football game and are reading this in earnest today on Friday, or whether you’re reading it Sunday morning now that your attention is fully on basketball, we’re glad you’re here.
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In Doc Sadler’s fifth season, the expectations have never been lower. They were picked tenth in the preseason poll for the final Big XII season, and despite winning five of their first seven games, haven’t given much indication that the prediction is a bad one. They’ve beaten South Dakota, Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Jackson State and USC at home, and defeated Hofstra in Puerto Rico, while losing to Vanderbilt and Davidson in that same tournament. All of the teams they’ve beaten are awful; all except for Hofstra will likely finish the season with an RPI higher than 150, and none will be postseason qualifiers.
Nearly 40 percent of Nebraska’s total points were scored by freshmen last season, as Jorge Brian Diaz (8.8 ppg) and Christian Standhardinger (8.1 ppg) ranked third and fourth on the team in scoring; four of Nebraska’s eight top scorers by the end of last season were either true or redshirt freshmen. Given that youth, coming into the season one of the keys to the Huskers’ success figured to be the play of Lance Jeter. The 6’3″ point guard is their only senior and comes off a junior year where he started every game, averaging 7.5 points, 4.1 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game in his first year at Nebraska to earn a spot on the Big 12 All-Newcomer team. He ranked in the top 10 in the league in both assists and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.9-to-1). And so far, he’s not disappointed, leading the team in both points (10.0 ppg) and assists (4.1 apg), while essentially maintaining his outstanding assist-to-turnover ratio (2.1-to-1).
Standhardinger is averaging 9.5 points and 5.5 rebounds, though he did not play on Wednesday after Sadler held him out due to unspecified academic issues. He’s expected to play Sunday, and it will be the Jays first look at him as he did not play in last year’s game. Other standouts include Jorge Brian Diaz, who averages 9.1 points and 3.7 rebounds, Brandon Ubel, who averages 7.0 points and 3.7 rebounds, and Andre Almeida, who averages 5.7 points and 3.7 rebounds.
From the little I’ve seen of them, given their lack of TV games during non-working hours, it appears Nebraska is using their size to their advantage, and trying to slow the game down by playing “big.” The four players mentioned in the preceding paragraph all stand at least 6’9″ or taller, and the pace of play has reflected that so far. They’d prefer to play a game in the 60s or low 70s, and are not likely to shoot you out of the gym with a barrage of three-pointers. That seems to be advantageous to Creighton, given their problems defending the perimeter, but not really. They’re going to need a solid game defensively from Kenny Lawson, and given his unpredictability, that’s a shaky proposition. He absolutely cannot allow whichever Husker big man he happens to be guarding to have a career night. Unlike BYU, whose primary weapons are guards who attack from the perimeter, yet shockingly found center Brandon Davies becoming their unstoppable force against the horrible defense of Lawson, Nebraska has a bunch of guys poised to take advantage of bad post defense.
Can he get more aggressive defensively than he was against Northwestern and BYU, without getting into the foul trouble that plagued him against Alabama State and Northern Arizona? And if not, can Doug McDermott and Wayne Runnels do so in his stead? That’s the big key, I think, although it would also be nice if the Jays could get their wings to knock down some shots. Two of the last three meetings in Lincoln have been decided in the final two seconds. It would be nice if, like in 2004 with Kellen Miliner, the Jays could be the ones hitting the buzzer-beater.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Nebraska scores 67.6 points per game while allowing just 57.0 per game. The Huskers shoot 49.7% from the floor, 32.7% from downtown and 69.6% at the charity stripe … Creighton has five players from the state of Nebraska on their roster: Antoine Young (Bellevue), Josh Jones (Omaha), Taylor Stormberg (Omaha), Ross Ferrarini (Omaha) and Matt Dorwart (Sidney), while Nebraska has just one who has scored this year in Ravenna native Drake Beranek … Ferrarini was on the Husker bench two years ago as a redshirt walkon, but transferred to Creighton before last season, making him the first player in recent memory (and perhaps ever) to play for both schools … Before this past week, Creighton had not lost consecutive games by double-digits in ten years when they lost by 13 against Indiana State in the MVC Tournament semifinals in March of 2000, then by 13 in the NCAA Tournament against Iowa. They haven’t lost three straight by double-digits since the first year of the Altman Era … Since the 2000 season, the Jays have lost consecutive games just 24 times, which is just twice a season. Only three of those 24 streaks stretched to three straight losses. And they haven’t lost four straight since the 1999-2000 season.
The Last Time They Played: Kenny Lawson had 25 points and 10 rebounds for his first career double-double, making 7-of-13 shots from the floor and 11-of-12 free throws, in the Jays 67-61 win over Nebraska last December in Omaha. Trrailing 46-43 with nine minutes to play, Lawson and Wayne Runnels combined to score 10 consecutive points as the Jays put together a 10-2 run, giving them a lead they would not relinquish.
The Series: Nebraska owns a 24-19 all-time lead in the series vs. Creighton, and the Cornhuskers have a 15-5 edge in Lincoln all-time. Doc Sadler is 2-2 against the Jays, winning both games in Lincoln and losing both in Omaha.
Meanwhile, Greg McDermott was 6-2 against the Huskers while at Iowa State — and split four games in Lincoln.
Gratuitous Linkage: The game Sunday will be televised on FSN, as Patrick told us in his Media Menu for the game. That means Husker homers Greg Sharpe and Eric Piatkowski will have the call. While Piatkowski can’t be more annoying than Matt Davison — who could? — there’s still nothing worse as a sports fan than watching a telecast with announcers who are openly rooting against your team.
I’ll be muting their telecast and listening to T.Scott Marr on the Jays radio broadcast. Of course, doing so means the audio won’t be synced up with the video.
Or does it? Not necessarily.
You can spend $39.95 on this gem and delay the radio broadcast by the proper number of seconds, then run a cable from the output jack into your HDTV or surround sound system to replace the TV sound with that of the radio. Its genius.
You can also use the tips on this page to do the same thing using the internet feed of the Jays radio broadcast and a free piece of software.
Either way, with a few relatively simple steps, you’ll effectively ban the Husker announcers from your TV watching experience and make the game 100% more enjoyable.
Out of Context Simpsons quote: “And now, in the spirit of the season: start shopping. And for every dollar of Krusty merchandise you buy, I will be nice to a sick kid. For legal purposes, sick kids may include hookers with a cold.” -Krusty The Clown
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: Willis Reed’s first Jays team loses to Nebraska in Lincoln, 86-46, on December 5, 1981. But that’s a pretty depressing historical nugget so lets pick another one. On December 5, 1998, Doug Swenson’s 15 points and 7 rebounds — in just 14 minutes of action — led the Jays to a 86-60 win over Southern Illinois in a rare early-December MVC game. Rodney Buford added 14 points, including 11-14 from the free throw line, while Ryan Sears had 9 points and 4 steals.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: Gylne Tider is a Norwegian TV show, and in promotion of the new season’s episodes, they spent three months compiling Chroma Key footage of the most randomly awesome collection of celebrities EVER, all singing various lines in a group cover of The Beatles’ “Let it Be”, then put it together into this music video. Watch for Dolph Lundgren, Philip Michael Thomas, Huey Lewis, half of Milli Vanilli, and dozens of others. You have to watch close to get them all, but its uproariously funny. Actually, its unbelievable, is what it is.
Prediction: As with two of the last three games in Lincoln, this one comes down to the final possession.
Creighton 64, Nebraska 63