News and Notes from around Creighton and the Big East this week:
- The Oklahoma City Thunder produced a video segment with Doug McDermott and Kyle Singler breaking down the Sweet 16.
- Following the death of former Chicago Bulls GM Jerry Krause, Doug Swenson talked to the Dickinson (N.D.) Press about the month he spent as a member of the Bulls in 1999. Krause had seen the Bluejay big man in action while scouting Rodney Buford, and signed Swenson to a contract with an invite to training camp.“You always wish you could be a fly on the wall, and I was a fly on the wall. True as it could be, I couldn’t hardly believe it,” Swenson said. “I got waived at the end of October, it would have been in the later 20s. But that’s one of my things — my transaction. I was signed and I was waived. They can’t take my transactions away from me. I was on the ticker going across the bottom and in the paper. As a kid growing up, I read all sorts of NBA books. I remember reading books like The Franchise about the Pistons, ’88-’90, those championship teams. To read about the background of that then to see the other side for myself, you don’t think as a junior high or high school kid you’re going to see the other side.”
- Another former Bluejay big man, Anthony Tolliver, was the feature of an article on FiveThirtyEight.com titled “The NBA Player Who’s So Good at Taking Charges We Created a Stat For Him.”“Over the past three seasons, Tolliver’s garnered 42 charges in 54 total collisions, a Charge Rate of 78 percent; easily the best mark among players who’ve taken at least 30 charges since the start of the 2014-15 season. For context, consider that the average NBA player this season has a Charge Rate of just 40 percent, according to the collision counts on BigDataBall, which logs play-by-play data.”
- According to Rivals.com’s Corey Evans, current Bluejay big man Justin Patton’s performance in the NCAA Tournament raised concerns for NBA scouts and could lead to his return. Meanwhile in their latest mock draft, The Vertical has Patton going at #17 to Milwaukee, which means he’s slid out of the lottery. And Patton himself teased fans on his decision with this Instagram post that announced the return of his teammate Tyler Clement:
- His coach was pleased with this news:
- Meanwhile, Marcus Foster announced his return for his senior year, and did a couple of interviews with Omaha media following the announcement:
- KETV’s Thor Tripp had this segment on their 10pm news
- 1620AM’s John Bishop and Josh Peterson interviewed him on Unsportsmanlike Conduct
- The Bottom Line’s Mike’l Severe interviewed him on his show
- The World-Herald’s Jon Nyatawa spent three segments on Thursday’s “Bottom Line” show talking Jays hoops with Severe:
- Segment 1 – Discussing Foster coming back
- Segment 2 – Season recap: Jays not efficient in games that mattered
- Segment 3 – Will Justin Patton return, who starts if he doesn’t?
- KETV’s Josh Planos spoke to Randall Crutcher — who played for Dana Altman at CU in the 90s — about the current Oregon coach. These two quotes in particular should be of interest to Jays fans:
https://twitter.com/jplanos/status/844918258889207808
https://twitter.com/jplanos/status/843478549583544320
- Incoming four-star recruit Mitchell Ballock was named the Gatorade Kansas Player of the Year this week.
- Longtime assistant coach Darian “D-Rock” DeVries has been linked the opening at Drake for their new head coach, according to a report in the Des Moines Register. Nick Bahe reacted to the news on Twitter:
- Doug Gottlieb officially joined Fox Sports on Wednesday, where he’ll presumably be an analyst on their college basketball studio shows and game broadcasts next season.
- That is, if he doesn’t take the Oklahoma State coaching job first.
- To that end, a Kansas fan site wished him good luck in his interview by linking to a hilarious video of Gottlieb wearing his shorts backwards during a game…and fixing them during a timeout.
https://twitter.com/colouringku/status/844625074846142465
- A poster on the Bluejay Underground compiled a handy list of returning rosters for every Big East team heading into 2017-18.
- The website “Stadium Journey” ranked Big East venues, and CenturyLink Center came in second behind Hinkle Fieldhouse.
- Georgetown parted ways with John Thompson III, and our friends at Casual Hoya have had a ton of great stuff:
- And finally this week, the New York Times profiled Cale Ferrin — star of the “Meet The Bluejays” video segments at home games this past season — prior to the Jays’ NCAA Tournament game last week.