UAB wasn’t ready for Creighton in a lot more ways than on the basketball court Wednesday night. Whether it was a video stream, live stats or the play on the court, you could tell that the south is not ready for basketball when football is still in full swing. The Bluejays took full advantage of that on the court with their 70-60 victory.
Over the years we have been getting spoiled more and more in the way we follow our favorite teams. There were days that teams like Creighton were hardly ever on TV. Sometimes you were even lucky to have a radio broadcast. You would have to wait and hope that your local newspaper would even publish the score. Today, with technology we have: live stats to follow along, Twitter to tweet, texting with our friends and watching a live video stream on your computer screen. Nowadays, if there isn’t even a webcast to watch we all freak out and wonder what we are going to do.
If there is anything I have learned, being a technology person myself, is that even today if college basketball games are not on TV, it is rare that you have a great video stream to watch (unless it is ESPN3, they get it and have more production availability), especially if you have to pay for it. So if the game isn’t on TV and the there isn’t a live stream for free, then I resort to many other ways to follow the game. Creighton fans were none too happy with UAB’s production on the video stream. It was all over the place on Twitter and the message boards.
I have a couple of young kids that are involved in a lot of things and a wife that works really hard. That doesn’t make things easy to get out and watch the game with friends or socialize when you have to get the kids somewhere or help the wife with a project. So on these type of nights, I follow the game on my own the best way I can. I bring up the computer and fire up 590 to listen to T. Scott Marr and Nick Bahe, fire up the live stats, and then Twitter to see what people have to say. There are some in-game chats out there, but the other thing I have learned is that when things go great people are praising certain players, but when things start to go bad, the same people start criticizing those same players. That gets real old real fast. Criticizing players is something that is a double-edged sword. One minute you are their friend and the next you are their biggest enemy. That’s not fair to them and if anything that is something to be kept inside and I try to look at the positive. At least I can yell at my computer screen and I don’t have to make myself look like a dummy except for my family. They accept it.
But on this night, UAB, being it’s regular season home opener, wasn’t prepared to do live stats. Now I don’t know if it is GameTracker (which I am not a big fan of, Stat Broadcast is my choice) or user error, but that option didn’t start functioning until late in the first half. It then was sporadic between media timeouts. And even though the 590 stream online is a little behind, I turned my attention to the game to T. Scott and Nick.
So while I listened to them, I created the pictures in my own mind on what was going on. While following the Twitter stream of fans complaining about the web stream and live stats not working, I really listened to what they were saying. Early in the game, you heard about how athletic UAB was and how Cameron Moore’s wingspan seemed to be intimidating the Bluejays. Or when Ethan Wragge nailed a three pointer from beyond NBA range. I could definitely picture that.
The first half continued and while Creighton was down early, they were making a comeback–a few points here, a few points there. Then Creighton started to take a slight lead. At that point, I had to hop in my car to go pick up the kids from CCD at church. So I switched on the trusty radio in the car and continued to listen. You could hear by the descriptions that Mike Davis looked like he had to change what he wanted to do as UAB went almost the last 11 minutes of the first half without a field goal. By halftime, the Bluejays were up seven.
The second half started and the Jays extended the lead to twelve. That is when UAB’s Jekore Tyler took over and scored the next 8 points for the Blazers to cut the lead to four. I could just picture him jumping into passing lanes and picking up errant passes by the Bluejays. Eventually UAB would take a one or two point lead and Creighton was against the wall. At this point, many Creighton teams of the past would have likely packed it in and it would be game over. It was at that point that I started yelling at my computer screen and I occupied my boys by having them watch Phineas and Ferb since they were done with homework. But then Creighton battled back to tie the score at 50. This is the point where everything turned around and still listening to the radio stream I thought the broadcast team was going to jump out of their chair several different times.
I came into this season wondering what Grant Gibbs would bring to the Bluejays. I didn’t see him play when he was at Gonzaga, but I heard a lot about his character. Through the exhibition game and the first two games at the Qwest Center, I saw what everyone was talking about on the court as well. He was calm and methodical and sort of let the game come to him. He didn’t force anything, but made some impressive passes and found his teammates. Against UAB on Wednesday night, he took over the game. Yes everyone will look at Doug McDermott’s 27 points and 7 rebounds as a big key, but a couple minute stretch with 6 minutes to go in the game defines what this Creighton team will be this season.
Gibbs took the ball down the court on what sounded to be a fast break and pulled up for a three pointer which he drained. T.Scott and Nick were going crazy. UAB came back with a quick basket, but then Antoine Young got in for a layup. Gibbs then gets a rebound on a break and feeds Gregory Echenique for a dunk. Those were a quick set of events, but after McDermott hits a couple of free throws out of a media timeout, Gibbs dives on the floor on a loose ball and immediately calls timeout.
That set the tone for the final few minutes as the Jays put on some defensive stops and extended their lead. The character this team has demonstrated already this season is pretty impressive. The cherry on top was Jahenns Manigat. Manigat had been scoring in bunches and helped lead Creighton to the first two wins. He was not as successful in this one going 0-8 from the field and 0-3 from three. He could have gotten down on himself, or Greg McDermott could have taken him out of the game for the night. Instead Manigat did go 6-6 from the free throw line including the final two with 16 seconds remaining to seal it.
Creighton got out of Birmingham with a win. On this night when technology wasn’t at its best, the radio helped remind me what games were like before we had all of this satisfy me now technology that people take for granted. It made me realize how simple the game of basketball can be. In this case the right team won. At the same time, Creighton broke an almost three year winless streak on the road in non-conference games, gave Mike Davis his first loss in 33 home games at UAB and broke a 38-game regular season home winning streak for the Blazers. Now to Des Moines for Iowa on Sunday, the next big test.