Meet future Mav Tra-Deon Hollins

March 17, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball Deondre Parks, Devin Newsome, Devin Patterson, George Marshall, Jake Bittle, Jake White, March Madness, Marcus Tyus, Omaha Central, Omaha Mavericks, South Dakota State Jackrabbits, The Summit League, Tim Smallwood, TraDeon Hollins, Tre'Shawn Thurman, UNO Mavericks

So March Madness has officially began, the Mavs still cannot attend the dance, so it is not too early to look at what the Mavs will have for next season. I am already convinced that my bracket is ruined.

You should have finally accepted the fact that the NCAA will not just let CJ Carter and Mike Rostampour get another year of eligibility for the chance to play in the Summit League and NCAA Tournaments, but hey wouldn’t be cool if Jason Mims just kind of let Carter play on the soccer team for the opportunity for post season? Or if Bob Herold let Carter play as a pinch runner for the baseball team for his 5th year of eligibility? I have no idea if Carter is even capable of doing those things, but you would be interested to see what it would be like.

So Tra-Deon Hollins, a 6’2″ guard coming to UNO from the Junior College ranks, played high school basketball at Omaha Central, where he was a part of four state titles, with the likes of Tre’Shawn Thurman and Georgetown/Louisville forward Akoy Agau. Is it Tra-Deon, or is it TraDeon? I have seen both. I am going to need help from Dale Doback on this whole Pan/Pam situation. That is a Step Brothers reference. Anyway, Hollins has the chance to be an immediate impact on this basketball team, as most junior college transfers do coming into mid-major teams.

Whenever I present my wife with a good news/bad news situation she always wants the bad news first, so I will throw the bad at you before the good. It is not really all that bad, but as a sports fan you have the have a small amount of worry. Hollins only played 9 games at Chipola College this past season before he was dismissed from the team for disciplinary reasons.

That raises your eyebrow with a small amount of concern as a sports fan. You see it a lot in college sports, or even in professional sports, of someone getting in a small amount of trouble, but it keeps escalating into more and more until that player never plays. You obviously hope it is nothing, and it is something that the player can learn from and become a stronger person and player. Sports give that opportunity for some people to find redemption a little faster.

Here is a quote from the Omaha World Herald from Hollins: It just made me a better man today. It opened my eyes and made me more wise, and it taught me a lot about decisions and how much that can take a toll on you.

I do not know what happened with Hollins, nor do I really care as it is not really any of my business, but I think that is a great quote from him. Someone gets in a little trouble and you ask for them to own up to it. I hate when I hear someone get in trouble and their immediate go to comment it “yeah, but it was all some bullshit.” Sports (and life) is all about decision making, you know aside from athleticism and whatnot, so to have that character on the team that knows how important decision making is, that is a great addition to the team. If you had a “yeah, but it was all some bullshit” guy on the team, you would need to worry a little more. He could become a distraction by doing stupid crap, like accidentally stealing seafood from a supermarket. I know a guy was a “yeah, but was all some bullshit” guy. He got in trouble, went on to play junior college basketball, quit basketball after getting in trouble a few more times, and the last I heard he is a drug dealer. So yeah, do not be that guy, learn, move on, and grow.

Okay, so now onto the good. 13.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg (that is not role playing games), 6.6 apg, 61.5 FG%, 42.9 3pt%, 75 FT%, and 4.6 steals per game in those 9 games. The season before at Central Community College: 17.1 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 5.3 apg, 47.8 FG%, 37.2 3pt%, 69.9 FT%, and 4.1 steals per game. Certainly sounds like a guy that can do a little bit of everything.

What is more shocking is that in the Omaha World Herald, he said that he was a defensive player. Okay, yeah, now I do not know what to do with myself. UNO’s defense was not very good last year, last in the league in points allowed, and near the bottom in defensive shooting percentage. The offense was like Oregon football, but the defense was like Omaha Northwest football. Are they still bad? There were not very good when I was in high school. So when you have a guy that sounds like a great scorer on paper, but out loud is completely committed to defense, you are completely freaking excited. I am just imagining a team coming down the court and trying to get the ball past Hollins and Devin Patterson. Then when they do, they have to deal with Thurman’s length and shot blocking ability, and then if they can get a shot up they have to deal with Jake White’s rebounding ability. You just got like super pumped about that, right?

One thing that worries me though is the dying of the hair to blonde? I remember seeing a bunch of pictures in the Omaha World Herald in 2013 of the Omaha Central basketball team and it seemed like a bulk of the team dyed their hair blonde. It is cool to have a little unity like that. Like when a football team all shaves their heads, or when the Boston Celtics starters in 2007-2008 all shaved their heads at the beginning of the season. But I hope this blonde head thing does not catch on for the UNO Mavericks basketball team. I do not know if I could concentrate on a game if Jake White, Rylan Murry, and Kyler Erickson went all Slim Shady.

So we are going to add Hollins to a back court of Patterson, Marcus Tyus, Tim Smallwood, Kyler Erickson, Devin Newsome, and incoming freshman JT Gibson. Sounds like a good back court committee. The back court is going to need to come up huge with South Dakota State returning Deondre Parks, Jake Bittle, and George Marshall. That is a back court that is going to be dangerous.

I remember watching the 2013 Nebraska high school state championship game on television. I was watching to see what Nick Billingsley was like, who was at the time committed to UNO. I remember thinking that Hollins was incredibly fast and a big piece of energy for the Eagles. Was he the best player? I do not know, that team was freaking stacked. I said a few times throughout the 2014-2015 season that the Mavericks lacked a high energy guard off the bench. Tyus was that high energy guy off the bench in 2013-2014, and Alex Phillips and Caleb Steffensmeier both had their moments in that role, but no one was really doing that for the Mavs this past season. Not saying that Tim Smallwood, Devin Newsome, or Kyler Erickson were bad, but not of them were that unstoppable piece of energy off the bench. Erickson became that toward the end of the season, but none of them were that Nate Robinson or Jamal Crawford type of energy. Hollins seems to have what it takes to be that much needed chess piece.

Hollins is (clearly) an Omaha guy, and he seems to have a sense of pride to represent the city. You want those guys mixed in on your team. Even Kansas finds a few dudes from Lawrence for that representation. I was reading something yesterday, I already forgot the subject of the article, but it was basically stating that teams cannot get by with the one trick ponies anymore. The guys who just stand in the corner and take threes are not very important. Teams need the guys that can do a little bit of everything, and we totally got that in Hollins.

Welcome to MavNation.

How to schedule the Mavericks and the Bluejays: PART II

March 12, 2015March 12, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball CJ Carter, Creighton Bluejays, Derrin Hansen, Greg McDermott, Jake White, JaySkers, Mike Rostampour, Omaha Mavericks, The BIG EAST, Tim Miles, Tre'Shawn Thurman, UNO Mavericks

How to schedule the Mavericks and the Bluejays: PART I

Okay, so you may be asking yourself, what does profiling all of the Creighton fans have to do with scheduling the Mavericks and the Bluejays? That is a totally fair question, so let’s move on here.

You have to understand your enemy before going after them…

Richard Creighton Fan watches the second half of the game

So Dick goes on ignoring me while his version of the Justice League is trying to save the planet from a Big East team taking over. This is all after he established that Creighton and UNO have no room to be on the same basketball court playing against each other. A Creighton guard misses a wide open shot. I tell him that CJ Carter would have made that shot, Dick becomes agitated, not saying anything, he is just upset at the game and more and more at me.

An opposing player knocks down an uncontested shot in the lane, with the Creighton post player up near the free throw line for some reason, and not anywhere near the basket to protect it. I tell Dick that Mike Rostampour would have contested that shot, he would have either fouled him to make it difficult and force him to the line, or forced that player to pass out of the lane. Dick is now disgusted and takes a drink of his Bud Light to ease the pain.

An opposing player puts some pressure on a Creighton guard and strips the ball from the Creighton guard, so of course Dick calls the opposing player a homophobic slur. The opposing player takes the ball that is now in his possession and sprints down the court for an uncontested layup, with none of the dejected Creighton player in sight. I tell Dick that Devin Patterson would not have allowed himself to get in that position to give up the ball to the opposing player, and even if he did, he would sprinted down the court with the opposing player to contest the shot. Patterson would not have just laid down showing no competitive edge.

A Creighton post player attempts and rushes a real lazy hook shot which clanks off the front of the rim. I tell Dick that Tre’Shawn Thurman would not have done that, in fact no UNO player would have just gone for the lazy hook there. Since they had an opposing player with their hand up they would have tried a post move or passed out of it. Thurman has this vintage Kobe Bryant/Vince Carter post move, where he jukes to the left and then goes right for a turn around fade away, and it is a much higher percentage shot then whatever the hell we just watched that Creighton player try.

Creighton is now down by 20 at this point with not much time left, the players are somehow playing with less energy than they already have this entire soulless game of theirs. I tell Dick that UNO has not given up in a game like that all year, even when down by 15 or so with a few minutes to go, they still tried to make a game out of it. At this point, Dick wants to punch someone and I am in the front of the line. He slams down his drink and throws out some notes as to why the UNO-Creighton game will never happen, but now he hopes that it will happen just to shut people like me up.

By the way, a side note: The Creighton fan I have based Dick Creighton Fan off of looks exactly like Jake White. If Jake White got done with college and stopped working out and let himself go a bit, and was 7 inches shorter, but still looks exactly like Jake White in the face. He cannot stand Jake White because of his Wichita State past. Every time Jake White does something cool I will text Dick with “hey, your cousin had 10 and 8 tonight, good for the fam!” Then he will text mean things back about Jake White, would you expect anything less from a Dick Creighton Fan? Dick also has season tickets for Creighton basketball, the people in his section are the people that usually bring a book to read, so you know, the real supporters and the people that make you wonder why they even came. Dick also plays basketball like you would expect a Creighton fan would…selfishly. Takes 15 threes during a 40 minute game and only makes about 4 of them at best. Also does not recognize you sprinting down the court and hustling to get open, so just jacks up threes.

Why it may not be happening.

I have no absolutely positive reason as to why UNO-Creighton may not be happening as of right now. Maybe it is money, maybe McDermott and Hansen, or the two athletic administrations cannot agree on stuff, I am not sure why. Maybe McDermott is just a really really really nice guy and does not want to beat the Mavs and cause an inner city riot. I do not think McDermott has a mean bone in his entire body.

I find myself wondering this though, could the reason be because of the JaySkers? The JaySkers that just root for anyone local, they like the Mavericks enough to take notice, but maybe not enough to go to their games yet. If UNO-Creighton happens, the JaySkers will take a little more notice and be more aware of what the Mavericks have, and that they are at least entertaining.

If the Mavericks and Creighton play, and UNO comes close or even beats the Bluejays, what would the JaySkers do with their money? They will buy a UNO shirt or two, maybe some tickets to a few games, and maybe even classify themselves as JayMavSkers, or maybe they even sift through Bull Shit Mountain enough and just become MavSkers. If they spent 50 bucks from their annual Going Out Budget on UNO stuff, that is 50 bucks less that they will spend on beer and food at the CenturyLink Center.

If a JaySker were more aware of the Mavericks and entertained by them, would they be more inclined to go to a UNO event over a Creighton event? If they could go to Aksarben, which is more centrally located than the CenturyLink Center (and Ralston Arena), pay less for parking, and walk just a little bit closer to DJs Dugout and other restaurants, do you think they would go for it? Would they rather see UNO have a shot against Oral Roberts over seeing Creighton getting dominated by a overrated Georgetown team? Seriously, Georgetown has been overrated for the past 10 years.

When the JaySker goes to a UNO hockey game, they see the Creighton University advertisement on the scoreboard, they still get that Bluejay taste in their mouth. Typically the JaySkers will make it out to UNO-North Dakota hockey, or UNO-Ohio State in the old days, the JaySkers just like the events they can brag about seeing really. There is no University of Nebraska at Omaha advertisement when the JaySker goes to a Creighton Basketball game, not even sure if it is allowed. So if UNO men’s basketball was put right in front of their faces, could the JaySker sway a little bit?

UNO and Creighton have played in a few sports, and when you go the atmosphere is a little weird. Creighton fans always have this feeling of We Will Beat the Crap Out of Our Opponent, but they have been a little more quiet when Creighton plays the inner city rival. Their attitude changes to Oh Crap We Better Not Lose to This Team. When I moved back to Omaha from Utah, one of the first things I did was get tickets UNO vs. Creighton baseball, I was pretty damn pumped for the game. I think I was scared that game was going to be a sell out, being away from Omaha for about a year I just kind of imagined that everyone in Omaha would be jacked for that match up. What a perfect gift for my return to Omaha though. The game was a little slow, Creighton players seemed to lack a little energy and it was almost as if the Bluejay fans did not want to do smack talk, especially since the people in red and black out numbered the people in blue and white. It is also hard to smack talk when your baseball team in the last few years has just become a team of Hey Let’s Just Hit the Ball to the Outfield and Hope for the Best. UNO won the game 3-2, the Creighton players looked like they were on suicide watch after the game, they did not appear to want to come out and shake the UNO players hands, and they probably knew that Ed Servais was going to have them run a marathon after losing to that reclassifying team. The Creighton fans walked out of there confused and as quiet as you exit a funeral.

How would you rank Creighton sports teams in terms of how prideful their fans are toward the team. 1. Men’s Basketball, 2. Men’s Soccer, 3. Baseball? That is their fans’ third favorite sport, and UNO showed that they can hang with them. Men’s Soccer showed that they can hang in exhibition play as well. Women’s soccer needed two overtimes to beat UNO this last season. Oh this reminds me, UNO-Creighton softball happening any time soon is probably less likely than men’s basketball happening anytime soon, but hey, that is another conversation.

When UNO can make the big dance and possibly pull of an upset, the JaySkers will come crawling. The 14 seed beating the 3 seed prestige is far more powerful then the BIG EAST team beating a SWAC team in the first/second round or whatever the hell it is anymore. That is when the prestige factor will come into play for Creighton to play UNO, the game will need to be played after that. That will make UNO men’s basketball the even that they will want to go see and Creighton will have the need to play at beat the Mavericks to show everyone who is still the boss of this town. And it is not like UNO is wanting Creighton every single season, although that would be swell, it is not necessary, UNO fans just want the acknowledgement from the Creighton fans, so once in a few years is fine. City rivalries do not necessarily happen every season, especially when the schools are not at the same level. UNO fans understand that The BIG EAST is on a different level than the Summit League, they are not psychotic.

Creighton fans also do not like to share attention. For 12 years they got to share a market with Barry Collier and Doc Sadler coached Nebraska teams that would bore and frustrate the hell out of Husker basketball fans in Omaha, so many of those fans would go watch Creighton. Even the end of the Danny Nee era at Nebraska was painful to watch. Now, the kid up the street thinks they can join the party. They are building a new arena, new dorms, new buildings on campus, but they still have shitty parking. None of this can make the Creighton fan happy. Greg McDermott is not an attention grabbing coach, his press conferences will put you right to sleep**. If you throw him Dana Altman, Tim Miles, Derrin Hansen, and Doc Sadler into a charity poker event, you are going to forget he is there. Miles would be the guy that never shuts up and annoys all the other players, but the crowd wants to keep watching. Hansen will do the same, but not as many jokes, he will feed off of the Miles jokes a little bit. Sadler would be the one accusing Miles and Hansen of having too much fun, probably folding his cards every single time. Altman would be the guy who never says anything, still betting on what he thought was a good bet, everything would be a calculated decision. You root for those guys in poker tournaments, mainly because you are dying to see what their hand is as 99% of the time they are in a hand, it is because they have a good hand. McDermott would just there, drinking his water, you would forget McDermott was even in the poker tournament, he would never grab your attention to make you wonder what he is scheming. You would just expect him to be out at some point, but not as quickly as Sadler who you assume would just get frustrated and make a bad bet so he could go home.

**That is not to say that McDermott is a bad coach. Attention Grabbing ability does not make one a good or bad coach. Nor does poker playing ability. I am now curious though if anyone has done a qualitative study of this.

Why do we want it to happen?

So the hardcore UNO fans do not really like Creighton fans, they want the opportunity to beat Creighton. They do not necessarily expect a win, but they want the chance to go to the game and maybe talk a little trash, poke fun at Creighton, and hopefully be on the winning side. UNO fans have to live in the shadow of Creighton, which is fair since Creighton has been fully division one much longer. In a way, UNO fans feel disrespected by Creighton fans. Bluejay nation still does not see UNO as division one, this is partially because a majority of Creighton fans do not know what is happening outside of Creighton basketball. A while back when Creighton was in the NIT, I had a few friends that wanted to go their game against Bowling Green, so I went down to the Qwest Center to buy the tickets, and the guy in front of me who was decked out in all Creighton gear like he was a life long fan asked as many questions as he could possible ask:

So this is the NIT?
What is the NIT?
What would have Creighton had to do to make the NCAA tournament?
Who are they playing?
Bowling Green is in what conference?
What was Bowling Green’s record this year?
What was Creighton’s record this year?
Is it a white out?
Is it a blue out?
How many fans do you expect to come?
Will Lawlor’s be selling any gear centered around the NIT?
Who does Creighton play after they win this game?
When is the next game?
Who leads the team in scoring?
They sell beer for the NIT, right?

I am pretty sure the ticket person wanted to just scream out “IT’S ON THE FREAKING INTERNET” the whole time. But that is Creighton fan hood, they want to support Creighton, and they want the event. For some reason they do not think Creighton-UNO is an event. So we need to make it an event for them.

Would inviting Tim Miles make it an event? Like, he could do the starting lineups. He could come out in a tuxedo and grab the microphone and read off the starting lineups like he is doing the intros for a famous boxing match, he could read off each player’s name with some Will Ferrell like jokes, and then he could ring the starting bell. Since there is apparently some rule that college coaches cannot attend games of their opponents, he will have to leave, and all the Creighton fans can boo him out of the building. It might be better than Christmas for Tim Miles, and Creighton fans.

How about we shoot a few things down

Dick brought up the points that any Creighton fan that thinks they pay attention will bring up, so let’s take a look at these things.

It is tough enough to schedule in college basketball as is…

Yeah, okay, I can agree with that. With the non-conference schedule taken up by early season tournaments, a rivalry game (Nebraska in this case), return games, and maybe a conference versus conference challenge, it can be a little difficult to fit a few more games in there for some teams.

It also has to be super stressful and challenging to set something up when your coaches and athletic admin attend the same charity events, local organization’s outings, AAU tournaments, and high school games. That could require talking to each other in person. Much more simple to get back and forth emails and phone calls with Tulsa and North Texas. Creighton and UNO baseball, women’s basketball, women’s soccer, men’s soccer (in exhibitions), and other sports meeting up was defying all the odds in the last few years.

Playing UNO would not do much for Creighton

North Carolina A & T, Chicago State (3 times), Campbell, Houston Baptist, Presbyterian, Longwood, Alcorn State, UMKC, Long Beach State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Central Arkansas, North Carolina Central, Eastern Illinois, South Dakota, and Texas Pan-American have all played Creigthon since UNO’s transition.

Screw you.

You ever watch a city rivalry game? You can not give two craps about either team and still enjoy the hell out of it. A few years ago I watched Cincinnatti-Xavier on television, and this was post Sean Miller. I do not care for either team and I do not even know any player on either team. The rivalry was so intense, you could just feel the energy in the crowd and in the players in how important that game was to everyone there.

The UNO-Creighton men’s soccer exhibition last year was incredibly intense. I thought someone was going to get killed. It was an exhibition game…exhibition… I said exhibition, right?

Creighton would have beaten UNO by 50 (last year)

Prove it…

I think what Creighton (and Iowa) fans hate more than anything are the personality-less Nebraska football fans who think at the beginning of the every year that the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team will win the national championship solely based on the fact that the 94 and 95 ‘skers were the greatest college football teams ever. Those teams were then, and they were great, but this now. So just because Creighton had Doug McDermott a couple years ago, it does not mean that the Bluejays are still at that level of greatness. The Bluejays also do not have the same perimeter defense without Grant Gibbs. Their team has changed greatly. Yes there are a few years that Creighton would have beaten UNO by 30+, but that is not an every year thing, there are a few years that UNO could upset Creighton, and this year could have been one of them…maybe depending on when the game was played, Creighton was doing pretty well until they played North Texas. Hell I am pretty sure there were years in the D2 era that UNO could have upset the Huskers in basketball.

We are now at a point where UNO beat a team that beat Creighton (Marquette) and Creighton beat a team that beat UNO (Chicago State), so we can have these arguments, which if the two teams do not meet, it is going to add to some frustration for the few that want the game to happen. Creighton’s skill level is not as high as it was a few years ago.

I have a friend, he is a JaySker, the good kind of JaySker though, he wants them to both win, and he even roots for UNO a little bit (though he has yet to attend a basketball game). He is really just one of those guys who roots for anything local, but he owns more Creighton stuff then he does Husker and UNO stuff. He admits one thing, even though in the past they were exhibition games, UNO always played Creighton (and Nebraska) tough and close. It was the Mavericks’ one chance for a showcase back then. They watch more Creighton and Nebraska games on local television all year then they do any of their opponents, so the Mavericks have a constant recruiting tape loop on watch. They get to sit in their dorms and watch Creighton play and think to themselves, if I had to stop that guy, this is what I would do.

So this whole Creighton would beat UNO by 50 BS can stop. I am not saying it is an automatic close game, or even a win by UNO, I am just saying that it would at least be entertaining. Was Nebraska-UNO early in the season not entertaining? When it is a local rivalry, the game is more about the intangibles, not about who looks better on paper, and honestly Creighton did not look all that great on paper this season.

Tim Miles: The Inspiration

Whether it was on accident or not, Tim Miles proved something. He was interviewed on the sideline at what I think was his first Husker football game, and he answered questions with a few jokes as his charismatic self, and he finished with an infamous line, only show in the state.

Miles claims he meant that there is no Nebraska State, as he was involved in the Colorado State to Colorado relationship. He claimed to not be thinking of Creighton at this juncture, and we will never know if it was intentional not, but this caused so many Creighton fans to just lose their freaking minds. Tim Miles had not even been involved with a Nebraska-Creighton game yet and the Creighton fan base wanted his head. Creighton fans get pumped up for that Nebraska-Creighton game each and every year. In the Missouri Valley days, it was their chance to show they were better than “the big boys.” Now, beating that Tim Miles jerk is the motivation.

Now Tim Miles just loves poking fun at Creighton. He does it every chance he gets. He scheduled UNO and he took some jabs at Creighton for not doing the same thing. Creighton fans want that win over Nebraska more and more now. With Doc Sadler, Creighton lived in local basketball bliss. Sadler did not really care too much for the local thing, he held not merit to winning or losing to Creighton. He did not even really go after too many local recruits, I know someone related to Iowa’s Mike Gesell, and they told me that Sadler and Nebraska never once contacted him. Sadler did not bring much media hype to Nebraska basketball, and they were as boring to watch as it was to listen to him talk. Miles, with the help of a new arena, practice facilities, and commitment from the university has turned all of that around. Neighboring Creighton is cranky that Tim Miles is now the main character in all of this and Creighton needs a bottle of juice.

I wish there was a way to hit Creighton where it really hurts and convince Tim Miles to stop the annual Nebraska-Creighton game and start a Nebraska-UNO annual game, but I highly doubt that is an option. Creighton fans would riot in the streets of downtown Omaha. To hurt them even more, the game could be played at the CenturyLink Center, both teams could wear one of those In Memory patches during the games, and no blue would be allowed in the arena. Nebraska could even bring their floor, like they did when they played Oregon in Omaha. After the games, Tim Miles and Derrin Hansen could go out downtown to all the Creighton hang outs, put as much money as they can into the juke boxes and play the worst music possible, and just be laughing the whole time. They can even go to The Blue Jay Bar & Grill (is that place still open), and call out the bar for letting in a bunch of 19 year olds and letting them drink. Again though, highly unlikely, but I feel like Tim Miles could still jokingly bring it up as an idle threat once in a while.

So anyway, Tim Miles and his Only Show in the State comment, it charged things up for Creighton against Nebraska. With Sadler, Creighton was getting into this Oh La La attitude toward Nebraska basketball. They wanted the victory over Nebraska for sure, but they were not getting pumped for it like they used to. After Miles said that, all hell broke out, Creighton fans were pumped, they circled the game on their calendar, the ticket prices on Ticketmaster jumped up to almost $300. Creighton fans needed new shirts from Lawlor’s to show their dominance and commitment. So Tim Miles showed us one thing, to build up demand for Creighton fans, you just piss them right off.

Yes, let’s just piss off Creighton fans

It sounds so simple, and so fun. At this point you have to assume that Greg McDermott (and probably Derrin Hansen) has some objections about this game happening, and McDermott is definitely not going to do it without demand from the fans. So let’s just piss off the Creighton fans and force them to demand the game to happen. Let’s make the Creighton fans the one calling the athletic admin to ask why it is not happening.

The Senseless, The Attitude, The Coast, and the Entitled all have one thing in common. Their presentation of self suggests that they are incredibly confident and have high self esteems. In reality, their confident persona and self esteem is the front stage, in the back stage, they realize they have not proven anything and need validation, they are actually quite insecure and defensive. After all, the typical Omaha born Creighton student is the kid that you went to high school with a $30,000 car, no job, and presented it as if he bought the car on his own from all the hard work he has done. If you ever called that kid out though, he would so make sure that dumb high school girls did not think you were hot. Creighton men’s basketball somehow validates that they made the right choice in life. The basketball team is really good, so I must have picked the right school! With these people we need to attack and break down that confidence, until they want to see Creighton-UNO happen to in some way prove their oddly placed dominance.

Here are a few buttons to push:

Your school lacks innovation and looks like a sick Mongolian Hun coughed it up

When I went to school and worked at UNO they were constructing the new HPER building. I was also on student government and sat through a bunch of presentations on ways to grow the University of Nebraska of Omaha. Most of these presentations centered around facilities. The same thing happened while I was working at Weber State, consultants would come in and discuss how prospective students care most about facilities and work out facilities were always the most important. Where else are the homeboys supposed to pick up chicks other than the gym?

Anyway, UNO reconstructs HPER, and HPER is freaking awesome. It has everything a student could ask for. The student population grows from it, and continues to grow. HPER has been rated one of the top gyms in the country, the Outdoor Venture Center is also nationally ranked, and believe me, considering its location, that is a huge accomplishment. A few months after the student numbers get a jump, Nebraska-Lincoln gets a new Outdoor Venture Center, so who tilts their head like a confused puppy? Creighton opens up the Rasmussen Fitness and Sports Center a few years later, which is similar to UNO’s HPER, but considering Creighton’s student population versus UNOs, it is completely ridiculous. Creighton did not want to believe the facilities argument at first, I mean it was probably based on studies from MSNBC or something anyway. The younger cousin got a new shiny toy and they had to have one. They do not even have their own logo, they had to steal it from the Toronto Bluejays. The first thing you see in the About Us section of their website is the phrase There’s No Place Like Creighton. I feel like I have heard There Is No Place Like…but I cannot remember how the rest of it goes.

You drive by campus on Cuming Street and you look at it. While you look at it, do you see the resemblance to the exterior to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, or is that just me? Can you guys not hire a cleaning lady for that thing?

You do not actually care about the education

Nebraska basketball gets a brand new practice facility, so the Creighton moneybaggers and Monopoly players get all whiny and throw down some money for the Creighton Championship Center. That is the thing, Nebraska gets an advantage and that is all those people want to fix. This whole foundation of We Support the Jesuit Education from the boosters with more money than God is BS. If the education is what they really valued, then their students would not be sitting in the UNO library studying because it is a superior library. I am sure that The Entitled and The Attitude could not even tell you where the Creighton library is located, or what the purpose of it is. The Creighton senior days, when the players make speeches, how many of those players have you questioned if they could read or not? Have the boosters sat through those?

Your student section sucks

Oh they will show up big for Nebraska, Georgetown, or Villanova, they will come get in the front rows for the games on national television, but other than that they suck. It is after all pretty difficult to pretend that you go to Duke when your team is in 2nd to last place in something. You go to the games and you see that a majority of the student section is disinterested, they might as well be at a Rob Schneider film. Yes your team sucks at times, but that is still your team, and it is free for you, so why not go?

The UNO student section is far superior, yes I am a homer here, but it is true. The main figure for Creighton sports is men’s basketball, the main character for UNO sports is hockey, and if you go to both of these events then you already know. Even when UNO hockey is not as strong of a team as the students want to be, they still show up, because it is their team and they support it. The Creighton students do not go if the Bluejays suck in their minds.

When I was on Student Government at UNO, this was in the Division 2 days, Trev Alberts came and talked to us and asked how to engage the students into athletics. Alberts said one of the challenges was to get people to support UNO with one of the biggest athletic programs in the country just 45 minutes down the road, and while UNO was getting support for hockey there were not a lot of people there to support the Mavericks, there were more people who were just there for their love of hockey. Alberts wanted to figure out how to get people behind UNO, not just the sport of hockey. He also had the general feel that for other sports, students did not want to come to division 2 events because of the “high school” feel that it gave. I think the high school feel is gone, students are there to support UNO now, the momentum is building, and the support is growing. When the Mavs can play for post season, the crowd will become more supportive too, and the support was pretty high this last season of transition.

The Nebraska basketball student section did not want to go for a number of years, there was not much excitement in that program. Tim Miles and a new arena rejuvenated them, now they are loud and crazy, no matter the opponent. They are there to support the team now, good record or bad record, Big Ten opponent or Sun Belt opponent, they are there now. They do not even need beer.

Tre’Shawn knows Omaha

It is not just Tre’Shawn Thurman, but any current and future Maverick that in an Omaha guy. A marketing campaign we really need to start to take over JaySkers market. You can assume most JaySkers are from Omaha and support the city of Omaha in one way or another. With none of the Big East opponents really that close, and no Nebraska born scholarship players for Creighton (next year they will have Omaha North’s Justin Patton and Benson’s Khyri Thomas), it will be more difficult for these people to really connect with the Creighton program. They wont have that Omaha supportive feel as they did with 8 years of Josh Dotzler-Antoine Young-Josh Jones Local From the Area back courts leading as the faces of the program and as that connection to the Omaha fans.

UNO has that connection now with Tre’Shawn Thurman, the player that the JaySkers will recognize. We can get in Creighton’s front yard and throw a University of Nebraska at Omaha advertisement in a media timeout of a Creighton basketball game, and the video can end with the best Thurman dunk we can find. It will get the Jayskers to think, We Need to Go See That Kid. The guy they will want to see and sit around talking about his play at UNO and debating what he could have been at Creighton or Nebraska. Can we post a bunch of Tre’Shawn Knows Omaha posters all around town, even on Creighton’s campus? Is that against some rule? Can we post a picture of him standing over an aerial portrait of Omaha, with his foot over the Creighton campus? A subliminal message of, Everyone Will Get Behind This Guy and Not See You Anymore!

I am not even sure if this is totally legit. I do see a bunch of women’s athletics programs just using girls that they see as the most attractive girl on the roster for their advertisements, even if they are not that much of an athlete in comparison to their teammates, so why not this? It will not do much to anger The Attitude or The Coast, they barely care about Omaha as is. The Entitled and The Senseless though, this will screw them up a bit. The Entitled has a weird love of Omaha, mainly because they know they cannot leave it without Daddy’s permission, but they love it as if they are Batman loving Gotham City. You know if Bruce Wayne’s parents did not die, and they just spoiled the crap out of him to the point of making him a waste of talent.

We beat Marquette…

Okay, so this can get to Creighton fans just a little bit, and they will typically come back with the You Lost to Chicago State argument, and that is fair. But this still gets in their head enough to get them thinking. If you keep poking at The Attitude, they are going to get pissy, they will absolutely need Creighton-UNO basketball to happen just to shut you up. Remember, the idea is to get the fans to demand the game to happen, you want to get their reasons as to why the game is not happening out of their heads.

You are afraid to schedule us

I do not think this will work, but if you want to try it, what the the hell. The fans are not afraid to schedule UNO, they just fall into the game of We Would Beat You by 50 and Playing UNO Would Do Nothing For Creighton. The coaches and admin might be afraid, not in terms of picking up a loss on the schedule, but more so for losing the fair weathered fans that they know “support” their program.

A mass of their fans care more about the beer at the arena, and the last time I checked the new UNO arena will sell beer. My brother got me tickets to a Creighton game this year. I went to the game, sat in literally the very back row, and I sat behind these three dudes who may have been the dumbest dudes I have ever found. They hardly paid attention to the game, drank more beer than I have drank in the last 6 months, and talked about going to the casino the whole time, but this is after they discussed how dedicated they were as Creighton fans when they first sat down. If UNO had a casino near campus, those fans would come and “support” UNO too, but I do not think these were people Trev Alberts was trying to recruit to be the supporters of UNO.

Creighton though, they love these people, and they cannot possibly take the risk of scheduling UNO for these idiots. If Creighton-UNO plays, they may actually do a little more than pretend to care about the game. They may stay seated, watch, be into it, and they may spend a few less dollars on beer. OH NO! Admit it though, you love going to their games or watching them on television and seeing 1/5 of the arena not into it, just in the hallways or at the concessions not actually rooting on the team. Creighton might actually be afraid of scheduling UNO for the sake of these people. So much integrity and excellence.

Have you ever heard a Creighton fan talk about Kansas basketball? That is the team they want to play more than any but it wont get scheduled. They want Kansas to come to Omaha and slap some dumb boring tag line of Come See the Bird Fight! They want to show they belong with Kansas for some reason. Kansas is on their own scale of good. Creighton fans love to sit around and say “Kansas is afraid to schedule us”. No, Kansas is not afraid to schedule you. From what I could gather over years of listening to Creighton assistant coaches on the radio, it was Dana Altman who was afraid to schedule Kansas, for whatever reason.

Aksarben > Old Market

Creighton fans love their shiny things, and they love the downtown bars. Apparently the Jesuit foundation means sneak into every bar in the Old Market and drink so much until you pass out in the back of a 5 minute cab ride. Aksarben is now growing and it growing because of UNO, downtown does not NEED Creighton. Aksarben also does not have that 42 year old dudes hitting on 22 year old chicks feel to it, bragging up his 36k a year lifestyle to some girl in college who has never worked more than 15 hours a week. The restaurants in Aksarben are newer, the buildings are newer, and it has Amato’s. Aksarben is not even close to being done either, not that downtown ever will be, but this has to enrage the from Omaha Creightoners. I have not been to Aksarben much, just to DJs Dugout to catch a UNO hockey game or two, and a few other places, but I did notice that there are also not any douche bags that want to start a fight just for the sake of feeling tough like the Old Market. Insecure people needing validation, that is the Creighton way.

I cannot stop laughing when you tell me that Creighton is as athletic as Georgetown or Villanova

Just stop saying it! You are killing me! I cannot even feel my side anymore! Oh my God, you really think that?! You really are that delusional! How many beers did you have before half time?!?! Is there a country for people like you to get deported to?!?!?! Is it called the Republic of Dumb Shits?!?!

I had Archer on in the back ground during that…

So pissing off Creighton will be fun, and most of UNO fans probably already try it anyway, but at least now they should know that it can be productive too. It is important to know that UNO fans need the Creighton fans to want this as much as the UNO fans. As the JaySkers catch on, the UNO fans need to be welcoming of them, welcome them into a few watch parties for games at DJs Dugout maybe, let them see that Mavnation is not filled up with a bunch of arrogance like its neighbor. Go to the Creighton-UNO and Nebraska-UNO events that are happening, which I am sure you already do, and find the good kind of JaySkers, friend them up and work on getting them to be MavSkers.

While a great game, senior night did not end the way we wanted, and Devin Patterson is the boss

February 20, 2015November 11, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball CJ Carter, Devin Patterson, Jake White, Karl Hess, Kyler Erickson, Marcus Tyus, Mike Rostampour, Omaha Mavericks, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, Randy Reed, The Summit League, Tre'Shawn Thurman, UNO Mavericks

It seems that the Mavericks have had the same story to each loss so far this season. Mavs get off to a great start, Mavs turn the ball over a bit and let the other team into the game, game gets close, CJ Carter and/or Marcus Tyus do what they can to keep the game close, Mavs miss some key free throws while the other team becomes incapable of missing free throws, and then I leave home sad. Even though last night’s game ended with a loss, it was refreshing to see a little bit of a different story.

The Mavs did not get off to the greatest start in this one. There were some poor decisions in the beginning, bad turnovers, bad luck, bad shots, and a lot of fouls. Then they fought to get back into the game a bit, kept it at a close game, got down by a few possessions, then cut it back down to a position, and even take a lead. It became a back and forth game, rather than watching than a runaway bride game. Jake White, Randy Reed, and Kyler Erickson all came off the bench to give the team a much needed jump start. Each played with great energy that has been needed of the Mavs bench all season, we saw a few lineups that we had not seen all year due to Tyus being out, Mike Rostampour in foul trouble, and CJ getting stitched up.

I brought my wife to the game, my wife does not get to many games due to a busy work and school schedule, but it is like having the world’s most critical commentator next to you. I have gone to sporting events with women in the past and they point out the things that you do not typically see as a dude, like, hey that player has stupid hair, he should cut his hair. My wife on the other hand played basketball for several years and is also coaches high school, so yes it can be emasculating at times.

Anyway, at her first game my wife sits down and asks “who is their best player”? I tell her that each of the key players brings something different that puts them in as the best at something on the team. Mike Rostampour is the best post defender and rebounder, Marcus Tyus is the best shooter, CJ Carter is the best slasher at getting to the basket, and Devin Patterson is probably just the most important player. If he has a 2-7 shooting performance, the Mavs are not going to have a good time. If he gets into foul trouble or rolls his ankle, the Mavs are not going to have a good time. 26 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists at Marquette, the Mavs had a good time. 2 of 8 with 7 points and 7 turnover against Kansas State, the Mavs did not have a good time. MmmmK. Things got bad for the Mavs this season when Patterson basically had to sit for 2 and a half games due to injuries, and you could tell he was still at least a little bit slowed down after that for a number of games.

My wife was a point guard, and her number in high school and in college was 3, so she has an instant respect for the junior point guard. The coach in my wife points out every miscue by the Mavericks: they are not moving, that was not the best shot available on that play, that player needs to figure out how to box out, that asshole does not want to play defense, I hate players who cannot catch the ball, but not as much as I hate players who pass an uncatchable pass, that idiot keeps dribbling the ball into traffic and he has three turnovers because of it.

So a lot of that was from the South Dakota loss, my wife did not have all of those complaints on Thursday against Oral Roberts. Mike Rostampour picked up three quick fouls and you can tell some energy is taken out of the crowd. Rostampour is the energy provider, best post defender, and it is also his senior day and he has to go sit down for 16+ minutes, so yeah there was some energy taken out of the crowd. Jake White comes in and provides some energy, but Randy Reed really brought it last night. My wife asks, we did not see him against South Dakota, why does this guy not play more? I have no answer, I do not know why really, I have felt he has needed more minutes all year.

With Rostampour limited with foul trouble, and already with no Marcus Tyus, and with CJ Carter only having 4 points at half time, many of the fans around me felt like the game was over. If you have watched the Mavs all season and seen that the story is much of the same game after game, I could see people feeling that, but this was not the typical game. The game never got so out of hand that you could see the players giving up, they fought through everything, even though the game did not end the way the Mavs wanted to, you have to proud of the effort and the fight.

I think the most frustrating thing as a player in a close loss like that is after the game you will find yourself sitting there thinking, if I would have just not turned it over on that one play, or missed that one shot, or driven right instead of left on that play with a few minutes to go in first half, we could have won that game. I can think of one play that me thinking, had that gone down differently, maybe they could have won that game. With much of the team returning for next season, the team can learn from these moments and fix a lot of the mistakes.

I never like to the blame the officials for a loss, and I still do not blame them for last night’s loss, but they were confusing and knit picky at times last night. Mid-major officials being inconsistent? Get out of here, that never happens… The Summit League officials seem to always want to keep Mike Rostampour in check, which they should do with any player, but at times it seems like they are singling him out. A double technical foul in the game AND a double foul of a block on the defender and charge on the offensive player tells you that the refs are afraid to look like bad guys. I officiated basketball for a few years, you can tell the refs that do not want to be the bad guy and the guys who do not care what you think about them. The refs that don’t want to be the bad guy call make up calls, and it makes people want to punch them in the face.

Refs are people too, they typically do not like being yelled at, and it is not like they get to explain themselves like an annoying Customer Service agent with some BS lingo. You want the refs who forget about what a player did five games ago, the Summit League has officials who want to make sure the players know they have things in check. Take Garth Algar’s advice on wanting expensive guitars, LIVE IN THE NOW! They do not look at it play by play, they look at is as Well This Guy Was a Jerk Last Month, I Will Give Him a Foul For Rolling His Eyes at Another Player. Don’t get me wrong, if some player caused a huge fight a month ago, yeah you want to make sure that guy does not do that again. Rostampour has not been out there punching dudes, there is no reason to “keep him in check” just because he plays like he cares. You want the refs that take thirty seconds of their life to proactively tell a player that they will call a foul if do that one bad thing again, there is a reason why Karl Hess is now only officiating basketball games at Nazi Summer Camp. Watch an Atlantic 10 game some time, ALL of their refs are Look at Me and I’ll Cut You refs, their players are basically not allowed to play with emotion, a guy like Mike Rostampour would only play 5 minutes a game and average 5 fouls a game in the Atlantic 10.

Mickey Gordon wanted to be the first to say farewell.

My wife and I were in Kansas City for a UNO at UMKC game in 2012-2013 and we sat directly behind the UMKC bench…we were even seen in the picture that UMKC used as the photo for the presser of the firing of Matt Brown. Anyway, there was one ref, and Matt Brown would have a complaint and try and talk to the guy, and the guy would come over and make some stupid joke and have a stupid shit eating grin on his face every time and laugh like it was the appropriate time for his failure of a comedy routine. I wanted to yell at this ref for Matt Brown. How much would that mess up that ref? He’s incompetent and trying to be a comedian for a pissed off coach, and the guy sitting behind the bench with the opposing team’s shirt gets up and calls him out as an idiot? I have not seen that ref work a Summit League game since that year, and I watch a lot of them thanks to ESPN3 replay options. If he got promoted I will be really upset. Mild mannered Derrin Hansen was even out at center court yelling at the refs that game because they were unorganized and messing things up. Comedy Ref stood there with incompetence the entire time, he just wanted to be everyone’s buddy. The Mavs won that game, I think it was their first Summit League road win, but they won that game partly with learning to deal with incompetent refs. This reminds me, why the hell is UMKC in the WAC?

A three paragraph tangent about refs might be a new record for myself. Where was I? Last night, yeah that’s right. It was a frustrating loss, but what loss is not frustrating? The most frustrating are the ones where you realize you deserved that loss due to not working hard. The ones like last night, you can actually learn something and move one, so we will do that, we will move on. We will lose two great seniors that helped set the ground work for division one, and who will not be forgotten. Last night when both were sidelined, we were shown that we will be in great hands in the future. The seniors to be, and sophomore Tre’Shawn Thurman, showed great energy and that they are ready for next year. We are in great shape because of what the two of them provided.

I say that Devin Patterson is the most important piece of the team, and that is because he keeps things moving (among other factors). Not only on offense, but on defense he can great so many bad situations for the other team. My wife averaged 4+ steals a game as a freshman in high school, and her favorite thing about basketball was being “the little girl” but also being able to install so much fear into her opponents that they would shit their pants. I have not verified if she made anyone literally shit their pants, but those were her words. Devin Patterson does that for the Mavericks, he creates fear for the opposing team and they try to keep the ball away from him, but they cannot do it. We can see that Mike Rostampour brings energy and gave the Mavs heart when they desperately needed it, and Devin Patterson brought that too when he came to Omaha.

At one point the Mavs were literally not moving, just four dudes standing around (while one picked up his dribble) like they were in a Jurassic Park film trying to not be seen by the T-Rex. You could see Patterson yell at them after that. I am not sure if he was scolding them for not moving, but they started moving around more and more after that. I have seen him yell at players before for making poor choices, and they typically listen and respond, or end up on the bench for not listening to what he had to say. He had this just ridiculous array of moves for the Mavs first basket last night, most NBA players would not have been able to defend it. My wife who was frustrated by the first few minutes of the game, instantly put down her drink and clapped for him with respect. Post game, she said “I can completely see what you mean by saying he is the most important player on the team.” When things got bad, he made things happen for the team last night.

So after last night’s performance, even though it did not end up as a win, I hope that Carter and Rostampour can feel confident about Patterson, White, Tyus, and the rest of the crew to carry on what they worked hard to help build as a positive future for the Mavericks basketball team.

Don’t forget though, they still have three games left. One game is even on ESPN3

Served on a North Dakota bun, we have an IPFW hate sandwich

January 30, 2015November 11, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball CenturLink Center, College Hockey, Creighton Bluejays, Deondre Parks, IPFW Mastadons, Jake Bittle, Jake White, John Karhoff, North Dakota Sioux, North Dakota State Bison, Omaha Mavericks, omavs, South Dakota State Jackrabbits, Steve Forbes, Summit league, The Hoff, Tre'Shawn Thurman, UNO Mavericks

I do not really want to get in too deep about the South Dakota State game from Wednesday night, because it is pretty similar to everything that was said about the home loss to the Jackrabbits a few weeks ago. SDSU is the best team in the league, and a goal for UNO basketball is to be on the same playing ground as them someday. We are far from it right now. The Mavs only graduate two players and so do the Jackrabbits, all four players that graduate from the two teams are key players, but maybe we should expect the same next season. Patterson was able to defend George Marshall better this game and hold him to two points, but a combined 14-15 with 8-8 threes from junior guards Jake Bittle and Deondre Parks is clearly not good. The Mavs need to figure out this perimeter defense thing.

The bench was no where to be found, but I must say that the Mavs bench put up some good numbers against Denver. We need more of that every game. I was out of the country for the Denver game, maybe I need to go the Caribbean for every game…

Hey North Dakota Hockey, screw you, I mean, let me take that back

I wish I knew more about hockey to say more than six words about it. I love going to UNO hockey games. I barely knew what hockey was before becoming a UNO student. I saw it was free to go to the games and I did not want to be that guy that never took advantage of something like that. That reminds me, I did not realize that Creighton only had 30 fans that cared about the basketball team until the other night against St. Johns. Must be pretty hard to pretend you go to Duke when your basketball team is on an 8 game losing streak…

I have learned the rules of hockey, but I still have no idea what makes a good pass a good pass, and anything about any form of strategy. If I had a kid that was in hockey and I was coaching the team, I would just say, “piss off the other kids until they fight you or do something else stupid so we can have more players than them for a few minutes.“

I do know this, I can hate North Dakota, but I have to respect North Dakota. Have you ever been to North Dakota while a Sioux game was on? You can not do anything else. My father-in-law has a farm in Minot and my wife and I go see him from time to time. Usually when we stop somewhere, the place is decked out in North Dakota and North Dakota State flags, if there is a hockey game on then ALL televisions are on that North Dakota game, any other time of the year then it seems there is always one television that is devoted to playing reruns of hockey. The NoDakians know their hockey, and I love going to UND-UNO hockey, there are more people in green, more people in red/black show up to show their support, it is a great experience.

I hate University of Missouri sports fans more than I hate any other fan base. Their fans make literally no sense, and most are addicted to something incredibly bad for them. When their football team became good, their fans did not know what was going on. All they knew was, BALL GO PAST LINE, WE GOOD, then they cheered to the look of the Missouri players looking happy. Last year when UNO played UND in hockey at CenturyLink, that is when I realized that I actually know very little about hockey. I do not remember the exact situation, but UNO looked like they scored a goal and they started to cheer, but the people in green started to cheer as well. The Mav population looked instantly confused when the Sioux faithful started to cheer. The goal was called off due to a penalty, and all of the people in green knew it before it was even announced. The Mav population just reacted to what they did not even understand what was fully going on, the NoDakians knew what was happening before the arena staff knew what was going on.

I am not saying we have to like them, but we need to respect them, but when basketball comes around they can screw off. I just bring it up because I have seen some hate filled tweets on the Twitter machine, which I realize are in good fun, but college hockey is as important to these people as college football is to Nebraskans. I would not want to piss off their fans to fuel the fire of their players, even though that is kind of the thrill of a rivalry. Plus North Dakotans drink A LOT, so if they made the trip, lets just butter them up a tiny bit so they can pump a bunch of money into Omaha bars and hotels.

IPFW

The Mastadons were picked as the preseason favorite of the league. but now they are sitting at 6th in the League with a 3-5 record in the conference.

The ‘Dons beat the Mavericks in both meetings last season, but by a total of 5 points. Do you remember the last game they played? It was senior day for the Mavericks. IPFW was one of the top teams in the league and really the only one fans thought could contend with North Dakota State for the championship. The game was forced to overtime, it was close in the entire overtime period. There were some miscues from each side that had you sitting at the edge of the seat screaming What The Hell?!

IPFW gets the ball and in a last ditch effort, IPFW’s Steve Forbes puts up a three (he has never officially made or attempted a three so far at IPFW), the shot is a miss, but the official blows his whistle. A foul on John Karhoff. The Hoff looks at the ref like he is going to murder him right there with 1000+ witnesses and not even care. Boos come from everywhere in the arena. The referees have to go to the monitor to, I assume, check to see if it was a two point or three point attempt.

I am still not sure if anyone has ever said that foul was legit or not, but it was called a foul. While the refs were checking the monitor, the body language was not good like – oh shit, what did we do? An official can never really say yeah I screwed up, my bad, I am sorry. They always say, I called it as I saw it. The only time in recent memory that I can think of a ref admitting fault is when the first base umpire made a terrible call to screw up a perfect game for Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga. Hey, at least Galaraga still got a sweet car out of the deal. And the officials can look at the monitor and realize they made a mistake, but they cannot wave off the foul, so while I was watching those officials at the monitor, their body language was the body language of a couple dudes that realized that they are bad at their job. It is not like I am mad at Steve Forbes, he did not make the call, but I do not recognize sports officials by name, so I just need a scapegoat.

A win probably would of had that big of an impact on the Mavs season. After Forbes hit the free throws to give IPFW the win, I was thinking that the chances of going to the CIT were over. I thought it was done, IPFW took away the positive feelings at the end of the year. Thankfully, it did not eliminate UNO from postseason play and the Mavs could pick up their first post season win a few weeks later. But still, the Mavs felt stripped of a win on senior day. Karhoff, Matt Hagerbaumer, Justin Simmons, Alex Phillips, and Caleb Steffensmeier did a lot for the basketball program, they all played great on their senior day, but were screwed out of a win we felt. And this is the IPFW team that went on to beat South Dakota State, and then only lose by three to conference champion North Dakota State. I will say that is the first time I have seen Mav basketball fans boo out the refs, so perhaps it was a bonding experience for Mav fans. I almost feel like we need to avenge that Karhoff’s foul*. #win4theHoff

*I still do not believe that was a foul. John Karhoff could walk up to me and say that it was indeed a foul, and I would not believe him. I would think IPFW employed The Madhatter to put a mind controlling device on John Karhoff to say what they wanted him to say. That’s a Batman reference.

UNO and IPFW are actually pretty similar teams on paper. They have both lost to IUPUI, South Dakota State by a bunch, Western Illinois, Oral Roberts, and beaten Oral Roberts and won at South Dakota. Their back court is roughly the same size at UNOs with Isaiah McCray at 6’0″, 6’2″ Max Landis, and 6’0″ Mo Evans. They have been playing a little bit of small ball with 6’5″ Joe Edwards at the “four”. Really it seems the plan is to stretch the floor with their four guards and then swing the ball around so they can work to get the ball into Steve Forbes in the post. I based this off of the little bit of what I watched from IPFW at South Dakota last night, and also a little bit of nothing.

Something I did notice is that when South Dakota would run the crap out of the ball, it was difficult for IPFW and mainly Steve Forbes to keep up. Steve Forbes probably does not look forward to a team that plays the pace of the Mavs. It would be like a English bulldog with a stupid look on his face trying to chase down a black lab.** When South Dakota would have to get into a half court offense, they were more successful when they got the ball inside to a post player who could put the ball to the floor and basically run around Forbes. So what sounds good against something like that? Tre’Shawn Thurman and/or Jake White? This looks like it could be another close game between the Dons and Mavs.

**This may be kind of a fat joke, but I do not like making fat jokes. I find them to be uncreative, and someone can always lose weight and you will just look like an asshole for making fun of them a while ago. And Steve Forbes could beat me up at recess if he wanted.

This is a match up of two teams that have been underachieving in what has been an awkward year for the Summit League. Something that was brought to my attention when I was listening to UNO-South Dakota State on the radio on Wednesday night is that most teams in this conference are not losing much to graduation. South Dakota State is graduating two players, North Dakota State is only graduating one player, Denver is graduating two. IPFW and South Dakota each have three seniors in their rotations. This season should mean more to them, they have the most to lose. Most other teams are trying to build onto something for the next year or two. It will probably be more tough to pick up conference wins next season with most teams seeming to be loaded with juniors. IPFW does have four juniors in their rotation, but no other team has as many minutes from seniors as the Mastadons, they need this more. The time is definitely now for them, but would that mean that there is more pressure on them to win this game?

Some thoughts:

UNO and Creighton play at the same time on Saturday, what a bum deal. The CenturyLink gets a Jays Basketball-UNO Hockey double header. I really cannot wait until next year when we can host UNO Basketball-Hockey double headers in Aksarben.

If neither UNO and Creighton make the post season, is it against the rules to schedule them to play? Like an Omaha Mega Bowl?

Some milestone notes:

Mike Rostampour is 10 rebounds away from tying Matt Hagerbaumer for most rebounds by a Mav since transition.
Devin Patterson is 1 assist away from his 100th career steal as a Maverick.
Marcus Tyus is 1 steal away from tying Caleb Steffensmeier for 3rd most steals by a Mav since transition.
In his last game, Tre’Shawn Thurman passed Marcus Tyus for 2nd most points by a freshman since transition.

All I want for my birthday is for the Mavs to end this losing streak

January 20, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball Alex Phillips, Brett Olson, Caleb Steffensmeier, Cam Griffin, CJ Carter, Denver Pioneers, Devin Patterson, Jake White, Marcus Byrd, Marcus Tyus, Matt Hagerbaumer, Mike Rostampour, omavs, Randy Reed, Rylan Murry, Tim Smallwood, Tre'Shawn Thurman, UNO Mavericks, Weezer

Thursday morning I will leave for a wedding in Mexico, the wedding happens to be on my birthday, so it will probably be the coolest place that I have ever spent my birthday. I am a big sports fan, but I am also not such a crazed sports fan to where I will have my phone out the entire time checking college basketball scores. Mostly because of signal on my cell, but also out of respect for the people getting married… I just hope to come back to find out that the UNO Mavericks have picked up a win. I am sure the room I am in will have wireless and I can check the score there, but who knows.

I do not ever want to be negative with any of this, but it is hard to find many positives for a team that is on a five game losing streak and just lost to the preseason last place team with UNO having a historic scoring performance from their senior captain. So here are some positives…

Denver is also struggling. A team picked second in the preseason rankings (see how preseason rankings are worthless) finds themselves at 6th in the conference at 2-3 with losses to South Dakota State, also IUPUI, and they are responsible for IPFW’s only win. IPFW was the voted as the preseason champion.

Another positive, CJ Carter and Marcus Tyus are playing awesome right now. CJ Carter scored 45 points on only 25 field goal attempts in his last game. How many NBA players have you seen that needed to take 39 shots in order to get to 45? Tyus, also went 7 of 10 in the Mavs last game. He is also rebounding and passing the ball better this season, he really has become a more consistent player this season. UNO did shoot 50% plus in their two losses, so naturally you want to blame defense, rebounding, turnovers, all the good stuff. Before Oral Roberts and IUPUI, UNO was 6-0 when shooting above 44% and 0-9 when shooting under 44%, not counting Iowa Wesleyan. #themoreuno

UNO has no games this work week. Denver plays Oral Roberts on Wednesday night, so UNO has more time to prepare for this game. That can not be a negative. Okay, now I do not know where to go from here.

If you were listening to the broadcast on the radio, Gary Sharp mentioned that teams are playing the Mavs to get better, it seems like some players are having out of body experiences and shooting much better against Omaha. Ouch, considering Denver already shoots 49% on the year as a team and leads the Summit, so are you telling me they are going to be better than that?

Denver runs a Princeton offense, similar to Air Force, ehhhh, and is led by their two senior wings Brett Olson (shoots 51%) and Cam Griffin (shoots 54%). Let me throw something at you. Brett Olson stands at 6’5″ and Cam Griffin is 6’3″. Denver is not really that big of a team, they do not have a talented big guy like Air Force did with Marek Olesinksi. Marcus Byrd is probably their most talented guy that is 6’7″ or taller who averages 9 and 4 and shoots 52% from the field and 49% on threes. So three of their top players shoot higher than 50%, well this already sounds fun.

Why mention this? The perimeter defense that I have spoken of as being a big issue for UNO. In 2012-2013, I thought the Mavs biggest weakness was in the post, and then it got better in 2013-2014 with the addition to Mike Rostampour to the lineup, but now it is a strength of the team with Jake White and Tre’Shawn Thurman also in the post. Now the Mavs are having trouble guarding wing players. Opposing teams’ starters that are 6’7″ or taller are shooting 46% from the field against the Mavs, guards that are 6’2″ or shorter are also shooting 46% from the field against the Mavs, and players that are 6’3″ to 6’6″ (and I will throw in Nebraska’s Terran Petteway and Shavon Shields into this category, just because) are shooting 50% from the field.

Maybe that does not sound like a significant thing, but when you are in a league filled with 6’3″ to 6’6″ wing players that can shoot the ball, it is a problem. There are not a lot of great talented big guys in the league. Hell, UNO is in last place and after IPFW’s Steve Forbes and South Dakota State’s Cody Larson, UNO probably has the next best 3 big men in the league of Mike Rostampour, Jake White, and Tre’Shawn Thurman. Korey Billbury and Obi Emegano combined for 20-32 from the field against the Mavs, and statistically they are not quite as good as shooters as Cam Griffin and Brett Olson. I do not even want to get into IUPUI.

I am pretty interested to see what Mike Rostampour will do in this game against Denver. In no way do I think 5 rebounds in two games is okay with Mike Rostampour. The last time he only had 3 rebounds in one game, he came back the next game with 11 points and 11 rebounds against Marquette. The only time he had less rebounds over a two game stretch, he had 4 combined rebounds in 2 games against South Carolina State and Drake last season, he came back with a performance of 19 points, 9 rebounds, on 7-11 shooting with 2 threes at South Carolina State. I would be incredibly surprised if Rostampour has three bad rebounding games in a row.

I love Carter and Tyus, but at 6’1″, I wish one of them could play the point guard position for the stretches of the game that Devin Patterson is on the bench. You are never quite sure what is going to happen when the Mavs go to the bench. It is like you are putting in a new Weezer CD, you know there will be part of a song that is pretty good, but the rest of the CD, you are not entirely sure what you are getting yourself into. I thought of this, I used to be a big Weezer fan, but I have not given that band one dollar since that Maladroit album.

When Matt Hagerbaumer, Alex Phillips, and Caleb Steffensmeier came off the bench last season, you knew exactly what you were getting. Defense and rebounding from Hagerbaumer, and some sweet dunks when he got the opportunity. Defense and shooting from Alex Phillips, maybe one poor decision from time to time, but nothing too extreme. Defense, ball control, and if you needed a comeback or a dagger three from Steffensmeier, he would give it to you. All three of those guys would get you high percentage shots.

We know we are going to get a boat load of offensive rebounds from Jake White, but offensively he has been hard to figure out so far. You are not really sure what you are going to get out of the bench on a consistent basis from anyone else on the bench. He is only shooting 37% from the field, but that is with some nagging injuries. Maybe Randy Reed can get us 10 and 7 this game, but then 2 and 1 the other game. Tim Smallwood and Rylan Murry can get us a couple threes this game, but then both seem to be too shy from deep the next game. This is why I wish Carter or Tyus could play the point, I think they are both capable of it, it just does not seem to happen often. With one of them at the point, the Mavs could have 3 starters on the court with 2 bench players at any given time as opposed to 1 starter with 4 bench players, which seems to be leading to problems lately.

A general perception that I have right now is that the team loses a lot of defensive intensity when Mike Rostampour is on the bench. Which it would probably be impossible to have the intensity go up with him on the bench, but it is quite noticeable how much the team is affected when Rostampour is on the bench resting or is in foul trouble. Might I recommend a little more Daniel Meyer when Rostampour is in foul trouble? Tre’Shawn Thurman is awesome, but he is not the definition down low banger like Rostampour, Jake White is also not exactly in that category either, but Meyer is really the only player that would fall into that category after Rostampour. I do not see what is wrong with a Meyer-White-Thurman front court for a small stretch. Maybe it is not the ideal lineup against Denver, but against a slightly bigger South Dakota State or IPFW, it seems pretty reasonable.

I do think we need to stop looking at this season as We Beat Marquette and we need to start look at it as We Lost to Seattle, UMKC, Chicago State, and IUPUI.

So you’re telling me there’s a chance?

November 25, 2014 acroth86 Uncategorized CJ Carter, Jake White, Mike Rostampour, Nebrasketball, Terran Petteway, Tim Miles, UNO Mavericks, Walter Pitchford

I was in Lincoln on Saturday and a Lincolnite struck up a conversation with me about college basketball, more specifically on the local spectrum. He was wearing a Husker shirt and watching the Huskers not having a fun camping trip to Rhode Island, he was quite possibly suicidal from the Huskers football loss earlier in the day as well. At this point in the day I am guessing he had at least 16 beers inside of him, but he made some sense.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers are the best college basketball team in the state, on paper, he claims. Those two teams from Omaha, Creighton and UNO, are awful match ups for the Huskers, he adds. This guy is saying all the words I have been thinking to myself for a while, oh and this guy when he gets up and goes to the bathroom looks like Bambi trying to walk on a frozen lake. I contact my friends who are both huge into college basketball and present this guys’ ideas as if they are mine, honestly some of them were things I was thinking but afraid of looking stupid if I said them. His random thoughts on how Dude, Where’s My Car is the funniest film all time, those don’t sit well with me.

The main reason Creighton and UNO are terrible match ups for Nebraska: Walter Pitchford vs. (Creighton) Artino/Hegner/Hansen and Walter Pitchford vs (UNO) Rostampour/White/Thurman. Due to lack of options down low, Nebraska is playing a 6’10” shooting guard at center. Their 6’10 “post player” has taken 16 shots on the year and 11 of them have been for three. In his short tenure at Nebraska, he has never looked good defending down low, last year Leslee Smith was counted on a lot to come off the bench and guard the other team’s big men when Pitchford just couldn’t handle it.

If Mike Rostampour and Jake White are both in on this, they are going to eat up Pitchford. Pitchford wont be able to guard them, Terran Petteway, Shavon Shields, and David Rivers are going to have to help out, it’s going to cause issues for the Huskers. All the threes Pitchford takes, they do not open things up in the post, a 6’10” that can hit from three is a huge weapon, but it doesn’t open things up for things to happen if he’s just planting his feet and waiting for someone to pass him the ball the whole time. If he misses, UNO is better at rebounding than Nebraska, if those threes aren’t going it, it will be a disaster for Nebraska. I’ve never said UNO was a better rebounding team than anybody, NEVER!

A big reason UNO was able to pick up a win at Marquette was because of the hot start they had, and they were able to keep that lead. Nebraska has had some slow starts in this young season so far, if they don’t come out and grab a lead early, Nebraska may find themselves in the same situation as Marquette did on Saturday.

Something else that doesn’t work in Nebraska’s favor is the pace. Yes, Nebraska has Terran Petteway and Shavon Shields who can both put up a lot of points. With Pitchford’s current shooting struggles, they don’t really have a 3rd scorer. Most of the teams that beat Nebraska last year could score the ball.

UMass won 96-90
UAB won 87-74
Ohio State won 84-53
Creighton won 82-67
Michigan won 79-50
Cincy won 74-59
Michigan won 71-70
Ohio State won 71-67
Purdue won 70-64
Iowa won 67-57
Illinois won 60-49
Penn State won 58-54

The most points that Nebraska scored in a win: 83 vs. South Carolina State who the Mavericks beat 91-59 and 83-67. Nebraska, doesn’t like the high scoring games. It’s not them, it’s not what they like doing.

I love Tim Miles, I think he’s the biggest advantage for the Nebraska, and I don’t think there is a long list of guys that could have turned Nebraska into a tournament team as quickly as he did. When I lived in Utah we got this Mountain West channel and all the games I got were all of Colorado State’s basketball and football games, and I thought then if Doc Sadler got fired at Nebraska that Tim Miles was the right man for the job. Tim Miles is no idiot, it didn’t take him seven years to graduate high school, he has been the head coach of a transitioning team that beat Marquette and Wisconsin, and he knows what this game means for the Mavericks and what it would do for them.

I don’t want it to seem like I’m the guy that thinks the Mavericks totally have this. I’m not the Husker football fan saying before the (and every) season that they’re going to win the national championship because the 1995 ‘skers were the best football team of all time. A lot can happen. Pitchford can start hitting his shots finally. Rostampour can pick up two quick fouls and the Mavericks could lose their rebounding advantage, especially if Jake White is out. Petteway of Nebraska and White of Omaha are both game time decisions, those are two huge decisions for this.

One large X-Factor in this is CJ Carter. Someone like Carter has been waiting to pick up a win in Lincoln for a long damn time. Per twitter, Tre’Shawn Thurman has also been waiting for something like this for a long time. Carter though, he’s played a college basketball game in Lincoln, and it didn’t go that well for him. 6 points and 4 rebounds on 1-6 shooting against the Husker in 2012. In fact, pre-Marquette win, Carter had struggled against the Power 6 conferences. In 7 games from his freshman to junior year, Carter averaged 7.3ppg, 2.7rpg, 1.9apg, 30%fg, and 25% on threes. Tonight’s game against Nebraska is Carter’s shot at redemption in front of his fellow Nebraskans.

The Huskers need this game for respect, they know that. Before this game, the locals all had the Nebraska is Going to Steamroll Creighton and UNO feelings. Now things have changed, Nebraska knows they need this game for respect, they were the best show in town and now that’s been taken away from them. By the way, it’s been 15+ years since going into a season that there was a consensus that the Huskers were the best college basketball team in the state. Are they used to all these mixed emotions?

By the way, Mavs fans need a #hashtag for this game. #breakthebank is too cliche. We need something…

Post game UCA Notes/pregame Seattle notes

November 17, 2014December 2, 2014 acroth86 Uncategorized Central Arkansas, CJ Carter, Devin Patterson, Jake White, Mike Rostampour, Omaha, omavs, Seattle, UNO Mavericks

Central Arkansas Post Game Notes:

Player of the game is seriously up for debate, could be either:
- CJ Carter: 22 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 6-11 FG, 4 threes
- Devin Patterson: 22 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 8-12 FG, 2 threes
- Mike Rostampour: 13 points, 14 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block
- Jake White: 9 points, 11 rebounds (9 offensive)
Devin Patterson was and is apparently playing with a broken big toe
UNO had more offensive rebounds (26) than UCA had total (25)
Jake White left the game limping and came back out on crutches, but is apparently OK
Rostampour & White are going to give teams fits in the post, by far the best rebounders UNO has had
Tyus’ shot didn’t seem to have the same arch as normal, maybe having some issues?
Carter, Patterson, & Rostampour all played 30 minutes or more, White probably could have gone for more than 30 minutes had he not left the game…but Randy Reed & Tre’Shawn Thurman look like they will for sure be the top bench guys as of now
None of the freshman seemed nervous, which is great
- Maybe Rylan Murry did at first but then he was taking threes with confidence
- Thurman looked ready right away
- Devin Newsome looked comfortable running the floor
- Daniel Meyer didn’t get much playing time, but when he got in he didn’t look nervous at all and had a good post move from what I remember
As a Millard South guy, it was great to see Kyler Erickson get out on the court
The team’s new intro video was great, showed off the campus a bit, just looked great

Seattle U Pregame notes

I feel like it should be worth noting that the UNO Mavericks will be playing more games in Key Arena than the NBA this year. I hate being the dude that says that playing later on the west coast is a disadvantage for the Mavericks, but you know what, it really could be. My wife is from Washington state, and the area is incredibly beautiful, but it rains constantly and is obviously two hours behind. Every time I’m there it takes me a couple days to adjust to the time change. I’m sure a D1 athlete gets enough adrenaline to where it doesn’t really affect them, but wouldn’t it be an issue for a bench guy that uses that adrenaline to sit for 10+ minutes before entering the game? In reality, college students are probably pretty used to being up late. If I were traveling to see the game, I would probably fall asleep at half time…and I love college basketball. As a traveler, I wouldn’t look forward to flying from Omaha to Seattle and then to Milwaukee all in the same week, combined with having to work my ass off, but yeah I am kind of lazy. Here are some game notes just based on lazy observation:

Seattle lost their first game at home to Texas State 62-53
Former Omaha Bryan player/current Texas State guard Ethan Montalvo (who UNO offered) played 11 minutes, missed a three pointer
Hopefully Jake White is healthy and ready to go, well hopefully everyone is healthy and ready to go but the entire team didn’t limp off the court on Sunday
UNO beat Seattle last year in Omaha 76-69 and it was one of the more chippy games I attended last year, in that game:
- CJ Carter – 17/2/3
- Devin Patterson – 12/2/2
- Mike Rostampour fouled out in 15 minutes and had 3 points & 3 rebounds
- Marcus Tyus – 4/6/4
For Seattle, these dudes had:
- Jack Crook – 4/6/2
- Jarell Flora – 5/4
- Deshawn Sunderhaus – 7/5/2
- Isiah Umipig – 35/3/4
Feels like the main threat from Seattle is Isiah Umipig, as noted he had 35 points against the Mavs last season…he averaged 19.5 last season and had 23 in the Redhawks’ opening game this season
Looking at the two teams on paper, UNO definitely looks like the better team but curious if playing on a Wednesday night on the west coast could cause issues of for the Mavericks
Since going D1 UNO is 1-4 playing in Pacific (& Hawaii) time…but are a better team as compared to when they first started, they went 1-2 last season beating Nevada and losing to UNLV & Hawaii but were competitive in both games

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