SPECIALSCreighton and the Curse of the Missing Midcourt Line
After some quick calculation I would estimate that I’ve watched, officiated or played in approximately 10,000 basketball games in my lifetime. I can’t remember ever seeing one that was decided on a backcourt violation. But then again 9,999 of those games weren’t played on a court made to resemble the leaf-strewn floor of an Oregon forest. Most courts have a clear dividing line at half court. The slave-to-fashion University of Oregon has more of a suggestion of one, and it ultimately decided the CBI championship game for Creighton. With under 20 seconds to go in a tie game the Jays’ Antoine Young was burning clock near half court to set up what was likely Creighton’s final…
entered on 04/05/11 at 03:46 PM | read more »
After tourney loss, the state of UNO hockey
A few inches of padding, one blurry puck and 10 agonizing minutes kept UNO from advancing to the second round of the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament last week. Was it or wasn’t it a goal? Doesn’t matter. The officials in last Friday’s UNO-Michigan game eventually, after 10 minutes of review that seemed to define the word inconclusive, ruled that it was and that was it. As is often the case in sports, the end betrayed the journey. UNO had a disproportionately rough end to the season. First there was the first round exit in the WCHA finals. Then there was the controversial end to the Michigan game. In between there was the controversy over the end of the football…
entered on 03/30/11 at 02:19 PM | read more »
UNO Hockey makes NCAA Tourney
In a process that l'll never completely understand the UNO hockey team made the NCAA Tournament due to some combination of the Tolkien-sounding PairWise Rankings, the first “supermoon” in 18 years, and the fact that Michigan beat Notre Dame and a bunch of other games fell into place. Or something like that. If you want the dirty details MavMania.com can probably help you out. The site's Twitter feed (@unomavmania) was a lifeline for those of us clumsily trying to make sense of college hockey’s tournament selection process. The important thing is that the Mavs season continues just down the road a piece in St. Louis on Friday. UNO received the third-seed in the West Regional and will face its old…
entered on 03/25/11 at 03:04 PM | read more »
CU’s McDermott passes 2K to top phenomenal freshman year
* Who is Cleo Littleton? Only the first college basketball player west of the Mississippi to score 2,000 points in a career. Until Tuesday the Wichita State star was also the only freshman to earn first-team all-conference honors as a freshman in the Missouri Valley Conference. Doug McDermott joined him last week, earning a spot on the first-team and the Valley’s Freshman and Newcomer of the Year honors as well. He is the sixth player in conference history to complete the rookie sweep. McDermott was one of four Jays to earn conference honors, and the good news for Jays fans is that none of them were seniors. Junior guard Antoine Young was named second-team All-MVC, freshman guard Jahenns Manigat made…
entered on 03/09/11 at 05:28 PM | read more »
Urban Meyer and Jim Delany spell big things for B’nai B’rith
* It’s still early in 2011 but I’m ready to call the 57th Annual B’nai B’rith Charity Sports Banquet the biggest non-game sporting event of the year. Sure there’s the first College World Series downtown and hopefully some good things still to come from UNO hockey, but as far as speakers go the B’nai B’rith organizers know what gets this city moving — college football. Big 10 commissioner Jim Delany and former Florida coach Urban Meyer will serve as co-headliners. By the time May rolls around there may not be a bigger man of the moment in the state than Delany. As the guy who plucked Nebraska from the expanding power of Texas and the assumed collapse of the Big…
entered on 03/02/11 at 12:50 PM | read more »
NU men feeling bubble-licious
*Beat Texas. A rallying cry for most of 2010, the words became pathetic after a disastrous Texas football team beat what we thought was a very good Nebraska squad in Lincoln in October. If you knew where to look, the No Frills on Saddle Creek for instance, you could still find some of those “Beat Texas” T-shirts available for around $2.99, a three-dollar reminder of failure and farewell to the Big 12 Conference. How many Huskers fans would’ve thought they’d come in handy during basketball season? After beating No. 3 Texas 70-67 on Saturday — easily the biggest win of Doc Sadler’s career in Lincoln — Nebraska is suddenly a part of NCAA Tournament talk. As of Sunday, RealTimeRPI.com had…
entered on 02/23/11 at 12:23 PM | read more »
Coaching carousel at NU, CU
* Over the past 20 or so years there have been two men’s collegiate teams in the state that could reasonably start any season with national title aspirations: Creighton soccer and Nebraska football. There are other national powers, Nebraska bowling and UNO wrestling for example, but as far as spectator sports at the state’s two Division I schools, the Jays and Huskers different brands of football occupy the same realm when it comes to expectations. That makes their differing approaches to recent coaching hires all the more interesting. After the losing the “next great thing” in Jamie Clark, Creighton AD Bruce Rasmussen made a big splash by luring Elmar Bolowich away from North Carolina. Bolowich has a national title to…
entered on 02/17/11 at 09:36 AM | read more »
Cosmic Forecast, May 2-May 8¿Cómo ésta? Happy Cinco de Mayo. This is the/a week to clean up, take care of and finish up your spring cleaning. Take care of all the/your loose...
more »
Cosmic Forecast, Apr. 25-May 1
Happy Full Moon conjunct a retrograde Saturn at 5° degrees Scorpio, at 3 ’til 3:00 on the afternoon of the 25th. Watch out! Responsibility is about...
more »
Cosmic Forecast, Apr. 18-Apr. 24
Welcome into Taurus, ruler of both the throat (the part of the body astrologically attributed to the second sign), and the planet of love, Venus....
more »
Cosmic Forecast, Apr. 11-Apr. 17
We just saw the start of the astrological New Year at dawn on April 10th; the Aries New Moon during Aries. That’s when to initiate your spring...
more »
Big Pharma and the Money-Go-Round
Another record fine has been levied against a Big Pharma company. This time it’s GlaxoSmithKline, the fourth largest drug company in the world with...
more »Nature’s Perfect Food? Eggs-actly!
It comes in its own package, albeit a tad fragile. It has a reasonable shelf life, even at room temperature. It has relatively low production costs...
more »It looked good on the label. And, to the best of my recollection, the product info described a loving pet owner in Colorado whose longtime canine...
more »“What are words for? When no one listens, what are words for?” So hiccupped Dale Bozzio in 1980 as I stood watching her and my friend Terry Bozzio...
more »
