Creighton 73 - Bradley 68

The game was close right down to the wire, and if any of a few shots go in at the end, game is tied, and we don't need to foul which is what created the final 5-pt margin..but really, the game was a single possession game.
Whenever a single possession decides a game, you can think of a lot of missed opportunities. A few missed bunnies, a turnover, and especially a couple of really bad charging fouls that even the Creighton fans nearby agreed were horrible.

Lawson had a good game - 16 pts/5 rebs, but then so did Will Egolf, 10 pts/5 rebs.
Sam Singh added 7 rebounds, and Taylor Brown got his 5th career double-double with 19 points & 12 rebounds.
Sam Maniscalco had 11 points and 7 assists. His missed "3" at the end was heartbreaking as he has made a lot of crucial shots in his career so far. Even Dana Altman claimed in his post-game comments that Sammy's missed 3 at the end was a lucky break for them.

As mentioned, a whole family of Creighton folks sat right behind me...a doctor and his family who have two kids in Creighton right now. We had a couple doctors sitting in our row, so we had some frequent conversations throughout the night, and one of the folks in our row caught one of the souvenier balls and gave it to the young son of the Creighton family for a souvenier. The Creighton fans have not been to every game, but over the years they had been to every MVC arena and here's what they said...
First they agreed that last night was the best that Creighton has played all year. They passed well, looked for shots, had less selfishness, and hit their shots at a markedly better pace than usual.
They also said they have never been to a visiting arena and been treated as nice and as courteously as they were at Carver Arena in Peoria....
they had some not-so-nice words for the fans at a few other arenas (WSU, ISU, SIU) and related how poorly the visiting fans are treated there. But the BU people need to be proud that there was such a huge difference in the treatment and how polite and friendly the Peoria fans were.

In other MVC games last night, ISU lost to Wichita with Osiris Eldridge getting just 9 points, 1 rebound, and 1 assist.
UNI beat Drake 67-51, with Drake having a bad shooting night. Josh Young did not make a 3-pointer - a rarity, and Ryan Wedel was 0-7 and scoreless for the first and only time this season.
Missouri State beat Evansville 76-66, with Weems getting only 4 points. Adam Leonard also did not make a basket, and it's only the 2nd time all year he hasn't hit at least one three pointer.
Evansville's Colt Ryan hit only 1 of his 7 3-pt attempts....

Statistically in Valley play, Bradley is still right at the top of the teams in offense....averaging over 70 ppg, and in the top 3 Valley teams in scoring offense, FG defense, and 3-pt shooting pct. and both offensive and defensive rebounding.

The top dozen individuals in scoring include three Braves...

1. Marshall, Harry-INS 16.0
2. Warren, Andrew-BU 15.8
3. Eldridge,Osiris-ILS 15.1
tie - Maniscalco, Sam-BU 15.1
5. Holmes, Denver-UE 14.4
6. Ryan, Colt-UE 14.2
7. Hannah, Clevin-WSU 14.1
8. Young, Josh-DU 13.9
9. Freeman,Tony-SIU 13.9
10. Lawson Jr.,Kenny-CU 13.6
11. Brown, Taylor-BU 13.6
12. Mallett,Jermaine-MSU 13.5

Taylor Brown is also tied for 3rd in rebounding, Will Egolf is 10th, and Will is also 4th in FG% (.569).
Andrew Warren at .952 has the best FT shooting in Valley play and is 42nd nationally in FT% counting all games.
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/ncaa-m-baskbl-div1-ind-free-throw-percentage.html

Among other top teams, Illinois wins AT Penn State - DJ Richardson getting 20 pts, and Bill Cole getting 12 points for his first time in double digits this season, and the first time in his entire collegiate career that he had scored in double digits!
Oddly , none of these fine accomplishments are even mentioned in the release from University of Illinois....I'd feel a little miffed if I was Bill!
Bill also had 7 rebounds, 3 assists without a single turnover, and 2 blocks!
http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/012710aaa.html

I do admire Illini fans....at least when they are dead wrong about a player, they post a humble apology!
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=169&f=2616&t=5533293

Tennessee loses to Vandy and hits a 2-game losing streak for the first time this season. They play Florida on Sunday, and Tennessee has not had a 3-game slide since losing to Vandy, Ohio State, & Auburn in early January of 2007, 3 years ago...



There was an interesting game on Tuesday, with D-I wannabe Seattle playing at Washington...and it shows what happens when you have whistle happy refs combined with aggressive defenses....
The Seattle coach is Cameron Dollar, an ex-Washington assistant.
But the game started off with gobs and gobs of fouls being called against Seattle, and Seattle couldn't get a shot off and the refs strangely swallowed their whistles........and it was obvious that the Seattle coach was not at all happy the way his visiting team was being treated by his old boss.

He even decided to foul harder in the 2nd half as almost 80 total fouls were called in the game, including lots of ticky tack ones in the 2nd half with a 40 point margin in the score.

The game even got uglier and the refs began lecturing the coaches on how not to foul...something I guess coaches don't care to hear...so the fouls kept coming...
The game ended Washington 123 - Seattle 76 with Washington shooting 61 FT's, and SIX Seattle players fouling out, and Seattle ending the game with only four players on the court!
http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=885
http://beyondthearc.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/01/27/2186911.aspx

Seattle owns a win over Pac-10 - a 51 point blowout over Oregon State
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201001060450



A few misc items...
-here's the precise definition of a low life gold-digger...
http://www.hoopsworld.com/FeedItem.asp?FEED_ITEM_ID=1179175

-more proof positive that a whole lot of the ridiculous climate claims are based on horrible weak and counterfeit data.
http://www.upiasia.com/Top_News/International/2010/01/28/Agency-Climategate-scientists-hid-data/UPI-16001264695241/http://www.examiner.com/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2010m1d28-Seminal-climate-change-report-rife-with-questionable-claims-unproven-science

-Greg Oden embarrasses himself
http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Teens-React-to-Greg-Odens-Sexting-Scandal-82843772.html

-I don't know about you, but it wouldn't take much of this before I'd get my kids out of this high school!
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=101656