#7 Nevada vs. #10 Creighton – Friday, 2:50 tip.  Site: New Orleans

 

This game is killing everyone right now.  Personally I’ve spent 7 hours on it and have gone back and forth 12 times.  Let’s take a closer look:

 

Creighton (22-10, 13-5 MVC, RPI: 20) – In their early season out of conference, which I’m not sure how much stock you want to put into games before Christmas, Creighton dropped 4 games -- at Dayton, at Fresno, at Nebraska and at Hawaii.  All relatively “reasonable” losses.  Their 5^th out of conference loss came on February 17^th vs. Drexel on “Bracketbuster Saturday”, which obviously broke the wrong team’s bracket since a lot of people feel Drexel got snubbed.  Within the league, the Blue Jays got beat at Illinois State, at Indiana State and at Wichita State.   None of those teams are going to any post-season tournaments.  Creighton also lost to Southern Illinois twice before beating them in the MVC title game, BUT, if you remember – Gus Johnson announced that game.  If Gus wasn’t there, who knows what happens to Nate Funk and Co. that day. 

 

Nevada (28-3, 14-2 WAC, RPI: 23) – 28-3 is ridiculous.  The only “red flag” to me with Nevada was the 2^nd Utah State loss in the semi-finals of the WAC tournament.  They just lost AT Utah State the week before, which is perfectly acceptable (If you follow college basketball you know that NOBODY wins at Utah State.  Nobody) but then how did they lose to them again, this time on a neutral floor??  Well I did a little research to find out exactly what happened and apparently Nevada got Earl Hebner’d that night.  The refs called a foul with 2.5 seconds left and the game tied, but according to the Nevada coach the guy “traveled before the contact”.  Then earlier in the 2^nd half, the refs called a bogus intentional foul on Nevada which was huge in aiding Utah State erase a 7 point deficit.  So that kind of explains that 2^nd loss to Utah State.  At least I'm content with it.  

 

More Meaningless Breakdowns:

 

Common opponents: 1. Northern Iowa - Creighton beat them twice during the MVC regular season.  Nevada defeated them at home on “Bracketbuster Saturday.”  2. Hawaii – Nevada beat them twice during the WAC regular season.  Creighton LOST at Hawaii back in December.  Edge: Nevada

 

Conference Head-to-Head : WAC vs. MVC.  Edge: Creighton

 

Best player match-up: Fazekas vs. Funk.  Edge: Nevada

 

Best win: At Gonzaga (Nevada) vs. neutral floor Southern Illinois (Creighton). Edge: Nevada

 

Mascot in a fight theory: Wolfpack vs. Blue Jay.  Edge: Nevada

 

7-10 Nightmare Pick: Nevada

 

-manzo