Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Sometimes a rumor is just a rumor. And sometimes it's a good idea.
That's the case with this idea of Creighton playing North Carolina in Des Moines. The hook would be to bring former Ames High School mates Harrison Barnes and Doug McDermott together, down the road from their old haunt.
Well, Barnes may or may not be at Carolina in a year, but the Tar Heels are bringing in Marcus Paige, a four-star point guard from Linn-Mar High in Marion, Iowa. So maybe the hook still works.
Anyway, the rumor has been going around CU circles that the Jays were trying to get it done. Any truth, Bruce Rasmussen?
"I haven't heard it," Rasmussen said. "But ask coach (Greg) McDermott. A lot of times our basketball staff will pursue games first."
Coach Mac?
"No, there's nothing to it," said McDermott, a friend of North Carolina coach Roy Williams. "Not a bad idea, though. But we like our schedule next year. It's already pretty full."
The Jays play St. Joe’s, Tulsa and UAB at home, and travel to California, as well as a tourney in Las Vegas where two games against Arizona State, Wisconsin or Arkansas await.
Still, the rise of Doug McDermott on the national radar gives the Jays a good bargaining chip with the networks in trying to schedule games. The big boys won't play in Omaha. But Gonzaga built a program out of playing elite schools in neutral places. CU's brass has two more years to make that work with Dougie Fresh as the network carrot.
Mac and Ras say they're aware of that opportunity and are looking into some options. We'll keep you posted here at Rumor Central.
• Love this year's Super Bowl matchup, mostly because of the legacies at stake. Tom Brady is already one of the NFL's all-time greats. But to be in the "greatest ever" conversation, Brady needs to tie his childhood hero, Joe Montana, with four Super wins. Brady can't get there with a second Super Bowl loss to Eli Manning (Super Joe was 4-0 in Super Bowls). Meanwhile, Eli tries to surpass big brother Peyton with a second Super Bowl win — on Peyton's home turf. I'll have a prediction next week. But I still love the way Eli and the Giants' defense are playing.
• The next six games figure to tell the tale of how much Husker Hoops and Doc Sadler will struggle this season. The road lightens after some heavy lifting. Seven of NU's first eight Big Ten games were against Ohio State (twice), Wisconsin (twice), Michigan State, Illinois and Indiana. In the next few weeks, NU plays at Iowa, Northwestern, Penn State and Purdue, with home games against Michigan, (red hot) Minnesota and Illinois, who they pushed in Champaign. There's room there for Doc to take some heat off. I have a hunch Tom Osborne isn't comparing his program to Ohio State. Rather, how it looks compared to the middle of the pack.
• This week's Bracketology update has Creighton holding strong as a No. 4 seed, and Missouri and Kansas still coming to Omaha. ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi has Iowa State in the first-round play-in game, so don't discount the Cyclones being slotted for Omaha. Same with Kansas State. I talked with a Missouri Valley Conference official (host of the Omaha second round) who was pretty confident if Missouri was able to secure a top four seed, it was coming to Omaha. We'll keep the National Guard on alert.
• The dark side of Twitter: the media outlets rushing to break the story of Joe Paterno's death on Saturday night when Paterno hadn't died. It was uncomfortable watching the ESPN crawl giving updates on Paterno. Let the family have their privacy.
The fun side of Twitter: In response to Oregon coach Chip Kelly saying he stayed at the school because he had unfinished business, USC quarterback Matt Barkley tweeted, "Looks like we both do."
• Some experts were speculating that Kelly was leaving his comfort zone in Eugene for the NFL because the NCAA posse is coming to Oregon. So if he stays, they aren't coming? More than likely, Kelly is like a lot of offensive gurus; they want to see how their system pans out on the big stage. There will be other opportunities. He had to be tempted to coach Josh Freeman.
• ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg reports that Nebraska helped the Big Ten set an attendance record in 2011, breaking the six-million fan mark for the first time. The Big Ten also had 3.4 million fans attend conference games, besting the former mark of 3.2 million. Nebraska ranks fourth (85,267) in the Big Ten, behind attendance heavyweights Michigan (112,179), Ohio State (105,231) and Penn State (101,427). It will be interesting to see if NU can catch or pass Penn State in the next three to five years, with Nebraska expanding in 2013 to over 90,000 and the fallout of the Penn State scandal.
• There were too many game-changing plays and replays to count in Sunday's NFL semis, but I kept wishing that the Ravens chould have reviewed Lee Evans' "drop" in the end zone before Billy Cundiff's field-goal miss. It looked like a catch, with two feet down before the ball was stripped by the defender.
• UNO hockey coach Dean Blais took some heat from media in Mankato on Friday night for not being available for interviews after the Mavs' overtime win. Blais had good reason: He was on his way to the hospital to check on freshman goalie Ryan Massa, who got flattened in his own goal and had to be taken off on a stretcher. In that situation, the affable Mike Hastings is more than capable of handling the media chores. No word yet if Massa suffered a concussion or whether he'll be available when the Mavs return to the ice on Feb. 3. It will be interesting to see if the WCHA takes any action on the Mankato player who rammed into Massa. Last week, the league suspended UNO's Dominic Zombo for one game for kneeing.
• Stadium Journey magazine did a poll of its best stadium experiences in 2011, all sports, and TD Ameritrade was ranked 28th. Reviewer Bill Kintner gave the stadium high marks for its atmosphere, friendly fans and surrounding neighborhoods. He apparently had a very good time in the Old Market. Kintner wrote that the stadium "provides a professional baseball atmosphere for college baseball, except minus the drunken fools you find stumbling around most MLB parks." Go to stadiumjourney.com to find the rest of the review.
• Fist bump: To Connie Yori and her Husker women's hoop team, who are quietly making a lot of noise in their first Big Ten journey. NU is tied for third in the league at 5-2 and stands 16-3 overall. All this, and with a Nebraska girl, Jordan Hooper, leading the way. This looks like the sequel to 2009-10.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com
twitter.com/tomshatelOWH
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
