Omaha's other basketball team

[eomaha]

Creighton is struggling, but UNO continues to maintain it's strong top 10 standing in division II with a 14-1 record (onlyloss coming to D1 Colorado State).

Mavs shake doldrums, Doane in second half

The first half probably wasn't completely unexpected.

UNO, playing its third game in four days and with its North Central Conference opener six days away, struggled against Doane for 20 minutes.

The Mavericks scored the final six points of the half to lead 35-29, but then bounced back with a strong second half and wound up coasting to an 81-57 victory Friday before 1,150 at Sapp Fieldhouse.

"We had a tough week and that might have been part of the reason why we came out kind of flat," University of Nebraska at Omaha Coach Kevin McKenna said. "But the main reason is Doane came out with a lot of energy and emotion, and they wanted it more than we did in the first half."

UNO, ranked 10th in NCAA Division II, extended the second-best start in school history to 14-1 and the program's third-longest winning streak to 11 games.

The Mavs held Doane to 28 percent shooting in the second half and 36.2 percent for the game, and used a 20-4 advantage in offensive rebounds for an overall margin of 50-28 on the boards.

"We came out strong the second half and got into our style of basketball," guard Abdul Mills said.

That style includes heavy doses of Mills and forward Ryan Curtis.

Mills, the 6-foot-4 senior from Brooklyn, N.Y., by way of Providence College, had eight points and an assist to have a hand in every point of a 10-1 run to start the second half. Mills hadn't scored in the first half.

With the lead at 45-31, UNO quickly bumped it up to 55-35 and wasn't seriously challenged again.

Curtis, a 6-7 junior from Millard South, had two of his three dunks in the second half and finished with 22 points and nine rebounds. He also made 9 of 11 field goals to improve to 64.8 percent for the season.

"The second half we kind of realized that we needed to represent ourselves a little better because we had a pretty good crowd here," Curtis said. "People know we're winning games, and we want to look good."

Doane, a 6-7 NAIA Division II team, had 16 days off after a loss to the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and plays South Dakota on Sunday. UNK, UNO and South Dakota made the NCAA Division II tournament last season.

"I love these games, because so often when you play non-conference opponents during the Christmas break, there's nothing vested from an emotional standpoint - it's just a game," Doane Coach Ian Brown said. "Playing a Kearney or a UNO, that's something for us to get up for."

Brown said he never questions the intensity of his team, and the Tigers appeared well prepared for UNO.

"The pace in the first half was what we wanted it to be," Brown said. "I didn't think we wanted to get into a horserace with these guys, so we tried to limit the number of possessions and our guys did pretty well at doing that."

A 3-pointer by former Omaha Burke guard Matt Vecchio gave Doane its only lead at 7-6, but it wasn't until early in the second half that UNO was able to put the Tigers away.

That came after some subtle halftime persuasion from McKenna.

"It was pretty mellow at halftime, because we all knew what was going on," Curtis said. "You can't really say much because it all comes from within. We knew what we had to do."

[DTO Luv]

If UNO moves up to D1 would Creighton and the Mavericks play? I wonder which one really would be Omaha's team.

[OmahaDevelopmentMan]

Don't Creighton and UNO usually play in an exabition game?

[Coyote]

11/5/02 Creighton 75 UNO 72
11/9/03 Creighton 72 UNO 66 (OT)

[custudent]

Don't worry, the Jays are going to be fine this year. That said, one has to be proud of what Coach McKenna is doing over at UNO. They're a very disciplined team. Kevin's a heck of a coach (and one a lot of Creighton fans would have liked to have seen take over if Altman had left to Illinois last year) and he's going to get offers to move up to D-I.

CU and UNO have traditionally faced off in exhibitions (they had a closed scrimmage together this year). They've always been pretty close for various reasons. One of the things McKenna's had a lot of success doing is bringing in D-I transfers to help give the team a quick spark of talent. Also, having played and coached here for so many years, he runs basically a mirror image of Altman's system at UNO. I've heard coaches and players from both teams say that playing each other is like playing a mirror image of one's self.

If UNO moved D-I, you'd probably see the two programs played at least some of the time, but the regression that UNO would likely face moving up to D-I would cause some scheduling issues.

In terms of where'd the fan support would be if you had two D-I teams in town, while UNO has the larger alumni and student base, there's been traditionally less of a sports identity at UNO (especially beyond football, and now hockey). Also, if UNO moved up, they'd have to be prepared for at least a few years of taking their lumps in the upper division. Last I saw, South Dakota State (which was an equal in the NCC with UNO), is 2-10 with 1 D-II win and a couple D-II losses. All that said, if UNO ever did move to D-I and was able to get Coach McKenna to commit to stay for the duration, he'd probably make the transition easier.