When most people are talking about the 2008 recruiting class for Nebraska football - over 600 people came out to watch the Council Bluffs Summer League at Omaha South (League will go back to Iowa next year). The game featured great dunks, hard fouls, clutch shots, crowd chants and MAD trash talking!! The Rivarly is growing for sure after tonight's crowd performance! Plus the Jays won with only 4 players on their future roster. Thank god for Joe Dabbert playing on the inside or it would have been a rough night for CU! Good night overall for everyone but the refs...they were high school refs who were over their heads.
Some thoughts coming out of tonight's game:
First for Creighton's team of P'Allen Stinnet, Booker Woodfox, Joe Dabbert, Josh Dotzler, and Dane Watts plus 3 scrubs who did nothing:
Incoming Freshmen P'Allen Stinnet is going to be the Newcomer of the year in the MVC if he plays 
with the same fire and intensity that he played with tonight. He's VERY talented. I saw all I needed when P'Allen took the ball and tried to dunk on Aleks Maric at the end of the game. The kid has crazy ups and NO fear at all. Amazing handle and great moves. In warm-ups, he bounced the ball off the back wall, caught it and reverse dunked it. It was SICK! It will be interesting to see how loose Dana will let him be inside the offense because he made Ryan Anderson looks silly on a few moves tonight.
with the same fire and intensity that he played with tonight. He's VERY talented. I saw all I needed when P'Allen took the ball and tried to dunk on Aleks Maric at the end of the game. The kid has crazy ups and NO fear at all. Amazing handle and great moves. In warm-ups, he bounced the ball off the back wall, caught it and reverse dunked it. It was SICK! It will be interesting to see how loose Dana will let him be inside the offense because he made Ryan Anderson looks silly on a few moves tonight. P'Allen impressed but the star of the night was Booker Woodfox - the Juco transfer had at least 7 3's including the game winner with under one minute to play. Woodfox has good size and quickness and sees the court well. He also isn't afraid to rebound, bang bodies and run his mouth.
Josh Dotzler physically looks really good. He's cut and quick. The knee looks 100% but he shot the ball WAAAAY too much. He didn't look to pass and tried to score with the scorers. That's not Josh's game and I'm sure if Dana was there - he wouldn't have been happy. That's the problem with the summer league....too easy to get caught up in the hype of being a scorer and crowd pleaser.
Dane Watts was Dane Watts. Streaky shooter, willing to rebound, undersized but will guard big men. Aleks Maric controlled him at times but Dane played well tonight. Joe Dabert was the real story on the inside. Too bad he's not back next year because they could use him especially vs. NU next year.
As for Nebraska - Their team should have won this game. Their roster was far deeper. Aleks Maric, Charles Richardson, Ryan Anderson, Marcus Perry - All members of last year's team PLUS future roster players Alonzo Edwards, Shang Ping, Cookie Miller, Branden Richardson and Toney McCray.
For Nebraska fans looking for something good out of this game, Aleks Maric looked very good. He's in shape and ran the floor very well. Joe Dabbert got in his head but he's older and strong enough to push him around. No one on the Jays roster will be anywhere near the size of Dabert.
Ryan Anderson vs. P'Allen Stinnet was a huge highlight on the night. The two trash talked the whole game and it spilled into the crowd. Chad Millard of CU and Ricky Thenarse of the Husker Football team nearly went outside after screaming at each other across the court. Ryan hit some big 3's but got distracted by the one on one game at key moments. Charles Richardson chewed him out pretty good late in the game for not guarding. Chuck is still the floor leader that he was at NU.
As for the new Nebraska players who made noise - Shang Ping is horrible. He is thin, weak, and can't shoot to save his life. He can barely draw iron on free throws. Sure, he's tall but that's it. He's a body - nothing more. He got into it with Dabbert and got a double T called. We didn't see much of Alonzo Edwards as he twisted his ankle early in the 2nd half and didn't play much after that. He's a big guy and strong with the ball. He'll be a nice option off the bench for Doc Sadler to spell Aleks. Guard Cookie Miller is as quick as advertised. However, he's REALLY small. 5'7 might be generous and in the Big 12 - I just don't see him being able to get into the lane. He'll need to be in the open floor to be effective but he has skill for sure.
Overall, this was a BLAST. Nebraska fans were loud the entire game as they were outnumbered 2 to 1. Jays fans were a bit quieter as normal until Husker fans started to chant or talk trash. Summer league games mean nothing but they are for sure fun :).
