Creighton 74, EA Sports All Stars 67 -- Anthony Tolliver

With Chicken Little entertaining children and emptying parents’ pocketbooks across the country this week, it only seems appropriate that the college basketball exhibition commenced this weekend. So many Creighton fans – not to mention die-hard hoops hounds all over the U.S. – treat the team’s two exhibition games as much more than the money-making scrimmages that they are. I, of course, have always been one such fan, overreacting to great plays during these games and screaming “the sky is falling” after lackluster efforts.

I’m not going to do that this year. Sure, there were plenty of highlights for the Jays against former Bluejay Larry House and his traveling squad of former collegiate players, but I thought I’d walk into the Qwest Center (or, the “Q” as we defined it last season) with a different attitude, a different filter for what would unfold before me and the rest of the 11,000-plus blue-clad boosters.

I tried to find our go-to guys, Nate Funk and Johnny Mathies, just to make sure they were causing defenders nightmares (check). I peeked around for Dane Watts, but he and his versatile offensive game weren’t hard to spot (scored 7 points before the barbershop quartet that sang the National Anthem could sit down). And I spent a good portion of the evening keeping track of the new fellas; the athletic talents Dana Altman searched the country (and the globe) to fill his roster with (11 players saw minutes, so check).

I knew all of those pieces of my beloved Bluejays would be there, so I wasn’t overly concerned when Creighton coughed up a couple double-digit leads, missed a bunch of free throws, and only posted a 7-point victory. Nope, the most important event I witnessed from my third-row seats was an up close and personal look at the man formerly known as Anthony Tolliver.

You see, word from the Hilltop this summer and fall was that young Tolliver, an athletic talent from a highly-touted high school power in Missouri, was morphing into what public prognosticators hoped he would be for the Jays – an agile, acute offensive option in the low blocks, with a good defensive sense and the vertical ability to alter shots.

Through two full seasons in the White and the Blue, Tolliver gained a reputation as a heady player, someone who showed passion on the court and on the bench. Jays fans also saw a kid trying to make a progression from a free wheelin’ high school program to a regimented, demanding high post offense Altman depends on for success. The ability was there, and it would take some time to sculpt the talent into form, but Jays fans hoped that A-Train could be part of a low post presence with enough scoring ability to take some of the pressure away from Funk, Mathies, and the other Jays on the perimeter.

Tolliver showed some flashes of good things to come in his 26 minutes against EA Sports; he looked physically stronger, scored 8 points (hit 4 of 6 from the free throw line, which in his two previous seasons was one of his glaring shortcomings), grabbed 6 rebounds, blocked a shot, and altered a few others.

I’m not screaming that the sky is falling, and I’m not jumping the gun or going out on a limb or committing another cliché, but the kid looked comfortable. He wasn’t tugging at his shorts, looking jittery or wondering where he needed to be. He had post moves, he moved the ball crisply, not hesitating and letting the defenders surround him. He just looked different – he looked like he was ready to step up and shore up the middle of the paint.

But remember, it is just one game. An exhibition. A scrimmage. But he looked good, and he’s going to need to get better each and every game, just like everyone said he did this summer. Hopefully those people are right, and the sky isn’t falling – a Bluejay is just getting ready to spread his wings.