Omaha sports fan, welcome to your tempest

The man running the NCAA Tournament in Omaha this week, Creighton associate athletic director of external operations Kevin Sarver, seems perfect for the job.

He is prudent. He is rational. He has the ability to look at things clearly, concisely and unemotionally.

But even he was forced to admit – albeit in his own way – that when it comes to the field of eight teams headed to the CenturyLink Center for games Friday and Sunday, it’s probably not going to be business as usual.

“From my perspective, it doesn’t matter who the teams are because we’re going to treat them as well as we can, the best that we can,” said Sarver, who has worked for Creighton for 26 years. “But my initial reaction? Tickets are going to be tough to get.”

For an Omaha sports fan, the field consisting of teams from the West and Midwest regionals represents a tempest of old rivals, new rivals and coaches sure to evoke the full spectrum of emotions. It’s a city not unlike Wichita, where a sports fan can, in good conscience, split their loyalties between two schools.

In Omaha, you can be a Creighton Bluejay during basketball season and a Nebraska Cornhusker during football season, just like in Wichita you can be a Wichita State Shocker and a Kansas State Wildcat.

In Omaha, you can also be a champion — this is the seventh time the state has hosted the NCAA Tournament, and four times the NCAA champion has emerged from those games.

Kansas twice — 2008 in Omaha and 1988 in Lincoln — Louisville in Lincoln in 1980 and Marquette in Omaha in 1977.

The last time Omaha hosted, in 2012, Kansas was there again and went on to lose to Kentucky in the NCAA championship game.

“We’ve been spoiled, but Omaha does big events really well,” said Omaha-World Herald sports columnist Tom Shatel. “The (NCAA Tournament) in 2008 really sticks out to me because there was so much NBA talent in Omaha, with Kansas State’s Michael Beasley and USC’s O.J. Mayo, and with that you had a ton of NBA guys in the stands. You look over, and there’s Pat Riley.”

This weekend brings a lot of recent storylines in the city’s sports scene full circle. The biggest one being the return of former Creighton coach Dana Altman, who coached the Bluejays from 1994 to 2010 before leaving for Oregon. The Ducks, the No. 8 seed in the West, play No. 9 Oklahoma State on Friday.

“I think Dana is still very much revered here,” Sarver said. “You can make an argument that the (CenturyLink) wouldn’t be there without Dana Altman and his success.”

Altman has actually been back to Omaha since he departed — he brought Oregon to play Creighton in the CBI the year after he left.

But the way he left — “In the middle of the night, pretty much,” Shatel said — should still elicit a reaction. Then there’s a pair of Big Ten teams that Nebraska would be well-suited to develop rivalries with in Indiana, the No. 10 seed in the Midwest, and Wisconsin, the No. 1 seed in the West.

Indiana coach Tom Crean, like Altman, is also in for a suspect reception – he had a heated exchange with Nebraska coach Tim Miles during the Hoosiers’ win on Dec. 31 in Lincoln.

Then there’s Kansas, the No. 2 seed in the Midwest and a former Big 12 foe for Nebraska. They’re also the team with the most storied history in Omaha.

The master stroke, however, is Midwest No. 7 seed Wichita State, which opens against Indiana on Friday. The Shockers were Creighton’s most hated rival in the Missouri Valley Conference – in basketball and baseball – until the Bluejays bolted for the Big East two years ago.

As the Bluejays try to figure out rivalries in the Big East, WSU still looms large. As does WSU coach Gregg Marshall.

Should the Shockers and Kansas both win Friday, they’ll play on Sunday for the first time since 1993.

“These regions, it’s almost like they put a bunch of guys at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Omaha in charge of the bracket,” Shatel said. “And the guys are like ‘We want Dana Altman back. Now we know we get KU … why don’t we also get the Shockers? And let’s see if we can get them to play each other.’

“Every time we have something like this, it’s like it all falls right together. Gregg Marshall was somebody that went together with Creighton like oil and water. He was a guy that fans loved to hate. The whole thing just brings an interesting dynamic.” 　

This story was originally published March 18, 2015 at 7:16 PM with the headline "Omaha sports fan, welcome to your tempest."