Creighton Game With Julia

Julia and me after the game. She was easy to spot in her Maverick gear.

Julia called me a bit after six o'clock tonight to invite me to the Creighton University men's basketball game. What I didn't immediately realize was that it started at 7:05. And I had just returned from taking Emily home from play practice – and before that, from a bike ride. So after a quick shower and suiting up in some BMC Racing Team lululemon gear, I was off to pick her up.

We zoomed down to the Century Link Center in my van where Julia showed me a great little – and free – parking space close to the arena. As we hustled our way to the box office, we were asked by quite a few people (scalpers) if we needed tickets. This continued right up until we were nearly at the ticket windows. But strangely, not a single person was in line in front of the six ticket windows. Since we had a voucher that gave us four free tickets, we were only concerned that the game might be a sell out. And it was close – 15,755. But the strangest part of the night occurred a split-second before I reached the ticket window. A couple asked us if we needed tickets. "Free tickets?" I asked. "Yes, you can have these," the woman offered, opening an envelope and handing over a pair of $30 apiece seats in the lower bowl. Wow. After a big thank you, we were off to find our seats.

Our view of the court.

It turned out they were on the end of a row with a tremendous view of the court (and the promotions area). The game itself was a good one, televised by NET and against a formidable UAB squad. Creighton's star, Doug McDermott, struggled to overcome double and triple teaming to finish with only five points.

Our experience was not without a run-in with a CenturyLink (formerly "Qwestapo") usher, who wouldn't let us stand behind the wheelchair accessible session for more than 30 seconds while we waited for my buddy, official scorer Tom Jelinek, to return to his seat at halftime. I'll say it again – if Omaha wants to have a reputation for being a friendly city, it's not happening with staffers who work at the CenturyLink Center.