About 30 minutes had passed since Creighton University defeated Brigham Young. Bluejays coach Dana Altman holds at a sheet of college basketball scores in his left hand, points to an in-progress score from Saturday's Notre Dame-Maryland game and asks:

"Did Notre Dame hold on? That would be big?"

	Kyle Korver's complete game is a big reason Creighton is so dangerous.

Ah, yes, Notre Dame, the current hoops team de jour. And for good reason. The Irish only defeated Marquette, Maryland and Texas in succession last week to vault into the national rankings at No. 15 on Monday.

But just two weeks earlier, the Irish had lost to Creighton in the Guardians Classic final. And that's why Altman was so interested. It's also part of the reason why November and December are almost as important as March for mid-major schools. That's also part of what's wrong with college basketball.

If the Bluejays wanted to put themselves in position for an NCAA Tournament berth even if they don't win the Missouri Valley's automatic bid, there were four crucial dates on Creighton's schedule. First was a potential meeting with the Irish in the Guardian's Classic -- a game that both materialized and led to a 80-75 Creighton victory. Next was Saturday's victory over BYU. Later this month are games at Nebraska and Xavier.

They're games that Creighton hopes builds its RPI high enough so the Bluejays will turn heads on the NCAA Tournament selection committee. While Altman will talk at length about how conference games against teams such as Bradley, Wichita State and Drake will be difficult, the RPI formula doesn't agree.

"Look at Kansas now," Creighton forward Kyle Korver said. "They've lost a couple, but they're still going to make the tournament. Everybody knows that. They can work to get better and if they lose a couple of games, it's no big deal. We have to be better now. We have to win."

It's something Altman has reminded his team of and something he'll do again.

"Our margin for error is not as great, the power ranking of our conference is not as high," Altman said. "But any conference game in any conference is a tough game. One bad loss somewhere could be the loss that costs us an at-large berth. We can't focus on that, we can't be afraid to lose."

Truthfully, it shouldn't be that way.

It doesn't matter that Creighton plays in the Missouri Valley. Or that the Omaha, Neb., school doesn't play football. Or that the Bluejays don't get as much exposure as many bad teams in power conferences. The reality is this: there aren't 25 teams in the country better than the Bluejays. And there might not be 20 teams better.

"This is a good program, this is a very good basketball team," BYU coach Steve Cleveland said. "They're an NCAA Tournament team no question."

The Bluejays are 6-0 this season entering Saturday's game against Tennessee Tech. They're shooting almost 50 percent for the season on 3-pointers. Only Notre Dame and BYU have scored more than 60 points against Creighton and no one has scored more than 75 points.

Altman has 10 players on his roster averaging more than 13 minutes per game. They force turnovers, they force bad shots and they grab every loose ball.

How good are they? Creighton is certainly good enough to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. One certainty is that after the Bluejays are seeded too low in the NCAA Tournament (as the top mid-major schools always are), there's going to be a high-seed, football-playing-school that isn't going to be happy at all. Last season that school was Florida. Seeded fifth, Billy Donovan's Gators drew No. 12 Creighton and lost in double overtime.

Surprised that Creighton is this good? Well, you shouldn't be. Altman, the former Kansas State coach, has put together a very nice program.

Over the past four seasons, Creighton has averaged 23 victories a season, reached four consecutive NCAA Tournaments and won a pair of tournament games. How many schools can say that? Well, Creighton is one of just 15 schools that has won at least 20 games and reached the NCAA Tournament in each of the past four years.

The other schools on that list reads like a basketball who's who: Arizona, Cincinnati, Duke, Florida, Gonzaga, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Stanford and UCLA.

People in Omaha are beginning to take a little more notice of the Bluejays. Sure the defensive coordinator search for the Cornhuskers is still a bigger story right now, but the Omaha Civic Auditorium was nearly sold out for the game with BYU. Next season, Creighton will move into the new $293 million, 15,800-seat arena/convention center near the banks of the Missouri River.

Korver gets much of the attention for why the Bluejays are good. But even so, he doesn't get as much credit as he should. The perception of the senior from Pella, Iowa, is that he's a gunner. Is he a good shooter? Certainly, but he's become a much more complete player.

As a sophomore, Korver became a better rebounder. Defense and passing were his area of improvement last season. This year, Korver is working to put the ball on the floor more and create his own shot.

Korver struggled with his shot against BYU, going 4-for-14 on 3-pointers, but he was still a key player in the game. He finished with 19 points and added 11 rebounds and four assists. One of the 3-pointers he made answered a BYU three that gave the Cougars a brief lead. In addition, he guarded every position on the floor except point guard.

"I'd rather 11 boards than 30 points," said Korver, who's averaging 18.2 points per game. "It means I'm playing hard.

"I felt I had a really big part in the game and I shot poorly. In my freshman and sophomore years, my head would've been sagging."

Instead, Korver and his teammates were smiling. They won another game that should help them in March.

"This team has all the tools to be very, very good," Korver said.

Games of the Week

Kansas at Tulsa Wednesday The Jayhawks have lost three in a row against Division I opponents and Tulsa would certainly like to extend that streak. The Golden Hurricane is certainly a team capable of competing with anyone in the country, even an elite program like Kansas. Games like this don't happen too often in Tulsa. Bowling Green at Michigan Wednesday Sure the opponent is a Mid-American Conference school, but this is a must-win for a Michigan team that's 0-6 this season. And it might not be easy for Tommy Amaker's team. Michigan lost to the Falcons a year ago and the Wolverines have lost three of their last four games to MAC schools. Iowa State at Iowa Friday This is one of those rivalry games that are always interesting. If the Cyclones are improved as much as they hope, this is the kind of game they should win, especially after Monday's loss to Boston College. For the Hawkeyes, a victory here would give confidence to a thin team that they can compete in the Big Ten. Wisconsin at Marquette Saturday Had the Badgers defeated Wake Forest in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, this would be a game of two top 25 teams. Last season, Wisconsin defeated then-No. 14 Marquette. Memphis at Missouri Saturday This should be a good test for an undefeated Missouri team that has gotten fat on a largely soft schedule -- though the victory over Southern California was a good one. Texas at Arizona Sunday It's hard to question the Longhorns schedule this season considering Texas has already faced Alabama and Notre Dame. Let's see if Rick Barnes can have a bit more success against the elite than Mack Brown. Purdue vs. Indiana at Indianapolis, Saturday No, it's not Big Ten season already. Instead, the two schools are playing at Conseco Fieldhouse because they play just once in the unbalanced conference schedule. This one, however, doesn't count in the Big Ten standings.

Big 12's Perfect Pair
Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Pick any order of the three and that was a legitimate forecast of the Big 12. And it still very well might be.

So what teams are still undefeated? Try Missouri and Texas Tech. Yeah, two of the Big 12's other teams. Teams that help make the Big 12 deeper than any other conference in the country. The Tigers improved to 5-0 after a win over Southern California while Bob Knight's Red Raiders set a school record for margin of victory in a 107-35 victory over Nicholls State.

"A lot of the jockeying that goes on in the early polls is a product of who plays who," Missouri coach Quin Snyder said. "We're starting to get into a stretch of our schedule where it's pretty tough. We might be a team that takes a few losses and drops (in the polls), but I still think we can be a pretty good team."

Part of the reason for Snyder's outlook is his Tigers' improved defense. Entering a stretch in which they'll play Memphis, Illinois and Iowa, the Tigers have only allowed one team to score more than 70 points in a game.

"Last year, we were more of an outside shooting team," Snyder said. "People would say, 'Missouri can beat anybody when they're on,' I want to be a team that can beat anybody when we're not on.

"The focus of our team is changing to a defensive identity. That's something we preached a lot last year, but didn't buy into until the end of the year."

In Lubbock, the Red Raiders have made their 5-0 start look pretty simple. Since defeating UNC Wilmington by nine points in its opener, Texas Tech has won every game by at least 18 points. That's impressive regardless of the opponent, but even more impressive since the Red Raiders have won at both Texas-El Paso and Texas Christian.

"We've done a lot of things we like, but we have a lot of improvement to make in many areas," Texas Tech coach Bob Knight said. "We're still in the early stages of trying to put a team together.

"We're a long way from having the team where we want to have it."

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