Nebraska Kearney
- Feb 10, 2020
- 7 min read
Nebraska Kearney Lopers (13-8, 7-5) vs. Newman Jets (8-15, 2-12)
Saturday, February 8, 2020 @ 4:00 PM Kearney, NE Health & Sports Center
THE SCHOOL
The University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) is a public university in Kearney, Nebraska. Established in 1905, the school was incorporated into the University of Nebraska system in 1991. UNK enrolls 6,279 students and has an endowment of about $58 million.
The Lopers compete in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) in NCAA Division II. UNK seems to have a consistently good wrestling program.
Newman University is a private Catholic university in Wichita, Kansas. The Jets also compete in the MIAA. This is their first season in the conference.
THE TOWN
green=my apartment, blue=my office, yellow=past games, red=this game
On Saturday morning, I went west on I-80 for 124 miles and north on Highway 44 for a couple more miles. It took just under two hours. Right before the Kearney exit, you pass under The Archway, which is actually a museum built above the Interstate. I didn’t have much interest in going to the museum, but it was cool to pass under. With a population of about 30,000, Kearney (KAR-nee) is the fifth-largest city in Nebraska. It was named after nearby Fort Kearny (no E) when it was founded in the late-1800s, but post office workers misspelled “Kearny” so often that the residents just decided to change the town’s name.
I intentionally got to Kearney a few hours before the game so I would have time to walk around. I parked in their very cute downtown section and tried to find a place to eat. Initially, I tried to go into a pub, but it was very crowded, very loud, and not the vibe I was going for. Instead I walked a couple blocks away and wandered into Tru Café, which ended up being an organic café that also housed an antique shop and an art gallery. This might be the best restaurant I’ve been to in the state of Nebraska. While I waited for my food, I looked at all the antiques and came close to buying a 1940s football pennant. Shortly after I returned to my seat, my freshly-squeezed lemonade and bison sandwich on home-baked bread arrived. I think this is the first time I’ve ever eaten bison, and my entire meal was delicious. If I’m ever back in Kearney, I’ll know where to eat.
After finishing my meal, I walked four blocks north toward the Museum of Nebraska Art. Housed in a century-old federal post office building, this free museum hosts all kinds of art created by Nebraska-born and Nebraska-based artists. I greatly enjoyed this experience. My favorite exhibit showed the works Joyce Ballantyne, from Norfolk, Nebraska. Ballantyne is most known for designing the famous Coppertone sunscreen ad (you know, the one with the dog tugging on a little kid’s swimsuit) but she did all kinds of other cool stuff for magazines as well as some portraits. Overall, I stayed in the museum for about forty-five minutes before deciding it was time to head over to the game. If you ever find yourself in Kearney, the Museum of Nebraska Art is worth your time.
The University of Nebraska at Kearney is only about ten minutes from downtown, but is psychologically a little further than that. The college is on the far-western edge of town that starts to feel much more rural. This part of the state is very flat and campus is on one big stretch of land that goes for almost as far as you can see. It’s a larger campus than most that I’ve been to, but not overwhelming. I wandered around for a bit and it was nice to look at, though you could smell a farm that must not have been very far away.
The Health and Sports Center is an old building. I don’t know when it was built, but there can’t have been many updates since the early 1990s (other than the seats, which look pretty new). The lighting system was dim and outdated. The HVAC system made the air feel a little stale. And after made free throws or three-point shots, the video board played animated clips that would feel right at home in a mid-2000s bowling alley. Don’t get me wrong – this is still a nice place, but in a state that (for some reason) has so many basketball arenas built within the last fifteen years, the Health and Sports Center is too old to feel up-to-date and not old enough to feel cool yet.
THE GAME
Nebraska Kearney has a big parking lot right in front of the arena so parking wasn't an issue. Tickets were $8 at the door and I went in with enough time to catch most of the women's game beforehand. I had the hardest time figuring out which seats were reserved and which were general admission so I just sat somewhere. No one ever told me to get up so I was probably fine. The picture above makes it look like the gym was sparsely populated; that's not true. UNK actually has one of the highest average attendance numbers in Division II. Official attendance was close to 1,300, but most of them sat on the same side as me for some reason.
One thing I've found interesting in the games I've seen is the variation among different crowds. Sometimes student sections are packed, sometimes there are barely any students at all. Sometimes the crowd is teeming with young families, sometimes it's mostly senior citizens. Nebraska Kearney was the latter option in both cases. Students were nearly unidentifiable (I bet that's different during a weekday game) and the average age for people in my section must have neared sixty. I bet a lot of these folks have been coming to Loper games since the Health & Sports Center was new.
I looked at the rosters in the program before the game started and noticed something personally interesting to me. Newman's #1, Kalin Johnson, is from Gadsden, Alabama. I think he is the first Alabama resident I've seen play in Nebraska. He didn't start, but he scored eleven points in fourteen minutes and played rather well. Despite him being a senior, this is his first year at Newman. He transferred from Glenville State College in West Virginia.
The women's game was a blowout. The Lopers won 59-46 and that was after the Jets made some late baskets in garbage time. The one item of interest is that the UNK head coach and assistant coach are married. When Carrie Hoffstetter got the women's head coaching job in 2015, Devin Eighmey was an assistant on the men's team. One year later, they got married and Devin moved over to the women's coaching staff.
The men's game got off to a pretty slow start. Newman made the first basket after a couple minutes of game time and after six minutes, it was only 8-8. UNK's #23, Jake Walker, led a Loper run with two back-to-back threes and it was 15-8 Nebraska Kearney with 12:50 left in the half. Newman came back and with 7:51, they had closed it to a 21-20 Loper lead, but UNK immediately made a three-pointer on the other end. The Lopers got all the way out to a nine-point lead with 1:49 remaining, and they entered halftime ahead 40-34.
At halftime of both the women's and men's games, a local martial arts group did their thing. The PA announcer described their version of martial arts as "a mix of taekwondo and ancient weaponry(!)." They had nunchucks and swords and stuff. I don't know anything about martial arts so I don't know if they were any good, but I guess it was cool to watch. I think I described the Omaha halftime entertainment as "uniquely mid-major Division I;" I believe this one may be uniquely Division II.
Jake Walker led the Lopers on another run early in the second half as UNK took a double-digit lead (50-38) five minutes after halftime. The Lopers held their double-digit advantage for ten minutes until Newman hit a three with five minutes remaining to make it 68-61. They just couldn't quite claw their way back though, and with 2:20 left - guess who - Jake Walker hit a dagger three to give the Lopers a 13-point lead. Walker was unstoppable for most of the game as he scored 25 points on 9/15 shooting and 7/11 from three. The Jets never had a shot after that and and Nebraska Kearney won by thirteen.
Final: Nebraska Kearney 85, Newman 72
The game ended at about 5:40 and I decided I should eat something. On my way out of Kearney, there was a gyro restaurant. I like gyros so I thought this was probably a good place to go. I walk in the restaurant and walk up to the guy behind the counter. I don't know what his first language was (maybe Greek) but I don't think it was English. Here is a near-verbatim transcript of our conversation:
Will: Hi, I would like the gyro combo.
Gyro Guy: (doesn't hear me)
W: (a little louder) Hi, I'd like the gyro combo.
G: Kids?
W: Huh? No. I don't want the kid's meal. I just want the regular gyro.
G: Oh. Okay. I see. You want the gyro no combo.
W: What? G: You want the sandwich but you don't want the combo.
W: Oh. No. Sorry. I do want the gyro combo.
G: You do want the gyro combo? W: Yes.
G: Okay. This is to-go, yes? W: Um... Actually, no. I'll eat it here.
This restaurant and I were not off to a great start.
I picked up my food at the counter, and this gyro was not like any I'd eaten before. Yes, it was a pita with grilled beef and tzatziki sauce, but it was topped with iceberg lettuce and cheddar cheese. It was tasty, though a little strange.
I sit down and start eating my food and notice a microphone stand a little to my left. You know, like a place that has live music. I don't think much of it in this small gyro restaurant in a strip mall until a sixty-something year-old lady pulls out a guitar case. She grabs a mic and an amp from somewhere and, before you know it, she's warming up. She's the live entertainment.
And I am the only patron in this restaurant.
I felt bad, but I scarfed down my food and left as quickly as possible. What was I supposed to do? I wasn't going to stay for her whole set. It's not my fault no one else wanted a cheddar cheese gyro at that time. So I walked out and didn't look back.
If I'm ever back in Kearney, I'll know where not to eat.
Next up: The College of St. Mary
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