By Antwaun Hackman
MATC Times

The bright lights of Madison Square Garden seemed to intimidate the Marquette Golden Eagles, as they lost their conference tournament matchup against the Creighton Bluejays 74-63.

The first half for Marquette was less than ideal. The Golden Eagles opened the game shooting just five of 15 and had seven of their 10 first half turnovers in the early moments of the game.

For Marquette it seemed like nerves may have been getting the best of them.

“I feel like based on our play, it was kind of like nervousness, not wanting to mess up, wanting to play a perfect game,” Marquette forward Justin Lewis said.

Marquette was not alone in its slow first half start. Creighton too seemed to be anxious. The Bluejays shot selection seemed erratic, and they failed to make the shots they were taking. The first half ended with Creighton shooting just 30% from the field and 22% from 3. Marquette was able to string some shots together to keep it close, but their 10 total first half turnovers were the difference in the score at the half, which was 29-26.

The second half got under way with Creighton shooting five of six; this was a showing of a team beginning to settle in.

Marquette saw the turnovers slow down, but shooting woes began to plague the Golden Eagles. They opened the second half shooting just three of nine. Marquette at one point went down by as many as 13 points.

However, as the half progressed, Marquette stepped up its defensive pressure enough to keep its hope of winning the game alive. Creighton relied on the shooting of Ryan Hawkins, who was making his 131st straight start, and the post play of Ryan Kalkberner.

Once these two got going it was evident that Marquette would need some spark of their own if they had any hope of winning the game. Luckily for Marquette their spark came from Daryl Morsell. Down 48-60, Marquette’s Morsell got it going with a lay-up.

He would go on to make a couple more big shots to bring the Golden Eagles within striking distance. Morsell’s spark seemed to inspire his teammates. To continue the run Marquette would get huge shots from Tyler Kolek, Greg Elliot and Lewis to bring Marquette within 3 with 1:45 left to go. Unfortunately, Morsley had a turnover that resulted in easy points for Creighton, putting their lead back up 70-63 with just 1:10 to play. That costly turnover is when the hope of any miraculous comeback faded for Shaka Smart’s Golden Eagles. 

Creighton’s Hawkins was the Bluejays leading scorer, putting up 18 points, shooting an efficient seven of 12 from the floor. For Marquette, Morsell would end being their top scorer, finishing with 18 points as well shooting seven of 16. As a team, Creighton finished shooting a staggering 49% while Marquette would finish shooting just 39%. 

Creighton moved on to face to the Providence Fiars Friday at 6:30 p.m. It will be one of the Big East Conference semifinal games.

“So we didn’t play very well at Providence,” Creighton Head Coach Greg McDermott said. “They’re the league champs. Our guys have a lot of pride, and we look forward to another opportunity to play.”

By Benj Otero
MATC Times

Creighton basketball pulled out a second-round victory over Marquette 74-63 at Madison Square Garden March 10. While it was a neutral site for both squads, there was a noticeable discrepancy in fanbases at the game.

Creighton was able to wrangle up a school band, cheerleaders, a dance team, and most notably, a student section for Thursday’s contest. This could be seen throughout multiple Creighton runs, most of them headed by Ryan Kalkbrenner, who had 14 points and nine rebounds, six on offense, in a performance that left the opposing coach, Shaka Smart, flabbergasted after.

“I thought Kalkbrenner, in a strange way, he’s 7’1″, but he’s just kind of quicker to the ball on some of those plays,” Smart said. “They shot one, like, off the bottom of the backboard. He was just quicker, got it, and either scored or drew a foul. He’s played really, really well against us.”

Kalender was not the team’s leading scorer. Instead, that went to Ryan Hawkins, who scored 18 points on 12 shots. Hawkins, a transfer senior from Northwest Missouri State, spoke about how much the fans helped him in his first game at Madison Square Garden.

“I think it just has a lot of special people and a lot of support. This is my first year at Creighton, and just the accepting and the love I’ve gotten from the fan base tells me everything I needed to know,” Hawkins said. “It’s kind of like a hidden gem in the middle of America, and I wouldn’t change it for anything. The people are what makes it special at Creighton.”

The players felt this despite Creighton University being in Omaha, Nebraska, located over 1,200 miles away from Madison Square Garden. Likewise, this support was felt by the parents and older generation of Blue Jay fans and their student section. 

Cheers and chants could be heard throughout the garden, while Marquette’s band was the only one making noise. This and a lack of cheerleaders and overall fans was noticeable during most of Marquette’s game, even when they went on multiple runs in the second half.

Marquette’s postseason fate will now be in the hands of the NCAA selection committee, and Creighton’s conference fate will face a test versus top-seeded Providence March 11 at 6:30 p.m.

By Raul Flores

National Key Accounts Manager and Education Specialist Laura Schaub talked about the best places to find inspiration for engaging photography and design Friday morning. 

Schaub gave many examples of both online and physical places where photographers, designers, and yearbook students could find creative inspiration for their publications. Among these, she mentioned Pinterest, shopping malls, and even PowerPoint templates. 

According to Schaub, it’s all about thinking visually when approaching design. Not only that, but she also said that all content, whether it’s newspapers, magazines or yearbooks should be telling the story visually. 

“Sometimes we can take an idea from a yearbook and do something great with it for newspapers and magazines,” Schaub said. 

Shaub told attendees that aiming to create engaging content for publications sometimes means that rules have to be broken. In a landscape where there are many do’s and don’ts, stepping out of the expected boundaries can lead to creative results. 

“Be open to new things because you never know what you’ll get,” Schaub said. 

One of the most creative examples given by Schaub was her usage of the HSBC bank logo as a template for creating interesting and captivating designs for her university’s yearbook. Further, she spoke about the importance of leading the reader’s eyes through the photos with the help of creative design. 

“Take ideas and change them up,” Schaub said. “You can’t just copy what they do, you have to add something.” She continued. 

Some other places Schaub told students about were random restaurant bathroom tiles. She even showed the pictures she took of each and then compared them to the way she incorporated them into her yearbook designs. 

Schaub also spoke thoroughly about capturing amazing photographs and portraits. She went on to show examples of yearbook photography that utilized well-known visual elements that can increase a photo’s quality. Rule of thirds, leading lines, and framing was mentioned by her. 

“We’re always looking for different angles, different ways to profile people,” Schaub said. 

For Schaub, there’s importance in trying to explore the creative bounds of design. She urged student designers to be on the lookout for weird or unusual angles. She also said that ideas come frequently when looking at others’ work. Nonetheless, as photographers and designers they have to be careful to take these ideas, and if inspirations are to be altered and changed, always be careful not to copy something they loved. 

Schaub said she believed that a great thing to do during the creative process of design is to play around with what you have.

By Joshua Pohl

From companies advertising their brand to students showing off newspapers and magazines, the convention trade show has it all. The trade show booths offer information, free merch and industry professionals to speak to.

For attendees interested in technology, B&H was an essential booth to check out. B&H is a company that provides discounts on technology to students and professors. The program is free and available for any student to sign up for as long as they are enrolled in accredited and approved programs. The discounted technology has a wide range, including cameras, speakers, laptop accessories, and even a spy watch that can record audio.

For those in need of advertising advice for newspapers, Dan Olson promoted his services. Olson is the founder of GoList and explained what his company does.

“GoList is an advertising platform that is designed to put newspapers in charge of social media advertising for their communities,” Olson said. 

When asked why people should check out GoList, he explained that digital advertising is a missed market for many newspapers.

“Digital dollars have been siphoned away from newspaper advertising for the last decade and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be in charge of digital advertising for their regions. They’re perfectly positioned to do it,” Olson said. 

On top of the companies present, several colleges and universities were in attendance to advertise their master’s programs in journalism. The University of Alabamas Associate Professor, Chris Roberts, explained his goals of setting up a booth at the trade show.

“The University of Alabama has a terrific master’s program with the College of Communication Information Sciences,” Roberts said. “I’m trying to help journalists who are thinking about a graduate degree to think about Alabama because we offer lots of different approaches that can get you out in a year or two. You get the experience to get a Ph.D. or to gain practical experience and go to work with a master’s degree in 12 months.” he continued. 

As CMA participants visited the trade show, a table was offered where they could display their university’s newspapers or magazines. Sedona Young dropped off copies of her college’s newspapers from the New York Institute of Technology. Young explained how the diversity of her staff’s experiences help to make their paper special and worth the read.

“I think our newspaper is cool because we’re super diverse and we come from so many different backgrounds. Everyone in our class is from a different country to a point and it was just cool because we are all writing about different types of cultures and creations and then also talking about New York City and our college and we all have such a cool perspective and work hard on it,” Young said. 

The event had several people in attendance leave with new acquaintances, a look at other newspapers, and a chance to learn of prevalent organizations throughout the journalism and communication industry.