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The first rule of super-secret non-conference basketball scrimmages is that you do not talk about super-secret non-conference basketball scrimmages.
The second rule of super-secret non-conference basketball scrimmages is that you do not talk about super-secret non-conference basketball scrimmages.
The third rule of super-secret non-conference basketball scrimmages... oh wait, someone broke rules one and two?
Another little birdie told me that Iowa and Creighton tied in their "secret scrimmage" yesterday.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) October 27, 2014
Best players on the floor, per a source, were Creighton's Devin Brooks and Iowa's Aaron White.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) October 27, 2014
These "super-secret scrimmages" between power conference teams happen all the time (Goodman also tweeted about Kansas State and Nebraska playing one yesterday, and I can recall Iowa playing Kansas State in one within the last few years). They're always closed to the public (and even to friends and family members of the players) and considered "secret" because the NCAA strictly regulates the number of competition events teams are allowed to play each season, which apparently also extends to making discussion of the goings-on at said scrimmages verboten because... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Lord knows any and all discussion of what happened in an unofficial pre-season scrimmage is going to tear the NCAA asunder and expose its defense of amateurism for the sham it is.
As for what these notes from Goodman mean in re: 2014-15 Iowa hoops... Let's go with "pretty much nothing." Iowa's leading returning scorer and rebounder and potential All-Big Ten selection Aaron White was one of the best players on the floor? I am shocked! Absolutely shocked, I tell you. As far as the fact that Iowa tied a McBuckets-less Creighton team picked to finish 9th in the Big East this year... meh.
It's. A. Scrimmage.
There are so many ways to read that result -- especially without, you know, knowing any details whatsoever -- that it's effectively meaningless. Perhaps Creighton is better than expected. Perhaps Iowa had a below-average day shooting the ball. Perhaps Creighton had an above-average day shooting the ball. Perhaps the sky really is falling and Iowa basketball is doomed to return to pre-Devyn Marble levels of irrelevance and everything is awful oh noes fire everyone. Perhaps perhaps perhaps. Here's what we know: Iowa apparently played Creighton in a scrimmage and tied. Aaron White is good at basketball. The end.
On the bright side, we're that much closer to Iowa playing an actual basketball game that counts...