Confession time: Responsibilities kept me from watching Creighton’s game Wednesday night in real time. The moment I checked Twitter for your expert analysis, I thought the Bluejays had defeated 2012 Kentucky or something.
Has the past month been so frustrating that a win over middling Bradley had Jays fans jumping for a seemingly overcorrecting amount of joy? Yes, and yes. Things haven’t gone exactly how CU fans would have scripted the last few weeks, especially after watching the Jays cruise through the first two months of the season. But in case no one’s noticed, many of the programs ranked ahead of Creighton right now in the national polls and computer rankings aren’t exactly without their faults or their struggles. And for many of those teams, the problems begin away from their friendly confines.
Winning on the road is tough. It may seem cliché, but it is true. And Creighton’s win in Peoria gave the Jays their seventh true road win of the season (and ninth win away from the CLink). Sure, it was just Bradley, now 16-14 overall and 7-10 in the Missouri Valley Conference. But the Braves have hardly been pushovers, especially in Peoria.
According to CU Sports Information Director Rob Anderson (via Twitter), among BCS programs, only Duke, Miami, Louisville, and Arizona have more road/neutral wins that the Bluejays this season. And Missouri, Maryland, NC State, and Iowa own 7 true road wins combined. Tougher leagues than the MVC? Probably. But those are bubble teams that can’t win away from their home gyms.
On a night when CU needed a road win, the sacred type of victory in college hoops, Doug McDermott (32 points on 12-17 shooting, 11 rebounds, and just four three-point attempts) and the rest of the Bluejays came through. So, yeah, I guess the cyber-celebration was deserved.
Fueling some of that excitement was Wichita State’s inability to hold home serve against Evansville Wednesday night. The Shockers lost to the Aces for the second time this season, dropping their senior night game and leaving CU and WSU tied atop the Valley with one game left to play.
Against each other.
Creighton will host Wichita State Saturday afternoon for the MVC regular season championship. Winner takes all. No ties. Playing for an outright regular season championship in front of a sold-out crowd and a national television audience via ESPN2. If there is a better road team in the Valley during the past few seasons than the Jays, it is Gregg Marshall’s Shockers. Wichita State is 10-4 in road/neutral games this season after going 12-5 in such games last year.
The Bluejays haven’t beaten the Shox in Omaha since Dana Altman’s final year on the Hilltop. Getting dominated by WSU last season in Omaha cost Creighton any real chance at winning the regular season title. But right now those games don’t matter. “White Outs for Wichita” don’t matter. BracketBusters disappointments don’t matter. Bubble status doesn’t matter. The Big East (!) doesn’t matter.
All that matters is hanging a banner.
Saturday’s is the biggest Creighton game in the 10-year history of the Qwest Century Link Center. The Bluejays haven’t won an outright regular season championship since 2000-2001. The school owns 14 regular season titles, either solo or shared. The most recent came in 2008-2009. Interestingly, here’s what I wrote after Creighton lost to Wichita State last year in Omaha, effectively eliminating the Jays from yet another chance at a league title:
It’s been more than a decade since Creighton won its last outright Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship. The 2000-2001 team won the Valley (14-4) by two games over Illinois State (12-6) and Bradley (12-6). The next season the Bluejays entered the final regular season contest needing only to beat Drake to win the league over Southern Illinois; the Jays lost to the Bulldogs at the Civic Auditorium, split the league title with SIU (14-4). The Jays improved their league performance the next season, going 15-3 but losing out on a league title to the 16-2 Salukis. Their split title in 01-02 wasn’t their last; winning their last 9 regular season Valley games during the winter of 2009 allowed the Bluejays to share a regular season championship with Northern Iowa; both teams finished 14-4 and won on each other’s home court.
In a collegiate sports landscape where every weekend features a “Game of the Century” or “Showdown Saturday,” it is safe to say Saturday’s home game is the most important in recent CU history. Win and the nets come down, with Brian Kooinga and the Jays staff needing only to pack white uniforms for Arch Madness. Lose and the Shockers win consecutive league titles, inching closer to the role of SIU-type spoiler to some of Creighton’s better teams in program history.
Heck, it might be Creighton’s final regular season Missouri Valley Conference game ever.
