It seems like a lifetime since the Creighton men’s basketball team hoisted a trophy. For redshirt seniors Kenny Lawson and Casey Harriman, it practically has been.
Different paths brought Lawson, from Oceanside, California, and Harriman, from Ida Grove, Iowa, to Omaha. The two redshirted their first seasons at CU, 2006-2007, for different reasons. You might remember that year: Nate Funk and Anthony Tolliver led the Bluejays to the MVC Arch Madness championship over Southern Illinois in St. Louis, punching Creighton’s ticket to return to the NCAA Tournament.
You can’t blame Lawson and Harriman for figuring they’d get to play in an NCAA Tournament by the time their Creighton careers were finished. The Bluejays’ trip to New Orleans in March 2007 marked the school’s seventh NCAA Tournament appearance in nine seasons. But it hasn’t been easy replicating that trip to the Big Easy; the Jays haven’t been back to the Big Dance since that incredible Valley tournament run.
At the beginning of the 2006-07 season, it seemed the touted yet raw Lawson would help back up Anthony Tolliver. But knee tendinitis kept Lawson on the bench after two appearances in November, and he took a redshirt year. Harriman came to Creighton knowing he would sit his first season, with the chance to acclimate his game from dominating western Iowa opponents to adjusting to a league like the Missouri Valley Conference.
Since playing as redshirt freshmen in the fall of 2007, both Lawson and Harriman have developed distinct styles. Harriman took 17 charges his freshman year, as he seemed to relish the contact he once faced as a Division I football prospect. He followed that up with 8 charges taken as a sophomore and 19 as a junior. Lawson elevated his game from MVC All-Freshman Team status to second-team All-MVC as a junior, and entered this season as the conference’s preseason Player of the Year.
Entering Wednesday’s game at Illinois State, Creighton is 75-38 since Lawson and Harriman ditched their redshirts and laced up as freshmen. But none of those wins clinched a trip to the NCAA Tournament. The two likely thought they would have help; Dana Altman and his assistant coaches brought in a highly regarded recruiting class in 2007-2008. But the only player still at Creighton from that incoming class is senior Kaleb Korver.
That’s where the story takes an interesting twist. Korver, Lawson, and Harriman have been surrounded by plenty of good players. They even shared the court with a MVC Player of the Year, Booker Woodfox. But Lawson and Harriman entered Creighton with a few other newcomers: Isacc Miles, D’Angelo Jackson, and Aaron Brandt. Miles starred for the Bluejays as a freshman reserve, Jackson left school before the 2006-07 season was complete, while Brandt was a walk-on and left after the 2007-08 season.
Joining Korver in the next class were freshmen P’Allen Stinnett and Kenton Walker, along with sophomore Cavel Witter and junior Woodfox. Sophomore Chad Millard had been on campus for a semester after transferring from Louisville, but was still a newcomer to the court. He would graduate following last season, as would Witter. Woodfox left a legend at Creighton following his memorable two-year stint as a Bluejay. But Walker transferred to Saint Mary’s following his sophomore season, and Stinnett was asked not to return following his third of three tumultuous seasons at Creighton. Throw in a transfer by Andrew Bock following last year’s coaching change, and you can’t blame Lawson, Harriman, and Korver for wondering exactly where the last four-plus years have gone.
Their senior seasons haven’t gone as planned, either. Lawson, the preseason pick for POY, is currently 13th in the league in scoring (11.7 ppg) and 5th in rebounding (7.0 rpg). But aside from a dominating performance against St. Joseph’s, he has struggled to live up to the expectations hoisted upon him by media and a fanbase looking for a vocal star in the mold of a Tolliver.
Lawson, a fifth-year senior, watched Creighton's last NCAA Tournament team from the sidelines
Harriman’s is a more frustrating situation. Always the tough guy on the court, the senior continues to be beset by injuries and sickness. A year after playing the full season with a tear in his labrum in his right shoulder and missing games due to H1N1 flu, mononucleosis, strep throat, and tonsillitis, Harriman injured the same ligament in his left shoulder. After playing 15 minutes per game as a sophomore and 16 per game as a junior, the fifth-year senior has seen action in only 5 games this season.
Visual evidence of Harriman knocking down a shot, something CU fans haven’t seen recently because of injuries to the senior forward
Korver came to Creighton in the shadow of his legendary brother, Kyle, and as the keeper of the Korver family lore. His other brother, Klayton, won a Valley championship with Drake. It seemed Kaleb would be well positioned to repeat some of the team success his brothers experienced, if not all of the individual numbers Kyle and Klayton posted by the end of their collegiate careers. But despite his reputation as a deft long-range shooter, Kaleb’s shooting percentages hit a slide following a sophomore campaign that had him positioned to replace Woodfox as the Bluejays’ go-to outside shooter. His junior season was a bad one for the team (18-16 record, CIT tournament participants), and a frustrating one individually (2 ppg in just less than 13 mpg).
Senior Kaleb Korver looks for a Valley championship
Wayne Runnels and Darryl Ashford are the team’s other seniors, but it seems that Creighton fans are just getting to know these junior college transfers. But Bluejay backers have watched Lawson, Harriman, and Korver grow up. They’ve seen each man play an important role on a conference co-championship team (2008-2009). They’ve seen each guy struggle through adversity. And on the eve of Valley play for the 2010-2011 season, Creighton fans find themselves hoping that Lawson, Harriman, and Korver can find a way to will this year’s team to cut down some nets and tend to the trophy table in St. Louis.
