2013 was a tremendous — historic? tremendously historic? — tremendously historic year for Creighton sports. Three teams won NCAA Tournament games, and a fourth made the tournament but lost in the first round. Multiple sports featured All-Americans among their ranks. Doug McDermott did Doug McDermott Things. The school underwent a rebranding both visually and physically, gaining not only a new mascot and logo, but also a new conference.
Over the past week or so, the editors of White & Blue Review went back through the year and picked our top ten moments of 2013, which are presented below.
#10: Creighton unveils new logo and mascot (October 9)
It had been nearly 20 years since Creighton last unveiled a new primary logo for athletics, and over 40 years since Billy Bluejay (in logo form) had been reworked. That alone would make this a contender for a top story, but the fact that the new logo has been so well received by nearly everyone makes it a shoo-in.
Unveiled as part of a ceremony at CenturyLink Center on October 9 that also showed off the new men’s basketball court design, the new graphics suite has proved a hit so far.
#9: Doug McDermott (April 25) and Grant Gibbs (July 2) return for senior seasons
Creighton’s first year in the Big East would have had significantly different expectations — and likely a very different outcome — without Doug McDermott and Grant Gibbs. McDermott’s decision was entirely his own, while Gibbs’ rested in the hands of the NCAA.
In the days and weeks leading up to McDermott’s announcement, debates raged everywhere college hoops fans congregated on what he should do. No one, including his own coach (and dad), knew which way he was leaning. Some people thought they did, though. A Des Moines radio personality started a minor firestorm when he tweeted on April 22 that McDermott was going pro, stating that the announcement would come Wednesday the 24th; it was summarily dismissed by Doug, who assured the Omaha World-Herald that he had not made a decision.
Wednesday came and went with no announcement, and then on Thursday morning a press conference was called. Teammates, media and fans were on edge; there was enough doubt on his intentions for WBR’s Joey Tempo to compile a “Top Ten List of Reasons Doug Should Come Back“, and for CU supporters (myself included) to have butterflies in their stomachs all morning awaiting the announcement. Then literally seconds before the 2pm announcement, he broke the story himself, tweeting the following:
I will be returning to Creighton for my senior year and can’t wait to put on that uniform for one more season!
— Doug McDermott (@dougmcd3) April 25, 2013
And Bluejay fans everywhere rejoiced.
Grant Gibbs coming back, on the other hand, was never really considered to be a serious option. He graduated and went through Senior Night festivities, and despite knowledge that CU had petitioned for a sixth year from the NCAA, even the most optimistic observers figured it was a long shot at best.
Then out of nowhere on July 2, the NCAA called Creighton and notified him his request had been granted. Six months later, the video of his reaction still brings a smile to my face.
#8: Baseball takes 2 of 3 in final series with Wichita State (May 10-12)
Over the years, Creighton and Wichita State have been fierce rivals; given their long-standing (and bitter) rivalry in baseball, it was fitting that the last regular-season meeting as conference mates came on the diamond. In the series opener, they fell behind 2-0 in the fourth inning thanks to two walks and two hit batters. The Jays plated four runs in the next half-inning, though, in classic Ed Servais fashion. First, Reagan Fowler drew a walk after an eight-pitch at bat, then Kevin Lamb was hit by a pitch, and Brennan Murphy drew a walk to load the bases. Ryan Fitzgerald smashed a ground ball to short that should have been a double-play, but instead it was muffed, and everyone was safe. The Jays took advantage of the opportunity, with two singles and a sacrifice fly plating three more runs. They’d hold on for a 6-5 win, with the Shockers stranding the tying run at second base in the bottom of the ninth.
On Saturday, Creighton once again took advantage of an untimely Shocker error to take the lead. With two outs in the fifth, they got back-to-back singles from Jerry Mitchell and Brad McKewon, followed by a ground ball to short from Federico Castagnini that should have ended the inning. Instead, it was booted, and Mitchell scored the game’s first run. Two more runs in the sixth, on RBI singles from Landon Lucansky and Jerry Mitchell, gave CU a 3-0 lead. Mark Lukowski pitched the final four innings, limiting the Shockers to just one run, to earn the save and give the Jays their first series win in Wichita since 2003.
A 4-1 loss in Sunday’s series finale prevented the Jays from earning the sweep in Wichita, but a series win in their final conference series with the Shox was a nice consolation prize.
The men’s soccer team won their first-ever Big East match 1-0 over St. John’s. (Photo by Mike Spomer/WBR)
#7: Men’s Soccer wins double-overtime thriller over St. John’s in first Big East match (September 21)
Creighton opened the Big East Era in men’s soccer with a Homecoming match against perennial power St. John’s in front of 5,282 fans at Morrison Stadium, and the #5 Bluejays won 1-0 in double-overtime, their third straight double OT match. Stellar defensive play by both squads meant neither team could get much going offensively, though the Jays did manage 13 shot attempts to St. John’s 9. Alex Bolowich had three saves, including a last-second save in regulation to send the match into overtime.
The lone goal of the night came in the 108th minute, when CU’s Fabian Herbers converted on a free kick to give the Jays a 1-0 win. As if the first Big East match in program history wasn’t a milestone enough, the win was also the 400th in program history.
#6: Doug McDermott scores 41 in home finale to clinch regular season title (March 2)
A gargantuan effort which will take on mythic proportions decades from now, because people will still be talking about this one decades from now, I can promise you — the day Doug McDermott, perhaps the greatest Bluejay ever, turned in his greatest performance in the biggest game of his career (to that point), scoring 41 points on 15-18 shooting in a winner-takes-all game for the MVC regular season title. Against a team that would go on to advance to the Final Four, he was completely and utterly unstoppable.
The most amazing thing is that nothing in that paragraph above is hyperbole. McDermott scored 41 points once in 2012, but it was on the road against a mediocre Bradley team under a first-year head coach. He scored 39 points earlier in 2013 against Missouri State, but it was against a struggling Bears team who went on to finish in 7th place. Those were brilliant games, too, but to have this kind of game — 15-18 from the floor, 5-8 from three-point range, 6-6 from the line, with six rebounds and three assists – and to do it in front of the entire country on national TV, against the toughest defensive team in the league, when the stakes are at their absolute highest?
Yeah.
#5: Men’s Basketball defeats Cincinnati in NCAA Tournament (March 22)
Creighton went ten years between their previous two NCAA Tournament wins (March of 2002 over Florida, March of 2012 over Alabama), but just over 12 months between their next two thanks to a defeat of Cincinnati this March. They struggled early on, committing seven turnovers in the game’s first seven minutes, but thanks to a plethora of #WraggeBombs, they built a 32-27 lead at the half.
The Bearcats succeeded at dictating tempo and style of play, but little else. Creighton outrebounded them 32-31, and took advantage of their hyper-aggressive defense to draw foul after foul — and most importantly, make the free throws. 18 more made free throws than Cincinnati, to be exact.
Ethan Wragge’s threes stretched the floor, giving Doug McDermott room to do damage, which he did, scoring 27 points on a dazzling array of drives to the hoop, fadeaway jumpers, circus shots, and long-range threes. It got the attention of a nation of casual hoops fans who discovered what Creighton fans had known for a while: Doug McDermott is pretty good at basketball.
McKenzie Fujan scored 24 points in the team’s first-round win over Syracuse. (Photo by Mike Spomer/WBR)
#4: Women’s Basketball takes down Syracuse in NCAA Tournament (March 23)
It had been a little longer since the women’s basketball team was victorious in the NCAA’s, as their last win came clear back in 1994, making their first-round win over Syracuse this March rank higher on WBR’s list than the men’s team’s win. The 10th seeded Bluejays were able to pull off the upset thanks to 24 points from McKenzie Fujan, who keyed a comeback midway through the first half.
Down 14-5 ten minutes into the opening half, Fujan drained three consecutive three-pointers to pull the Jays within 17-15. After a Orange basket, Carli Tritz brought them to within one with a three-pointer, and then on the next possession, another three from Fujan gave them the lead. She had 17 points for Creighton in the opening period, shooting 6-of-7 from the field, including 5-of-6 six from beyond the arc.
The Jays built leads as large as ten points in the second half (47-37 with 8:39 to play) and then staved off a last-gasp run by Syracuse to hold on for the 61-56 win, giving Jim Flanery his first win in the NCAA Tournament as head coach.
#3: Volleyball beats Arkansas in NCAA Tournament (December 6)
Creighton’s volleyball team won a first-round match in the NCAA’s for the second consecutive year, defeating Arkansas 3-1 earlier this month to advance to the second round. They jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the first set, only to see the Razorbacks come back with a vengeance to take the opening game 25-22.
In the second set, the Jays took a commanding 12-1 lead with the Razorbacks committing seven attack errors on Creighton’s first 11 points. They’d roll to a 25-14 win, thanks to 6.5 blocks, to even the match at one set apiece. Five more blocks in the third set were critical in the Jays’ 25-22 win, as they mounted an 8-1 run to come back from a 9-7 deficit. In the deciding fourth set, they fell behind 23-19, then finished on a 6-3 run to take the match. After tying it at 24-all, Leah McNary pounded a kill to force match point before Kelli Browning and Michelle Sicner stuffed Arkansas’ Hayley Koop on match point for the win.
It was the third NCAA win in four years for Kirsten Bernthal-Booth’s budding program, and though they’d go on to lose a heartbreaker to #14 Kansas on their home floor in the next round, it did nothing to diminish what they’d accomplished — winning eight of their final 11 matches, and 23 matches overall, second-most in program history.
#2: Men’s Basketball Wins Valley Tournament in Final Year (March 10)
In front of the largest contingent a single school had ever brought with them to St. Louis — officially about 4,000 fans, but unofficially probably somewhere north of 6,000 — Creighton defeated Drake and Indiana State to advance to the championship game. Arch Madness had become The Creighton Invitational over the years, and if this was going to be the last one, everybody wanted to be there to witness it.
The Jays celebrate after winning the 2013 MVC Tournament. (Photo by Adam Streur/WBR)
“The roar. My goodness, the roar,” Creighton Otter wrote after the Drake game. “It looked like a blue-out in the Scottrade Center. It sounded like an overwhelming tidal wave of blue-clad crazies crashing onto the hard court after every Doug McDermott make and terrible officiating call. Creighton fans overtook the turnstiles in St. Louis Friday afternoon. They came from all over the Midwest and beyond to see CU win the weekend.”
The rumblings about Creighton being invited to the reconstituted Big East began in December, but had really picked up steam by early March. Their imminent departure from the Missouri Valley threatened to overshadow the 2013 MVC Tournament, especially as the weekend progressed and most people began to realize it was merely a case of “when”, not “if”, Creighton would be leaving their longtime conference.
That made the stakes even higher than normal for the Sunday afternoon championship game, for not only was this Creighton vs Wichita State for the MVC Tournament Title eight days after they’d played for the regular season crown, it was likely their final meeting ever as conference foes — and perhaps their last meeting for the foreseeable future.
What followed was a sometimes-ugly (the teams combined to start 0-15 from the floor), sometimes-amazing (Ethan Wragge making three consecutive threes, and missing a fourth-straight by an eyelash), always-competitive battle of wits. Holding an 11-point lead with just over three minutes to play, Wichita State rattled off 10 straight points to make it a one-point game with less than a minute to go. Coming out of a timeout, the Shockers’ defense took away every option Coach Greg McDermott had drawn up, and as the shot clock ran down, Jahenns Manigat put the ball on the floor, found a crease in the defense, and drove all the way to the rim for a layup to give the Jays a three-point lead. Inbounding the ball without a timeout, the Shockers got the ball to Malcolm Armstead, who missed a contested three-pointer at the horn.
It did indeed turn out to be Creighton’s swan song in the Valley, and what a way to go out.
The crowd of media and fans inside DJ Sokol Arena watches the Fox Sports announcement. (Adam Streur/WBR)
#1: Creighton Joins Big East (March 20)
The rumors became reality just after 10am local time on Wednesday, March 20: Creighton graduated from the land of mid-major athletics and joined the majors, accepting an offer to become a member of the Big East Conference. The move became official on July 1, and continues to be a transformational move both for the University and for the athletic department. It’s the biggest moment in CU athletics, perhaps ever, and certainly of 2013.
