By a quirk of scheduling, Creighton is done playing half of the league before they’ve played Evansville even once and thus, will face them twice in the next two weeks. It will also be their first-ever game at the new Ford Center in downtown Evansville, after going 10-7 in seventeen games at venerable old Roberts Stadium. That record is probably surprising to some people — it was to me — because it seems like a place where the Jays struggled to play well, often against inferior teams.
The 2003 loss is the most infamous; coming in ranked in the Top 10 for the first time, they suffered a 74-66 loss just eight days after walloping the Aces 93-56 in Omaha. But there’s also the loss two years prior, when the Jays shot 26% from the floor, Ben Walker and Ryan Sears combined for 7 turnovers, Kyle Korver went 0-5 from behind the arc, and they lost 61-52. They lost at Evansville in 2000, as well — not because of putrid offense, but because of one of their worst defensive efforts of the season. Evansville’s Adam Seitz and Craig Snow scored 21 points each, and unheralded bench player Clint Keown scored 19 points while dishing out 8 assists as the Aces won 88-83. In 2008, Shy Ely incomprehensibly went 18-18 from the free-throw line, making 14 of them in the final six minutes, as the Jays lost 60-56 to one of the worst Evansville teams since they moved to D1.
And who can forget the 2004 loss, where Tyler McKinney was whistled for a foul with three seconds left in a tie game? Evansville’s Andre Burton missed the front end of the one-and-one, but Kyle Anslinger somehow corralled the rebound over Anthony Tolliver and threw up a desperation jumper that went in at the buzzer to give the Aces a 63-61 win.
Evansville’s fans are understandably nostalgic for Roberts Stadium; they did win five national championships in DII there. But it was a bit of a house of horrors for Creighton. Hopefully the Ford Center will be friendlier to them!
This year’s version of the Purple Aces feature perhaps the only player in the MVC that can match Doug McDermott’s offensive firepower. Colt Ryan has actually outpaced McDermott in conference games, averaging 22.4 points to DMD’s 21.7 (though McDermott still holds the edge for the season, 23.4 to 20.8). Creighton is 21-3 because McDermott’s supporting cast is both numerous and talented; Evansville is 11-12 because Ryan’s supporting cast is inconsistent, and not very deep.
Colt Ryan is probably not going to beat the Jays single-handedly; he’s tried to do that before, with no success. In four career games vs. Creighton, Ryan has scored 26, 31, 16 and 20 points for an average of 23.3 points per game, making at least 50 percent of his field goal attempts in all four of those games — and Creighton has won all four times by an average of nine points. Someone else (Kenny Harris, 11.4 ppg., or Denver Holmes, 11.0 ppg) will need to have a big night for Evansville to have a chance.
Evansville’s post presence is more of a theory than an actual thing. Pieter van Tongeren and Clint Hopf both graduated following last season, leaving them with exactly one experienced interior player — Matt Peeler, who played just 70 minutes a year ago, scoring a grand total of 14 points with 18 rebounds. Peeler has not progressed the way they’d hoped coming into the season, forcing the Aces to rely on a bevy of undersized freshmen in the post.
Ryan Sawvell (6’8″, 200 lbs.) has taken on a lot of the load inside, scoring in double-digits in six of the last ten games, with two games of 10 or more rebounds. His frame is better suited to playing the “4”, and at 200 pounds, he gets easily moved out of position against bigger, stronger players. Evansville will more than likely have to double-team both Gregory Echenique and Doug McDermott because of their lack of size, which should leave the Jays with a lot of open looks from the perimeter. It will be up to Jahenns Manigat, Josh Jones, Ethan Wragge and others to take advantage of those open looks.
In a lot of ways, this game is timed fortuitously for Creighton. The struggling Aces would ordinarily be the quintessential trap game — an opponent with an elite shooter, an unfamiliar new arena, a non-televised mid-week game against a middle-of-the-pack team that has had the Jays’ number over the years. But the Jays are coming off a bitter defeat in Cedar Falls, and are probably as locked in as they’ve been all year, focused on getting back in the win column. Just before the Super Bowl on Sunday, coach Greg McDermott tweeted the following:
Our Super Bowl is at Evansville Tuesday night. #focus
Creighton will come out and play well tonight. Given Evansville’s lack of size, if the Jays are knocking down shots, this game will get ugly. On the other hand, if their shots aren’t falling, all bets are off. I don’t see that happening though.
Catching Up with the Purple Aces: Evansville has lost seven games by a total of 14 points this year. The Aces fell to Wichita State and at Southern Illinois by a point, lost four two-point games (Indiana State, Illinois State, Tennessee Tech and TCU) and fell at UIC by four points. Four of those contests saw UE hold a lead in the final 1:30 of play … Freshman Ryan Sawvill notched his first double-double last week at Bradley, with 12 points and 16 boards … Evansville is hitting 76.3% of its free throws this season, tops in the league and 10th in the country … Evansville is looking to halt a 6-game losing streak to Creighton; the last win for UE against the Bluejays came on Feb. 13, 2008 … UE leads the MVC and is 9th in the nation in turnover margin (+4.5) … Junior Colt Ryan leads the MVC with 36.4 minutes per game, playing at least 31 minutes in all but one game this season and averaging 43.7 minutes in the three OT games for the Aces.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton has lost five previous games under Greg McDermott where the opponents’ winning points came in the final three seconds. On each of the previous four occasions, the Bluejays won their subsequent game — by an average of 18 points! … Tonight’s game features the nation’s No. 3 scorer, Doug McDermott, against the nation’s No. 10 scorer, Colt Ryan. The MVC hasn’t had two players finish in the top-10 in scoring since Bradley’s Hersey Hawkins and Southern Illinois’s Steve Middleton in 1987-88 … Interestingly, Evansville coach Marty Simmons ranked sixth nationally by averaging 25.9 points per game as a senior at Evansville that same year, but the Purple Aces were not part of the MVC at that time … Antoine Young has now played in 131 games at Creighton, third most in school history. The all-time leader is Kenny Lawson, who played in 143 games … Since the 1998-99 season, Creighton has won in Evansville eight times, and won a combined 10 postseason games in those seasons. However, in the six seasons the Bluejays lost at Evansville, Creighton only has only won postseason game.
The RUN-DMD Show: Doug McDermott has scored in double-figures in 25 straight games, CU’s longest stretch since Bob Harstad’s streak of 32 straight games from Feb. 24, 1990 to Feb. 25, 1991 … McDermott set a Creighton (and MVC) record for points by a freshman with 581 last year. This season, McDermott has 561 points to date, and needs just 21 more to pass Rodney Buford (in 1996-97) for most points in school history by a sophomore.
The Last Time They Played: On February 5 of last year, Creighton defeated Evansville 75-69 in Omaha. Evansville went up 23-15 in the first 12 minutes behind red-hot 10-for-14 shooting from the floor, as Colt Ryan was 4-of-5 for eight points to start the contest. But Antoine Young led five players in double-figures for Creighton, scoring 21 points with 7 assists. Doug McDermott had 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Josh Jones had 12 points, four assists and three steals.
The Series: Creighton owns a dominating 25-9 lead in its 34 games against Evansville. The nine wins marks the lowest win total the Aces have against any MVC opponent. The series is a bit closer at Evansville as the Jays lead only 10-7. Yes, they’ve lost only twice in Omaha to the Aces.
The Jays have won the past six meetings and 12 of the last 13 encounters in the series at all sites. Ten of the last 15 games have been decided by single-digits. Greg McDermott is 9-4 against Evansville (2-0 as Creighton head coach) and 2-0 against Marty Simmons at the Division I level. Simmons is 1-7 against Creighton.
Gratuitous Linkage: The Evansville Courier-Press’ Randy Beard has a nice breakdown of the Colt Ryan vs Doug McDermott matchup.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On February 7, 2006, Anthony Tolliver had 13 points,12 rebounds and a career-best seven steals as Creighton beat Evansville, 60-56 at Roberts Stadium.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
The Bottom Line: Creighton wins by double digits tonight, setting up a huge showdown with Wichita State on Saturday.
Jays 81, Evansville 69
