This week was a particularly tough week for me. Funerals galore. People that we knew and people that were part of the family. Sitting and listening to the different sermons and the eulogies of these friends that were lost, it was a good time to take stock where I am at in my own life. I realize that the things I thought were important are not as important as they seem when you see others in despair over the loss of a loved one. I looked at my own family and wondered how I will be remembered when my time is up and whether I gave it my all. My heart goes out to them as I know it has to be some of the toughest times in their life, but there are so many family and friends that are there to get them through it all that everything will be okay. Life will move on and eventually so will they. That is all you can do; keep going.
This is probably the worst analogy you could use, but in some respects it is almost fitting with the funerals I was a part of this week, and seeing the Bluejays lose at the end of it, to write the eulogy of the Creighton 2009-10 basketball season. It has taken more than three days to write my reaction to the Bluejay’s performance in Arch Madness. I think a lot of fans, coaches, players and even observers were expecting more than the opening round loss against Bradley. I know people are clamoring to know my thoughts about things (ha!) but it comes down to the fact that in a season like this, you run out of things to say to turn a loss into something positive. Surprisingly enough however, the positive spin I can put to this is the fact that as much as the Jays have struggled this season to meet expectations set over the past twelve seasons, there is still likely to be a postseason appearance.
The CBI and/or the CIT are likely to come calling to invite the Bluejays to participate this season. According to Jay Coleman’s Dancecard that uses a special formula to determine which teams will make the NCAA Tournament, the Jays are still in the top 130 teams in the list. With 97 teams going to the NCAA and NIT, there still needs to be another 32 teams to fill out the CBI and CIT tournaments. Since the CIT only invites “Mid-Major” schools, that helps Creighton even more as teams like North Carolina, Texas Tech, Boston College, Arkansas, Oregon and Michigan won’t be in the mix.
Reaching the postseason at this point may be a reward to the seniors like Justin Carter, Chad Millard, and Cavel Witter, but that is usually reserved for the Big Dance or even the NIT. However, when it comes down to taking part in the CBI or CIT, do you do something different? Is it still a reward? For some, the CBI or CIT could be a reward for a decent season and you can tout that you made the postseason. But for Creighton, I see this as an opportunity to set things up for next season.
With the success Creighton has had over the past decade, the expectations have been gradually getting higher for this program, whether it was asked for or not. If they do indeed get the opportunity to play one or more games yet this season, this is the opportunity to try something different, whether it be coaching, personnel, or anything else out of the ordinary. I’m sure there were some things that may not have been tried during the regular season because of the comfort of sticking with the tried and true things that took this program to where it was at heading into this season.
In theory, the majority of this team is expected to be back. The graduation of Cavel Witter, Justin Carter and Chad Millard leaves what you think heading into next season would be a core of 10 players along with Rutgers transfer Greg Echenique being able to play starting mid-December. Unfortunately you have the dangling questions of whether P’Allen Stinnett will be back next season and whether Andrew Bock will stay here after being buried in the bench since early January. There are rumors about other players floating around that seem preposterous, but yet make you think that you may not have the veteran team coming back that you hoped for. But I think it is key to turn to the youth of this team to build it back up. The insertion of Josh Jones and Ethan Wragge into the starting lineup was a big step in these last four games. With potentially 6 seniors going into next season, you know the expectations will still be there as 4 of them have been a part of this program for 3 or more seasons.
In the end, with the breakdown in Arch Madness, I hope this is the last of I see of the 2009-2010 team and that it can be buried in a nice ceremony with a fitting eulogy. If there are a couple more games in this season’s future, it is time to try something drastically different. There is nothing to lose. From here on out, it is time to look forward and move on. Get ready for next season and look to the future.
