Wednesday night’s game against Drake felt like one of the weirdest Creighton games I have been to, almost surreal. The weather, the crowd, the game play, the energy…you name it. It almost made the actual game secondary. An environment that I hope does not last.
First was the weather. Many were scared away with the additional five or so inches dropped on the metro. I would likely say that most that made it to the game were people that were already around downtown and just stayed after work anticipating the snowy weather. I know I was one of those. I hit the Union Pizzeria and Sports Bar before the game with a few friends and there were not many people out compared to last Tuesday’s Northern Iowa game. We then took the shuttle over and got to the game a little later than I normally do, but with the number of people there, you would have figured it was still an hour before gametime. Actually it was about 20 minutes.
The crowd was abysmal. The lower bowl had barely any people in the lower bowl and the upper bowl had about the same number of people. I figure in the end there was probably 7000-9000 people actually there….no where near the almost 15,000 that were announced. There were more people that made it to a game at the Qwest in worst conditions, but I digress. About halfway through the first half as a token of appreciation from Creighton for the fans coming out, they said it was “rush” seating the rest of the game where anyone could sit in any open seat in the arena. Pretty much everyone from the upperbowl moved down to the lower bowl filled things in and sort of made the environment a little better.
Now with the people that made it to the game, I figured that these people in the crowd were the diehards, the ones that would cheer, make noise and the ones to create the environment that was there at the Civic back in the day. Wow, was I wrong. The crowd was lethargic and you could almost hear a pin drop. I heard about one or two boisterous fans that overpowered the crowd. It wasn’t until the final 11 seconds that the crowd woke from their slumber to fill the Qwest with some noise and that was over a perceived timeout that Drake took that they didn’t have. In the end they still got their timeout.
Oh wait, there was a basketball game last night, right? The Jays escaped with a 73-69 win and Justin Carter and Kenny Lawson had solid games with 17/7 and 17/6 respectively. Casey Harriman also continues to rise up to the occasion chipping in 10 points to go along with his tough play. Now I’m sure some of the fans at the game or even the ones all snug in their home watching the game thought they should have ran away against Drake since they are at the bottom of the league. Well has anyone looked at the standings? The Jays were down in that area too making some of the same mistakes that Drake has been doing all year. The Bluejays were up 13 early in the second half and had the opportunity to put Drake away, but some defensive breakdowns and some timely turnovers kept the Bulldogs nipping at their heels. Then the prevent offense was implemented that basically is run down the shot clock and come up with something in the last 5 seconds to see if the Bluejays can score.
Again free throw shooting was an adventure as Drake converted 17-of-19 free throws while the Jays were only 16-of-23 but they were 9-of-12 in the final three minutes when they counted the most.
Creighton was up 7 with 52 seconds left and the small crowd that was there started flooding out of the arena. Really? There is a lot that can happen in 52 seconds and was it really going to make a difference leaving early? So much for the diehards. But those that did leave missed a flurry of events that occurred–Drake hits a 3-pointer, Carter hits 1 of 2 free throws, Drake with a layup, Carter hits 1 of 2 free throws, Drake with another layup and the next thing you know it is a two point game with 11 seconds left. Then a timeout? It appeared to me and the others in attendance that Drake called a timeout when in fact they did not have any. On the way home it sounded like it was just an inadvertent whistle by the referees (which didn’t surprise me the way they were calling things on this night). Either way, it sparked the loudest sounds by the crowd all evening as the referees were trying to figure out what was going on, whether a technical was going to be assessed, and in essence gave Drake the timeout they wanted in the first place. Finally after all the commotion it was Creighton that then decided to call timeout.
Now the Drake press was bothering the Jays all night and in the ensuing inbounds, Kenny Lawson got trapped in the corner, a bad pass and Drake was inches away from hitting a tying layup with 3 seconds left, but missed and Cavel Witter was fouled and hit two free throws (got a second chance on the second one due to a lane violation) to seal it and it was game over and again Creighton survived another game.
It is now a trip to Wichita on Saturday against one of the hottest teams in the Valley this year. Also, Creighton hasn’t had a whole lot of luck at Koch arena in past years. It will be interesting to see what happens before another home game next Wednesday against Southern Illinois. I hope I see a different crowd next week. The Bluejays need the extra energy that we as the fans provide.
