With 16 minutes to play Saturday afternoon, in front of a hostile crowd of Missouri State fans at JQH Arena, Creighton held a 15-point lead over the Bears. Just two weeks ago, with 18 minutes to play on a Tuesday evening in Omaha, the Bluejays led Missouri State by 11 points. Saturday’s game ended up a loss just like that early January contest. And although MSU beat CU in Omaha by 12 points, and this weekend the Bears beat the Bluejays by 1 point, I’d contend the latter was much harder to stomach than the former.
I’m not sure why, though. Expectations is a word bandied about lately by Bluejays fans. When Dana Altman was the head coach, the expectations were clear: win 20 or more games overall, 10 or more Missouri Valley Conference games, compete for a Valley title, play well in Saint Louis, and make the NCAA Tournament. It doesn’t seem that the expectations for the program have changed much during Greg McDermott’s first year on campus, either. And that’s fine. But as a fan, I expect to see wins at home more often than wins on the road. That’s just the nature of collegiate hoops, at least generally. Sure, the Dukes and Kansases of the world hit the road and pick up wins with great regularity. But I don’t often expect Creighton to win away from Qwest Center Omaha against the top tier teams in the Valley.
Thus, you’d think I was more disheartened by seeing Creighton blow the 11-point lead a few weeks ago than by watching Missouri State rally in front of a raucous home crowd this weekend. But I’m not, because the Bluejays played so much better in Springfield than they did against MSU in Omaha. They shot a better percentage from the floor, from 3-point range, and from the free throw line Saturday than they did during the teams’ first meeting. They held the Bears to much lower shooting percentages from the field and from 3-point range, while limiting MSU to seven fewer free throw opportunities than they received in Omaha. And Creighton held Missouri State’s Adam Leonard, Nafis Ricks, and Will Creekmore to a combined 22 points; they shot 8-28 from the field (26%). Two weeks ago, those three players scored 28 points on 11-22 shooting.
For the better part of 39 minutes, the Bluejays outplayed the Bears. But when it came time to finish the effort, Creighton couldn’t do it.
When given the opportunity to shoot free throws, Darryl Ashford missed two with 95 seconds to play that would have built the Bluejays’ lead from 1 to 3. And after Gregory Echenique recorded his seventh block of the day with less than 30 seconds left, Kaleb Korver missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity after grabbing the loose ball rebound and getting fouled.
When the Jays needed a defensive rebound, after Adam Leonard missed a go-ahead jump shot with less than 20 seconds left, Missouri State’s Jermaine Mallett snatched his fourth offensive board of the day. That led to the easy inbounds play to Kyle Weems, who was sandwiched between Antoine Young and Doug McDermott but who still got wide open for a baseline gimmie after the point blank pass from Nafis Ricks.
For the game, MSU collected 19 offensive rebounds. McDermott grabbed 11 boards on his way to another double-double (he scored 15 points), and Echenique snapped up 7 rebounds. But no other Bluejay had more than 4, including Kenny Lawson (1), Ashford (1), Kaleb Korver (3), and Josh Jones (0). It marks the second time in three games that the Bluejays allowed their opponent to grab 19 offensive boards. Not surprisingly, both games were losses. Excruciating ones at that, given that the winning points in one loss (at Indiana State) occurred because of a last-second lay-up due to an air-balled shot attempt, and in the other loss (at MSU) resulted immediately following an offensive rebound by the home team.
During the teams’ first meeting, the Bears were the better group. CU needed a 10-0 run during the last 5 minutes of the first half to turn a deficit into a 9-point lead at intermission. The Jays maintained for a few minutes of the second half, but Cuonzo Martin had MSU read to go down the stretch. The Bears shot 68% in the last 20 minutes of that game, turned the ball over just 3 times, and limited Creighton to just 30% shooting from the field.
That’s why the second one hurts more, even if I never really expected the Bluejays to come back from Springfield with a win. Greg McDermott had his team in a position to pick up a big road win, up 10 with 10 to play. But during the last half of the second 20 minutes, Creighton’s point guard scored all but 2 of the team’s points. Young poured in 18 points on the night, but he needed 17 shots to do it. I’m sure if he had his way, he wouldn’t have had to hoist as many shots as he did. Give MSU credit for taking away entry angles from Creighton’s perimeter players, looks that would have allowed CU to get Echenique and McDermott more looks in the block. He only recorded 2 assists; Korver led the Jays with 5, and the team dished 9 total.
During the same time, the last 10 minutes of the game, Missouri State outrebounded CU 14-9, with 7 of the 14 boards coming on the offensive end. The Bears turned those 7 offensive caroms into 6 points, including the game-winner by Weems.
And yet the Bluejays had the ball, down 1, with 14 seconds to play — an eternity in college hoops. Yet when the Jays needed Young to make one more play Mallett, Missouri State’s defensive stopper, beat him to it. His fourth steal of the game, and third of the second half, led to a scrum for the basketball near midcourt that ended up in the hands of Adam Leonard. Time ran out on the game, and most likely on Creighton’s chances yet again for a Valley regular season title.
The Bluejays head to Cedar Falls with a 5-4 record at the halfway point of Valley play. That’s the same record CU had through 9 conference games last season, which ended with the Jays 10-8 headed to Arch Madness. Two years ago, when the Bluejays shared a regular season Valley title with UNI, they were 5-4 through 9 games too. That ninth game was a 12-point home loss to Drake; it was among the most frustrating games I’ve watched Creighton play in person during the past 10 years. That team responded by rattling off 10 consecutive conference wins in a row, eventually falling in the MVC Tournament semifinals to Illinois State. The year before that? Lawson and Korver were freshmen, and the Jays were … you guessed it, 5-4 after 9 Valley games.
My point? How you view Creighton’s next 9 Valley games depends entirely on your expectations. The Jays have 5 home games left, and only two of those are against teams in the upper tier of the league. Of CU’s 4 remaining roadies, only 2 come against top teams. CU already holds 3 road wins, and their 2 road losses are by a combined 3 points. This team may not have finished a few games down the stretch. But let’s see how McDermott and his coaching staff help them adjust for the homestretch of the regular season. If you’re expecting an outright league title, something that hasn’t happened since 2001, you might be disappointed. But if you expect this team to improve and be playing its best basketball come late February, it still may happen. And in McDermott’s first season at CU, shouldn’t that be the expectation?