Two hundred all-session tickets. That’s it. That’s all Creighton sold in March 1991 for the first Missouri Valley Conference Tournament played in St. Louis. It is a far cry from the nearly 3,000 all-session tickets Bluejays officials sold for the 2012 MVC Tournament, the 22nd iteration of “Arch Madness.”
Played on campus sites from 1978 to 1990, the MVC Tournament made its debut at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis in March 1991. Creighton won the inaugural Arch Madness event; in the two decades that followed Bluejays teams would hoist the championship hardware six other times.
Here’s a quick glance at some of Creighton’s most memorable moments at the MVC Tournament in St. Louis.
1991 — Starting Things in Style
- Creighton 77, Drake 58
- Creighton 71, Southern Illinois 66
- Creighton 68, Missouri State 52
How well did the Bluejays play in the 1991 MVC Tournament, the first in St. Louis? Bob Harstad, Duan Cole, Chad Gallagher, and Latrell Wrightsell earned four of the five spots on the All-Tournament team.
After outlasting Missouri State (then Southwest Missouri State) for the regular season championship, Tony Barone’s Bluejays tried to do what they had done two years previous — sweep the league’s two championships. Creighton came to the Gateway City winners of 12 of their previous 13 games. They left St. Louis with a bid to the NCAA Tournament thanks to the Dynamic Duo and exceptional guard play.
Harstad capped a tremendous career with the tournament’s Most Valuable Player honor. He remains the school record holder for career points (178) and rebounds (96) in MVC Tournament games.
Gallagher started the tournament on the sidelines during practice, suffering from the flu. He would persevere, though. He scored 14 points against Drake, 17 against Southern Illinois, and 13 against Southwest Missouri State.
Meanwhile Cole and Wrightsell had outstanding tournaments from the perimeter.
Cole scored 21 points in a quarterfinal blowout against Drake; the second time he scored 21 points against the Bulldogs that season. He would go on to score 52 points in the three games, good for the fourth highest total in a single MVC Tournament in school history.
Wrightsell collected 8 steals against Drake; again, the second time he swiped 8 against the Bulldogs that season. He would score a career-high 16 points against Missouri State in the championship game, just hours after learning his father died of cancer.
Ultimately, a switch to a 1-3-1 half-court trap helped Creighton capture momentum in the championship game against the Bears. The two teams had split two close games in the regular season. But SMS scored just 19 points and shot 20.6% in the second half, and the Bluejays won going away.
1999 — The Eight-Year Itch
- Creighton 68, Illinois State 63
- Creighton 78, Missouri State 70
- Creighton 70, Evansville 61
Barone left Creighton following the 1991 season, taking the head coaching position at Texas A&M. After leading CU to two NCAA Tournaments in three years, and with Harstad and Gallagher exiting after two of the most successful careers in Creighton history, a drop-off was inevitable. But in the eight seasons that followed the 1991 MVC Tournament title, the Bluejays didn’t win a single game in St. Louis. Heck, Creighton didn’t even make it to Arch Madness in 1993 and 1994.
Burton Haun. Creighton University’s Rodney Buford, sits on the back of University…. United Press International. 02 Mar. 1999. eLibrary. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
Dana Altman came to the Hilltop after that second failure to make the MVC Tournament, and his first team at CU missed out on Arch Madness too. His teams in 1996, 1997, and 1998 made it to St. Louis but dropped their first games.
In 1999, Altman’s team entered the tournament as the #2 seed for the second straight season. Led by senior standout Rodney Buford, the ’99 team would usher in a decade of Creighton dominance at Arch Madness, a stretch during which CU would win six tournament titles.
Buford, the school’s leading scorer, went scoreless in the first half of the quarterfinal game against Illinois State and shot just 2-10 from the field in that win. He finished with just 16 points in the semifinal win against Missouri State, although he had arguably the biggest basket of the night on a deep three-pointer to erase the Bears’ only lead of the game with just under 7 minutes to go.
Burton Haun. Creighton University’s Ben Walker joins fans and holds up a sign…. United Press International. 02 Mar. 1999. eLibrary. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
And things weren’t going well for the senior standout at halftime of the championship game against Evansville. That was until Ben Walker blew Buford up in the locker room during the break, challenging him to take over the game. Buford did, ending the evening with 21 points and 13 rebounds and punching Creighton’s ticket to the Big Dance for the first time since 1991.
Buford won tournament MVP honors, but it was the sophomore Walker who broke out as a star that evening.
2000 — Repeat is Sweet
- Creighton 71, Bradley 62
- Creighton 71, Indiana State 69
- Creighton 57, Missouri State 45
The next season, Altman and the Bluejays came to St. Louis sans Buford. Their only chance to advance to another NCAA Tournament was winning three games in three days. But crazier things have happened at Arch Madness, and by the end of the tournament juniors Ryan Sears and Walker had managed to do what many thought was unthinkable just a few days before.
Creighton entered the MVC Tournament with a #4 seed, the lowest in school history for a team that eventually won the tourney title. Freshman Kyle Korver paced the Bluejays in their quarterfinal win against Bradley, scoring a career-high 25 points thanks in large part to five three-pointers.
In the semifinals, the Bluejays used a 14-0 run to end the first half and trigger an upset of top seed Indiana State. The Sycamores answered with second-half runs of 17-0 and 7-0. Creighton led 68-66 with 44 seconds left, but Matt West missed two free throws and the Trees had a chance to tie or take the lead with the shot clock off. Walker came away with a steal, hit two free throws, and Livan Pyfrom had a clutch rebound and tip-out as time expired to send CU to the championship game for the second straight year.
In the finals, Sears took over. The tournament’s MVP, Sears scored 15 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, dished 4 assists, and had 3 steals against Missouri State. Walker joined him on the All-Tournament team, earning the honor for the second straight year.
2002 — Creighton, Southern Illinois Start Something Special
- Creighton 80, Northern Iowa 65
- Creighton 90, Illinois State 63
- Creighton 84, Southern Illinois 76
Creighton beat #1 Indiana State in the semis in 2000. The next season, the Sycamores repaid the favor. The Bluejays still qualified for the 2001 NCAA Tournament as an at-large team, but Altman’s squad couldn’t claim a third consecutive championship as the tournament’s top seed, dropping a semifinal to Indiana State.
In 2002, Creighton coughed up a chance to win an outright league championship, losing their last regular season game to Drake at home. Motivated to win a championship at Arch Madness, Kyle Korver and Terrell Taylor made sure the Bluejays would at least played for one.
Northern Iowa made sure Korver wouldn’t beat them in the quarterfinals, so the MVC Player of the Year deferred to his teammates en route to a blowout win against the Panthers. Brody Deren (17 points, 8 rebounds), Mike Grimes (12 points, 9 rebounds), and Joe Dabbert (6 points, 6 boards) controlled the frontcourt against an undersized UNI team.
In the semifinal win against Illinois State, Korver scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in the first half and then spent the second 20 minutes resting a sore foot, playing only 5 more minutes. Taylor scored 19 points as the Bluejays pummeled Illinois State and set up showdown in the championship game with newly minted rival Southern Illinois.
They may have shared a regular season title with the Salukis, but Korver and Taylor and the Bluejays left no doubt about the better team in the MVC Tournament championship. Taylor led CU with 20 points, Korver added 18 and 9 rebounds, and both men earned All-Tournament Team honors. Korver won the MVP, adding to his regular season Player of the Year award.
2003 — After Two One-Point Games, Bluejays Leave No Doubt in Championship Game
- Creighton 57, Indiana State 56
- Creighton 70, Wichita State 69
- Creighton 80, Southern Illinois 56
The most successful season in recent Creighton basketball history almost had a much different look — twice. After 26 regular season wins, the 2002-2003 Bluejays entered Arch Madness as the tournament’s #2 seed and dead set on winning a championship. Popular thought held that Southern Illinois was the only team that truly stood in CU’s way.
But the Bluejays needed late game heroics to eek out one-point wins against Indiana State in the quarterfinals and Wichita State in the semis. Against the Sycamores Creighton missed its last five shots, going scoreless over the final 4:52 and watching the Trees try to pull the upset. CU did just enough down the stretch to win, though, including grabbing clutch rebounds after defensive stops.
Against the Shockers, Creighton was on the wrong end of a 40-30 halftime score. Wichita State played one of its best halves of the season, shooting nearly 60% from the field and committing only 4 turnovers. Altman let his seniors know what he thought about their effort during the intermission, and Korver scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half to keep Creighton close. His last three-pointer gave CU a 2-point lead with 90 seconds to play.
What happened over the course of that final minute and half was one of the wildest finishes this fan’s seen in St. Louis in the past 15 years. With a few seconds left and the ball in the hands of Wichita State’s Randy Burns, DeAnthony Bowden snuck up from behind the Shockers guard and poked it free. Larry House connected on a dunk off an inbounds play immediately thereafter, giving CU a 4-point lead. Burns hit a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer, but the Bluejays had punched their ticket to the MVC Tournament championship game.
Waiting for the Jays on Monday night were the Salukis, and the two teams prepared for what anyone who knew anything about college hoops assumed would be a close, bitter basketball game. Twenty minutes in, though, Creighton led 42-16 and SIU had effectively been run over by a freight train triggered by stifling CU defense.
Korver guarded Jermaine Dearman, House and Bowden buckled Kent Williams down, and the Salukis shot just 15.6% from the field in the first half. Meanwhile House scored 11 of his game-high 20 points in the first 20 minutes, pacing the Bluejays on both ends of the court. Creighton opened the game with a 10-0 lead, charged out to a 18-4 margin, forcing SIU head coach Bruce Weber to continue burning timeouts.
Korver would win his second consecutive MVC Tournament Most Outstanding Player award, giving him back-to-back regular season and Arch Madness MVP honors. House joined him on the All-Tournament Team. And at the end of the night, Creighton had won four Arch Madness championships in five seasons.
2005 — Mathies, Motz Shoot the Bluejays to a Title
- Creighton 69, Illinois State 52
- Creighton 70, Wichita State 60
- Creighton 75, Missouri State 57
The 2004-2005 Creighton Bluejays spent much of the season trying to shake out of a funk. Not that Nate Funk, a first-team All-MVC performer, didn’t try his hardest to turn things around. But with a month to play in the season the Jays were looking at a second straight trip to the NIT as a likely destination following Valley play.
But the Bluejays got hot, and a bit lucky. They took a five-game winning streak to St. Louis. In the quarterfinals CU summarily bounced Illinois State behind 20 points from Funk and a career-high 15 points from Jimmy Motz. Johnny Mathies made 13 of 15 free throw attempts in a physical, intense 10-point win over Wichita State in the semifinals, with Motz adding three more three-pointers and Funk chipping in 14 points.
The luck? It came in the form of Southern Illinois, the tournament’s top seed, losing in excruciating fashion in the semifinals to Missouri State. The Salukis blew a 23-point lead, scoring only 19 second-half points against MSU.
So the Bears and Bluejays met on a Monday night for the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Missouri State beat Creighton twice in the regular season, but the Bluejays pulled away from a 52-50 lead with just under 8 minutes to play en route to an 18-point victory.
Motz hit four more three-pointers, Mathies scored 14 points and dished 5 assists on his way to tournament Most Outstanding Player accolades, and freshman Dane Watts scored 14 points as Creighton won Arch Madness for the fifth time in seven seasons.
2007 — Funk, Bluejays Finally Topple Salukis
- Creighton 59, Indiana State 38
- Creighton 75, Missouri State 58
- Creighton 67, Southern Illinois 61
Nate Funk was a freshman in 2003, when Creighton humiliated Southern Illinois in the MVC Tournament championship game. Between then and Arch Madness 2007, Funk hadn’t beaten the Salukis in eight tries.
Derik Holtmann. SPORTS SOILLINOIS-CREIGH 1 BL. Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. 04 Mar. 2007. eLibrary. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
From the onset of the 2007 MVC Tournament, it seemed as though Funk was determined to force a decisive game between CU and SIU himself. He led the Jays with 14 points in an quarterfinal route of Indiana State. Funk followed that performance with a dominating semifinal effort against Missouri State, scoring 33 points (a Creighton record for a MVC Tournament game) as CU broke away from the Bears in the second half.
In the championship game, amidst a raucous sold-out Scottrade Center crowd, Funk paced the Bluejays to an upset of the nation’s #11 team. SIU received outstanding efforts from Jamaal Tatum, Bryan Mullins, and Matt Shaw, but Funk (19 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds) led Creighton to the six-point win, picking up the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award for his play.
It was a sweet ending to careers for Funk, Anthony Tolliver (15 points, 13 rebounds, 2 steals in the championship game), and Nick Porter (15 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals), and all three Bluejays earned All-Tournament honors.
2009 — 1.9
The circumstances surrounding Booker Woodfox’s game-winning shot against Wichita State in the quarterfinals of Arch Madness were frustrating. Creighton blew a 22-point lead, with WSU taking a 62-61 lead with just a few seconds left.
That set the stage for Woodfox to hit one of the more improbable shots in MVC Tournament history. With the clock reading 1.9 seconds, Woodfox took an inbounds pass, faked a shot, and pulled up from medium range for a jumper as time expired. The referees reviewed the play and counted the shot, sending CU fans into mass hysteria and leaving Shocker fans, well, shocked.