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Morning After: Creighton 91, Wichita State 79

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[Box Score]

Key Stats: Creighton outrebounds Wichita State 24-21, just the third team to outrebound WSU this season. Creighton outscores WSU in the paint 42-30. Creighton shoots 10-12 from inside the arc in the first half, and 12-14 from inside the arc in the second half.

Act I, Pregame Goosebumps: 45 minutes before the tip, with the student section already packed to the gills, the Jays engaged in a little dunk and trick shot showcase to the delight of the students, who oohed and aahed at each bucket. I loved seeing this because it showed me that despite everything riding on the game, the team was loose, and that was a very good sign.

About 20 minutes before tip, the team came back out in their shooting shirts for warmups. Josh Jones, as he has been at every home game since his “retirement”, was dressed in street clothes. But when the lights went down and the team ran out of the tunnel to the tune of “The White and The Blue” about 15 minutes later, the camera showed each player emerge from the locker room one by one, as it does every game. Just when it looked like everyone was out, one final player ran out by himself — it was Jones, who stood in full uniform with his hands on his hips, flashing a grin and a look of “Gotcha!” The roar from the crowd had to register triple digits on the decibel meter, and continued as he ran through a couple of layup lines, making (of course) both shots he took.

As the teams lined up for the national anthem, public address announcer Jake Ryan asked the crowd to stand for “Gloria al Bravo Pueblo”, the national anthem of Venezuela — homeland of senior Gregory Echenique. The big man flashed a look of complete and utter surprise, and as the song blared from the P.A. with the Venezuelan flag displayed on the video boards, he appeared genuinely touched.

Then came the starting lineups, which featured the usual small smattering of boos for each Shocker player as they were introduced, and the usual large cascade of boos for Shocker coach and Valley Villain Gregg Marshall when his name was called. When it came time for the Bluejay five to be introduced, the roars were as loud as ever, particularly for seniors Grant Gibbs and Gregory Echenique. After Jahenns Manigat, traditionally the last of the starters to run out, had his name called, Jake Ryan bellowed, “And finally, today’s honorary starter, a 6’2″ guard from Omaha, Number Five, JOSH JONES!” Jones ran through the line of teammates, slapping high fives, and the resulting roar reminded me of a line Al Michaels delivered during ABC’s coverage of the 1987 World Series in Minnesota. “Forget the decibel meter, get the Richter Scale! Now we know what sound FEELS like!”

That sound only increased when, as the Wichita State players huddled up for their final prepartion, the P.A. played a sound clip of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz proclaiming, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” That was almost immediately followed by this clip on the video boards:

“You all know what you have to do. Remember, no one, and I mean NO ONE, comes into our house and pushes us around. This is your game now gentlemen. And for you seniors, it’s your last one…so make it count, because you’ll remember it for the rest of your lives. Let’s get ’em.”

Holy crap, that gives me goosebumps now. You can imagine what it was like inside the arena, 30 seconds before tip.

Act II, Game Time: Creighton has gotten off to slow starts a lot this year, particularly during their February swoon. On Saturday, Doug McDermott apparently decided that a slow start was simply not an option, so he took it upon himself to take over the game while his teammates got their sea legs. He scored the team’s first nine points on an array of jump shots and layups, and didn’t miss a single shot in a first half where he scored 18 points.

On defense and on the boards, McDermott took the Rudy speech to heart, helping set a tone early and often that the Bluejays would not be pushed around. In these teams’ first meeting back in January, Wichita State outscored the Jays 44-20 in the paint and outrebounded them 22-13 on the offensive glass. From the outset on Saturday, it was clear the Jays were not about to let that happen again. Wichita State hit some open shots, but for the most part, they were limited to one shot per possession, and the vast majority of their attempts were jump shots because Creighton’s defenders refused to allow the sort of dribble penetration that killed them in Wichita. Bluejay defenders switched effectively, communicated well, and closed out well on shooters with hustle and purpose, forcing the Shockers into tough shots.

Offensively, what can you say? They were 13-19 in the first half for 68%, 20-28 for 71.4% in the second half, and 11-21 from three-point range for the day. Their ball movement and spacing were sublime, and obviously, McDermott was genius. Just how brilliant a game McDermott had will be one for the history books to look back on and decide; it’s always tempting to label the most recent historic performance as the “best ever”, because immediacy often clouds one’s judgment of such things. But I suspect that history will be kind to this one. As the years pass, we’ll look back at McDermott’s game on Saturday and recognize it as one of the two or three greatest performances ever by a Creighton Bluejay, if not the single greatest game in the history of the program.

Creighton was an independent from 1948 through 1977. Since CU’s return to the MVC for the 1977-78 season, there have been three games in the conference between teams tied for first place on the final day of the season. Creighton has not been involved in any of them, and indeed, has never played a “winner take all” game for the regular season conference title in the history of their program — nearly 100 years of basketball. Games like Saturday have a different level of pressure, a different level of intensity, and it was on that stage that McDermott had the most remarkable game in a career full of remarkable games.

He scored 41 points once last year, but it was on the road against a mediocre Bradley team under a first-year head coach. He scored 39 points earlier this year against Missouri State, but it was against a struggling Bears team who went on to finish in 7th place. Those were brilliant games, too, but to have this kind of game — 15-18 from the floor, 5-8 from three-point range, 6-6 from the line, with six rebounds and three assists — and to do it in front of the entire country on national TV, against the toughest defensive team in the league, when the stakes are at their absolute highest? That right there, my friends, is the fine line that separates great players from legendary players.

Up 36-31 at the break, the Jays went right back to McDermott to open the second half. He hit a three just 12 seconds into the closing stanza, one of four he’d hit in the second half en route to 23 points after the break. Included in those 23 points were back-to-back three pointers after Wichita State had cut the lead to 71-65 with 5:20 to play, pushing the lead back out to 11, and two layups to ice the game in the final three minutes. He exited with 27 seconds left to a standing ovation, chants of “One More Year” and an emotional embrace from his father.

There were 18,613 fans in attendance, and 20 years from now, there will be three times that many who will claim to have been there when Doug scored 41 on the Shockers to win the title.

Act III, The Postgame: If you’d have guessed before the game that Josh Jones would have the longest, most entertaining Senior Night speech, you wouldn’t have gotten much disagreement. But while Jones didn’t disappoint, Grant Gibbs and Gregory Echenique were equally eloquent (and against all odds, gave longer speeches). For those who weren’t there, here’s what their speeches sounded (and looked) like:

Quotables: “That’s an incredible performance by our team. I couldn’t be more proud of them, with the way they’ve conducted themselves off the floor and in the locker room throughout the season, conducting themselves in a championship fashion. You’d like to think that good things will happen to guys who do the right things, and so I’m proud that they’re champions on the floor as well.” -Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

“We beat a very good basketball team today on a day when they played pretty well, especially with the way they shot the basketball. But obviously Doug had an incredibly special day. Austin and Grant and their ability to handle the pressure to deliver passes on time was big. Gregory was really good, and Ethan Wragge had a stretch in the second half where we’re trying to buy Doug and Greg a little rest, and lo and behold we stretch the lead out by six or seven points while those guys are out of the game.” -Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

“The fans were incredible. It was one of the best environments I’ve been part of. I’m proud to call this group a champion, they deserve it.” -Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

“It’s been a goal for us all season to win the regular season championship, we had a couple of tough stretches there but we never hung our heads. We kept practicing trying to get better, and all that hard work pays off in times like these.” -Doug McDermott in postgame press conference

(On his big game) “I thought I ran the floor better than I had. Shots were going in. My teammates did a good job of finding me in the right spots when they could tell I was feeling it, so I have to give a lot of credit to them.” -Doug McDermott in postgame press conference

“He’s had a lot of performances where he’s had 25 or 30 and it didn’t feel like he did, but that was an extremely loud 41. Every one of his buckets was huge. He was in a great rhythm, and it’s probably the best performance I’ve ever been a part of.” -Grant Gibbs in postgame press conference

And Now, Here’s What You Had to Say:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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