There was a time, not so long ago, when it seemed unfathomable to think Creighton could win 5 consecutive contests against Southern Illinois. Sure, it had happened before — from January 1996 through December 1998, the Bluejays beat the Salukis in 7 straight games. But during the better part of the past decade, the folks in Carbondale (who apparently still H8 CR8TON) claimed victory during the two stalwarts’ head-to-head matchups. That included a streak of 8 straight wins against CU, snapped only by a tremendous effort by Nate Funk, Anthony Tolliver, and Nick Porter in the finals of Arch Madness three years ago.
But after losing an ugly game by 4 points on national television during ESPN’s GameDay broadcast in January 2008, the Bluejays posted 4 consecutive wins in the series heading into Tuesday’s game at SIU Arena. Surely the Bluejays couldn’t steal a second straight win in Carbondale, a place that before 2009 CU hadn’t won since 2001, right? Wrong. A team that had won just two road games all season, a team that had been punished by 18 points in its previous two roadies, mustered an effort that many fans hope will create positive momentum heading toward Arch Madness next week. But whether or not that happens, Creighton fans would be well served to take note of the current state of Salukis basketball. Caution: it isn’t pretty, and it could very well happen on the Hilltop.
Antoine Young's 22 points lifted the Bluejays to a road win at SIU
The 2009-2010 Creighton basketball season has been a punch to the gut of many Bluejays fans; most notably, the ones who for years have begged that the Jays play some BCS schools in the non-conference, and up the ante with a more challenging pre-Valley schedule. A year after posting 27 wins and narrowly missing a berth in the NCAA Tournament, many Bluejays backers considered it a given that Dana Altman would have his team right back at the top of the conference.
Losing a floor general and a sweet-shooting guard with a sweet tooth appears to have been much more difficult to overcome, though. Sorting out substitution patterns, Fighting through injuries, confronting inconsistency, and trying to reclaim confidence (and a fleeting shooting touch from long range), Altman’s team went from winning a guaranteed 20 or more games per season and playing in a tournament of some kind to being unable to string together a modest 3-game win streak all season.
If it seems like a familiar scenario, that’s because it has happened before — to Southern Illinois. After that title game in 2007, the Salukis still made the NCAA Tournament and … shocker! … won two games in the Big Dance before pushing Kansas to the brink in the Sweet 16.
And then they lost Jamaal Tatum, the league’s Player of the Year in 2006-2007, to graduation. Still, the Salukis scheduled up, only to lose to USC, Indiana, Charlotte, and Butler in the non-conference season (all top 100 RPI teams). They put together a winning streak in the second half of the conference season, but ultimately lost Senior Day in Carbondale and then a quarterfinal matchup against Northern Iowa at Arch Madness.
The next season brought another tough non-conference schedule for Southern Illinois, including games against Duke, UCLA, Nevada, Western Kentucky, and Saint Mary’s (again, all losses). They lost super senior Bryan Mullins to an injury during the season, struggled through Valley play but narrowly avoided the play-in round at Arch Madness, but ultimately lost in the quarterfinals to Bradley. Teams were winning in Carbondale. Players left the team (or were kicked off). The fan base started pressuring coach Chris Lowery to get back to the winning ways of Floorburn U.
This season, the Salukis treaded a bit more cautiously when scheduling their non-Valley games. They entered Valley play 7-2 and proceeded to win their first two MVC games of the year. But they lost their next 4 Valley games, 5 of 6 total, and haven’t won more than 2 straight conference games all season. The Salukis will play on Thursday night in St. Louis, no doubt continuing the precipitous fall from the peak above the Valley where they used to sit.
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If you would have told Creighton fans a few years ago SIU was going to play on Thursday night in St. Louis, they would have likely laughed and you for being an idiot and responded with something like, “sure, and I bet the U.S. economy will falter, too!” And if you would have dared tell a Saluki fan the play-in games would in fact be in play for SIU, they would have told you to go stick something somewhere (that is, if they didn’t start chanting profane things directly into your hear at the beginning of the conversation).
The same could be said, though, about similar reactions from CU fans had the question been posed to them a few years ago (likely without the theatrics and profanity, though). Entering this season, the Bluejays hadn’t lost more than 11 games since 1996-1997. You know all about the streaks of 20 or more wins overall and 10 or more Valley wins. Success is a slippery slope in college hoops, but if there was a program stable enough to avoid catastrophic collapse it was surely the one spearheaded by Altman. Right? A drop-off akin to the one the Salukis are currently suffering was too drastic to predict, wasn’t it?
Not exactly. When the two teams met Tuesday to close the chapter on SIU Arena as modern hoops fans know it, both teams were in dire search for solutions. For the Salukis, their problems included a third straight season below the lofty expectations established by the previous years’ success by Lowery, Matt Painter, and Bruce Weber. For the Bluejays, it was learning to win on the road, a challenge that eliminated CU’s chances to avoid a negative blip on the national basketball radar. Jays fans watching the game on TV caught a glimpse of what the folks at Creighton must try desperately to avoid: a formerly formidable MVC team coughing up a second-half lead at home in front of empty seats at one of the previously most opposing venues in the Valley.
It has been a trying season for Creighton players, coaches, and fans alike, each group searching for answers and struggling to calibrate expectations. Close losses offer no consolation, but it still must be noted that the Bluejays played teams such as New Mexico, Dayton, George Mason, Michigan, and Northern Iowa (at home, at least) to the wire. The Jays have proven they can play with good teams, albeit not for a full 40 minutes. And the Salukis shouldn’t be considered a good team, especially considering Kevin Dillard didn’t suit up for the loss Tuesday. But another one of the Jays’ struggles — winning on the road — evaporated (for one night at least) in Carbondale.
And all of a sudden, building on the teaching experience offered by back-to-back butt-kickings on the road in conference play and losing a winnable game to Illinois State at home, a retooled starting lineup seized some positive momentum during the BracketBusters blowout of Loyola Chicago and carried it over to a win at SIU. A victory this weekend over Bradley during Cavel Witter, Justin Carter, and Chad Millard’s Senior Day would give the Bluejays their first 3-game win streak of the season, at just the right time.
It might be wishful thinking, and seriously flawed reasoning, to believe the Bluejays can build on a season’s worth of frustrations and tough outcomes and put together a run through Arch Madness. But stranger things have happened, right? You know, like Southern Illinois and Creighton both falling to the middle of the pack in the Missouri Valley Conference. It is still difficult to even type those words, just as it will be tough for the fan bases to swallow a play-in game for SIU and a middle-of-the-pack finish for the Bluejays. But nothing in college hoops is guaranteed, including the top seeds winning out in post-season tournaments. For now, that’s what the Bluejays will need to bank on — putting together a run akin to that of the 1999-2000 team, which won Arch Madness at the #4 seed.