The roar. My goodness, the roar. Take approximately 7,000 Creighton hoops fans. Ply them with a cocktail or two. Heap a few heavy dashes of high expectations for the weekend, and shake it all up with one big sense of being on vacation. That concoction looks like a blue-out in the Scottrade Center. It sounds like an overwhelming tidal wave of blue-clad crazies crashing onto the hard court after every Doug McDermott make and terrible officiating call.
Creighton fans overtook the turnstiles in St. Louis Friday afternoon. They came from all over the Midwest and beyond to see CU win the weekend, and the Bluejays obliged the first of three requisite wins for an Arch Madness championship.
Drake put up a fight; the Bulldogs twice cut Creighton’s lead to 3 points midway through the second half. But a 15-2 run during 5 minutes late in the game sealed the deal for the Jays, who will meet Indiana State in the semifinals Saturday afternoon after the Sycamores outlasted Evansville 51-50 Friday.
Doug McDermott is Creighton’s all-time leading scorer (Spomer/Streur/WBR)
Creighton’s win over Drake was historic for a few reasons, chief among them McDermott setting the Creighton career scoring record. McDermott scored 10 of the team’s first 17 points, displaying a mix of three-point touch and the ability to finish around the rim. You know, classic Dougie Fresh. Those 10 points tied McDermott with Rodney Buford, Creighton’s all-time leading scorer. And as those of us in the crowd who paid attention to such things held off on a bathroom or beer trip to watch him score one more point to break the record, McDermott wouldn’t do so for another 8 minutes of game time.
Still, it was inevitable. And a bit anticlimactic, frankly, when he toed the free throw line and set the record with a one-for-two trip to the charity stripe. Still, that McDermott broke Rodzilla’s record in just three seasons is wild to me. I’m lucky to say I’ve been able to watch McDermott, Buford, Bob Harstad, and Chad Gallagher — the school’s top four scorers in history — during my time on Earth cheering for the Jays. But had you told me after that NCAA Tournament game in 1999 that Buford’s record would be bested by a guy in only three seasons, I’d have called you nuts. Or, as the kids around the Valley type on Twitter right now, #nutz.
As for the entirety of his afternoon, McDermott was usual Dependable Doug. With a building full of NBA scouts hanging on his moves (and, later, on Illinois State’s Jackie Carmichael’s ridiculous individual performance), McDermott scored 23 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in 35 minutes. He left the court to chants of “ONE MORE YEAR! ONE MORE YEAR! ONE MORE YEAR!” Indeed.
But for all of McDermott’s historic accomplishments and his game-high scoring output, the storyline from the CU side of things was the combined play of Gregory Echenique and Will Artino. Echenique hadn’t scored much in two games against Drake earlier this season: he put up just 2 points in a 30-point CU win in Omaha, and then battled foul trouble all night in Des Moines as Drake upset CU. And he went scoreless in the first half Friday.
Will Artino had a monster game against Drake (Spomer/WBR)
But up stepped Artino, Echenique’s sub when the CU coaching staff goes in favor of size and a high/low game instead of Ethan Wragge’s shooting touch from deep. Friday afternoon, Artino gave the Bluejays 14 energized and efficient minutes. Entering February, he had played double-digit minutes in just six games. Since the calendar flipped from January, though, he’s had five such games. Friday was arguably his most important performance of the season, given the stakes.
Artino checked in at the under-16:00 media timeout and immediately broke a 12-12 tie with a dunk. Fouled on the flush, he finished the traditional three-point play with a free throw. Two trips later, Artino missed a shot but secured the follow and scored again. He would grab two more rebounds before checking out with 9:07 to play in the first half. While he was in, Creighton’s lead grew as great as 9 points.
In 8 first-half minutes, the guy teammates and fans call Big Swag scored 7 points and ripped down 5 rebounds. He played the high-low possessions well. While Drake held Echenique scoreless in the first half, Artino was able to find success. He finished the day with a career-high 14 points and 6 rebounds (5 on the offensive glass).
Gregory Echenique had a monster second half against Drake (Spomer/Streur/WBR)
In the second half, though, Echenique got, um, engaged with things. He scored all 11 of his points, grabbed 6 of his team-high 11 rebounds, and swatted 5 of his season-high 6 blocked shots (the 6 blocks are second-most in an MVC Tournament game). During the game’s deciding 15-2 run, Echenique scored two traditional three-point plays, grabbed 3 of his 11 rebounds, and blocked two shots. Hammered on a no-call and forced to play at a disadvantage based on inconsistent referring in the frontcourt, Echenique seemed fired up. He flexed a few times, too, so as to remind the Bulldogs who the alpha dog in the paint was on Friday afternoon.
The tournament’s top seed sticks around for Semifinal Saturday. The 1998 Bradley Braves remains the only play-in winner to advance past the quarterfinals, when they beat a two-seeded Creighton team. Wichita State survived a close game against Missouri State Friday evening, and Illinois State broke away late from Northern Iowa to advance as the six-seed. The Valley will have four solid fan bases represented in the Scottrade Center Saturday afternoon, with white and blue and black and gold the predominant colors swirling around the lower bowl. The day sets up for some solid matchups:
The last time the two teams played, Indiana State made Creighton look completely lost. A blacked out crowd in Terre Haute helped the Sycamores to a resounding win. Meanwhile, it took a Carmichael karate kick and other late-game miscues for Illinois State to practically hand over a win to Wichita State in Normal.
Let the madness begin.