Yesterday, the Big East Conference released its All-Conference teams. Doug McDermott was a unanimous selection. Later this week, he’ll pick up the Big East Player of the Year award too. Teammate Ethan Wragge earned Honorable Mention for his work as one of the nation’s top sharpshooters. Just more accolades for a couple of guys who spent the past few years etching their names throughout the Creighton basketball record books.
Creighton, by the Computers
- #14 in Associated Press poll (03/10 edition)
- #14 in USA Today coaches poll (03/10 edition)
- #7 NCAA Official RPI (no update from 03/09)
- #7 Warren Nolan RPI (no change from 03/09)
- #9 KenPom (no change from 03/09)
- #11 ESPN BPI (no change from 03/09)
Bracketing the Bluejays
- #3 via Tim Krueger’s bracket
- #3 (3.07 average) via Bracket Matrix
CU Stat o’ the Day
99.1
That’s Doug McDermott’s StatGrade at Statsheet.com, making him the top player nationally according to the statistics-heavy website. McDermott (#1) and Bryce Cotton (#4) represent the Big East in StatSheet’s top ten; those two will finish in the same order for the Big East Player of the Year award, to be given out Wednesday in New York City.
Other notable entries on the list include Iowa State (DeAndre Kane, #3; Melvin Ejim, #5) placing two players in the top five and Kansas (Andrew Wiggins, #2; Joel Embiid, #8) placing two players inside the top ten.
What to Watch Today
San Francisco vs. BYU (approx. 10:30 p.m. CT, ESPN2) // West Coast Conference Semifinal #2
The BYU Cougars are squarely on the bubble; they’re an 11-seed at Bracket Matrix (10.73 average) and appear in 81 of 94 brackets submitted on the site. (Comparatively, Nebraska is also an 11-seed on Bracket Matrix, with an average of 11.00, but the Huskers appear on 77 of the 94 brackets). Whatever the Cougars do tonight will have a repercussion on their NCAA Tournament chances or those of another few teams. Plus, with the 8:30 p.m. start out in Vegas, the Dons and Cougars have the college hoops airwaves all to themselves tonight, the first day in the traditionally strong second leg of “Championship Week.”
Today in Bluejays Basketball History
March 10, 2003 — Creighton 80, Southern Illinois 56
It was a Monday night for the ages. After two one-point wins against Indiana State and Wichita State, Dana Altman’s Bluejays were pitted against Bruce Weber’s SIU Salukis for an Arch Madness championship. The two teams had met in the title game a year before, with Kyle Korver and Terrell Taylor leading the Jays to a win. In 2003, Korver would lead CU to a repeat championship on ESPN. Here’s what I wrote two years ago, before the 2012 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament:
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.
[Kyle] Korver guarded Jermaine Dearman, [Larry] House and [DeAnthony] 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 an 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.
Creighton Hoops Photo of the Day
Look at Ethan Wragge’s body. His lower half if facing one way, his upper half another. Yet he hits at a 47.8% clip, fifth-best in D-I (WBR/Adam Streur) CLICK TO BUY PHOTO