I spent the weekend in Ankeny, Iowa. That’s right, home of the Ankeny Bulldog, Ryan Sears. And home of my in-laws.
A weekend trip to central Iowa to see the family is among my most relaxing excursions. Things are laid back. Sports take control of the TV. I drink copious amounts of coffee. Life is good. But throw a true Creighton road game into the equation, and a sleepy Saturday afternoon gives way to an evening resembling more of a crazed high school basketball atmosphere than the overly corporatized ambiance of a CU game at Qwest Center Omaha.
Sure, a lot of the atmosphere has to do with the fact that at least 10% of the 7,000 fans inside the Knapp Center were Creighton supporters. I mean, one of the two Drake student sections were chanting “Why so quiet?!?!” toward a smallish pocket of Bluejays fans … 10 minutes into the game. I was flashing back to my days in the Creighton Prep Birdcage at that point, wondering if it could devolve into any more of a high school environment. And then I saw a few signs in the student section calling out P’Allen Stinnett, a CU player who didn’t even make the trip to Des Moines. Coupled with some intermittent chants directed at Stinnett, it seemed the Drake student section was more intent on yelling at someone who wasn’t there than ragging on the actual players wearing blue.
And then there is the physical reminder that the Bluejays and Bulldogs were squaring off in Des Moines. That, my friends, is the nasty case of Numb Butt I get every time these two teams meet at the Knapp Center, thanks to the hard plastic backless bleachers on which the transplanted Jays fans convene. My backside experiences ferocious flashbacks to the countless basketball, football, and baseball games during which it endured some of the most uncomfortable sports venue accommodations imaginable.
Maybe it was the fact that this was only the second time I’ve been in Des Moines to see Creighton lose. Or maybe it was the fact that the PA announcer was akin to a more annoying, not-so-hip version of the dude who yells at the mic during Detroit Pistons games. But the bleachers were a bit harsher. The student sections were a tad more maddening. And the inability of the Bluejays to win another road game for the taking was more excruciating.
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Things went awry for the Bluejays right from the opening tip, when Kenny Lawson seemingly won the challenge at midcourt yet Josh Young came away with a steal and an uncontested layup. The next few minutes were brutal for the Bluejays, who saw the Drake Bulldogs drill a bevy of shots from everywhere on the court. After three minutes, the scoreboard read 15-5 in favor the Drake, with 9 of the points coming off three Ryan Wedel 3-pointers. The onslaught let up a bit for a few minutes, but never fully subsided, and with just about 6 minutes to play in the first half, the Bulldogs led by 15.
The Bluejays mounted a 15-8 run to end the first stanza, but the damage seemed irreversible at that point. CU might have only trailed by 8 at the break, but with Drake shooting 50% from the field and from 3-point range (and 92% from the free throw line) even the good news for Creighton (a 20-12 rebounding advantage) was unimportant. I mean, how much should Jays fans celebrate an 8-rebound advantage if the defensive boards (12-11 in favor of CU) were essentially the same? All that means is that Creighton grabbed offensive rebounds while Drake didn’t … because they never seemed to miss a shot! I’d take 7 first-half 3s over a 7-board advantage on the offensive glass any day of the week!
The good think about Drake’s hot first-half shooting display? It was bound to end. Right? Wrong. Well, half wrong. In the second stanza, the Bulldogs only shot 33% from long range, whereas the Bluejays picked things up a bit and hit 7 3s at a 47% clip. And with just about 9 minutes to go, Josh Jones hit a trey for CU to tie the game and send the loud minority of Creighton fans in attendance into an intense, albeit brief, frenzy. Just as Bradley never led during the Braves’ meeting with Creighton last week, so too did the Bluejays during their trip to Des Moines. Jones’ 3-pointer to tie would be as close as Creighton would come to making a run, as the defense was repeatedly unable to secure stops on the other end for the second half of the last 20 minutes of the game.
Speaking of the number 20 … the Bluejays allowed three 20-point scorers. Josh Young is one of my recent favorites in the Valley these past few years. He’s a solid scorer, a seemingly hard worker, and pretty clutch. He will become the all-time scoring leader in Drake history sometime during the next few weeks, so it was no surprise to see him scorch CU for 20 points Saturday night. But a few days after missing every shot he took against Northern Iowa, Wedel scored 20 points against the Bluejays (his highest total since scoring 21 points in November against Austin Peay. And freshman Seth VanDeest doubled his scoring average, pouring in 20 points (one off his career high of 21) and regularly besting the Bluejays’ post players.
As for Creighton’s frontcourt, it was nonexistent, especially on the defensive end. VanDeest routinely beat single coverage for high percentage shots, and he drew plenty of fouls on CU defenders (he was a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line). Both Kenny Lawson and Justin Carter were in foul trouble, which limited their aggressiveness on both ends of the floor. After scoring a combined 34 points against the Bulldogs a few weeks ago in Omaha, the two scored a total of 14 points Saturday night. After hoisting a season-high 31 3-pointers against Bradley on Wednesday, the Bluejays followed with 29 3-point attempts against Drake, signaling a bit of concession on behalf of the Creighton offense to their opponents’ interior defense. Lawson continues to not handle double teams well, and even when he does find an open shooter during an inside-out pass play, his teammates aren’t hitting shots — he recorded zero assists against DU, after posting 2 against Bradley. The book seems to be out on how to best defend Creighton’s most consistent offensive player. That, folks, is not a good development.
And neither is the road setback, the latest in a season’s worth of failed attempts to win away from Qwest Center Omaha. But that is nothing new for the majority of teams in the Missouri Valley Conference. Only Northern Iowa (5-1) and Wichita State (3-3) are at .500 or better on the road in Valley play. Heck, Illinois State and Missouri State only have one road win each. And Evansville, Creighton’s midweek opponent this week, hasn’t won a conference game at home or away. Still, if you play the “would have” game, it would have been great to win winnable roadies at Drake and Illinois State and Indiana State and match UNI’s road success. Alas, the Panthers look to be outpacing the rest of the league, already posting a 10-1 MVC record through 11 games.
The Bluejays still have a few chances to pick up road wins, including a trip to Cedar Falls in a few weeks, but roadies at Missouri State, UNI, and Southern Illinois are among the most challenging environments in the MVC. And for whatever reason, be it coaching or effort or experience, this Creighton team hasn’t exactly embraced and overcome extraordinary challenges through the first two-thirds of its season.