A few weeks ago, I caught some heat for predicting Creighton would lose at Evansville. The prognostication looked more perilous being that it came immediately after the Bluejays’ blowout win against Indiana State on national television. Unfortunately, I was right. That doesn’t happen often: I thought the Jays could pull out a win in Cedar Falls, for example.
So maybe that’s why the annual reprise of Overreactor Man, a not-so-favorite character around the Ott house, a guy who shows up once or twice a year during college hoops season, and then once or twice again during Chicago Bears games, wasn’t quite the production it usually is.
(NOTE: Mrs. Creighton Otter would completely disagree with this assessment, and point out that any grown man taking a loss by college basketball players — or any athletes, for that matter — so hard is, in fact, quite the overreaction.)
The initial reason I penciled an “L” next to the Creighton @ Evansville date in my season schedule was partially borne from nostalgia. I remember sitting on a crappy couch, listening to an old boombox, while Kyle Korver and the 2002-2003 Creighton Bluejays lost a stunner at Roberts Stadium my senior year in college. The technology’s improved — we watched the video stream on the Internet Tuesday — but the result, and my reaction, were the same now as then.
Polyfro beat me to the punch when he drew parallels between last night’s loss in Evansville and a similar defeat suffered by Creighton in 2003. It was a great piece by my colleague (naturally), one that’s generated some talk about whether fans are overreacting to the Bluejays’ performance in the past week. While it is easy to get sucked into post-game negativity, especially the kind generated by the anonymous on the ‘net, these past two games have to be the exception to Creighton’s season, and not the rule. Right?
Again, Polyfro pointed out some statistical anomalies in his post, and summed it up like this:
Given that, on a night where the Jays shoot merely “bad”, they win by about five. On a night where they shoot their average, they win by 15+ in a rout. Instead, they had their worst shooting night of the season by a landslide, and lost. It happens.
It does happen. It happens to almost every team in the country, no matter their ranking or stature, sometime during the arduous college basketball season. “If it is too good to be true, then it probably is.” I don’t meditate. But, if I did, you can bet that’d be my mantra during hoops season. Were the Bluejays due for a rough patch, something they’ve most avoided this season? Sure. Does that completely negate what they’ve done in the 23 games previous to the losses at UNI and Evansville? Not at all. But while Creighton was losing, Wichita State kept winning. The Shockers took over sole possession of first place in the Missouri Valley Conference after throttling Northern Iowa Wednesday night.
As Coach Mac told the press after the game, as a coach and a team you just hope that your rough patch doesn’t come during the most crucial part of your season. Well, two CU losses and two Shox wins later, the script has flipped — this weekend becomes the most crucial part of Creighton’s season. A week ago, it seemed the pressure for the nationally televised showcase of the Shockers and Bluejays rest solely on WSU. Now, to win a league championship, CU needs to beat Wichita State Saturday in front of a sold-out and white-clad CenturyLink Center crowd.
Here are a few thoughts, post-Evansville, I have to get out of my head before turning my attention to Saturday’s showdown.
Just how bad was the Bluejays’ offense? Creighton scored 57 points at the Ford Center. CU scored 60 points in one half earlier this season (against Campbell). This same team scored 51 in both halves a week ago against Illinois State. Creighton’s 26 points in the second half at Evansville is a season-low for any half.
Doug McDermott (21 points) and Gregory Echenique (10 points) found some success scoring in the frontcourt. But the lack of an outside threat (again) killed Creighton’s chances to overcome turnovers and other mistakes. The 18 3-pointers the Bluejays missed at Evansville are the second-most this season, behind only 21 misses in each of the early-season laughers against Houston Baptist and North Carolina A&T.
Last night, unlike the other games when the Bluejays committed 15 or more turnovers, they weren’t able to outshoot their opponent. Evansville outperformed CU from the floor (43% to 40%), the arc (38% vs. 18%), and the free throw line (82% vs. 73%). Oh, and the Jays coughed it up 16 times to the Aces’ 9 TOs.
Creighton turned it over 20 times against Drake in Omaha but shot 60% from the field and 46% from 3 to win. They turned it over 19 times at home against Bradley but shot 55% from the floor. They turned it over 17 times and 15 times against Big Ten cellar-dwellers Nebraska and Iowa, respectively, but outshot both teams.
The worst five minutes of the season. The final five minutes of Creighton’s loss at Evansville included a bevy of mistakes, misplays, and misfortune. After McDermott put Creighton up by 4 points with 5:25 to play:
- Antoine Young “committed” a foul, sending Ryan Sawvell to the free throw line to knock down two shots. (Young didn’t touch Sawvell, per my grainy Internet broadcast.) Aces down 2.
- Young missed a shot, Evansville got the rebound, and Kenny Harris turned it into two points the other way with an off-balance jumper. Aces tie the game.
- Young misses another shot, Sawvell gets the board, and Colt Ryan hits a jumper. Aces up 2.
- It is McDermott’s turn to miss. Harris grabs the board and converts a layup. Aces up 4.
- With 1:49 to play Sawvell fouls Young. He promptly misses both free throws. Aces maintain.
- Ryan gets blocked by Gregory Echenique, Grant Gibbs ultimately collects the rebound, and Young is fouled. He makes only one of two free throws with 57 seconds left. Aces up 3.
Three trips to the free throw line later, the Aces extended that 3-point lead to 8. Evansville closed the game on a 13-1 run during those five-plus minutes. Ladies and Gentlemen, the worst five minutes of the season thus far.
Compare that to the last five minutes of the first half, when the Jays used a 12-4 run to cut Evansville’s largest lead of the game (10) down to 2 points. Echenique hit two free throws, Young hit a shot, McDermott scored 5 points, and Austin Chatman connected on a three-point play. Meanwhile, the Jays only turned it over once during the last 5:14 of the half (compared to 9 times in the other 15 minutes).
As a result, and thanks to an improved focus on getting Echenique shot attempts to start the second half, the Bluejays managed to turn a 10-point deficit into a 7-point lead with 12:55 to play in the game.
Tuesday was a bad time for Antoine Young to go cold from the free throw line. Young’s a 70% career free throw shooter. That includes a sophomore season when he shot 60% from the line. He’s capable. But his misses against the Aces were absolute killers.
All four of Young’s free throw attempts came with less than 2 minutes to play. His one make in four attempts is the third lowest percentage for Young at the line in a game when he’s had at least four free throw attempts. He missed all four of his free throws in a game against Missouri State his freshman year. He had 1-4 nights from the charity stripe as a sophomore (a CU win vs. Southern Illinois) and at Nebraska as a junior (a loss). And last season, against the Purple Aces in Omaha, Young went 1-5 from the line.
Creighton managed to hold Colt Ryan relatively in check. Ryan, one of the nation’s leading scorers, collected only 14 points and made only 3 of his 12 field goal attempts while playing nearly the entire game. Credit Grant Gibbs with tough defense. But is it possible Gibbs’ efforts affected his play on the other end, one game after he spent most of his night chasing down UNI Panthers through a never-ending series of screens and picks?
Gibbs entered last weekend averaging 8.25 points per game in league play. In playing 70 of a possible 80 minutes against Northern Iowa and Evansville, Creighton’s glue guy didn’t make a shot. He has five double-figure scoring efforts in league play; he’s capable of knocking shots down, especially against teams that continue to sag off him and show McDermott extra attention.
Gibbs played one of his best games of the season in Creighton’s 68-61 win at Wichita State, including making every one of his shots and scoring 11 points against the Shockers. With WSU likely to focus resources on stopping McDermott, it may take a similar output by Gibbs to turn the game in Creighton’s direction.