“This time of year, you just have to tough things out.”
That’s a quote from Antoine Young. He’s talking about an apparent ankle injury he suffered with 24 seconds to play in Saturday’s loss to Illinois State. Actually, he’s speaking to the various bumps and bruises he and his teammates are no doubt fighting through right now, 26 games into what many might consider the most disappointing men’s basketball season since 2003-2004.
For the better part of the decade, Bluejays fans and players alike could have said something similar to Young’s statement, albeit in a different context. It seems that year in and year out, “this time of year” would equate to the homestretch of a season during which Dana Altman’s teams were jockeying for postseason position, trying to capture at-large NCAA Tournament consideration. “Tough things out,” obviously still true in the context of Young’s current quote, might have meant fighting through a tough MVC schedule, battles at Arch Madness, and a difficult first round opponent in either the NCAA or NIT tournaments. But toughing things out has taken a whole new meaning this season, a definition defying the consistency and character of Altman’s past teams.
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Max wrote about Saturday’s men’s and women’s basketball games, contests he attended and during which observed microcosms of two seasons — one successful, one deemed a failure by many standards. And sure, this year’s men’s hoops team might be the one to surrender the consecutive 20-win season streak, the consecutive conference 10-win streak, and another postseason berth. Other Altman squads have come close to coughing up these impressive records, but some of those teams could blame inexperience, ill-timed injuries, or an improved Missouri Valley Conference. As an outside observer, none of those are valid excuses for the disappointing 13-13 record so far this season.
People throughout and around the program are searching for answers. But could the answer be much more obvious than the prognosticators and theorists think?
Take Saturday’s game, for example (Or the Michigan game. Or the Dayton game. Or any number of Creighton’s close contests.). Illinois State and Creighton came into the game tied for 3rd place in the MVC, which most seasons would bode well for both team’s postseason positions. There were 20 lead changes and 9 ties. Neither team led by more than 7 the entire game, and for the majority of the minutes either team was in striking distance of the other. Both teams followed their strategies until the end: Illinois State rode Osiris Eldridge and Dinma Odiakosa as much as possible, especially down the stretch; Creighton kept feeding Kenny Lawson the ball looking for points. It was an exciting game, the fans got into it when the Jays gave the crowd something to cheer, and it felt like another nail biter would go the Bluejays’ way at home.
Except it didn’t. There was no heroic play to bail the Bluejays out of a must-win game they were about to drop. Pump-fakes and turnovers replaced dribble-drives and clutch shots in the last minute, and the Redbirds left Omaha with their second win in three seasons at Qwest Center Omaha.
After the game, Lawson told reporters that he let his team down by not corralling a pass with 4 seconds to go and the Bluejays trailing by 2 points. But without Lawson, the Bluejays aren’t close. Illinois State made 10 more field goals than Creighton, committed fewer turnovers, and stayed virtually even on the glass with Creighton. But Lawson recorded his third 20-plus point game of the season, scoring 20 points and playing as well against Odiakosa as he has during his career. He drilled his first career 3-pointer to give the Bluejays the lead in the second half, and he mixed aggressive takes to the paint with his go-to fading jump shots. Lawson is one of only three players in the MVC to be among the top 10 scorers (12.7 ppg; 9th in the MVC) and top 10 rebounders (6.5 rpg; 6th in MVC); Bradley’s Taylor Brown (6th in scoring at 13.7 ppg; 5th in rebounding at 6.8 rpg) and Missouri State’s Kyle Weems (7th in scoring at 13.6 ppg; 9th in rebounding at 5.7 rpg) are the others. He played fine.
Lawson got help from senior Justin Carter, who no doubt is looking at the next few weeks as his time to shine as his collegiate career comes to an end. Carter grabbed 9 rebounds against Illinois State, to go with 14 points. His work on the boards has been more consistent than his offensive production, but both have been good. He has 5 or more rebounds in 7 of his past 8 games, and has climbed into the top 10 in the Valley in rebounds per game (5.7 rpg, good for 8th in the MVC). And he has supplanted the suspended P’Allen Stinnett as the second leading scorer on the team (9.3 ppg).
But in a game that saw the Redbirds with five players in double figures, employing a balanced attack that left head coach Tim Jankovich more than pleased at the end of the afternoon, Lawson and Carter didn’t have a third Bluejay teammate step up. Nowhere was that more evident than during the final play of the game, when Kaleb Korver passed on shooting a seemingly open 3-pointer and instead tried to get the ball to Lawson outside the paint with less than 5 seconds left. Whether it be Korver, Ethan Wragge (who was in the game to shoot but couldn’t get open), Ashford (who unfortunately fouled out right before the final play), Young (who was injured and on the bench), or Cavel Witter (who has hit some clutch shots as a Bluejay during his career), no one stepped up to take the big shot.
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So, with a winnable home game slipping through their fingers, the Bluejays head on the road for their next two Valley games. Only one MVC team (Northern Iowa) has a winning record on the road in conference play; in fact, no other team is even at .500 away from home in Valley contests. And sure, Creighton might have a little better chance to leave UNI with a win now that Jordan Eglseder got himself suspended for drunk driving this weekend (he will miss 3 games). And maybe the trip to Carbondale isn’t as daunting as in seasons past (SIU is 4-4 at home in conference play). But the Bluejays won at Northern Iowa and at Southern Illinois last year; what are the chances they win both this season?
I’m not a mathematician, but I would guess that anything less than going 3-0 in the remaining MVC games would put the Bluejays in jeopardy of playing Thursday night in St. Louis. Evansville will be there, but that’s about the only team fans of Arch Madness can bank on seeing in the play-in round. Bradley upset UNI this weekend to forge a tie with Creighton at 8-7 in the MVC, leaving both teams at 4th place with 3 games to play. Missouri State and Indiana State are at 7-8, and Southern Illinois and Drake are each 6-9. Depending on the next three games, any three of those six teams could join the Purple Aces on Thursday night. How’s that for parity (the bad kind, that is)?
Unfortunately, that’s what “toughing it out” means for the Bluejays this season. The players are left to wonder when they will regain some confidence. The fans are left to question when exactly to get down to St. Louis. And the program is enduring one of the more frustrating seasons in recent history. Instead of protecting a great seed for St. Louis and positioning themselves for postseason considerations, the Bluejays are battling for a better draw at Arch Madness and desperately searching for something that works consistently. Tough, indeed.