Creighton must win tonight. No one will die if they don’t, surely. But if the Bluejays lose their fourth straight game and start Big East play 0-3, confidence will crumble, if not among the players then certainly with fans.
Oh, hey there. No, I haven’t had my head under a rock this past month. Yes, it’s been too long since I championed Greg McDermott’s Bluejays in this space. No excuses, but you have to admit: I picked a pretty interesting time to hide in the corner weeping withhold my opinions.
Massive disclaimer: before the season started, I slated the Jays to finish the non-conference schedule 10-3, with supposed losses to Oklahoma, Ole Miss, and Tulsa. They pleasantly surprised yours truly with the comeback dub versus the Sooners, a salty bunch. They lost to the Rebels, also a team proving a tough out, and the Gold Hurricane, three of whose five losses are at the hands of the Sooners, Oklahoma State, and Wichita State. The Jays even obliged Creighton fans throughout Nebraska with a road win against the Huskers, the first loss at Pinnacle Bank Arena by Big Red to a team not in the Big Ten.
So there I was, a game up in my predictions with four left to play before the Big East portion of Creighton’s schedule. The next three at home? Not easy, for sure, but certainly winnable games for which the Bluejays would be Vegas’s pick. The pre-holiday roadie at North Texas? Unless Mean Joe Greene himself was suiting up, as winnable a game away from Omaha as Mac’s staff could have cooked up before the break. Right? Wrong.
The roller coaster ride started on with a home game against South Dakota.
Not the worst opponent on Creighton’s schedule (currently No. 221 at Kenpom.com) but not exactly Oklahoma either. The Bluejays got in an early hole then needed a career effort from the soon-to-be-suspended James Milliken to overcome the Coyotes’ 10-point lead. With three minutes to play, Austin Chatman hit two free throws and extended Creighton’s lead to 9, 58-49.
South Dakota would get seven more possessions in regulation. Here’s how they fared:
- Made a jump shot
- Made a layup
- Made two free throws
- Made two free throws
- Made a three-pointer
- Made a three-pointer
Three minutes. Seven possessions. Fifteen points. Meanwhile, the Jays didn’t make another shot from the field in the half. They hit a few free throws and didn’t commit any turnovers, but they ultimately surrendered the lead as Tyler Larson two three-pointers in the last 10 seconds to send the game to overtime.
I mean, the first overtime. Where, like in regulation, the Jays had a multiple possession lead with 3 minutes left. This time, up 7 after two Rick Kreklow free throws, Creighton would be outscored 9-2 down the stretch and see South Dakota force a second extra period.
Sigh. The Jays would survive the second overtime and win the game, thanks to career-high scoring efforts from Chatman (24 points) and Milliken (23 points). Both teams made 11 triples during the 50 minutes of fun; #LetItFly worked both as a mantra for the Bluejays and a strategy for the opposing Coyotes.
Jays fans filed out of CenturyLink Center as the clock neared midnight.
McDermott’s team had a few days to find its legs, then the fans and the fellas met back at the CLink the following Saturday afternoon to host Saint Mary’s. You remember the Gaels, right? They made Creighton’s last appearance in the Made-for-TV BracketBusters event a horrifically memorable one, beating CU in Moraga.
Neither Saint Mary’s nor Creighton started particularly well, perhaps victims of jet lag from the West Coast and a double overtime hangover, respectively. But Bluejays fans likely felt secure that although the game was tied at half at 27 apiece, CU would pull away. After all, the Jays had won 24 straight regular season home games. Plus, stud post player Brad Waldow, who entered the game averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds, was largely ineffective in the first 20 minutes.
No bother. The Gaels would turn to Kerry Carter (17 points in the first half, including 15 from 5 made threes) and Aaron Bright (16 points in the second half, including 9 from behind the arc) to keep them hanging around. And while Waldow didn’t exactly heat up, his counterparts on the blocks for the Bluejays weren’t exactly busy taking the game over.
No, this was a game of guard play, with Austin Chatman leading the Jays in scoring in the first half (14 points) and Isaiah Zierden (15 points) and Devin Brooks (12 points) doing so in the second half. Just about 5 minutes after halftime, a Zierden triple gave CU an 8-point advantage at 37-29. The next 13 points would come from Saint Mary’s, a deflating run that gave the Gaels a 42-37 lead with 9 minutes to play. Zierden would connect from deep again, then a few possessions later convert three free throws after being fouled behind the arc, to move the Jays ahead 46-45 with just under 7 to play.
Creighton and Saint Mary’s exchanged leads the rest of the way, and 40 minutes weren’t enough to settle things. More free basketball isn’t always generous, particularly when the road team hangs around long enough to leave town with a win. The Gaels outscored CU 10-6 in the extra session, handing the Jays their first home loss since February 2013.
Unfortunately, Creighton coaches, players, and fans alike would have a week to stew about the loss.
Semester exams were sandwiched between the disappointing loss to Saint Mary’s and an almost certain start to another home win streak against Texas-Pan American. With the Jays’ noses out of the books and back on the court, they looked about a sharp to start a game as they had all season.
Austin Chatman continued his herculean efforts to engage Creighton’s offense, scoring 11 points in the first half to lead the Jays to a 41-27 halftime lead. The Broncs plays CU almost even in the second half, as Coach Mac adjusted lineups (12 guys saw time) and UTPA made hay at the free throw line (14-18 in the second half).
When it was all said and done Chatman once again led the Jays in scoring (20 points), posting his fifth consecutive game with 19 or more points. He was heading to a homecoming game in the Dallas area with a head of steam, if not shaky legs — he had averaged nearly 38 minutes a night in the seven games leading to the roadie at North Texas.
That’s when things got real for Creighton in the After Doug era.
Down 51 to 24, with 15:28 to play in the game. Jays fans everywhere had to be in disbelief. Twenty-five minutes into Creighton’s final non-conference game of the season, Greg McDermott’s team was a shell of its previous self. Unable to score and succumbing to some of the silliest turnovers committed in recent memory, the Super Pit in Denton, Texas, had turned into a house of horrors for Chatman and the rest of the Jays. Kind of like Creighton’s last visit to the Lone Star State.
Creighton had #LetItFly, but nothing fell threw. Flummoxed it seemed by some different zone looks by the Tony Benford’s bunch, the Jays went 2-14 from deep in the first half. They were 5-10 from the field, otherwise, but largely went away from any offense inside the arc. Meanwhile, even though UNT was exactly vintage UNC, the Mean Green went to halftime with a 35-18 lead, thanks in large part to Creighton coughing the basketball up 10 times in the first 20 minutes.
No doubt stunned to be down 17 at the break, it wasn’t unimaginable that CU could muster a comeback. Heck, this same squad trailed by 18 to Oklahoma just a few minutes into the second half of what would become the second-largest comeback win by a Creighton team at the CLink just about a month before.
Then the second half started in Denton, and all hell broke loose. DeAndre Harris capped a 16-6 run to start the half with a three-pointer, UNT’s fifth triple of the game, and just like that the Jays seemingly had no life.
Up 27, Down 27 … keep chippin’ away
Then the strangest thing happened. It took a few more minutes, but the Bluejays hit a shot. Then a few more. Meanwhile, the Mean Green missed a few. They turned it over a few times. A 13-0 run later, the Jays had cut the UNT lead to 14 with just under 10 minutes to play.
The next 5 minutes would find the Jays whittle away 5 more points off their deficit. Then things really got crazy. An Isaiah Zierden triple with 80 seconds left pulled Creighton to within 2 points, 57-55, the culmination of an insane 31-6 run by the Bluejays. A 1-for-2 trip to the free throw line by T.J. Taylor would leave the Jays trailing by 3 with a minute to go, an implausible scenario given the first 25 minutes of the game.
But instead of it being one of, if not the, largest comeback wins in program history, Creighton missed four consecutive three-pointers and ultimately lost 62-58.
Did the last 15 minutes of the game make for interesting TV? You bet. Did the Jays have any business being within a stone’s throw of winning after the abysmal first 25 minutes? Not really. But what’s worse that losing to North Texas? Watching two days later as the Mean Green fall at home to one-win Prairie View A&M. In fact, UNT hasn’t won a game since beating the Bluejays, going 0-5 since that Sunday afternoon victory.
Unfortunately for the Jays, their offensive woes in Texas were a harbinger of things to come.
Even before the season started, when the Big East revealed its conference schedule and gave the Bluejays a hearty challenge with a two-game roadie to Providence and Georgetown to start the year, even the most unabashed Jaybacker would have been happy if you told her CU would get back to Omaha for the DePaul game with a 1-1 conference mark.
First stop, Rhode Island, 10 days after the North Texas debacle. Ed Cooley’s Friars took two of three from CU last year, including a decisive win at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. PC came into the game 10-3 with a talented, if not uber-deep, roster of matchup nightmares for the Jays.
From the tip, star LaDontae Henton was hot. He scored 17 of Providence’s 32 first-half points. But the Bluejays went to break down just 4, 32-28, thanks 12 points off the bench from big man Geoffrey Groselle. The first-half turnover issues still plagued the Jays, as CU committed 8 TOs after the 10 miscues in the first 20 minutes at UNT, but they were fending off any efforts by Henton and the Friars to pull away.
Then #LetItFly became #HopeAndPray. Providence would use a 12-4 run — 10 of which came from Henton — to start the second half to build a 12-point lead. Meanwhile, Creighton went cold. Powered by Groselle’s perfect 5-5 shooting effort around the rim in the first half, the Jays shot 46% from the field. In the second half, though, CU hit just 28% of its shots, including a paltry 3-13 from deep (23%). Behind Henton and freak athlete Kris Dunn, Cooley’s Friars pulled away and rang in the New Year with a 65-53 win.
A few days later, in Washington, D.C., Creighton had a chance to split the trip. The Bluejays and Hoyas hardly looked ready to roll in the first 20 minutes; the Jays again committed 10 turnovers in the first half, yet Georgetown needed a late 9-2 run in the last 3 minutes of the half to take a 2-point lead to the locker rooms. Creighton managed to hit 4 triples in the opening frame, two by Zierden and one apiece by Kreklow and Milliken, but it took 13 attempts.
Mac’s team would #LetItFly all second half, too, attempted 12 more threes. But they only connected on one, by Devin Brooks. That’s 8% shooting from behind the arc, a complete shutdown of the team’s offensive identity. Meanwhile, the Hoyas connected on seventy-five percent of their shots in the second half, including 6 of their 10 three-pointers, to turn a close game into a laugher. John Thompson III entrusted his four freshmen to make a difference, and they helped turn a 6-point Creighton lead into an 18-point Georgetown advantage, with the final score ultimately resting at 76-61.
So here we are.
Creighton is broke. DePaul’s in town. The Blue Demons are normally a snack for Big East opponents, but have started the conference slate 2-0 alongside Seton Hall. Coach Mac and his staff must pull out all the stops to keep DePaul from leaving Omaha with a win. The Jays must hold serve at home, in front of the faithful, and hope that they can start hitting shots and limiting the maddening turnovers. Road wins are going to be difficult no matter what, but these Jays, without Doug and Ethan and the others, just don’t have much margin for error.