It is beginning to sound like another broken record amongst the boxes of broken records that abound around the Vinardi Center.
Past Bluejays players, at the comedic expense of Dana Altman and some of the other coaches, joke about the repetitious instructions doled out by Dana and his staff season after season. Bend your knees! Get a good base! That’s how you hang a banner! We have to get better on the boards!
Add to this storied collection what fans find themselves muttering under frustrated breaths immediately following Creighton’s close-but-not-quite matchups against the Big Boys. We played pretty well, but we couldn’t close them out. We’re almost there … just needed a few breaks to go our way. We can hang with those teams.
I’m too full from a glorious Thanksgiving dinner to rehash Creighton’s inability to consistently schedule top quality non-conference opponents. And I gave thanks on Thursday morning, in a weird, basketball-obsessed way, that the Bluejays have three games in four days against decent non-conference teams. But wins are what counts: moral victories don’t show up in the record books.
As Max and Patrick already expounded upon, the Bluejays played pretty well* against the Maize and Blue. (I’m not sure what was more noticeable, though: the mustard-ish Maize jerseys Michigan wore, or the maze our point guards usually had to traverse to get to the next level of John Beilein’s 1-3-1 zone defense.) Just like we all wrote about after Creighton played pretty well* against Dayton but lost.
The *asterisk denotes where my “pretty well” gets cut off from what I really want to write, which is: “…pretty well, except for in the last 5 minutes of a big game in which Creighton has a lead.”
Take your pick. Dayton and Michigan early this season. Kentucky last year in the NIT. Both regular season games against Drake in 2008 when the Bulldogs were (aghast!) ranked in the top 25. The NCAA Tournament game against Nevada in March 2007. A road game against Southern Illinois just a few weeks earlier that year. Not to mention the number of games in which CU held a large second half lead against lesser opponents but took the foot off the accelerator, only to see the (usually visiting) team come back late and make the game closer than expected.
I understand that in each of the aforementioned instances, the game was usually a back and forth affair. But does that make Bluejays fans feel any better? Even in our last win against a ranked team (SIU in the 2007 MVC Title game), CU let a double-digit second half lead deteriorate to 5 points with just a few minutes left. I vividly remember standing in the 300 level of the Scottrade Center mumbling to myself “this can’t happen again!”
So, unfortunately, I’m not so sure the White and Blue faithful down in Orlando weren’t mumbling the same thing to themselves as Creighton gave up a late-game lead against Michigan. I’m sure UM fans would have you believe that the Wolverines were just “toying” with this team from a mid-major conference, and that “it was just a matter of time” before Michigan pulled away at the end. And that might be true.
Except Creighton fans could say the same thing. The Bluejays outrebounded Michigan for the better part of 45 minutes. The Jays shot better than UM. And CU made more hustle plays than Michigan.
But in the end, Creighton gave UM too many second chance opportunities while not converting their own. And when the Bluejays had a chance to build on a lead late in the game, the lineup on the floor wasn’t up to the task.
All in all, these two teams competed for 45 minutes in what was an entertaining start to the Old Spice Classic. And Creighton’s effort for the better part of the game bodes well for the season as a whole. Still, winning some of these games against the opponents CU can’t get on the schedule on a regular basis (and winning games when the Jays have late leads, regardless of opponent) would do a lot to reassure a fan base that has to be wondering aloud whether Creighton’s players and coaches have the killer instinct.
The accolades and pats on the back given to the Bluejays by national media and opposing coaches are nice, another type of broken record that actually sounds OK. And boy, were they in great abundance on Thanksgiving afternoon – you would have thought Len Elmore played at Creighton. But those niceties, just like moral victories, don’t show up in the stat sheets. The Bluejays must find a way to fix the broken records plaguing their otherwise outstanding efforts. And when they do, it will be music to my ears.