Disappointed but not surprised. Cold but not freezing.
That’s how my walk to the car felt Tuesday night after shuffling out of Qwest Center Omaha. Entering the day, the Creighton Bluejays had played 125 regular and postseason games at The Phone Booth since the building opened in 2003. And until about 9 p.m. last night, the Jays had lost only 19 times. That’s a winning percentage of about 85%.
And with about 20 minutes to play against Cuonzo Martin’s Bears, it looked like the Jays were well on their way to notching QCO victory #107. The defense was forcing stops, the offense was managing, and the crowd was loud. But then a funny thing happened: Missouri State recaptured their swagger, the Bluejays couldn’t respond, and an 11-point lead turned into a 12-point loss.
Sure, I left my seats angry. I was plenty upset while still sitting in my seats as the last few minutes slowly ticked off the clock, beset by time outs and substitutions. These just delayed the inevitable, obviously, but fans who stuck around were rewarded with seeing Casey Harriman check in (and out) of a Creighton game for the final time (due to shoulder injuries).
But I wasn’t surprised. Missouri State is a solid, if not spectacular, club. The Bears aren’t deep (four starters played 31 minutes or more), but the cohesion on both ends of the court displayed by their regulars is something to admire. Every position on the floor rebounds the ball well (despite Creighton outrebounding MSU 35-26). And any number of players can hurt opponents offensively. Oh, and their coach, Martin, is a keeper (or, for MSU, one they will hopefully shell out some scrilla to keep).
I picked Missouri State to finish 2nd in the Valley (to Greggggggg Marshall’s Shox, of course) before the season, and their play so far has done nothing to sway my guess. But I also picked Creighton to finish 3rd, and after the first half Tuesday night I could see how I might swap the teams in that pecking order.
The first 15 minutes of play were back and forth, a defensive struggle (or, depending on how you like your offense played, a struggle for offense) that saw six ties. The Bears were cold from the field (36%), while the Bluejays shot 46%, a few percentage points than their season average. CU outrebounded MSU in the first half, and the Jays committed just 2 turnovers while dishing 8 assists on 13 made baskets. After MSU’s Kyle Weems made a 3-pointer to give the Bears a 1-point lead with 5:07 to play in the opening stanza, the Bluejays busted out for a 10-0 run to end the first half up 29-20.
Not exactly a halftime score that induces cravings for Godfather’s Pizza, right? The blueprint for a Bluejays win seemed intact: play solid defense, hit the glass and beat the opponent on the boards, make key free throws down the stretch, and salt another Valley win. Doug McDermott scored the first basket of the second half, a layup, to put CU up 31-20 with just under 19 minutes to play, and fans could taste a comfortable win, if not pizza pie piled high.
But McDermott’s field goal would be one of only seven the Jays would convert in the second half. Meanwhile, Missouri State put on an offensive clinic the likes of which not many visitors have unleashed on a Qwest Center crowd. The Bears made 17 field goals during the last 19 minutes, thanks to 11 assists and just 3 turnovers. Flip those numbers for the Bluejays, who dished only 3 assists and coughed the ball up 10 times. The Jays, normally steady from the charity stripe, made just 10 of 16 free throws in the final half, including the front ends of some one-and-one opportunities. While CU left points on the board with misses at the stripe and mistakes on offense, the defense was busy getting bullied by the Bears.
MSU shot 68% in the second half, on a head-turning collection of layups as result of cross-screens in the paint and long-range jump shots freed up by excellent movement and communication. The Bluejays, meanwhile, looked lost offensively, unable to replicate the ease with which the Bears seemed to be creating, and finishing, open looks.
Doug McDermott tried to keep Creighton in the game during the Bears’ offensive firestorm. The freshman put up 14 of his team-high 17 points in the second half, including knocking down the team’s only two 3-pointers of the half. But even he suffered ill effects from being physically tested by a strong and athletic MSU team — McDermott uncharacteristically missed 4 of his 6 free throw attempts in the last 20 minutes.
He didn’t have much help in the post, though. Kenny Lawson and Gregory Echenique combined to score 4 points in the second half after posting 14 in the first stanza. And without the big men serving as a consistent threat, the perimeter players saw little in the way of clear shooting opportunities from long range. Antoine Young tried to take the game over, but the standout point guard suffered his first game of the season during which he committed more turnovers (4) than assists (3). The lack of perimeter firepower left fans in section 123 wondering if Ethan Wragge’s extended absence, not the introduction of Echenique to the roster, was the biggest personnel development on the Hilltop during the past few weeks.
But let’s not kid ourselves. Some of Dana Altman’s best CU teams of the past decade lost home games in conference play. Sure, the level of competition those years was probably better than what the Jays will see walk through the Qwest Center doors this season. But this year’s version of the Creighton basketball program wasn’t going to go undefeated in conference play in Omaha.
Last season, the Bluejays lost two home Valley games. The year before that? Two. What about Kenny Lawson and Kaleb Korver’s freshman season? Two. The season Creighton last attended the NCAA Tournament? Just once, by one point, against Southern Illinois.
The fact is, Missouri State did what Creighton’s become so adept to doing: going on the road in the Valley and stealing a game against a program in the upper half of the league. Wichita State, preseason league favorite and current scoring machine, comes to Omaha next week, and the Bluejays will have their hands full trying to defend their home court against the Shockers. Meanwhile, Greg McDermott’s squad has to travel to Carbondale and Evansville this weekend, two places were the Jays have fared will recently but where they are challenged historically. If the Bluejays hit some shots from outside and continue to play good defense and hit the boards, they can take one or both games. But if they can’t hit enough long-range shots to take some of the defensive focus from the paint, and if they can’t guard the paint themselves, they’ll repeat the disappointing, yet not surprising, result from Tuesday.