Unequivocally, the high point of Creighton’s basketball season occurred before Dana Altman’s team played a game. If one could get drunk on the intoxicating nectar of preseason publicity and prognostication, consider me akin to one of the stumbling Saints fans on Bourbon Street after tonight’s Super Bowl.
Maybe my expectation of natural progression and improvement of Creighton’s junior class from 27 wins and a semifinal appearance in the MVC Tournament to another solid regular season record and a trip to the MVC finals blinded me to the squad’s shortcomings before the season. Or perhaps Altman’s consistent success — the oft-mentioned records of 20 or more overall wins and 10 or more conference wins each season, etc. — illicit complacency from the fan base, a sort of expected level of achievement, regardless of roster makeup or player experience.
I was reminded of the preseason positivity surrounding Altman’s team as I sat at the Creighton Baseball Steak Fry, the team’s annual fundraiser and official kick off to the collegiate baseball season. Ed Servais is not only one of the best baseball coaches in the country; he can emcee with the best of them. Entering his 7th season as head coach at CU, Servais called his team up in front of a crowd of more than 300 people to share some positive words about each player. The Steak Fry is one of my favorite CU sporting events each season, because in the dead of winter the positivity and thoughts of future success on the diamond instill a sort of warm feeling that the best days are yet to come.
Servais cut short his words about the team because he stared out to a room full of Creighton basketball fans, and the televised road game at Missouri State was starting shortly. In hind sight, I’m sure some of the folks in attendance would rather have stayed at Castle Barrett’s and listened to Servais talk about what his team has a chance to accomplish this season. Like the men’s basketball team, the Bluejays are picked for a top three conference finish. Like the men’s hoops team, Servais’ squad returns starters from a team that was within one win from returning to another NCAA Tournament. And like the men’s basketball team, the baseball team no doubt has ambitious goals for 2010.
After Saturday night, Servais’ team is still undefeated, with sights still set on whatever goals he and his players devise. But Altman’s team faces reality, not projection and hope. And the reality was painfully clear during yet another road loss: through 24 games (a dry heave-inducing 12-12 record), a men’s basketball program known year in and year out as a winner lacks a positive identity.
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Creighton trailed Missouri State the entire evening. Will Creekmore started the scoring with a dunk, accounting for 2 of the ridiculous 42 points the Bears scored in the paint (matching Dayton’s 42 point paints for the highest opponent total during the 09-10 season). That’s right. More than half of MSU’s points came within the lane, something I’m sure has happened in recent seasons to a Creighton team or two, but that I can’t for the life of me recall.
The Bears shot 51% from the field, compared to Creighton’s 36% shooting effort. I try to look for statistical outliers and things the box scores might not reflect, but Saturday’s outcome came down to the Bears making easy shots and the Bluejays missing open looks and contested jump shots. The Bears owned the Bluejays on the boards (40-27), and many times CU players looked flat footed while the opponent soared for boards. No Creighton player recorded more than 4 rebounds (Ethan Wragge was the only Jay with 4 caroms); four Bears had 4 or more rebounds. And a few days after shooting a school-record from the field and hitting a bunch of 3-pointers, the Bluejays made just 19% of their long-range shots.
Positives? Josh Jones scored in double figures again, recording 10 points on 4-6 shooting. Kenny Lawson led the Jays with 15 points. That’s it, folks. Nothing to see here, save for another Creighton road loss.
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A lot of fans pay a lot of money to support the men’s basketball program, hoping each season that the current year will be “the year” — the year the Jays win an outright regular season title again; the year the Jays win Arch Madness again; the year the Bluejays string together a few wins in the NCAA Tournament. After the back-to-back gut punches supporters suffered last March (the beatdown by Illinois State in the MVC semifinals, then being left out of the Big Dance), fans were hoping — almost willing — the 2009-2010 squad would build off the disappointment of the previous season and cash in the increase in the roster’s experience and athleticism levels for all those things the supporters invest in.
Instead, the Bluejays are trying to tread water in a rather average Missouri Valley Conference. The Jays have just two road wins in conference, and they were utterly dismissed by Missouri State in Springfield on Saturday (a place where Altman’s teams have had success year in and year out). But only Northern Iowa has consistently won Valley road games this season. The Bluejays are pretty much like every other team in the MVC, and that’s perhaps the most frustrating part of a season that started with high expectations (warranted or not, they were there).
Whatever the reason, I was convinced the 2009-2010 season would be another one for the record books. The good news? I was right. The bad news? Save for an unexpected run through the Arch Madness brackets, it seems the season won’t enter Creighton’s archives for positive reasons.
How many days until baseball begins?