Just like old times.
That’s what I told myself with 12 minutes to play in the second half last night. It’s going to happen again. How many times since the Qwest Center opened have Creighton fans watched an opponent bury the Bluejays in a double-digit hole, only to have the Jays peck and fight their way back to erase a second-half deficit and win?
As Ethan Wragge’s first 3-pointer of the season went through the net, the final shot in a gradual comeback that erased what had been a 12-point BYU lead, it seemed another slow start would not doom the Jays. Wragge’s equalizer with 12 minutes to play was Creighton’s fourth 3-pointer in the first 8 minutes of the second half; the Jays hit just one 3 in 11 first-half attempts. Shots were starting to fall, the Jays had managed to keep the Cougars from building on their lead, and the crowd was vocal and boisterous. Again, I’ve seen this script before.
Except it wasn’t. Just when the Jays seemed poised to take control of the crowd’s building fury and translate to more defensive stops, BYU instead mounted a 10-0 run that proved decisive in keeping the Cougars undefeated and delivering to Creighton a left hook to follow Sunday’s jabbing loss at Northwestern.
Losing to a good team on the road is understandable, especially early in the season. Dropping a winnable game against a good team at home is a punch in the gut, especially given the difficulty of bringing ranked opponents in for non-conference matchups.
***
The last time Creighton played a ranked non-conference foe at the Phonebooth was December 2006, when the Xavier Musketeers showed up in Omaha for a Saturday night game. The Bluejays, who started that season ranked in the top 25, were coming off disappointing losses in Lincoln and at Dayton. But the Bluejays were good. They’d prove that in the season’s final month, which culminated with beating #11 Southern Illinois in the Arch Madness championship game and earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament. And that Xavier team was stout, as well. The Musketeers would earn a #9 seed for the 2007 NCAA Tournament, beat BYU in an 8-9 game, and push #1 seed and eventual national runner-up Ohio State to overtime before losing 78-71.
The Bluejays beat Xavier that night. And I could have sworn the Jays dug themselves a hole only to crawl out of it was a few timely 3-pointers and some stops on defense. That wasn’t the case. Creighton led from start to finish that night, bringing the intensity needed to knock off a good team right from the opening tip. Anthony Tolliver (17 points, 2 rebounds, 3 blocks) and Dane Watts (8 points, 10 rebounds) kept Josh Duncan (7 points, 2-7 from the field, 2 rebounds) and Justin Cage (9 points, but only 1 field goal make) from beating the Bluejays in the paint. Nate Funk was stellar (15 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals in 36 minutes). Collectively, Creighton rose to the occasion.
My point? You can’t spot a good team like BYU a 12-point lead in their first true road game of the season and expect them to roll over in time for you to catch up. The fans were ready for last night’s game; the students even showed up 30 minutes early, in droves. But when the scoreboard videos went dark and the focus turned to the court, the Bluejays couldn’t make enough shots to capitalize on a less-than-stellar first half offensive performance by Jimmer Fredette and the Cougars.
Antoine Young and the rest of Creighton’s perimeter players did well enough against Fredette, especially in the first 20 minutes. They limited BYU’s star player to 5 points and 2 assists, while forcing 3 turnovers by the Cougar point guard. But instead of pressing, Fredette trusted his teammates to knock down shots. They did just that, hitting 4 of 10 3-pointers and taking a 34-28 lead into halftime.
Creighton, meantime, couldn’t string together extended impressive possessions until late in the half. Ashford’s 3-pointer with 90 seconds left was the team’s one and only long range shot to fall in the first half. That’s OK if, as an offense focused on scoring in the half court, you have steady production in the low blocks. But the lack of outside shooting, coupled with the disappearance of Creighton’s biggest eligible post player, led once again to 20 minutes of frustration on the offensive end. It was, statistically, the second half of Creighton’s loss to Northwestern all over again.
Still, a flurry of action with 90 seconds left had the Bluejays only down 6 at the break. The teams went back and forth for much of the first part of the second half, but Creighton pulled even with 12 minutes to play, still without their largest active player being, well, active. It looked like one of the scenes that had played out so many times before in the Qwest Center’s short lifespan — the Bluejays prevail late after erasing a double-digit deficit. But over the remaining 10 minutes of the game, the lack of toughness and a stagnant offense would leave this year’s Bluejays team without the signature non-conference win it was looking for.
Tied at 51, BYU rattled off a three-point play by Fredette, a three-point play by afterthought Brandon Davies, a tip in by Kyle Collinsworth that was proceeded by two offensive rebounds of his own misses, and then a dunk in transition by Noah Hartsock following his block of an Ashford shot. 10-0 run, in the books. Bluejays on the ropes.
Creighton’s inability to limit BYU’s offensive rebounding spoiled CU’s hopes of an upset. From the 12:45 mark of the second half, the Cougars corralled 8 offensive caroms. Davies, a player whom averages just over 5 rebounds per game, had 5 of the offensive rebounds himself. On a night when the Jays were content to limit Fredette and make other BYU players beat them, Davies posted a career-high 24 points and added 6 rebounds (again, 5 of which were offensive boards in the last 8 minutes of the game).
Young, along with Doug McDermott, tried to bring the Jays back from double digits for the second time, but it was too little too late. Down by 5 points with 6 minutes to play, CU gave up a 3-pointer to Jackson Emery and some offensive rebounds by Davies that pushed the lead back to double digits again. Game over.
***
The problems in last night’s effort and execution are plentiful. Message boards and tweets left a painful trail of assumptions and assessments of play. Players and coaches voiced them in interviews after the games.
But it takes more than talk to play well.
I’ve tried consciously to omit my frustrations with specific players from this post. I voiced my concerns and disappointments last night during the game, loudly and coarsely. Yelling didn’t help then, and typing angrily won’t help now. It really never does.
The only people who can reverse the trend borne from the past two performances are the guys in the locker room and on the bench. That’s painfully obvious when listening to T. Scott Marr interview players in the minutes following Creighton games this season. I love that CU players are joining the postgame radio show, giving fans driving home something to listen to before the unlistenable post- postgame show begins. But aside from hearing time and time again that the guys can’t wait for Gregory Echenique to play, the tone in the players’ postgame discussions often echoes the sentiments of the fans I speak with on a regular basis: the team isn’t tough enough.
McDermott, the stellar freshman who again served as Creighton’s only consistent offensive presence in the paint (20 points, 12 rebounds; first double-double by a CU freshman since Bob Harstad in 1988), talked with T. Scott about the team being outplayed in the tough areas of the game. You can bet what the younger McDermott mentioned to Marr echoed his father’s words, although probably toned down for radio and the F.C.C.
But coaches shouldn’t have to get their players up for home games against ranked opponents. Tolliver, Funk, and the rest of the 2006-2007 Bluejays probably didn’t need a pep talk about toughness to get geared up when Xavier came to town, or when they battled toe to toe with SIU three times that season. That was the last Creighton team to advance to the NCAA Tournament, which should be the goal for the program every season. If 2010-11 is to be a return to form for Creighton hoops, Coach McDermott and his staff have their work cut out for them in turning this bunch into a tough squad. There is plenty of season left, but not many better opportunities than the one the Bluejays had last night.