Tuesday night, the Jays returned to the venerable Civic Auditorium for their opening round CIT game, a venue they had not competed in since they “turned the lights off” in a postgame ceremony in March of 2003. It was surreal for me, as I’m sure it was for many other long-time Jays fans, to return to a place we never thought we’d enter again to watch the Jays play. How many other times does a team leave a building they called home for 50+ years, and then return for a game a few years later? Not very often, because usually in those situations the old building meets the wrecking ball soon after the last game.
Some might argue the Civic deserves that fate, and to be sure, it is a bit rough around the edges. But the concourses were always narrow, the seats were always too cramped, and the bathrooms were always too few. Those aren’t new developments, we just never noticed them before we had the palatial Qwest Center as a comparison.
It was a treat to return to the old building, and something I thoroughly enjoyed. The game on the floor might have helped with that.
South Dakota averages 79 points a game, and they showcased why as they took quick possessions, created good shots and scored in bunches. They made 42% of their shot attempts in both halves, a remarkably consistent performance. In the second half, they made an astounding 9-16 three pointers, yet were only able to gain three points on the lead. And although their traveling party was amusingly small — there were as many empty seats on their sideline as their were people — they brought about 600 fans with them, their band and their cheerleaders, making for a fun atmosphere.
That they shot so well and yet were kept at arms-length or further for almost the entire game was a credit to Creighton having perhaps their best shooting night of the year in their 32nd game. The Jays were a straight-up 50% from the floor in the first half, making 18-36 shots, in building a 50-36 lead. Daryl Ashford led the way in that first half, making five of six shots for 11 points, with a couple of them coming on the sort of athletic moves around the rim we haven’t seen from him since mid-January. In the second half, the Jays cooled off some, shooting “only” 42% from the floor, but made up for it by hitting — are you ready for this? — 58% of their shots from behind the arc. 7-12, they were.
Now, they’ve had games this year where they’ve made 12 three-pointers, but not on so few attempts. Suffice it to say, if they’d shot with this kind of efficiency and gotten offensive contributions from so many different players all year long, they would not be in the CIT right now. But they did, and they are, and for some reason playing in the old barn seemed to bring out an old-school shooting performance. As Dana Altman told T.Scott after the game on the radio, “Maybe we should play at the Civic more often!”
Individually, we saw things we hadn’t seen in a long time from many players.
The Dayton Wayne Runnels was back, getting 15 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists, while showing an ability to put the ball on the floor and create a shot that we haven’t seen from him since, well, the Dayton game. Funny what playing against guys your own size, as opposed to playing out of position and trying to post up a guy six-inches taller than you in the paint can do.
The Michigan Darryl Ashford returned, and had 13 points and 5 rebounds, with most of his contributions coming in the first half. He made the sort of athletic plays around the rim that we haven’t seen from him since at least the early part of the MVC schedule, and probably since the Michigan game in Orlando.
The Bradley 2008 Cavel Witter returned, nailing four three-pointers and 15 points, the sort of shooting display we haven’t seen from Witter since Senior Night in 2008.
Ethan Wragge made 4-6 three-pointers and had 14 points, the sort of shooting we haven’t seen from him since, well, since the last time he played. This kid is a freshman and he’s going to awfully good before he’s done.
It must be noted when discussing these heady numbers that while 22-10 on the season, South Dakota isn’t exactly a world-beater. They’re a second-year provisional member of Division 1 who plays in a conference without an auto-bid to the NCAA Tournament. They played essentially six guys, with two others getting a few minutes, but you got the sense that with some depth, they could be a pretty dangerous team because man alive, they had some outstanding individual performances. Starting guard Jake Thomas never came out of the game, playing the full 40 minutes and leading them with 18 points, 2 assists and 7 rebounds. Starting forward Tyler Cain played all but four minutes — and in his 36 minutes of court time, he pulled down 12 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 7 (7!) blocks. And it was Cain’s help-side defense on Kenny Lawson that contributed to the CU star’s tough night, in my opinion.
The Coyotes don’t play MVC-caliber defense, but they’re one of the better non-conference teams the Jays faced all year, and given the regional interest and their rather impressive fan following, I’d LOVE to see them on the Jays non-conference slate in future years instead of teams like Savannah State and Houston Baptist. CU is always going to play “guarantee games”, so at least make them against teams with a regional interest. I bet USD would jump at the chance, and they’d put up a heckuva better fight and be much more entertaining to watch than some of the teams we’ve scheduled the last few years. Yeah, this needs to happen.
At the end of the night, it was an offensive showcase on both sides, a thrilling and entertaining game in an old venue that became perhaps the funnest night of the year at a Jays game. None of those things were anticipated going in. I’m actually pretty excited to go back next Monday and see what the encore will be. And that’s something I absolutely wasn’t anticipating.
You bet.