[dropcap]It’s[/dropcap] another quick turnaround for the Jays, who complete their hectic five-games-in-12-days stretch with a home game against Eastern Illinois. They’ll take the court on Tuesday night as a ranked team, with their 4-0 start — including an eye-opening win over #18 Oklahoma — propelling them to #23 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25. Even for people that thought the prediction of a ninth-place finish in the Big East was too pessimistic, cracking the rankings this quickly has to come as a surprise.
It’s a nice accolade for a team still trying to emerge from Doug McDermott’s rather large shadow, and a deserved one after a solid start to the season. Does it remove the advantage of being the underdog from this team before they’re truly ready to be the hunted? It’s possible, but it’s also possible that this team is better than expected, and ready to handle that burden. There’s only one way to find out, and we’ll find out this week with three games against EIU, Ole Miss, and either Cincinnati or Middle Tennessee.
First up: the EIU Panthers, who went 11-19 a year ago and 7-9 in the Ohio Valley Conference to finish tied for third in the West Division. It was a tough second season for coach Jay Spoonhour, as EIU got off to a rough start — they went 4-10 in the non-conference with losses to Northwestern, Purdue, Western Kentucky, Western Illinois, and Indiana State, among others.
Spoonhour is the son of Valley legend Charlie Spoonhour, who coached at Missouri State, Saint Louis, and UNLV, and later provided color commentary on MVC-TV. Prior to taking the reigns at EIU, Jay Spoonhour coached at Moberly Area Community College (coincidentally, the school where Dana Altman got his start) and had a 100-29 record, going to two NJCAA Region 16 Tournaments in three years. He served as the interim head coach at UNLV to complete the 2004 season, and posted a 6-4 record and took the team to the finals of the Mountain West Conference along with an NIT appearance after taking over for his father.
They lost small forward Sherman Blanford from that 11-19 team of a year ago; Blanford graduated in the spring and took his team-leading 14.3 points and 8.0 rebounds with him. He’s a tough player to replace, as he had averaged 17.6 points and 9.5 in conference games, and finished the season with three consecutive double-doubles.
However, three starters return from last year’s team. Reggie Smith, a 6’0″ guard who transferred from UNLV and debuted for EIU last season, was second on the team in scoring a year ago with 13.0 points a game, and also contributed 2.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists a game. He led the team in assists (85) and ranked second in steals (33), while shooting 39.8% from the floor and 30.2% from three-point range. It’s been a huge struggle for Smith so far this season, though, as he’s made just 5-25 (20%) overall and 1-12 from three (8%), and he has nearly has many turnovers (7) as assists (8). Given his numbers from a year ago, you’d expect him to pick it up.
Dylan Chatman, a 6’1″ guard, averaged 6.1 points and 2.2 rebounds a game a year ago, and led the team in steals with 36 and in three-pointers made with 36 (35.0%, 36-103). He’s continuing those trends this year, averaging 5.8 points and 3.0 rebounds a game. Josh Piper (4.6 points, 2.9 rebounds) and Luke Piotrowski (4.1 points, 1.9 rebounds) also return after starting at times last year, though neither has contributed substantially early this season.
It’s the newcomers, and there’s a bunch, who have led the way so far. Chris Olivier, a 6’8″ forward, started his career at Northern Iowa and sat out the first half of last season. He’s their leading scorer through four games, averaging 13.3 points and a team-best 5.8 rebounds a game, while shooting 55% (24-43) from the field.
Trae Anderson, a JuCo transfer from Southwestern Illinois Community College, is a 6’4″, 235 pound combo guard/forward, and is the only other player averaging in double-figures through four games, though he’s not been as efficient of a scorer as Olivier. Anderson is 15-46 from the floor (32%) and averages 10.3 points a game; he’s also contributed 4.3 rebounds a game.
The primary ballhandler is Cornell Johnston, a 5’9″ guard out of St. Louis who’s smaller than most D1 players but has talent — with 1,626 points and 799 assists, he’s the career leader in both categories for Ladue High. Starting all but one game since his freshman year, he averaged 17 points, 10 assists and 3 steals as a senior for the Class 5 state champions. As a true freshman, he’s been impressive in his early career, starting all four games, shooting 12-28 from the floor (43%), 8-14 from three-point range (57%), and more importantly, contributing 3.5 rebounds and 5 assists a game. He has a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio, and not even Cincinnati’s rugged defense rattled him — he had three assists and three turnovers in 38 minutes against the Bearcats.
EIU is 1-3, but has been competitive in every game so far. Against Cincinnati, they were tied 26-all at the half and wound up losing 54-49; there were nine ties and six lead changes in the game, but a five-minute scoring drought did them in. Against UC Davis, they lost 63-61 when Dylan Chatman’s jumper to tie it misfired at the buzzer. And against Missouri State, they led 29-27 at the half and were ahead nearly the entire game; an eight-minute scoreless drought late in the game coincided with a 10-0 Bears run, and was the deciding factor in a 64-53 MSU win.
Much like North Carolina Central, this is no cupcake. EIU will come ready, and able, to give the Jays a game — and to win if they’re not ready.
The 23rd ranked Jays will be ready.
About the Panthers: Guard Cornell Johnston was named the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Week after three solid games last week, where he averaged 9.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 6 assists per game in action against Eureka College, UC Davis and Cincinnati … Forward Luke Piotrowski had three blocked shots in the Panthers game at Cincinnati on Sunday, and has now blocked at least one shot in a game for eight straight games dating back to last season … EIU plays North Carolina Central on Friday morning in the Florida portion of the Emerald Coast Classic … Eastern Illinois will be playing a ranked team for the 18th time in school history. The Panthers are 0-17 in previous games against the Top 25 with the last game a loss at No. 9 Murray State on Jan. 28, 2012 (L 58-73). EIU’s closest upset bid was a 76-66 overtime loss to No. 20 Iowa State on Dec. 21, 1987.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton is one of 18 teams that have been ranked in the Top 25 in each of the last four seasons … Creighton owns six players who are averaging 8.0 points per game or more this season. Seven players have scored 12 or more points in a game this year, and CU has seen a different leading scorer in each contest. It’s the first time Creighton has had four different men as the leading scorer through four games since 2006-07, when Anthony Tolliver, Nick Porter, Nate Funk and Dane Watts each were a leading scorer at least once through four games … Creighton has won 82 straight home games against teams that enter with a record of .500 or worse. The last team to upset the applecart was Feb. 25, 2002, when Drake won at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, meaning the Jays have never lost to an opponent with a losing record at the CLink.
The Last Time They Played: On January 7, 1993, Rick Johnson’s Bluejays sputtered their way to a 49-45 road loss to Eastern Illinois, dropping them to 2-7 on the season (and 0-6 on the road). The Jays scored just six points in the first 14:33 of the second half, and were led in scoring by Matt Petty, who had 13 points just two days after his career-high 37 points in a double-overtime win over Montana.
“We don’t have a lot of players who can go out and get shots,” Johnson told the media after the game. “We have to move and use screens to get open. We’re a team that has to work hard to get people open, and we didn’t do a very good job of doing that tonight. We got decent shots, although we didn’t get enough shots. We’re hesitating too much. We’re not shooting when we’re open, and we have some guys who don’t want to shoot. When you have two or three guys out there who don’t want to shoot, it kind of limits you.”
That pretty much sums up the entire RJ Era, doesn’t it? Jeez.
The Series: Creighton and Eastern Illinois have met twice previously, with the schools splitting a pair of games during the Rick Johnson Era — a 61-60 Jays win January of 1992, and the aforementioned 49-45 loss in January of 1993.
Gratuitous Linkage: The game recap from their local paper goes into detail on how EIU missed an opportunity to upset Cincinnati on the road over the weekend.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On November 25, 1998, Creighton beat Iowa 75-73 in Iowa City. The game was the first of several senior season contests where Rodney Buford put the team on his back, as “Rodzilla” made five straight shots and had 13 points as the Bluejays outscored Iowa 34-15 in the first 10 minutes of the half, turning a 37-30 halftime deficit into a 64-52 lead. The Jays hit 12 of 15 shots from the field (80 percent) over that stretch, including 6 of 7 three-point attempts (two each by Buford and Sears, and one from both Nerijus Karlikanovas and Corie Brandon).
We looked back at this game in Season One of “Bluejay Rewind” with a highlight reel from that game, and it’s a fun one to revisit.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: Creighton’s a bit better than that ninth-place prediction, huh? Now that they’re ranked, look out — No More Mister Nice Guy!
The Bottom Line: Creighton and EIU are close for a half, but another long stretch of scoreless play dooms the Panthers and the Jays pull away late.
Creighton 77, Eastern Illinois 62