Over the next eight days, Creighton will play four games. Yes, four — at Bradley on Saturday, Northern Iowa at home on Tuesday, at Illinois State on Friday night, and Southern Illinois at home next Sunday. That’s a murderous stretch in terms of volume, but the Jays luck out in that three of the four games come against teams that are picked to finish in the bottom rung of the MVC, and the other is a UNI team off to a 1-2 start. That’s opposed to Southern Illinois, who gets the short end of the stick in playing each of the top four teams in the league over the next eight days (Wichita State, Missouri State, Indiana State, and Creighton). Brutal.
Every team in the MVC will play four-in-eight over the next week-plus, a scheduling quirk necessitated by the league needing to squeeze 18 conference games into 61 days — and really, even less than that considering an entire weekend in February is blocked off for BracketBusters. It could make for some weary legs by next Sunday, so hopefully the Jays can jump out to early leads in a couple of the games and lean a bit more heavily on their bench.
The stretch begins in Peoria on Saturday, as the Jays take on the only winless team in MVC play, the Bradley Braves. Geno Ford’s first Braves squad is undermanned, both in terms of number and in terms of talent, and their record shows it. Carver Arena was the sight of perhaps the most ghastly outcome of the Jays entire season a year ago, when because of an impending blizzard they were forced to play a mid-afternoon weekday game in front of a few hundred brave souls, no pun intended. Bradley had lost 11 straight games coming in, and the Jays played terribly in losing 69-61.
This year, Bradley again comes in nursing a long losing streak, dropping their last six games including four straight by double digits. Fortunately, there’s no blizzard in the forecast, so if the crowd at the arena is minuscule, it will have more to do with the Braves being mired in last place than it will to the weather outside.
With a 5-10 overall record and an 0-3 mark in the Valley — which includes a horrendous 90-51 home loss to Wichita State — the Braves are living up (or down, as it were) to the media’s predictions for them, as they were picked dead last in the league back in October. Unlike most teams in their predicament, however, the Braves have some decent front-line talent. Senior forward Taylor Brown, back after sitting the entire season last year with a heart condition, leads the team in scoring (15.3 a game), is second in rebounding (6.8 a game) and has scored in double-figures in all but one of their games. Two other starters average in double figures: Dyricus Simms-Edwards, who averages 11.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists a game, and Walt Lemon who averages 12.0 points.
Sophomore center Jordan Prosser leads them in rebounding at 8.3 a game (second in the MVC), and contributes 9.5 points per game, nearly giving them four starters in double figures. The problem is that the Braves only play seven players regularly, and really only get meaningful contributions from six. Their four leading scorers have 731 combined points, which represent 76.3% of Bradley’s 958 total points. That’s far and away the largest percentage of any team in the MVC. Those four players all average more than 30 minutes played a game (well, Prosser averages 29.9, but close enough), which is remarkable on its own even before you consider that no other team in the league has more than two players averaging more than 30 minutes per game, and two MVC teams — Illinois State and Wichita State — do not have a single player averaging at least 30 minutes per game.
They’ve been competitive through one half in most of their games, except against Wisconsin (a 66-43 loss) and the aforementioned Wichita State blowout. The second half has been pretty ugly for them as their lack of depth catches up to them, particularly inside, where their depth consists essentially of one guy, Anthony Thompson (2.7 points, 2.1 rebounds in 12 minutes).
Compounding their lack of interior depth, the Braves are one of the worst three-point shooting teams in America. They average just 3.8 threes a game (340th out of 345 Division 1 teams), and shoot 29% from behind the arc (311th). They average only 63.9 points a game, which on its own isn’t horrible…except they give up an average of 70.1 a game.
But you really don’t need statistics to tell you what should be painfully obvious: the Braves are a bad basketball team. When asked if they had any chance at winning Saturday, their beat writer from the Peoria Journal Star, Dave Reynolds, pulled no punches. “No. A win over Creighton would be a miracle. If they can stay competitive for a half or so, that would be the most I would expect.”
Catching Up with the Braves: Bradley is 3-8 in its last 11 Missouri Valley Conference home games, the worst 11-game home stretch in its 60-year MVC membership … Bradley has dropped 13 consecutive January games, with their last January victory coming in a 74-64 victory versus Evansville Jan. 23, 2010 … At 15.1 combined rebounds per game, the Bradley combo of Taylor Brown and Jordan Prosser is the top rebounding duo in The Valley, 0.8 boards better than Doug McDermott and Gregory Echenique … Bradley will play five of its next seven games on the road, beginning with a two-game road swing next week to Drake (Tuesday) and Wichita State (Friday).
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: In the last 32 meetings between the schools, Creighton is 15-1 when holding Bradley to 65 points or less but 7-9 when it allows more than 65 points. Creighton has also won the last 23 meetings when it scores 70 points or more against BU … Gregory Echenique owns 77 career blocked shots in a Creighton uniform, good for ninth place in school history. He had four swats on Tuesday, including one that ended up in the second row of the stands behind the Drake bench … Antoine Young has scored in double-figures in nine of Creighton’s last 10 games; the only game he didn’t score 10 or more was when he went scoreless in Creighton’s 97-62 win over Houston Baptist on Dec. 17 … Creighton’s win at Wichita State improved the Bluejays to 4-1 in true road games this season, with road wins at last year’s Conference USA champ (UAB), Mountain West champ (San Diego State), Conference-USA runner-up (Tulsa) and MVC runner-up (Wichita State). Creighton’s four true road wins this season exceed its total of three in both 2010-11 and 2009-10 … According to data after Wednesday’s games on WarrenNolan.com, Creighton joins Georgetown and Vanderbilt as one of three schools with two true road wins at top-50 foes this season … The team to score more points in the second half has won all 14 of Creighton’s games this season … Under second-year head coach Greg McDermott, the Bluejays are 29-1 when outscoring their foe after halftime.
The RUN-DMD Show: Doug McDermott had 24 points on Tuesday, his 20th birthday. Creighton’s last player with 20 or more points on his birthday was Cavel Witter, who scored 20 points in a win at Drexel on Dec. 1, 2007. Like McDermott, Witter turned 20 on that day … McDermott has scored 15 or more points in eight different halves this season, including 18 in the first half vs. Drake on Tuesday. The Bluejays have gone on to win each contest in which he’s scored 15 or more in any half … Saturday’s game in Peoria will feature the MVC’s leaders in double-doubles. McDermott leads the league with five, while Taylor Brown is tied for second with four double-doubles … Last year, McDermott had 17 points and 10 rebounds against Bradley in Omaha last season, then had 19 points and a career-high 17 rebounds at Bradley.
The Last Time They Played: Creighton started slowly, falling behind 10-2 in the first three minutes, in a 69-61 loss at Bradley last February 1. The Braves made four of their first five shots, including three-pointers by Dyricus Simms-Edwards and Andrew Warren, and they were off and running. The game was played at 3PM due to an impending blizzard in the Peoria area, but starting four hours early didn’t prove to be early enough as the Jays were still stranded in town until the next morning.
The Series: Creighton leads the all-time series with Bradley by a narrow 42-41 margin. Much of that difference has been made up in the past 11 years, as the Jays have won 19 of the past 24 meetings.
Creighton is 15-25 in Peoria vs. Bradley all-time, but have won at Carver Arena in seven of the past 10 seasons.
Greg McDermott is 7-8 all-time against Bradley (1-6 in Peoria), but has never faced Geno Ford. Likewise, Ford has never faced Creighton.
Gratuitous Linkage: Longtime “Voice of the Braves” Dave Snell will broadcast his 1,000th Braves game on 1470 WMBD Saturday night, and will be honored in a pregame ceremony. That’s 33 years worth of games — the only game he’s missed since he began calling Braves games in 1979 came in, of all places, Omaha. He came down sick during the pregame show prior to a 2006 game, and spent the game in a local hospital instead of courtside. Dave Reynolds profiles the PBP man before tonight’s historic call.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On January 7, 1985, the Jays’ Karlos Gripado sank a halfcourt shot as the first-half buzzer sounded, sending the Jays into the locker room up 49-36 over Southern at the Civic Auditorium. Vernon Moore made 9 of 14 shots from the field and 12 of 15 free throws in scoring 30 points, and following the game, was shooting a remarkable 70.6% from the field for the season. Creighton held off a late surge from Southern and won, 87-82.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: Welcome back, Diamond Dave.
The Bottom Line: Creighton jumps out early, and gets a chance to rest its’ starters as a tough four games in eight day stretch begins.
Creighton 80, Bradley 59