[dropcap]Saturday[/dropcap] night, the 2015-16 season tips off as the Jays play host to Texas Southern. This might come as a surprise, but it’s the first time since 2003 — the inaugural year of the building then called Qwest Center — that the Jays open up at home with an opponent coming off of an NCAA Tournament bid the previous season. The opponent that year?
(Brief pause while you try to remember)
The San Diego Toreros! Incidentally, the Jays won that game 79-44.
This year’s opening night opponent, the Texas Southern Tigers, finished 22-13 a year ago, including a 16-2 mark in the SWAC, and advanced to their second straight NCAA Tourney, where they were a 15 seed. Impressively, they won road games at both Michigan State (71-64 in OT) and Kansas State (58-56). They’re coached by Mike Davis, who previously coached at Indiana and UAB. And they return two of their top four scorers from a year ago, their top three rebounders, their top three-point shooter from that team, and the player tabbed as this year’s Preseason Defensive Player of the Year in the SWAC.
In other words, this isn’t your usual season opener, and this isn’t your usual SWACtastic cupcake game.
With that said, it’s still a team from the Southwestern Athletic Conference we’re talking about here, illustrated by the fact that Texas Southern will play Friday night at New Mexico, then rush halfway across the country to play in Omaha Saturday night. The game here will be the 34th consecutive non-conference game played away from home, either on the road or on a neutral floor, for the Tigers, which is the absurd financial reality for programs in the SWAC, even the best ones like Texas Southern. They will not play a home game this year until January 2, playing at New Mexico, Clemson, Washington State, Mississippi State, Syracuse, and Baylor (among others) in the meantime.
The two returning starters from last year’s team are Chris Thomas (12.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals per game) and Malcolm Riley (10.2 points, 6.4 rebounds), both of whom were named Preseason Second Team All-SWAC. Both players were great down the stretch for the Tigers; Thomas averaged 14.2 points and 6 boards over the final five games, while Riley averaged 15.6 points and 10.4 boards over the same stretch. Riley had nine games with double-digit rebounds, including five of the last six games (the lone holdout being the NCAA Tourney against Arizona, where he grabbed just four boards).
David Blanks, who started 10 games a year ago, was tabbed the SWAC’s Preseason Defensive Player of the Year largely because of his reputation as the best perimeter defender in the league. Despite only starting a third of the games the Tigers played, Blanks notched 20 steals and was third on the team in defensive rebounding.
Helping replace the loss of All-SWAC guards Deverell Biggs and Madarious Gibbs, who took 26 points, 11 boards and 6 assists a game with them, is Jose Rodriguez. The 6’7″ forward missed all of last season with a knee injury, but averaged 11.4 points and 5.7 rebounds in 2013-14 and was a preseason pick for the 2014-2015 All-SWAC team before going down with the injury.
They’re favored to repeat as SWAC champs in the preseason poll and return a solid core of experienced players. They’ll also be playing their second game in 27 hours, each in a different time zone. This is a better team than the SWAC teams that have visited Omaha in recent years, but the result will probably be the same, even if the margin of victory is slightly less.
It would be nice if the Jays could bust out to a big early lead that would allow for plenty of experimentation down the stretch, because after Saturday night, Creighton’s schedule escalates quickly. UTSA comes to town Tuesday, and then they hit the road to play the 15th ranked Indiana Hoosiers at the always-rowdy Assembly Hall two days later. You’re not alone if you feel like that game kind of snuck up on you; time flies the older you get, but man, somehow I did not equate “November 19” and “Next Thursday” as one and the same.
If last week’s exhibition win is any indication, the Jays have a lot to work on before battling a team like Indiana, particularly on the defensive end. After the game, Coach Greg McDermott indicated the new rules — and particularly how they’ll be enforced — had a lot to do with the tentativeness of many players defensively. They’ve got two games to figure it out in contests they ought to win, because the margin for error against Indiana, especially on the road, is zero.
I think the Jays will jump out to that early lead tonight, and give themselves a chance to figure things out.
Quick Notes on the Tigers:
- This is the first of two home games for Creighton as part of the “Men Who Speak Up Main Event.” The second will come when UTSA visits next Tuesday
- Mike Davis is in his fourth year at Texas Southern, owning a 58-42 record at the school coming into the season and two NCAA Tournament appearances. Davis took Indiana to the 2002 NCAA national championship game and had a 115-79 record in six years there, and also was head coach at UAB for six seasons, going 122-72 with the Blazers
- Among the players on last year’s Texas Southern team were former Creighton swingman Nevin Johnson (averaged 2.7 points per game last year at TSU) and former Omaha Central High School standout and one-time Nebraska Cornhusker Deverell Biggs (averaged 11.8 points per game last year at TSU); neither is with the program this year.
Bluejay Bytes:
- One of the big questions entering Saturday’s opener — whether top recruit Justin Patton would see action and remove any doubt about a redshirt, sit out and delay the decision, or announce a decision to redshirt prior to tipoff — was answered late Thursday when it was announced he would redshirt this year.
- The last time Creighton opened the regular-season against a team coming off an NCAA Tournament bid was the 2009-10 season, when the Jays opened at No. 21 Dayton. They’re 17-1 in their last 18 season openers; that game is the only blemish, as they lost 90-80
- Creighton’s 104-77 win last year vs. Central Arkansas was the second straight season the team has cracked triple-digits in their season-opener. Notably, nine of Creighton’s 19 all-time NCAA Tournament teams have scored 90 or more points in their season-opener.
- Creighton owns an 82-15 record (.845) on opening day, has won 17 of the last 18 season-openers, and has won 11 of the last 15 by 20 or more points. As for home openers, the Jays are 86-11 (.887) all-time, and have won 20 straight home openers since a December 3, 1994 setback against SMU.
The Series / The Last Time They Played:
Creighton and Texas Southern have never met. Greg McDermott, however, is 1-0 all-time against Texas Southern, as his Iowa State team tamed the Tigers, 79-55, on December 19, 2007. McDermott is also 1-0 in head-to-head meetings vs. Mike Davis, as his 2011-12 Creighton team won at Davis’ UAB squad, 70-60.
Gratuitous Linkage:
This Akron Beacon Journal article from March profiles David Blanks, a native Ohioan who’s taken a nomadic journey through a D2 school in West Virginia and a JuCo in Texas before arriving at Texas Southern.
What the Other Side is Saying:
There’s not a ton of coverage of Texas Southern hoops out there (trust me, I’ve looked). Their official website wasn’t even updated with a current roster until last week. So here’s a SWAC preview from NBC’s CollegeBasketballTalk.com with some additional info on the Tigers.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
On November 14, 1998, Creighton jumped out to a 20-2 lead in the early moments and rolled to a 93-48 season-opening win over Towson State. The Jays had looked lethargic in two exhibition games, including a nail-biting three-point win over Team Pella, and were “rewarded” with marathon four-hour practices in the days leading up to the season opener. Whatever Dana Altman did in those practices worked. He noted in the World-Herald the next day, “I was really, really pleased with the energy and the passion with which we played tonight. We were diving after loose balls, taking passes away and running the floor hard.”
Senior Rodney Buford scored 24 points on 10-14 shooting, and scored 19 points in the first half alone, as the Jays opened led 48-19 at the break. They never really let up, holding leads of 54-26, 63-28, and 81-40 throughout the second half, and wound up with their largest margin of victory in seven years.
Doug Swenson had 12 points and 14 rebounds in 19 minutes, while Nerijus Karlikanovas and Donnie Johnson scored 15 and 13, respectively, in their Bluejay debuts.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
Last year was the first time in the nine years of the Polyfro Primer that Guns N’Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” didn’t appear in this spot. Last year was the first time in two decades that Creighton had a losing record. It’s purely coincidental, but I’m also not about to tempt fate.
The Bottom Line:
Texas Southern is the class of the SWAC, and this will be a closer game than other matchups with teams from that league have been in recent years. Well, “closer” is a relative term.
Creighton 92, Texas Southern 73