[dropcap]Tuesday[/dropcap] night, Creighton plays one final tune-up before hitting the road for the first time when they take on 15th ranked Indiana in Bloomington. Their opponent is the UTSA Roadrunners, who bring an 0-2 record into the game thanks to road losses to Loyola-Chicago (76-64) and Clemson (78-45).
They return eight letterwinners from last year, led by senior Ryan Bowie, who played at Iowa Western CC before transferring to UTSA. Bowie averaged 13.0 points and 5.8 rebounds last year, while leading the team with 62 three-pointers. The 6’1″, 185-pound guard has played all but eight minutes thus far this season, scoring 22 points with 12 rebounds (and one assist with seven turnovers) in their two games.
Beyond Bowie, this is an inexperienced club, despite the eight returnees. They’re tasked with replacing 66.6% of their scoring from a year ago, as four of their top six scorers from a season ago are gone. They graduated seniors Jeromie Hill, Keon Lewis and Kaj-Bjorn Sherman, who combined to average 43.4 points per game and were all three ranked among the top 25 scorers in C-USA. As a result, they will start two sophomores and a true freshman tonight. In their season opener, forward Nick Allen (6’8″, 205 lb.) became the first true freshman to start in his collegiate debut for UTSA in six years. Fellow freshman A.J. Cockrell made his collegiate debut with six points along with a pair of rebounds and steals in 20 minutes off the bench. Meanwhile, juniors J.R. Harris (14 points), Nick Billingsley (9 points) and Terrell Scruggs (4 points) combined for 57 minutes off the bench, outscoring the Ramblers reserves, 33-13.
Notably, Billingsley is a former Omaha Central standout, where he was an honorable mention All-State Class A selection by the Lincoln Journal Star following his senior season. He’s in his first year at UTSA after playing two seasons for New Mexico Junior College, and has scored 11 points and grabbed three rebounds so far this year off the bench.
The Roadrunners have not played a very fast pace so far in two games, have not rebounded or defended particularly well, and have struggled to score. That bodes well for the Jays, who were excellent offensively in their debut and played at a breakneck pace. In our postgame analysis of Saturday’s 93-70 win over Texas Southern, we highlighted the fact that Creighton had a whopping 30 fast break points in Saturday’s win over Texas Southern, after not having more than 11 in any game last year. Rob Anderson, CU’s top-notch SID, did some further research and discovered that stat is even more impressive than first believed.
Last year, Creighton had a total of 143 fast break points, meaning they averaged 4.3 per game. Here’s where it gets really crazy though: those 30 fast break points Saturday night are believed to be their most in any game since the CenturyLink Center era began in 2003 (and more detailed box scores were kept). The next highest mark on file is 24 vs. Kennesaw State on November 26, 2010. Think about that. There were some pretty fast-paced teams in that span — the Johnny Mathies/Nate Funk/Anthony Tolliver era teams, the entire Doug McDermott era — but none of them had a game with as many fast break points as the team had on Saturday.
But wait! There’s more! The Jays made 38 field goals in that game, which tied the arena record. They’ve made that many field goals just twice before, in a 2007 win over Houston Baptist and a 2011 win over Campbell. (Side note: I’d forgotten how time-consuming it is to cut up footage of a game where the Jays make 38 baskets. Holy crap. The things I do for our readers!) If you’re curious, it’s nowhere near the all-time school record, though. That honor goes to the 1963-64 squad, who made 54 of 106 baskets in a 124-94 win at Miami. Of course, when you’ve got Paul Silas grabbing every rebound in sight and harassing the great Rick Barry into missing 2/3 of his shots en route to scoring “just” 19 points, well below his average of 32.3 points per game, that helps get you 106 shot attempts.
Back to Saturday night. The Jays scored on 43 of their 75 possessions, producing an average of 1.24 points per possession, and used just 14 seconds per possession. While the usual caveats apply (low-level D1 opponent, yadda yadda yadda), CU plays these sorts of teams every year, and even the very best CU teams of the past 12 years haven’t put up these sorts of offensive numbers against them. There will no doubt be peaks and valleys with this team, like most young teams, but perhaps the peaks will be higher than we thought, because that offensive performance on Saturday was one of the best in school history.
Quick Notes on the Roadrunners:
- UTSA has been outrebounded 74-54 in two games so far this season, with most of the discrepancy coming on the defensive glass, where they have a 55-36 disadvantage
- UTSA has 15 assists on 40 made field goals this season, while turning it over 36 times. Just two players have a positive A:T ratio — Lucas O’Brien and Gino Littles
- Brooks Thompson (Oklahoma State, 1994) owns a 183-167 career record in 12 years as a head coach, including a 128-153 mark in 10 years at UTSA. He’s guided them to their first-ever NCAA Tournament win in any sport (a 2011 victory over Alabama State in the “First Four”) and one league championship, though it’s been a tough adjustment since moving from the Southland Conference to C-USA as they have a 22-38 record since the move
Bluejay Bytes:
- Martin Krampelj’s 8 rebounds were most by a Creighton frosh in season-opener since Joe Dabbert’s 9 in 2000.
- The Bluejays have won 33 straight home games against teams that are winless entering the night as UTSA is tonight, winning those games by an average of 26.91 points. Fourteen of those wins came by 30 points or more, and only two were decided by single-digits. The streak dates clear back to Dana Altman’s home debut as CU coach, a 77-70 loss versus an 0-2 SMU team on December 3, 1994.
- Creighton is a perfect 50-0 all-time in regular-season home games that take place on or before November 26th. Creighton has won 51 of its 52 regular-season November home games since 1990, falling only to Boise State in 2012.
The Series / The Last Time They Played:
Creighton won the only previous meeting between the schools, a 93-47 victory on November 30, 1990. The game was part of the “Amana Hawkeye Classic”, a four-team tournament played in Iowa City and hosted by the Hawkeyes. It was one of Bob Harstad’s finest games in a Bluejay uniform — he was a perfect 13-13 from the floor, and a nearly perfect 12-13 from the free throw line, in scoring 38 points. 27 of those points came in the first half, as 14 of the Bluejays’ first 17 points came courtesy of Harstad.
Gratuitous Linkage:
The Roadrunners will open the 2015-16 season with one of the longest road stretches in program history, as the team will play eight of its first nine games away from home. The San Antonio Express-News took a deeper look at that schedule.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
The Jays have played four times on November 17, winning by an average of 29 points against opponents like Texas-Arlington, Mississippi Valley State, and Florida A&M.
Their game on November 17, 2002 was particularly noteworthy, as it was opening night and the first win of the magical 2002-03 season. In a sign of things to come that season, Creighton controlled the opening tip and scored 10 seconds later on a dunk by Larry House. On the next possession, Michael Lindeman followed a House miss with a putback, followed by consecutive Kyle Korver three-pointers just 2:10 into the game to make it 10-0. Korver led the Jays with 18 points in 21 minutes while converting 6-for-6 from three-point range, and moved into first place on the school’s all-time three point list with 248, passing the previous mark of 245 held by Ryan Sears.
It was the second-largest victory in school history at the time, surpassed only by a 63-6 victory in 1925 over Midland College, but was equaled in 2013 when the Jays beat Alcorn State 107-61.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
Every year, new arena video packages are unveiled. Every year, they’re trashed on social media, on the Bluejay Underground (and on the “Good” Bluejay Cafe before that), and then by the next year, when they’re associated with good memories, they’re remembered fondly and regarded as better than the new ones. For whatever reason, Archie’s “We Ready”, which was played prior to tipoff from 2003-2005 and has made sporadic return engagements since, continues to be a popular suggestion for a full-time comeback in those annual threads.
I have to admit, as much as I disagree with most of the video critiques in those annual threads, I do have a soft place in my heart for Archie. I blame Johnny Mathies and Nate Funk. Those were fun teams, and that song will always be associated with them for me.
The Bottom Line:
Thanks to another big night from Mo Watson and Khyri Thomas, Creighton gets a big lead, and is able to rest it’s starters prior to the big matchup with Indiana.
Bluejays 95, UTSA 67