Following a thrilling second half of basketball against SIU (which itself followed two awful halves — the second half of the Missouri State game and the first half on Friday), the Jays look to put two good halves together in the same game against an Evansville team that, as expected, is struggling. Picked dead last by almost everyone, they’re well on their way, starting 1-3 with their only win coming over Indiana State.
That isn’t to say they don’t have talent. Colt Ryan is one of the premier players in the MVC, and had two of his better games against the Jays last year. Actually, that’s underestimating things a tad; he TORCHED their defense in the two games, making mincemeat of them. In the first matchup, he made 8-16 from the field and 6-11 from three-point range en route to 26 points. He also contributed 5 assists and 4 rebounds in 36 minutes. Then in the second game, in Omaha, he again had a great offensive day making 10-20 from the floor and 5-9 from three-point range for 31 points. The Jays did force him into turning it over 4 times, however.
He’s a dynamite scorer, but there isn’t much else on the Purple Aces roster to worry about — at least, in terms of perimeter scoring threats. Colt Ryan is 35-74 from behind the arc, and the next best shooter is Ned Cox, who’s 10-36 from long range. Denver Holmes is 6-21, Jordan Jahr is 7-20 and Kenny Harris is 5-23, and that’s it — no one else among their standard rotation has even attempted a shot from behind the arc.
This plays well into Greg McDermott’s defensive philosophy of stopping the opponent’s leading scorer and forcing the supporting cast to beat them. There is no supporting cast for Evansville. Stop Colt Ryan, and you stop the Aces.
That’s doubly true considering their top rebounder, Kenny Harris, averages 6.7 a game — and the next closest is Clint Hopf at 2.9 a game. Harris has done a solid job at the power forward spot; the JuCo transfer is averaging 10.4 points to go along with those 6.7 rebounds. Alongside him in the paint is Pieter Von Tongeren, the 6’10”, 255 pound center from The Netherlands, whose best defense against Gregory Echenique may be to transform himself into The Flopping Dutchman, and thereby getting cheap fouls called on the Jays big man.
The Aces do so at their own peril, however. Kenny Lawson had 18 points, 11 rebounds and SEVEN blocked shots in a decimating performance in Evansville a year ago.
In 13 of the Jays 15 games, they’ve held the opponent’s leading scorer below his average — and have done so in eight straight games. Should they make it nine today, its difficult to figure how Evansville wins the game given the lack of other quality scoring options, particularly from outside. It becomes doubly difficult to figure a way for Evansville to win if Lawson duplicates his dominance over them from a year ago, and if Echenique stays immune to cheap fouls long enough to exert his will.
Even given the rigors of a second road game in three days, the Jays should win this one.
About the Purple Aces: The Aces are coming off a 65-50 loss at Missouri State on Friday … Sundayʼs game time is set at 3:35 because the University of Evansville women host Drake in game one of Sundayʼs doubleheader at 1:00 … Sophomore guard Troy Taylor made a career-high four steals and set season highs for points (7), assists (5) and rebounds (4) in Fridayʼs game at Missouri State … Taylor is 7-for-10 from the field in the last three games after being 8-for-20 in his first 11 games … Sophomore Ned Cox was UEʼs leading scorer Friday at Missouri State with 10 points, has scored in double figures in two straight games, and three of the last four. Coxʼs only other double-figure game came in the season opener against Oakland City, with 11 … After scoring 90, 81 and 87 points in their last three non-conference games, the Aces are averaging 56 points in MVC games … UE made 104 free throws in the final three non-conference games, compared to 51 in the four MVC games since then … The Aces have been outscored 102-33 from three-point range in MVC games, including 24-0 by Missouri State on Friday.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Steve Merfeld, who led Evansville to 54 wins as head coach from 2002-07, is in his first season as a Creighton assistant coach; he famously led the Purple Aces to a 74-66 victory over Creighton on Jan. 23, 2003, the same day the Jays were featured on the front page of USA Today after earning its first and only top-10 national ranking in program history … Kaleb Korver’s 14 points on Friday against Southern Illinois matched his career high, the third time he’s reached that mark, and interestingly, it was the second time he’s done it at SIU Arena (also in 2009) … Thanks in large part to his 14 points and a career-high eight rebounds on Friday, Kaleb Korver won three times in Carbondale during his playing career, one more time than his brother, Kyle, who scored “only” 10 points in his final game there … Friday’s 72-66 win over Southern Illinois evened Creighton’s all-time record in single-overtime games to 38-38, and improved the Bluejays to 51-44 all-time in overtime contests of any length … Creighton has now won an OT game over Southern Illinois in each of the last three seasons … Creighton has played back-to-back overtime games just four times in program history, with the last coming Feb. 9 & 12, 1994 … Creighton started its third different combination of the year on Friday, when Gregory Echenique started in place of Darryl Ashford; Creighton outscored SIU by one (18-17) over 12:53 of game action when Lawson and Echenique were on the floor together.
The Last Time They Played: Creighton shot a school-record 66.7% from the field and Antoine Young keyed an 11-0 run to start the second half as the Bluejays rallied from an early 10-point deficit to defeat Evansville, 84-71 on February 3, 2010 in Omaha. Young had eight points, a pair of steals and an assist during a 15-2 flurry that spanned the first 3:26 of the second half.
The Series: Creighton leads the all-time series with Evansville by a 23-9 margin, including a 9-7 mark in Evansville. The Jays have won four of their last five trips to Roberts Stadium and 10 of the last 11 meetings (at all sites) in the series.
Creighton coach Greg McDermott is 7-4 against Evansville and has never faced Marty Simmons at the Division I level. Meanwhile, Simmons is 1-5 against Creighton.
This will be Creighton’s final trip to Roberts Stadium, as the city of Evansville is building a new arena to house the Purple Aces for next season. Since starting 5-6 at the facility, the Jays have won four of their last five games there to improve to 9-7 all-time at Roberts Stadium entering Sunday.
Gratuitous Linkage: The 33.3 Art Show opened up in Cedar Falls — yes, that Cedar Falls — this week, as a couple of my colleagues from the art and design community informed me. The idea: enlist 33 artists/designers to recreate and reimagine 33 classic album covers. The results are pretty cool. My colleagues who told me about this show actually didn’t know where Cedar Falls was, they had merely heard about the show through the art grapevine. You’d spend your entire Saturday driving there, I told them, as I’ve made that drive too many times to mention. So they, like you, will have to settle for the online gallery. Provide your own wine, cheese and crackers. Soft, ambient background music is optional.
Out of Context Simpsons quote: “Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.” -Homer Simpson
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On January 9, 2005, Southern Illinois won for the second consecutive year in Omaha, becoming the first Bluejay opponent to do so since Illinois State in 1996-97 and 1997-98. Senior Saluki guards Darren Brooks and Stetson Hairston each drained key three-pointers in the final four minutes to lift Southern Illinois to the 69-63 win.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: Apropos of nothing, its Van Halen. Its always a good time for Van Halen, I say.
The Bottom Line: The only way I can see Evansville winning is for Colt Ryan to go off for 25+ points. He did just that in both meetings a year ago, and the Jays still managed to win both games. Given their defensive ability to shut down an opponent’s leading scorer, I doubt Ryan gets anywhere close to those totals — and given that, I doubt very highly that Evansville can hold serve at home. The Jays come home after a 2-0 road trip.
Creighton 66, Evansville 56