On Saturday, ESPN showed Creighton’s tournament resume throughout the day, and especially during their game that night. On the “Bad Losses” line, one game was listed: Evansville. The Jays have five losses, all to teams that will play in some sort of postseason play…except for one. They have one blemish on their resume, and it’s that February 7 loss to the Purple Aces.
And so in addition to the final home game for senior Antoine Young (as well as walk-ons Matthew Dorwart, Ross Ferrarini and Derek Sebastian), Tuesday night is a chance to avenge the only truly bad loss the Jays have suffered this year. That first meeting was a ghastly aberration in which the Jays shot a season-low 18% (4-22) from three-point range, and shot 40.4% overall, their second-worst output of the year. It was a loss that sparked panic among Jays fans — panic that would turn into mass hysteria four days later when they lost at home to Wichita State.
They played poorly against Wichita State, but I’d argue that the Jays’ most frustrating game of the season came against the Aces. The Shockers are capable of beating teams — including Creighton — even when their opponent plays well. Evansville, not so much. It took an apocalyptically bad level of shooting to make it possible, and even then the game was tied with three minutes to play.
It was precisely the style of game Evansville needed to be able to pull the upset. Even more than most teams, for the Purple Aces, the key in each their 16 league games has been defense: In its eight league wins, UE is holding opponents to 43.4% shooting while outrebounding the opposition by 0.8 per game. Meanwhile, in their eight losses, the opposition is shooting 54.6% while winning the battle of the boards by an average of 7.4 per game. When they defend and rebound, as they did against Creighton, they usually win. When they allow opponents to get into a rhythm offensively and don’t crash the boards, they usually lose.
Given that the Aces really don’t have a “true” post presence, how did they manage to hold Creighton down? Part of it was simply bad shooting — the Jays missed 18 three-pointers and were in the midst of a three-game slump. But a lot of it was great coaching adjustments by Marty Simmons. When he realized early on that the Jays were missing shots they normally make, he schemed to collapse the defense in on Gregory Echenique and Doug McDermott, daring the Jays’ cold shooters to take more jump shots. After they heated up slightly to end the half, an 8-2 run that cut the lead to 33-31 at the break, Simmons went away from that strategy to begin the half. Echenique and McDermott scored the first eight points of the second half, giving the Jays the lead, and Simmons directed his players to go back to what had worked in the first half. It did, and the gamble paid off when the Jays went back to being cold from the perimeter after that brief respite to end the first half.
Creighton attempted 52 shots that night; 22 of them were from behind the arc, and another 14 were jump shots inside the arc. The gamble of daring them to shoot outside jumpers allowed Evansville to overcome their biggest weakness, and play to a draw with scoring in the paint at 26-all. When the shots didn’t fall, it allowed Evansville to win a game they probably shouldn’t have.
Of course, that game took place in a half-empty arena two weeks ago; it’s doubtful they’ll be able to duplicate their defensive feat in front of a packed house on the road. Evansville remains a team that isn’t very deep, has few consistent scoring options other than Colt Ryan, and has very little size. In other words, all of the things that led people to believe the first game would be a mismatch are still true, and the things that allowed them to win at home don’t seem likely to happen again.
Creighton hasn’t lost their final home game of the season since 2002, when a senior-less team dropped a 75-73 game to Drake. Barring another cold-shooting night or a Colt Ryan offensive explosion, it seems unlikely that they lose this year.
Catching Up with the Purple Aces: : Over the last ten years, the Aces have struggled on the road in Missouri Valley play, posting a record of just 16-82 while failing to win more than three league road games in any of those seasons … Evansville is looking for its first season sweep of Creighton since 1994-95, its first year in the Valley … The Aces shoot 76.3% from the line, good for 10th in the nation and 1st in the MVC … The Aces are 8-1 this year when Lewis Jones, a junior guard who comes off the bench, scores eight or more points … Kenny Harris has reached double figures in seven of the last nine games, and went 6-9 from the floor with 15 points in the first meeting against the Jays … Evansville is 4-4 this season against teams in the RPI top 100 … Junior Troy Taylor, a 6-0 guard, leads UE with 4.7 rebounds per contest and 92 assists while having the third most steals. Over the last 12 games, he’s averaged 6.4 rebounds per game, and has made two stabs at the second triple-double in UE history, most recently on Jan. 29 against Indiana State where he finished with 9 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists … True freshman Ryan Sawvell has recorded double-digit outings in seven of the last 14 games while shooting 62.7% from the floor … Seven of Evansville’s 13 losses have come by an amazing 14 combined points.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton is 15-1 in the last 16 years in its final home game of the regular-season, including a 1-0 mark vs. Evansville. That meeting came in 2000, when the Bluejays emerged with a lopsided 102-69 win at the Omaha Civic Auditorium … Tuesday will mark the first time since 2004 that Evansville’s trip to Omaha won’t be televised statewide by NET Sports. That network has shown the UE at CU game each of the previous seven years, with the Bluejays winning every contest by an average of 10.1 points … Gregory Echenique has missed a total of two field goal attempts in his last four games, starting the streak with a 4-for-4 game at Evansville on Feb. 7th. Since then he was 5-6 vs. Wichita State, 4-4 at Southern Illinois and 3-4 vs. Long Beach State … Echenique is shooting 61.5% from the field this year, third in the MVC, and his 61.2% marksmanship for his Creighton career is tops in Bluejay history … A win on Tuesday would mark the fifth straight season Creighton has finished exactly 7-2 in league play at home, and eighth time in those nine years it’s been 7-2 or better in Valley play at home.
The RUN-DMD Show: Doug McDermott scored 36 points on 14-of-20 shooting in Saturday’s win over Long Beach State, the most points in CenturyLink Center Omaha history for any game that didn’t reach double-overtime.
The Last Time They Played: On February 7, Evansville defeated Creighton 65-57. Moving on…
The Series: Creighton leads the all-time series with Evansville by a 25-10 margin, including a 14-2 mark in Omaha. The Jays have won six of the past seven meetings and 12 of the last 14.
Greg McDermott is 9-5 against Evansville (2-1 as Creighton head coach) and 2-1 against Marty Simmons at the Division I level. Simmons is 2-7 against Creighton.
Gratuitous Linkage: Randy Beard of the Evansville Courier-Press has been gracious enough to do not one but two “From the Other Side” interviews for WBR this year, and he has an excellent piece in today’s paper about the Aces’ outlook coming into tonight’s game. The comments section beneath the article is a riot — I don’t think there’s a fanbase in the Valley that is more enthusiastically optimistic than Evansville. Every single comment is some variation on “Go Aces!” Not a negative fan in the bunch.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On February 21, 2001, Creighton overcame a 35-30 halftime deficit to defeat Northern Iowa at the UNI-Dome 69-50. Kyle Korver had 19 points on 5-7 shooting, while Ryan Sears had 13 points and five assists in a game played before a robust crowd of 2,212.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: Since we started playing “Rocky” videos, the Jays are on a winning streak. Superstition!
The Bottom Line: Antoine Young committed to Creighton before his sophomore year at Bellevue West, making him the earliest commit in the history of the program. Being from Bellevue, he’s been around the program as either a player or a committed recruit for seven years — going all the way back to the 2005-06 season, the team that lost to Miami in the NIT. He became the next link in a continuous group of unbelievable point guards that have led the Jays through the best sustained run of winning in their illustrious history. Ryan Sears, Tyler McKinney, Josh Dotzler, and Antoine Young have been the Jays’ point guards the last 15 years. Is it any wonder why Creighton’s been as good as they have been over that span?
Each brought their own uniqueness to the position. Sears had unparalleled court vision, could light it up from outside when needed, and was a floor general in the truest sense of the word. McKinney was a great passer, a terrific leader and a stone-cold assassin late in games. Dotzler pre-knee injury was an electric player with the quickest hands on defense of any player of the Altman Era, had great court awareness and was a good shooter when needed; post-injury, his shot disappeared but he still had those quick hands to steal the ball and he remained a great passer. Young has an amazing ability to get to the rim and create a shot, has consistently had one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the league, and has been an ironman. All four were magnificent point guards in their own way, and all four were winners.
The reaction from the crowd when he’s introduced in the starting lineup one last time tonight would have been deafening before, but after Saturday’s heroics, the noise may register on the Richter Scale. There’s no way the Jays lose following his much-deserved curtain call. None.
Creighton 78, Evansville 64