Last Wednesday night, Northern Iowa’s 21-game home court winning streak came to an end when Kyle Weems hit a spinning, off-balance three-pointer with 2.5 seconds left to give Missouri State the lead, 58-57. The shot capped a furious final minute of action, as UNI’s Johnny Moran had nailed a three pointer with 11 seconds left to give them the lead at 57-55 — a shot that most in the McLeod Center thought would be the game winner. Weems, the Bears outstanding guard, had other thoughts.
It was just coach Cuonzo Martin’s second road win in MVC play all-time, as the Bears went 1-17 during his first two trips through the league. That they got a win in dramatic fashion in their first road game of this year is good news for the Bears, and bad news for the rest of the league — a talented team that could never seem to put things together away from Springfield has matured and is now as salty on the road as they are at home. They were picked second in the league by many, and if someone else wants to overtake them for that position (ahem, Creighton), its going to be a fight.
That newfound toughness on the road shouldn’t have been a surprise; in mid-November, the Bears went down to Knoxville and battled the then-24th ranked Tennessee Volunteers in a 60-56 loss that was tight throughout. In that game, center Will Creekmore had 11 points and 9 rebounds, Jermaine Mallett had 12 points and 9 boards, and Weems had 18 points with 7 rebounds. Point guard Nafis Ricks dished out 6 assists while grabbing 6 rebounds of his own. Because they share the load in so many areas — scoring, rebounding, passing — they’re tough to prepare for.
It was on display again in their MVC home opener Saturday against Illinois State. The Bears jumped out to a 12-point lead in the first half, but a 11-1 run over the final 90 seconds cut the halftime lead to only two. That’s a scenario where the Bears might have spiraled out of control a year ago; this year, they came out of the break with a run of their own to build the lead back, and never let up in a 82-71 win. Mallett led the way with a career-high 22 points, and grabbed 9 rebounds.
While they have scorers aplenty, they have had some uneven defensive performances — and Saturday was one of the games they struggled. They allowed an Illinois State team that couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn against Creighton to make 54% of their shots, and allowed point guard Anthony Cousin — he of the five point a game average — to get 23.
They have not struggled on the boards, however; in fact, they’ve outrebounded every team they’ve played save for two — Tulane and Oklahoma State, both on the road. They’re +6 for the season on the glass, so the Jays won’t likely be doubling them up on the boards as they did to Drake.
Like the Bears, the Jays are 2-0. Unlike the Bears, the Jays feel like they haven’t really had a great litmus test of their progress yet. Missouri State won in Cedar Falls, and even though the Panthers are not quite the Sweet 16 team of a year ago, they’re a first-division MVC team and don’t often lose at home. The Jays will find out a lot about themselves Tuesday night, as the Bears are the best team they’ve played with Gregory Echenique eligible.
Against Will Creekmore, the Bears excellent center, Echenique should be able to play more physical than he was allowed to be against the weak post players Drake threw at him. Creekmore averages 12 points and 6 rebounds a game, and provided you don’t deny the existence of the CIT last March (guilty as charged), you probably recall Creekmore being named MVP of the tourney after posting four straight double-figure scoring games, shooting 16-for-25 (.640) from the field and 14-for-15 (.933) from the line with 25 rebounds and 6 blocks in the tourney. The 6’9″, 248 pound senior is a solid player that will be a good test of the McDermott System defensively — if they play as Mac hopes, Creekmore should have to earn every basket.
Weems is the leading scorer, and was honored by ESPN.com’s Fran Fraschilla in a preseason column as one of his “10 Most Versatile Players” in college hoops. A year ago, he finished 6th in the MVC in scoring (13.6), 8th in rebounding (6.2), 5th in three-pointers (2.0), 5th in three-point percentage (.407), 6th in steals (1.4), 6th in blocked shots (1.0) and 9th in FG Pct (.475) and was named second-team All-MVC for his efforts. This year as a junior, he’s even better, averaging 16.4 points and 6.8 rebounds a game.
If the blueprint of earlier games is followed, my guess (and its just a guess, I could be way off) is the Jays will look to take away easy baskets from Creekmore in the paint, they’ll try to neutralize Weems, and dare everyone else to beat them from the perimeter. That means Jermaine Mallett is a name to remember, as he’s their third-leading scorer at 11.3 points a game, and he’s a capable shooter from outside as his 5-5 night against Illinois State can attest.
I haven’t even mentioned point guard Nafis Ricks, which is no slight to him — he might just be the second-best point guard in the league behind Antoine Young, with apologies to Wichita State. While Young leads the MVC in total assists with 58, Ricks leads the MVC in assists per game at 4.2. Young has a superior 2.42 assist-to-turnover ratio, but Ricks isn’t far behind at 2.16. Unlike the first two Valley games, Young will be going against a point guard of near-equal caliber tonight.
In other words, Missouri State is a heckuva team, and the perfect team to see if the Jays improvement over the past three weeks is attributable to bad opponents or actual improvement. I’m excited.
Back Off the Kenny Bashing: Kenny Lawson has taken some abuse from fans this year, but consider this: Lawson currently leads the MVC with 102 rebounds and his 7.3 rebounds per game is the league’s fourth best average. More impressively, his 7.3 rebounds per game average matches an identical total held by Rodney Buford in 1997-98 for the best by a Bluejay in the past 17 seasons.
The Jays have not had a player average more than 7.4 rebounds per game since Nate King averaged 9.0 rebounds per game in 1993-94. He enters Tuesday’s tilt with 348 career rebounds at Qwest Center Omaha, three behind the facility record total of 351 amassed by Dane Watts from 2004-08. And with 1,113 career points, Lawson is also three points shy of moving into the top-25 in school history for points. Not bad for a guy many fans seem to enjoy ridiculing.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Doug McDermott’s 28 points Saturday against Drake was the most by a Bluejay freshman since Ryan Sears scored 29 vs. Wyoming on Dec. 6, 1997 … The Jays have not had a freshman score 30 points in a game since Rodney Buford lit up Illinois State for 36 points on Feb. 5, 1996 … McDermott, who also had 10 rebounds in the game against Drake, is seeking to become Creighton’s first player since Mike Amos in December of 1992 to post consecutive 20-point, 10-rebound games … With Kenny Lawson’s 16 rebounds, the Jays had two players with double-doubles. It was the first time they’d won a game with duel double-doubles since February 1, 1999, when Rodney Buford (11/11) and Doug Swenson (19/10) double-dipped at Southern Illinois … A win Tuesday would be Creighton’s 10th home win this season; they’ve won 10 or more home games in 14 straight seasons, a streak they will push to 15 with its next home win … The current streak is already a school-record, two more than the previous standard of 12 straight seasons from the 1969-70 season to the 1980-81 campaign with 10 or more home wins … Creighton has posted back-to-back double-digit victories to open MVC play for the first time since 2008-09, and on Tuesday they’ll try to open league action with three straight double-digit victories for the first time since first doing so in 1928-29 … Earlier this year McDermott became Creighton’s first coach to start his first year 3-0 since Charles Kearney in 1921, and a win tonight would make him the first Jays coach to win his first three MVC games since Arthur Schabinger, who won his first eight league decisions way back in 1922-23.
The Last Time They Played: Since we’ve established that I have blocked out any memory of that ridiculous CollegeInsider.com “Tournament” last March (and indeed, deny its very existence) I don’t recall the actual last time these two teams met. Oh sure, you could tell me about Missouri State using a game-ending 15-9 run to post a 67-61 win in the semifinals in Springfield, but I don’t remember that happening. And sure, you could tell me about Will Creekmore cashing in a three-point play 13 seconds into the game giving the Bears a lead they would not relinquish, but since I deny the existence of the CIT, I do not recall this.
No, in their last meeting, Creighton never led, falling behind by as much as 25-11 in the first half and after a 17-0 Bears run in the second half, were blown out 70-52 in Springfield on February 6. Hmm. That’s one of the worst games in recent memory, isn’t it? Maybe I should block that one out too…
The Series: Creighton has won eight of the last 10 meetings (the two above games being the only two losses) to claim a 30-24 lead over Missouri State in the series. That includes a 17-3 all-time record in Omaha, including five straight wins at Qwest Center Omaha.
Greg McDermott is 6-7 against Missouri State, including a 79-74 double-overtime victory over the Bears to win the 2004 MVC Tournament that is fondly remembered by Northern Iowa fans. He has never faced Cuonzo Martin.
Gratuitous Linkage: The usually solid USA Today mistyped Antoine Young’s name as “Antonio Young” in their MVC Update this week. This led a friend of mine to exclaim in an IM to me Monday morning, “Sweet! Antoine has a brother who’s a three-point specialist? All of our problems are solved!”
No word on whether Kenny Lawson has a two-fisted brother named Ken Lawson who eats rebounds for breakfast and breaks backboards with his dunks, even though breakaway rims are supposed to make such a task impossible.
Out of Context Simpsons quote: “I prefer a vehicle that doesn’t hurt Mother Earth. It’s a go-cart, powered by my own sense of self-satisfaction.” -Ed Begley Jr.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: Rick Johnson’ second Bluejay squad wins a double-OT game against Montana, 84-78, at the Omaha Civic-Auditorium in front of a robust crowd of 2,518.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: As I drove across Iowa on Monday, this song came on the XM and I enjoyed it quite a bit. There’s nothing like singing, nay, screaming along with Axl Rose while driving 80 MPH. Nothing.
Prediction: This will, most likely, be the stiffest challenge the Jays have faced since the BYU game. Given the Bears struggles on the road, I give a slight edge to the Jays. Slight.
Jays 67, Bears 66