A quick poll of Creighton fans on Thursday night at the various establishments along Morgan Street to find out which team they’d rather face in the semifinals — Missouri State or Evansville — yielded lopsided results. Everyone wanted the Bears despite the presence of Kyle Weems, because the Bears had struggled mightily most of the last month…and because the alternative was Evansville, a team who nearly spoiled Senior Night in Omaha when Colt Ryan set the CenturyLink Center record for points by hanging 43 on the Jays.
People are spooked by that performance, the memories of the Purple Ace sharpshooter raining in jumper after jumper seared into their minds. It was very nearly a horror movie, except the Jays managed to escape so it’s merely a nightmare.
Late Friday night, the Bears completed an amazing late-season swoon by losing to Evansville, meaning the Jays, and their fans, will have to stare down Colt Ryan one more time this season. He had a pedestrian — by his standards — night in the quarterfinals, scoring 19 points on 6-13 shooting while going 2-5 from behind the arc. The elephant in the room with those numbers, of course, is that he did it against a Bears defense more adept at guarding ball screens and stopping perimeter shooters than Creighton’s typically is.
That’s one concern. Another is Creighton’s recent habit of slow starts. They once again allowed an opponent to jump out early on them in Friday’s quarterfinal game against Drake, with their sharpshooter Ben Simons nailing a wide-open three just 45 seconds in. They will need to come out playing their best from the opening tip today, because if they let Colt Ryan find his shooting rhythm early, anything they do defensively later will be fruitless. They must pressure him early and often, not allowing him to get going like they did in Omaha.
The Purple Aces secured the league’s third seed with a late-season surge, and advanced to just their second-ever MVC semifinal, because they’ve gotten contributions from more than just Ryan. Kenny Harris went 8-8 from the charity stripe on Friday night, scoring a team-high 20 points. Troy Taylor grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out five assists. Denver Holmes had 11 points and four assists. So while stopping (or slowing down) Ryan is Job 1 through Job 99 today, keeping the other Aces in check needs to be in the gameplan once the jobs reach the triple digits on their checklist.
In Creighton’s favor is the fact that they’ll have the best player on the floor, which is always a huge key in March. Doug McDermott made clutch plays down the stretch for them in their escape from Drake, and is capable of matching Ryan point for point if it comes to that. They’ll also be playing in front of a raucous crowd that will once again turn Scottrade Center into a home court advantage. The Aces have about 300 fans here, by exaggerated estimates, while Creighton has well over 4,000, as well as a sizeable chunk of the non-Wichita fans in their corner.
Slow down Colt Ryan, get a big game from Doug McDermott, hope the officials allow Gregory Echenique to play physical in the post, and advance to Sunday for a rematch with Wichita State. That sounds pretty good to me. Let’s hope all of those things happen on Semifinal Saturday in America’s Renaissance Conference.
Catching Up with the Purple Aces: Evansville posted it’s fifth-ever MVC Tournament win on Friday night … Junior Colt Ryan became just the fifth Evansville player to be named to the All-MVC First Team earlier in the week, and the first since Shy Ely in 2009 … Senior guard Denver Holmes has played well in his final games at the school, hitting a pair of threes in the closing minutes to secure a win over UNI, and scoring a career-high 25 points in Omaha against the Jays … Holmes was named All-MVC Second Team earlier in the week … Ned Cox was named MVC Sixth Man of the Year, after averaging nearly 10 points off the bench … In their first 17 seasons in the Valley, Evansville has played only 22 total games, losing in a whopping 17 games … The win over Missouri State gives them three wins over one opponent for just the second time ever.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton’s comeback from a 12-2 deficit on Friday night was the fifth time this season they’ve rallied to win after being behind by double-digits. Last year, they went 1-7 in such games … The higher-seeded team has won each of the first six games of Arch Madness this year, just the second time since the tourney expanded to ten teams in 1997 that it’s happened. The only other time? 2002, when second seed Creighton became the only lower-seeded team to win by toppling SIU in the final … Creighton used five reserves for a total of 66 minutes on Friday, while Evansville used four reserves for a total of 46 minutes.
The RUN-DMD Show: Doug McDermott enters today’s semifinal with 718 points for the season, needing just 21 to set the all-time CU season record currently held by Bob Portman.
The Last Time They Played: Creighton won 91-90 in overtime on senior night in Omaha two weeks ago, trailing by 14 points with eight minutes to play before engaging in a classic comeback. Gregory Echenique tipped in a missed shot at the buzzer to send it to OT, and Josh Jones hit the eventual game-winner in the extra period before a defensive stop — one of the few times they stopped Colt Ryan all night — secured the win.
The Series: Creighton is 26-10 all-time against Evansville, and has played the Aces just one time in Arch Madness — the 1999 Championship Game when Rodney Buford and the Jays captured the first title of the Altman Era over Marcus Wilson and the Aces.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On March 3, 2002, Creighton toppled Illinois State 90-63 in the semifinals of Arch Madness. The margin of victory was the largest ever in the MVC Tourney up to that point, and it marked the first time a team eclipsed 90 points since the tourney moved to St. Louis. They led by 37 points at one point, holding an 85-48 lead with seven minutes to go before they eased off the gas pedal. Kyle Korver paced the Jays with 20 points, while Terrell Taylor added 19 in the winning effort.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: Survive and Advance with Survivor.
The Bottom Line: Creighton gets a big effort offensively from Doug McDermott and advances to championship Sunday.
Creighton 72, Evansville 65